Clarifying the record on Biden "The Deep State finally has a boss." X, in its sloppy yet energetic way, has corrected the Biden campaign for me: While this is not quite how I would put it—it seems like an odd confusion of my 2020 and 2024 endorsements—and I am a radical monarchist, the
Sensible Strategy
Don’t save Democrats from their own campus disaster My dear conservative friends, we need to have a talk. This is more of an intervention than anything else. You must stop protecting institutions that are committed to destroying your way of life. The university system hates you. It always has. It will continue to hate you until it is
A Depoliticized Future There is a common critique of liberalism that runs something like this. All human existence is political. Liberalism attempts to ‘paper over’ the political nature of society. Therefore liberalism denies the basic facts of human nature. I agree with this argument. However, I believe that it is often based on
Biden/Harris 2024 "Without continuity, there is no change." As most longtime readers know, I have endorsed the Democratic candidate in every election since 2008, except 2016—when, for professional reasons, I was not writing. As a lifetime Democrat—and Foreign Service brat—and grandson of progressive Jewish activists from Brooklyn, I was
A civil rights lawsuit exposes anarcho-tyranny in action Federal officials have leveled a discrimination lawsuit at the Sheetz convenience store chain, alleging that the company’s use of criminal background checks as a screening mechanism for employees falls afoul of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although Joe Biden’s Department of Justice says it
The Right’s Future Must be Parallel, and Counter-Revolutionary What I Told National Conservatives in Brussels Last week I travelled to Brussels to attend the National Conservatism Conference. I was slated to speak on a panel on “The Future of Conservatism.” Whether the panel would actually happen seemed in doubt for much of the time I was there, since
The Road to "De-Flanderization" Weaver's Banquet Talk, April 2024 Here, I am supposed to give a talk on a subject. And I always speculate that, at one of these get-togethers, maybe I should do a deep dive on a particular topic like Bluegrass or my favorite Italian films or the new Dune movie. But
Classical liberalism’s excremental excuses According to recent reports, a gay Spanish politician who belongs to the country’s left-wing governing party has been forced to resign after pictures surfaced of the municipal councilor eating his own excrement. While disgusting, the existence of yet another degenerate politician would be unremarkable, if not for the fact
Deracination and the imagination On the need for gravity when taking a leap In the seventh chapter of his Biographia Literaria (1891), Samuel Taylor Coleridge considers the work of the imagination as analogous to moving against and with the world’s gravity. “In every movement,” he says, “we first counteract gravitation, in order to
What the left can teach the right about political power Political power is not a toy. It is not a trophy awarded to the winner of the debate club. Power is a game, but it is the game of kings. It is chess, not checkers. If you intend to play the game, you had better come with a serious strategy
Gaza and the laws of war As the father of a toddler, I am obviously distressed to hear that toddlers are being maimed and killed by bombs paid for by my tax dollars. I want this shambolic slaughter-circus to stop. I think every institution involved in it, from UNRWA to the UN to Hamas to the
Why regime charity poses a big problem MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, recently announced her intention to engage in another round of philanthropy by donating $640 million to charity. Of the $60 billion she received after splitting with her husband, Scott has already given over $16 billion to various nonprofit organizations. To most
A republic’s shield or tyranny’s sword? In the modern world, it is difficult to imagine a nation without a professional standing military force, but throughout history such a force has been considered at odds with the liberty of the people. The debate was far from settled when the United States was founded. While many consider it
America’s true identity crisis We live in an ideological age. Communism, fascism, classical liberalism, progressivism, democracy, capitalism — we fight wars over these terms even though some of these ideologies are dead and others have become meaningless. Modern people think of ideology as something constructed before a society begins, something that defines a civilization from
The right was wrong about virtue-signaling A video of a family with four “transkids” went viral across social media this week. Many conservatives were justifiably appalled and pointed out that the chances of randomly having four children with severe body dysmorphic disorder in the same family are incredibly low. Commenters on the video suggested that the
He who would be Cringe I am a realist first and foremost. This means, in the tradition of Aristotle, I am concerned with the world as it is and not how I wish it to be. The combination of political realism and rightwing politics is often depressing. Our side of things has been on a
Confucius Says “lol, lmao” On the very basics of governance This will be a very short post, just a little something that came to mind as I continue work on other material. But since it amused me I figured I’d share it with you all as well. I was watching a bit of
The True Nature of the Culture War Conservatives and many others on the political right fail to understand what exactly is this thing that we call the "culture war" and as a result, they are ineffective in their efforts to fight it. You may have heard this phrase, “the return of the strong gods” in reference to
