Full Frontal Nerdery

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. 

“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.

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.

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. 

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.

We all say rude and stupid things from time to time.  We all have our moments where we say something at the wrong time or treat with others crudely when they most deserve our empathy.  We all slip and we all make mistakes for we are human; it is in our nature.

On the other hand, there are some among us who think this is the only way to live.  The only way to treat with others is to abuse them, be it physically or psychologically.  These people do so with intent, with the express purpose of causing other grief or harm.

Now, which of these would you define as bullies?  Everyone?  Or just that small group of people?

According to the world we live in today, it is the former.

Bullying is no longer aggressive.  It is no longer malicious.  It is no longer persistent and targeted.  It is merely unkindness, particularly toward those things which we like (but not toward those we dislike).  Of course, the object is to tar disagreement with the brush of negativity.  It doesn’t account for complexities or details.  It only serves to denigrate people who disagree with “the right way of thinking.”

The only purpose this serves is to turn people into villains if we don’t like the way they think.

Another word loses all semblance of meaning and, once again, decent people are at the receiving end of the results.

Note: This is adapted from a piece previously published on “Dixon’s Musings,” Osei’s largely defunct personal blog.

Though increasingly few remain alive who can recall it, a century has passed since World War I bloodied the fields of Europe.  Indeed, we are currently in the midst of the 100th anniversary of Battle of Verdun, a 10 month long engagement that injured and killed upwards of 1.1 million men.

In our cozy 21st Century lives, we can’t even begin to imagine the magnitude of such slaughter.  We cannot fathom a single battle lasting so long or costing so much.  Nor can we imagine the enormous toll of the war that followed, in which 300 million died, most of them Russian and Chinese civilians.

Indeed, the last major war to occur entirely on American soil, the Civil War, enacted a toll  beyond our comprehension.  The mere idea of suffering and loss (rightfully) turns our stomachs and makes us staunchly opposed to the idea of war.  Many today talk about putting a stop to “endless wars” in the Middle East, and not unjustifiably.

War is a complicated beast.  On the one hand, it is violence incarnate.  Lives are lost.  Communities turned to rubble.  Those who see it and live to tell about it have a part of them broken forever.  War is the great destroyer, the unleashing of our most primal instincts.  Even when combatants try their best, war touches lives both on and off the battlefield, warrior and civilian alike.

Despite all this, war remains a very necessary evil.

How different would the world be if the northern states hadn’t fought their southern brothers?  How would history have panned out if the Union hadn’t committed to victory on the fields of Gettysburg?  Or if they had not persevered through and beyond the bloody slogs of Antietam or Spotsylvania?

What if Germany had dominated all of Europe in the First World War?  What would have happened if the men of France and Britain broke in the face of the Kaiser’s troops?  How would we look upon the past if the United States hadn’t come to break the stalemate?  Some want to believe that World War I was unnecessary, an accident of careless posturing and diplomacy, but I’m not so sure that’s true anymore.

And what of World War II?  Where the preceding conflict was murky, this, the bloodiest and most devastating in all of human history, was not.  In this war, the Nazis of Germany and the imperialists of Japan were poised to seize control of the entire world.  Entire nations were reduced to rubble, crushed under the heels of states for whom power was the only goal.  Soldiers died by the millions repelling this juggernaut; everyone else by the tens of millions.  From the skies of Pearl Harbor and London, to the shores of Iwo Jima and Normandy, down to the streets of Stalingrad and Berlin, men struggled against the most aggressive evil to ever dawn on the planet.

It’s easy to say that we wish no war had ever been fought or should ever be fought again; merely reading of such things is enough to turn the stomach.  But the problem is that there are people in the world who don’t agree.  There are people in the world who crave power and loathe freedom; such people seek to conquer those who would stand in their way.

Such are the reasons we send young men and women off to war.  Not because we wish to see them maimed, to see them suffer, to see them die.  No, the reason they march off to the battlefield is that the price of freedom, the price of all that we have, is blood.

They go to war because they are the few who are willing to make that ultimate sacrifice.  They do what we are unable or unwilling to do ourselves.  For who among us can honestly and truly say we’d lay down our lives for one stranger, let alone millions?

And yet, that is precisely what millions of soldiers have done.  Hundreds, and often thousands of miles from home, soldiers perished to ensure that we can lead the lives we live today.  We can have our barbecues and parties, we can enjoy the comforts of home, blissful and ignorant of the sacrifices it took.

I wish just as much as anyone that there was no need for a Memorial Day at all, that no man had ever been slain in war.  And yet that is not our history.  That is not the world we live in.  That will never be the world we live in, for the greedy and the selfish and the power hungry will not leave us.  There will always be need for the warrior for there will always be a battle that needs to be fought.

To live as we do now demanded and continues to demand sacrifice.  Today we live in the shadow of the millions who gave everything for us.  Do not forget them.  Never forget them.

I feel like I opened this tab a week ago intending to write this promotional post, then completely forgot about it.

…Oh, I did.

So, what do you think of the idea of being dropped in the midst of a vast, supernatural wilderness where the darkness kills you and you have to eat constantly survive?  How about where giant spiders nests dot the land and sentient, if primitive, pigmen turn into werepigs on the full moon?  Or how about a game where survival and escape is dependent on SCIENCE?!

If any of that even vaguely appeals to you, then check out my Don’t Starve Together series!   I get together with an old friend and her sister as we try to:

Collect poop!

Not get lost!

Not get shot by walrus men!

Not be crushed by giant cyclopean deer!

Thanks for watching!