People seem to like my thread about Americans being idealists/fantasists, thinking “yes that’s based”— seems like they don’t understand why this is actually very bad, which is typical of america— being proud of its own worst excesses. America is like the drug addict who is aware he is a drug addict & uses his self-awareness of being a drug addict to say “the fact that I’m aware of it means it’s not that bad.”

Europeans on Twitter think they understand America, & have no real idea about America at all except as the America that America presents to it as a method of soft power. The real America is beyond their imagination, but they cannot be convinced of this. Americans aren’t interested in presenting America as it is to others, but rather know that showing “the idea of America” in some sense is more beneficial to them, so the only people who describe it truthfully are considered “unamerican.”

Gift cards replaced cash in the “formal gifts that have to be given for formal reasons” category— a gift card for the people you see at family gatherings & don’t speak to otherwise. It’s like how your boss might give you a gift card.

https://twitter.com/quellodellap2/status/1868779133981139411

It’s a very American thing. Gift cards are everywhere & you can get one for anything. It’s very frowned upon to exchange money. & most of what people want as a gift costs more than makes sense for one person to give— you give a $20 gift card for a restaurant where the entree is more than $20 etc

People don't intuitively understand that you don't have "one face" in photographic terms-- every camera will show you your face in a different manner. This leads to a sort of reverse face-blindness, where people are considered to be different people because they were photographed on different cameras. "These are clearly two different guys. Just look at them side by side. That's not the same guy." -- the idea that the same person would look different on a CCTV, an Instagram photo, etc-- this is not intuitive to people, it's something you have to rationalize.

Nietzscheanism is the mass ideology of the West. We have Left-Nietzscheans & Right-Nietzscheans. The worldview inculcated by our culture is Anarchism-- ie: "Anti-Authoritarianism"-- a complete disrespect for even the notion of Right in favor of Might. The average normie now thinks that the world of man is composed only of forces, that authority does not exist, & that with enough force you can "do as you will." Far from being some edgy revolutionary posture, it's the peak of conformity to uphold this. This is what you will learn in University, where Nietzsche is on every syllabus & presented as "the most important thinker of the 19th century" (with a bone tossed to Marx & Freud, interpreted in a Nietzschean manner). This is what your pop culture tells you: "Crime Pays." Hillary Clinton says: We Came, We Saw, He Died & cackles.

You say: Deny, Defend, Depose, & giggle.

At the same time that the State funds ISIS alongside the Turks (where the term "Deep State" originated) to turn Syria into an Israeli parking lot, you are also celebrating extralegal violence. This is your normative culture. You are trained to think this way because it is the ideology of a globe spanning empire that seeks to dominate global trade through force projection & flagrantly breaking international law.

People who don't have any interaction with the Ivy League types don't understand that they have a superiority complex about their ethical superiority to the "vulgar" pursuit of money that, for instance, an Insurance CEO demonstrates. The Prep School "LongTermist" considers the University of Iowa graduate CEO to be "lower class" compared to his own philanthropic aristocratic class. It's one thing to inherit a bunch of money from owning Country Clubs, that's an ethical way to do capitalism, but Insurance? Anyone working for such a vulgar corporation deserves to die. They should at least work at Goldman's non-profit wing, helping price Carbon-future derivatives, like a respectable person who has a aristocratic concern for humanity. "He's not even smart. He's just a CEO of being evil. He didn't get into an Ivy. He doesn't even know how evil he is because he's too stupid. He probably watches football." etc. Ivy League types are "elitist socialists" -- not "capitalists" by any means. "Being a Capitalist" is a thoroughly "middle class" ideology.

They connect it to Plato's Republic via BAP & none of them have read Plato's "The Law" or Nomos. This is how they call it "Trad" -- as the Republic explicitly argues in favor of a eugenic council controlling a polity through "the noble lie" ie: a myth.

https://twitter.com/ACPKyleS/status/1863800333019062744

Plato backed off of this sort of idealism/utopianism in his later works after trying to implement them in reality in Syracuse where he almost lost his life in the courtier intrigue of Dionysus I-- leading Plato to reassess the more "common sense" political practices of his native Athens.

