I am heir to 2,400 year old living traditions of self-government and historical inquiry, which have weathered two millennia of setbacks and long nights. They are heirs of a 10-minute old rebrand of a murderous 20th century ideology that failed almost immediately when tried. So, yeah, contempt. - ThreadSky

bretdevereaux.bsky.social • 42 days ago

I am heir to 2,400 year old living traditions of self-government and historical inquiry, which have weathered two millennia of setbacks and long nights.

They are heirs of a 10-minute old rebrand of a murderous 20th century ideology that failed almost immediately when tried.

So, yeah, contempt.

Reposted from Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty

As much as people like to dunk on liberal elitism, “these Nazi punks are crass idiots and I refuse to bow to my lessers” is, for me at least, necessary for morale and stiffens my backbone when I feel like giving up.

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hamptonstevens.bsky.social•42 days ago

Dang. Well fucking put. Take my follow.

nategm.bsky.social•42 days ago

krietzsche.bsky.social•42 days ago

Goddamn right. The only way to respond to this is revulsion and disgust, a stiff chin and strong principles

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•42 days ago

If we are going to weather this night - hopefully a short one - we are going to need to summon some sincerity and be willing to be 'cringe' in committing, in public, to the ideals we hold.

You cannot keep a republic with apathy and nihilism. You can't do good history with it either.

adamsessler.bsky.social•42 days ago

Damn straight.

elmobronowski.bsky.social•42 days ago

It is just as true, and might be easier to found a justifiable elitism in the values of the declaration of independence and the constitution.

“The constitution is not a suicide pact?” The Declaration at least fucking well was.

Wusses.

elder-george.bsky.social•42 days ago

as Franklin famously said after signing the Declaration, "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

connecticut-yankee.bsky.social•42 days ago

Mar-a-lago delenda est. 🫡

louisevans.bsky.social•42 days ago

every petty tyrant's palace returned to the swamp 🫡

joelreinstein.bsky.social•42 days ago

Reminded of Melania's "I don't care, do you?" coat. And on the opposite end, the way "I don't care" can be a response to feeling powerless

monarchdiaries.bsky.social•42 days ago

Freedom is a pure idea, occurring spontaneously and without instruction

billcaphil.bsky.social•42 days ago

The snobs have captured "elitist" and we should take it back.

I'm an elitist because I want to talk w/smartest people wherever I am.

They're snobs cuz they only want to talk with Yalies (or whatever).

fwordleproblems.bsky.social•42 days ago

And you say obvious stuff like this and people are like “you fools how can you still underestimate them they can do anything they want.”

No. No they can’t. And won’t. You should be embarrassed for believing their fantasies.

kidyossarian.bsky.social•42 days ago

It should have been plain to more people that they just weren't competent enough to consolidate power, the only thing they are actually good at is destruction.

kidyossarian.bsky.social•42 days ago

And even then it's sort of like building a nuclear-blast proof shelter: you just have to survive a titanic amount of pressure for a short time.

fwordleproblems.bsky.social•42 days ago

Yeah. People are like "oh but if they get their foot in the door even a tiny bit it's all over, RIP democracy, we had our chance". And just...no. Staying in power without democratic legitimacy is HARDER, not easier!

kidyossarian.bsky.social•42 days ago

Rebuilding infrastructure, institutions, and trust is going to take a long time, but it's very different from consolidating power. A lot of institutions that would be really helpful have also been hit hard, and they're rapidly burning all the Benefit Of The Doubt that they get in the courts.

fwordleproblems.bsky.social•42 days ago

which is not a terrible difficult thing to be "good" at, as any toddler could tell you.

ranamar.bsky.social•42 days ago

Also, both don't consider that destroying the current solution to a problem doesn't make the problem go away, even if it means you don't have to engage with the current solution to the problem.
(I might be potty-training a kid who is good at managing the stuff but doesn't want to do the management.)

aidanglc.bsky.social•42 days ago

The Thousand-Year Reich didn't even make it to an age where it could apply for its learners permit.

fwordleproblems.bsky.social•42 days ago

And the current unstoppable fascist juggernaut with an airy disdain for the rule of law keeps unluckily running into actual judges who, uh, don't CARE for "airy disdain". So there's that.

tubapeter.bsky.social•42 days ago

Ditto the Confederacy.

exxzackly.bsky.social•42 days ago

📌

exxzackly.bsky.social•42 days ago

You're goddamn right

czrisher.bsky.social•42 days ago

Curious where you date the start of those traditions. I could think of several possibilities but my knowledge is skimmed-Wikipedia level.

elder-george.bsky.social•42 days ago

I can only guess, but I think it's the Roman plebs getting rights during the Conflict of the Orders (ca 400 BCE), the Cleisthenes' reforms that established the Athenian democracy (ca 500 BCE), and the Pericles' reforms that widened the commoners' rights there (ca 460 BCE).

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•42 days ago

And on the 'historical inquiry' side, Herodotus (writing c. 430) and Thucydides (writing c. 400).

tubapeter.bsky.social•42 days ago

I agree with you in spirit, but aren't they the heirs to a 6,000yo legacy of "Rich people are better than you and should run everything" ?

oseanmemes.bsky.social•42 days ago

Not entirely, for most of history delusions of “noble blood” mattered more than wealth alone.

Fascism is a modernist bourgeois ideology - it’s a rebellion of new money against old aristocracies in a nationalist framework that could only come about with industrialization and nationalist romanticism.

oseanmemes.bsky.social•42 days ago

It posits the new money as inheritors to the old aristocracy to achieve national rebirth of an imagined greatness that the pre-modern rulers once sustained but no longer can.

It’s worth reading up on this theory of fascism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palingenetic_ultranationalism

tubapeter.bsky.social•42 days ago

Thanks! Instead of "replace the aristocracy" it's "replace the decadent aristocrats with new fresher aristocrats who 'earned it' and will never turn decadent, we swear."

oseanmemes.bsky.social•42 days ago

Exactly, and that kind of appeal to meritocracy was basically impossible in the feudal era. There’s a reason the Nazis identified with Florian Geyer — peasant revolts were the closest thing to an anti-aristocrat movement in the pre-modern era.

ntse.bsky.social•42 days ago

I live by a simple code. People that do not strive for freedom and a ready to bow before a tyrant are just willing slaves. All their posturing, proudful statements, opinions, are inherently wrong or ignorant as they come from the wrong perspective.

dan-seattle.bsky.social•42 days ago

Given the total melt down in Academia that Trump is causing, have you considered running for office? You have a pretty good head start on most people with your online presence.

bsky.bsld.me•42 days ago

I feel just about the same way about anti-zionism. As a Jew I am heir to 2,500 years of ongoing debate and some gentile fascists want to call *me* antisemitic?

Please. Come to one JVP shabot dinner; we’ll tear your ideology apart and crack you up at the same time.

Saith the Sainted Mel Brooks.

neotiamat99.bsky.social•42 days ago

I strive to be the person John Locke believed I could be.

cassandra-s.bsky.social•42 days ago

We're witnessing right now that when given power they will do deeply stupid and self defeating things. We do not have to take them seriously.

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