The first thing that must be addressed is the concept of “We” in the title. If this concept of “We” (vs. “individualism”) bothers you, you are on the wrong Substack. There are plenty of Substacks and podcasts promoting “individualism,” just throw a dart and you’ll hit one (or 50). I have come to realize that believing in individualism for so many years set me back not only in my thinking, but in my strategy for attaining certain goals. Undoubtedly, there are people out there who can run off into the woods and live by themselves for the rest of their lives and, if that’s what they WANT, that’s fine. But “We” don’t WANT to live like that. And for those that do, I would argue they have probably been indoctrinated against the concept of “We.”
"I have come to realize that believing in individualism for so many years set me back not only in my thinking, but in my strategy for attaining certain goals."
I think we all feel that way. Time to shed the 'I' and move collectively forward.
"People you didn’t believe would fall for COVID tyranny not only fell for it but embraced it and became unyielding soldiers for it." Of everything that has happened over the past few years, this was the blackest pill of them all, albeit a necessary one to swallow. It's much easier to spot the enemy when they have their distinction strapped to their fucking face.
"...their distinction strapped to their fucking face."
Yes! I learned so much about the people around me. People I didn't expect to be fools were and I people I expected to be fools weren't. It changed everything.
Yes. It's one thing to be aware that you're surrounded by the oversocialized and the brainwashed, it's another to have it visually reinforced everywhere you go. Watching it happen in real time made me challenge much of my preconceived notions from the pre-Covid era. Nothing hurts like seeing an old friend for the first time in years and watching them walk through the door with a muzzle on.
Jan 4, 2023·edited Jan 4, 2023Liked by Peter R. Quiñones
Completely agree.
What we are living through now is decades of people on what could be called formerly "our" side living by principles and ideals that were allergic to anything related to power, while counter to an ideology that wants power by any means necessary.
The power is accumulated by our ideological enemies because those before us just dropped it on the floor. Power was icky.
That former libertarian ideology has been turned against itself almost cartoonishly now. Look at "Reason" magazine. They are constantly writing articles to their principles that only serve the subversive means of their true ideological enemies.
Wonder how much those principles will get them in CBDC when Schwab Bucks are announced.
I never saw any conflict between individualism and fraternity. If your "individualism" makes it impossible for you to cooperate with like-minded people toward long term goals you're probably just an asshole.
But that's the problem with labels and identities, isn't it. Once you stick one on yourself you often feel the need to become its paragon. "Am I *really* an individual if there are things I agree with other people about?" Ugh.
When I think about who I want with me in the hypothetical community or fraternity, it's individualists in the sense that they see themselves as being the primary responsible party for themselves and their own families. I don't need anybody who "needs a little help". Saw plenty of that kind of shit on a certain "network", at least in my area - people wanting to "cooperate" where "cooperate" meant receiving hand-outs from someone else.
If you can't take care of yourself and the people you care about in anything other than extreme circumstances you're useless (and note, we are in extreme circumstances). If you can't provide for yourself, what surplus can you possibly lend toward any group effort? You're just going to be a drag on resources.
So get that shit sorted out quick. Then call yourself whatever you want and find some good people to get done whatever it is that you're planning to get done. As long as you're somewhere on that trajectory you're way ahead of the curve. There's that old joke: when a bear shows up you don't have to be the fastest camper, just don't be the slowest. We're surrounded by very slow campers here.
Thank you for this, Pete. I literally had this conversation with several Libertarians over the last few days.
I’m in the middle right now of a several hour long Marie Kondo discard session and I’ve already set aside almost a dozen cubic feet 100’s of pounds worth of stuff I no longer need.
Her book, her Netflix show, and most importantly her techniques and philosophy are invaluable because of how much massively more productive they make your day to day life and how much it de-stresses you
Gonna repost the chapter by chapter read of The Populist Delusion by Neema Parvini aka Academic Agent to begin the red pill suppository process ASAP.
The other critical link of course is Sun & Steel by Yukio Mishima IMHO the greatest essay of all time and Rothbard can suck it. It renders Anatomy of the State moot.
Eric July hilariously retorted that Rothbard was the greatest thing since Jesus Christ which made me burst out laughing so I sent another $100 super chat doubling down on it hyping it up and he and several of the other live-streamers said they’d give it a shot.
I’m referring to 2 separate $100 super chats I sent that they read out loud on the Tuesday Night Main Event livestream on the Geeks & Gamers channel where Eric July aka YoungRippa59 was on imploring Everton to read Sun & Steel by Yukio Mishima.
$100 super chats stay up for 1 hour so I’m hoping out of the 3,000+ people watching live at least 100 downloaded the PDF and at least 10 read the essay.l but in truth it’ll actually be MUCH more because that channel has 356k subs, that single livestream already has 36k views. I’m hoping 3% of those viewers (around 1,000) download the PDF and 10% of those end up reading it (around 100).
I strongly think these figures will drastically inflate as time goes on and as more prominent streamers become aware of this essay.
If even a small fraction of dissidents internalize his message, then they will become completely ungovernable as well as the most physically fit specimens that’ll command respect from everyone around them simply by virtue of being in the room.
Hah, I just today wrapped up a weeks-long exercise in auditing all our crap and disposing of everything that didn't need to go with us in what I hope to be the second-to-last move we ever make (next one after this is wherever the crew agrees, by process of elimination, that we're settling down on).
It's funny how it accumulates. There's the "don't need this anymore", the "don't need this yet", and the "why did we ever think we needed this in the first place". No matter how many times you do this, you end up with a little from each category.
