From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy. But none — not one regime — has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root....If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly....Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated. ~Ronald Reagan
...
Saw this on Saturday night, after Biden and McCarthy reached agreements "in principle" on the debt ceiling.
These fucking people never wanted a deal, hell, they don't want a functioning government unless it's entirely theirs and nobody else gets a say in anything.
I have to admit, I'm vaguely curious about the username "Atlas Futurism" yet at the same time I was on break at work, so I didn't have time to check it out.
But it implies what I've been thinking we're dealing with, in that we're finally hitting the point where Randian Objectivism is reaching some kind of syncretic status with Trumpism. Note that this could only happen without the direct supervision of Trump himself, because Trump isn't going to worship even at any godless altar that's not dedicated in his own name.
In other words, like the Bible and Christianity post Paul's Damascus Road conversion, MAGA is shifting from being the politics of Trump to a politics about Trump and I'm really not sure that's much of an improvement.
Because the next step is probably some iteration of the whole Galt's Gulch thing on a wannabe-national scale for these idiots, but with even longer and more tiresome speeches.
And I've *Read* Atlas Shrugged, nobody wants that.
Also one of my posts of aggregated threads is getting swarmed by whiny Neo-Confederates crying about me blocking them.
If there is to be another Civil War, it'll be short and they'll lose even worse this time.
Same fucking people have been melting down since the weekend over an article that David French wrote about traditional masculinity...and what that actually is and how it relates to actual traditional conservatism.
And the first thing Runaway Hawley does is link to his book with the tagline "Enrage the Left, buy my book."
Shades of the TV preacher saying "I know the way to Jesus, if you give me $20 so can you!"
But of course the "way" has to keep changing, lest the donations dry up, doesn't it?
It's all Gnosticism and Hokum. These people's magical world simply does not exist.
For the record here's a snip of what David French actually said, which is that the most important thing is firm convictions and a level head...and this tracks with what I was taught about what conservatism is, also.
But of course, with that model of conservatism it's simply not possible to keep "The Base" amped up all the time, it's harder to get attention and sell dumb shit and that's all there is to it. You can't make nearly as much money off the truth as you can off lying all the time.
Chaos is easier to make money off of, good governance doesn't sell newspapers or online clicks, telling people to eat their vegetables, exercise and vote in their own interests with their principles at heart and still, some attention paid to the common good...like I was taught...is simply a lot harder to get people to have screaming hair-on-fire fits over, let alone click the donate button or write checks.
And clearly, on the Rightward side of our political divides nobody wants to hear that shit, anyway.
It's the same reason that an Evangelical, Fundamentalist or Pentecostal preacher will not usually tell you that if you believe the Nicene Creed, and have accepted Jesus via some kind of conversion experience (or even simply asking) and you make an effort to conduct yourself accordingly, you're good, you're going to go to Heaven per the terms laid out in the Bible.
Because if they did that, people might stop coming, might stop giving them attention and money. The truth don't put asses in the pews.
Trust me, I was part of a group that most of the members believed what the Word said over what Man said. We weren't like that, we didn't have...didn't need...a pulpit-screamer or some kind of public freak show. There was no money involved, we never once took an offering. We all contributed to the groceries for our weekly meal and we all helped each other out now and again, as needed.
We'd meet at our nominal Pastor's house, eat breakfast, smoke weed and listen to music, talk Bible...or ya know, whatever else on Saturday mornings. Hell, sometimes like when God Of War III came out, we'd sit around and play video games all day while a couple of us held forth on Greek mythology whenever something relevant came up.
We were a community.
People got different jobs, people moved, a couple people died, as is only natural because things change.
We were in it for what we saw as what was true, not for how much money we could get out of it.
And all these right-wing grifters and liars and pulpit/truck screamers? They will never be happy anyway, not until every Church in the world looks like the one in this picture and serves as a spiritual locus of a totalitarian State. Only difference is each of these narcissistic goons expects to see their own face looking back at them from the paintings.
Money and worldly power is.
If you're on Twitter, look around. How's that working out, even for the one guy who allegedly has all this crap...without having the responsibility of being some kind of national leader?
Then they might have to get real jobs and just live like regular people again.
No one knows more than those who believe it, let alone preach it, that the only ones who prosper from the Prosperity Gospel are the preachers of it.
Get a job? That's not the world these fucking people want to live in.
But belief in their $20 Jesus? That shit will send your ass straight to hell.
It's much the same with everything else.
And, Liberty is so much less fun for them that what they imagine Q-Berty might be like.
Reagan Wept.
Слава Україна!
We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
~Ronald Reagan
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