Message from @Atkins
Discord ID: 473628444903866381
Oh yes. That's actually why I like the Kochs. He understands the importance of the culture war and doesn't just play "buy Republican ads" game.
They think it doesn't matter to society at large.
The real challenge is getting the Rightwing grassroots to care.
Think of the last time you found a far left and how many NGOs they had on their car. Every one of those bumper stickers was money directed for a cause.
There is an asymmetry in the left and the right. The Left will fight on any terrain they can find. The Right just thinks that if they whine like sheep and then elect someone like Trump they'll somehow win.
It might work for short stretches in electoral politics but fails in the long run.
There are actually moneyed conservatives interested in this already and they struggle to find footing. The Martin Center of Academic Renewal for example has plenty of money coming in from places.
But a couple million from donors to fund a couple people to complain is like everything--easy to ignore.
Maybe one factor is that the right thinks they can win a civil war.
Which they won't, BTW.
They might have the arms, but thy lack the organization and intelligence.
I'd rather have established structure and Google than a single firearm.
The right has a bad habit of being completely delusional.
I don't think anyone would win a civil war, and yes the right is pretty delusional when it comes to such discussions.
(Aside: this is my criticism of Nikki Haley's recent comment about not 'triggering the libs.' I notice alot of the vocal right wing academics I know would agree with me)
But they use it as a security blanket.
^
Along with naive assumptions on the free market.
It's like KiA. Everyone keeps saying how "get woke go broke" is going to kill the gaming publishers.
But The Escapist just got bought, Youtube is cracking down with the adpocalypse. Twitch isn't much better and there's not really easy-to-find alternatives to actually make the publishers go broke.
If KiA was a social justice outfit, they would have already crowdsourced and hired their own independent stack and "signal boosted" it whenever possible.
Instead, they'll just lose the new market and get replaced over time or get exhausted.
Feels like some of these differences in institutions stem from the differences in personality traits of their constituent members. Getting conservatives to work together on anything is like herding cats.
Can agree. But that's a problem on the left too.
Once a hierarchy is established it works great, but the dominance battles are fierce and destructive.
Conservatives tend to be of the "we'll find someone who will fix it for us" variety and Libertarians are to strongly "No You. Fuck You telling me what to do"
I'm not sure it's the heirarchy battles as much as it's a tendency towards apathy and an inability to recognize that sometimes you just have to sacrifice for the common good.
It's actually a coming weakness I think. As the right becomes more libertarian and the religious right fades, there will be a general shortage of footsoldiers.
Also, the left now has more money. Organization and discipline are more important than ever.
Well, every time a conservative organization forms it's denounced as 'alt right'
And every time a left wing organization is formed it's denounced as "communist."
Left wing organizations were designated "obscene" in the 90s.
The Proud Boys could've been something good, but they've been mired in controversy and accusations of racism since day one.
I'm not sure that really matters much for the fight over the academy.
Who else is going to be shouting "THIS IS WHAT YOU DO TO US"?
What, you think there will be a false flag of some sort?
No, just that it's extremely difficult to get a conservative group together for real life activism because they get labelled racist and nobody wants to participate.
This reminds me so much of the discussions I was having about a year and a half ago in which I said silicon valley was going to play censor and Congress needed to be looking at doing something about it then.
I can get away with going to a demonstration because I'm self-employed and don't give a fuck what anyone calls me.
But anyone who works for a corp is dead meat if they show up to a conservative rally.
Not necessarily. And even if that were true, if you're in the College Republicans you're already pretty marked as is.
I mean, the kids already making "affirmative action bake sales" and running TPUSA booths are already pretty committed.
Effective messaging is hard, I will agree. But that's something the right needs to learn.