Ruled by Men or Governed by the System? We are locked within the tyranny of the administrative state, governed by the administrative system. What is the alternative? It is to once again be ruled directly by men. Once you begin to seriously question the administrative state in its various forms and manifestations, people will ask the obvious question,
Unplugging from the devil's electric nervous system On rediscovering various textures of investments In a children’s book no longer in print called Arthur’s New Power (1978), Russell Hoban tells a quirky story about a family of very human-like crocodiles who, at the start of the tale, have so overused and overloaded the power circuit of
By their Fruits ye shall know them Recently the discourse in our corner of the internet has been consumed with POSIWID. This acronym, which stands for ‘The Purpose of a System Is What It Does’, comes to us from the world of engineering. In short, the idea is that regardless of the intent of the designers, a
Texas must hold the line While journalists and pundits are busy debating the fallout from the Republican primary, the real battle for the future of America is occurring on the Texas border with Mexico. The Biden administration has enacted a malicious open-borders policy welcoming millions of illegal aliens into the country and facilitating a full-scale
The purpose of a pundit is what he does "This fantasy has no more relevance to the actual system than any other fantasy." One nice principle for analyzing systems—entirely parallel to Ranke’s historical rule of drawing history “as it really was,” and Burnham’s political rule of “real meanings,” but not loaded with any historical or political
Liberals are bad and they know it Several weeks ago I wrote a piece on how the left disenchants and deconstructs heroes. This post called The Tyranny of Just, explored how progressives will leverage minor truths to demolish broader cultural narratives. You see exactly what I’m talking about in the new Napoleon movie. Instead of focusing
Immigration is a weapon Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received enthusiastic applause during a recent appearance on “The Daily Show” after announcing her intention to solve the border crisis, not with some ridiculous solution like building a wall, but by granting documentation to every illegal immigrant in America. At this point, “The Daily Show” audience must consist
Human Biodiversity Happy Birth Day Given the bizarre spergout in response to Bronze Age Pervert’s now infamous “HBD” tweet, I deem it prudent to sidestep the commentary and examine what BAP actually wrote in his tweet. I will examine it sentence by sentence and discern what I find objectionable. While for
My top 9 reads of 2023 Many people start the new year with the resolution to read more books that deepen their understanding of the world around them. I am often asked for reading recommendations, so I have habitually collected and shared the most thought-provoking books I encountered in the previous year. These are not books
The importance of capturing castles Boycotts, elections, school shootings, waves of illegal immigration, riots, pandemics, foreign wars, inflation — the political battles cycle past us so rapidly it can be difficult to focus on any given event. Journalists write feverish articles, and pundits voice their outrage, drawing media attention to the crisis of the week. Whenever
Stay sane in ’24 by focusing on the real fight The stretch between Christmas and New Year’s day always feels like the necessary calm before a moment of great transition. The chaos of holiday preparations has come and gone, the children are still home from school, and work slows to a crawl as the world awaits the beginning of
The Case for Coercive Christianity There are many out there who think that the Christian way is persuasion, not coercion. They thus reject the idea of writing Christian moral teaching into law. It is time to address this concern. As some Christians begin to assert a more muscular presence in the public sphere, working out
The Tyranny of 'Just' Written listening to Creed I don’t like talking about mass casualty events. The rush to use the biography of the murderer as political fuel is gross. However, to make a point, I’m going to break my rule. I can’t remember which specific event started this conversation. It
The conservative case against satanic altars Every society organizes itself around an idea of the sacred. This may sound silly to contemporary ears, but it continues to be true even if modern people have convinced themselves they are too advanced to indulge in such primitive notions. Statues are monuments designed to inspire reverence, and the kind
A New Heroic Archetype: Moving Beyond Tolkien Stories for a Winter Age In the summer of 2023, Scyldings hosted a conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Many were drawn from across the USA to discuss an important subject: how can we forge a common foundation within the Dissident Right, with particular relation to the American context. The speeches were
Don’t end the Bud Light boycott Conservatives are constantly complaining about the left’s domination of culture, but they rarely take the actions necessary to make a difference. Corporate executives are acutely aware that offending progressive sensibilities can quickly end their careers, while offending the right carries little or no consequence. I can remember dozens of
Left-Right Parity Should the Right use Leftist strategy? The question as to whether or not the Left are fundamentally correct in their political strategy is one often debated on the Right. Should we adopt their strategies? It is often true that “the woke are more correct than the mainstream,” as they say.
