Moralists don’t really have beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child’s toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded. Centrism isn’t change — not even incremental change. It is control. Over yourself and the world. Exercise it. Look up at the sky, at the dark shapes of Coalition airships hanging there. Ask yourself: is there something sinister in moralism? And then answer: no. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth.
I keep coming back to this Disco Elysium quote. For a disturbingly large part of the english speaking world, belief in something seems to be as shallow as a t-shirt with a symbol on it. The right bit of paraphernalia signaling oneself as part of this or that group. It reminds me of this article I read months ago, from a journalist working in Indonesia. They were documenting the labor movent there. At one point, they remarked to someone how ironic it was to see labor organizers wearing, like, corporate branded clothing. The person they said this to was a little surprised and didn’t see the supposed contradiction. It’s clothing. You get what you can. Even if it didn’t have a logo, it would still mass produced by some multi-national corporation. This was some eye opening culture shock for the journalist, coming from a place where personal consumption, not your actual actions, define who you are.
That’s what this is. To this twiter poster, queer rights and black liberation and fucking natzi are nothing more than t-shirts. They don’t see anything more beneath that, no moral or political depth. No question of right or wrong. Just toys that belong in a box, clutter to be swept away so it stops getting in the way of the very grown-up, un-ideological Rationalists.
It’s something I read when (out of morbid curiosity) reading Dugin. He argued that liberals after the successes of WW2 and Cold War have declared themselves the default, the absence of politics.
I think he’s half right on this but this also extends to fascists. Sure, many fascists enjoy the LARPy aspect of it but will be happy to tell you they’re just regular Americans obeying American culture. They’ve somehow turned conformity into a fashion brand.
This is how you get braindead takes like what we just saw. No different than a meat eater telling a vegan to let him “sin” in peace and can’t we all just get along?
I keep coming back to this Disco Elysium quote. For a disturbingly large part of the english speaking world, belief in something seems to be as shallow as a t-shirt with a symbol on it. The right bit of paraphernalia signaling oneself as part of this or that group. It reminds me of this article I read months ago, from a journalist working in Indonesia. They were documenting the labor movent there. At one point, they remarked to someone how ironic it was to see labor organizers wearing, like, corporate branded clothing. The person they said this to was a little surprised and didn’t see the supposed contradiction. It’s clothing. You get what you can. Even if it didn’t have a logo, it would still mass produced by some multi-national corporation. This was some eye opening culture shock for the journalist, coming from a place where personal consumption, not your actual actions, define who you are.
That’s what this is. To this twiter poster, queer rights and black liberation and fucking natzi are nothing more than t-shirts. They don’t see anything more beneath that, no moral or political depth. No question of right or wrong. Just toys that belong in a box, clutter to be swept away so it stops getting in the way of the very grown-up, un-ideological Rationalists.
It’s something I read when (out of morbid curiosity) reading Dugin. He argued that liberals after the successes of WW2 and Cold War have declared themselves the default, the absence of politics.
I think he’s half right on this but this also extends to fascists. Sure, many fascists enjoy the LARPy aspect of it but will be happy to tell you they’re just regular Americans obeying American culture. They’ve somehow turned conformity into a fashion brand.
This is how you get braindead takes like what we just saw. No different than a meat eater telling a vegan to let him “sin” in peace and can’t we all just get along?