tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post3087977335987308171..comments2023-10-17T20:50:15.495-07:00Comments on Groupname for Grapejuice: Broke and Wokeznorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09870745426523284218noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-19835402727549039152017-10-12T20:40:18.293-07:002017-10-12T20:40:18.293-07:00The alt-right is not an 'authentic' "...The alt-right is not an 'authentic' "counterculture" you say, because it offers no alternative to 'corporate capitalism'. The counterculture of the 1960s, however, was authentic. Yet you characterize that counterculture only negatively ('anti-war, anti-corporate', etc.).<br />Nowhere do I find you specifying the alternative it offered. What alternative did it offer? <br /><br />Was the alternative it offered...Communism? And yet as you say the current system is both capitalist and socialist -- 'corporatist'. Would not its perfection be a kind of Communism, one even reminiscent (except on a global scale) of Bolshevism?<br /><br />Let us throw away this unhelpful term "counterculture" and use the old word "revolution" and with it ask the same question -- Was the 1960s revolution authentic? You say it failed to achieve its goals (those mysterious goals) -- so in that sense, at least, it was not 'authentic'. But something DID happen. The revolution was 'co-opted'. What emerged from this betrayed, co-opted revolution, once its 'authentic' essence was stamped out, was a veneer, upon the culture at large, of progress... <br />The very veneer that, to a large degree, the "alt-right" are now revolting against! -- (though inauthentically, I guess.)<br /><br />But the 'alt-right' needs to 'dwindle away into nothing', according to you, while the left needs to be 'completely transformed'. But if the left is under such strong attack presently, while the alt-right seems to be rising, why not let the left 'dwindle away into nothing', and instead 'transform completely' the alt-right -- into the all-inclusive, 'authentic' revolutionary force you seem to wish for? -- I mean the one that will unbound consciousness, or however you put it. <br /><br />Anyway I do wish you would forget popular politics and continue your (very valuable to me) inquiry of McLuhan's thought.<br /><br />Sincerely John P.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04596546056529571201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-85207032132958936972017-10-08T01:52:14.464-07:002017-10-08T01:52:14.464-07:00I think that the "right" and the "l...I think that the "right" and the "left" are both very different from the idiocracy of Trump. In my opinion the categories of "left" and "right" can be translated as "progressivism" and "conservativism", and neither the first nor the second have anything in common with "moronism". The young ones multilated by aged ignorance seek refuge in the dementia of kekism, but dementia is not leftist or rightist.<br /><br />upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/William_Blake_-_For_Children._The_Gates_of_Paradise%2C_Plate_13%2C_%22Aged_Ignorance%22_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg<br /><br />If you see "progressivism" as "Orc" and "conservativism" as "Urizen" maybe you can find the way to a (provisional) synthesis. But if Orc pictures himself as weary and degraded the match can't even start. So: forget Theotormon and give birth to a new Orc! :-)<br />Mondo Fnordonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-63438671860516869132017-10-07T17:23:35.572-07:002017-10-07T17:23:35.572-07:00The "beyond left and right" sentiment th...The "beyond left and right" sentiment that RAW expresses here has been entirely co-opted by the Right. It's as if -- in Hegelian terms -- the Thesis has completely absorbed the false-Synthesis and the weary and degraded Antithesis struggles to fight them both. znorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09870745426523284218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-67570481069197774432017-10-07T02:47:33.803-07:002017-10-07T02:47:33.803-07:00Ciao Luther, are you a RAW/Discordian type? Are yo...Ciao Luther, are you a RAW/Discordian type? Are you into GADP? (www.gunsanddopeparty.net) "Guns for those who want them, no guns forced on those who don't want them (pacfists, Quakers etc.)". I.E.: "leftist"?<br /><br />If you put in a room Andrea Dworkin and Robert Anton Wilson: AD is left and RAW is right.<br /><br />If you put in a room Jim Garrison and Kerry Wendell Thornley in 1968: JA is the conspirationist and KWT is the free thinker. Same scene, 1992: KWT is the conspirationist and JA is the free thinker. BTW: are they "leftist" or "rightist"?