This is really scary. Dad claims doctor asked his 3-year-old if he’s a boy or a girl at a routine check-up pic.twitter.com/rwOVNJeDHU

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 14, 2022

It's the Hanna-Barbera *bwing-bWong-sHpLOInK-hubbida-hubbida-STraaaanK-ptZeeeWW* sound effects that make this both the worst, and best, political ad I have ever seenhttps://t.co/UjhDu7Dzke

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) August 16, 2022

Former CIA Analyst Martin Gurri explains what the American Establishment, what Mencius Moldbug calls “The Cathedral,” is really afraid of.

There is a tremendous asymmetry in the alignment of ideological forces in this country. Politically, we are fractured: war-bands of every denomination prowl restlessly through a zone of perpetual conflict. Electorally, we are divided. Voting is binary: in practice, this means that the war-bands get artificially squeezed into one of two mega-tribes. On Election Day, we must choose one or the other—and, because of the dynamic among war-bands, any one of which can defect at any moment, majorities rest on a razor’s edge.

Culturally, however, we are monolithic. From the scientific establishment through the corporate boardroom all the way to Hollywood, elite keepers of our culture speak with a single, shrill voice—and the script always follows the dogmas of one particular war-band—the cult of identity—and the politics of one specific partisan flavor, that of progressive Democrats.

The imbalance between a divided nation and a monolithic culture warps our shared perception of reality. A potentially scandalous story about the son of the Democratic presidential candidate, though entirely true, can be smothered to death by Facebook, Twitter, and Google. On the other side, if you are a former Republican president, you can expect to get locked out of social media permanently, even though 74 million Americans voted for you.

These decisions don’t reflect a consensus of public opinion. None of us was polled on the proper informational treatment for Hunter Biden or Donald Trump. This was control at a far more elemental level—and only here, in the murky depths of truth and post-truth, can we discern the motive for this year’s meltdown over disinformation and its avatar, Musk. The elites, confronting what they believe to be a political tempest of biblical proportions, are terrified of losing their monopoly over culture as well.

Whether this will actually happen is beyond the reach of analysis: culture evolves in mysterious ways. But it may be useful to speculate on the matter. In this spirit, let me propose three strong countercurrents, already visible across the American landscape—that might, in time, threaten the cultural supremacy of the elites.

The first is the intrusion of the political into the cultural. Since conservatives and Republicans are politically strong but culturally nonexistent, they will flex their political muscle to try to right the imbalance. Virginia and Florida have banned the teaching of certain progressive doctrines in public schools. When Disney, Florida’s largest employer, vocally condemned these laws, the company was punished with the removal of local privileges. Should Republicans win Congress and the White House, I would expect American politics to experience a cultural Armageddon. The output of culture can’t be legislated on demand: otherwise, the Soviet Union would have been a golden age of creativity. But raw political power can make the cost of cultural monopoly—and of idle posturing, Disney-style—unpleasantly high.

A second threat to elite culture is the defection of the victim class. The cult of identity generates an insatiable demand for victim groups, which, by necessity, must become ever smaller and more marginal not only to the mainstream but also to traditional minorities. Even as the elites solidified their grip on culture, the focus of their performative outrage was drifting from civil rights and pocketbook issues to more esoteric questions of sexuality and climate justice. The new causes simply don’t resonate with Hispanics or blacks, whose socioeconomic interests lie in other directions. According to recent polls, significant numbers of both groups are threatening to abandon the Democratic Party.

Progressivism is essentially a protection racket. If the elites ever lose the undisputed right to shout “Racism!” at the producers of culture, the latter will begin to fracture like the rest of the country and to look to the marketplace, rather than ideology, for inspiration.

The last countercurrent may be the most potent of all: the internal churning and dispersal of populations spurred by the pandemic and the availability of remote work. The number of Americans moving from their home regions, a recent survey found, is at the highest level on record. Though conservative writers are quick to observe that this is predominantly a flight from Democratic-controlled states to Republican strongholds in the Sunbelt, the political implications strike me as unclear. Many of the newcomers, I’m guessing, will be Democrats.

Far more significant will be the impact on the culture. Migration is a powerful solvent. Millions of people are leaving home in pursuit of change. They wish to be reborn, reinvented, liberated from the dead hand of the past; pick your metaphor for personal transformation. Such sweeping tides of humanity have always exemplified the central tenet of the American creed: that we are not captives to fate. Each wave of immigrants will begin a strange new story. To tell it, the culture, too, must be reborn and reinvented—and the mold of progressive dogmatism will be shattered in the process.

