It always surprises me that people think going rural is THE answer. Confession: we went ruralite years ago to raise kids out of the rat race. We were 80s/90s rural kids who'd lived in a city for years (and loved it) after graduating from "elite" schooling thanks to good SATs.
I've seen people say this before, but one thing rural life lacks is an immune system to The Current Thing. All the woke stuff is here, but almost hits worse, because it presents itself as the "educated" way out of here. There is a lot of despair, especially among the younger adults/teens, thanks to emptying out of factories and industry. So many kids being raised by grandparents who will be the last to own homes - and likely the last of generation of that family in the middle/lower middle class. Where we are, it's made worse because there are institutions with a lot of people who aren't really intellectually elite, but like to feel elite by purposefully importing the woke stuff (SEL is the new hot thing sneaking in, but it really got bad during Covid). Maybe this is the idea of "cargo cult", I'm not sure. But for university staff, doctors, lots of school teachers -- copying elite social mores and reinforcing them out here makes people feel better than the regular rubes. It's almost a bizarre missionary level zeal. And to a large extent, they are deferred to because of social status (or just because families are falling apart).
The plumber thing is especially surprising to me. I get it, but I also don't know how people can't see that having non-ideological doctors and lawyers and businesses is only going to get more important. We lost a good part of our social circle during Covid when people found out our teenage boys weren't vaccinated. It was an incredible wakeup call to me. My kids want to go to big colleges and cities to study, and I want them to be able to try that, and have opportunities to do whatever they are good at and love.
Anyway, thanks for this episode. I watched Russian Ark this weekend by the way (thanks for those old movie recommendations) and the ending minutes just remind me of what people aren't seeing.
As a fellow city escaper, surrounded by other escapers, your attitude towards your kids seems unique. Virtually all of us went to college (many grad school) but don’t want our kids to. Whether it’s vicariously encouraging hands-on plumberdom or just reactionary spite, it seems likely to continue the downward socioeconomic mobility that we experienced compared to our parents. It’s not difficult to see why soaking up a Hellfire missile seems glamorous with this outlook.
Yes, I think it’s because of our particular experience… I’m married to an MD so have a little window into that world. We’ve seen people advocate firing unvaxxed longtime colleagues, rationing care to exclude the unvaxxed, and starting a pediatric gender clinic. It was a shock to me, as I thought being rural would’ve protected against all that. And seeing the new crops of doctors coming in each year — the concern isn’t just competence, but also how easy they could find it to treat Trump supporters/church goers/whoever differently if they thought by doing so they were fighting fascism or something. I think I just worry that we are going to need some conservative kids doing these jobs too.
Excellent episode. I really like finding historic parallels to the current year. I finished reading Prophet Song. Amazingly the author, Paul Lynch, never tips his hand as to the politics of the social unrest. If you read any reviews that say the regime is fascist just ignore it that reviewer clearly has brain worm. As for the book wasn't perfect but I think it is an excellent portrait of what society collapsing looks like for a normal person.
Thank you for this. From what I see on RW discourse your take is totally unique. You either get the false dialectic of Evangelical Trump Deity worship vs Voting isn’t important localism with tacit support for Trump. You verbalizing and description of low IQ apathetic leftist mind virus is great as well, I see this everywhere.
this free shit makes me sick! I extra got myself a credit card so i could subscribe, meanwhile muricans with 20 credit cards get more for free??!! U just know those freeloaders gonna use it to order zogslop trough uber, pay their netflix and order their amazon prime. SICKENING!
2021 I had to write a groveling essay begging my employer to not fire me over being unvaccinated. Biden has consistently proven that he is willing to personally make life miserable for people who don’t vote for him.
The biggest issue with the idea of different people coming together in democracy is the inherent conflict it creates between people within the nation itself, which is why homogeneity of values is so important. Going rural isn't meant to be the answer politically, but when your side of the political elite is so totally incapable of creating and supporting a new generation of artists, intellectuals and works, you will inevitably lose in the cultural aspect.
