The Plague of Ideas

From Armando Simón.

I recommend this article by  Bunky Mortimer in Taki’s Magazine.  I think it’s  awesome. Read it all here, edited highlights below.

If our time is defined by anything, it is the primacy of ideas over reality. Whether the issue is trangenderism, and its rejection of nature, or the assumption that “human rights” and democracy are universal values to be imposed at gunpoint on other societies, we value abstractions more than truths—feelings more than results. Almost nothing is decided on the merits of whether it will produce a net gain for the greatest number of people, or even if it will work. What matters now for our elites, and for those who seek to boost their social credit score in the hopes of one day joining that august class, is adherence to the orthodoxy of the moment, not real-world outcomes.

If we accept that, for our elites, ideology matters more than human prosperity and well-being, policies that once seemed irrational suddenly make sense. Third World immigration—despite being economically burdensome, undermining social trust, and being of no discernible benefit for the average citizen—can be understood for what it is—i.e., a leftist passion project infused with civilizational self-loathing. That the right has been unable to stop, or even meaningfully disrupt, this project shows not only its relative weakness, but that it is a slave to its own delusions.

Of course, rational people always want to square the circle when confronted with something that seems as patently absurd as replacing your native-born population with foreigners. Such people seek to render the irrational rational by imputing motives that make sense to non-imbeciles. . .

. . . Witness the idiotic protests opposing Israeli military action in Gaza. Gender-fluid, blue-haired protesters straight out of central casting seem unconcerned that their Hamas heroes would label them as deviants and gladly throw them off the roof of the nearest building if given the chance to do so. Feminist protesters decry “the patriarchy” while ignoring the reality that Palestinians regard gang rape as an acceptable tactic in war. . .

While Politico writers fret about the fate of “democracy,” ordinary people worry about whether their daughter will be raped in a bathroom stall by a transexual weirdo and whether they will be able to afford groceries in the face of multiyear inflation.

When we think about the great leaders of the past, it is difficult to imagine them embracing with zeal the self-destructive lunacy of the present. Despite his mistakes, Pericles cared deeply about the success of Athens and the welfare of its people. Every policy was aimed at enhancing the power, prestige, and wealth of his city. Augustus cared nothing for ideology, but he did care about the people he led and the legacy he would leave behind. In assessing his own rule, he noted proudly that he had “found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble.” Such leaders would not have wasted $320 million on an ill-conceived plan to bring aid to people who despised them and would be ashamed that once great cities had fallen into decline on their watch.

. . . only through the warped lens of late-stage liberal ideology do the money-losing decisions of corporations like Disney and Anheuser-Busch make sense. But after all, what is money when the cause of advancing sodomite rights is on the line?! As Mao’s wife once noted, “Better a socialist train that is late, than a capitalist train that is on time.”

When will the fever break? When will ideational concerns give way to common sense? The good news is that periods of ideological insanity—while often destructive and long-lasting—do end, eventually. Whether we’re talking about 19th-century France’s rejection of Jacobinism, or the reemergence of reality-based politics in Russia after generations of Marxist dogmatism, reality has a way of reasserting itself. In politics, populism has often been the corrective to the excesses of out-of-touch elites. That throughout the West populist movements are on the march would seem to support this thesis. But even as the strength of populist movements grows, defiant elites double down on ideological insanity—setting aside soft authoritarian tactics in favor of more aggressive methods. Where this goes is a topic for another time, but we can be confident it’s going nowhere pleasant.