THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING PART I

 

“It is difficult to conceive any situation more painful than that of a great man condemned to watch the lingering agony of an exhausted country, to tend it during the alternate fits of stupefaction and raving which precede its dissolution, and to see the symptoms of vitality disappear one by one, till nothing is left but coldness, darkness, and corruption.”

 

Alexis de Toqueville

 

Some consider Toqueville the greatest political thinker since Aristotle and the greatest friend to and critic of democracy. He might define “great man” differently today, but he, too, lived during a tumultuous time, watching his beloved France slide into chaos. Toqueville believed that both men and nations have free will, and the great Russell Kirk, in summarizing Toqueville wrote, “…the perversion of democratic society into a sea of anonymous beings, social droplets, deprived of true family, true freedom, and true purpose, although terribly possible, is not yet inevitable. Against this, intelligent men should struggle like fanatics.” Struggle we shall.

 

Here is where I planned to argue the nation is in decline. Really, what’s the point? This is apparent even to fools and children. Only the causes need debate. “America, We Had a Good Run” Parts I, II, and III examine three major causes of our devolution. What follows is a more parsed and detailed discussion over a four-part series. Are barbarians inside the gates? Let me count the ways.

 

POSTMODERNISM

 

The roots of any social phenomenon are usually complex, but one thing beyond all others deserves a lashing. For my money, the grand villain is Postmodernism. I had intended to put this section at the end, but I would like you, dear reader, to overlay this section onto the others that will come, to think about how it feeds nearly every necrotic idea eating away the social marrow. I see three cancers at work, especially in the young: Identity, meaning, and emotional fragility, all closely related, three heads, one animal. The obsession with race, the explosion of transgender teenagers, the skyrocketing suicides and the weird popularity of self-mutilation, all are evidence of these diseases. Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl noticed great disparities in how concentration camp victims responded to their afflictions. Those with stable and robust philosophical superstructures, who were spiritual, who did not struggle with moral confusion or succumb to broad hatreds and self-pity, fared better. Some of them even seemed…happy. Clay Routledge studies  meaning, primarily the effects of lacking it. He notes those with a confused or muddled worldview, who reject organized religion, often gravitate towards pseudo-scientific beliefs like astrology and belief in aliens that provide little comfort. The established faiths are the most readily available communities of meaning. Like-minded people embrace fixed sets of rules and support each other in following them. The aggressively irreligious mock the “weak” for needing a savior, a Santa in the sky. A kid told me once regarding church, “I don’t wanna sing cheesy old folk songs, I’d rather be cool.” Being cool means being above it all. So the cool amongst us, unencumbered (so they believe) by some bronze-age dogma, do the only thing they know: Scoff. Yet, non-believers are much more likely to suffer depression and anxiety. Postmodernism rejects objective truth, replacing the truth with my truth. Yet, if there is no truth, there is no beauty, no grand, historical narrative that belies a purpose of existence. Postmodernism repudiates the very idea of anything special or transcendent. Like Covid, believing nothing is truly better makes everything tasteless and bland. If nothing is true, and if those bigoted, old-time superstitions with their ugly, outdated notions of sin must be discarded, what is left? Nihilism. What is the only thing left to cling to? The self. Man must have a god, of course, and if there is no God, man must make himself God. It’s all very Garden-of-Eden-ish. Jurgen Habermas argues that Postmoderns, “are prey to a performative contradiction and a paradox of self-reference.” Sounds like virtue-signaling and narcissism. The loss of meaning and purpose dehumanize. When there is nothing to rank or order, thinking, reason itself, is banished. What remains is a meat shell, an automaton. Reality is the basis of common sense, of course, something widely mocked by elites because it’s, you know, “common.” In the end, however, everyone is forced to admit something: Reality has a vicious left hook. Like Mike Tyson in his prime, reality always wins. Here’s to its triumphant return.