<br /><br />Maybe Gary Kirstein, Slim Brooks & co. were always at the heart of the conspiracy scene? Yes they were, and they are.<br /><br />BTW, here you have RAW on the "leftism" (TSOG: The Thing That Ate the Constitution, p. 99): "Groups are grammatical fictions; only individuals exist, and each individual is different. Sometime while I was busy and didn't notice, Political Correctness took over Academia and they stopped teaching that. They started teaching that Hitler was terrible because he hated the wrong group, but it's okay to hate other groups. Logic has nothing to do with it; logic itself has become suspect just as happened in Nazi Germany. <br /><br />This rebellion against rationality originally intended to make Radical Feminism and its doctrine of male fungibility respectable, and it succeeded, at least in the major media, but it also made fungible group hatred respectable in general. Now the anti-Semites and all the other hate mongers have begun crawling out from under their rocks, and Academia does not have the ammunition to argue against them. Academia cannot argue the rational principle that hatred of any group does not make sense; they dumped that when they dumped logic (as a "male" perversion). <br /><br />The argument between Left and Right now consists only of debates about which groups we should hate".<br /><br />Stammi bene, MF<br /><br /><br /><br />Mondo Fnordonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-86473739410898387242017-10-06T15:09:21.041-07:002017-10-06T15:09:21.041-07:00Really excellent comment and a great summary of it...Really excellent comment and a great summary of its own. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to post your comment on facebook where I think that more than a few would benefit from it. znorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09870745426523284218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-9111197849341394262017-10-06T07:23:59.252-07:002017-10-06T07:23:59.252-07:00This is a vital summary of what has occurred over ...This is a vital summary of what has occurred over the last two decades. I agree on almost every point and the current culture quake shifting (even further) right is unmistakable. <br /><br />The liberals I know 'hate Trump' but are still adopting 'alt-right' talking points. The conspiracy right has free-fallen into anti-left rage. That strange illusionary beast called "The Left" is now being hunted by millions of keyboard Ahabs but they will settle for trash-talking unions and running over women with cars. <br /><br />I'm a RAW/Discordian type and even your link to a RAW website reveals that site is featuring a story called "Why she went from left-libertarian to right-libertarian." When even the RAW crowd is drifting right, time to re-evaluate the situation.<br /><br />The American conspiracy scene has long been the domain of the far-right Birchers: The U.N is coming to take our guns and have ChiComs rape your daughters! You can take away our Capitalism when you pry it from the dead planet's ash-chocked corpse! Obama is a Muslim Sleeper Agent to bring Shiria law! The anti-imperial counter-culture is a Jewish plot! The Left is on the verge of global domination!<br /><br />Yeah... except the UN has failed and there is no international framework to stop war, capitalism is so dominate that is now "hyper-capitalism" or "late-stage capitalism", the US has been using jihadists as disposable mercenaries for 50 years and Trump tweets nuclear holocaust threats to the applause of the Israel-firsters / Neo-cons. Is there even one viable leftist party in North America?<br /><br />This essay made be realize that I can't keep pretending that the 'alternative culture' is Peter Dale Scott's deep state analyses, Fortean Time's "benevolent skepticism", RAW's LSD-optimism and Loren Coleman's grandfatherly synchomysticism. <br /><br />I don't want to stoke the fires of division but now I find mostly Christian 'anti-Illuminati' fanatics, South Park Republicans / jerky-boy libertarians, hentai connoisseurs and nazi LARPers. Maybe these were always at the heart of the conspiracy scene?<br /><br />Since at least the mid-1980s all the cool kids wanted to be seen as 'neither left nor right'. Now the left is flickering out while Trump runs a hard-right law&order/racist campaign cut and pasted from Nixon's playbook while strip-mining the US government and landscape. Somebody got hood-winked.