Quote of the Day
It isn’t important which hill neoMarxists choose to die on. What’s important is that they die on whatever hill the Party chooses for them.
George Orwell didn’t write that all freedom is the ability to believe that 2 and 2 are 4.
He wrote that all freedom is the freedom to SAY that 2 and 2 are 4.
Out loud.
What you are seeing here isn’t credulity. That’s not the point. Many of the people who loudly say that 2 and 2 are 5 don’t actually believe that. Nor does the Party need or even want them to.
Beliefs aren’t important to the Party. Math isn’t important to the Party, either.
What’s important to the Party is compliance.
Here’s how this works:
The Japanese insult, “bakamono”, meaning fool or idiot, is written with the kanji characters for “horse” and “deer”.
This isn’t because the Japanese think of horses or deer as foolish. It’s a reference to a story.
On 27 September 207 BC, the eunuch Zhao Gao tested his power against the emperor’s. He presented a deer to the Second Emperor but called it a horse. The emperor laughed and said, “Is the chancellor perhaps mistaken, calling a deer a horse?” He questioned those around him. Some remained silent, and some aligned with Zhao Gao and called it a horse. Zhao Gao secretly arranged for all those who said it was a deer to be brought before the law. Thereafter the officials were all terrified of Zhao Gao.
The ridiculousness of calling a deer a horse, or a woman a man, or two and two five, isn’t the result of stupidity or madness.
It’s the whole point of the litmus test.
If the Party says a deer is a horse, will you agree loudly and vehemently, or will you dissent? Will you comply with the evidence of your own senses, or with the dictates of the Party?
This is how the Party knows who are its slaves, and who are its enemies, which are the only two categories the Party will allow.
“Transwomen are women” isn’t a statement about biology. It isn’t even a statement about social roles.
It’s an oath of submission. What it really means is “I will comply, please do not hurt me.”
This is the true source of the “black lives matter”/”all lives matter” arguments of 2020. It sounds like a silly disagreement if you listen to the content of the words, because “all”, by definition, includes “black”.
But the content of the words was never the point. The point was to make you utter ritual words as a token of submission. Problem was, the words weren’t ridiculous enough. They didn’t distinguish between those who had a philosophical respect for human life, and those who would obey the Party no matter what.
See, the Party isn’t interested in sincere believers. They are of limited use, convenient before the Revolution, but, afterwards, they will be lined up in front of a shallow ditch and shot.
Why?
Because what the Party wants, the whole point of having the Party at all, is absolute power, commanding absolute obedience.
The obedience of even the most zealous of ideological allies is conditional… he obeys because he agrees. So the power of the Party over him is not absolute. They might, someday, do something with which he disagrees, and then he might disobey.
The Party does not want loyal allies who love it. It wants slaves who fear it. Only fear compels absolute, unconditional obedience.
The Party does not care what is in your heart and mind. It only cares that you kneel.
If you are a structural engineer, and the Party says that pi is 3, you must loudly declare that pi is three, and that anyone who says otherwise must be publicly executed as a capitalist imperialist colonialist running dog.
If you do not, you will be tortured and executed.
But you must also secretly memorize the real value of pi, and use it in all your calculations, because you will also be tortured and executed if your buildings fall over.
You must, however, never write down the true value of pi, to help you remember it, and you must carefully burn any page of calculations using it after you are done. If you are caught with these things, you will be tortured and executed.
You must instead spend 75% of your working time constructing fake calculations, starting with the assumption that pi is 3, and subtly introduce computational errors to lead your answer to the real numbers that you computed in secret.
No one will ever read these, but you must meticulously construct them anyway, because if your neighbor ever gets jealous of you, because your wife is prettier than his, or your state-issued apartment is ten square feet larger, then the secret police will check your work, and your only hope is that no divergence from the will of the Party can be found.
Otherwise… well, you know. Here, in the United States, the Party is an embryo. It doesn’t have the power to torture and kill you. It will do its best, of course, but right now, what it has to threaten you with is character assassination.
Racist, sexist, homophobe, transphobe, fatphobe, islamophobe, anti-semite, microaggression, heteronormative, nazi.
Damage to your reputation isn’t particularly fearsome compared to the Soviet, or the Chinese, or the Cuban methods of handling dissent. It isn’t much compared to what the Sandinistas did, or Sendero Luminoso, or Pol Pot.
