I think JBP is less Nietzschean/Machiavellian/Gramscian than Rufo, but I do see him getting pulled into power politics. That ARC conference was disappointing in ways, heartening in others.
I find your piece unpersuasive. Too much trying to read between the lines to interpret his words in the worst possible light. He has the right principles, he fights the fight, and he wants people to get their heads out of their butts about the amount of lies their worldview is based on.
He's not perfect, and anyone under that much pressure could slip in the future, but he's using facts and evidence to expose reality. Sign
I hear you. I will say, though, that if one has to read between his lines then either the writing is bad or he's being sly. There's just too much evidence to suggest he's being sly. My main problem is that people want to be signed up for putting new blood in the same old failed systems, rather than going out as entrepreneurs and creating new systems. That's where all the youthful energy needs to go. Maybe he's not as authoritarian as he seems, but fomenting a mob or putting a few SJW heads on proverbial pikes doesn't get us the kind of reform we need. I will join you in lauding what he has accomplished so far, though.
Thanks for your response, I appreciate you taking the time. I guess you are perceiving something in Rufo that I don't see, but I like the exchange of ideas.
So you dont like how hes doing it? What your alternative tactics to rid the institutions of the poisonous left and their destablilizimlng America hating dogma? And do your tactics work? His results work. And people hate him for it. Too bad.
And as for we shouldnt use the lefts tactics: BULLSHIT. They will fight this fight forever. Hamstringing ourselves for some morality play when the other side is ready to tear everything down and cut heads off is suicidal.
If you think im overstating things, try some current events. Settler colonialism and its approval of death to any colonist- THATS YOU and all of us- is ok because of the colonizing of our ancestors. Look at the history of the communism they would have us live under. You think this time around if they happen to get power that all the killings and torturing and disappearances and prison camps wont come with it? Those are features, not bugs of communism. Thats how the dissidents are handled. Listen to the words of protesters in rhe streets right now. Around the globe Hamas and most of radical islam bought into marxism along time ago. And of couse who can forget China and North Korea.. Look at their words and actions. All of the left. Its all one thing once they get enough power.
Get out of the clouds, people. The left took their gloves off and grabbed the knife along time ago. Act accordingly.
Please read Part Two if you have time. But I want to distill quick thoughts:
1) It's not that I don't like what he's doing, it's that he thinks we need to do this at the expense of all other means.
2) He's not addressing the pathology. He's fighting symptoms with different systems.
3) He misses that this isn't some Manichaean struggle against Left and Right, though that's a part of it. It's more importantly a struggle between the people and the powerful and his solution is to install a New Powerful, then oblige them to be good. That rarely ever works.
4) My critique of Rufo is not an either/or but a yes/and. We need to take drastic political power measures in the short term, but we cannot lose sight of the medium and long term. We cannot be reactionaries, we have to be revolutionaries -- like the Founders. Less Hamilton, more Jefferson. Less Constitution before the Bill of Rights, More Declaration before and during the Revolutionary War.
There's a useful shorthand term for all these alt-right or neo-right thinkers who hate the left/professives, whatever, but are also against the conservative establishment and libertarianism and free markets and the Constitution, and are driven by miscellaneous resentments to agitate for, or at least dream of, some sort of right-wing revolution leading to the acquisition of power.
"Fascist."
Right? No doubt one could quibble, but I need the word in order to manage the clutter. Thanks for reading Rufo so we don't have to.
Rufo is a Gramscian. War of position, hegemony. All the same tactics that his enemies on the woke left subscribe to.
I'm so happy to have discovered your Substack.
The pleasure is mutual. 2024 will be the year of the Stack.
Yep, and all this creates is an endless negative sum game.
Great food for thought, thank you. I’ve been noticing this tendency in the right. JBP in particular- would love to see you do a similar analysis.
I think JBP is less Nietzschean/Machiavellian/Gramscian than Rufo, but I do see him getting pulled into power politics. That ARC conference was disappointing in ways, heartening in others.
This is a great post to read about Arc: https://brownstone.org/articles/freedom-and-virtue-friends-or-enemies/
The belief that **THE STATE is the only way** is a poison that runs through humanity's veins.
It needs to end.
Well done. I look forward to Part II.
I find your piece unpersuasive. Too much trying to read between the lines to interpret his words in the worst possible light. He has the right principles, he fights the fight, and he wants people to get their heads out of their butts about the amount of lies their worldview is based on.
He's not perfect, and anyone under that much pressure could slip in the future, but he's using facts and evidence to expose reality. Sign
me up for what he has accomplished so far.
I hear you. I will say, though, that if one has to read between his lines then either the writing is bad or he's being sly. There's just too much evidence to suggest he's being sly. My main problem is that people want to be signed up for putting new blood in the same old failed systems, rather than going out as entrepreneurs and creating new systems. That's where all the youthful energy needs to go. Maybe he's not as authoritarian as he seems, but fomenting a mob or putting a few SJW heads on proverbial pikes doesn't get us the kind of reform we need. I will join you in lauding what he has accomplished so far, though.
Thanks for your response, I appreciate you taking the time. I guess you are perceiving something in Rufo that I don't see, but I like the exchange of ideas.
So you dont like how hes doing it? What your alternative tactics to rid the institutions of the poisonous left and their destablilizimlng America hating dogma? And do your tactics work? His results work. And people hate him for it. Too bad.
And as for we shouldnt use the lefts tactics: BULLSHIT. They will fight this fight forever. Hamstringing ourselves for some morality play when the other side is ready to tear everything down and cut heads off is suicidal.
If you think im overstating things, try some current events. Settler colonialism and its approval of death to any colonist- THATS YOU and all of us- is ok because of the colonizing of our ancestors. Look at the history of the communism they would have us live under. You think this time around if they happen to get power that all the killings and torturing and disappearances and prison camps wont come with it? Those are features, not bugs of communism. Thats how the dissidents are handled. Listen to the words of protesters in rhe streets right now. Around the globe Hamas and most of radical islam bought into marxism along time ago. And of couse who can forget China and North Korea.. Look at their words and actions. All of the left. Its all one thing once they get enough power.
Get out of the clouds, people. The left took their gloves off and grabbed the knife along time ago. Act accordingly.
Please read Part Two if you have time. But I want to distill quick thoughts:
1) It's not that I don't like what he's doing, it's that he thinks we need to do this at the expense of all other means.
2) He's not addressing the pathology. He's fighting symptoms with different systems.
3) He misses that this isn't some Manichaean struggle against Left and Right, though that's a part of it. It's more importantly a struggle between the people and the powerful and his solution is to install a New Powerful, then oblige them to be good. That rarely ever works.
4) My critique of Rufo is not an either/or but a yes/and. We need to take drastic political power measures in the short term, but we cannot lose sight of the medium and long term. We cannot be reactionaries, we have to be revolutionaries -- like the Founders. Less Hamilton, more Jefferson. Less Constitution before the Bill of Rights, More Declaration before and during the Revolutionary War.
Hoping to get back to this. Rough week.
Rufo seems like the proverbial blind squirrel who is correct twice a day.
There's a useful shorthand term for all these alt-right or neo-right thinkers who hate the left/professives, whatever, but are also against the conservative establishment and libertarianism and free markets and the Constitution, and are driven by miscellaneous resentments to agitate for, or at least dream of, some sort of right-wing revolution leading to the acquisition of power.
"Fascist."
Right? No doubt one could quibble, but I need the word in order to manage the clutter. Thanks for reading Rufo so we don't have to.