I’m old enough to remember when a book came out called “The Birth Dearth.” I was too young to read it all — I did try — but in general the book was about how America faced a “birth dearth” in the coming decades.
I’ve heard a little bit more about this book as an adult and apparently it was racist as hell. But anyway, I thought of this book when I caught a moment of the tech bro podcast “All In.”
One of their Smartest Guys In The Room participants said offhandedly that America was — you guessed it — facing a birth dearth (among white people) because of gender equality. They were quick to say, “Well, we all know gender equality is good thing…”
Then it hit me — do we? Does everyone agree with that? The answer is, no. In fact, a huge swath of the MAGA New Right agenda is based specifically on the idea of ending gender equality once and for all. It all goes back to the demographic panic among white conservative men about their place in American society.
Hence, abortion — even contraception in general — will probably be outlawed. The whole point is — white conservative men believe they are in an existential struggle to keep their status by forcing more white babies to be born. They will do everything in their power to achieve this goal, to the point of making women second class citizens if need be.
And the quest to do that goes hand-in-hand with the overall MAGA New Right desire to turn the United States into an autocratic white Christian ethno state of blood and soil.
The real question, of course, is as we are in the final transition into autocracy, do we have a civil war and bomb ourselves into oblivion? I still think we’re just going to slip peacefully into autocracy.
Tik-Tok has seemingly come out of nowhere to become one of the most popular social media apps in use. I have to confess I use it a great deal and I’m an Old. But Tik-Tok is curious because it’s not nearly as utilitarian as Twitter or Facebook.
It seems to exist solely for the purpose of flinging off memes at an alarming rate. Most of the time it’s mindless fun. And, even more interesting, at least in my experience, it’s something of a “safe space” for attractive young women. If nothing else, it’s a very female oriented app.
What’s more, there’s very limited room for any sort of discussion on Tik-Tok. To the point that it’s rather useless. Though, I have to admit that Tik-Tok’s comment sections are even worse than YouTube’s which is saying something.
But back to the question at hand — why is Tik-Tok so addictive? Some of it is the app really knows its users really well. To the point that I sometimes think it can read my mind, but that’s just bonkers. I will note, however, that there may come a point when it becomes a running gag that instead of wanting some alone time with their boyfriend’s phone, suspicious girlfriends will just want access to their boyfriend’s For Your Page.
It is interesting that apps have devolved to the point that there is zero thinking involved now. Once Tik-Tok figures you out, you see video after video that you, personally, will like. And I think that’s why it’s so addictive. Most of the time, any video you’re pushed by the service is something you’re honestly interested in to the point that you spend way too much time on it because there never comes a point when you say, “Yeah, this is not for me.”
Not that there isn’t the occasional hiccup. Occasionally, I’ll find myself looking at a video that I absolutely hate. But that’s reasonably rare on Tik-Tok.
The successful of mindless Tik-Tok does make one wonder what comes next. I guess it will be something connected to the metaverse.
It feels like on a certain level that American pop culture is stuck on the morning of Sept 12, 2001. There have been gradual “vibe shifts” now and again over the last 20 years, but for some reason the last two decades have been rather meh on the pop culture front.
As I’ve written before, the 80s were so rambunctious that the early 80s were very, very different from the late 80s. But in real terms, American pop culture is still in a hazy-post 9/11 world. Superhero movies are huge. There really hasn’t been an technological advancement since the advent of the iPhone. And, for all intents and purposes, pop culture is rather bland.
Now, I don’t know how much of that is just I’m old and grumpy and how much of that is real. But it definitely feels as though American pop culture is ripe for a dramatic shift of some sort.
Of course, it’s possible that all of this will be very moot starting 2025 when we we either have a civil war or slip peacefully into autocracy. That’s something we really have to keep in the back of our minds going forward. But it is possible that between now and then popular tastes will change.