 Modern man Pontius Pilate

INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA

 

The internet has democratized humanity like nothing else. No one has to read anything that doesn’t perfectly please or titillate them. Want to communicate only with Bronies, or big toe fetishizers, or exceptional minds who understand “The Wall” is superior to “Dark Side of the Moon?” You never have to bother with anybody else’s inferior opinions again. Infinite choice has led to a ghettoization of the world. Liberals need never bother with uncomfortable conservative facts and vice-a-versa. Reality itself becomes tailored. But self-selection is just a part of the story. Social media herds people into more and more radical corners of the mind. A petri dish of narcissism, you get more of you. In an experiment by Facebook employee, Frances Haugen, she created two fake accounts with similar profiles but differing political persuasions. The recommended items were increasingly radical, including suggestions for Qanon and a picture of Donald Trump with an anus photoshopped to replace his mouth. Facebook and others operate on a model of addiction, using things such as recommendations and infinite scroll. Whistleblowers have noted Facebook’s awareness that its model causes mental illness, especially in teenage girls, but they continue to operate as normal because change would reduce profits. Facebook is worth 915 beeelion dollars, but, “Man, wouldn’t one trillion be SO cool??” Not content with owning the world, James Bond villain Mark Zuckerberg’s new obsession is to shape the coming “Metaverse.” Robert Epstein discovered Google, which performs 90% of all internet searches, manipulates search results and auto-suggestion in ways that may give Democrats a 10% boost in elections. They have been caught manipulating elections all over the world. Google’s manipulations have subconscious but demonstrable impact. This enormous power isn’t enough, apparently, as they openly and routinely censor conservatives. Responding to complaints, Big Tech says, ‘well if you don’t like it, get your own social media company. So we can crush that, too.’ Parler was the attempt to make a conservative Twitter. Google, Apple, and Amazon destroyed it for supposedly allowing its members to plan the Jan. 6^th riot, which was mostly planned on Facebook.

 

URBANISM

 

The nature of work being increasingly white collar, few people have experienced a callus. Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs is like John the Baptist, a voice in the wilderness crying out, preaching the spiritual value of hard, physical work. Except for computers, few know how to fix things. Except for my Luddite father, who doesn’t even own a cell phone, I don’t know anybody who owns a welder. We are disconnected from the very building blocks of society: how our food is grown, our minerals mined, and our wood harvested. When everything is finished, packaged, and processed, stacked neatly in well-lit stores with pleasant music piping over the speakers, you can’t help but be alienated from your own hands. The urban mind drifts towards collectivism and dependence. Here in Southern California, nature is managed to the point of absurdity. Trails are groomed and roped off with signs that warn deviation from the path will destroy the restoration of precious native habitat. Campground sites are almost on top of each other, making the loud gangster rap of the foul-mouthed guys at site 23 in the Sequoias, completely unavoidable. I went to the Badlands of South Dakota recently. You could get out of your car and just walk around and climb the alien dunes. It felt…naughty. And liberating. Urbanites call for the preservation of “pristine,” untouched wilderness. Certainly, some places of extraordinary beauty should be protected, but when you drive or fly across the U.S., the vastness of the land—what Midwesterners call “dirt”—becomes less romantic.

 

DECADENCE

 

When we hear the term “first world problems,” it’s usually a joke, but the reality is that most of our ennui and anger could only exist in a wealthy and decadent society. Nobody dies of malaria or Yellow Fever. Our “poor” are obese. The other day, I sat in a Starbucks in a shabby area of town. I heard maybe a dozen languages. I saw homeless people, disabled in wheelchairs, and teenagers, all waiting in line for $5 coffee. Some had the latest Iphone. You can get decent brew at 7-11 for $2 (or so I’m told. I’m a snob.) The poor in this country are awash in luxury (see The Fantasy of Equality II).

 

Stay tuned, because I’m just getting warmed up. Next week, there may even be a chart.

AN OMNIPOTENTBLOG THANKSGIVING

Sometimes, it is hard to be thankful. 2020 was a confusing time, and the lingering race hate, tribal paranoia, and fear of death still hangs in the air, all this despite the fact that life has never been safer or more leisurely. Two centuries ago, nearly half of young children died from illness. 90% of workers toiled in agriculture. In tribal societies, still a large portion of the world in 1800, 30% died violently. Slavery, an institution without controversy for all of human history, was only beginning to be rejected in Western nations. Even now, a salary of less than $40,000, puts you in the top 1% globally.

 

America seems to be devolving, returning to a more tribalistic and adversarial culture, ruled more by Game Theory than patriotic unity. Political violence is sometimes defended or encouraged. Who among us argues anymore that Civil War is impossible? During the pandemic, much of America was forced to hunker down in their homes, stripped of human contact. The children of America were robbed of education and social interaction. A generation of infants had to discern human emotion on masked faces. Thousands of restaurants and small businesses collapsed. Nearly every marker of dysfunction in society, crime, mental illness, substance abuse, overdoses, child abuse, and domestic violence, has soared into the air like a lost helium balloon.

