Uncategorized – Page 2 – Full Frontal Nerdery

Stop Blaming Men For Your Failures As A Woman

Posted on November 1, 2016November 2, 2016 by Shannon

I recently had a friend ask my opinion of this post entitled, “Why Women Need To Start Asking Men Out…Because Men Have No Balls,” and oh boy….

what-even-face — *fights the urge to slap a mutha*

Where to begin? The most glaring stupidity is the premise of the article; that is, if men are inherently deficient, why would you want to go out with them?

The author (who gave her actual name as if she’s proud of this tripe) then went on a 20+ paragraph rant about how stupid, scared, puerile, and gutless men are.

She laments, “There’s no door-holding, no hand-holding and definitely no free drinks. There’s no taking off hats or courting through invitations. There are no smooth moves, no jackets to dinner. There are no flowers, no tables by candlelight. But, most importantly, there are no dates.” Sounds reasonable, right? I mean you need a date if you’re going to be given flowers and taken to candlelit dinners and hold hands. The drinks aren’t free just because someone else pays for them, but we get the general idea…she’s describing courtship. Right?

Wrong. She then proceeds, “If you’re a single woman, you probably envisioned your twenties as a roaring social scene full of expensive dinners and lavish nights out. You probably thought you’d have a boyfriend, or at least a few dates a week.”

Uhh…at least a few dates a week?? Of expensive dinners? Several dates a week???

budget-bro — *You failed math, didn’t you?*

She made it a whole paragraph into her post before she begins a diatribe of such epic stupidity that I felt compelled to dissect it.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that perhaps one reason men in her peer group aren’t spending lavish amounts of money on her is because they don’t have the money to spend. In your 20’s, you’re figuring out life, facing the reality of student debt, trying to establish yourself in a career, and probably living in a sparsely furnished abode with roomies. She obviously thinks a string of Christian Greys are going to vie for the honor of dropping fat stacks on entertaining and feeding her, and that they’ll be polite about it.

christian-grey — *50 Shades of Delusion*

She writes of the failures of men, “They’ll make eye contact with you in the bar, but never come over. They’ll get your number, but never call. They’ll offer to buy you a drink, but never pay.”

I don’t know, maybe they’re in the bar to drink and relax, not engage with a millennial harpy.

“They’ll say a girl is hot, but never hit on her. They’ll text you for a week, but never ask you out. They’ll do absolutely everything but make a move.” Apparently they just aren’t doing the hitting on and the making of the moves in the exact manner which you prefer, but they are indeed making moves. You just don’t like their moves.

She then goes on to complain that men will chase a woman down to get her number, but wait a week to text as if the only possible item on his agenda that week should have been texting her.

Never fear, though, because M.H. (millennial harpy) has the answer!

“Now, the unfortunate paradox for a woman is that she must be the chased and the chaser. She must be the target and the shooter. She must play coy and simultaneously pursue him.”

She must complain incessantly and expect lavish dinners several times a week…

“Anyone notice the problem here? Yet again, women are left to do all the work. We’re left playing both sides of the game because they’ve simply forgotten how to play.”

Pretty sure if you’re expecting a man to invest time, energy, and funds into wooing you, calling it a game is a sure-fire way to turn him off.

keeping-score — *Lavish dinners ONLY, you man-child!*

M.H. has decided that her dating woes are due to the fact that “… men don’t know what the hell they want from us….We must tell them what they want if we’re to get anywhere close to the goals we had for ourselves.”

Yes. Because dating is all about yooouuuuuuu, ladies! I suppose the irony escapes her that she complains about men being weak, indecisive mama’s boys, but her solution is to treat them like weak, indecisive mama’s boys who just need her guidance so that they might make her happy.

I’m curious if she and others like her ever bothered to ask men what they wanted, or if they wanted anything at all. Like my friend Doug said, “[She] seems to assume that “normal” men SHOULD court, chase after, etc. any woman by virtue of the fact that she is a woman? This is nonsense.” It’s just possible that some men aren’t interested in the chase, and even more likely that they aren’t interested in that particular woman.

As if her generalizations thus far haven’t been insulting enough, she posits that men are simply cowards; “They’ll never admit it, but you scare the hell out of them. After years of social conditioning, we’ve been duped into thinking that men are the strong ones…TV lied to you. Men aren’t these masculine displays of strength and perseverance. They aren’t these persistent characters..”

chandler — *Because media and society have been so kind to portray men as pillars of strength.*

It’s possible that the prospect of spending time with the author of that piece is frightening, but not because men are cowards… it’s because they’re sane.