A Brief Guide To Content Creation I’ve recently had a growing number of people asking me for some tips and pointers on creating content. I thought I’d cobble together some of the tricks of the trade, as it were, that I’ve learned over the years. Naturally, my preferred form is the essay, either
Building a Parallel Polity: Sketching Out the Road Ahead I occasionally say on Twitter that conservatives should stop giving to the Republican Party and use the money to build autonomous parallel communities. What does that look like? Let's sketch it out. My regular readers will know that I argue several things at once in regard to the current moment.
The Holy Moments Exploring the decline of cinema in four bad movies Autumn is a strange season, especially in America. There is a spirit hanging in the air, slowly dying. The pagan gods of Summer perish and return their power to be interned in the earth until judgment. And the living mark the
Let's Skip the News Boy Let's skip the news boy (I'll go and make some tea) Arabs and Jews boy (too much for me) They get me confused boy (puts me off to sleep) And the thing I hate--Oh Lord! Is staying up late, to watch some debate, on some nation's fate – Genesis, “Blood on
For the right to win, it needs a new formula Every nation is run by an organized minority of its population, a ruling class, and that class always tells a story about why its members should be in charge. It could be the divine right of kings, it could be the mandate of heaven, or it could be popular election
Lectures on the Mind for Young Samurai, by Mishima Yukio "The approximation of all forms of sex to the trifling, if expensive, escapist pleasure that comes from taking [sleeping] pills may be called the most critical phenomenon of our time." Lectures on the Mind for Young Samurai Mishima Yukio For Young Samurai Subscribe On Life After beginning life, people gradually
Mechanisms Toward Local Sovereignty Made possible by the abundance of land available, America’s European founding stock sought denominational freedom in the New World. Entire congregations of Christians traveled across the Atlantic Ocean on ships such as the Mayflower to establish colonies that were closely tied to their religious beliefs, as well as the
Authoring Caesar: Part Two The imposition of mob rule, the ultimate and end result of democracy, damages individual autonomy. It threatens and often eliminates your natural rights: life, limb, and property. We are at whatever mercy the mob grants us, if any. Every time a legislative body meets, all people are on the butcher’
Prophets of Doom and the Sensible Centre I recently attended this year’s Witan and was able to procure an advance copy of Neema Parvini’s “Prophets of Doom” (hereafter Prophets). This is the much anticipated second volume of Parvini’s projected sensible centrist trilogy. It aims to counter the regime by creating a rival, coherent canon
Book Review: The Prophets of Doom by Neema Parvini “This volume should be a healthy part of every Sensible Centrist’s Library.”
20 Rules for "Frens" A guideline for online discourse (Based on a popular tweet thread I wrote last year, I am expanding my points about what it means to be a “Fren” for the benefit of those looking to build and foster community in the dissident space) It’s a common observation that the
Man, Woman, and the Interregnum Tyrans In what I call the postmodern interregnum tyrans, there is an ever expanding and unhealthy conflict between the sexes. This gulf must be closed and if it is unnaturally prevented from doing so it will bring continuous disaster. Men and women need each other in proper balance, to regulate their
Scyldings Nashville I arrived in Nashville on the Friday and was met at the airport by fellow speaker Mike of Pol, who was very funny and gracious to me and I was treated like a beloved guest by him the entire time. Soon we were chatting up a storm about our lives
Remove Your Children From the Clutches of Our Enemies Marshall Fritz was right. Marshall Fritz founded the Alliance for the separation of School and State in 1994 well before many were ready for such a radical approach to the problem of regime schooling. I remember being with him in a private meeting as he tried to persuade an important
Liberal Subversion There is liberalism in many of us, and many see this as harmless or even good, but it is insidious. It tears at our core instincts, and leads us to destruction. We must tear this away from ourselves if we wish our civilization to survive. Our liberal paradigm seems harmless,
Interregnum There is a space of time that between two definitive points, called the indefinite. It is the difference between “the” and “a/an”. A nation could be any nation, while the nation is an identifiable entity. No one cares about a king, a president, a Prime Minister, a pope, or
