by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I actually agree with Joe Rogan’s hot take on The Slap, but I hate myself for doing so. All the problems that exist with Rogan and his podcast still exist, but I have to agree with his views on The Slap. (The context of what we believe is totally different, but I agree with the basic premise of his views on the issue.)
But that agreement highlights how fucked the United States is over the course of the next few years. An array of macro trends are all coming to a head between now and Certification Day 2025 and, as such, we’re careening towards an existential choice — autocracy or civil war.
For the time being, I think we pick autocracy.
I say this because for the average American the “autocracy” is currently such an abstract concept that they don’t really understand what it would mean to them on a personal basis. So, what’s most likely to happen is either Trump or A Republican will become president and gradually over the course of a few years American civil society will be snuffed out.
Then, when the time is right, there will be a Constitutional Convention and we’ll finally become identical to Russia.
I mention this again because Joe Rogan is the tip of the spear of this gradual transformation in the United States. He articulates for a lot white men the general unease about what’s coming out of the center-Left these days. Of course, he totally ignores the flaming pile of shit that is the MAGA New Right. He couches everything about the MAGA New Right in such a way that he serves as a gateway drug to MAGA.
Or, put another way, I agree with Rogan about The Slap, and it takes a lot – and I mean A LOT — of thinking to keep myself from buying into his broader bullshit message about MAGA. But I’m of the opinion that you need to expose yourself to views you don’t agree with to build up the mental antibodies over the long term.
Anyway, man are we fucked. The chief unknown at this point is if we have a civil war or if we just peacefully slip into autocracy. At the moment, I just don’t know which one we’ll pick.