Anyway, listened to this for free while playing a slop-of-the-month action roguelite I paid 20 euros for, thanks.
I finally read Wrangel's memoir about the train station incident, but one thing preceding that event really stuck out. Wrangel took the city of Tsaritsin, afterward he and Chartilov hold council with Denikin. Wrangel proposes strengthening their foothold to establish infrastructure for the white army but Denikin instead was under the delusion of "We will move on Moscow right now!"
Wrangel specifically says that both he and Chartilov were outright bewildered by this attitude.
Based on Wrangels' writing, Denikins' attitude in how to move forward was akin to a grandiose conquest mentality rather than strategic methodology on what works vs doesn't work. Denikin was acting in a such a fashion as if the might of the Czar and the imperial Russian system was still behind him to absorb the costs and it never translated after the revolution that brash attitudes and actions were no longer subsidized by a system that needed to be reestablished, as Wrangel proposed.
Thanks for bringing attention to this issue. Its annoying that influential boomers give out this terrible advice to young people, that their best option is to basically surrender and retreat
A book that offers the flip side to this is The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck. Its about civilian resistance in a small community during the German occupation of Norway in WWII, I thought it was quite good
One of the best podcasts I’ve listened to in a long time. As someone who grew up in a small WA logging town and now living in the greater PDX area, the analysis regarding small town chauvinism and the contrast of those who just act like nothing is happening was very thought provoking.
The digs on the unpaid subscribers always make me laugh.
It always surprises me that people think going rural is THE answer. Confession: we went ruralite years ago to raise kids out of the rat race. We were 80s/90s rural kids who'd lived in a city for years (and loved it) after graduating from "elite" schooling thanks to good SATs.
I've seen people say this before, but one thing rural life lacks is an immune system to The Current Thing. All the woke stuff is here, but almost hits worse, because it presents itself as the "educated" way out of here. There is a lot of despair, especially among the younger adults/teens, thanks to emptying out of factories and industry. So many kids being raised by grandparents who will be the last to own homes - and likely the last of generation of that family in the middle/lower middle class. Where we are, it's made worse because there are institutions with a lot of people who aren't really intellectually elite, but like to feel elite by purposefully importing the woke stuff (SEL is the new hot thing sneaking in, but it really got bad during Covid). Maybe this is the idea of "cargo cult", I'm not sure. But for university staff, doctors, lots of school teachers -- copying elite social mores and reinforcing them out here makes people feel better than the regular rubes. It's almost a bizarre missionary level zeal. And to a large extent, they are deferred to because of social status (or just because families are falling apart).
The plumber thing is especially surprising to me. I get it, but I also don't know how people can't see that having non-ideological doctors and lawyers and businesses is only going to get more important. We lost a good part of our social circle during Covid when people found out our teenage boys weren't vaccinated. It was an incredible wakeup call to me. My kids want to go to big colleges and cities to study, and I want them to be able to try that, and have opportunities to do whatever they are good at and love.
Anyway, thanks for this episode. I watched Russian Ark this weekend by the way (thanks for those old movie recommendations) and the ending minutes just remind me of what people aren't seeing.
As a fellow city escaper, surrounded by other escapers, your attitude towards your kids seems unique. Virtually all of us went to college (many grad school) but don’t want our kids to. Whether it’s vicariously encouraging hands-on plumberdom or just reactionary spite, it seems likely to continue the downward socioeconomic mobility that we experienced compared to our parents. It’s not difficult to see why soaking up a Hellfire missile seems glamorous with this outlook.
Yes, I think it’s because of our particular experience… I’m married to an MD so have a little window into that world. We’ve seen people advocate firing unvaxxed longtime colleagues, rationing care to exclude the unvaxxed, and starting a pediatric gender clinic. It was a shock to me, as I thought being rural would’ve protected against all that. And seeing the new crops of doctors coming in each year — the concern isn’t just competence, but also how easy they could find it to treat Trump supporters/church goers/whoever differently if they thought by doing so they were fighting fascism or something. I think I just worry that we are going to need some conservative kids doing these jobs too.