"I have come to realize that believing in individualism for so many years set me back not only in my thinking, but in my strategy for attaining certain goals."
I think we all feel that way. Time to shed the 'I' and move collectively forward.
"People you didn’t believe would fall for COVID tyranny not only fell for it but embraced it and became unyielding soldiers for it." Of everything that has happened over the past few years, this was the blackest pill of them all, albeit a necessary one to swallow. It's much easier to spot the enemy when they have their distinction strapped to their fucking face.
"...their distinction strapped to their fucking face."
Yes! I learned so much about the people around me. People I didn't expect to be fools were and I people I expected to be fools weren't. It changed everything.
Yes. It's one thing to be aware that you're surrounded by the oversocialized and the brainwashed, it's another to have it visually reinforced everywhere you go. Watching it happen in real time made me challenge much of my preconceived notions from the pre-Covid era. Nothing hurts like seeing an old friend for the first time in years and watching them walk through the door with a muzzle on.
Dynamite stuff, Pete--thanks. I think your term: "the inverse and perverse" is brilliant and I will be employing it now!
🙏🙏🙏
As I have taken to saying recently, “I don’t have an ideology, I have a tribe.” The GAE can only be defeated by ruthlessly fighting for our tribe.
Completely agree.
What we are living through now is decades of people on what could be called formerly "our" side living by principles and ideals that were allergic to anything related to power, while counter to an ideology that wants power by any means necessary.
The power is accumulated by our ideological enemies because those before us just dropped it on the floor. Power was icky.
That former libertarian ideology has been turned against itself almost cartoonishly now. Look at "Reason" magazine. They are constantly writing articles to their principles that only serve the subversive means of their true ideological enemies.
Wonder how much those principles will get them in CBDC when Schwab Bucks are announced.
"Globohomo" needs a TM on it. Great stuff.
I never saw any conflict between individualism and fraternity. If your "individualism" makes it impossible for you to cooperate with like-minded people toward long term goals you're probably just an asshole.
But that's the problem with labels and identities, isn't it. Once you stick one on yourself you often feel the need to become its paragon. "Am I *really* an individual if there are things I agree with other people about?" Ugh.
When I think about who I want with me in the hypothetical community or fraternity, it's individualists in the sense that they see themselves as being the primary responsible party for themselves and their own families. I don't need anybody who "needs a little help". Saw plenty of that kind of shit on a certain "network", at least in my area - people wanting to "cooperate" where "cooperate" meant receiving hand-outs from someone else.
If you can't take care of yourself and the people you care about in anything other than extreme circumstances you're useless (and note, we are in extreme circumstances). If you can't provide for yourself, what surplus can you possibly lend toward any group effort? You're just going to be a drag on resources.
So get that shit sorted out quick. Then call yourself whatever you want and find some good people to get done whatever it is that you're planning to get done. As long as you're somewhere on that trajectory you're way ahead of the curve. There's that old joke: when a bear shows up you don't have to be the fastest camper, just don't be the slowest. We're surrounded by very slow campers here.
Thank you for this, Pete. I literally had this conversation with several Libertarians over the last few days.
I’m in the middle right now of a several hour long Marie Kondo discard session and I’ve already set aside almost a dozen cubic feet 100’s of pounds worth of stuff I no longer need.
https://youtu.be/TXzcmr2WcDA
Her book, her Netflix show, and most importantly her techniques and philosophy are invaluable because of how much massively more productive they make your day to day life and how much it de-stresses you
Gonna repost the chapter by chapter read of The Populist Delusion by Neema Parvini aka Academic Agent to begin the red pill suppository process ASAP.
https://odysee.com/@Freemanbeyondthewall:d/episode-771-reading-chapters-1+2-of-the:6
Pete Quiñones
The other critical link of course is Sun & Steel by Yukio Mishima IMHO the greatest essay of all time and Rothbard can suck it. It renders Anatomy of the State moot.
Eric July hilariously retorted that Rothbard was the greatest thing since Jesus Christ which made me burst out laughing so I sent another $100 super chat doubling down on it hyping it up and he and several of the other live-streamers said they’d give it a shot.
I’m referring to 2 separate $100 super chats I sent that they read out loud on the Tuesday Night Main Event livestream on the Geeks & Gamers channel where Eric July aka YoungRippa59 was on imploring Everton to read Sun & Steel by Yukio Mishima.
$100 super chats stay up for 1 hour so I’m hoping out of the 3,000+ people watching live at least 100 downloaded the PDF and at least 10 read the essay.l but in truth it’ll actually be MUCH more because that channel has 356k subs, that single livestream already has 36k views. I’m hoping 3% of those viewers (around 1,000) download the PDF and 10% of those end up reading it (around 100).
I strongly think these figures will drastically inflate as time goes on and as more prominent streamers become aware of this essay.
If even a small fraction of dissidents internalize his message, then they will become completely ungovernable as well as the most physically fit specimens that’ll command respect from everyone around them simply by virtue of being in the room.
https://archive.org/details/sunAndSteel_201810
Hah, I just today wrapped up a weeks-long exercise in auditing all our crap and disposing of everything that didn't need to go with us in what I hope to be the second-to-last move we ever make (next one after this is wherever the crew agrees, by process of elimination, that we're settling down on).
It's funny how it accumulates. There's the "don't need this anymore", the "don't need this yet", and the "why did we ever think we needed this in the first place". No matter how many times you do this, you end up with a little from each category.
Loved it! Including the inverse and perverse…Spot on!