Meme Thread for Both Posting and Discussing Memes

[Zyobot]

Your side will have already been picked for you by that point.

Yeah, well...

Honestly, you'll have to forgive me if I aim for a Classically Liberal third option that operates in the margins first.

As I said, choosing between "Optimate" Globalists and "Caesarist" Populists might as well be the 21st century equivalent of choosing between Stalin and Hitler. Both are mass-murdering collectivist factions who deserve a big "Fuck you, you're not the boss of me!", and even if I can't resist them directly or tell them that to their face, I'll do everything in my power to make a living away from their reach where I can do peaceful business with people who maintain basic respect for individualism and human rights.

Even assuming "Augustus" does show up at the end, it'll be too late for him and his "Constitutionalist" faction to do anything for me or my loved ones by then. So, for the time being... freewheeling Libertarians it is!

 

[Bacle]

Yeah, well...

Honestly, you'll have to forgive me if I aim for a Classically Liberal third option that operates in the margins first.

As I said, choosing between "Optimate" Globalists and "Caesarist" Populists might as well be the 21st century equivalent of choosing between Stalin and Hitler. Both are mass-murdering collectivist factions who deserve a big "Fuck you, you're not the boss of me!", and even if I can't resist them directly, I'll do everything in my power to make a living away from their reach where I can do peaceful business with people who maintain basic respect for individualism and human rights.

Even assuming "Augustus" does show up at the end, it'll be too late for him and his "Constitutionalist" faction to do anything for me or my loved ones by then. So, for the time being... freewheeling Libertarians it is!

If they want to have an American right-wing authoritarian ruler as the future, they should do better than aim for a Caesar or some Rome analog.

An American Genghis Khan would be far more...effective and long lasting, as well as less socially devisive.

Genghis had soldiers of many faiths and creeds, ruled over many rather diverse areas, and so long as you swore loyalty to the Khan, paid your tribute, and left the Mongol traders and diplomats alone, the Mongols would leave you alone.

We could do far worse than an American Khanate.

 

[Zyobot]

If they want to have an American right-wing authoritarian ruler as the future, they should do better than aim for a Caesar or some Rome analog.

An American Genghis Khan would be far more...effective and long lasting, as well as less socially devisive.

Genghis had soldiers of many faiths and creeds, ruled over many rather diverse areas, and so long as you swore loyalty to the Khan, paid your tribute, and left the Mongol traders and diplomats alone, the Mongols would leave you alone.

We could do far worse than an American Khanate.

I wouldn't go so far as to claim @Cherico actively wants that, so much as he views it (or at least, something resembling it) to be more or less inevitable.

On the chance we do get what, I think it'll be way worse than American Caesar or American Genghis Khan. In my estimation, it'd be more like a Neo-Puritanical version of Jim Jones who delivers Hitler-like sermons to his followers and wants his own "Final Solution to the Globalist problem!". Essentially, it'd be the world’s biggest death cult, but with far more firepower than anything ISIS, Nazi Germany, or the People's Temple have.

 

[Skallagrim]

I wouldn't go so far as to claim @Cherico actively wants that, so much as he views it (or at least, something resembling it) to be more or less inevitable.

Hilariously, this whole description of "had soldiers of many faiths and creeds, ruled over many rather diverse areas, and so long as you swore loyalty, paid your tribute, and left traders and diplomats alone, they'd leave you alone" is essentially also a summary of the Roman Principate.

Which is the kind of model that reactionaries actually admire. (It also stayed basically like that for a lot longer than the Khanate did, which collapsed into far more despotic successor states fairly quickly.)

Augustus -- that's a figure to admire.

 

[Cherico]

I wouldn't go so far as to claim @Cherico actively wants that, so much as he views it (or at least, something resembling it) to be more or less inevitable.

On the chance we do get what, I think it'll be way worse than American Caesar or American Genghis Khan. In my estimation, it'd be more like a Neo-Puritanical version of Jim Jones who delivers Hitler-like sermons to his followers and wants his own "Final Solution to the Globalist problem!". Essentially, it'd be the world’s biggest death cult, but with far more firepower than anything ISIS, Nazi Germany, or the People's Temple have.

The reason I don't drink is because I'm not quite sure Id be able to stop.

 

[Zyobot]

Hilariously, this whole description of "had soldiers of many faiths and creeds, ruled over many rather diverse areas, and so long as you swore loyalty, paid your tribute, and left traders and diplomats alone, they'd leave you alone" is essentially also a summary of the Roman Principate.

Which is the kind of model that reactionaries actually admire. (It also stayed basically like that for a lot longer than the Khanate did, which collapsed into far more despotic successor states fairly quickly.)

Augustus -- that's a figure to admire.

Maybe so, but as I said, whatever American "Augustus" figure arises will probably arrive too late to do jack-shit for me or my loved ones.