 

In 2019, Anti-patriot Colin Kaepernik, who, I think played sports at one time, spent the “National Day of Mourning/Unthanksgiving Day” with Native American activists on Alcatraz Island. With all due respect to the Irish, who can hold a grudge as well as anyone and really do put out the best revenge movies in the business, the Native Americans celebrating “Unthanksgiving” are the champions of resentment. They will not just get on with life, thank you, and they want you to know where you can stuff your turkey.

 

The thoughts that come to mind of the first Thanksgiving are food and good feelings of ethnic harmony. The images are not false, though a bit sanitized. The Pilgrims fled persecution and found freedom and prosperity in Holland. Their children learned Dutch and took on Dutch habits. And because these Puritans judged Dutch Christianity to be frivolous and superficial, they again set sail to protect the souls of their children. Transoceanic journey in 1620 was perilous. They knew they risked the lives of their entire community because pleasing God was worth more than life. Their passage cost them 7 years of indentured servitude. They succumbed to starvation and pestilence, but their greatest fear was attack by Indians. Four months after their arrival, an Indian brave walked out of the woods. As the terrified Pilgrims watched him approach, in English, he proclaimed, “Welcome.” What followed was the peaceful Patuxet sharing their knowledge of the land, of plants that were poison and plants that were medicine, of how to work the land and grow unfamiliar crops like corn and squash. Yet, even with this assistance, the Pilgrims continued to suffer crop failures, disease, and extreme weather. Their eventual prospering, which really just meant having enough to eat, came after years of unspeakable toil. Out of the 110 Pilgrims and crew, less than 50 had survived the first winter. By 1623, they were down to a few dozen. Their survival was indeed miraculous, but their suffering had been tremendous. Likely, every family was still grieving the loss of a mother, father, or child. Rather than give thanks, they could just have easily asked God why He punished them so, when all they were trying to do was His will.

Sarah Josepha Hale 

Sarah Josepha Hale, the great, great, great grandmother of Mrs. Omnipotentblog, wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” was the first female editor of a magazine, and pestered Abraham Lincoln mercilessly until he established Thanksgiving as a national holiday. When Lincoln issued one of multiple proclamations of Thanksgiving in July 1863, the country had been stunned days earlier by the carnage of Gettysburg. Lincoln wrote, “It has pleased Almighty God to hearken the supplications and prayers of an afflicted people…I invite the people…to render the homage due to the Divine Majesty, for the wonderful things he has done in the Nation's behalf…all those who have been brought to suffer through mind, body, or estate…to lead the whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission to the Divine Will, back to the enjoyment of union and fraternal peace.” At this point of the war, violence and disease were taking 500 men a day. Soldiers described battlefields choked with bloated corpses such that one could almost walk across without touching ground. What did Lincoln have to appreciate, really? A year earlier, his beloved son, Willie, of whom Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, stated he could have ‘sh_t in Lincoln’s hat’ and Lincoln would have called it grand, died of Typhoid Fever. Lincoln’s wife, already on the knife’s edge of sanity, began her rapid descent into total madness. Lincoln’s mother had died when he was 9, leaving him in the care of a cruel and unrelenting father. It left him prone to bouts of crippling doubt. During the war, the cares of the world etched visibly on his face, his countenance becoming more ashen by the day, Lincoln was so depressed at times that friends refused to leave his side for fear he would kill himself. And yet, he persevered. In the final proclamation in October 1863, as it became more evident the North might prevail, he wrote, “The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to…Almighty God…(We) fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation…”

 

We live in a time where some believe the chief virtue is revolutionary zeal. Yet, without gratitude, happiness is not only difficult to come by, it is impossible. Meister Eckhart wrote that if the only prayer you ever said was “Thank you”, it would be enough. While no one argues the world is good and right, the grand secret of life may be to simply endure and be thankful. So, to all those reading this, and to everyone who has shown me the least bit of kindness in the last year, I say, “Thank you”. And I encourage you to leave a comment below with something you are grateful for. God bless.  

