Great article man, dunno how I missed this one. Great summation of everything so far. The Culture War at this point feels more like a Class War to me though ;).
Bravo! You did a pretty good job covering the online cultural war.
I have been on the internet since before the eternal September. I have been watching the evolution of the dissident right and lurking in their conversations in 4chan, PDW and its predecessors.
While my political disposition is at the opposite end of the spectrum from back when the left was cool, I could recognize a kindred spirit in questioning authority with humor and conviction. They reminded of Ron Paul and the paleo conservatives, another group in the right that I always respected for speaking truth to authority.
I remember seeing a lot of this stuff happen, though mostly second and third hand. A very good reminder of where's, when's, why's, and how's of many events relevant to where we are today.
Beautiful summary. I remember my first awakenings, my “red pill” as it were, in 2013 on a manosphere site called “Return of Kings”. The articles were standard poa material but my God the comments were golden.
Engaging for hours a day on that site exposed me to many truths that tore the blinders placed on me by the culture. I’m an older millennial (86) born to a late boomer (63). I used to believe the propaganda of civil rights, women’s rights, WW2, etc, but those conversations red pilled me.
Then Milo Y came along. Feminism is cancer. Trump burst on the scene, and even though I was a Cruz guy I could see that the Don had all the right enemies.
The day after the 16 election was one of the greatest of my life but then the true battle began. I was at the inauguration in January 17 and saw the unhinged protesters and the pussy hat marchers. And my resolve hardened.
2020 changed everything for me. The last scales fell from my eyes. I no longer was afraid to speak the truth. Trust in government was gone. And my resolve hardened.
The vax mandates almost cost me my livelihood. I saw a friend die from the shot, but miraculously God raised him from death. People I know have long term health issues from the shot, but I nor my family partook. My resolve hardened.
My story is one of millions. We are the new right and we are hardened and ready to take back our nation. Our nation founded on Western, Christian values. Our nation founded by white Europeans for those who will assume those values. We are resolved. We are hardened.
It's been a wacky 15 years or so. I remember the "Return of Kings" PUA stuff. It didn't really grab the cultural zeitgeist the way some of the other cultural creations did. It did appear a few years ahead of the "Me Too" nonsense. I suspect that the PUA stuff was a sort of last attempt to recover more traditional gender roles under the auspice of the old neoliberal socio-political system.
I never applied any of the PÚA stuff, being happily married, but it shone a light on how feminism had destroyed the culture and like I said, the comments were golden.
One of my favorite moments was when other sites would send their troll army over to try and show us up. It never turned out good for them. They were used to echo chambers and we were used to verbal sparring, plus we could troll like no one’s business
Thanks for this history of the culture wars. It filled in some major gaps for me. Way back when (ten years ago or so), I was teaching at a well-respected private school, and doing my best not to run afoul of the DEI cadre who already were ramping up cancel culture in a big way…and this, of course, was way before the inquisition that happened after the death of George Floyd. Anyway, long story short…the most helpful book that I read was authored by an embattled gamer named Vox Day. I don’t know what happened to him, but his book enabled me to keep my wits about me and realize what was going on. And to develop a strategy for dealing with the madness. He was a brave guy, because, in those days, few individuals had the guts to take on Big Sister and the Thought Police.
Vox Day is still publishing. He actually kicked off my substack to its first 500 subscribers when he cited my Feminism article in one of his publications last summer. (Thanks m8!) Vox Day was a major player early on and still has a pretty significant following. He has a website now: https://voxday.net
There was a lot of philosophical work that went into understanding the Left at a basic level before they could be opposed properly.
Do you see the exodus from 4chan to Twitter as a good thing long term? Do you have concerns about right wing “slopification” on Twitter?
Where do you see Tik Tok, and the Palestinian genocide fitting into the culture war narrative?
You seem to see, as I do, a transition from an American republic to an American empire. Is this a good thing? How will this affect the average person? Will it be “our” empire, or a globohomo empire ?
I see it as an inevitable evolution. I like image-board culture, but I don't know if it can last forever. I suspect that the exodus to twitter is permanent, but it will have it's own difficult-to-predict 2nd order effects.
The new American Empire will definitely be nationalist (sort of) in its orientation. Whether these changes are 'good' or 'bad' depends heavily on how you're positioned. If you own land and have access to credit, you'll probably be better off in the Empire. If you're heavily in debt and worried about your job getting automated, probably not.
It really depends on which way things go over the next 10 years. In my 'Reformation: A Long-Term View of the Approaching American Era' article I go into more detail. I suspect that the Vance "Americana" vibe will last a lot longer than we expect. Pending radical unforeseen events it seems likely the US will restabilize over the next 10 years but have a much more aggressive outlook on the resources of foreign nations and on its own 'useless-eater' citizens.
Don't forget the Law & Order:SVU episode about gamergate as well
That was hilarious.
I feel hopeful for my country, finally.
“Aslan is on the move.” -C.S. Lewis
Great article man, dunno how I missed this one. Great summation of everything so far. The Culture War at this point feels more like a Class War to me though ;).
Happy to help! I think that, to some degree, that's what it's always been.