M.H. then goes on to regal us with the strength and intelligence of women, and how they are forever putting themselves out there for the good of society. She does this, of course, by denigrating the women who are raising boys into men who have the audacity to actively avoid her company.

We women have to stick together, ya know.

an-idiot — *I’m sure that will never bite her in the butt*

Perhaps my favorite part of this inane drivel passing for quality writing at Elite Daily is this: “In the society in which we live today, with Gigi Hadid and Miranda Kerr’s Instagrams readily accessible, women have got a lot to compete with…We can dream about Channing Tatum and Chris Pine all we want, but at least women are rational enough to understand that’s just not gonna happen. So we settle for the options we’ve been given and learn to work with what we have.” (emphasis added)

I don’t know why you have such trouble attracting a man, sweetie. It’s a mystery.

picard-no-you-didnt — *She’ll settle for a lavish dinner and flowers.*

The coup de gras in this misandrist rant is this assertion: “Men also know that if they don’t get up the nerve to ask you out, all they have to do is swipe right on Tinder to skip the date and get right to the good stuff.”

First, if you are calling sex “the good stuff,” you obviously don’t feel you have much else to offer. Second, unless all these potential suitors are gay, there are other women enabling this behavior. Finally, if what you want are lavish dinners and he’s obviously only in it for sex, WHY DO YOU CARE THAT HE’S NOT PURSUING YOU? It’s simply a matter of wanting different things, and you need to get down off your sanctimonious soapbox about how indecisive men are. They made a decision. They chose not you.

As my friend Ruth said, “Men don’t approach women for dates anymore, because they’ve been yelled and screamed at that women are too empowered to need or want them for more than an F-bomb. And the GOOD men are looking for so much more.”

Men who are looking for more than no-strings copulation are willing to put effort into a date. They’ll provide flowers and candlelight and the whole nine…but they are not interested in playing games with a whiny little diva who wants to use them for their pocketbook before she decides to settle for not-Channing-Tatum. If you want to attract quality, you have to be quality.

buy-me-things — *There are always rich, lecherous septuagenarians if being a decent human being proves too arduous.*

It’s true that society has supplanted courtship with hook-up culture, but it’s hardly singularly the fault of men. It’s also true that, like it or not, sometimes he’s just not that into you.

big-old-mess — *You can always just treat yourself to dinner.*

Some Observations, Part II

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Osei

It is that time again where I decide to comment on the things I have seen lately. Given the state of the world, I am not really looking forward to this:

Audio has come out of Donald Trump being an uncouth pig. To which I say, “So?” Not because Trump is somehow excused from common decency, but because it is entirely unsurprising. The people who support Trump know he’s like this, so this is in no way surprising or even disappointing. You cannot disappoint people when there was no expectations to fail to meet in the first place. It is disgusting, sure, but I did not vote to hang this albatross around my own neck; I knew that is what he was from the start.

If anything, I am more irked by the blatant double standard being applied. Yes, Trump is outrageous and ill-disposed to carry himself with any dignity, but what of his opponent? Hillary Clinton is no paragon of virtue. Last I knew, being a corrupt public servant for one’s entire life is worse than being an asshole. After all, I’m fairly certain that four men dying half a world away ranks as something worse than being a sexist pig. A man can always repent of moral vacuity; the dead cannot be brought back to life.

It is funny how every election I have been alive for has been portrayed as the most important election in the history of America. It seems that every four years, the ante is upped and the stakes are more dire than ever before. So it figures that, in the year when these statements may indeed be actually true, I am wholly indifferent to the political process. Let the chips fall where they may; my hope does not lie in Washington any longer.

I never really understood the “All Lives Matter” response to “Black Lives Matter.” There is really nothing in BLM’s name that somehow implies that other lives don’t matter. If anything, my real problem is that there is an assumption contained in Black Lives Matter that black lives do not matter to anyone else. The problem here is that if society at large ignores the problems of the black community, what precisely is the black community doing to solve its own ills? Protesting cops and denigrating white people does nothing to lower the crime rate or lift the ghetto out of poverty. Black Lives Matter feels more like a massive deflection away from issues that can only be fixed by looking inward.

