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Kunstler.com ^ | 22 Sep, 2025 | James Howard Kunstler

Posted on 09/23/2025 5:48:44 AM PDT by MtnClimber

"I’ve never talked to a Democrat who ever wanted to listen. They start to glitch out if you try.” — Sasha Stone.

This past summer, I tried to open a line of communication with a West Coast relative. We exchanged a few letters. I tactically steered the conversation away from the political. Here was the closer salvo from my relative:

Jimmy, on a completely personal level, and in different times, I think we could have been very good friends. At this point in our history, I find what you say in your blogs and Kunstlercast to be outrageous, deceptive, and ugly. I disagree with almost everything you hold dear politically, and even if, for instance, we agree about the horrors of Big Pharma, your worship of Kennedy makes me ill. Your language falls right into all the clichés of the far right ideologies I loathe.Maybe someday things will change. For now, this is the last you'll be hearing from me.

Frankly, what stung most keenly was the accusation that my language fell “into all the clichés of the far right ideologies. . . .” I like to think that I am allergic to clichés, though it’s possible that I am deluded about that. If anything, the dynamic collective thought disorders of our time present themselves in astonishingly fresh ways — for instance, a Supreme Court nominee who can’t define what a woman is. (Makes you kind of wonder how such a mind could parse Article Two of the Constitution.)

Mostly, I would have liked to know what those “far right ideologies” are, exactly, but it looks like I will never find out now. Maybe it is being opposed to censorship. . . or against Ukraine’s entry into NATO. . . or wanting coherent procedure for foreigners seeking to enter the USA. . . or keeping biological men out of the women’s swim lanes. . . or saying that ivermectin is a safe and effective anti-viral med. . . or supposing that people charged with felonies should not be released to the streets without significant cash bail. Stuff like that.

As it happened, we were not discussing these matters in our brief correspondence, but I was at something of a disadvantage since I am a professional writer who posts his opinion for public scrutiny and my relative is not. Of course, I describe what is a pandemic of broken family relations in our country. And social relations. I have been cancelled by most of my old friends, too, and I’m quite sure that I am not a special case. I am mystified by what these relatives and old friends actually believe these days. When we were hippies back in the day, they were very much opposed to war, turned-off by attempts at censorship, and deeply averse to the dark operations of the CIA and FBI. Now, they seem avid for intel ops and hoaxes, eager for war, and all-in for censoring ideas that make them feel “unsafe.”

There are various useful theories for this state-of-affairs, all pretty cross-compatible. Strauss and Howe’s Fourth Turning template of generational cycles explains a lot. Elizabeth Nickson has some fine insights about the extreme discontents of women these days leading them to summon political demons. Mattias Desmet, the Belgian psych professor has his Mass Formation theory, which states that societal anxieties provoke aligned “radical intolerance” among a populace. I recommend Wendy Williamson’s recent blog discussion of The Law of Reversal. Joseph Tainter’s classic, The Collapse of Complex Societies lays out the pitfalls of our “over-investments in complexity.” I wrote a book in 2005 titled The Long Emergency which describes the drawn-out collapse of our techno-industrial economy — the widespread apprehension of which helps define the societal anxieties described by Dr. Desmet that bring on his “Mass Formation Psychosis.”

All these theories tend to imply an inflection point where our assumptions about human progress get undermined, provoking an intense loss of faith in institutions and authorities, resulting in epochal socio-political disorder. Wouldn’t you agree we are seeing exactly that now? That the net effect of all this is of a society driven insane. Surely, the craziness is amplified by the novel connectivities of the Internet and exacerbated by many other high-tech innovations from ubiquitous camera surveillance to cryptocurrency to drone warfare.

In our country these days, all of this has apparently produced two camps at war psychologically, now verging on something like a hot civil war. One camp calling itself “progressive” insists on a roster of ideas, policies, and practices that look patently absurd, abusive of the public interest, and hostile to the values of Western Civ. The other camp styles itself as “conservative” seeking to preserve Western Civ and the advancement of our so-called way of life — an ever growth-seeking high-tech economy.