But the Party needs to start somewhere. It needs to create fear, and train people in compliance, so it can grow.
The Party is not Marxist-Leninist. The Party has no belief system, and it never did. Marxism-Leninism was only ever about finding ridiculous things to force you to say.
Nowdays, the same purpose is served by obvious falsehoods like “transwomen are women”, and “diversity is our strength”.
Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_
Posted on X, April 9, 2025
I suspect there is a lot of truth to this. However, I have a question… If there are only two categories of people, then which category do The Party members belong? Or saying it differently, how is it decided who are members of The Party?
I have a nagging feeling there are other flaws in this, but it may be due to some oversimplification for illustration purposes other than fatal errors.
Assuming this is fundamentally true, then we have an interesting takeaway. Resistance to The Party only requires noncompliance. Pointing out the most absurd of The Party assertions widens a crack in the power of The Party. Think of the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes. All it took was the correct observation of a little child to break the false assertion.
This is, of course, an exaggeration of reality, But the direction of the force vector to break The Party is dead on.
Non-compliance comes with penalties, though. For example:
“In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation: The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.” — Leon Trotsky, 1937 (quoted by Henry Hazlitt in “The wisdom of Henry Hazlitt”)
I was thinking of noncompliance in such things as pronouns, agreement with “systematic racism” for disparity in wages and incarceration rates, transgender women in women’s sports, etc.
Things that are provably in error and have a relatively low penalty.
Make them fight their battles where you have the greatest strength and the least to lose. Make it a swarm of stinging insects.
“Things that are provably in error and have a relatively low penalty.”
I think part of the paradigm of the left is that the penalty is unrelated to the absurdity of the loyalty assertion. A rational relationship encourages the underlings to think. That is what they don’t want.
This is precisely why they will come down like a ton of bricks on one or two people for “misgendering” someone or whatever. It forces everyone to choose between either submitting, or being visibly noncompliant – in the latter case with a small but real chance of being ruined.
Isn’t CO making it a crime to “misgender” people? In other words, biology is going to be prohibited in that state.
So lies are the currency of The Party.
They are run by the Father of Lies, no surprise.
The purpose is to drive people away from God. Destroying souls one at a time, that is the goal. Destruction for its own sake
On the other hand, while it’s a fallen world and we are a fallen people, Christianity write large is about what it good, beautiful, and true.
The Compliance demand goes both ways:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/eradicating-anti-christian-bias/
Note the phrasing: “anti-Christian bias.” They don’t say “criminal activity,” the say “bias.” So you don’t have to break an actual law that would trigger a judicial review, you can just express “bias,” which is totally subjective and up to the government agents to do with as they please.
Also note that there’s no similar executive order for anti-Muslim bias. If this were coming from genuine concern for religious liberty it wouldn’t be specific as to *which* religion. But it’s not about religious liberty, it’s about reinforcing Christianity as a dominant social power.
Anybody complaining about how the Dems abused their power when they were running things is gonna want to be real quiet now that Trump’s on a roll. It’s the usual song: everybody hates a powerful government when they’re not in charge, and they *love* it when they are.
“Anybody complaining about how the Dems abused their power when they were running things is gonna want to be real quiet now that Trump’s on a roll.’
Why? No communist shuts-up after being proven wrong for the billionth time.
They just lie some more and double-down on the BS.
One need look no farther than Washington state.
After Heller and Bruen gently slapped their little communist hand and asked them nicely to follow the law over gun-control.
What do they do? Pass a bunch of new gun-control.
What you all don’t understand is that Trump is a nice version of anti-communism.
Which has been being shoved down America’s throat for far too long.
The next guy will throw you out of helicopters.
How well Jesus spoke of people like you, John.
“You strain at the nat, but swallow the camel.”
MHRGA.
Make Helicopter Rides Great Again.
This message brought to you by Pinochet Airways.
Seriously, though, that’s what a lot of those on the left don’t get. Trump IS the nice version of what’s coming. If he’s successful, great. If he’s not… the commies of Sodom on the Sound are unlikely to survive his successor, as the fever-dream of the scenario posted a few days ago will be the lightweight version of the plan. Don’t imprison if you can compost.
Wrong.