And the way we’ll know it’s happened is when a comedy or a war movie or whatever that was released without any fanfare becomes huge out of the blue and Hollywood (and pop culture) turns on a dime and embraces the new the cultural zeitgeist.
But, like I said, it could be that I’m just old. It could be that pop tastes have changed for good and this is just the new normal we have to live in.
The Republican Party loves, loves, loves autocracy. If it’s not blowing Putin’s Russia, it’s giving a reach around to Orban’s Hungary. In fact, the fucking cocksucker racists of CPAC are having their next shindig in Hungary as to prove this point.
Some people seem to think that autocratic America will be some sort of right wing ideal where all that happens is Republicans are always — forever — in office and no one will ever again have to worry about “woke” corporations ever forcing them to have regular sensitivity training.
But, alas, I seriously doubt this.
The reason is, Republicans are out for blood. Every day, it seems the talking points of the Far Right drift down to your Traditionalist relative who just wants the right to say the “N-word” if the mood so hits them, since they’re outraged that African American rappers get to say it and they don’t.
Add to this some basic differences between modern day America and Orban’s Hungary. One is, race. Hungary is pretty homogenous in its demographics and so the issue of race isn’t really relevant. Yes, Orban seems like something of an anti-Semite, but otherwise he doesn’t govern a nation as diverse as the United States.
So, it makes a lot of sense that once we do finally slip peacefully into autocracy, we’re headed for something a lot darker, something a lot closer to an American First version of Nazi Germany. I can’t predict the future, so I don’t know how exactly it will happen, but the entire infrastructure of the Republican Party is now comping at the bit to turn the United States into a dystopian hellscape.
Once we’re an autocracy and there is no longer any political connection between the governed and the government, Republicans will enact sweeping, long-sought after policies that will raise taxes on the poor while at the same time gutting the nation’s social safety net. I mean, who is going to stop them? And how? By voting? Ha!
And that will be just the beginning.
There will be a Constitutional Convention called to “pass a balanced budget amendment” but will soon enough go rouge and pass something probably marketed as a “Second Bill of Rights” that will enshrine the concept that the United States is an autocratic white Christian ethno state based on the concept of “blood and soil.”
Because of how Qanon is now popular within mainstream Republican ranks, the existing ICE camp system will be weaponized and liberals — or just loudmouth cranks like me who refuse to fucking shut up — will be rounded up and have God only knows what happen to them. And form follows function, so POC will probably eventually be killed en masse in some sort of MAGA “Final Solution” of the “minority problem.”
Women’s rights will be eroded to the point that the autocrat will definitely make it clear that they’re aren’t enough white babies being conceived.
Again, I can’t predict the future. I could be wrong. I often — almost always — am. But all the macro signs point to some very, very dark days ahead for the United States. Autocracy is very popular with most of the Republican base, even if a lot of them can’t really articulate that that is what they want.
In short, we’re doomed. Those with the means to leave the United States, will do so. Hundreds of thousands of wealthy center-Left Americans in tech and entertainment will simply leave the country for less autocratic nations. America will leave NATO, ally with Russia, Hungary and Turkey and that will be that. America will grow inward and fascist to the point that all of our arguing over pronouns and fears of being “canceled” will see very, very quaint.
Or we have a civil war starting somewhere between Election Day 2024 and Certification Day 2025.
At the moment, I think we’re going to slip peacefully into autocracy, but it hasn’t happened yet. Good luck.
Jesus Christ, where to start with this one. This only continues to aggravate me because my dark “doom shit” predictions about the fate of the United States continue to be proven correct. Mueller, She Wrote is one of the more respected Blue Check liberal accounts on Twitter and they blocked me some time ago for my “doom shit.”
My response is — have you guys looked around lately? Mueller, She Wrote is apparently still stuck in those halcyon days 2017 when we all thought Mueller was going to save us. Well, jokes on you Mueller, She Wrote. You guys are fucking fools. You are so wrapped up your earnest Twitter threads that you are completely oblivious to what’s really going on.