Personally, I doubt that the latter is possible. I believe we’re due for a pretty serious time-out from the sort of economic “growth” we enjoyed the past two-hundred years. That high-tech mega-fiesta has thrown off a lot of entropy, which is now working hard to slow things down and make us stop a lot of what we are doing. It manifests in many ways, but most vividly by flinging us into social disorder, turning what had been communication and correspondence into a rising babel that is driving us crazy. That is exactly why it is so hard to talk to our relatives and old friends. But mark this: there is a time coming when we will get tired of being crazy, and then things will go differently for us. We’ll start talking again.


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: belongsinbloggers; clusterfucknation; jameshowardkunstler; jhk; leftism
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1 posted on 09/23/2025 5:48:44 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: little jeremiah; Carriage Hill; GOPJ; Mama Shawna; notdownwidems; The FIGHTIN Illini; JZelle; ...

James Howard Kunstler ping


2 posted on 09/23/2025 5:49:21 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
But mark this: there is a time coming when we will get tired of being crazy, and then things will go differently for us. We’ll start talking again.

I hope so, but I can't help thinking that it will never happen. The leftists would much rather see us all dead than bother talking to us. They have demonstrated quite clearly that they aren't interested in dialog or debate, and that violence, coercion, and suppression are their preferred means.

3 posted on 09/23/2025 5:59:27 AM PDT by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: MtnClimber

The Charlie Kirk assassination is causing some moderate democrat voters to recoil from the far left’s responses. Whether this is a temporary or permanent change remains to be seen.


4 posted on 09/23/2025 6:05:16 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: MtnClimber

That right there is the looming psychological precept,

“Neville Chamberlain Psychosis”

/s


5 posted on 09/23/2025 6:09:02 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 "/!i!! &@$%&*(@ -')
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To: kosciusko51

I had enough religion in my life raised in a Roman Catholic household and attending a Roman Catholic school. The left and Marxist atheists rely on Roman Catholics to “turn the other cheek” after it smites them. This kind of “if it feels good do it” emoting from Mrs. Kirk is scary close to the teenaged girls in Sweden and Norway who lined up at airports and docksides and rail terminals waving hand-lettered signs reading “welcome” to the illegal aliens as they arrived from Somalia. I’m sure these blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls believed in their heart of hearts it was the Christian thing to do, and that’s why they did it. Unfortunately, their hospitality got hundreds of them gang-raped and murdered. The left and Islam see forgiveness and offers of kindness and comity as a laughable weakness to be exploited. This “forgiveness” will be no different.


6 posted on 09/23/2025 6:16:01 AM PDT by 4Runner ("I gotta join a union just to get a job loafin'?" " Sure ya do!" --Abbott & Costello)
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To: MtnClimber
Great post. I like his inclusion of the picture of Roman(?) ruins. If ever there was an illustration of where we’re headed, that is it.

One of my wife’s cousins calls her every morning to chew the fat, and she always steers the conversation to politics; it’s always criticizing Trump about something. Lately it’s about Poor Jimmy Kimmel, Charlie Kirk’s hate speech, etc. My wife doesn’t like talking about politics, she’s not liberal like her cousin. She does, however, tell me about their conversations.

Her cousin is a retired teacher, “educated”, so to speak.They are talking right now. I can’t wait….🙄

7 posted on 09/23/2025 6:16:31 AM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: MtnClimber

james, i’ll be your cousin now.

no big loss. we CAN choose our new family.

and get a hair cut. the pony tail is soooooo 1960s


8 posted on 09/23/2025 6:17:43 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something )
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To: MtnClimber

Thank you for posting that. Kunstler is always worth reading.

Kunstler wants to be social. These people do not.

Humanity will endure long after any society. Humans can, and do, exist both individually and in societies. It makes us hardy.

There are many reasons that the anti-social is on the rise. One is probably that there are more than enough of us. I am reminded of an experiment where mice are put in a cage. Initially, it is a land of plenty and the mice thrive and are social (for mice) and happy. The experimenters keep cramming in more mice, however, and soon things change. The mice become murderous, homosexual and anti-social. Their numbers control their behavior.

I don’t even think this is the major reason for what we are seeing, but its nature is being exploited.


