Draining the Vitality of the Right

These two archetypes need to go

Welcome to today’s edition of Write & Lift.

If this is your first time reading, subscribe here.

Two quick things:

• I’m thrilled to announce that the first episode of Write & Lift Book Club Podcast will be live this weekend. In the podcast, I interview writers, entrepreneurs, and otherwise interesting people, to discuss the books that have had a significant impact on their lives. Paying subscribers will have access to all weekly episodes. Free subscribers will have access to certain episodes periodically. The goal of this podcast is to share the works of fiction and non-fiction that improve our mind, body, and spirit. If you’re interested in coming on as a guest or have a recommendation for a guest, please send me a private message.

• Paid subscribers have access to our weekly “No-Read” Book Club meetings on Saturday, 8:30 AM PST as well as other essays and book summaries. If you want to become a paid subscriber, upgrade your membership below. If you’re already a paid subscriber, check your email inbox Saturday morning for the Book Club meeting invitation. This week’s group discussion will be focused on the question: “what makes a man great?” We will be discussing the biographies of Napoleon, Elon Musk, and Stonewall Jackson.

---

Draining the Vitality of the Right

Watching the left consistently implement its policies and ideologies over the last 60 years while the right flounders and “defends” family values, is like watching Michael Jordan’s 90's Bulls play against a WNBA team.

A majority of the “right” basically operates as a meaningless symbol; an illusion of resistance against the dominating force of leftist political creep. At times, they seem so inept and buck-broken by the purple-haired leftists that make them kiss their feet and apologize for the “harm” they cause, that it seems like they actually want to lose.

Ideological differences drive part of this. The left promises a world of liberation and free handouts. It’s an easy sell. There is nothing to conserve and restrain and they have the dwindling attention span of the American populace on their side; vote for “change” and in two years housing, cars, bills, etc., are more expensive. Funny how that works. People love to be told they can have more, and hate being told they must have less for a payoff down the road. It’s simple psychology.

This lack of optimistic and revolutionary thrust has been a constant thorn in the rights side. In the aftermath of the Cold War, their primary position of defense crumbled. Without the Soviet Union to contain and protect against, they resorted to apparitions of global terror. Yet even in the aftermath of 9/11, the American public soon realized that goat herders and Islamic fundamentalists didn’t warrant the overhanded and destructive foreign policy that the Soviets did. It was Trump, and only Trump, that saved the Republican Party. Love him or hate him, he represents the populace shift that the Republicans had failed to capture during the preceding thirty years. And it’s through the energy and vitality that Trump inspires in young voters that the right can finally find momentum.

This can’t be accomplished by moralizing about family values and defending the “sanctity of the republic”. The right must balance pragmatism with a vision of the future that is vibrant, accelerationist, and economically viable. While the left embraces spiritual, physical, and economic ugliness, the right has the high ground.

Still, two prominent archetypes threaten to destroy the foundation and vitality of the rights swelling energy; Ned Flanders from The Simpsons, and Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation.

If the right wants to have any chance of long-term viability, they need to reign these characters in or purge them.

Ned Flanders: The Ineffectual “Family Values” Man

“Bless the grocer for this wonderful meat, the middleman who jacked up the price, and let's not forget the humane but determined boys at the slaughterhouse!”

- Ned Flanders

Ned Flanders wants to spend his time and energy attempting to ban porn and tell women they should remain virgins until marriage. These are both positions that a majority of Americans find strange and off-putting. He is an evangelist of the Reaganite moral majority, fought to ban “harmful language” from popular music, and reminisces about the glory days of his grandfather’s shining republic.

Ned is a man of deep religious conviction but very little pragmatism. He idolizes the Daily Wire for "fighting back against the woke youth!" but barely bats an eye at the hundreds of illegals walking around him at Home Depot or the reasonable economic complaints of the younger generation. He likely has an Israeli flag outside his house and thinks that a blowjob is a Gen-Z hairstyle.

Ned Flanders is unattractive to young people. There is no vitality in the stilted worldview of Flanders and he is disconnected from a generation that is in desperate need of a vision. He thinks that because the system “worked" for him” it should work for everyone. This, of course, coincides with his willingness to “protect” American interests at all costs. He still believes in President Bush’s “Axis of Evil” and would be happy to see American troops deployed to another shit-hole country under the banner of an “Ooooorah. Save the world!” mentality.

Ned is not a bad man, but he is boring and conventional. He bought his 3000 sq ft house in the 80’s for $100k. He’s worked the same Excel spreadsheet job for the last 30 years. His kid’s friends would rather go to the library than have a sleepover at the Flander’s household.

Ron Swanson: The Misanthropic Prepper

"The less I know about other people’s affairs, the happier I am. I’m not interested in caring about people. I once worked with a guy for three years and never learned his name. Best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes."

- Ron Swanson

Ron Swanson thinks that "prepping" and "homesteading" is building real culture. He’s flabbergasted by the thought that more people aren’t preparing for the end times and he has a fatalistic view that keeps him completely disengaged from politics and other people. He loves to talk a big game about tactics and strategy for “taking the country back” but he cannot leave the house without bringing his statin drugs for his high blood pressure. Swanson believes he embodies the characteristics of “manliness”, but inside his bloated frame, he is terrified. Why else would he isolate himself from humanity?

Instead of showing up to local city council meetings and sharing his views with his elected representatives, he spends his weekend complaining about NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem before watching 5 hours of games. He reads history but fails to recognize how power is taken and maintained. Swanson will tell the intricate details of Napoleon’s Italian campaign, but conveniently forget to mention the General’s political savvy and realpolitik that allowed him to seize control of the French state.

He drinks Black Rifle Coffee because of “guns”, uses a manly branded "ball scrubber" in the shower, fantasizes about a Civil War that is always around the corner and tells his son to become a plumber instead of pursuing any career or business that could give him leverage to make real cultural change.

Swanson is certainly more skilled than Ned Flanders. He knows how to shoot, how to fish, how to frame a shed, and how to work on his car, but his disdain for any type of “political establishment” makes him the more ineffectual of the two.

Should a national conflict break out, Swanson would certainly fair better than city dwellers, but his psychological attachment to a “doomer” identity makes him powerless to drive real change in the present moment.

As always, thank you for reading.

-Joe