QUESTING FOR IMPERIUM Man is hungry by nature. Whether it be for adventure, experience (of a sort), control, understanding, or ownership, he wishes to know what is beyond the next hill – metaphorical or literal. He wishes for growth, in himself and his holdings. He wishes to be able to answer the question with
Exodus An appeal It is current year plus eight. Thousands around the world have lost their faith in the existing and persisting order. The desire for stability has expired in all but spirit, but will remain lost in these conquered lands. Chaos is all which remains, with a choice of two
IN DEFENCE OF LARPING Within the usual discourse around this topic, larping is defined as the incomplete, perhaps insincere, and by implication – fruitless attempt to embody or achieve something. An example might be that one would larp as a knight in Quixotesque fashion, or conversely to larp as a revolutionary. This term has fairly
Authoring Caesar: Part Four “Where there’s a will, there’s a way:” all can be overcome through the power of will; but one must first possess it. It’s been a long period of growth towards higher Civilization in the West. We have been seated high for so long that the notion of
Authoring Caesar: Part Three The greatest failure of Democracy is in empowering the incapable and immoral. This brings the wretches into an unfair conflict with moral and just people over power. Armed with this evil, the immoral wretches slash at righteous good, before good knows what hit it. Democracy breeds naïveté towards the human
Authoring Caesar: Part One Western man stands on a precipice before a path ridden with obstacles; behind us lay our progenitors: “old”, “obsolete”, and “incapable”. Whiffs of their essence lay within us, hopefully enough to make a difference. Ahead lies our future, our progeny, and all we will, our canvas. We cannot correct the
40 Lessons from Warhammer 40k Learning from the Grim-Dark Future free, text It's time to talk about everyone’s favorite science fiction pulp setting: Warhammer 40000. Since its inception, this extended fictional universe (designed as the backdrop for miniature war-gaming) popularized the image of the "Grim-dark" future. Of course, most of 40k's core ideas are
Tom Harwood: Establishment Shill Who’s team is he on?
Rats, Wires, and the Problem of Urukai “Preparation is Salvation.”
Book Review: “The Populist Delusion” by Neema Parvini “Power permits no rival.”
Cringe and Propaganda “Zeal takes the strength of man’s spirit and convictions and violently opposes meaninglessness and nihilism.”
CREATING FROM THE RIGHT A challenge that all of us dissident right-wingers face is the need to retake culture. We lament that the left subverts traditional values and attacks our way of life. In the political arena, there is a clear-cut path to victory. Victory in politics will not guarantee victory in culture. Victory
BUILD YOUR TRIBE The globalized, disenfranchised, sterilized, secularized, urbanized, and the personalized world which our children are being born into idolizes the deracinated individual above all else. The deracinated individual is rootless, isolated, and bereft of both heritage and meaningful ties to the culture of their ancestors. The deracinated individual is therefore easily
Discourse won't Save the Boomers (but let's try anyways) Is it really possible "red-pill" your parents? So it turns out that my last letter was built on a faulty premise. Perhaps a follow-up is in order? In my last Substack entry, I painted a picture of a dissident community preoccupied with helping young folks and building a future apart
A TANGIBLE SHAPE OF PARALLELISM Asha Logos, a content creator whose channel everyone in Our Thing should be subscribed to, recently put out a call for parallel institutions on our side of things. This article serves as both an answer and a further call, like the relayed trumpeters atop watchtowers on the borders of East
THE GOLDEN MEAN Eudaimonia: Aristotle and most of his contemporaries used this phrase to speak of the end goal of humanity: a life well-lived. To successfully live life, they argued, one had to rationally apply virtuous principles to moral dilemmas. One of the principles used by Aristotle was that of the Golden Mean.
On Folk Culture and the "Extended Universe" A letter concerning the development of dissident art, and included prototype In 2021, the platitude "Get Woke, go broke" is dead. Everyone got woke, and no one who got woke went broke. The meme was on life support before 2019. In 2021 its corpse is starting to smell. Did anyone
A letter to earnest right-wing activists Behold the awesome power of fiat currency and elite over-production! To kick off this new era on SubStack, I intend to produce a series of letters directed at the persistent political divides which exist both on online and off. My goal generally will be to clarify the controversies as I