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VDH
Nov 23, 2023 7:45:04 GMT -8
Post by artraveler on Nov 23, 2023 7:45:04 GMT -8
victorhanson.com/can-europe-become-western-again/I detect a bit of the feeling of impending doom from our favorite professor and historian of the 20/21st century. Perhaps like Cicero he sees an end coming and feels powerless to stop it or even slow it down. For the first time in a millennium, Europe no longer plays a critical role in promoting Western civilization nor in world history at large. Ostensibly it should. Some 750 million people live on the European subcontinent. . . The twentieth-century traumas of World War I and II—in which some 70 million Europeans were killed—saw Europe commit near collective suicide.
The other half of the West is in little better condition. The United States is reeling under $33 trillion in national debt. . . After embracing various bankrupt academic critical legal “theories,” major American cities are unsafe, unhealthy, and unsightly. The American southern border is wide open. Eight million illegal aliens have poured in just since January 2021, many of them hostile to the United States.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Nov 23, 2023 15:33:19 GMT -8
I think it's a realistic assessment. Europe is doomed. Its disintegration will accelerate noticeably in the next five years. As VDH said, their way of life is "unsustainable." And that which can't go on forever doesn't.
I'm not glad of this. I'm not hoping for their downfall. But I just can't see how that idiot continent can pull itself back from the brink. Civilization is dying there and it will inevitably wind up into various slums and conclaves of "immigrants" who might as well run around naked and paint themselves blue because these are indeed primitives. And when they are in charge, which is inevitable, Notre Dame will be turned into a mosque and Winchester Cathedral as well.
At this moment, only the mass expulsion of the "Palestinians" can save Israel. And they won't do it. The only other alternative is to occupy and control that area permanently. And I don't think they'll do that either. The things we musts do to save our civilization aren't pretty but they are necessary. Maybe when Europe is in flames, Americans, Canadians, and others will give up on their idiotic Utopian-Progressive dream (after, of course, rescinding the right of women to vote). There's a chance we can pull out, but the odds are long. But the fate of Europe could serve to shock us into reform.
Kudos to VDH for not blowing smoke up our butt. He knows what's happening.
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Post by artraveler on Dec 25, 2023 9:12:35 GMT -8
Over the last 10 years or so, Victor has gotten more pessimistic about the future of our country. This is one of his most depressing articles. In truth, I have also gone from optimistic about the future to a more pessimistic view. There is a long list of events past, current and future that suggest a nemesis is coming and it won't bve pretty.
In some sense, the country for recent years has been cruising on the fumes from prior and likely better wiser generations and institutions. In 2024, the tab for our current apathy, toxic politics, and incompetence will come due.
Our enemies do not fear us; our friends do not trust us; and neutrals do not care either way. . .In 2024, either the border will close, or the United States will suffer radical political realignments, sheer chaos in our major cities, protests from Americans furious over the complete flaunting of federal law by their own elected officials, and a likely impeachment of Joe Biden for deliberately forsaking his oath to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States.” . . . Pro-Hamas protestors feel free to harass Jews, and with impunity and arrogance chant genocidal chants promising the destruction of Israel and its Jewish population. . .In 2024, radical changes in university administration and values will begin to be made, or higher education will face a reckoning from the public and a newly elected government.
Either the military will have to deter dramatically our growing number of opportunistic enemies, or it will descend into something like the French army between the world wars—plagued by ideology, ossified brass, corruption, mediocrity, misplaced investments, and bankrupt strategies. . .If there are not radical changes in higher education, our Ivy League and self-identified elite campuses will go the way of Bud-Light, Disney, and Target—once premier brands reduced to red ink and laughing-stock caricatures. . .If what we saw after October 7, or the wild and out-of-control reign of weaponized local and state prosecutors, or what we watch nightly on television at the border, or the paralyses we witness abroad of our military, or the breezy way in which our officials promise groups here and abroad billions of dollars in easy money, continues into 2024, then the country as we knew it will become unrecognizable.