No only is the system not working — Trump and his ilk are demonstrably above the law — but the Republicans Party seems to systemically grow more radical on a nearly daily basis. And I get blocked for simply pointing this out. Jesus Christ are they fools.
Mueller, She Wrote still having faith in the system is a part of a broader problem among Twitter liberals. They seem to think that something or someone is going to “save” us, when there is absolutely no sign of this being the case.
Even if Trump got indicted, he would still run for POTUS. Even if he got knocked out of running for POTUS for some reason, there are a dozen younger, more focused fascists within the Republican Party who will do the same Goddamn thing that Trump wants to do.
It’s not like I’m making any of this up. This is what anyone can see for themselves on a daily basis by just looking at Twitter.
I want to be wrong. I really do. I wish Mueller, She Wrote was right. I could sleep a lot easier at night if I knew Mueller, She Wrote was right. But, alas, they’re delusional.
Voting isn’t going to save us. The system isn’t going to save us. We have to save ourselves. And the only way I know to do that is for everyone to figure out what they believe in and what they’re willing to suffer for. Maybe store a bugout bag somewhere.
But one thing is clear — between now and 2025, the United States either slips peacefully into autocracy or a civil war begins. And I’ll still be blocked by Mueller, She Wrote.
We are witnessing the radicalization of the Republican Party into nothing short of an American Nazi Party. Just in the last few months, the party has grown more and more hysterical in its misogyny, race baiting, and now, homophobia. It’s like something about their impending return to control of Congress has boiled their minds or something.
But this is part of a broader problem — Republicans have now decided that any fact that doesn’t help their preconceived narrative is “bogus.” They have their orthodoxy and that is their reality. Any cold hard fact that doesn’t fit that orthodoxy is to be ignored, or played down or disparaged. There is now such momentum to this adherence to the MAGA New Right orthodoxy that a lot of “Good Germans” are shifting their stance accordingly.
That’s why 2023 – 2025 will be a very, very turbulent era in not just American history, but, potentially human history. The conditions are there for Republicans to commit genocide no matter which direction we go. If we become an autocracy, then ICE will be weaponized as will the entire ICE camp infrastructure. Soon enough, because of how how Qanon has consumed the Republican Party, liberals will be rounded up and murdered in cold blood. Meanwhile, if we have a civil war, the same thing will happen, only in the Red States to those Blues unfortunate enough not to escape to a Blue State.
I’m well aware of how hysterical all of this sounds. It just doesn’t seem possible that the most powerful democracy in the world would turn on itself like this. But, lulz, here we are. In fact, if humanity survives the impending clusterfuck we’re about to go through, many, many, books will be written that struggle to figure out how things got so bad so quickly.
All the conditions are their for something horrific to happen in the United States between now and around Certification Day 2025. Or, put another way, the process that will end with a historic genocide happening in the United States will begin between now and 2025.
The reason why this keeps being at the forefront of my mind is I’m never going to shut up about how much I fucking hate the MAGA New Right and given I’m a loudmouth crank with no friends it’s inevitable that it’s going to be people like me who run afoul of our new MAGA autocrat — or have to struggle to leave my Red State to get out of the clutches of the radicalize state MAGA government.
All of this sounds totally bonkers at the moment, but things are growing darker by the moment in the United States. Even my “Good German” relatives talk about how “woke corporations” “groom” children for a homosexual lifestyle — or worse. If that’s not a ping from a very, very dark future, I don’t know what is.
This only sounds bonkers because people simply can’t comprehend that the United States could implode into true tyranny. In fact, it’s surreal how my Good German relatives think it will be “woke corporations” who do the very things that I’m afraid a MAGA autocrat will do. So, we’ve reached the point where both sides accuse the other of the same things.
But one thing is clear — we can’t keep punting the crisis we’re in down the road forever. There will come a point sooner rather than later when America is going to go through some historic changes. Either we turn into a Nazi-style autocracy, or we have a civil war.
