I'm so happy you pushed back against that commonly applied Strawman argument! To me, it seems to be the result of an echo chamber that perpetuates a belief in the false overton window that puts fascism on the right, as opposed to anarchy.
My ultimate conclusion is that the binary nature of the Overton window is a trap in and of itself. We humans are too complex to fit into the confinement of labels But there are layers to this discussion. 😉
If we remove government, we remove politics, and thus the need to form "teams" in order to take control of "the system." If we were to do that, wouldn't we see far less categorization of human beings?
We would see the return of men and women, and children on their way to being full-blown men and women.
Just makin’ stuff and growin’ stuff!
The only “work” would be makin and growin the shit we actually need to thrive instead of spinning around like cogs in the wheel of a slavery consumerist construct!
Of course, maybe the South Park guys are right and we'll always find reasons to categorize and conflict. (Remember the episode in the future when religion is gone and atheist factions are all warring each other over whose answer to the "Great Question" is correct?)
It does get tricky trying to absolve binaries and conflict within a realm with an inherently dualistic nature.
The contrast is necessary for existence.
I’m hoping we can evolve that contrast into solely an internal game, rather than being externally projected onto others.
“Where can I grow and be better today than I was yesterday?” kind of a thing. I believe this level of personal responsibility and relationship with Self is where we are headed.
Here is where your Substack and mine cross paths to become lifelong buddies. What is real and remains when the construct is deconstructed and dismantled? ❤️
Nicely stated! It is the height of irony that collectivists who want to reinvent society with other people's money paint themselves as caring, while labeling as selfish those who are productive and don't buy into depending on government for every need and desire. Unblinding the populace to the inherent nastiness of collectivism, along with its certain failure to achieve a prosperous or just society, is the primary challenge for those of us who already understand this.
I think it boils down to most people's pathologized obsession with and worship of the collective/tribe/group.
And anyone who does not have that pathology must be some sort of dangerous outlander. You might not be old enough to have watched the original Star Trek series, but if you did, do you remember "You are not of the body"? https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8ir66n
We are not uncaring curmudgeons, but we do investigate our charities, and hopefully share wisely. I have stopped donating to all the large charities when I discovered those running the show were paid mega bucks in salaries. Example: check out St. Jude's. Those heartbreaking commercials are not cheap, but still plenty left over for million dollar salaries. Same with the SPCA. I encourage everyone to give locally to groups that will actually do good. Charity begins at home, and it's not caring to give your money to millionaires. The government steals for every horrible venture imaginable; don't help them.
I used to like the Salvation Army for this reason. But then they went CRT (basically, white people criticizing white people for being white) and so they were out too.
And yeah, we did look at St. Jude's 990 recently—and yikes!
WTF is "atomized" supposed to mean exactly, in this context?
Moreover, who came up with such a nebulously vacuous, predicate-nonsense, of a pejorative epiteph? Was it some feckless Bernaysian Public Relations twit? Working for who exactly, the Biden administration, George Soros, or some other Bolshevik/Zionist boot-licker? Who's paying that demonstrable 'DF' to dream up biting pejoratives? It seems some Bernaysian Public Relations propaganda monkey watches to much meathead science fiction thinking it makes them clever 🤣
This kind of ridiculously puerile, pseudo intellectual, nonsense of Language, is truly sad on so many levels. It is pathetically childish and unintelligent. It's grammer school level psychological operations ffs. The kind of stupid 'name-calling' (I personally hate this childish term, but that's the world we live in) one would expect on a grammer school playground, after the school bully learned a new word to use 'out of context' demonstrating why he/she/it is a stupid bully. Stupid bullies deserve to get their asses kicked by the entire school, all at once. See the Logic there?
People can't be 'atomized'. No matter what the meathead actor's/producer's/director's on 'Star Trek' want you to believe. What a pathetically stupid epiteph and an equally idiotic premise. People who 'seriously' talk like that, deserve to have the taste slapped out of their mouths, not validated, as though worthy of serious, intelligent consideration.