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02937868343150581350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-28409041906128083742017-09-26T17:29:30.772-07:002017-09-26T17:29:30.772-07:00http://john-steppling.comhttp://john-steppling.comChris Snoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-18238358385456737992017-09-25T18:44:31.980-07:002017-09-25T18:44:31.980-07:00No, I haven't seen it. Please point me in his ...No, I haven't seen it. Please point me in his direction.znorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09870745426523284218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-5636487500887228692017-09-24T14:52:27.594-07:002017-09-24T14:52:27.594-07:00Great essay. I was wondering if you've happen...Great essay. I was wondering if you've happened across John Steppling's blog? I've come to rely on your blog and his as voices of sanity over the last several years- be interesting to see a dialogue between the two of you.Chris Snoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-40029818042498553992017-09-04T19:15:54.501-07:002017-09-04T19:15:54.501-07:00I think the middle in reaction to the perceived ex...I think the middle in reaction to the perceived excesses of the fringes can be very radical. And not in a good way. znorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09870745426523284218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-79801530926741575402017-09-04T11:57:58.361-07:002017-09-04T11:57:58.361-07:00Amazing - lots of dots connected here. Amazing - lots of dots connected here. Jeff Wolfehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06630385048296011401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-31628165931013286812017-09-04T08:00:47.880-07:002017-09-04T08:00:47.880-07:00How so? Can the middle, by definition be radical?How so? Can the middle, by definition be radical?Jack Hearthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07601886076987129483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-87857643270848043452017-09-04T05:34:11.241-07:002017-09-04T05:34:11.241-07:00Thanks, Jack. More and more I'm afraid of the ...Thanks, Jack. More and more I'm afraid of the revenge of the radical middle.znorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09870745426523284218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-66755180599615729842017-09-03T20:13:17.523-07:002017-09-03T20:13:17.523-07:00Bravo on your brilliant, sweeping-yet-succinct ess...Bravo on your brilliant, sweeping-yet-succinct essay on the socio-political factors that have shaped our Brave Noö World. I have struggled in identifying the emerging zeitgeist which I have labeled: Conspiracy Culture International. With the erosion of the middle… the fringe rushes in. I would reiterate your sentiment that the Global Archons of Corporatocracy much prefer civil war to social revolution...<br /> <br />- J♥Jack Hearthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07601886076987129483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-29196780888722534142017-09-03T16:52:40.706-07:002017-09-03T16:52:40.706-07:00This essay is amazing. I'm floored. I will b...This essay is amazing. I'm floored. I will be sharing this immediately. THANK YOU for writing this and being so thoughtful.deagler11https://www.blogger.com/profile/00824914858028454417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-4915941233600649062017-09-03T05:46:14.443-07:002017-09-03T05:46:14.443-07:00Really grateful for your comment. Thanks!Really grateful for your comment. Thanks!znorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09870745426523284218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600594361812328513.post-40891191694796663032017-09-01T03:37:13.726-07:002017-09-01T03:37:13.726-07:00Than you for writing this, from a long time reader...Than you for writing this, from a long time reader. I went down the rabbit hole of synchronicity a few years ago. I guess I've been sane enough not to fully go down paranoia and conspiracy route, which for some seems to end in dullness of fascism. Even for some people who once seemed insightful and imaginative.<br /><br />Your writings were always the best though, and most inspiring, so it is no wonder to see your political and moral judgement is also distinctly excellent. Thank you again.<br /><br />What the Left is missing is exactly more of the Imagination, the Spirit. Social justice and scientific progress are also essentially wonders of imaginations, and it is frustrating to see them devolve into stupidity of scientism and close-mindedness of identity politics, which are reactionary. And I can testify that your writing, seemingly ephemeral and arcane, can be really an important and powerful antidote to dullness.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com