I don't want to believe VDH is right about the future, but I can not conceive that he is wrong.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 25, 2023 13:52:13 GMT -8
We are living in a period during which the "elites" have lost any sense of the bigger picture and couldn't care less about the public. They are blindly pursuing their own desires in an obsessive manner. During normal times, rulers look out for their own interests, but have the good sense, good will, or both, to understand that something must be left for the people. I mean this as regards not only wealth but also in the political and moral realms. History shows that such times generally end in a major outbreak of violence, which does not pass for a number of years. Society then starts to rebuild itself, but a lot of pain is dished out before it does. With that thought in mind, I will be sharing my rib roast Christmas dinner with my family soon. Eat, drink and be merry because things will surely fall apart shortly. Ho, ho, ho.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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VDH
Dec 25, 2023 14:56:10 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 25, 2023 14:56:10 GMT -8
He's simply connecting the dots of where we are and where we are headed. I don't see him as pessimistic, just realistic. He's the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come showing us what will be unless we change our ways.
Maybe my fate is to write the counterpoint to A Christmas Carol, because we are seeing the flip-side of that story. Poor business-owner Scrooge is being sued by his employee, Bob Cratchit, for not using the right pronoun.
"Tiny Tim" is an obese, tattooed, rainbow-haired weirdo Drag Queen who is doing his (her?) best to molest children and otherwise create a surplus population of the disenchanted and demoralized (literally).
Send me a fifth of whiskey, and I'll get started on it right away. God Help Us, every one.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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VDH
Dec 25, 2023 15:08:13 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 25, 2023 15:08:13 GMT -8
I don't know what you fellows think of me when I occasionally throw a family under the bus in order to make a point. They are just at-hand, I guess. But please do allow me to make a point:
The other day, my cousin was talking about his live-in girlfriend's daughter (who also lives with them). She may be a bit of a pronoun-changer. I didn't really get the full story, nor did I want it.
Anyway, he kept stressing that his attitude is "I don't care who you sleep with or how you identify yourself. Just don't force it on me."
I've formulated responses to this many times. But the most basic formulation is the true truism of: Liberalism is the gateway drug to Leftism.
Almost no one can see or understand that "acceptance" of personal eccentricities (or just outright Weirdoism) leads to the requirement to ratify these personal eccentricities (or just outright Weirdoism).
There's no need really do delve into why this is so (although we could). It's enough to know that it is so. I basically told the crowd that the lack of setting boundaries and instead being "accepting" of everything has lead precisely to where we are.
Merry Christmas all the same. Double-down on it. Eff them all. Tis the season, and all that.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 25, 2023 15:17:27 GMT -8
It makes me think that all families have their crackpots and scoundrels. I might even trade you some of my family for some of yours. Such people are not only stupid, they are lazy. I doubt he would understand it if you were to lay out the path of destruction which results from such thought, so I leave it up to you. Moral sloth leads to degradation as sure as physical sloth leads to loss of fitness or health. Anything worthwhile takes effort. A piano player cannot be slothful if he wishes to excel. I could go on, but won't.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 25, 2023 16:26:03 GMT -8
The singular problem is that when you make it commendable to be "open-minded," you've removed the DNA for making wise choices and applying necessary limits.
"Open-mindedness" was a category made for the moral coward as well as for the moral anarchist.
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VDH
Dec 25, 2023 17:19:16 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on Dec 25, 2023 17:19:16 GMT -8
Isn't there saying that goes something like, "Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out."
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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VDH
Dec 26, 2023 8:38:02 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 26, 2023 8:38:02 GMT -8
I'm amazed by the technology and software that continues to be produced. We live in an age of technological marvels of enormous power and complexity.
So the first question I ask God Almighty upon coming to the pearly gates is: Lord, you made man capable of creating such wondrous and complex things as computers. But why, Lord, are they so simple-minded when it comes to social issues?
The same culture that produces 3D printers, electric vehicles, and Mars rovers is the same one that can't distinguish between a boy and a girl (or say they can't...or shouldn't). I'm honestly amazed by this.
