The collapse of the petrodollar system is going to have a devastating effect on the ability of the USA to project hard power. At the same time American soft power is being reduced dramatically - not just because woke content is making it unpalatable, but going forward AI tools are going to reduce the barrier to entry for e.g. small filmmakers to produce high-quality movies. All of this points to a world in which the USA is still quite powerful, but very far from a hyperpower.
I can very easily see a conservative counter-revolution succeeding in the US, particularly if backed by renegade elites. And I could also see that turning into something dark - history is full of such reversals. However, I suspect that will mainly be an issue for CONUS and whatever satellites remain in its orbit. China, Russia, India, Arabia, etc. will be largely outside of the American sphere of influence by this point.
As to Israel ... One wonders what happens to it when its golem is falling apart....
You're correct. My speculative scenario is overblown. The U.S. economy won't be able to sustain superpower status unless a miracle occurs.
My broader point is that we have to be careful about wolves in sheep's clothing coming from the supposed 'conservative' movement -- which ultimately has globalist backers.
Israel will be fine. They have friends everywhere, and even before the country became independent in 1948, powerful Zionists were pulling the strings in Britain to make Israel a reality.
We have to be extremely careful, I agree ... As the political influence of the right grows, efforts from the usual suspects to co-opt it will intensify.
I'm not so sure about Israel having a lot of friends ... It seems that many of those friends are friendly because Uncle Sam tells them to be so. Absent American funding and military umbrella, it may well end up like the crusader kingdoms.
Thank you for your insightful comment. I largely agree, and have little to add to your constructive feedback.
You are correct that Peterson's advice is pedestrian and banal. I would go further and say that his reading is philistine; he lacks a solid grounding in the Western canon, especially for one who claims to extol Western values. Regardless, I understand his appeal: he speaks to the nihilistic spirit of the age. His vague ramblings are hypnotic, and can fit most anybody's personal worldview.
On a separate note, I think that the threat will come from the mainstream conservative movement. The dissident right might grudgingly join the normie cons because 'at least they're better than the wokesters.' In a sense, this is true: I'd rather live under a right-wing dictatorship than a left-wing one.
However, either of these systems could lead to a demonic system of government. Lord have mercy.
"And there's nothing in the Petersonian platform that really upsets the BAPist types."
Aside from Peterson's general weakness, tendency to cave at the wrong moment, support for Israel, etc. The vitalists don't want clean rooms, they want a return to life, energy, beauty, virility. Peterson doesn't really represent any of these things.
Consider also your observation that the DR has shifted the OW. Which it has; you see its influence also in meme culture. In order to remain relevant the fake 'conservatives' are forced to appropriate terminology and talking points from right wing anons, meaning that it is the latter who are ultimately in the cultural driver's seat.
Yes, I read the core argument. I'm skeptical of a globalist outcome as I don't think America will have the strength for this given eg financial weakening, but at a more local level a RW resurgence that turns sour in the manner described is certainly a possibility.
The charge that BAP is a Zionist seems quite baseless to me. At what point has he publicly or even implicitly supported Zionism, neoconservatism, or any of that? Second City Bureaucrat had quite a detailed examination on his Substack of the evidence for this charge in light of the doxx, and articles published under his given name, demonstrating I thought fairly conclusively that there is no substance to this.
As to the anti-Christian bent, indeed there's substantial tension between vitalism and Christianity, although again the critique is hardly similar to that made by Marxists etc. Vitalists tend to be quite a bit more sympathetic, for tribal reasons primarily, to Christianity, although they do point out that it is very difficult to argue against eg open borders on Christian grounds, "there is neither Jew nor Greek" etc., and that church groups tend to be at the forefront of enabling mass immigration rather than resisting it. "Muh based family values Catholic immigrants" and such. Of course RW Christians will usually respond that this support for open borders is based on twisting of scripture verging on heresy, and no doubt there's something to that.
I mean at least there won't be any trannies.
