Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Good 'Ol Cargo-Cult Folk Activism

Even if you explicitly point out the error, Americans still go hard on counter-productive strategies

As I said previously, losing to the government isn't a failure, losing is the point.
America is a country of rebels. If the government falls, who are they supposed to rebel against? Imagine your dad's funeral is over and you have kids of your own. How are you supposed to go all "fuck you dad" in this situation? Best if dad can live on to abuse another day. 

"His general error is what Patri Friedman calls folk activism — a broad pattern of ineffective or counterproductive political action which extends across the entire right-wing spectrum, from moderate libertarians to hardcore neo-Nazis. It’s not just that running wild with a Glock is stupid. Almost everything the right does is stupid. Very few rightists are running wild with a Glock, but most are in some way or other guilty of folk activism."

https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2011/07/right-wing-terrorism-as-folk-activism/

"What ABB is doing here is, in plain non-Google English, whining. Whining is the act either of a slave, or a bitch. The slave whines to his master. Master, the overseer is beating me!" Whether the whining is fatal or nonfatal is rather beside the point. Terrorism works assuming it is part of the already-existing government. Hence, it never works, it's a side effect that's part of the fact tyrannies are tyrrable. 


P.S. From Patri: "Unfortunately, there is no clear incremental path to such a society." Of course, there is such a path. Use 'trust the science' as a lever to rhetorically force USG to open special economic zones.

However, if you use effective tactics, that would change the status quo, and Friedman, like any American in good standing, is a narcissist. How are you supposed to maintain your Role if the environment changes and removes that Role from the scene? No, on the contrary, if you do anything which genuinely promotes liberty, libertarians will immediately fight you on it. Drives them berserk.

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