"Passive Income" is high status, ie: making money off of rent seeking. Producing any actual value is "cucked" because it's all siphoned off to parasitic rentiers.

https://twitter.com/JohnGuaido69/status/1862574250835812443

This is the new orientation of the class war. American Empire is "the influencer economy" centrally planning credit allocation to the institutions of "civil society" that socially engineer the world population / engages in "soft power."

I know there’s some shady shit going on pumping the numbers of this Kendrick album because it started autoplaying for me on Spotify while listening to a japanese city pop playlist. There’s no reason the algorithm should push “squabble up” on me after Taeko Onuki. The ability of megacorporations to force you to participate in their PR schemes & marketing is greater now than ever. I have to get blasted with Lindsay Logan plastic surgery discourse because it’s actually just the rollout for some Netflix shit she’s in. Twitter is also completely dominated by this sort of mimetic payola.

There is no way an AI can understand a toddler in the way the parent of a toddler can understand them— because an AI can only discern the most abstract & universal representation of language, & not its most particular & contingent form (also why it can never understand poetry without someone other input being “the explanation of the poem”) This fundamental irony— that the most basic form of language is “not-yet-language” but “language-seeming” & a creative play with the rudiments of language— poetry is the mother tongue of the human race.

The time period of 2007 - 2011 is possibly the most memory holed portion of our recent history. Nobody talks about Occupy Wall Street or anything else from that time. 2012 put it all in the trash, & 2016 burned it, & 2020 blew the ashes away. I would consider it the apogee of the American Empire. 2012 Obama Re-election, Sandy Hook, Trayvon Martin, etc. This was almost a new founding of "American Empire" -- Marvels Avengers comes out in 2012-- etc. Late Bush to First Term Obama is a completely parallel reality.

I don't think Zoomers have "hipsters" they have something else & I don't know what to call it but the "hipster" is a purely millennial thing that zoomers now look back on in with their "indie sleaze" fetishes & whatnot but they really don't get it. The millennial hipster was a nihilist, but there aren't many zoomer nihilists-- zoomers are more ideologically optimistic. There were no "sigma grindset" millennials, that's something only zoomers could buy into.

Pretty simple-- in the year 2011 Pitchfork was at the peak of its relevance & shaped millennial taste more than any other force. You just picked two songs that Pitchfork gave Best New Music to 7 years apart. Not that much has changed.

https://twitter.com/jim_hawkins__/status/1861249956079612218

I used to read Pitchfork in High School & all the other hip millennial kids read Pitchfork. We would listen to Deerhunter & then Gucci Mane in the same car ride.

If armageddon comes, Americans will have a substantial portion of the population saying “Finally. I’ve prepared for this.”— I think the place most taken aback by it will be Germany. I don’t think a single German has the mindset of an American doomsday prepper. What most distinguishes America from the rest of Europe (& the rest of the “anglosphere”) is that it has a substantially *enthusiastic* religious population which takes itself seriously unto death. The Europeans are horrified by American devotion to the apocalypse.

A heuristic for life I recommend: evil is incapable of charitable hermeneutics when understanding its own enemies. The Russians can say "NATO is trying to achieve XYZ geostrategic objectives at the expense of Russian interests" -- NATO says "Putin has a small penis & is an evil orc" I can easily understand the motivations of NATO-- they are cynical, but they are not somehow irrational or "purely psychological" -- NATO exists explicitly to subjugate Russia (& greater Eurasia) to European economic planning. But what does any UKR supporter suggest the Russian ambition is? It is "irrational" -- Russia invaded Ukraine "for no good reason"

Wyndham Lewis was correct to note that people do not, in general, wish to take on the burdens of “individuation” & would rather fit into the consensus of a particular society & be accepted as a “stereotype.” Even the “individualist” seeks to be the stereotype of the “individualist.” To actually individuate is to become the enemy of society & to be treated as such. One loses the comfort of the herd, & its defenses. An actually individualized person is by definition marginalized by, not just “a society”— but “societies in general.”