An unexpected blow against the progressive hold on culture came on May 2, when an anonymous leaker within the Supreme Court made public Justice Samuel Alito’s draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and devolve the regulation of abortion to Congress and the states. By the time the formal ruling came down on June 24, traumatized elites seemed ready to repudiate the one branch of the federal government that they did not control. The Supreme Court had “burned whatever legitimacy they may still have had,” Senator Elizabeth Warren proclaimed. “They just took the last of it and set a torch to it.” Abortion on demand—an early victory over traditional culture—has become sacramental to the left, with Roe v. Wade as holy writ. If Republican governors can align with Republican-appointed justices to demolish this once-settled arrangement, then every facet of the culture will be up for grabs. Justice Alito’s opinion “is not just about a woman’s right to choose. It is about much more than that,” cautioned Hillary Clinton, after the draft leaked. “Once you allow this kind of extreme power to take hold, you have no idea who they will come for next.”

Are we on the cusp, then, of an anti-elite cultural revolution? I still wouldn’t bet on it. For obscure reasons of psychology, creative minds incline to radical politics. A kulturkampf directed from Tallahassee, Florida, or even Washington, D.C., won’t budge that reality much. The group portrait of American culture will continue to tilt left indefinitely.

But that’s not the question at hand. What terrifies elites is the loss of their cultural monopoly in the face of a foretold political disaster. They fear diversity of any kind, with good cause: to the extent that the public enjoys a variety of choices in cultural products, elite control will be proportionately diluted.

RTWT

Steven Hayward’s selection here. One from me above.

Gargoyle, Oxford High Street.

How Deep Is The Ocean. pic.twitter.com/DHSgMaoXir

— Interesting As Fuck (@InterestingsAsF) August 12, 2022

HT: Vanderleun.

The Babylon Bee details the 17 qualifications they’re looking for:

Must be a U.S. citizen

Minimum education: Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting

5 years of Krav Maga martial arts experience

Maintain a level of fitness necessary to perform a chokehold until a tax delinquent is subdued and/or dead …

Cheered for Agent Smith in The Matrix …

Passionate about auditing Etsy moms selling crafts just trying to make ends meet

Fluent in German, goose-stepping experience is a plus …

Previous waterboarding experience

Pass a psychological exam to determine if you sympathize with the government while watching Jason Bourne movies

Looking for the type that shoots first and does the math later …

RWT

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And whom will they be going after? You, Mr. & Mrs. Small Business Owners.
NY Post:

A key provision in the Inflation Reduction Act — which throws an extra $80 billion to the IRS to improve the agency’s collection of under-reported income — will end up targeting small business owners to pay for the legislation, according to nonpartisan watchdog the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The group estimates that between 78% and 90% of the estimated additional $200 billion the IRS will collect will come from small businesses making less than $200,000 annually.

Just 4% to 9% would come from businesses making north of $500,000 a year — meaning the legislation is in sharp contrast to President Biden’s longstanding claim that he wouldn’t raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000.

“The IRS will have to target small and medium businesses because they won’t fight back,” Joe Hinchman, executive vice president at National Taxpayers Union Foundation, told The Post. “We’ve seen this play out before … the IRS says ‘We’re going after the rich’ but when you’re trying to raise that much money, the rich can only get you so far.”

Democrat Colorado Senator Michael Bennet is running for re-election, and this campaign ad depicts the Senator as a real Colorado outdoorsman and fly fisherman.

Watch carefully, and you’ll see that he has no idea of how to fish. And what the video fails to tell you is that Bennet purchased a 24-hour fishing license specifically to make the ad.

Fox News

Dark Brandon.

Emerald Robinson notes that the Brandon Administration crossed the Rubicon and the days of the Constitutional Republic are over. Now we’re a country in which the government in power weaponizes law enforcement to proscribe opponents.

The United States is no longer a constitutional republic — but you knew that already if you’ve been paying any attention at all. The idea that the FBI should raid the home of a former president because some “records are missing from the archives” — Trump’s not fully in compliance with the Presidential Records Act! — is a charge so thin that it might as well be anorexic. We have long since passed the stage at which any excuses can be made for our national security state “public servants.” The mask has slipped. They mean to be our hidden rulers — they mean to pick and choose America’s public officials and politicians for the public — permanently.

The Biden regime is a tyranny, but it’s one that still needed the make-up and dress of a democracy to survive. Our election system is rigged, but our “selected” public officials were still desperate to hide the cheating.

No more.

The FBI and the DOJ just crossed the Rubicon. The Biden regime is going to arrest its political opponents on fabricated charges to avoid defeat in future elections. The Democrats are seizing power — and they don’t care if you notice now.

Welcome to the Banana Republic of Biden.

RTWT

Attorney General Garland: preserve your documents and clear your calendar. pic.twitter.com/dStAjnwbAT

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) August 9, 2022

Fairbairn-Sykes Commando Knife.
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“We all went for a Burton.”

“yellow jersey.. Tour de France”

“Trossocks!”

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“Those who abjure violence can only do so because others are committing
violence on their behalf.”
 –George Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism (1945)”