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The theory behind vaccination is that you expose the immune system to a small, benign dose of a disease in order to prime it against future exposures. And now you know why they made you read Orwell and Huxley in high school, to make you roll your eyes at these criticisms later
Basically everyone knows "amusing ourselves to death", but that book only has thesis, antithesis. The synthesis is: Brave New World becomes 1984 as its ponzi scheme economy becomes addicted to fast, meaningless liquidity and state-enforced doublethink becomes primary
Orwell's characters were shallow caricatures because although he understood psychlogy, psychological realism would have diluted the impact of his ideas. The critical clue that BNW and '84 are the same world is this passage:
'Comrades!' cried an eager youthful voice. 'We have glorious news for you. We have won the battle for production! Returns now completed of the output of all classes of consumption goods show that the standard of living has risen by no less than 20 per cent over the past year.'
This is in contrast to the thesis advanced by O'Brien: There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler
To say that the 84'ish culture is motivated by a desire for totalitarian power is correct, but there is no one anywhere like O'Brien, not in the whole world. Doublethink and newspeak are not born of vice, but from DESIRE FOR VIRTUE. Doublethink makes you feel righteous, holy
Orwell presents oppressive power as cynical, self-aware, intelligent, cold. It is none of those things. Oppressive power is warm and welcoming, and it doesn't want to hurt you, it wants to make you into a "better person" according to its own twisted understanding
Those who abase themselves in public feel a truly voluptuous pleasure therein. Many thanks to some of you for pointing out that he who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself as a despiser https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1030443257258369024
As we watch our cities tear themselves apart, and our âleadersâ fight to denounce each other, and our police kneel to their new lords, notice how newspeak is deployed to tell you how you must react
The doublethinkers are trying to hide their failures, to pretend the breakdown of civic order is righteous, because they arenât just tyrants, theyâre embarrassed. They see the decay, plain as you, and they blame it on your âracismâ instead of their criminally bad leadership
And in light of all that, let's talk about words. We are being devoured by Orwellian lies, and one reason that the lies grow so well is that they route around our linguistic defenses.
We are witnesses to the birth of a new faith and a new church, but most people still don't see it, or they deny it, maybe because their definition of religion is too narrow, or maybe because there is no good name yet for this new faith https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1212034852041699331
Of course there are plenty of names for the new religion, but none of them cleave reality at the joints: Intersectional feminism, black lives matter, the woke, diversity, LGBT, and so on. But they are either awkward to say, or don't capture the underlying unity
The new religion has no name, and it likes it that way, because there is no icon to attack. Its moral premises are beyond question because they are nebulously outside of any one label or creed. If you accept them, you're a "decent person" and if not, you're a "shitty person"
Do you believe in $OUR_CAUSE or are you a shitty person? In addition to being emotional blackmail (how long til that word is banned?), this formulation is an exosemantic gang sign, a phrase that connotes tribal affiliation with plausible deniability https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1267813711424569344
As with any religion, the faith with no name has its different theological schools, which even fight with each other. The major schools are queerism, feminism, and blackism, the latter of which is an ecumenism in which white people worship black people.
Blackists in this formulation are always white, but they tokenize and coopt black people into their sick, self-centered ritual of pharisaical atonement. And many black activists know it, but they can't resist the worshipful fawning of white sycophants
Think of the unfortunate black people in tech companies right now who are being forced to join diversity panels in the name of "inclusivity," when all they want to do is work productively. But white liberals can't even let them have that!
The diversity committee in every company in America is a gaggle of white women. Orwell knew: "It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosersâout of unorthodoxy."
And all of these theological branches spring from the same seed, and the only people who deny it are playing dumb so they can pick a fight. âIt's not a religion, I just believe in human rights, I just...â https://twitter.com/CityBureaucrat/status/1268142575329869824
As always, this exact spectacular moment will pass, just like OWS, just like the Rodney King riots, just like the Days of Rage, but this new religion keeps winning new converts, cordycepting the old faith by quoting a single verse to a nation of biblical illiterates
From MLK, Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, to Harvey Milk and Matthew Shepard, the faith with no name will continue to manufacture saints and martyrs. Next May 25, no matter who is president, George Floyd Day will be our next national holiday. Bunker Up.
How can anything compete with the real danger, the real ecstasy, the emotional highs and lows of the great awokening? No one feels anything in the old religions any more, they want something to make them feel ALIVE https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1121900804711956480
When Christians tell you how naughty you are, you don't believe them, because queerism has married state power, and eroded the shame we feel for sexual sins. When the faith with no name tells you how naughty you are, it proves it with wild spectacles https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/1268296727062347777
Christians are persecuted by bureaucrats, tamely and passively. Blackists are persecuted by cops with guns and gas grenades. (They seek their persecution, as all persecuted men do) Only one of these is exciting. For Christians to compete, they need to find some lions
One feature of the faith with no name is that its adherents choose names for themselves that contain a rhetorical trap--antifa can't be fascist, antifa mean ANTI-fascist, haven't you heard? https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1034162623799906304
If you try to argue against "black lives matter", you instantly lose, because to engage the assertion is to implicitly accept the underlying METAPHYSICAL premise. Itâs the equivalent of trying to argue with "does your mom know you're gay?" -- an unforgivably homophobic question
If the average person is going to oppose the faith with no name, the first step is naming the demon. We must find a way to manifest their idols, so that we can denounce them. You can't easily oppose black lives matter, but you can oppose the cultic power from which it emanates
The ideal name cannot sound like a slur. It be neutral, concise, and above all, tempting. The adherents of the faith with no name must choose it as their label. Just as it became easier to rout dissidents once they foolishly identified as alt-right, we must name this dark power
No existing name will suffice, and we know this because no existing name has sufficed. Things you can't name are things you can't understand, and things you can't understand are things you can't fight.