9 posted on 09/23/2025 6:24:42 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: MtnClimber

Bfl


10 posted on 09/23/2025 7:10:27 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Democrats seek power through cheating and assassination. They are sociopaths. They just want power.)
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To: MtnClimber

My buddy is a leftist and trust me you can’t reason with these people. Their politics are like a religion to them. Despite our political differences we remain close friends. I just kind of roll my eyes and shake my head when he goes off with his Trump derangement syndrome. I gave up trying to reason with him. But other than that he has been a great friend to me over the years.


11 posted on 09/23/2025 7:33:27 AM PDT by jimwatx
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To: MtnClimber

Good luck with that. Depending on the age of your relatives, they will die before they talk to the enemy.

I have a sister who is a militant homosexual married to her husband who also a politicalized hard leftist. For fun in 2020 during the riots, my sister and lesbian lover took one of her daughters and two grandchildren to the Dayton, Ohio riots. They took 30” 2x4s as clubs, filled glass bottles with gas and rag fuses, and bricks throwing them at the police. The kids were ecstatic about their Summer of Love activities with Grandma. Imagine the horror of finding out as my sister’s oldest daughter found out that her daughter was throwing bricks and fire bombs at the police - you know to support Black Lives Matter.

Today siad sister has dementia. She is a peach. Still a hostile uncontrollable monster. No place will keep her long. The life long lefty now hates blacks and won’t let them anywhere near her in Adult Care - good luck with that, so her Hubby-wife keeps her at home with frequent visits from the Police to help keep the neighborhood peace.

I thought there was a glimer of hope when the hubby-wife paid off her student loans and was then immeadiately of the opinon everyone should pay their loans... after years of bringing up loan forgiveness as a hard left issue.

As they get older, they say less, but the mask they wear is unable to hide decades of lefy ambitions. They are hateful monsters, who have no respect for anyone else beyond their immediate Cause.

Leftists are the smartest people in the room, ask them. Leftists are never wrong except when they were not violent enough. The only reason a leftist cause ever failed is because of the police.

The DNC Big Tent is replete with mentally deranged minions who are socialized into foot soldiers with marching orders on a moment’s notice.

The colleges are the Cesspools that create the mental illnesses... homosexual teachers preying on the student body, destroying young minds, multiply the ranks of the left just in time for the next presidential election. Rinse and repeat every four years.


12 posted on 09/23/2025 7:34:25 AM PDT by Jumper
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To: 4Runner
The left and Marxist atheists rely on Roman Catholics to “turn the other cheek” after it smites them. This kind of “if it feels good do it” emoting from Mrs. Kirk is scary close to the teenaged girls in Sweden and Norway who lined up at airports and docksides and rail terminals waving hand-lettered signs reading “welcome” to the illegal aliens as they arrived from Somalia.

While I agree that there are many Christians who misunderstand and misuse the directive to forgive, and even to love their enemies, I think you’re entirely misreading this particular event. I believe Erika Kirk was right on target doing what she did, and in fact I was waiting and hoping for that moment, because I knew it would be the most important and powerful outcome of the entire event if she did it. By forgiving him PERSONALLY (the critical qualifier), she showed all watching who are not completely blinded by leftist evil the true difference between conservative Christian Americans and the vile leftists opposing us. And it’s far more than that: She showed any with even slightly open hearts the reality of Jesus and the power of his love for all of us.

Here’s where many others go off track beyond that personal forgiveness: They forget that the Bible also calls for GOVERNMENTS, who God has given the power of the sword, to use “the sword” (force, including deadly force) to PUNISH the evildoers. WE are to forgive individually, but governments are not called to forgive but rather to punish, for the purpose of maintaining justice and order.

And those naive blond German girls you mentioned are nothing like Erika. They made a similar mistake to the one I just mentioned in believing (assuming they’re Christians) that the Bible calls for illegal “immigrants” to be allowed into other countries at will, because there are passages that call us to be welcoming and loving toward ”the traveler.” This again is a personal directive, aimed at general strangers and “travelers” and NOT at invaders, which is what we’re really talking about there. And the Bible is clear that God has established nations, and that they have borders and are sovereign. In fact, He famously confused the languages of those at Babel because He saw Mankind attempting to coalesce into one global people, which being sinful would have greatly magnified their ability to spread sin and evil.

