We either have to start winning or accept ultimate assimilation by the what I believe is brave new worldish religious marxism.

So long as you can win... I'm fine with whatever you're doing. If you're losing and happy to lose then I'm not interested in a suicide pact.

I can dig it. But what I'm saying is that how we win this is just as important as the endgame. Alinskist tactics are written from the perspective that the victor gets to condition the next generation of THEIR perspective and views in how the war is won. That cannot hold nowadays because of the internet.

I wonder if new technology can claw back some government control.

Everything is archived

@Undead Mockingbird Yes. New tech acts as a check against partisan "memory loss." Likewise, if drastic steps are taken, new tech can also deplatform any and all detractors, or lead to their removal a la China's "Social credit" system.

FYI Alinsky is a bogeyman. The framework of Alinsky tactics is not partial to any particular ideology, nor does it necessarily have to undermine any of your principles

Oh, I was actually thinking more along the lines of cryptocurrency and such.

Technology has had a democratizing influence in some regards.

If information is power and information is available to all, that will reduce power differentials, in general.

@Beemann Truth, but I disagree on the latter point. Alinsky's Rules for Radicals provides a firm threat of what can occur if your convictions, virtues, and morals are not ironclad. Because they can and will be used against you... if the detractors have no sense of building a public support for their actions.

And technology is no longer just the material worth. It is increasingly very intangible things.

Information. And how to acquire said information.

No aspect of RfR has to work against your principles

having the illusion of more power, sticking to what you know, making your opposition live by their own rules, ridicule, enjoyable tactics, keeping on pressure, etc are all things you can participate in from nearly any ideological standpoint

"RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

This is a historical tactic of the RNC because they focus primarily on individuals as a rule.

The DNC though fully weaponized it due to social media.

Alex Jones, Milo, and others are prime examples.

yup, but it's the reasons for that tactic being used that are the principled aspect, are they not?

Like if you want to take down a tyrant, you do the same thing

Right. But going back our earlier argument concerning poison vs resistance-building, this rule no longer applies due to technology being its natural, unexpected counter.

well except where it's still been effective

You can try to smear someone and the Streisand effect comes into play, all thanks to the internet and its archival process. And its users too

I think the issue there though is that the social expectation of fair play has been eroded

I would argue by decades of "by any means necessary"

Got it in one

America is unique because "Fuck your shit!!!" has been a facet of our Constitution since the beginning.

We allow a level of argumentation and social buckling in our governance. But the check to that has always been "But hey, we're all Americans, here."

THAT has been eroded because, as I see it, people don't seem to understand what it means to be an American. Or what you can or can not do as an American.

well that's because there's been an effort to erode the various components of American Values

often in service of expediency

it just makes it all the more tragic, as someone who does not live in a country that had those values hard coded into its very foundation

And this is where the RNC revival begins. By accepting the "cheesy" aspect of those ideals and marrying them with a positive future in which those ideals can exist with the rest of the modern world.

I absolutely agree

No one wants the 1950's back. But people should want the pride of being American from that era back.

And in my opinion, the internet can help that.

well and this kinda gets into the philosophical aspect as well

wherein multile social structures have been dismantled in the name of opening up society, without an examination of what those structures *did*

so on top of the political turmoil, there's an underying layer of meaninglessness in the lives of an increasing portion of the the voting public

which then leads to them searching for meaning in other shit, and then potentially radicalizing

Too many people are looking for a brand to wear on their t-shirt than a moral center upon which to grow from.