Do your best to appreciate the people in your life and to strengthen the bonds with them. The myth of human progress is in full effect, and very soon the ideal will be shattered…again. Who knows how the world will look in half a decade? I’m not banking on “better.” In that day, allies and friends will be more valuable than ever.

I still don’t understand Harambe memes.

Apathy is Death

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Osei

The funny thing about places strong in the Force is that you start to see things. Hear things…things that you ought to hear, but may not want to. So it was on the Sith tomb world of Korriban as I traveled through the decrepit ruins of a temple. Along the way I was confronted by my companions, each in turn, presenting me with a choice. And each time, I answered in a way that attempted to cut down the middle, appease everyone without taking a stand.

And at the very end, they each judged me alike, admonishing me. “Apathy is death.” echoed in the room, through my mind. “Apathy is death” would be the words to follow me in my journey and my search, subtly affecting all my actions.

Now, if you are in any way paying attention, I am obviously not talking about my own personal journey. Rather, this happens to the Jedi Exile in Knights of the Old Republic II. In a more complete game, “Apathy is death” might have been addressed more clearly, however, this does not mean it is not an important life lesson.

Lately, this article has been floating around. To summarize, it is a baffled look at the tendency of millennials to think that not knowing how to be a functional adult, at the most basic level, is somehow a positive thing. They think that being incompetent or lazy is cute or desirable. This is, of course, inane and foolish.

However, it occurred to me that there is something far worse happening with today’s youth, which goes beyond mere narcissism: Apathy.

Millennials are not just being lazy when they let the laundry pile up in the corner. They do not just think it is cute when they order take out every day of the week because they hardly know how to cook. It is not just them thinking it quirky when they cannot manage their money.

It is apathy.

They simply have no desire to actually be functional adults. The will to be respectable, capable, and dependable does not exist within them. Millennials simply do not care.

Now we see the results daily. The young adults who meander through life without any real or serious goals: apathy toward the future. They do not get their lives in order because they have no real desire to actually get their lives in order. The future is far away and nothing to worry about.

The college students who demand safe spaces on college campuses: apathy towards different opinions. Sure, they have intense, angry reactions to opinions with which they disagree. However, in the end, their true reason for seeking safety from disagreement is that they simply don’t care about opinions different from theirs. It is much easier to not care at all.

The people who attach themselves to every half-baked social justice cause cooked up on the internet: apathy towards making a real difference. It is easy to make a lot of noise on the internet. It is easy to yell obscenities at cops during a protest. It is easy to call people you have never met bigots and xenophobes. What is hard is to actually change these things, to do something meaningful which might actually have an impact on the world. One can watch from the sidelines, saying “This is awful/great” while excusing oneself by saying “This is far from me” or “It cannot touch me here, in my little bubble.”

Life on this Earth invariably trends downward: we all get older, that which was once new atrophies. To spend your life doing nothing with yourself because you are indifferent won’t stop death from arriving. Apathy is death because inaction inevitably means that you build nothing up. You can do nothing good, nor can you prevent bad from happening.

Apathy is the worst kind of death; the death of a life lived to its smallest, of potential thoroughly wasted. And an entire generation has grown up apathetic to life itself.

15 Years

Posted on September 11, 2016September 11, 2018 by Osei

Fifteen years is a long, long time.

Fifteen years ago, I was still in school. I was still just a kid, for whom college and adulthood were but a distant worry, nothing to be concerned about. Politics was just one of those things I saw on Sunday morning talk shows. The world was still full of dreams and the future was bright.

That morning, I was in social studies, doing an activity of some sort; I hardly remember what it is and it wasn’t important in the long run. That’s when the announcement came over the PA, instructing teachers not to turn on their televisions. Naturally, this was the dumbest thing administration could have done, because within seconds, ours was on to ABC, and the images of the burning towers. We weren’t sure what was happening, as pretty much everyone else in the world was at that moment, so we tried to get on with it, casting hesitant glances at the news. Twenty minutes later, the signal was cut.

I’ve always been conflicted on that decision. On the one hand, I could understand. In a school of ~1500 students, many of whom had parents working in and around New York City, there is good reason to try and restrain fear. On the other hand, we were blind for the rest of the day. We knew planes had hit and the towers burned, but we learned nothing more until after school.