OMNIPOTENTBLOG’S ALL-PURPOSE, EXTRA DEFINITIVE, INTERNATIONALLY-ACCLAIMED DISQUISITION ON CRITICAL RACE THEORY

 “It’s just an obscure legal theory from the 70’s. No one’s teaching it in schools anyway, so don’t get your knickers in a wad.” Says the guy in a Mao Zedong T-shirt. It’s a pack of lies, of course. (In case you haven’t read many Omnipotentblogs, it may or may not be evident I have a minor obsession with the communists who may or may not be sneaking into my room at night to steal my life force.)

 

What is CRT, anyway? Like most academic theories, the descriptions are impenetrable gobbledygook. Since academics love expansive and complicated models, there are a number of tenets to deconstruct.

 

·         Systemic vs. Individual: Discrimination may be bigotry, but it is not racism. Racism is one group’s power over and oppression of racial minorities. Hence, People of Color (POC’s) may be bigoted, but only whites can be racist.

·         Rigid heuristic: “Critical” means “to criticize” or interpret. It is a lens through which all inequity is focused.

·         Anti-Democracy: Critical race theorists believe that “political liberalism is incapable of adequately addressing fundamental problems of injustice.” Its emphasis on color blind, equitable treatment under the law renders it capable of recognizing only the most overt and obvious racist practices, not those that are “indirect, subtle, or systemic.”

·         Revolution: CRT literature denigrates incremental or reformist approaches. The problem is dire and systemic. The solution must be swift and comprehensive.

·         “White Privilege”: All whites, even poor ones, benefit from a system of inherent advantage.

·         “Microaggressions”: Any solution to racial inequity must tackle the subtler aspects of racism, often reflected by small, unintentional slights or insults. POC’s and white allies must be acutely aware of, and call out such offenses.

·         “Material Determinism”:  Legal actions, whether advances or setbacks for POC’s always end in helping privileged elites maintain their power.

·         “Voice of Color”: Only POC’s are qualified to speak on behalf of their group about racism.

·         Race as social construct: Race is not a true scientific category (sounds conservative). Racial categories exist for the purpose of oppressing and exploiting people of color. The very existence of racial categories signifies and is evidence of oppression and exploitation.

·         “Equity”: “…the state, quality or ideal of being just, impartial and fair.” “Distributional equity is…the fair distribution of benefits and burdens across all segments of a community, prioritizing those with highest need.” 

·         “Anti-racism”: Moral adequacy necessitates actively fighting the system. There is no such thing as a non-racist; There are only anti-racists and racists.

 

Lettuce unpack this: CRT, by definition, says that America is completely saturated in racism, the crisis of all crises, that liberal democracy is wholly incapable of defeating it, that all inequity should be viewed through the lens of oppression, that absolute parity of all racial and other oppressed groups is the goal of any just society, that only POC’s are truly qualified to even comment about racism, that their experiences of abuse are to be accepted without challenge, that all whites are collectively guilty of this abuse, and to be a decent person, you must actively work to tear down the current system, i.e. capitalism and democracy.

CRT demands a blind acceptance of the sacrosanct “lived experiences” of POC’s. A white person’s job is to empty the mind, shut up, and listen. There can be no give-and-take, no back-and-forth required for an authentic relationship. Though feelings determine reality, it really is only certain kinds of feelings since every human interaction is seen through the lens of power and domination. CRT is a predetermined ordering of priorities. In, “No, The Woke Won’t Debate You. Here’s Why”, the author explains that the woke view every challenge raised as being steeped in a racist framework, so why engage at all? CRT is a tautology, a circular logic where the theory is its own proof. When the answer to every question is pre-ordained, you have abrogated reason. You have banished thought itself.

 

CRT, derived from “Critical Theory”, is explicitly Marxist. It merely substitutes class for race. Carnival barker Ibram Kendi said, “Racism and capitalism are “conjoined” twins that will die together…To be anti-racist is to be anti-capitalist,” for you cannot have markets without inequity. Ironically, the best anti-1619 Project piece I read was from the World Socialist Website. They share the goals of CRT, but they hate it because they believe class is more important than race. (Fist bump to the World Socialists. Strange times.)

