6 Comments
Jan 12Liked by J. Burden

Great analysis. I would add that the emotional rewards are fundamentally mimetic. People are rewarded when they mimic the people the regime identifies as official heroes. To replace this system will require not only new patronage but also new media.

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Absolutely great insight and analysis. I wish more people understood this. Those around you harmed by covid measures or whose children will be seriously harmed by mass immigration, are not going to wake up. They are not asleep. They are addicts. They seek, and receive, social approval for their opinions which elevate them above the racists and the backward who just don't get it.

I believe the dissident right need to get better at identifying the lost and leaving them be. There will be no great awakening for them.

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Excellent explanation!

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I’d say this is article’s thesis is especially true for women, and their participation in politics makes this patronage even more salient in modern liberal societies. However, because modern men are spiritually feminine, it gets another multiplier.

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Social status is more valuable than material wealth. People have always spent material wealth on status objects.

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Tangential to Social Status: Maybe a second avenue in the Conservative Dad's pin up girls calendar is a class status clash. The first avenue is the Christian morality, but secondarily, the rejection of images of moxy girls is a middle class mindset avoiding lower class actions. Though the upper class verbally promotes sexual libertinism, it may be one trend that the right-of-center middle class cannot stomach (yet?).

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