You are spot on with your envy as motivator analysis.
Interesting article. I liked it.
Thanks!
Bravo! You did a pretty good job covering the online cultural war.
I have been on the internet since before the eternal September. I have been watching the evolution of the dissident right and lurking in their conversations in 4chan, PDW and its predecessors.
While my political disposition is at the opposite end of the spectrum from back when the left was cool, I could recognize a kindred spirit in questioning authority with humor and conviction. They reminded of Ron Paul and the paleo conservatives, another group in the right that I always respected for speaking truth to authority.
I remember the Ron Paul days: [ITS HAPPENING!!!] was a great meme.
I remember seeing a lot of this stuff happen, though mostly second and third hand. A very good reminder of where's, when's, why's, and how's of many events relevant to where we are today.
And now you're an active participant ;) and destined to do great things in the culture.
It's been a wild ride for all of us I think.
Eh oui, and I think it’s still going to be a wild ride going forward.
Beautiful summary. I remember my first awakenings, my “red pill” as it were, in 2013 on a manosphere site called “Return of Kings”. The articles were standard poa material but my God the comments were golden.
Engaging for hours a day on that site exposed me to many truths that tore the blinders placed on me by the culture. I’m an older millennial (86) born to a late boomer (63). I used to believe the propaganda of civil rights, women’s rights, WW2, etc, but those conversations red pilled me.
Then Milo Y came along. Feminism is cancer. Trump burst on the scene, and even though I was a Cruz guy I could see that the Don had all the right enemies.
The day after the 16 election was one of the greatest of my life but then the true battle began. I was at the inauguration in January 17 and saw the unhinged protesters and the pussy hat marchers. And my resolve hardened.
2020 changed everything for me. The last scales fell from my eyes. I no longer was afraid to speak the truth. Trust in government was gone. And my resolve hardened.
The vax mandates almost cost me my livelihood. I saw a friend die from the shot, but miraculously God raised him from death. People I know have long term health issues from the shot, but I nor my family partook. My resolve hardened.
My story is one of millions. We are the new right and we are hardened and ready to take back our nation. Our nation founded on Western, Christian values. Our nation founded by white Europeans for those who will assume those values. We are resolved. We are hardened.
It's been a wacky 15 years or so. I remember the "Return of Kings" PUA stuff. It didn't really grab the cultural zeitgeist the way some of the other cultural creations did. It did appear a few years ahead of the "Me Too" nonsense. I suspect that the PUA stuff was a sort of last attempt to recover more traditional gender roles under the auspice of the old neoliberal socio-political system.
I never applied any of the PÚA stuff, being happily married, but it shone a light on how feminism had destroyed the culture and like I said, the comments were golden.
One of my favorite moments was when other sites would send their troll army over to try and show us up. It never turned out good for them. They were used to echo chambers and we were used to verbal sparring, plus we could troll like no one’s business
Thanks for this history of the culture wars. It filled in some major gaps for me. Way back when (ten years ago or so), I was teaching at a well-respected private school, and doing my best not to run afoul of the DEI cadre who already were ramping up cancel culture in a big way…and this, of course, was way before the inquisition that happened after the death of George Floyd. Anyway, long story short…the most helpful book that I read was authored by an embattled gamer named Vox Day. I don’t know what happened to him, but his book enabled me to keep my wits about me and realize what was going on. And to develop a strategy for dealing with the madness. He was a brave guy, because, in those days, few individuals had the guts to take on Big Sister and the Thought Police.
Thanks for reading!
Vox Day is still publishing. He actually kicked off my substack to its first 500 subscribers when he cited my Feminism article in one of his publications last summer. (Thanks m8!) Vox Day was a major player early on and still has a pretty significant following. He has a website now: https://voxday.net
There was a lot of philosophical work that went into understanding the Left at a basic level before they could be opposed properly.
I’m glad to hear that he is still publishing…by the way, the book is titled “SJWs Always Lie…I still have it.
I'll have to take a look at the book.
Do you see the exodus from 4chan to Twitter as a good thing long term? Do you have concerns about right wing “slopification” on Twitter?
Where do you see Tik Tok, and the Palestinian genocide fitting into the culture war narrative?
You seem to see, as I do, a transition from an American republic to an American empire. Is this a good thing? How will this affect the average person? Will it be “our” empire, or a globohomo empire ?
I see it as an inevitable evolution. I like image-board culture, but I don't know if it can last forever. I suspect that the exodus to twitter is permanent, but it will have it's own difficult-to-predict 2nd order effects.
The new American Empire will definitely be nationalist (sort of) in its orientation. Whether these changes are 'good' or 'bad' depends heavily on how you're positioned. If you own land and have access to credit, you'll probably be better off in the Empire. If you're heavily in debt and worried about your job getting automated, probably not.
It really depends on which way things go over the next 10 years. In my 'Reformation: A Long-Term View of the Approaching American Era' article I go into more detail. I suspect that the Vance "Americana" vibe will last a lot longer than we expect. Pending radical unforeseen events it seems likely the US will restabilize over the next 10 years but have a much more aggressive outlook on the resources of foreign nations and on its own 'useless-eater' citizens.