That was when I learned the horrible truth. The towers had fallen. All of the World Trade Center was gone, buried under a pile of twisted metal and dust and ash. The Pentagon had been hit as well as a crashed plane in my own state. I heard the possible death tolls rise over five thousand. I watched Peter Jennings, a man I had considerable respect for, fail to hold together.

In a world where war was a distant echo from places like Israel and Kosovo, harsh reality exploded into my mind. It struck in a place that I had visited not even five years before, a place that marked a skyline burned into my memory from childhood.

In an instant, the world had changed.

The myth of human progress: until recently, it was a concept I understood to which could give no name. The myth asserts the idea that humanity is “progressing.” It is the idea that the progression of technology and morality will lead to a better, brighter future without war and conflict. The myth first appeared in the early 20th century. The invention of motorized land and air travel, the proliferation of electricity, the dawn of modern medicine had all led to an atmosphere of the unstoppable force of mankind.

World War I shattered this perception. Humanity’s progress didn’t only make life better; it made it many times easier to end those lives. And so in a crucible of blood and suffering, the myth suffered its first death.

It would not be resurrected again until the end of the century. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dawn of the Information Age, humanity seemed set on the path of uninterrupted progress once again. And once again, the myth was shattered. Once again, we learned the hard way that not everyone in the world believes in a freer, safer world.

But this time, rather than being changed, people grabbed up the shards and tried to pretend that progress was unabated. They tried to pretend that the world wasn’t as dangerous as it always had been, the goals of all humanity were aligned together. Those that had taken the attack as a wake-up call were opposed to those who had not.

And so I have watched the world crumble ever since. Where once there had been unity, the world was slowly consumed by division and hatred. The love borne out of shared grief, love that once brought us together, wasted away. Maybe the terrorists won after all. Rather than focusing on tearing them apart, we tear each other apart. Now we are divided in every sense of the word, even to the point where we cannot agree there is an enemy to fight at all.

So, on this day, the fifteenth anniversary of the attack that changed everything, my heart is grieved. Not only for the lives lost on the day, but for the world that this day birthed.

Enough With the Political Sanctimony

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Shannon

It’s no secret that the political atmosphere is rife with tension these days. It doesn’t help that both online and in the real world, there are paid trolls who are making bank off the divisiveness of various movements and campaigns. It is mentally and spiritually exhausting to deal with.

I’m simply tired of the political blame games. I’m tired of broad insults and assumptions.

Someone asked me earlier, in discussing ‘deplorables’ and ignorance and support for this side or that, “Who’s fault is that?” You know what I said?

Ours. It’s our fault.

It’s my fault and your fault. It’s everyone making sweeping assumptions and dispensing broad insults and NOT talking to the people around us in real life about the whys and hows of real life issues. We aren’t even aware of what issues matter most to the people living around us, working with us, and teaching our kids, or why those issues matter to them.

Seriously.

I think we need to step away from the internet and relearn how to speak to actual human beings. We need to be able to discuss, educate, and persuade without being complete asshats, because that’s pretty much how we all come across when all we do is obsess over who’s on the right side of politics all day online. We spend an inordinate amount of time arguing with people whose opinions we don’t esteem in the least, and whose lives we couldn’t care less about. And why don’t we care??

If you can’t see your opponent as a human being with value simply because they vote differently than you, then I’d say that says a lot more about you than it does about them. I certainly don’t like what it says about me, and as convinced as I am of my rightness, I realize that it makes no difference when I crow about it on the internet. That usually doesn’t change anyone’s mind, but it validates my opinion with every like and “Amen!” thrown my way…which is still pretty unproductive.

Being morally superior about our choice in candidate does far more harm than good. I can and will express my opinions, but I’m trying to avoid issuing insults to people I don’t even know. People whose lives, concerns, and values I can’t possibly understand. I know that their support may go to policies and candidates that I find detestable, but why should I then write them off as if they’re no better than dirt? Not knowing what led them to this choice, what good does it do to insult them now that they’ve reached it?

Basic decency has taken a critical hit in this election cycle. Even good people are so caught up in the frustration of it that they’re letting their pride and ego turn them into something unrecognizable. I get it, we’re all extremely frustrated! We’re all disappointed and disgusted and afraid. But we’re also all still human beings, and we’re more complex than “Trump voter” or “Hillary voter” or “Johnson voter”. We’re all far more complex than political affiliation. Our importance and worth extends beyond “ally” or “opponent”.