Great post and thanks for taking the time to write it.
And that's why out-of-towners come to New York City and buy tickets to crappy Broadway shows. To get the frisson of being hip and "in".
Excellent episode. I really like finding historic parallels to the current year. I finished reading Prophet Song. Amazingly the author, Paul Lynch, never tips his hand as to the politics of the social unrest. If you read any reviews that say the regime is fascist just ignore it that reviewer clearly has brain worm. As for the book wasn't perfect but I think it is an excellent portrait of what society collapsing looks like for a normal person.
Thank you for this. From what I see on RW discourse your take is totally unique. You either get the false dialectic of Evangelical Trump Deity worship vs Voting isn’t important localism with tacit support for Trump. You verbalizing and description of low IQ apathetic leftist mind virus is great as well, I see this everywhere.
This podcast is VERY similar to Scott Greers podcast this week, fwiw
this free shit makes me sick! I extra got myself a credit card so i could subscribe, meanwhile muricans with 20 credit cards get more for free??!! U just know those freeloaders gonna use it to order zogslop trough uber, pay their netflix and order their amazon prime. SICKENING!
Free subscriber genocide is real.
Total free-subscriber death
Irony is Anarchists often point to anabaptists as an example of workable anarchism.
2020 I thought national elections didn’t matter.
2021 I had to write a groveling essay begging my employer to not fire me over being unvaccinated. Biden has consistently proven that he is willing to personally make life miserable for people who don’t vote for him.
Everyone needs to shill drumpf.
Fantastic episode. Very moving. Free subscribers….how dare you!
The biggest issue with the idea of different people coming together in democracy is the inherent conflict it creates between people within the nation itself, which is why homogeneity of values is so important. Going rural isn't meant to be the answer politically, but when your side of the political elite is so totally incapable of creating and supporting a new generation of artists, intellectuals and works, you will inevitably lose in the cultural aspect.
Anyway, listened to this for free while playing a slop-of-the-month action roguelite I paid 20 euros for, thanks.
Great episode. Good job
I finally read Wrangel's memoir about the train station incident, but one thing preceding that event really stuck out. Wrangel took the city of Tsaritsin, afterward he and Chartilov hold council with Denikin. Wrangel proposes strengthening their foothold to establish infrastructure for the white army but Denikin instead was under the delusion of "We will move on Moscow right now!"
Wrangel specifically says that both he and Chartilov were outright bewildered by this attitude.
Based on Wrangels' writing, Denikins' attitude in how to move forward was akin to a grandiose conquest mentality rather than strategic methodology on what works vs doesn't work. Denikin was acting in a such a fashion as if the might of the Czar and the imperial Russian system was still behind him to absorb the costs and it never translated after the revolution that brash attitudes and actions were no longer subsidized by a system that needed to be reestablished, as Wrangel proposed.
Thanks for bringing attention to this issue. Its annoying that influential boomers give out this terrible advice to young people, that their best option is to basically surrender and retreat
A book that offers the flip side to this is The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck. Its about civilian resistance in a small community during the German occupation of Norway in WWII, I thought it was quite good
The piano intro/outro is beautiful. We're gonna win
One of the best podcasts I’ve listened to in a long time. As someone who grew up in a small WA logging town and now living in the greater PDX area, the analysis regarding small town chauvinism and the contrast of those who just act like nothing is happening was very thought provoking.
Thanks!
I think this is the podcast episode where you talk about Zen
Anyways somebody on Trumps team is listening to this podcast. Here’s a quote from Wall Street Journal :
“It’s like a Zen thing; the harder they try, the more likely it becomes he gets elected,” said David Urban, a longtime Trump adviser.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/almost-everything-is-going-trumps-wayexcept-financially-3dcba082?st=7jr2njkbfua9rex&reflink=article_copyURL_share