Guest Post by Freed Radical
A clever blog commenter coined the term hopium, meaning misplaced and ill-conceived hope, consumed to the point of becoming addictive, clouding the mind and reasoning capability of the addict. I hope (in the most unaddicted sense) that the commenter received his due accolades and five seconds of Internet fame for that stroke of pure genius. Oh, how clever we have become, we Internet mavens.
The idea behind hopium is that some of us are waiting for a rescue that will never come, such as the Triumphal Reentry of Donald Trump back into the White House to Kick Butt and Take Names and Make America Great Yet Again. I’ll agree, that’s misplaced hope, if Trump values his life. Also misplaced is the hope for John Durham to precipitate high level perp walks on live TV. That hope is sure to disappoint just as the William Barr hope did. They are both on the government payroll, in line for a government pension. They work for the system and the system protects the system, including those in polyester pants suits.
False hope cons those on the left, too. Obama’s Hope and Change ultimately did nothing for the hopers and changers, unless you consider an obamaphone a hope fulfilled. You can always lower the bar until your meager hope gains a great victory. For example, a fake vaccine.
So the basic idea behind hopium, misplaced hope, is valid. My problem with the concept of hopium is that cranky hopeless keyboard jockeys all over the world get their sense of value from wrecking other people’s legitimate hope, and they are now using hopium as a subtle tool of destruction. “You don’t have hope, do you?? What a moran.”
This concept is spreading like too-clever crack cocaine, and needs some consumer rejection because hopium, the term and all it contains, is itself becoming a narcotic. A quick search shows many articles and videos mentioning hopium.
As a Christian, I fully understand the concept of hope, that this world is not as it should be (even the atheists admit this), and we hope for God to set things right at some future date. Even more, God works within Christians now, and so much of what we hope for can be accomplished today if only we have the will and spine and humility to do it, individually and corporately, in spite of the evil that works against us. Even more, I have seen God work miracles in my life and the lives of friends and family, bringing true hope to fulfillment, and proving the value of hope to me personally. All it takes is one counterexample to disprove a negative assertion, such as, God does not work miracles today, and I have a bunch.
(“Well, then post them here on the forum. We’d love to hear about those miracles.” Tell you what, get close to the Lord yourself and collect your own miracles. OPM (other people’s miracles) are of value in building faith and hope, but you don’t need mine. There’s a whole Bible full of them.)
Even in the human realm, there is some hope. As a conservative, I have surrounded myself with quality people of proper thinking, people of solid character, including some readers and authors here. From time to time we win a victory against liberalism and socialism, and I admit I do place some well measured hope in these folks. My foundational hope is not in man, but I have learned whom I can trust and how they roll.
Let’s look deeper at hope. The word is interesting, and I use it more as a verb than a noun. As a verb, it takes an object, the thing you are hoping for. But it also takes an antecedent, the force or person who brings that hope into being.
Many people accused by the hopium hounds of having invalid hope do actually have hope without a powerful antecedent. The Trump reinstatement throng is an example, as noted above. There are literally millions of Federal Government employees who would rather see Trump dead and his orange body suspended spread eagle between the columns of the Lincoln Memorial. The Roe v. Wade reversal throng is another example, where it does not matter if the Supreme Court reverses Roe, the legislators will simply pass laws explicitly legalizing and completely financing baby killing, and a lot of other killing, too. (Have you gotten your booster clot, uh, shot?) The power of conservatism within the liberal system is low. Our true hope lies not in any judge or legislature.
On the other hand, hope with a powerful antecedent is no fool’s dream, but the action of a wise man. Trusting in God to work in your life is wise, particularly as you pursue him in prayer. Who could be a more powerful antecedent than God, and loving, too? And if there are people around you saying that there is no God or that God does not speak or interact with us, they have cut off their own antecedent of hope, so certainly they will have no hope and be quick to dump on others’. Be kind, but do not let them dissuade you of the facts.
Also realize that the object of hope must exist in harmony with the antecedent. For example, my hope that God will bless my children is a valid hope because they are following God intentionally, though how that blessing looks is up to him. Conversely, we see a large segment of our society hoping for peace and prosperity and looking to the government, their 21st century slaver, to do it for them. The object of hope and the antecedent are in conflict, and the deceived are dying in their false hope.
We too must beware of evil hopes creeping in. If I hope for somebody’s death, I have to ask to whom I am appealing as antecedent. Apparently, the elites are hoping for the deaths of 95% of humanity, and we know exactly who and what they claim as their antecedent. For details, I refer you to every other article on TBP.
Yes, there are good hopes in the heart of man that are not fulfilled, or which are delayed at length. This is not hopium, for only a dead heart is devoid of hope. Too many conservatives are types of Marvin the Paranoid Android, very intelligent, but lifeless on the inside while still walking and talking intellectual hopelessness. Lots of dead people inhabit social media and spread hopelessness. If our enemy can destroy our hope, we are defeated already, and if they can convince people on our side to destroy our hope, their victory will be all the faster.