Stupid people speak with stupidity, about stupid things, it's how they're demonstrably stupid. Not everything everyone says is worthy of consideration, let alone validation. There is no benefit to validating the foolishness of fools.
By atomized, I understand them to mean a society in which connections have broken down and we're all individual atoms, each of us alone, with no ties to others, etc.
In a way, it's been that same complaint, to one degree or another, since the Victorian romantics observed the breakdown of the beautiful bucolic life of the family farm, in the face of the industrial revolution.
Of course, what they failed to notice, as they were complaining about the "dark Satanic mills" and Scrooges of the world, is rise in living standards, life expectancy, and income, and the drop in infant mortality. Yes, those bucolic settings were beautiful, and made for great art, and families stayed together on the farm, but they were also dying before age five a heck of a lot more.
In fact, I think the critique that we are becoming more atomized is legitimate—looking at late-stage capitalism and the modern nation state, I do think there has been a breakdown in social connection.
But the notion that that is the fault of libertarians or conservatives is a bunch of self-serving left-wing claptrap.
What is actually the cause? That is a big subject…
I'm so happy you pushed back against that commonly applied Strawman argument! To me, it seems to be the result of an echo chamber that perpetuates a belief in the false overton window that puts fascism on the right, as opposed to anarchy.
"that puts fascism on the right, as opposed to anarchy."
You're gonna like my book. Coming soon…
Indeed, my brother!!! If you need a narrator, let's talk. Though you should probably do it yourself. ;)
Not gonna be easy to narrate the zillion different charts I have in there. But I hope it is successful enough for that to be a problem!
I wish for that level of success to you and your book baby!
Thank you!
Add one little comma and that is a quote from my wife ("…to you and your book, baby.")
Hahaha! I think I need to add a dash! Book-baby. 🤣
🤣
Remove the space and its the place that published my first ebook, BookBaby.com!
A post-script to add:
My ultimate conclusion is that the binary nature of the Overton window is a trap in and of itself. We humans are too complex to fit into the confinement of labels But there are layers to this discussion. 😉
Layers upon layers.
So here's an interesting question…
If we remove government, we remove politics, and thus the need to form "teams" in order to take control of "the system." If we were to do that, wouldn't we see far less categorization of human beings?
Why, yes!
We would see the return of men and women, and children on their way to being full-blown men and women.
Just makin’ stuff and growin’ stuff!
The only “work” would be makin and growin the shit we actually need to thrive instead of spinning around like cogs in the wheel of a slavery consumerist construct!
Of course, maybe the South Park guys are right and we'll always find reasons to categorize and conflict. (Remember the episode in the future when religion is gone and atheist factions are all warring each other over whose answer to the "Great Question" is correct?)
It does get tricky trying to absolve binaries and conflict within a realm with an inherently dualistic nature.
The contrast is necessary for existence.
I’m hoping we can evolve that contrast into solely an internal game, rather than being externally projected onto others.
“Where can I grow and be better today than I was yesterday?” kind of a thing. I believe this level of personal responsibility and relationship with Self is where we are headed.
It's tough, because categorization, and inducing general rules from specific observations, are essential to survival, and we're wired to do it.
Observation: people who espouse certain political ideas want to take my rights away, and thus pose a threat
Monkey brain: *scans for people who espouse those ideas*
Inductive brain: *forms categorical observations to make it easier to spot threats*
See what I mean?
Here is where your Substack and mine cross paths to become lifelong buddies. What is real and remains when the construct is deconstructed and dismantled? ❤️
Bumblebees and bubbling streams.
Bumbling Humans and bubble-baths.
Nicely stated! It is the height of irony that collectivists who want to reinvent society with other people's money paint themselves as caring, while labeling as selfish those who are productive and don't buy into depending on government for every need and desire. Unblinding the populace to the inherent nastiness of collectivism, along with its certain failure to achieve a prosperous or just society, is the primary challenge for those of us who already understand this.