Saying something negative but true about Islam is “Islamophobic,” and is a hate crime. They are a protected class.
Saying something true but negative about Jews is “Anti-Semitic,” and is a hate crime. They are a protected class. (this is sometimes called “noticing”).
Saying something true but negative about blacks is “racist,” and is a hate crime. They are a protected class.
Saying something true but negative about gays is “homophobic,” and is a hate crime. They are a protected class.
Saying something true but negative about trans people is “transphobic,” and is a hate crime. They are a protected class.
The only group who are NOT a protected class are straights, white, males, and CHRISTIANS. “Piss Christ” is protected free speech, but burning a Koran is incitement to violence. Hating on men is considered expected, and if you give it any pushback that will invite more hate and accusations of being “fragile” or “insecure” or “misogynist.” Support the Ten Commandments and you are a freedom-hating bigot, but support every Satanic inversion of them like glorifying sodomy and child sacrifice (abortion) and you are celebrated.
Make a joke about pedo priest and everyone laughs. Make the same joke about podo imams or pedo rabbis and jews involved in porn, and you are slammed as bigoted and intolerant.
You know who rules by who you are not allowed to criticize.
All the examples you give are not “protected” by force of law, and thus government action. They may get you “cancelled” in some parts of the country, but in others *they will be applauded*. And you won’t be imprisoned for expressing those views except for the occasional edge case where you were doing something else at the same time, like strangling a gay person to death with barbed wire (e.g. Matthew Sheppard).
Trump is going a step further, and trying to get the government involved if you even “express bias” against Christians. Read the executive order. If he gets his way (or more specifically, since he’s about as Christian as I am, his voter base), “expressing hostility” towards Christians will be a crime.
Where’s it’s gonna get real fun is when individual states pass laws to try and protect their citizenry from the new speech laws, and the feds try to prevent that. When to comes to abortion, the repubs are all “states’ rights! states’ rights!”, but the second it’s something they don’t like they think the federal government should put the states in their place (for example: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/trump-issues-order-block-state-climate-change-policies-2025-04-09/). Everybody loves power when they’re holding the reins.
Speaking of speech anti-freedom, the Khalil case is a great example. He only spoke his views, he didn’t take any actual action, but as a result is being deported. If we can deport legal immigrants based on their speech, we can do it to anybody.
CJ Hopkins (who’s in Germany where you *can* be imprisoned for saying the wrong thing) puts it nicely in his latest substack:
https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/an-open-letter-to-jay-bhattacharya
“The message is that our “democratic rights and principles” are meaningless. They are empty platitudes, which will be violated whenever it is convenient to whichever party is in power. They will be sanctimoniously recited whenever one party wants to shame another political party—or another country, or union of countries—and then ignored and made a mockery of the moment it is expedient.
The message is that power rules, and power makes up the rules, because there are no rules, and anyone who sincerely believes in “democracy” and “democratic principles” is a sucker.”
If you believe in free speech, then hostility towards anybody is fair game, Christians, Muslims, Jews…anybody. If you protect them from hostile speech, you don’t understand the point of the first amendment.
When you’re a guest in someone’s house, follow their rules.
Matthew Shepard was killed over a drug deal gone bad. It had little or nothing to do with his sexuality.
Aren’t “our rules” that free speech is sacrosanct, and that being able to cause offense, including great offense, is to be protected at all costs?
See below.
In order to use that Executive Order to reach the conclusion you are making, you are ignoring two very important things:
(1) the order makes it *very* clear that the issue is anti-Christian crimes that are bein, ignored — he’s no longer going to ignore them, and
(2) the order makes it *very* clear that the government has had a bi against *peaceable* Christians — and it is *this* bias in *government* that President Trump is going to end.
What is sick about this is you are using a course correction for restoring free speech as “evidence” for whataboutism — and as a deflection of *real* persecution against Christians.
“*real* persecution against Christians.”
What persecution? I’m not a Christian, so I’m not being persecuted and perhaps am not seeing it. What persecution are you seeing?
You mean you’all didn’t put a grandma in jail for praying at an abortion clinic for the innocents about to be murdered?
(And the souls of the murderers.)
And we don’t want to get started with the American tax payer fund CIA war against Christians in the middle east. (Ask Rolf.)