The real story that no one really picks up on is that the GOP is now basically indistinguishable from the Obama Democrats of 2008 - 2012. The "realignment" is more like shuffling chairs around the same center. The GOP "right" moves "left" toward the "center" & the DNC "left' moves "right" toward the "center" -- you get Republican Gay Marriage & "The Interfaith Community" & you get Democrat Dick Cheney & "Defending Democracy" If you think of the "uniparty" as being the commonalities between the two fictitious "parties" -- then what you see is a consensus built between the two over time. They resemble each other more & more-- the differences are less & less apparent. People don't have any issue voting Trump & also full Democrats under that-- or voting Harris & also full Republicans under that.

"Mathematics is the language of God xD"

Close but no, it's actually Music. Mathematics is just a way of transcribing music into a two dimensional form. Matter is in fact Music. Matter is just a vibration. The whole cosmos is actually VIBING. I was thinking about Kojeve describing Historical Time as distinct from "Cosmic Time" & "Biological Time" etc. The notion of "The end of history" is more like "the end of a subplot" within a larger plot, like the end of a particular movement in a symphony. It doesn't mean "nothing changes" -- it means that the rhythm has switched-- it isn't that "The music stops" -- it's that it accelerates, a Time takes on a new rhythm.

Superman to me is most primarily about immigration into America just prior to World War 2– a more naive vision of America— where Batman is about America as it actually is— its corruption being endemic to itself, rather than being an “alien threat”

https://twitter.com/murakami_coast/status/1857128656990359956

Superman is about being Jewish & America is the land of tolerance that must be defended as is against alien threats to normalcy.

Batman is about being Protestant & America is a haunted hell world that we seek to turn into paradise.

This is actually what New York / Gotham is like & the environmental groundedness of this iteration of Batman is why it’s superior to every other iteration.

https://twitter.com/batsource1/status/1856818429891940520

New York is wet— constantly puddles, wetness, water dripping in the underground train platforms. This is a key plot point— the sewers, the rain, the fog, the overcast sky. A cold rain— most days.

The Penguin is a more interesting foil than the Joker for this iteration of the Batman, considering it’s a more “grounded” & realistic depiction of Batman than the Nolan-verse etc. The Penguin & the Batman are both primarily motivated by *recognition* in the Hegelian sense— but in completely inverse ways. The Batman is recognized impersonally, as an anonymous popular noble at war with corruption— while the Penguin is recognized personally, as a corrupt “populist.”

Batman’s mother is dead— the Penguin’s mother is living-dead & effectively a doll. This is their relation to recognition— for the Batman, personal recognition is an impossibility— he is rather seeking recognition from Right, in the abstract, from the authority of the dead father etc— he is like a priest in this way. The Penguin is seeking false recognition, he can dress a prostitute as his mother & have her say “I recognize you” & this for him is enough.

Usually the Batman is most directly contrasted with the Joker & Two-Face— but the Penguin is a more interesting foil in this way. The Joker & Two Face are generally contrasted in terms of “succumbing to corruption” as if possessed by it due to some sort of traumatic experience— but the Penguin is born a monster. The Penguin is not motivated by vengeance, but by a desire for recognition as a “man of the people”— a desire for respect, class, status. This is actually the more vital source of corruption (run of the mill sociopathy) than a psychopathic thirst for vengeance.

The first Batman film deals with vengeance, but with the Penguin, the Reeve’s verse implies the next iteration will be dealing with CLASS.

In terms of CLASS— the Penguin is the perfect foil to the Batman. Their trajectories are completely inverted— from the penthouse to the gutter, & from the gutter to the penthouse. Batman “goes down to the people”— while the Penguin “goes up” on a ladder of death. The Joker is a great foil for a “right wing Batman”— but the Penguin is a greater foil for a “left wing Batman.” The Joker is just an anarchist, but the Penguin is a popular ignoble. The Joker just blows stuff up— but the Penguin gets the lights back on. Nobody would have a parade for the Joker— maybe a riot— but this iteration of the Penguin could become the mayor!