ponderthepontificate

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The two most culturally important things from the past few years are Friday by Rebecca Black because we learned we like hating things more than we like liking them and Cookie Clicker cause we figured out the only reason people play video games is to watch the numbers go up and since then we’ve just been applying those lessons to new and better incarnations of those two things.

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Every time I read/watch something about water usage in the American west it's like 'this is obviously, mechanically, directly and observably unsustainable and already getting bad. Sadly due to an understanding hashed out over whiskey and cigars in 1920 there is simply no alternative to using 110% of the Colorado river and also approximately all of the continent's groundwater growing alfalfa and pistachios, so we're basically just fucked.'

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Art by Bohao Wang

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“Men don’t have to cook” is a misogynistic sentiment based on a dynamic of Dominance - Subservience. I think most people recognize that, but I wonder if just trading chores around isn't doing enough to replace that dynamic. Maybe a new mindset that acknowledges independence, but still offers compassion and cooperation could exist. Just doing [chore] together seems like an obvious option but that's not always possible. Something like "I'm doing (X) for myself, should I also do it for you?" seems like it has potential.

The problem I see is that independently doing the chores is prone to abuse where one person can always wait to to have dinner offered to them, wait for the mess to be bad enough, or wait for any other sort of tipping point. I would consider this to be a relationship issue, and I would further conclude that the (likely to be) man is a misogynist only pretending he opposes the original dominance - subservience dynamics. Still, it feels like a weakness and something better might be out there. Anyone else have something they've tried that works?

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I was chatting with a friend and through our conversation it’s become my conjecture that the strongest alt-right conduit to receive the force of national brewing unrest is specifically: The Legacy of Rugged Individualism.

There are many paths to the alt-right, but I posit they are thematically linked to Rugged Individualism (the idea that "I have to be able to be self-reliant & independent from outside help"). This type of thinking strongly ties to survival of the fittest, which when applied culturally is also known as Social Darwinism, an idea closely tied to Nazism. I am not going to go through the Social Darwinism takedown, but suffice to say its ideas have been discredited. Social science moved on from there, but the people who deeply held this belief DID NOT move on. If science says Rugged Individualism is racist and bad, then science is wrong. If woke culture says Rugged Individualism is bad, maybe the Nazis were right. Alt-right achieved.

The new idea is: "I have to be able to be self-reliant & independent from outside help, and if I can't achieve that the system is unfair, they set me up to fail." The system IS unfair though! The half-truth of it is what I believe makes this special brand of American individualism such a conduit for the current political moment. BUT. There is another group here who is radicalized by: loneliness. This is like to be loneliness resulting from in-group out-group dynamics. This layer does not mesh with my current theory and is probably the main reason I'm wrong. That is to say, there are many people who are not individualists by choice*.

The deeply held American dream of striving to "set out and make something of yourself" is a core piece of our country's mythos, but it just can't exist without its parasitic twin, "survival of the fittest." This is why I present what I think is an improvement on the American Dream: "Achieving together what we couldn't alone." (With a picture of the moon in the back for Boomer nostalgic appeal (and they're right, the moon landing was sick)).

This isn't a groundbreaking link, but it's at least A Problem, and I want to go a step further and address it. If our mythos is A Problem and we're just saying "no don't think that," nothing will improve. Offering "here's what's better," is a necessary step of the work. Maybe once we pick something the CIA can psy-op it into everyone's minds

Then we gotta remember that the system which has radicalized so many is the real problem, and any specific radical belief is more of a symptom. Maybe with some new friends, we can achieve together what we couldn't alone?

*Choice is a hard word to use here. People can always seek to better themselves, but I feel it's important to recognize that once you're radicalized, the path out is extremely difficult because of the same in-group out-group dynamics that may have put you there in the first place.

**Bonus academic article on social darwinism https://sci-hub.se/10.2307/2967206

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I would somberly ride my merchant wagon through these lands like nobody's business.

Pixel Art by Philipp A. Urlich