Jamie McCarthy via Irregulars irregulars@lists.tbtf.com via easysrs.org

Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 3:00 PM

to IRRegulars

I would expand on this by pointing to Wilhoit's Law, from 2018. I think this portion of it is exactly correct:

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:

There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.

For millenia, conservatism had no name, because no other model of polity had ever been proposed. "The king can do no wrong." In practice, this immunity was always extended to the king's friends, however fungible a group they might have been. Today, we still have the king's friends even where there is no king (dictator, etc.). Another way to look at this is that the king is a faction, rather than an individual.

As the core proposition of conservatism is indefensible if stated baldly, it has always been surrounded by an elaborate backwash of pseudophilosophy, amounting over time to millions of pages. All such is axiomatically dishonest and undeserving of serious scrutiny.

Today, the accelerating de-education of humanity has reached a point where the market for pseudophilosophy is vanishing; it is, as The Kids Say These Days, tl;dr . Al that is left is the core proposition itself - backed up, no longer by misdirection and sophistry, but by violence.

There is no point in debating or discussing it.

The "axioms" of Trumpism/conservatism are that white supremacy and patriarchy are the correct ways to structure a society. For decades those twin principles have been wrapped in layers of high-minded bullshit. Now they're enforced by memes and the assault rifles of the secret police.

I don't think discussion and debate have ever helped much, and certainly do not now.

For more on understanding modern American politics, I would recommend this thread:

https://bsky.app/profile/mosheroperandi.bsky.social/post/3ltsooofgnk2k

Jamie

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