 

CRT corrals humanity into two camps: Oppressed and Oppressors. It infantilizes POC’s as victims, and pigeonholes them into a monochromatic block, as if Tibetans, Nigerians, and Mexicans are the same. It does the same to whites. Since all whites, kind-hearted or not, benefit from the current arrangement, their “privilege” brands them as oppressor. But white devils should take heart because they are not individually guilty, just collectively. Despising color-blindness, advocates want whites to think of themselves as white. Have they really thought this through? As one older gentleman put it, “They want to separate us into tribes. So okay, I’ll stand with my tribe.”

 

For the Woke, mere inequity is proof of system racism. Kendi argues if we truly say all races are equal, there can be no other explanation for differences. Stunningly simplistic, he makes culture irrelevant. A simple thought experiment shatters the juvenile logic. Imagine two identical families of color. One discusses sports at the dinner table while the other discusses school, science, and history. Or two other families where one says America is racist and oppressive, and the other tells their children they are the masters of their destiny.

 

The implicit message of CRT is dehumanizing and disempowering. Collectivizing identity leads to the crabs in a bucket phenomenon: When one tries to crawl out, the others pull him back in. Spiritually toxic, it destroys moral agency and discourages the development of virtue. For if the problem is America and not you, why break your back to build habits of honesty, patience, and perseverance? CRT’s solution is to redistribute wealth, but no one appreciates what they haven’t earned. See “Ruined lottery winners”. Is anything expected of POC’s at all? Without responsibility, there is no freedom. Rob a man of accountability, and you rob him of life itself.

 

 We are living in an age of moral panic. It is an artifice. And the practical effects of this range from the comically absurd to the utterly sinister. People have been fired and lives ruined by the woke mob. When coal miners are accused of black face, when things like tattooing, disciplining violence in school, math, sleep, the word “picnic”, Halloween costumes, mittens, the “OK” symbol, AP classes, Chinese food, and camping are deemed racist, when a black bouncer tossing out a black woman for assaulting a black man in a gay bar is evidence of white supremacy, and when the God-danged Smithsonian Institute labels objectivity and rational thought as “whiteness”, maybe this country has jumped the shark.

 

The Black Hills of South Dakota??? Might as well be “The N___r Hills.”

 

I despise CRT because it makes us hate each other. By design. How can it not be explicitly racist when it makes grand assumptions about unique human beings based on skin color? If you study revolutions, you will see that, even now, America is probably too stable to suffer such calamity. But the Marxist wankers in this country sure are trying. And when my friend’s nine-year-old son comes home from school one day and says he wishes he wasn’t white, we know their plan is working. They will probably fail, but before they do, they will cover the land in a blanket of misery. God help us.  

PANDEMIC OF DOUCHEBAGGERY or THE ROOTS OF CONSERVATIVE ANGER

 

 

“When fascism comes to America, it will come under the guise of Antifascism.”

                                                                                                           

Huey Long

 

I try not to use words like “douchebag” in my blog, but I’m angry, like, drycleaners triple-starched my boxers and it’s the only pair I have left, angry. The whole country has lost its mind.

 

Omnipotenblog has always hated Trump. Douchebag. But, in some ways, he ended up being, from a policy perspective, a happy surprise. Had he kept his mouth shut and stayed off Twitter, he might have even been considered one of the great presidents. Alas, he is the king of all douchebags, so we got four years of hysterical garment rending from his detractors. Channeling Henry VIII, Democrats have impeached Trump, leaving the trial for after he leaves office. Henry VIII had St. Thomas Beckett’s bones dug up 300 years after his death, found him guilty of treason and burned his bones. Would anybody, and I mean ANYBODY, doubt there are similar plans for Trump?   

 

The storming of the Capitol was terrible. Not one prominent Republican defended it. Contrast this with the overt support for rioters by Democratic members of Congress and the media. CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon recited love poetry to the rioters, who may have caused $2 billion in damage. Countless businesses were robbed, looted, and burned, diners in restaurants assaulted, and legislators and their wives attacked by mobs. A police station and its evidence room was handed over to be burned. Cities defunded police despite record rises in crime. Anarchists took over sections of two cities. Statues of Washington, Lincoln, and abolitionists were torn down. Douchebags tried to burn down St. John’s church in DC. Portland Antifa rioted for 100 straight days. They tried to lock the doors of a federal courthouse and burn it, knowing there were people inside. Media and Prominent Democrats were cool with just about all of it. Kamala Harris contributed to a bail fund for rioters. Democrats walked out of a Senate hearing rather than condemn Antifa. The “Summer of Love” saw dozens of police and civilians killed. Conservative journalists were chased and beaten by leftist mobs. A black Trump-loving MAGA hat wearer was shot dead in Milwaukee. The stuff was barely covered. Douchebag commentator Richard Fowler, claimed with a straight face that Democrats totally, strongly, and really bigly, condemned the violence last year. We are adrift in an ocean of gaslighting. In 2011, leftists occupied the Wisconsin capitol building for four months over a budget. But with one day of naughtiness by the crazies on the right, Democrats realized riots are scary and are ready to turn America into a police state.