The collapse of the petrodollar system is going to have a devastating effect on the ability of the USA to project hard power. At the same time American soft power is being reduced dramatically - not just because woke content is making it unpalatable, but going forward AI tools are going to reduce the barrier to entry for e.g. small filmmakers to produce high-quality movies. All of this points to a world in which the USA is still quite powerful, but very far from a hyperpower.
I can very easily see a conservative counter-revolution succeeding in the US, particularly if backed by renegade elites. And I could also see that turning into something dark - history is full of such reversals. However, I suspect that will mainly be an issue for CONUS and whatever satellites remain in its orbit. China, Russia, India, Arabia, etc. will be largely outside of the American sphere of influence by this point.
As to Israel ... One wonders what happens to it when its golem is falling apart....
You're correct. My speculative scenario is overblown. The U.S. economy won't be able to sustain superpower status unless a miracle occurs.
My broader point is that we have to be careful about wolves in sheep's clothing coming from the supposed 'conservative' movement -- which ultimately has globalist backers.
Israel will be fine. They have friends everywhere, and even before the country became independent in 1948, powerful Zionists were pulling the strings in Britain to make Israel a reality.
We have to be extremely careful, I agree ... As the political influence of the right grows, efforts from the usual suspects to co-opt it will intensify.
I'm not so sure about Israel having a lot of friends ... It seems that many of those friends are friendly because Uncle Sam tells them to be so. Absent American funding and military umbrella, it may well end up like the crusader kingdoms.
Excellent stuff!
4 legs good, two legs bad.
Thank you for your insightful comment. I largely agree, and have little to add to your constructive feedback.
You are correct that Peterson's advice is pedestrian and banal. I would go further and say that his reading is philistine; he lacks a solid grounding in the Western canon, especially for one who claims to extol Western values. Regardless, I understand his appeal: he speaks to the nihilistic spirit of the age. His vague ramblings are hypnotic, and can fit most anybody's personal worldview.
On a separate note, I think that the threat will come from the mainstream conservative movement. The dissident right might grudgingly join the normie cons because 'at least they're better than the wokesters.' In a sense, this is true: I'd rather live under a right-wing dictatorship than a left-wing one.
However, either of these systems could lead to a demonic system of government. Lord have mercy.
"And there's nothing in the Petersonian platform that really upsets the BAPist types."
Aside from Peterson's general weakness, tendency to cave at the wrong moment, support for Israel, etc. The vitalists don't want clean rooms, they want a return to life, energy, beauty, virility. Peterson doesn't really represent any of these things.
Consider also your observation that the DR has shifted the OW. Which it has; you see its influence also in meme culture. In order to remain relevant the fake 'conservatives' are forced to appropriate terminology and talking points from right wing anons, meaning that it is the latter who are ultimately in the cultural driver's seat.
Yes, I read the core argument. I'm skeptical of a globalist outcome as I don't think America will have the strength for this given eg financial weakening, but at a more local level a RW resurgence that turns sour in the manner described is certainly a possibility.
The charge that BAP is a Zionist seems quite baseless to me. At what point has he publicly or even implicitly supported Zionism, neoconservatism, or any of that? Second City Bureaucrat had quite a detailed examination on his Substack of the evidence for this charge in light of the doxx, and articles published under his given name, demonstrating I thought fairly conclusively that there is no substance to this.
As to the anti-Christian bent, indeed there's substantial tension between vitalism and Christianity, although again the critique is hardly similar to that made by Marxists etc. Vitalists tend to be quite a bit more sympathetic, for tribal reasons primarily, to Christianity, although they do point out that it is very difficult to argue against eg open borders on Christian grounds, "there is neither Jew nor Greek" etc., and that church groups tend to be at the forefront of enabling mass immigration rather than resisting it. "Muh based family values Catholic immigrants" and such. Of course RW Christians will usually respond that this support for open borders is based on twisting of scripture verging on heresy, and no doubt there's something to that.