Thank you.
Yes, ironic. And infuriating. And sick—as in literally pathological that humanity keeps falling for it.
Once more into the breach, dear friend…
Another good read Chris
Passion doth loose the fury of my pen.
Great post. Spot on in every way.
Cheers!
This is excellent. If ppl think anarchists don’t have friends - wait till they find out about festivals like anarchapulco and jackalope 🤣
Thanks!
I think it boils down to most people's pathologized obsession with and worship of the collective/tribe/group.
And anyone who does not have that pathology must be some sort of dangerous outlander. You might not be old enough to have watched the original Star Trek series, but if you did, do you remember "You are not of the body"? https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8ir66n
Tyrants of any ism: “Those darn libertarians obsessed with their rights we want to take.”
I think Demi said it well here:
https://substack.com/@starfirecodes/note/c-46874567?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=223uw7
We are not uncaring curmudgeons, but we do investigate our charities, and hopefully share wisely. I have stopped donating to all the large charities when I discovered those running the show were paid mega bucks in salaries. Example: check out St. Jude's. Those heartbreaking commercials are not cheap, but still plenty left over for million dollar salaries. Same with the SPCA. I encourage everyone to give locally to groups that will actually do good. Charity begins at home, and it's not caring to give your money to millionaires. The government steals for every horrible venture imaginable; don't help them.
I used to like the Salvation Army for this reason. But then they went CRT (basically, white people criticizing white people for being white) and so they were out too.
And yeah, we did look at St. Jude's 990 recently—and yikes!
WTF is "atomized" supposed to mean exactly, in this context?
Moreover, who came up with such a nebulously vacuous, predicate-nonsense, of a pejorative epiteph? Was it some feckless Bernaysian Public Relations twit? Working for who exactly, the Biden administration, George Soros, or some other Bolshevik/Zionist boot-licker? Who's paying that demonstrable 'DF' to dream up biting pejoratives? It seems some Bernaysian Public Relations propaganda monkey watches to much meathead science fiction thinking it makes them clever 🤣
This kind of ridiculously puerile, pseudo intellectual, nonsense of Language, is truly sad on so many levels. It is pathetically childish and unintelligent. It's grammer school level psychological operations ffs. The kind of stupid 'name-calling' (I personally hate this childish term, but that's the world we live in) one would expect on a grammer school playground, after the school bully learned a new word to use 'out of context' demonstrating why he/she/it is a stupid bully. Stupid bullies deserve to get their asses kicked by the entire school, all at once. See the Logic there?
People can't be 'atomized'. No matter what the meathead actor's/producer's/director's on 'Star Trek' want you to believe. What a pathetically stupid epiteph and an equally idiotic premise. People who 'seriously' talk like that, deserve to have the taste slapped out of their mouths, not validated, as though worthy of serious, intelligent consideration.
Stupid people speak with stupidity, about stupid things, it's how they're demonstrably stupid. Not everything everyone says is worthy of consideration, let alone validation. There is no benefit to validating the foolishness of fools.
I do see the logic there, LOL!
By atomized, I understand them to mean a society in which connections have broken down and we're all individual atoms, each of us alone, with no ties to others, etc.
In a way, it's been that same complaint, to one degree or another, since the Victorian romantics observed the breakdown of the beautiful bucolic life of the family farm, in the face of the industrial revolution.
Of course, what they failed to notice, as they were complaining about the "dark Satanic mills" and Scrooges of the world, is rise in living standards, life expectancy, and income, and the drop in infant mortality. Yes, those bucolic settings were beautiful, and made for great art, and families stayed together on the farm, but they were also dying before age five a heck of a lot more.
In fact, I think the critique that we are becoming more atomized is legitimate—looking at late-stage capitalism and the modern nation state, I do think there has been a breakdown in social connection.
But the notion that that is the fault of libertarians or conservatives is a bunch of self-serving left-wing claptrap.
What is actually the cause? That is a big subject…