Bored by the Culture War
"Honestly, I can't muster the energy to be even mildly disturbed by Sam Smith's performance."
Like many, I launched my way into politics in the year 2016. Though “cringe” now, I discovered Dave Rubin's channel and was totally transfixed by seeing people actually discuss politics in a peaceful manner. Up until that point, I had only seen screaming matches from previous elections I had witnessed. Though, to admit it, most of my exposure to politics came primarily through the 2008 election where my parents, the media, the common American peasant, and their gods, Hollywood celebrities, informed me that Obama would save the world because he was going to be the first (arguably) “black” president.
At the time, I was incredibly skeptical of the claim that someone who was incredibly arguably “black” would save the world by existing while being somewhat “black” in the office of the US presidency, but I held my tongue. I was a quiet kid, but even as a kid, I couldn't help but note the obvious inconsistencies of my parents standing against racism but voting for a man because he was—in an extremely arguable and debatable sense—“black.” My youthful precocious mind kept track of the many inconsistencies in that narrative as well as other race-based narratives that I heard from family members and friends growing up, but perhaps I'll get to those in the future. For now, it's important to note that my only understanding of politics pre-2016 was through the lens of race as is common for most black Americans even today.
However, things changed for me that year. That election was the first presidential election that I could participate in, and the culture war had already stuck its ugly little head into my life. I recall that trendy news media companies like Vice made numerous videos on the topic of race that, in my understanding of egalitarian ethics at that time, were detestable as they deliberately targeted white people. I also just found them to be a little disturbing at the time. I couldn't see how they would help race relations. 6+ years later, I understand that they were not made to help race relations at all but to deliberately hurt them (though they were already in shambles). Also, due to where I grew up and my academic achievements, I had spent most of my life hanging out with white peers, so I couldn't buy into the narrative of “white man bad” back then.
Besides discovering peaceable conversations about politics online in 2016, what really shifted me to voting for Donald Trump that year was that I had been regularly attending church, and the emphasis on the evils of abortion were laid out before me. I, as a Christian, could no longer view abortion through the lens of apathy. The Lord touched my heart, and my eyes were opened to the depth of its horrors. So early in the year, I knew that I would vote for the Republican candidate no matter who ran. My mind didn't change when that man became Trump. I have an interest in quirky personalities, and he fits right into that as well, though I still didn't care for him at that time; instead, I simply hated abortion enough for the Republican candidate not to matter (the single-issue voter of myth). Then, sometime mid-year I discovered centrist YouTube channels like Dave Rubin’s Rubin Report and was swayed by the consistency of right-wing arguments from those he invited on his show. Like most who move to the right, I had a short stint as a quasi-Libertarian at first—we all are trying to forget that stage of our journey— before moving into becoming “hard right” (a real “conservative”) into where I am now, living as an exile amongst exiles in the wilderness of right-wing reactionary thought.
The first few days after Trump won, I was on a high. I had spent that year at work at an on-campus coffee shop while taking classes. I suppose that at that time, even though I was a right-leaning centrist soon-to-be debased quasi-Libertarian, I couldn't help but basque in the joy of having voted for the guy who won. Also, I was aware of how nasty “leftism” (as it was categorized in my head back then) was and wanted nothing to do with it; thus, seeing my campus full of jaded, 2016-election-traumatized lefty college kids stumbling around in shock was quite delightful—I'd be lying if I said it wasn't. But on top of that, there was an unmistakable feeling in the air, a crackling energy, a pulsing heartbeat… I knew that I had witnessed something mystical or perhaps mythological, a miracle of sorts, an event that in the age of orators would be recorded in a bard’s song.
I had seen the most outrageous election upset in history (from my perspective), and I knew the hand of God was on it. After all, the Word says
27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
- 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 KJV, emphasis added
That was a great time, a remarkable time. The wind was so very sweet those first few days, even those first couple of years. Though the road has grown much rougher since then, I maintain that those times should be looked at as what they actually were: a miraculous shift that changed the nation. And the world.
But, like all miracles God blesses you with, you are tasked to fight to grab hold of it and to keep it just as ancient Israel was tasked to possess the Promised Land only to find out that God desired them to take it by force from Giants. In ignorance, after the 2016 election, most of us were foolish enough to think that the battle was over. No. It had just begun.