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Post by kungfuzu on Dec 26, 2023 13:59:27 GMT -8
Perhaps there is a negative correlation between technical advancement and social understanding. Too much brain power used up on trying to navigate the modern world for much to be left for understanding basic human nature.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Dec 26, 2023 17:03:30 GMT -8
That is as good a working theory as any. Of course, yours truly will always note the fundamental role of feminism in terms of moving the needle from moral clarity to a namby-pamby, feelings-based get-alongism. We should have a deeper discussion about this sometime. But I was somewhat shocked and chagrined at the sexual stories told by my male family members at the last get-together. I've never been shy about admitting that I'd lived a relatively tame and sheltered life. But I got a taste for just how sheltered it was. And I saw with starry eyes just how the sexual revolution (and outgrowth of feminism) messed up the morals of people, male or female. Yep...more family members thrown under the bus for the sake of social science. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.
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Post by artraveler on Jan 9, 2024 21:28:28 GMT -8
The latest fromthe guru of Selma CA. amgreatness.com/2024/01/08/a-culture-in-collapse/what do we think the Iranians, Putin’s Russians, the communist Chinese, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Hamas now think of the United States?. . . In sum, American civilization has been turned upside down, and we have a rendezvous soon with the once unthinkable and unimaginable.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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VDH
Jan 10, 2024 9:04:10 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 10, 2024 9:04:10 GMT -8
It shocks VDH, surely. But can we know that it has "shocked Americans," whose phrasing suggests a majority or large percentage of Americans are shocked? I have my doubts.
No, I wouldn't have imagined that. But it does shows the centrality of feminism to the rot that VDH describes.
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VDH
Jan 10, 2024 11:35:28 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on Jan 10, 2024 11:35:28 GMT -8
Of course the Left feels chaos, anarchy and nihilism are necessary. Surely the prof is familiar with the old revolutionary maxim, "The worse, the better." That is, the worse the situation is in the country, the better it is for radicals to foment a revolution. Both Lenin and Hitler openly espoused this philosophy. I was having this conversation yesterday with some guys at the donut shop. The complete incompetence of our government is seen everyday by both our friends and adversaries across the world. This is very dangerous.
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Post by artraveler on Jan 22, 2024 9:03:31 GMT -8
Victor is repeating a theme we have been covering for several years. Our enemies are gathering their forces and war is running rampant across the globe. It is only a matter of time until all of these conflicts run together. victorhanson.com/2024-americas-year-of-living-dangerously/In particular, both enemies and neutrals have accordingly drawn a number of self-interested conclusions about the waning Biden administration and what may follow:
That Joe Biden, to their apparent delight, has in the last three years reversed the Trump deterrence policies and thus has green-lit their aggressions.
That given the ensuing chaos, they have further agreed that Biden’s growing unpopularity with the American people makes it likely that both he and his appeasement policies will be gone by January 2024.
That Donald Trump may well return to office. That would mean a much worse deal for Russia, China, Iran, and its terrorist satellites, and thus recognition that 2024 is a brief window of opportunity for aggression.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 22, 2024 11:25:58 GMT -8
The Obamanation (who is the Eminence gris behind this administration) and his minions are only minimally interested in the US military as a force to protect the nation from foreign enemies. Their main goal is to have it as a way to control US citizens.
As to "self-inflicted" decline, it is not strange, that has always been the intent of the left. It is not an "accidental" self-inflicted decline. It is completely intentional.
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Post by artraveler on Feb 5, 2024 9:07:48 GMT -8
Latest from the sage of Selma victorhanson.com/is-biden-malicious-incompetent-or-conniving/ How many years have we been saying the same? Things are becoming so strange, so surreal, so nihilistic in contemporary America that the chaos can only be deliberate. Chance, incompetence, and accident could not alone explain the series of disasters we now daily witness that are nearly destroying the country. . . How else can anyone explain the descent of our city downtowns into dank medieval cesspits, our notion of male and female transformed into the sexual circus right out of Petronius’s Satyricon, our race relations into a mixture of Rwanda and Yugoslavia, and our universities into Soviet-like “People’s Universities of Correct Thought?”
None of this was by accident. It is the dividend of a philosophy that says, “We have to blow up your America before we can reboot it for us.”
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VDH
Feb 5, 2024 15:02:27 GMT -8
Post by kungfuzu on Feb 5, 2024 15:02:27 GMT -8
To quote/paraphrase both Lenin and Hitler: "The worse, the better."
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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VDH
Feb 6, 2024 8:36:37 GMT -8
Post by Brad Nelson on Feb 6, 2024 8:36:37 GMT -8
VDH truly gets it.
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