Posted on 04/28/2025 4:48:03 PM PDT by little jeremiah
“Being mean or telling the truth is indistinguishable to far too many people.” —Mike Thompson on X
Woke liberalism is exactly what Christopher Lasch predicted in The Revolt of the Elites, published in 1995 the year after his early death at 61. Lasch saw how the juvenile idealism of Boomer hippiedom would slide into the narcissistic, sado-masochistic degeneracy of open borders, drag queen story hours, Covid-19 despotism, DEI racism, showbiz Satanism, censorship, forever wars, and now, the legal insurrection of lawfare.
In doing so, Lasch also predicted the “mass formation psychosis” described by Belgian psychologist Mattias Desmet, spawned by a crisis of meaning and purpose in the thinking classes of Western Civ. And now you know exactly how come a place like Boston, with its concentration of “elites” in universities, computer tech, and medical research displays a batshit-crazy dedication to ideas bent on destroying our political culture: the American republic.
The word republic derives from the Latin, res publica: the public thing, the idea of a state dedicated to the common good. By “state” you can infer both a group of people in a certain place, but also the set of conditions they dwell in. You can’t have a common good without a common culture, which means a general agreement among citizens on values in that certain place — which is our country, the USA.
You can’t overstate the importance of shared ideas and values in that enterprise of being a nation, we-the-people in our particular place. The juvenile idealism of Boomer hippiedom wrecked the crucial idea of a common culture, and I will tell you exactly how that happened. Two crusades: first, the civil rights campaign, and second, stopping the War in Vietnam, defined the era.
The first of these climaxed in twin landmark legislative acts designed to abolish Jim Crow racism: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination in public places, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited unfair obstacles to voting. The idealism in that moment of history was extreme. The dominant old-school Liberal ethos displayed a sense of triumph. Its cardinal belief in human progress was validated in the new law-of-the-land. We were supposedly entering a utopia of racial harmony.
It proved to be a huge disappointment, a failure. In some fundamental ways, black and white America could not agree on certain values, especially language and behavior. These matters were so hypersensitive that discussing them became taboo, and when someone dared to — such as the rogue journalist Tom Wolfe in his book Radical Chic, which made fun of the cultural elites trying to socialize with the Black Panthers — he was buried in the most extreme censorious opprobrium by the elite good-thinkers of politics, academia, and the cultural media. They couldn’t believe old Tom dove clear through the Overton Window the way he did, head first.
In fact, a big segment of black America after 1965 became much more overtly separatist and oppositional, while white America became more frantically confounded and depressed by it. The result was the elite’s solution to that quandary: multiculturalism! Which basically meant: we don’t need a common culture in the USA. (We don’t need an agreement about values, language, and behavior.) Each group in America can have its own menu of these things. This accomplished two ends: it allowed criminal behavior to explode; and it allowed the elites to excuse themselves from any serious further attempts to manage the res publica. The people of the ghettos were free to do their thing; while the elites turned their full attention to Boomer careerism and Gordon Gecko style financial moneygrubbing.
As for the crusade to end the War in Vietnam, that was also an epic failure, never properly acknowledged. In fact, no one in the USA, no party or faction, ended the war. We simply lost the War in Vietnam. We just never said so, and still don’t. It ended in ignominy, with the last remnants of US officialdom in Saigon having to be rescued by helicopter from the roof of the American Embassy. The so-called “gooks” in their black pajamas beat the giant American “grunt” army with its bottomless supply of attack helicopters and napalm. Chalk up another “L” for old school Liberalism.
You can’t overstate how demoralizing this was. And so. . . the serial reenactments of our forever wars of recent decades, mostly botches and failures despite our vaunted “defense” establishment, our glorious war technology, and our fake commitment to “spreading democracy.” We simply need to prove that we can’t possibly lose wars against more primitive people — though we have lost repeatedly, the fiasco in leaving Kabul in 2021 being even more ignominious than the flight from Saigon. This can only be understood, finally, as a species of national neurosis.
As was absolutely everything about the George Floyd riots of 2020, Wokery-in-action, with the torching of cities, the looting flash-mobs, and the tearing down of statues honoring American heroes. Try understanding that as the latest chapter in civil rights egalitarianism gone awry, starting with the sanctification of the druggie thug George Floyd, who so perfectly personified the failures of multiculturalism. (What were his values? Ever ask yourself that?)
Now, try (if you can) to understand what the election of Mr. Trump represents: the drive to restore a viable American common culture, to re-set our agreement on values, to repair the broken res publica. And note how wildly that is resented and opposed by this corrupt and degenerate residue of idealism gone to hell (literally), this ragtag and bobtail of Democratic Party elites, consumed in their mass formation psychosis, addicted to lying and violence, and furious that they are no longer in command.
So, now you know how all this works. An American common culture matters, and if we can’t put it together, we’re sunk. This is our chance to put it together.
Or, to put it another way, "Truth is hate to people who hate truth."
“Truth is hate to people who hate truth.”
~~~~~
I’ll add to my quotes file. Good one!
A very good article.
Its generally emotional people who personalize everything that feel this. So its largely women and effeminate men.
Its because often the truth is not pleasant, no matter how you say it, and so they tzke it as personal attacks or if it is directed specifically to them, it makes them feel bad.
And emotionally-driven people dont like to feel bad. Often the response is just a clear attack back on the person who told the unpleasant (or not even) truth. Insults, guilt shaming, blame shifting, bringing up irrelevant things to deflect..
Very concise explanation of what’s been happening for at least six decades. I hope it doesn’t take six more decades to fix it.
“Lasch saw how the juvenile idealism of Boomer hippiedom...”
I don’t know about that. Every great civilization in history has degenerated down into extinction and they did not have Boomer hippiedom idealism.
Much more sinister forces at work in the United States — communism. The communists were very open in what they had planned for American culture way back when and they have succededed.
Some really good comments in the comment section..
I’m sure the change for the better will not take that long. Why? Because the majority of Americans want what we all want. There is a small minority of hateful weirdo pervert commie tyrant wannabees. Demsheviks can’t win elections, that’s why the steal them. WE are the majority. And President Trump means business.
I’ll take a look, thanks.
Yes, commies realized a violent revolution wouldn’t work, so they infiltrated - universities, the media, the government, the “arts”, Hollywood, etc etc.
But they have now exposed themselves so even fence sitters can see clearly what they are.
There’s really only one quality that enables people to see the truth. They have to WANT to see it. And the crap has been so bad, especially the last 4 years, that more and more people DO want to see truth.
bkmk
Bkmk
📌
Telling a piece of sh*t it smells like a rose does no one any good. I have walked away from many long time friendships because they tell a lot of pieces of sh*t they smell like a rose. If I go to my grave with 2 or 3 real friends left in this world, well... I’m good with it...
A lot is going to change, get revealed, in the near-ish future. May wake some people up from their comas.
Trump could go on X and ask for volunteers, he’d have 20M the next morning.
I was talking to a co-worker earlier today about this exact thing. Weak people internalize the truth as a personal affront when it doesn’t accord to their mangled reality.
I think youmare correct and actually confirm my post.
Look at how the vote went.
It was MEN who voted that decided this election. Men came out and voted conservatively. To use your words, men saw the brutal truth of the current mess, didnt want more lies and made the choice that would deal with things based on reality and the truth.
Women, as a voting block category, in majority, voted for more socialism and liberalism based on emotions and feelings, didnt wznt to hear the truth, called it mean, unfeeling, uncaring, hateful, racist, etc. They dont care about the truth when its unpleasant and not what they want to hear.
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