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Free thinkers are having a rough go of it lately. Having opinions at odds with those of sold out scientists and politicians, for example, gets you labeled a stupid, selfish conspiracy theorist pretty often nowadays. Doing your own research in order to have an informed opinion on issues instead of just accepting whatever bought-and-sold pundits and talking heads and government flacks pushing propaganda have to say is downright demonized. Listening to what representatives of the hated faction du jour have to say about their motives for acting in the ways they do is "giving aid and comfort to the enemy".
Rugged individualism, which has been a defining characteristic of American culture, is under attack as being a characteristic of "whiteness" and therefore racist in some way (as opposed to a very useful survival strategy and archetype). Parenthood and the innate right of parents to raise their own children is under attack, as the state increasingly claims the right to indoctrinate kids with whatever ideologies they like at any given moment, whether the parents like and approve of it or not.
Most types of individualism, aside from toxic narcissism of the type fostered by virtue signallers on social media, are roundly denounced, and thinking one's own thoughts, speaking one's own words, and disagreeing with authority figures is becoming increasingly unacceptable to radicals on the Left.
This is very convenient for said authority figures, of course, who are busily using their addictive digital tools and apps to brainwash and move the "mass mind" in any direction they like. If they can figure out how to get people to virtue signal about it, they can fairly easily shift opinions in frankly bizarre and unbalanced directions quite quickly.
Cue the influencers, who are being purposely courted and brought on board to shape opinions, especially amongst young people (see old man Biden's White House bringing in Tik Tok "celebrities" and "educating" them about the situation in the Ukraine so they can influence the opinions of their peers). In my day we'd have called this something along the lines of paying people in the media to spread propaganda, but the United States government surely wouldn't stoop to such a thing... Right?? (Project Mockingbird cough cough).
There is nothing new under the sun, and what the people in power are doing is an old, old game. In order to shift us to the desired submissive, collectivist culture the elites prefer, the individual as the primary holder of rights and empowered maker of choices has to be destroyed and made subservient to the needs of the State. This is the aim of the Left's culture war; submission to the hierarchy they claim to hate in all things, a mono-opinion on all issues, and rigid conformity under the banner of "tolerance".
The dichotomy between individualist cultures and collectivist cultures is well mapped out in the social sciences, and it's clear that at some point the political powers that ruled the west decided that they'd prefer to govern a submissive, collectivist culture instead of an individualist one. They are using all of the tools at their disposal to break, brainwash, and indoctrinate the country's youth into collectivism. Needless to say, this is probably not for the benefit of said youth, but is borne of a desire for increased control in a time of resource depletion and radical social changes being caused by the end of Western imperial dominance.
Rugged individualism, which has been a defining characteristic of American culture, is under attack as being a characteristic of "whiteness" and therefore racist in some way (as opposed to a very useful survival strategy and archetype). Parenthood and the innate right of parents to raise their own children is under attack, as the state increasingly claims the right to indoctrinate kids with whatever ideologies they like at any given moment, whether the parents like and approve of it or not.
Most types of individualism, aside from toxic narcissism of the type fostered by virtue signallers on social media, are roundly denounced, and thinking one's own thoughts, speaking one's own words, and disagreeing with authority figures is becoming increasingly unacceptable to radicals on the Left.
This is very convenient for said authority figures, of course, who are busily using their addictive digital tools and apps to brainwash and move the "mass mind" in any direction they like. If they can figure out how to get people to virtue signal about it, they can fairly easily shift opinions in frankly bizarre and unbalanced directions quite quickly.
Cue the influencers, who are being purposely courted and brought on board to shape opinions, especially amongst young people (see old man Biden's White House bringing in Tik Tok "celebrities" and "educating" them about the situation in the Ukraine so they can influence the opinions of their peers). In my day we'd have called this something along the lines of paying people in the media to spread propaganda, but the United States government surely wouldn't stoop to such a thing... Right?? (Project Mockingbird cough cough).
There is nothing new under the sun, and what the people in power are doing is an old, old game. In order to shift us to the desired submissive, collectivist culture the elites prefer, the individual as the primary holder of rights and empowered maker of choices has to be destroyed and made subservient to the needs of the State. This is the aim of the Left's culture war; submission to the hierarchy they claim to hate in all things, a mono-opinion on all issues, and rigid conformity under the banner of "tolerance".
The dichotomy between individualist cultures and collectivist cultures is well mapped out in the social sciences, and it's clear that at some point the political powers that ruled the west decided that they'd prefer to govern a submissive, collectivist culture instead of an individualist one. They are using all of the tools at their disposal to break, brainwash, and indoctrinate the country's youth into collectivism. Needless to say, this is probably not for the benefit of said youth, but is borne of a desire for increased control in a time of resource depletion and radical social changes being caused by the end of Western imperial dominance.