 

  The Capitol rioters should go to jail, of course. They traumatized the nation. An officer was killed. When political violence becomes acceptable, our country cannot last. But was it some White Supremacist insurrection? Please. If so, it was the most pathetic, unplanned attempt in history. Yes, the pipe bombs and the guy with zip ties were scary. Some were surely willing to do great evil.  But most who entered the Capitol, about 1% total of the rally goers, acted like the dog who caught the car. These amateurs were largely maskless, and when they got inside, they meandered and took selfies. Sensing total victory was possible, Democrats immediately labelled every person at the rally, nay, every Trump supporter in the country, an insurrectionist. They want to put Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz on the terrorist no-fly list and expel members of Congress for the crime of wanting an election audit. Some openly worried that “White Supremacist members of Congress” would assassinate Biden. This is all nonsense on stilts.

 

    

·         Who are the true fascists? Let us count the assaults on traditionalists, the Constitution, and America’s institutions:

        Early 20^th Century Progressives argued for a “Living Constitution”, giving judges a framework to pretty much do what they want.

·         Woodrow Wilson began building an unaccountable 4^th branch of government, the federal bureaucracy. To challenge a federal regulation, one must go to a court, which is accountable to…the federal bureaucracy.

·         The 60’s began the destruction of sexual mores widely accepted since the beginning of time. The left began its long march through America’s institutions, infiltrating Marxism into education.

·         Biden borked Bork. The destruction of Reagan’s SCOTUS nominee normalized a climate of nastiness around judicial nominees. The abuse of Clarence Thomas was nothing compared to the savaging of Brett Kavanaugh. Future allegations? Child molesting. Maybe bestiality.

·         All criticism of Obama was labelled de facto racism. Yes, the birthers were abhorrent, but after multiple racially charged incidents, B.O. chose the inflammatory narrative every time, squandering the greatest opportunity in history for racial reconciliation by choosing agitation over healing.

·         White Privilege and Critical Race Theory became prevalent. “Critical” meant that all social problems must be focused through the lens of racial oppression. Explicitly Marxist, class warfare became race warfare. Racism was no longer discrimination and bias but the result of the eternal “sin” of whiteness. All racial disparity is now explained by racism. From this mindset, we get Jussie Smollett and 1000 other fake hate crimes. 

·         The lack of criminal charges over Clinton’s bathroom server and the destruction of her emails exposed a two-tier system of justice.

·         With over 70% of Democrats convinced without evidence that Russia hacked the election for Trump, they embraced a baseless conspiracy theory that Trump colluded with Russia. The DNC paid a Trump-hating foreign spy to travel to Russia and get disinformation from Russian intelligence. Allies in the FBI mangled facts to get FISA warrants to spy on Trump and initiate the Mueller investigation. The handpicked Trump-haters realized the story was false in less than a year but soldiered on for another two. Prominent douchebags like Adam Schiff and John Brennan, after testifying or hearing testimony of zero evidence in Congressional hearings, would immediately go on TV to proclaim the smoking gun would soon be revealed. Any day now. (All this is proven and documented. Look it up.)

·         “The Deep State” was coined because of constant leaks from the intelligence community.

·         Despite Collusion Delusion’s failure (How precious were the tears of Rachel Maddow?), Democrats found some ginned-up nothingburger call to Ukraine and got their impeachment anyway.

 

 

·         “Cancel Culture” was coined to describe suppression of conservatives. Despite a myriad of bakers and florists in big cities, douchebags targeted for destruction the handful of Christians who served them in all ways but their weddings. Leftists deplatformed, disinvited, fired, and corralled conservatives into tiny free speech zones. They doxed praying old ladies and screamed at teenage girls working at Chick-fil-A. Big Tech continues to censor conservatives unapologetically—It’s a long list—including suppressing a major news story right before the election.