I’m now in the hardest part of this first novel’s plot — the part where the investigation into the murder takes place. I honestly have no idea how any of this would happen.
For the moment, I’m going to simply play it by ear.
But within a few days, I’m going to talk to a few people who might have some sense of how things might play out. I don’t want to embarrass myself by laying out a sequence of events that have no connection to reality.
The key thing is I have to keep going and to push myself outside of my comfort zone.
Why is everything so dumb. Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill is such a fucking trap. What’s more, Twitter liberals keep walking straight into this trap in a totally oblivious manner.
Don’t Say Gay is part of a growing trend on the part of the MAGA New Right where they obsess over something that doesn’t exist in an effort to juice the base while muddling and conflating things to such an extent that the two sides can’t even talk about the matter at hand.
As I understand it, the Don’t Say Gay bill bans something that doesn’t exist — the discussion of sex and gender with K-3 children. So, what happens is, Twitter liberals do this performative dance where they “say gay” in some sort of defiance, while all supporters of the bill want to talk about is “grooming” of children for a homosexual lifestyle.
Because how of fucked up everything is and how America is an anocracy, not a democracy, both sides get what they want while continuing our march towards the existential choice of autocracy or civil war in the general 2024 – 2025 timeframe.
Republicans get yet another hot button wedge issue to juice the base. They can continue to rant about how the “woke mob” wants to turn all our children transgender (or whatever) while clueless Twitter liberals somehow think the bill prohibits the general use of the term “gay” with adults (or whatever.)
We have to accept that Republicans have figured out how to game the system. Barring something I can’t predict (First Contact, WW3, another pandemic) Republicans are going to turn the United States into an autocracy and that will be that. America will gradually — or not so gradually — lurch towards being a clone of Russia.
Of course, as I keep saying, there is also a risk that, well, we’re going to have a civil war and bomb ourselves into the Stone Age using WMD.
The point is — we’re doomed. We’re fucking doomed and either you acknowledge this reality or you live in a political dreamworld along Mueller, She Wrote.
The system is broken. No one is going to save us. Trump and his ilk are above the law. Good luck.
Last night, as I was falling to sleep, I found myself thinking about South Korea yet again. I don’t how it’s ever going to happen, but I vow to myself to return to my old Asian stomping grounds before I drop dead.
The late Annie Shapiro and me way back when.
Well, today I was looking at my Webstats and, lo and behold, someone from Seoul looked at this site. I have no idea why, or who, but it is interesting that they did so. And, given that they accessed the site from a messaging app, it seems as though I might have been the subject of conversation between two people and a link to this site was sent as part of it.
I honestly don’t know what to make to make of this.
I’m not a perfect person. And at the height of my emotional war against the late Annie Shapiro, I lived a rather outrageous life. It got so bad, in fact, that they put me in a book about crazy expats.
One thing I do occasionally think about is how all those Korean kids that I taught over the years remember me. I was a pretty weird (and bad) teacher. I wonder if they ever remember what a kook I was in class and if they ever talk to their fellow hagwan students about me.
I suppose it’s human nature for that type of thing to happen. And the older they get, the more they may think about me. I was — an am — a pretty unique individual.
Anyway. Not much I can do about it. I do, however, hope and intend to return to Asia at some point in the reasonably near future.
Recently, I’ve noticed just a minor uptick in my Webstats coming from Los Angeles. The views are specifically for my continued ranting about the prospect of a civil war (or autocracy) in the United States starting around 2024 – 2025. It’s my impression that there is a movie in development called — you guessed it “Civil War” that deals with some sort of Second American Civil War.
It’s quite pleasant to let myself be delusional and imagine that the screenwriter for that movie might be using my dystopian ranting to help flesh out their script. That would be pretty wild, in fact.
But I am known to take a tiny bit of information and run with it in some pretty fantastical ways. So, lulz.
You must be logged in to post a comment.