Each year since 2016, everyone engaged in this battle from the right side of the political spectrum has realized that perhaps we stirred up more than what we bargained for. The regime has unleashed its antibodies, and they are coming after you and me and everything in between. Trump tweeted it best…
Everywhere you look, the regime promotes its beloved degeneracies and twisted taboos of old. The entire system wants you physically and mentally ill, sexually depraved, and dependent on the government to survive, and it's revealed this to us over the last 6+ years quite plainly.
It wants you dead ultimately, but it doesn't mind taking its time to make you that way, chipping away at your vitality and innocence and health, trapping you in your homes, and shoveling consumption ethics down your throat through its many content mediums (consume as much product as possible or else). It's been so persistent and relentless in this regard that I'm honestly starting to get bored of it.
Honestly, I can't muster the energy to be even mildly disturbed by Sam Smith's performance. I mean, they've been revealing their Satanic worship consistently since the 80s, and I've only existed since the 90s. It's been 40 years of consistent and open Satanic worship in the music industry such that anyone who would dare call you, dear reader, a conspiracy theorist for pointing it out is a conspiracy theorist themselves, believing that the music industry couldn't possibly be satanic after all the satanic performances and videos and art it has produced.
I used to get angry at the culture war. I would see some lefty nonsense occur and be in grief or even afraid of the influence of these perverse ideals. These days, it's just like, “oh, more sinful behavior, that's expected.” I'm even starting to feel bad for leftists and the lives that they lead. I mean, I'm not yet the healthiest person, but I've lost 30 lbs, though I probably have to additionally lose twice that before someone would call me “skinny,” but when I see pictures of “non-binary” Sam Smith. I feel sorry for him. He clearly has no identity, no sense of self. He doesn't know his creator, and he just looks horribly uncomfortable in his own body. My soul is closer to weeping for him than any other response. What a poor lost soul.
I used to be on fire and ready to fight these culture war battles, but now, I look at the regime, its clients, its celebrities, its art and music, and even its deliberate attempts to sabotage its own supply chain, and I just think…this system is so dysfunctional that it's barely holding on. It no longer surprises me with its played-out glorification of the satanic, with its lust for the desecration of children and their innocence, and with its desire to ravage all that is good and holy and drive those things out of the land. I'm getting so bored by its attempts these days that I can’t even manage to conjure a strong emotional reaction to any of its gimmicks recently.
Am I wearing it out? Or is it wearing me out?
I'm starting to see “leftism” not as just any old disease or mind virus but specifically as an autoimmune disease. The antibodies and defenses that the regime has released to justify itself and its power are so over-reactive to stimuli and have been turned on for so long (quite potently since 2016) that it’s doing more damage to itself than it is to me and fellow like-minded souls.
Don't get me wrong. It's still incredibly dangerous, but it doesn't even have the creative power to generate new ideas on how to offend the right. It’s just doing the same kinds of things it's done for the last 50 years. I honestly don't know what that means for the culture war. What I do know is that this is a good time for those on the right to reconsider how they react to this degeneracy. Are you going to promote its horror while claiming you are denouncing it? Or will you just let it fall by the wayside and be forgotten along with the last “shocking” satanic thing from Hollywood—do any of you readers even remember this guy's name?
I'm starting to think that exaggerated reactions to some of these things (denouncements included) are more of a stumbling block than letting them simply pass by unnoticed, unremarked upon. It's not that you shouldn't denounce them. It's just that spotlighting regime antics gives them more power than they ought to have. I'm a Christian. I'm not afraid of Satan. He was defeated by Jesus, God in the flesh. He has been defeated, so why let the enemy provoke us by overreacting to his provocations?
How will you choose to respond?
For me, I'm partly exhausted, but part of me is also eager to see what will happen next, in time, in history. I want to know what happens after the aughts. Culture just seems eternally stuck there without a truly distinct flavor or essence or substance or aesthetic since the 90s. Everything just blends together without truly changing for the last 20 years. The decades since then are near indistinguishable from each other. I just want something in this war to shift, to change, ideally in the favor of Christians, but I've worked as a programmer and my degree is in computer science. Sometimes the best way to know that you're making headway in debugging your broken code is by getting another error but one that differs from the last one you were stuck on, a signal indicating an advancement.
It's time for something in the atmosphere of this nation to change.