You may be right. You may have the most facts and the best arguments. You may have a brain the size of Canada.

But if you don’t have a heart, you’ve lost. It’s just that simple.

You’ve lost your ability to influence people who you will need on your side politically, and you’ve lost a crucial part of what it takes to be a decent person in general.

There’s a saying that goes like this: “You can be right or you can be happy.” Just look around you. Look in the mirror. It’s pretty clear that we aren’t choosing happy, and frankly I don’t wish to be allied with a bunch of sourpusses.

I simply cannot retain the good in me when my mind and mood is being poisoned by negative influences. I choose to be happy, and to be at peace.

Romans 12

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

¹⁷Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. ¹⁸If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. ¹⁹Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,”says the Lord.

Bias and Empathy

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Shannon

Everyone has inherent bias.

In any number of ways and on various topics, we have a preconceived and prejudiced view of the world. We can’t help it; our perceptions are shaped by our own experiences. We can no more gain experience by listening to someone else than we can gain height by standing next to an NBA player. We may be able to gain understanding, but we cannot feel or think any differently unless we process other perceptions through the lens of our own known experiences. This is called gaining empathy.

The dialogue I see every day concerning societal ills (specifically for this post, racism and sexism) is simply unhelpful. We have foregone compassion to pursue some kind of experiential competition, a jockeying of anecdotes, if you will. I have been told I know nothing of racism because I’m white, or that I must have internalized misogyny because I care about a man’s voice in an abortion debate. I’ve even seen the argument that I cannot speak with any authority on race because I’m blonde. It is largely accepted in our society that some experiences and opinions hold more weight simply because they fit a certain narrative.

I don’t have to be black to know what racism is, I have experienced it first hand, and quite forcefully. I have no “privilege” that protects me from hate, because hate is a spiritual ill. It isn’t choosy about who it infects. To be told that my experience is less valid or that my opinion less valuable based on my race is in itself racist. To be told that I must always side with a woman in a debate over sexism is perpetuating sexism. These narrow parameters we insist on are limiting not only our dialogue but also our understanding. We are propagating the very things we claim to want to abolish by telling others they aren’t qualified to speak because they don’t fit our idea of a victim.

There is no way for someone else to know our experiences, or how those experiences affect us. The only thing they can do is empathize by relating to us through an experience of their own. I have never lost a child. I imagine it is unbearably painful, and my empathy for those who’ve lost a child is based on my experience of knowing love as a mother and of losing a nephew. That loss devastated me, but I know my love and my loss was less than that of his own mother, because I know that my love for my own children is greater than anything else I’ve ever known, including my love for other family members. It’s simply different. I can, however, relate based on my own experience. I can empathize. I can understand a little better because my experience is a little closer. I cannot know, however.

Likewise, when someone speaks to me of prejudice and oppression, I can relate through my own experience. When they tell me that the vehicle by which I come to relate to them is invalid, unwanted, and disrespected, they are essentially saying they do not want my understanding; they want my complete submission to their thought control. They wish to implant ideas and feelings that are untethered in either experience or reality. They don’t want me to relate, they want me to substitute my thoughts for theirs. This does not lend itself to realizing empathy, but it is pretty successful as a bullying tactic.

We used to be taught the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, or “Treat others how you’d like to be treated.” This valuable lesson has been twisted and now people will say, “Treat others how they treat you.” You’ve been hated? Hate others. You’ve been oppressed? Oppress others. You’ve been objectified? Objectify others. This ideology is poison. There is no empathy or compassion to be found in it, only cruel one-upmanship and tyranny. This hardness of heart is what we perpetuate when we try to shut others up and devalue their experiences by which they can relate to and understand us. Empathy and understanding are fostered in the shared experience. When we begin to relate instead of compete, we can have constructive dialogue.

Of course, our anecdotes and experiences may still be askew of absolute truth, but they are valuable in establishing a healthy consideration for others via the Golden Rule. Facts (via FBI crime data/statistics) absolutely undermine the rhetoric of the Black Lives Matter movement, but facts do not do nearly as much damage as their expressed disdain for police officers and their disregard for other races in general. Even the most altruistic among them cannot overcome the divide that has been deepened by the inability to value opinions outside of their own. It is much the same with modern feminists. The rampant misandry within feminism today has poisoned all conversation concerning sexism. They do not want to foster understanding, but to obliterate and subvert all opposition to their particular worldview.