Or grandma getting her head cut-off in classic case of muslim “work place violence” during Obama’s epoch.
Plenty of it around if you look.
And that’s why Jesus told us to arm-up and stand ready to defend ourselves.
Christians are just to nice these days is the problem.
And for every one of those events against a Christian I can cite 10 against Muslims. Are Muslims persecuted too? Oh, and Jews, there are lots of examples there. So. Much. Persecution.
And yet somehow the country is filled to the brim with Christian churches, all running along just fine, folks going to Sunday services, celebrating Easter and whatnot. I’m pretty sure this is the part where we put in the Princess Bride meme: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
That’s funny, considering that the Trump Administration is cracking down on Jewish persecution — the death threats, riots, and kidnappings that Democrats have brushed off or even defended as “peaceful protesting”.
And sure, plenty of Christian churches are running along just fine, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been Christian churches that have burned to the ground, and then ignored by the FBI.
And finally, I’m curious: can you really list 10 Muslims for every Christian persecuted in the US? Or is that just idle boasting?
And I would also point out that Muslim persecution in the US is outright mild, considering I can easily find a list of nearly 3,000 people murdered by Muslims — many of them killed for being Christians, and the vast majority of them killed for being American.
What exactly is your definition of the word “persecuted?” Because we’re clearly not on the same page with that. For that matter, most folks in the U.S. don’t think Christians are discriminated against (much less “persecuted”), while Muslims clearly are:
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/05/17/many-americans-see-religious-discrimination-in-u-s-especially-against-muslims/
What is the actual result of this “persecution” you think is occurring? The article above points out a useful measure: Does being a member of a certain group make it harder to “get ahead” in society? The vast majority polled (84%) said it’s much harder for Muslims, and very few said it’s harder for Christians (15%).
Where are the stats showing hate crimes against Christians being higher than against Muslims or Jews? I ran across this:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/29/us/hate-crimes-antisemitism-anti-muslim-dg/index.html
I’m not seeing the equivalent for Christians.
I can’t help but notice you went from “crimes and prosecutions” to “how people feel”.
And I’m not going to bother with an article from a discredited news agency that would much prefer to ignore the elephant in the room: that we would need hundreds of years of outright murders of Jews and Muslims to get to the same body count in a hate crime committed by Muslims against the American people in one day.
And to add insult to injury, you’re trying to deflect from government persecution of Christians by pointing to Biden Administration approved persecution of Jews — committed by Democrats, and being pushed against by the Trump Administration — as evidence that President Trump shouldn’t worry his pretty little head over religious persecution.
The Executive Order gave examples – many of which aren’t new to me, because I heard about them in various news sources all throughout the Biden Administration.
There’s none who’s more blind than those who refuse to see.
Seriously? They arrested some anti-abortion protesters for not following the law wrt distance, and that’s “persecution?” The extent to which Christians in this country clutch their pearls and cry “persecution” every time they don’t get their way is remarkable. Let me guess, you also think there’s a “war on Christmas?”
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Their MURDERING people in those places. Ripping the most innocent thing on earth into little pieces to kill it.
(Worse than any cruel and unusual punishment known to man.)
There is no law protecting abortion clinics.
Just some made-up legal crap-think by satanic communists.
And speaking of jews.
Didn’t Hitler have laws against protesting in and outside his death camps?
Would you call prosecuting someone for doing that legal?
And if that person had a religious believe that Hitler was wrong, wouldn’t you call that religious persecution?
Their praying out of faith that what your doing is wrong.
Your stopping them because you have faith that what your doing is right.
But your the f’ing murderer. Plain as daylight, your a criminal. And have no claim on authority to commit your crimes.
And seen any radical JW’s out cutting the heads off infidels to conquer the world lately?
Na, I didn’t think so.
Muslim persecution?
Only by jews in Gaza. Or by other muslims.
Maybe you can whine about the crusades?
Considering that Democrats allowed cities to burn and the Democrat-dominated FBI turned a blind eye to these riots while coming down hard on anti-abortion protesters not maintaining the right distance, you don’t really have the moral capital needed to convince us that your molehills are really mountains — and that mountains are really molehills.
And then links to CNN.
to prove a point.
I feel embarrassed for him.
“Resistance to The Party only requires noncompliance.”
