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Rolo, you wrote "One of the key assumptions that I have used to base my understanding of politics on is the concept of perenniality. That is, that certain underlying political processes are universal, regardless of the country or time period which it takes place."

This is a good point, but the question that naturally follows is: how do you determine whether your understanding of politics matches up with perenniality or not? IMO, the answer to this comes down to the *accuracy* of one's predictive value about the future, and how well it also illuminates the present and the past. If one's current understanding doesn't match up with future events, then something about the laws of nature is misunderstood by the person doing the analysis, and one's viewpoint should be adjusted.

The question that comes after that is, what should one *do* with those underlying laws of material reality once they are understood, i.e. based on what *values*? To answer this, one would either take a utilitarian approach (either hedonistic or preference) based on means-end testing to maximize the chosen values of the person conducting the analysis, or, for religious types (which I know you're not) a deontologogical, duty, rule or obligation based perspective based on their beliefs.

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Excellent essay Rolo.

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people ". - H. L. Menchen

No other commentary necessary. Keep up the good work and I just might subscribe one day. Of course I'd expect the same courtesy in return. Stay healthy, safe and strong we live in tumultuous times.

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Interesting to hear about how it is in Russia. What you say about the States checks out from what I've heard, although I suspect that those activists on the left - sorry, "community organizers" - don't have it as hard as some of the others. Then again, rumor has it now that Antifa has a lot of secret Federal agents - not to mention its activities basically assist those in power as the riots did in 2020. So I guess that can't be called grassroots, can it?

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Mar 28, 2023Liked by Rurik Skywalker

Brilliant!

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The patronage system still lives in this age. I wont hold my breath for a God-Emperor. Self-interest will always overrule social benefit and this is why democracy will never work except as an illusion. The US Constitution was honored right up to the Whiskey Rebellion. Realpolitik will always trump principles. Everything out there is a limited hangout to one extent or another. Prager, Shapiro, and Crowder are all civnat gatekeepers. They're oh so edgy but God forbid you stray into identity.

I'm not really sure we have a solution in the West other than to let it all be cleansed with fire and start over.

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"... the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men." - Daniel 4:17

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Let's look at Bibi Netanyahu. He just got a law passed that makes it harder to get rid of him, even without emasculating the Israeli Supreme Court.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-03-27/bibi-already-got-what-he-wanted

Bibi is some kind of archetype. Where will he lead 95% "vaccinated" Israel next?

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The pyramid always falls over when those at the top take more resources, or in this day and age claims on resources, than the people produce.

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Mar 30, 2023·edited Mar 30, 2023

"The US handles this much better. They allow these fake opposition front organizations to operate freely, so long as they play by the rules, and act as sponges to absorb the energy of radical political activism."

The US left strangely sees itself as an opposition front, which directs all its political energy against those deplorable Republican conservatives, who are actually the ones dissenting against the political status quo. The whole operation is steered by media propaganda, which defines what is misinformation and who are the extremists. So I don't think that things are allowed to run as freely as it might first appear.

The term oligarch isn't used much in the US, on the one hand, because the insanely powerful know enough to keep themselves out of the limelight (and off the Forbes list, for that matter), and on the other, because of the George Soros effect, which makes it anti-semitic to identify those who are.

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founding

Off Topic: - are there any real hands-on political analysts in the Slavland community? - I had a wake up call this morning on the US legislation to ban Ticktock " Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act, or RESTRICT Act, " - of course the target is far wider than TickTok - and extends to a very large range of "Foreign Agents" - (Rolo - raise your hand) - I THINK the focus of the bill is on hardware and devices and services supplied by foreign agents (and then used by US citizens) - so, SubStack itself would not be that.

But there are some draconian scenarios concealed within - e.g. 20 year MINIMUM prison sentence for US citizens who violate some provisions of the act. Could commenting on Rolo's posts be construed as such? -Of course, a very wide latitude is provided for the new executive agency that would enforce the law. ln short - heads up and report back with developments and analysis.

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Mar 28, 2023·edited Mar 29, 2023

> ... because of my compulsive need to call out the ethnic psychopaths and blame them for all of Russia’s ills every other podcast, we never got pulled in. In fact, it caused my old podcast partner to quit out of frustration.

You caught the J thing, see https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Reviews/HumanSciences/cultureofcritique.html he's speaking about Joe Sobran

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"mercilessly cull the oligarchs periodically like persistent weeds"

China does this to a degree. They have disappeared or pacified quite a few of them.

Of course, I am far away from China and can't see how thorough they are or how well this is working out for them.

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Feudalism: God's Will or Common Sense?

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Rolo, do you think Hitler and Stalin where legitimate anti establishment figures or also part of the system?

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"mercilessly cull the oligarchs periodically like persistent weeds" Good in theory. In practice, needing a roof from an oligarch to get into culling position is a bit of a trick.

minor typo?: many realize that it take many years of hard work

"takes" reads better than "take"

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So if we have the word "крыша" that would imply we have a "укрывающийся" no? Assuming this leap of linguistics is feasible my favorite "укрывающийся" would be Tommaso Campanella. His life reads like a fairy tale if you believe the official version. Having organized a rebellion against Spanish rule in southern Italy and being captured he then managed to feign madness under brutal torture so convincingly that the Roman Catholic Church and other shady Italian Capos let him live out a long and fruitful life. After twenty six years of writing works that were heretical to the Church whilst in the captivity of aforementioned Church, he even become an astrologer to Pope Urban VIII and thereafter a close associate of Cardinal Richelieu. Now that guy had a real "крыша". Officially he did this because of his unique character and iron will. It's hilarious really.

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