We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Desperately seeking Hitler “The national party has made it so that they’ve set up a standard where if Donald Trump doesn’t literally ruin democracy in a very visible way that people feel, then they’re proven wrong. It wasn’t as bad as we thought, so they’re liars again. They have set themselves up for failure”
– Carly Hammond, a Saginaw city councillor and former trade union organiser who campaigned for Kamala Harris, quoted in this Guardian article from 18th January: Democrats in denial over Trump defeat, voters say: ‘Haven’t learned the lessons’
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Tech billionaire wades into controversy after shooting right arm on upwards diagonal during celebrations of Trump
– subheading to Guardian article on Donald Trump’s second inauguration, 20th January 2025: Elon Musk appears to make back-to-back fascist salutes at inauguration rally
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Well-done for the two-fer!
The ground-level supporters of the Democrats, like those good folks in Saginaw, are just going to have to learn that getting their asses kicked in a national election is simply not going to have the slightest effect on the gerontocracy that runs the Democratic party. On some levels, they really don’t mind losing, since much of their policy centres on continual self-affirmation – it’s not so important for them to please the voters as it is for them to demonstrate to each other and the tiny hard-core that controls the party that their cultural values remain correct. A single blue-haired cross-dresser, to them, matters far more than a thousand blue-collar working stiffs.
And kudos to the Grauniad for, reliably as ever, finding the closet fascist who somehow accidentally exposed his inner secret in front of hundreds of millions of TV viewers. No dog whistle is so faint but they can hear it. They have no trouble spelling ‘fascist’, but apparently cannot recognize their own growing irrelevance. But, again, they’re just performing for a select audience.
llater,
llamas
. . . like a dog to its vomit . . .
May they never stop.
The Left will never lack for vomiting dogs.
For those getting an attack of the vapours over Musk doing a Nazi salute, wait ’til you hear about Wernher Von Braun!
People who pretend that Elon Musk is a National Socialist, or that President Trump (rather than themselves) is a “threat to democracy” may think they are harming Mr Musk and President Trump – but really they are just destroying themselves.
Meanwhile, in policy, things continue to get-done – America out of the “Climate Accords” (a statute in the United Kingdom – the Environment Act) an action which will save a Trillion Dollar cost on the American people, and America out of the world governance World Health Organisation (i.e. the Chinese government and Mr William “Bill” Gates) with its totalitarian dreams of controlling every aspect of the lives of ordinary people. And an end to all government efforts at censorship, and an end to political persecution via the corrupt “justice” system.
Do not make mistake me – the United States and the West generally may well still fall, perhaps the decline of the West has gone too far to be reversed, but at least a real effort is being made to save the United States.
To my colleagues – did we, in 14 years, make as much effort to save the United Kingdom as President Trump has, in one day, made to save the United States? And if not – why not?
Paul,
You almost sound… optimistic!
Nick, There has been a new dawn
Megyn Kelly (who I have to admit I have a bit of a crush on), did a great piece of the Elon salute thing, showing half a dozen Dem leaders doing exactly the same thing. Made me laugh.
https://youtu.be/1eLLcpdCKO0?t=695
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
And I’ve come to look for America
From one of my favourite songs. I always wondered where Saginaw was (but not enough to look it up).
Live Rhymin version. Best!
There was a scholar on Twitter claiming to be a Nazi expert who was adamant that they were different, different I tell you, all because they didn’t slap their chest first before sticking their arms out.. 🙄
There’s a composite photo doing the rounds on Facebook showing Kamala Harris, Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama and George W Bush all making the same gesture. Where was the outcry then? I’ve put a copy on my site- it’s a safe link promise! https://dhbolton.com/salutes.jpg
This link to the Jerusalem Post has a picture of Jeremy Corbyn going full ‘Tomorrow Belongs To Me’!
Saginaw, Michigan, is a good microcosm of what 50 years of ‘progressive’ Democratic leadership will bring you. A manufacturing powerhouse reduced to a Rust Belt wasteland, a dreamtown for the middle and working classes reduced to an urban hellscape (the murder rate in Saginaw is actually higher than that of the city of Detroit, which takes a bit of doing), a whole economic and social ecosystem ground into dust. And all their civic leaders can do is parade and preen their impeccable liberal ceedentials and prattle on about their grand plan to ‘revitalize’ the city. It’s a shame.
llater,
llamas
When your only tool is a hammer, then all your problems begin to look like nails. In the world of politics, I guess if your whole spectrum runs from Mao to Hitler, a similar problem emerges: If your only tool is Maos Little Red Book, then all your problems look like Mein Kampf.
NickM
In my youth (a very long time ago) there was a French television series – “The Flashing Blade”, the theme song of this was….
“It is a better to have fought and lost, than not to have fought at all”.
The United States, in the person of President Trump, is fighting against death – it may still die, indeed this is probable – but at least it is fighting, unlike the United Kingdom which is putting up no resistance to decay and death.
Billl – as you know (but others may not) the Little Red Book and Mein Kampf are both socialist books, both support tyranny (socialism). They are, at bottom, about power and control – not opposites, but rather spiritual kin.
llamas – and even if we go back to the 19th century “Progressive” meant more government spending, higher taxes and more regulations. Which is why I disagree with Snorri about this word – and what the left means generally.
Nor is it a matter of party labels – after all Henry Clay and his statist colleagues (National Bank, Internal Improvements, government schools…) called themselves “Whigs”, Disraeli and Lord Derby called themselves “Conservatives”, Lord Russell (Poor Law Tax in Ireland, bank bailouts and teacher training in England) and his associates called themselves “Liberals” – the name did not really matter, they were all in support of ever more statism.
Paul:
But that is what i have been saying for years*
Statists come with all labels: Left, Right, conservative, progressive, liberal.
Even libertarian.
But they mostly try to avoid labels with negative loading, such as: dogmatic, reactionary, monarchist, authoritarian, totalitarian, absolutist … and woke.
* it has been years since i gave up on trying to extrapolate the meaning of “left” and “right” from actual use in historical texts — or at least gave up on discussing my extrapolations on Samizdata.