·         The New York Times’ 1619 project was a spectacularly clumsy lie about the ideologies of America’s founding. It was so bad, they were forced to make substantive changes. The America-hating doctrine is taught in thousands of school districts.        

·         The left wants to destroy the very concept of gender itself and annihilate anyone who disagrees. Ask J.K. Rowling, who is constantly likened to Voldemort.

·         The media’s credibility imploded, to wit, in an act of self-parody, USA Today and Facebook fact checked a Christian satire website.

·         The pandemic lockdowns saw actual science ignored in favor of expert opinion. Despite low risk of outdoors transmission, surfers in the ocean were arrested and socially-distanced football moms were tazed for not wearing a mask. The striking increase in suicides, overdoses, alcoholism, child abuse, and domestic violence, was ignored. States shuttered churches and small businesses while favoring corporate big box stores.

·         Was the election stolen? I don’t know, but they sure tried. Think this has been debunked? Read this and this.

·         Finally, not happy with winning, Democrats began their “Purge, Cleanse, Destroy” campaign, branding Trump supporters as white supremacist seditionists and pledging to ramp up domestic security, which seems like a Gestapo-like secret police except TOTALLY not. Words like “cleanse”, “deprogram”, and “cult” are casually used regarding 75 million Americans. With zero intelligence of impending attack, they occupied the Capitol with 26,000 troops. Is anyone concerned?

 

So let us dispense with the false and pernicious lie that conservatives are the fascists. How does this end? God help us.

CIVIL WAR. THIS TIME WITHOUT BEARDS.

 I’m running out of metaphors to describe 2020. It needs a straightjacket and a horse tranquilizer. How can this not challenge liberals’ faith in the inevitable progress of humanity? To a conservative, civilization is the crust on a volcano. We’re always one calamity away from “Lord of the Flies.” What I see is a whole nation at each other’s throats. WHERE’S YOUR CIVILIZATION NOW, HUH??

 

The rhetoric has become dangerous. Now, recklessness is Trump’s bread and butter, but Nancy Pelosi has called him an “enemy of the state” and Republicans “domestic enemies.” Liberal sociologist Jonathan Haidt, who is dedicated to fostering mutual understanding of the political tribes, admits these times are different, and the only way out of it is “love,” a wholesale cultural commitment to a different ethic. For a hopeful liberal, who likely believes in that progression of history nonsense, it is a stunning and pessimistic concession.

 

Predictions are always wrong, but since opining is a stronger compulsion to Omnipotentblog than even that thing I do with my toenails, I continue. First, the bad news. A Yougov study found 70% of Millennials—“The Gratingest Generation” as George Will calls them—would vote for Socialism given the chance. Only 50% approve of Capitalism. 36% approve of…(sigh) Communism. 22% believe “society would be better if all private property was abolished. (Wait. 14%…huh? Yeah, I know.) 64% of Generation Z has a favorable opinion of Socialism. Both Millennials and Gen Z reported that Communism was presented more favorably in school than previous generations. One recent study found 64% of undergraduate college students believe recent rioting and looting was justified. 52% favor slavery reparations, and 51% said America is “inextricably linked to white supremacy.” 72% of conservative students censor themselves. At the University of Chicago, ranked highest in freedom of speech, one student wrote, “I vote because Corona virus won’t destroy America, but Socialism will.” For her thoughtcrime, she was widely denounced by her peers, threatened with violence, and told she didn’t belong at the university.

 

Columnist Steve Rowland cites Stanford historian Niall Ferguson claiming America’s “doomsday clock” is at “2 minutes to Fort Sumter.” Rowland cited polls showing 1/3 think civil war could break out within the next 5 years and 7 out of 10 believe we are 2/3 of the way to civil war.

 

A Quillette.com study from June set out to explore the left’s desire to deculturate America. The study intentionally probed the outer limits of radical thought. The results were disturbing. 70% of Liberals and 79% of Very Liberals want major changes to the constitution. 44% and 58% want Mt. Rushmore destroyed. Large numbers want racial quotas in museums, history books, street names, and for national parks to revert totally back to nature. 17% of Very Liberals want the official language changed. (If it’s Cockney, I’m in.)