It’s important to realize that we all have our own biases. We can’t help how our experiences have shaped our perceptions, but we also cannot force other people to embrace our biases. We have to get over ourselves if we wish to connect, and we have to find shared ground in order to truly foster understanding. We have to return to a philosophy of empathy which says “I do not want this to be done to me, so I must not do this to you.”

Guest Post: How Did We Get Here?

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Osei

A Twitter argument I had with Ace of Spades on Saturday night has led me to ponder this question: How did we get here? How did we as conservatives get to the point where what was supposed to be a conservative party has been taken over by a Hillary Clinton donor who hates free trade, supports Planned Parenthood, traffics in lunatic conspiracy theories, and is the antithesis of everything classically liberal get the votes of so many people who claim to be conservative?

Polling has always shown more people identify as conservative than moderate or even left-wing (I do not use the term “liberal” to describe such people because I believe in the accurate use of labels). And yet, looking at the political landscape, not only are conservatives outnumbered in the country as a whole, we’re not even a majority within what is supposed to be the conservative party. This explains the presidential candidacies of Dole, McCain, and Romney. But it only explains the rise of Donald Trump, a man who has no conservative impulses of any kind and even lives to caricature us on the Left’s behalf.

A lot of his supporters claim that a feckless GOP that surrendered to Obama out of the gate on every battle has helped Trump’s rise. They point to the reckless overspending of the Bush 43 years. They point to conservatives losing every cultural battle over the last two decades. From homosexuality to transgender issues to issues of race and ethnicity, it’s hard to see where the Left hasn’t succeeded in smashing the basic fabric of our society. Everything we believe in is being overturned in violation of the democratic process, mostly by judges who write their own laws. Even judges appointed by Reagan, Ford, and both Presidents Bush have participated in taking a sledgehammer to our constitution and our liberty. Our representatives have surrendered on all most all of these issues. So what’s the answer?

According to a plurality of GOP primary voters, the answer is an authoritarian strongman who has spent most of his life cozying up to the hated establishment by buying them off and in exchange being able to engage in the kind of graft we’ve been denouncing the Clintons for since 1992. The answer in their minds to a GOP who wants unlimited immigration to appease the Chamber of Commerce is to elect a man who himself has hired illegal aliens at his resorts. Not to mention the fact he has paid to have ads run in favor of the hated Gang of Eight bill that would have upped immigration of low-skilled people while providing no border enforcement.

In my exchanges with Trump supporters, it appears that they just don’t care about his leftist tendencies. Which makes their claims about the need to defeat Hillary Clinton being priority number one suspect. What good is defeating Hillary Clinton if the victor is a man which her same policy prescriptions? During this campaign cycle, Trump has advocated for taxpayer funding for planned Parenthood, single payer healthcare (i.e. socialized medicine), transgendered bathrooms, tax increases, a 45% tariff on Chinese goods, and retreating from the world stage via Ron and Rand Paul isolationism. Aside from the tariffs, which of these things would we not get from Hillary Clinton?

The result of a Trump candidacy is not only a landslide victory for Hillary Clinton, but it further discredits the GOP not only as a vehicle of conservatism, but it even discredits us as any kind of opposition force to the statist Left. If you thought there was barely a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties, just wait until the GOP becomes the Trump Party. The GOP will become pro-abortion, pro-sexual deviancy, anti-constitution, isolationist, anti-free trade, anti-religious liberty, and everything else we despise about the Left. The GOP will also become a nativist, nationalist, populist party that has nothing to offer to anyone. Just as the Democrats are the party of aggrieved racial minorities who want revenge on society as a whole, the Republicans will become the party of aggrieved white people who want revenge on society as a whole.

It is true that Republicans need to do a better job of expanding the coalition; conservatives have a similar task. I’m not counting on a Trump victory just by the number of constituencies he has worked hard to alienate, including parts of the base of the party. Between people defecting to Gary Johnson, Evan McMullin, and even Hillary Clinton herself, and the fact Trump isn’t bringing new people into the party, Trump is headed for an epic loss and will likely take down the Senate with him. But since he says a Republican majority isn’t all that important to him, what difference at this point does it make?

