Guest Post by The Zman
The underlying premise of consensual government is that the people in the society, at least participating in its governance, can and will debate the issues facing the people in the society. By debate, it is understood that sharp disagreement will erupt and personal squabbles will inflame any disagreements. After all, men are not angels. In the end, a consensus will form and all sides will accept it. Everyone involved may not be ruled by reason, but trusted men in a civil society are reasonable.
If you think about how a democracy must work, the assumption of reasonableness becomes clear. If it is fifty percent plus one that carries the day, the winner must acknowledge that a large minority will not like the result. That means showing the other side respect, so they will return the favor when they carry the day. On the other hand, the losing side has to accept the will of the majority. Of course, it also means all sides have to be ready to revisit the issue if the majority got it wrong.
If you wanted to characterize the current crisis in America, a way to frame it would be a war on reasonableness. It’s not a war on reason, as in objective reality. At all times and all places reasonable men have been motivated by superstition and nonsense. What matters is the reasonableness, moderation and openness to alternatives, especially from those with unpopular opinions. It is among those willing to reconsider the consensus, where solutions are found when the consensus fails.
This war on reasonableness is most obvious in the reaction to Nick Fuentes and his young followers. Reasonable people can disagree with their opinions and reasonable people can oppose their tactics. Reasonable people must also acknowledge that young people are prone to getting carried away. Reasonable men cut young guys a little slack, because they remember what it was like to be young. In the case of the groypers, they are challenging authority, which is what we expect from young people.
Unreasonable people condemn these young men to eternal damnation for daring to question official dogma. When someone accuses Fuentes of being a fascist, he is saying Fuentes is evil and therefore outside of civil society. That is the intent of using the word “fascist” or the phrase “holocaust denier.” Regardless of the pedantic quibbles about the nature of fascism and the facts of the holocaust, the intent when using those phrases is to anathematize, to declare the accused of being evil.
This is not a reasonable response to a fellow member of society. This is a call for society to exterminate the invader, like a call to the immune system of the body. They want these men removed from society as if they are a disease. It is a hysterical response by people unwilling to concede an inch to dissenters. This is how a winner take all game is played. Those with power utterly and completely subjugate those without power, in order to make sure they never challenge power.
If you are on the other side of these calls to exterminate you, how can you come away thinking there is a bargain to be had with these people? How can those in dissent from the prevailing orthodoxy want to cut a deal with people who want them dead? The start of any deal is reasonable parties willing to compromise and reach consensus. What is the middle position when one side opens with a demand for your head? Do you agree to give up an arm? A leg? Live as a pariah?
Even when you move away from the howler monkeys taking to social media to declare fatwahs on the dissenters, those who claim to be reasonable, stake out the most unreasonable of positions. When some sober minded pundit claims that race is a social construct, a statement in direct contradiction to observable reality, that’s not a reasonable position no matter how calmly stated. That is making a concession to the unreasonable in advance, in order to appease them.
In fact, indulging these crazy assertions from the woke crowd is a war on reason and reasonableness. It is an effort to socialize pathology, spreading the disease to the whole of society. It is akin to the doctor spreading the cancer to the whole body, so that the patient stops noticing the tumor. When this is what passes for reasonable debate, it marginalizes the alternatives, thus normalizing that which is abnormal and anathematizing those who still cling to the normal.
Many of the paid spokesman that the Nick Fuentes crowd have targeted love to wave around the Declaration of Independence. The open lines are their opening and closing statements on all things political. They indulge the sentimentality, without understanding the intent. That document was a statement by reasonable men, no longer willing to bargain with unreasonable men. Irreconcilable differences existed between the colonists and England. The only solution was separation.
This is where the war on reasonableness must lead. Good men seeking compromise will indulge the unreasonable for as long as they can, perhaps long beyond where they should, but eventually they stop indulging the unreasonable. At that point, there are but two choices. One is peaceful separation and the other is those reasonable men embrace unreasonable solutions to the unreasonable men in their midst. Ranse Stoddard gives way to Tom Doniphon to end Liberty Valance.
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“It is an effort to socialize pathology, spreading the disease to the whole of society. It is akin to the doctor spreading the cancer to the whole body, so that the patient stops noticing the tumor.”
A Bible believer recognizes this as the natural progression of sin in the world.
yes. sin and lawlessness are rampant, condoned, and encouraged. exalted, even.
Romans 1:28-32 KJB… “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Exalted, even… yup. It is beyond amazing that we are still here. That is a Love hard to comprehend. But I’m trying.
Our so called elected leaders are the biggest criminals out there.
It’s legal to steal in California and other places, as long as you don’t steal over the legal limit.