If you are letting the hopeless on our side suck away your hope, just stop it. Many, many conservative video bloggers monetize their channels abusing the hopes of good people. I know several people who are so desiccated of hope that all they do is sit in front of the computer and wallow in civic self pity. “Poor America!” If you have given up your hope, you are useless, today and in the rebuild. Stop it.
False hope is the target of the people who are warning about hopium, but mostly they do not offer true hope, but destroy all hope. If they cannot find hope, then they want no one else to, either. The word hopium does have a use, but do not let it sweep true hope out of the way, or let it emasculate us into sitting in front of the computer all day long watching political videos.
To boost my hope, I spend time with fellow conservatives building community and living free. And for a good study on hope, search the Bible for the words, faith, hope, and love, for they are connected. Very enlightening. (For a quick one-line study on hope, check out this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this (my personal favorite), this, this, and this.) Remember, garbage in, garbage out – you have to fill yourself with hopeful input to have hope, and there’s not a lot of that on Planet Earth at this point! But why should we restrict ourselves to this pathetic planet in our search for hope?
My hope lies squarely on the mercy, power, and goodness of God. Where is yours? Have you let the Internet cranks steal your hope? Stop it! Consider the possibility that you, and the rest of us who love freedom, motivated by Godly principles, could be the powerful antecedent of the hope of our (new) country!
I don’t know, man.
but, maybe?
I hope a lot of people read this.
And at least some of them think about it, and read it again.
Thanks. I need to hear that…
Very much appreciated, Freed…whoever you are.
Hope is Grace, and a formidable gift. Dum Spiro Spero.
I think grace is walking in trust of the Lord.
God of Grace and God of Glory, grant us courage and grant us wisdom, it will be in short supply!
I hate to be a pedant bit hopium is a 4chan term that’s been floating around at least since last year.
Hope for the best.
Prepare for the worst.
Hope is not an action plan.
It got the self-described “Black Bastard” 8 years in the White House.
Hope was the only thing that remained in Pandora’s box.
Does a man build a fire, a house, a reputation because he is hopeful? No, his concern is rightness and reason, doing what needs doing, protecting what needs protecting, caring for what needs caring, and otherwise listening to that still voice in his own head where messages come and go as if by magic. It’s been said that we always know the right thing to do. Hope and doubt are conjoined and while useful when things are shady, they need be kept on a short leash.
“The idea behind hopium is that some of us are waiting for a rescue that will never come, ”
See, “Rapture Retardation”.
This was an outstanding thread. I have read it twice and found one gem, diamond, ruby, and precious paragraph after another.
False hope. Hmmm. That’s a tell. Hope false is the way to answer tells.
As in William, the best archer there ever was, to hear him & many others Tell it, who says “Go stand over there & put this apple on your head, Evey.”
The un-velcrope-a-doped response to Willie’s tell is “I think not” (therefore I am, & will continue to think, & be, for a bit longer). It’s been vendetta ever since.
(I was there when an archer, & poker psychologist, put one in the black & then split that one with the next one. When he archly asked a guest, who did not archer or poker, to bet against him doing it again, the guy refused. Guest guessed wrong. His eyes couldn’t see the bull. And he left that easy money offer on the table.)
I’d never heard, or read, the “clever” term hopium, until I ran into a guy who, if he didn’t coin it, sure owned it. It was his word to describe the why of how close he came to losing everything, including his parent’s mortgaged house, by being on the wrong, hopeful, side of nearly every trade he took (in the Bond pit, Chicago). That was years ago, & I’ve been using the term ever since. That guy figured out the anti-perfection of his own hope-tells, & pulled the “opposite George (Costanza)” – also years before I ever saw that – & put hope back in Pandora’s Box, where it belongs, & his winnings in his pocket, where those belonged.
Faith, hope, charity – the Christian angle – understood.
From “another” angle, David Mamet, on poker:
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/20/magazine/about-men-the-things-poker-teaches.html
Fear’s a faceted thing. Hope’s one or a few or a bunch of those facets.
That big ol’ Hope diamond is exemplar DeBeers (despite that gang having nuthin’ to do with that particular bit of shine on) fear o’ competition, & what that’d do to the prices of their stock in trade, for a shiny-sparkly example of “another” religion. “We hopehopehope we can keep the cartel killin’ competition, & “prices” high, in the diamond “market.””
Another Mamet bit: ABC. Always be closing. Hard close-charging sales was the context. But in *the* context, the one w/o divisions, w/o fake news maplines, ABC is just reality & reality is just ABC. Reality always closes.
& hopium’s average always overdoses.
Hopin’, same as deservin’, has got nuthin’ to do with it. And so it has everything to do with it. Divine irony of the humanimal tragicomedy.
Because like Franklin’s “if you can keep it” tell, Dante’s “all hope abandon ye who enter here” is in your face takeaway-close flourish for the monkeyback emotion most won’t/can’t quit.
Hope’s the fuel. There ain’t no inferno without it.
Hope isn’t much of a strategy.