Regardless of the outcome of this election, there is going to need to be a lot of soul searching from the Right. My greatest fear is that too many people will do the same thing that happened following the failures in 2008 and 2012; which means, learning the wrong lessons and doubling down on stupid. For some strange reason, after running milquetoast moderates and losing two presidential elections decisively, GOP voters decided to make up for those mistakes by nominating someone to the left of those two failures. In less than a decade we went from the author of amnesty and open immigration to the author of socialized medicine in Massachusetts to a Hillary Clinton donor. If the GOP isn’t careful, the next nominee could be Bernie Sanders himself.

Jack, a longtime viewer of Nerd Rage, is a rare bird: a black American who is also a classical liberal (or conservative if you prefer) in the Northeastern United States. His writings (whenever he has the time or has something to say) can be found wherever someone is willing to post them.

Who Are You To Judge?

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Osei

“Why are you so judgey?”

“Who are you to say what I can or cannot do?”

“Only God can judge me!”

These are all common refrains of the modern age, where it seems one can not issue an opinion of any sort without being considered “judgmental.” It is not an unreasonable perception either. Judgmental people can come across as over-bearing and arrogant. It’s even worse when they appear to be wrong-headed. Judgmental people are very often hypocrites, as too many of them demand perfection when they themselves are, by their very nature, imperfect.

This aversion towards being judgmental has gone too far, however. Instead of calling out people for unpleasantness, the accusation has now become a deflection. Rather than letting others shine a light on how we live our lives, we would rather turn it back on them, accusing them of some sort of untoward behavior. Further, we suggest that the very idea of judgment is an unpleasantness that we, as a society, would rather not deal with.

Of course, there is the inherent hypocrisy of calling out someone for making a judgment: that action in and of itself is a judgment. Everything we say or do involves some sort of judgment. It is how humans operate and how we discern good from bad, healthy from unhealthy, life from death. The idea that society should somehow do away with the concept of “judgment” is ludicrous because it is central to the decision-making process.

The fact of the matter is that the title question in no way makes a call on the value judgment. Instead, it is an evasive way to say “I disagree with you” without ever having to explain why. The problem is not that a certain someone has judged a person or situation; it is that they have made a judgment call that disagrees with one’s own. Rather than debate the value of the opinion or observation, we instead try to cast the observer in a negative light.

Instead of having honest and forthright debate, this mentality has slowly pushed us into a realm where people are afraid to express their opinions for fear of being “branded.”

You think that it is too risky to sleep around? How dare you judge people’s private recreation!

Think abortion is wrong? How dare you judge the women that have had one!

You think gay marriage is wrong? How dare you judge the ways in which people try to find love/happiness!

The list goes on. In each and every case, however, the problem is not judgment; it is the face that the accuser has made the opposite call. The only possible purpose of accusing another of “judging” is to stifle debate.

Perhaps we would be aided in our discourse if, rather than be offended that someone would dare come to a conclusion different from ours, we instead discussed opinions openly.

Guest Post: Random Thoughts

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Osei

Some random thoughts from someone not nearly as wise as Thomas Sowell…

– Life rarely, if ever, turns out the way we want it. You game out various situations in your head, try to prepare for speed bumps or detours, and yet everything still ends in disaster. Maybe you’re reeling over broken relationships. Maybe you’re stuck in a rut you didn’t see coming. Maybe you’ve watched in despair as the country bull rushes towards a false choice in a presidential election. Maybe you’re scratching your head, wondering why what everyone said was going to be a great year is looking to be a terrible year with very little cause for optimism. Maybe this year feels like a cruel joke and that, somewhere, people are laughing at you for being stupid enough to believe you could affect positive change. Whatever it is, things are not right and you feel powerless to make them right. What do you do?

Pray, and pray often. God can fix what’s broken, but first we must be willing to turn it over to Him.

– Watching ABC’s attempts to resurrect some classic gameshows of yesteryear leads me to wonder if there is any corner of American life where outright debauchery and crude mentions of sexual organs hasn’t just overcome everything. But what should we expect from a culture that sees modesty as oppressive and hateful? It’s no wonder you watch Family Feud and Match Game remakes and think, “They just want to make this as X-rated as possible.” Now don’t get me wrong, Match Game was always known for pushing the envelope, but in those days, it was a lot subtler. There were always certain things you couldn’t say. The humor was in double entendre and figuring out ways to clean up what everyone assumed has to be dirty. That’s now out the window. Of the four classic game shows ABC has redone this summer, the only one I would be comfortable showing to young kids (and I have nieces and nephews but no kids of my own) would be the $100,000 Pyramid. It’s a sad commentary on where we are as a culture. But then again, most everything we see today is a sad commentary on where we are as a culture.