Until then, I'd say the only ones I can trust to have my back may very well be freewheeling, self-sufficient Libertarians who form their own free communities on the sidelines, where they can watch Hitler "Caesar" and Stalin "Optimates" crack each others' skulls open from a safe distance. Of course, whoever wins might come in to crush me and whatever community I'm part of once they've won, but even if I pick one of the two, odds are they'll torture me to death at a blacksite (Stalinist "Optimates") or burn me at the stake (Hitlerian "Caesar"), anyway, so...

 

[Cherico]

Maybe so, but as I said, whatever American "Augustus" figure arises will probably arrive too late to do jack-shit for me or my loved ones.

Until then, I'd say the only ones I can trust to have my back may very well be freewheeling, self-sufficient Libertarians who form their own free communities on the sidelines, where they can watch Hitler "Caesar" and Stalin "Optimates" crack each others' skulls open from a safe distance. Of course, whoever wins might come in to crush me and whatever community I'm part of once they've won, but even if I pick one of the two, odds are they'll torture me to death at a blacksite (Stalinist "Optimates") or burn me at the stake (Hitlerian "Caesar"), anyway, so...

Some times the best thing you can do is plant the seeds of trees you will never see flower so your grandchildren can enjoy their fruits.

 

[Skallagrim]

Maybe so, but as I said, whatever American "Augustus" figure arises will probably arrive too late to do jack-shit for me or my loved ones.

History doesn't care about you or your loved ones. You'll have to find solace elsewhere. I recommend religion; it's worked wonders (ha!) for millennia at this point.

Until then, I'd say the only ones I can trust to have my back may very well be freewheeling, self-sufficient Libertarians who form their own free communities on the sidelines, where they can watch Hitler "Caesar" and Stalin "Optimates" crack each others' skulls open from a safe distance. Of course, whoever wins might come in to crush me and whatever community I'm part of once they've won, but even if I pick one of the two, odds are they'll torture me to death at a blacksite (Stalinist "Optimates") or burn me at the stake (Hitlerian "Caesar"), anyway, so...

History doesn't care about how you view or imagine the matter, either. Imagining all sorts of doom scenarios doesn't help you at all. And although they're philosophically sympathetic, I've never met three libertarians who could work together with sufficient capability to really get things done. So I wouldn't count on "libertarian communities".

Just make something of your own life, and stay out of trouble. If I had to outline a practical mission in life: to own a reasonably self-sustaining farm, in a rural community of reasonably self-sustaining farms, without any overwhelming ideological basis, where you're a member of a sane and mainline Church community, and where private gun ownership is the norm.

Be a libertarian all you want. If you want the best chances, it's better to live like a conservative. (After all; a conservative life and a libertarian sensibility are perfectly compatible.) When things really get nasty... keep your head down and live your life. Let the crazies kill each other. This age will strangle itself with or without your involvement, so outlive the bastards.

(This has been my general advice for well over a decade now.)

 

[Bassoe]

As I said, choosing between "Optimate" Globalists and "Caesarist" Populists might as well be the 21st century equivalent of choosing between Stalin and Hitler.

I'm driving myself crazy trying to rediscover this article, I think it was probably on substack, which made essentially this argument, that the new political divide was between "democracies" actually governed by entrenched unelected bureaucracies acting on the orders and bribes of oligarchs regardless of who was supposedly in charge vs populist strongmen who maintained quality of life for average citizenry in exchange for loyalty and swatted down oligarchs who got uppity and tried to use their wealth politically to further enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else and the power of the state as a whole. Only it was better written than I've described, extensively sourced and described the ukrainian proxy war as a clash of civilizations on these grounds. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

[Zyobot]

Some times the best thing you can do is plant the seeds of trees you will never see flower so your grandchildren can enjoy their fruits.

History doesn't care about you or your loved ones. You'll have to find solace elsewhere. I recommend religion; it's worked wonders (ha!) for millennia at this point.




History doesn't care about how you view or imagine the matter, either. Imagining all sorts of doom scenarios doesn't help you at all. And although they're philosophically sympathetic, I've never met three libertarians who could work together with sufficient capability to really get things done. So I wouldn't count on "libertarian communities".

Just make something of your own life, and stay out of trouble. If I had to outline a practical mission in life: to own a reasonably self-sustaining farm, in a rural community of reasonably self-sustaining farms, without any overwhelming ideological basis, where you're a member of a sane and mainline Church community, and where private gun ownership is the norm.

Be a libertarian all you want. If you want the best chances, it's better to live like conservative. When things really get nasty... keep your head down and live your life. Let the crazies kill each other. This age will strangle itself with or without your involvement, so outlive the bastards.

(This has been my general advice for well over a decade now.)

Very sorry to hear that.

History doesn't care about me individually, that's fine. Never tried to argue that it does, and have no intention of trying to make everything budge just for me.