I am confident that Erika is sharp and knows this. What she did was a magnificent and powerful moment of showing true Christian love and forgiveness, and nothing more. The killer must be prosecuted and punished for what he’s done, and he fully deserves to die. When Jesus forgave the thief hanging alongside him on the cross, he didn’t use His power to rescue him from the rightful Earthly punishment for his crimes. Neither should the civic authorities forgive this assassin. But any individuals directly wronged by him are commanded to forgive him. That’s the core of Christianity and of God’s love.

God forgave us when we didn’t deserve it, even taking our punishment upon himself. We can’t do the latter because we’re not God, but we are told that if we don’t forgive others God will not forgive us. This life is but a vapor, as the Bible says. What happens here is important, especially the decision whether to follow Jesus or not, but this planet and this physical existence are like a vapor, here today and then suddenly gone. The totality of reality that we cannot yet see is infinitely more real and vast than what our physical limitations allow us to view at the moment.

13 posted on 09/23/2025 7:43:26 AM PDT by noiseman (I The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: 4Runner; MtnClimber

“I’m sure these blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls believed in their heart of hearts it was the Christian thing to do, and that’s why they did it.”

It’s what I call “pathological compassion”. It’s very widespread and is the biggest cause of our current dystopian existence.

It destroys both the giver and receiver and degrades society as a whole.


14 posted on 09/23/2025 8:26:35 AM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they. control you. )
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To: MtnClimber

The Tolerant will not tolerate intolerance.


15 posted on 09/23/2025 8:29:15 AM PDT by AppyPappy (They don't call you a Nazi because they think you are one. They do it to justify violence. )
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To: MtnClimber

His loss. Back to his dark soul life.

Can’t help people who refuse it: Addicts, of darkness.


16 posted on 09/23/2025 8:34:00 AM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: If You Want It Fixed - Fix It

They have minds polluted by Hate.


17 posted on 09/23/2025 8:35:24 AM PDT by AppyPappy (They don't call you a Nazi because they think you are one. They do it to justify violence. )
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To: Jumper

so to be clear, your sister had a husband and a lesbian side piece? I’m just curious and trying to follow the story.


18 posted on 09/23/2025 9:01:45 AM PDT by ronniesgal ( so is it okay that I said that??? GO TRUMP GO!!!!)
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To: MtnClimber

“That high-tech mega-fiesta has thrown off a lot of entropy, which is now working hard to slow things down and make us stop a lot of what we are doing. It manifests in many ways, but most vividly by flinging us into social disorder, turning what had been communication and correspondence into a rising babel that is driving us crazy.”

Technology is the the great disruptor of the status quo and morality - ie, the rules for living.

The steam engine, electricity, and the model T led to the industrial revolution and freed people from subsistence living in a plot of land, and the great migration from farms to cities and having to adjust to living on top of each other.

The invention of the pill and birth control led to the sexual revolution and the relationship upheavels between the sexes and family.

The internet has empowered anyone to make his views known world wide. Everyone has an op-ed page today. And to communicate with anyone instantly around the world allowing special interest groups to more easily organize and push for their interests.

The coming AI revolution promises even greater changes and more upheavels.

And I doubt it can be stopped, hopefully it can be managed enough to make life better for most. But for some it might be worse.

And yet, with all the upheavels and all the disruption technology has caused, how many of us would want to go back to subsistence living in a plot of land?


19 posted on 09/23/2025 9:08:29 AM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they. control you. )
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To: MtnClimber
There is definitely a chasm growing between the left and right. While I am interested in politics, I've never thought that it truly defined a person. We're far too complex for that.

But I have noticed a trait that seems to be a good identifier. Conservatives tend to think about what they can do for themselves to make their personal situations better. And public policies that assist in that pursuit are those that we support.

The progressive view seems to be looking at things they perceive to be injustices and look for remedies that might have an appearance of a solution, but don't really do anything productive. They think treating criminals kindly will lower crime; they think that affirming gender dysphoria will make the troubled person more stable; they think global warming is harming mankind and can be stopped by energy management. They think more gun laws will prevent more people from committing violent acts without hurting our ability to protect ourselves. IN short, they believe they can manage others better than people can manage themselves.

20 posted on 09/23/2025 9:33:09 AM PDT by Repealthe17thAmendment
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