– I took a trip to Boston this past week and in between random acts of treason (reenacting the Boston Tea Party), I was reminded of the personal risk the founders of America, the opposition to the Sons and Daughters of Liberty faced, and wondering if we in the modern era could ever pull off such a feat. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor in quest of securing the liberty that God has gifted us. It saddens me that so many of my fellow Americans appear eager to jettison that precious gift and the Giver of that gift in the name of false security (things like equality, safe space, and special privileges to the most easily offended constituencies). We live in perilous times with no end in sight unless we can rally around the idea of returning to a God-fearing society that loves liberty and life. We can’t be a free society without morality. As John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

These observations all sound grim and negative, don’t they? You want me to end this post on an up note, do you? Well, since you asked:

– On Sunday, after visiting a different church than the one I usually attend, I decided to watch a sermon online. The subject was Esther and rising to the challenge of doing what God wanted her to do, which was to save her people from extermination. She was reluctant at first, but once she embraced God’s plan for her, she rose to the occasion and promised to intercede on behalf of the Jews. There’s a lesson in all of this: if you embrace the role that God has for you, you can go far. If you’re willing to abandon your comfort zone and obliterate your safe space, there’s nothing God can’t do for you. You might have to fundamentally transform yourself (or rather, you will have to allow God to fundamentally transform you), but God can do it all. Rely on Him, and all things are possible.

Religious Opinions

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Osei

One of the hallmarks of the 21st Century west is the decline in religious faith. Though many people still identify with a faith out of tradition and habit, the number of dedicated, sincere believers has declined substantially.

Between this and the concurrent rise in rationalism and secularism, faith (as a broad concept) has seen its societal respectability decline as well. This, in turn, has led to a common belief that “faith has no place in politics.” More specifically, it has led to the belief that one’s faith should not be reflected in political beliefs or at the ballot box.

This is, of course, ludicrous. If one’s religious faith is to have any meaning whatsoever, then it must necessarily impact all areas of one’s life. There are plenty of people who are “Sunday Christians,” the sorts of people who pay their faith little mind outside of a handful of rituals. However, there are many people for whom their faith is a very serious part of who they are and how they think.

The most obvious example of this occurs in the abortion debate. It is entirely possible to make a scientific argument against it on the basis of when life begins. But one has to remember, science is merely the explanation of what something is; it provides no reason for why it exists or any moral imperative for how we should treat it. As far as scientific inquiry is concerned, humans are just another animal. Based on rational analysis alone, it actually does become rather difficult to claim that humans, at any stage, have an intrinsic value above the rest of the animal kingdom.

What drives the debate home is the belief that humanity transcends its mortal coil. It is the belief that humans aren’t special simply because they are rational or conscious or at the top of the food chain; humans at every stage of life contain a divine spark, an immortal soul. It is these elements that make abortion monstrous. Because if humans are more than just the body, then we must have some value beyond it.

This is the animating reason for the pro-life position for many people. This argument doesn’t exist when following the purely scientific/rationalist route.

Leftists are very fond of admonishing people for “voting against their own self-interest.” Yet clearly (and unsurprisingly), this does not apply to people of faith. Voting for one’s self-interest only extends as far as voting for leftist policies. Once you stray off that path, indeed, once you vote your conscience according to your devout faith, your participation in society at large is no longer needed.

Again, this is daft. The idea that one’s faith does not somehow constitute a compelling self-interest is arrogant buffoonery. Not only that, but this way of thinking presumes that people can somehow segregate their religious nature from their non-religious one. In any individual who is sincere about faith, this is literally impossible. Faith becomes a part of you and how you think. This expectation is no different than thinking a pilot can jump from his plane and both will then continue follow the same course.

Just because the left lacks respect for sincerely held religious beliefs makes them no less important to the individuals that hold them. We must be increasingly vigilant as the left moves harder and harder to turn Christians and conservatives into personae non gratae.