The fate of me and my loved ones, however, is still somewhat within my control. Can't save everyone and don't have 100 percent say over how it turns out for us, but I'm not giving up, either. Heard your advice loud and clear, but at most, whoever wins will have my compliance and me keeping my head down — not my loyalty or my respect.

 

[mrttao]

Well, they wouldn't be wrong, considering how degenerate the 'fandom' is with their fetishes and the number of zoophiles and pedos you can find in their ranks.

Zoophiles and pedos are the tame furries. It gets so much worse.

 

[Zyobot]

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

If they want to have an American right-wing authoritarian ruler as the future, they should do better than aim for a Caesar or some Rome analog.

An American Genghis Khan would be far more...effective and long lasting, as well as less socially devisive.

Genghis had soldiers of many faiths and creeds, ruled over many rather diverse areas, and so long as you swore loyalty to the Khan, paid your tribute, and left the Mongol traders and diplomats alone, the Mongols would leave you alone.

We could do far worse than an American Khanate.

Yeah and when they didn't the Khans annihilated half their populations, diverted rivers and turned fertile lands into deserts, dumped so much ink into wells that reservoirs were poisoned for a century.

Pyramids of skulls and ethnic cleansing. All religions were tolerated so long as they never spoke ill of Mongol hypocrisy. See the Khans believed in hedging all bets with all the possible Gods so they prayed to everyone and if you dared object to that?

Well they'd surround your mountain stronghold and literally pull it down around you.

People wojak over how "tolerant" the Mongols were but the tolerance of the Mongols is the tolerance of the grill bro and soccer mom taken to its logical conclusion. "Do what you want in your backyard, make enough noise that I can hear it and I'll burn your house down and half the neighborhood and hope the new neighbors learned your lesson."

The Caesars for all their tyranny were beacons of human rights compared to Mongol tolerance.

The only exceptions are what Caesar Julius did to the Celtic tribes and what Caracala did to the Slavs.

Not even Hadrians insanity in Jerusalem comes close.

An American Khan would blow up the Hoover Dam because some soyboys protested 30 miles away and then shitpost on twitter about how "if they didn't wanna take a bath they'd have driven out and shot those guys 2 counties over. Also we'll just build a newer, sexier dam and ill make damn sure wokies are the mortar" etc.

Edit- also the Mongol Empire burned out and balkanized after a century. The Caesars built a civilization whose influence is still felt today

 

[Zachowon]

This has been known about.
You can look it up

 

[Zyobot]

This has been known about.
You can look it up

Yeah, so I've heard.

Of course… the normies probably didn't know about this until recently, even with all the ways the US security apparatus has its eyes and ears everywhere. Not to mention how the news spins it to be much more "innocent" than it probably is, as if it's more of a side-show than the USG being all-seeing AF.

 

[Bacle]

Yeah, so I've heard.

Of course… the normies probably didn't know about this until recently, even with all the ways the US security apparatus has its eyes and ears everywhere. Not to mention how the news spins it to be much more "innocent" than it probably is, as if it's more of a side-show than the USG being all-seeing AF.

Uh, normies would have likely heard of SOSUS if they've ever watched Hunt for Red October.

The idea SOSUS and it's successors are some weird thing the US public is only learning of now seems...farcical.

 

[Zyobot]

Uh, normies would have likely heard of SOSUS if they've ever watched Hunt for Red October.

The idea SOSUS and it's successors are some weird thing the US public is only learning of now seems...farcical.

Seems I'm behind the curve, then.

In any case, I at least hope much more good than is harm is being done with this undersea-microphone system. Here, it was probably put to good use, even if it was too late to save the actual passengers themselves.

 

[Zachowon]

Seems I'm behind the curve, then.

In any case, I at least hope much more good than is harm is being done with this undersea-microphone system. Here, it was probably put to good use, even if it was too late to save the actual passengers themselves.

What do you think this is being used for?

 

[S'task]

. . .

I mean, we've had microphones in the ocean as long as we've had sonar on submarines. Do people really not know how sonar works? Heck, my GRANDFATHER who fought in World War 2 was one of the people listening on the sub's microphones during combat operations (AKA "Attack Sonar Operator") when he was in the Silent Service during Korea.

Like... this stuff is submarine warfare 101...

 

[Zyobot]

What do you think this is being used for?

. . .

I mean, we've had microphones in the ocean as long as we've had sonar on submarines. Do people really not know how sonar works? Heck, my GRANDFATHER who fought in World War 2 was one of the people listening on the sub's microphones during combat operations (AKA "Attack Sonar Operator") when he was in the Silent Service during Korea.

Like... this stuff is submarine warfare 101...

All right, fellas, you've made your point.

I'd be happy to read more about this, but I'm not wasting my time arguing over it. While it should've occurred to me earlier, what's done is done and the learning moment has been had.

That said, here's another meme: