Vae Contradictus

New hypothesis: Americans are stupid because of alcohol. When they say it kills brain cells they aren't kidding. (In genuinely shocking news, there's something mainstream that isn't a lie.)
The Princess Bride iocane episode is real. If you consistently see a poison, the body maintains antibodies for that poison. Ancients, who by and large drank weak beer every day, would suffer much less from occasional binges, [drinking to excess], than moderns do. Moderns instead punch a hole in their brain every time they get drunk. 

I sometimes rate writers by their mean free path between self-contradictions. Journalists are in the 2-3 range. Moldbug used to rate in the 90s. Now barely reaches 50 on the best day. Severe sleep deprivation is also on the table. 

"Not only is it [election skulduggery], it may even be proper."
"We know exactly what a genuinely secure 21st-century voting system looks like. It looks like Sweden, Mexico or even Iraq." 

Security is improper. Got it.

"A democracy in which the losing party routinely and effectively delegitimizes the election is not a stable democracy. No one is thrilled that this seems to be the new normal."

Err...no wait I'm lost again.

"It is quite right and proper for the Department of Truth to declare the truth of the election."

Oh okay, lies are good. I...think? The truth is whatever the victor declares it is.
Yeah, that's definitely how it works.

 

"(All this is completely decentralized, of course. No one orders it—it just happens.) [...] A decentralized truth ministry, like ours,"
"managed to create an unaccountable government above the government.[..] The Times has its own form of government: literally, a hereditary absolute monarchy."

On the left you I present to you a fine exhibit of the the famous headless, decentralized monarchy, the kind that doesn't issue orders. 

"Only a fool would disregard these history lessons, and there are no Supreme Court seats set aside for fools."

Is that so?

"This bad philosophy has burned itself into their brains [...] The conservacon always gets nowhere [...] because he has the wrong goals."

I.e. they have been fooled. 

"it’s even tougher to be a general with the wrong map."

Is that so?

"not because he is a bad person"

We can easily see the political utility of soothing the ego of those you hope to take into your flock. Unfortunately, it is inconsistent with vae victus. If we assert the latter, someone who fails is a bad person. 'You're not a bad person, you just consciously dedicated your life to a lie and failed to even conserve the lie. No big. Failure of due diligence could happen to anyone.' 

"There he pleads that it was an accident and he could do no better. He is probably lying."

Americans aren't garbage, it's just that every leader born to an American is garbage, as part of some sort of Satanic miracle. 

"What if America prevailed not because of its philosophy, but despite it? A heavy thought, man."
What if America is full of garbage ideas because it's full of garbage people? Lightweight. Garbage thinkers produce garbage ideas which are lapped up by garbage peasants. Break any link in the chain and the transmission fails. The only thing that's surprising about this is the fact most of the rest of the world is even worse.

Are we sure? We are sure. Alternatively, America is a communist-occupied territory and its poor oppressed peoples are forced to swallow whatever raw sewage the occupiers choose to pump down their gullets. In which case the distinct lack of freedom found in the Land of the Free would be the main issue, rather than which exact shade of sewage is being delivered this week. The latter is, optimistically, a distraction.

Except...vae victus. The poor oppressed people suck for allowing themselves to get occupied. Eat garbage, garbage people! Haha oops!

 

Anyway, these unmistakable errors give you the flavour of it. I also counted 25 discrete falsehoods and 30 significantly misleading omissions. The essay is just over 100 paragraphs, so that's one serious error every other paragraph. It would have been faster to count the bits that were worth putting to HTML. The amount is nonzero! So, that's nice.

"In the 1850s, the Justices attempted to prevent the Civil War by using the supposed sovereignty of the Court to permanently quash what they saw as the cause of the impending war: the antislavery movement. In the 1930s, the Justices tried to stop the New Deal by using their sovereignty to write libertarianism into constitutional law.

In the first case they were brushed aside and in the second they surrendered."

Decent! Hardly perfect, but I have no serious complaints here. 

 

The first goal of any blog-like post ought to be to demonstrate good character. Facts and arguments are merely means of doing so; the nature of the facts is secondary. Problem: writing a blog-like post is itself a demonstration of a character flaw. 

Ockham's razor suggest that Moldbug sounds like a moron because he has become a moron, the only question is why and who else has been or will be affected. Ockham'z razor also suggests that the latter question has already been answered: practically everyone in America is a moron, suggesting they have already been affected or will be soon. 

Booze is a plausible explanation. If you're surrounded by morons, it's significantly more comfortable to dumb yourself down to their level. The sauce can do this temporarily - and perhaps also permanently. Reminder that playing the cards you're dealt is a loser/peasant habit. Decide your own hand or leave the table.

Things that simply will not happen, volume 28.
"The reason is to regain our ability to think calmly, reasonably, collectively and in public, in the presence of a vast tornado of political fear and loathing."
As above, I think the problem is alcohol. If not booze, it's some other irreversible past mistake. If you can't keep your own ideas straight, let me suggest nobody need attempt doing it for you.
Consider this conjunction: Moldbug is producing drek. Moldbug is the best public American writer. 
'The reason is to run a marathon...'
>collapses at the 200 yard mark. 
Yeah, okay. Not holding my breath. 

"“Might makes right” is not an ideal but a fact."
Sure, why not.
Only, Gnon is the mightiest, not America. Insofar as Jehova and Jesus spoke for Gnon, we can see America rebels against God. Are you shocked to see revolutionaries portray God as the bottom and themselves as the top? God is merciful, and thus America survives. For some values of [survives]. Merciful until He isn't, that is. Perhaps when He sends a plague.

George Washington was a traitor to America. Pure stuff from the 9th circle of Hell. I kid I kid - he was a traitor to George III too, plus obviously Washington was a puppet and I'm using him as a symbol to refer to his backers. America upholds this treacherous tradition to the present day. When it runs out of allies to betray it betrays itself.