True enough. But, at some point that noncompliance will have to be backed up with force.
“It isn’t important which hill neoMarxists choose to die on.”
True enough. As long as they die.
A scaffold in public would be much better.
Rig on April 9, 2025 at 7:19 am said:
Prepare accordingly. LELZ. That’s how you know it’s all fuckery, yeah this entireTL;DR Horseshit faggotry nigger loving queer factotum. It’s always prepare accordingly not Christ killing his enemies. I’ve always and in all ways planned accordingly. You are a nigger loving faggot
John S. replied.
And I would think that in general folks here would want to drive out Klan types. Am I wrong?
John S., Also.
Aren’t “our rules” that free speech is sacrosanct, and that being able to cause offense, including great offense, is to be protected at all costs?
I don’t know John. You seem somewhat conflicted.
The difference being between government control over speech by use of force, and private control over speech by virtue of restricting who gets to be part of the conversation.
Rig should absolutely be able to speak his mind in public. That doesn’t mean you have to let him in to your personal forum. Including Facebook and Twitter. They aren’t “the public square,” and have every right to decide what speech is allowed on their platforms.
Nice try. Even a semi-clever dodge.
But I was pointing out your hypocrisy. Which you seemed to have automatically passed over.
Something your grand at pointing out in the rest of us if we support Trump in some small way.
Such is the nature of communist demoralization.
You might want to have that checked out? Could be serious.
Did you read the Douglas Murray article? It is in fact possible to believe both that government suppression of speech is unacceptable while at the same time private is. And note the word here is “acceptable,” not “ideal.”
Sorry, I don’t need to read anybody else’s ideas on the matter.
I read the constitution, and understand the workings of private property quit well.
What I was pointing out was your actions.
Which have nothing to do with public or private property.
Actually there’s a large body of jurisprudence that specifically addresses the way in which speech controls differ in their legality between public and private spaces, but I wouldn’t want that to get in the way of a confident “gotcha!” So, enjoy.
There you go with the book thumping again.
Instead of taking responsibility for your actions.
Yeah, those pesky facts always get in the way.
Thump thump thump!
Douglas Murray agrees with me:
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/douglas-murray-is-asking-real-questions/
I have no idea who Douglas Murray is or why we should care what he thinks. And as much as I have appreciated National Review over the years, the fact that he’s associated with NR might not be a red flag, but it’s at least a yellow one.
If there are only two categories of people, then which category do The Party members belong?
Members of The Party are not “people”; they are demigods, in the Pantheon of the Church of the State.
Which explains why anyone defying their Holy Writ must be burned as a heretic (metaphorically for now, with “cancellation” and character assassination, but I fear we are fast approaching times when The Party’s Faithful will start taking it literally).
Just my $0.02.
Yup, and they always do, without fail.
No story is a perfect analogy to reality. But this comes pretty close. The people who seek power aren’t interested in anything BUT power. And being able to force people to toe the line no matter how ludicrous is a very good way to measure that power. A good example from television is the Star Trek Next Generation Series episode Chain Of Command where Capt. Picard is held captive by the Cardassians and being interrogated. The goal of the interrogator is to get Picard to state there are 5 lights when all that are visible is 4. It’s a good episode showing how some people use power and control and how others resist…or don’t.
You nailed it with that Orwell comparison. Compliance isn’t about belief—it’s a test of submission. The more obviously false the claim, the more effective the test.
Character assassination only works as a threat, to the extent that you actually GAF what other people think.
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@joehuffman: you ask, “into which category does the Party fall?”.
The Party is an institution, but the members of the Party are slaves, of course, and just as subject to the dynamic you describe as everyone else. You cited the example of a jealous neighbour, but how much more exposed is a member of the Party with a jealous rival seeking to take his position for themselves.
This is no flaw in the analysis.
The Soviet Union lasted 70+ years after the death of its founder. Because, “the Party” Lenin created wasn’t a person, or a collection of people, or even a system of governance.
It’s a self-replicating, self-reinforcing mental virus that – like any virus – invades the host with the sole purpose of reproducing itself faster than it kills the host. And, like any lethal virus, it mutates to avoid detection; sits relatively dormant for long periods before the symptoms become apparent; and it’s extremely hard to kill mainly because so few people recognize it for what it is.