I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-prop-47-shoplifting-theft-crime-statewide
It is a war on reason also: unlimited immigration, unlimited spending, unlimited welfare, you can be any sex you want, the other day a fool in the impeachment hearings said ‘hearsay many be more accurate than first person knowledge”. Half the country is NUTS.
They are irrational.
I’m not a fan of philosophical meanderings, but true studies in Philosophy, as I’m sure you know, start with Logic classes which are almost as rigorous in their proofs as Calculus.
Half the country has been taught they can start with an invalid PREMISE and proceed to flawed conclusions. An invalid Premise should not even be considered in a rational argument. It should be discarded.
Rational, pragmatic and determined action is needed.
Lord, hear our prayers.
It doesn’t help when the whole dem platform is based an being a victim.
Not only a war on “reasonableness,” but also a war on Reason itself.
The last desperate tactics of an unreasonable NPC are to interrupt their adversaries, resorting to labels and ad hominem, coupled with a vocal increase in volume.
Reason and critical thinking skills are almost always absent, substituted with a self righteous quick wit, believing it is a sign of skill or intelligence when debating with someone holding a contrasting argument.
They are hopeless.
Enjoy witnessing their pitiful, anxiety after being triggered.
Let them howl, and just shake your head with rejection.
Diapers are full of it. Repeatedly.
“Liberty Valance? He’s the toughest man south of the Picketwire. Next to me.”
I am a repub but not a Trump head. The current situation looks like trying to negotiate with someone who wants to burn your house down. What exactly is to be negotiated ? You get together and agree to only burn half your house down ? I don’t want any of my house burned down.
I understand there are a fair number of people in America who for whatever reason(s) really do not like America. They want to change America into some other country. In order to do that they have to negate the constitution. If you listen to the dem candidates they seem to fall into the group of people who want to do that. The US Constitution (and its amendments) are what set us apart from the rest of the world. America is one of the last places where people are actually pretty much free. I want us to remain free.
I hear dems make the most outrageous claims. For example, Trump is destroying democracy. This is simply incorrect and I have no idea where they get this from. Trump, whatever his faults may be, is actually following the constitution fairly closely. Many of the policies of the dem party would require negation, or at least the twisting of, the freedoms granted to us under the constitution. I am not aware of any policies Trump is/has proposed that are against the constitution.
Then you have the impeachment thing. Even if you are a dem you have to agree it is totally one sided. As far as I can see no laws have been broken. If they catch Trump out robbing 7/11 stores with a pump 12 gauge wearing a Nixon mask then he should be removed. The so called whistle blower does not qualify as a whistle blower under the statute. Whistler blowers are not afforded anonymity under the statute with the exception of the IC IG – the IC IG can not out the identity except under certain conditions. If you want the details go read the statute. The whistle blower lied in the complaint. Read the call transcript.
Pretty much all agreements between nations are quid pro quo’s. Trump is totally within is authority as President to negotiate with other leaders. He is doing his job. Biden was bragging at a CFR panel discussion about violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977. The constitutional authority and responsibility of the President is to see that the laws are faithfully executed. Trump had to ask the Ukrainians to look into it. It was his job. The fact Biden is running for the dem nomination does not make him immune to investigation – especially when he is bragging on video about breaking the law. Plus, the dems have been screaming for the 2016 election to be investigated for 3 years. Trump was asking the Ukraine leader to assist in that investigation – the very thing the dems have been demanding for years.
I do not accept the assertion that investigating repubs is a virtue and investigating dems is a crime.
Good post.
PS: If you’re a real republican you’d be a Trump head and proud of it.
Almost all republicans are RINO clowns. That’s why Trump had to beat both parties to win.
China owns most of our so called elected leaders.
[This is not a reasonable response to a fellow member of society. This is a call for society to exterminate the invader, like a call to the immune system of the body. ]
YES! but you find this UNREASONABLE?
The only reason myself and a Somali are part of the same “society” is that some traitor / non-member of my society brought them over and imposed them on me. I certainly did not invite them over, and I did not pay to have them come over; some asshole who hates me brought a 12th-century tribesman of another religion across the oceans and “settled” them in my country. There is no way a 12th-century tribesman had enough money to buy a ticket to get here; no sane 21st-century American would live next to one.
There will be a purging of those who do not belong in America; whether by famine, disease, accident or combat they will leave or be exterminated. And those who brought them over are targets as well. When the resources get tight enough, the crops fail and food becomes tight enough, the currency collapses and the EBT becomes extinct or some set of circumstances I cannot even imagine occurs, it will happen.
There are tons of folks I share a “society” with who want me dead, my wife and child dead, our people dead and our culture erased. Extermination will occur, their side or mine, and I will not go quietly.