 

In 2017, national security expert, Keith Mines, noted conditions are similar to what he saw in other countries. He felt the U.S. had a 60% chance of civil war over the next 10 years. “It’s just like 1859; everyone is mad about something and everyone has a gun.” He stated other experts’ predictions ranged from 5% to 95%. The consensus was 35%. And that was five months before Charlottesville. A recent survey showed a 95% and 139%, respectively, increase in gun and ammo sales, shattering previous records. 

 

After the tumult of the 60’s and 70’s, sociologist and historian, Robert Nisbet, offered ten conditions of revolution. An argument could be made that all of them apply to 2020.

·         Recent dramatic changes in the economic or societal order.

·         Breakdown in respect for and by authority.

·         Recent increase in societal wealth. (People getting a taste of what could be.)

·         Recent liberalization, allowing those recently “freed” to sense what is possible to gain.

·         Intense politicization/polarization.

·         Intellectual elites taking advantage of politicization to increase own status.

·         Disconnected or random catalyst that brings social temperatures to a boil. (COVID???)

·         Crusaders coalesce under a clear moral banner to attack societal norms (SYSTEMIC RACISM!!!).

·         Presentation of an idyllic, utopian vision as alternative to the current corruption.

·         An existing guilt amongst members of the ruling class (WHITE PRIVILEGE???).

 

Democrats recently war-gamed scenarios for a contested election. The exercise ended with California, Oregon and Washington seceding and the U.S. military having to step in to remove Trump. Hillary Clinton has suggested Biden should concede the election “under no circumstance.” And Trump has notably refused to commit to a peaceful transition. He frequently predicts massive fraud and chaos due to millions of ballots sent out unsolicited. The Democrats accused Trump of sabotaging the Postal Service to sow election chaos.

 

Afraid yet? Is there any hope at all? Eh, some. The general trend in America is actually away from Socialism. The same Yougov study above found an increase of 47% to 53% of Americans unlikely to vote for Socialism from 2018 to 2019. 56% of Americans define Socialism much more positively than it is, suggesting the good branding of Socialism is really an illusion.  58% view concerns about Communism as just as or more relevant than during the Cold War. There is also a trend away from Marxism amongst the younger generations. 8% fewer Gen Z than Millennials prefer Communism. Their approval of Socialism also decreased by 8% from 2018 to 2019 versus a mere 1% decrease by Millennials.  

 

It should be clear by now that race isn’t the real issue here, but what do polls say about defunding the police? Despite actual decreases in budgets in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles, most Americans are against it. While one study showed 57% of blacks are in favor of defunding the police, another showed 81% want either the same amount or more police presence in their neighborhoods, including 79% who had recent interaction with police.

 

It is accepted dogma that the nation is hopelessly polarized. But maybe it’s not as bad as it seems. Two organizations presented data suggesting the perception is much worse than the reality. The higher the consumption of news—which is mostly, “Can you believe ____ said ____??”—, the bigger the perception gap.

 

 

 

So what are Omnipotentblog’s odds of civil war? Well, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 70%. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 30%. Other days, I just suck my thumb. I do, however, put odds of post-election civil unrest at precisely 99.64%. Will it be massive? Will fat, middle-aged bloggers and Republican suburbanites be sucked into hastily-formed militias to take on left wing mobs? De Toquesville argued that revolutions are inherently unlikely in democracies; Too many have too much to lose. In “Fractured Republic”, Yuval Levin argued that just as social conservatives overplayed their hand years ago, so too will the left. Since fairness is deeply ingrained in the American character, the exhausted majority will rebel against radicalism. Are we still a reasonable and fair people? Lord, I hope so. My money is on this: Regardless of who wins the election, leftists will press on. Democrat-run cities that defenestrated the police will devolve into the cesspools of crime they were in the 70’s and 80’s. Large numbers of Americans will continue to be indoctrinated through the explicitly Marxist and pseudo-religious tenants of Critical Race Theory. Its adherents will continue to agitate. But because class hatred is not in America’s DNA, and because 180 years after DeToquesville, history continues to prove him a genius for the ages, they will not get what they want: the overthrow of Capitalism. It will leave them embittered by failure, enraged at the lack of progress, and blaming…well, everyone. They will not fall to their knees and repent; Leftists never do. They will simply wonder why their children and the rest of America reject their nonsense. They will be as miserable and lost as ever. Like now.

 

Ah, destiny.