As dedicated readers know, I have gone hard against bloggers and content creators who have promoted what I call “5D narratives”. I use this term to mean narratives that seem to always put the “good guys” on top, or 5 steps ahead of the bumbling Hollywood caricatures of mindless villains and that always find a way to spin what looks to be a defeat or a setback into a brilliant maneuver. These narratives are basically predicated on telling the readers that they are too dumb to trust their own lying eyes and actively discourages them from using their own brains, and like all organized religious cults, really, to simply to surrender to blind faith in the metanarrative of the priests.
I have nothing but contempt for these kind of narratives because they enfeeble the people who fall for them. They are cognitive traps that are created through emotional manipulation and cynical exploitation of pre-existing religious programming that all of us have working in our heads on a subconscious level. So, the Slavic civil war is portrayed as a cosmic struggle between the forces of Satan and the forces of Jesus. While the consequences of this Not-War will be dire and are already being felt, and I certainly side with Russia as opposed to the collective West, this kind of pseudo-religious thinking is dangerous. Any narrative that blinds us to the truth, even if it seems to be coming from “our side” is suspect and will eventually be revealed to have been formulated to undermine and trick us in some way.
You will see. I am 100% correct on this, and the well-intentioned misleaders (there are a few) will be proven wrong.
Also, while I think that while the Russia-watching public is still woefully uninformed and delusional about what is really going on, the actual Russia analysts that provide them with their content are clearly starting to realize that something is up. However, I suspect that many of them are in a situation where they fear losing face and so resist coming to terms with the fact that they were bamboozled.
This next part is a direct appeal to them.
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Look, man, no one is perfect. I get the feeling that you might think that I am trying to prove that I am better than you with my writing, or something petty like that. Let me just start by saying that this isn’t the case. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a competition factor at play here and I’m pretty openly jealous of all the money you guys rake in and the fact that even the smallest guy who promotes the “5D Russia winning narrative” is at least 5x bigger than I am.
Cards on the table, that bothers me. It does. I want my cut and I’m not going to pretend that I don’t. Anyone who wants to impugn on my motives, well, they can have at it because I, for one, am not going to pretend to be holier than I am. I have no problem being labeled as selfish or immoral or whatever by others. What wouldn’t allow me to sleep at night is if I knew myself to be a sanctimonious hypocrite. That is pretty much the only “moral” criteria that I hold myself to. Every man’s gotta have a code.
But I digress.
What I wanted to say is that none of this is your fault really. Frankly, it is your readers’ fault or, more broadly, simply a characteristic of the credulous masses that you had no part in creating. It only makes sense that you would have far more success working with the grain and being positive and telling the story of Russia crushing the forces of Satan without even breaking a sweat and not arguing against it. For me to be angry at you for this situation would be like me getting angry at water being wet. I’m not angry at you, really. A bit jealous, sure, but hey, who isn’t.
It just is what it is.
Furthermore, like I said above - no one is perfect. I was also fist-pumping and mindlessly cheerleading until about this summer. During this time, my articles were widely circulated and growth was stellar. So, I get liking that feeling and chasing that dopamine high as a writer. Really, I do.
But we are now entering the second summer of this conflict and I can see that people are starting to have doubts and sobering up. I think that this is long overdue, clearly, but I am not knocking a good trend and trying to make the perfect the enemy of the good. Actually, I strongly suspect that more writers and analysts have quietly changed their minds than let on. Messages get passed along, is all I am saying.
And that is why I am writing this appeal.
I want to tell these other analysts that they don’t have to be worried about mockery and howls of outrage once they level with their readers coming from me or the people that I associate with. We are too exhausted by this Not-War, at this point, to be angry at you. Frankly, I’d just want to get together and have a “truth and reconciliation” moment. It seems very possible to do this in my mind, and all it takes is a little bit of humility from both sides. So, as of this point, consider my hand outstretched across the dividing line between our two camps and an olive branch held firmly in the other.
Also, the end of the 5D narrative surrounding Russia is coming to an end one way or another. Either Russia wins by the summer, as they would have us believe or not. Perhaps as soon as by the end of this year, if certain rumors are to be believed, the negotiations will have to start. Actually, it doesn’t really bother me anymore whether you believe Russia will capture Kiev by that point, or eliminate the entirety of the male population in Ukraine, or whatever. We can agree to disagree on that point as far as I am concerned. It really is just whatever and pointless to argue over. People are no longer capable of budging from their positions for the most part.
Looking forward though, my real concern is how the eventual peace deal will be understood and explained to Russia-watchers once it occurs AND how the political turmoil within Russia will be reported on by these same people. I worry that patriots within Russia who are trying to sound the alarm even now will be castigated as 5th or 6th column agents trying to destabilize the heroic, anti-Satanic Kremlin government. Should this occur in the near future, I will withdraw my peace offering and go full bore “death con 3” on anyone promoting such a narrative.
Until then though, I am offering an amnesty. A full pardon. All you gotta say is, “well, the situation is more complicated than it first appeared, and we ought to consider the viewpoints of more skeptical analysts going forward.” In exchange, I will be just as gracious, of course and say something like, “yes, the situation is dynamic and no one can really know what is going on, or could have guessed that it would end up this way,” or something like that. We can all of us save face and start talking about what is coming down the pipeline for the Slavlands if we bury the hatchet now.
Now, some of the people in this line of work are clearly being paid/doing it for the money. I am not addressing them. Those who are being addressed know who they are or may suspect that I’m talking to them. To these people, all I ask is that you meet me halfway by saying that my opinions and positions might have some merit. No need to endorse or agree, but just to hear me and others like me out and not either pretend that we don’t exist or accuse us of being CIA shills. That’s all. I’m not asking for much at all.
Just give a half-nod in my direction and say, “well, we disagree on a lot, but it is worth considering the possibility of what Rolo and people like him are saying.” That’s literally all I ask for. No one can think less of you for saying something like that. Seriously.
Speaking of peace treaties, let’s just sign our own one right here.
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Put your signature right there. Go ahead. I’ll return the favor. Full amnesty followed by a “truth and reconciliation” process where we respectfully engage with each other’s ideas. That’s what I am offering.
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I just wanted to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to the Optimates who signed up for the blog after my last appeal. By my calculations, all I need is three more paid subs. Three. THREE!!! And then I’m set, guys. A happy camper again.
So why not just get this done now? Why wait? Aren’t you tired of my strong-arming and cajoling tactics? I mean, they work, clearly, don’t get me wrong, but I figure you’re getting tired of them just as I am of constantly having to use them. So just give me three more subs and the terror tactics I employ against my own readers will finally stop.
Hand over the last three subs, and the terror will end!!!
At long last, we shall have peace between writers and other writers, readers and writers.
Let this be the day that this comes to pass.
A new dawn beckons!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: I Am Offering A 5D Amnesty!!!
Even if Russia signs a humiliating peace treaty the 5 d wizards will say that Russia humiliated itself to save the world from nuclear war, or they will say that Russia never intended to win militarily but economically, or that Russia plays a long game which will become obvious in 200 years.
The sub grubbing cracks me up