The end of the world as we know it

So this is how democracy dies—to thundering applause!

(or something very similar) is how the fall of the Republic to the evil Empire is commented in “Star Wars”. So it was today.

A few comments:

1. Over the last few decades, we have had a very disturbing combination of the allegedly free world growing ever more totalitarian (with a severe recent push due to COVID) and ever more Leftist. Today, we have seen a disastrous culmination of this.

   Trump, to continue the “Star Wars” theme, might well have been our only hope, the last defense against not only excessive Leftist policies, bad enough in their own right, but the evil, the intolerance, the hatred, that the modern Left pushes so hard—often, paradoxically and hypocritically, in the name of good, tolerance, and love. Note carefully that evil usually comes in the guise of good, and that it is never more dangerous than when it is mistaken for good. (This is one of the reasons why I insist that we should go by what people actually do, not what they merely say, and that we should listen two both sides of an issue, not just blindly believe the one side.)

   Also note how the Left has grown more and more intolerant, the more power it has received, as in Germany, where you cannot open the news without hearing fears about Rightwing-this and Rightwing-that, while society shifts ever more Leftwards. If Ludwig Erhard had lived to see the current set of redistributions and “welfare” excesses, he might have died from the shock (despite having a strong “social” streak, himself); while the likes of Erich Honecker (the last dictator of the GDR) might have been positively surprised. And, yes, Germany has very similar problems with the “New Left” as does the U.S., on top of the “Old Left” problems—here even Honecker might have been upset.

2. We might now be in the absurd position that Putin is the leader of the free world; and, in the long term, it might well be that China poses a greater chance for the world than does the U.S. This not because Russia, let alone China, would be setting a shining example, but because the U.S. is crashing fast.
3. While I have long considered democracy a mere “least evil” as a political system, situations like the current truly make me wonder: Either the system is too easy to cheat or the broad masses are simply too stupid to vote (or both …), leaving us with a dictatorship of the manipulators and the dumb masses. Democracy in its current form is simply not tenable. It might work for a while, but as the problems build up, we end where many “advanced” Western democracies are now: wealth created by the free or semi-free markets give people enough affluence to not complain, while the individual is increasingly trampled and the government and its bureaucracies and “programs” grow out of hand. Go outside this group and it can turn even worse, as with Venezuela.

   Democracy needs either a (constitutionally guaranteed) small government or a restriction of voters by e.g. an IQ cut-off—and a high one, at that.

4. For democracy, this election might have been the greatest failure since the rise of Hitler (by mostly democratic means) and the fall of the Weimar Republic. (And, yes, I strongly suspect that the events in “Star Wars” were partially inspired by that failure, partially by the fall of the Roman republic.)
5. As for the U.S., it might have reached the single greatest internal crisis since the Civil War, and while the consequences are likely to be less bloody, they might turn out to be as dire in terms of e.g. societal costs, damage to long-term development, etc. Note that the Biden/Harris election is just one part of the overall puzzle, which must be seen in combination with e.g. extreme-Left (and other) rioters, the anti-intellectual take-over of the academic world, and the social-media censorships.
6. Irrespective of anything else, it is quite clear that the U.S. must change its procedures to eliminate the rampant possibilities for election fraud. Will Biden/Harris do so? Do not bet on it.

   However, if, against expectations, the Supreme Court, the state legislatures, or whoever, intercedes to compensate for the fraud and irregularities that have taken place this year, it would set a very dangerous precedent. It might be used to prevent fraud today, but it might then be used by the Left to perform fraud the next time around. On the off chance that Trump does win in this manner, his highest priority would have to be election-law reforms.

7. From a personal point of view: I have grown ever more cynic and disillusioned with the world, humanity, and governments, as time has gone by, but what I have seen in the last year, with disproportionate COVID countermeasures, people being fired for having the “wrong” opinions (or even their spouses (!) having the “wrong” opinions), BLM and Antifa hate-mongering and riots over a likely drug-overdose, Leftist lies being openly (but likely often insincerely) supported even by large swaths of the non-Left, the extreme censorship and free-speech violations by e.g. Facebook/Twitter/YouTube, the U.S. elections, …

   It is all truly horrifying. Even the Social-Democrat Sweden of the 1980s, where I first developed a political awareness, was a better place that the modern Sweden, Germany, and U.S.

   I like to think that “this too shall pass”, but I am not certain that it actually will.

   Frankly, I have only two hopes: (a) that the sheer extremity of what happens will awaken sufficiently large portions of the masses to stop the changes, and (b) that the Left might splinter, e.g. along “identity” lines, and see its factions turn on each other, allowing the non-Left or a more moderate Left to take over.

Excursion on future posts:
The results of the election, and the circumstances around it, have led to many more “extraordinary” posts on this closed-in-principle blog than I had intended. With one exception, a re-working of the lyrics to “American Pie”, I will probably not post more on this topic. This, obviously, with a reservation for a change in outcomes, e.g. through a successful Trump lawsuit.

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The POTUS election, Leftist hypocrisy, and Time Magazine

Apparently, Harris/Biden have been awarded the Time’s “person of the year”—in a manner that repeats the inexcusable hypocrisy and hate propaganda already mentioned in e.g. [1], where I say:

I am used to Leftist hypocrisy, but what I have seen since the U.S. election beggars believe. Above all, that the likes of Biden have the audacity to speak of e.g. “healing” and “unity” is so outrageous that I (a professional writer!) have problems finding words. There have been years of hate-propaganda, unwarranted attacks, whatnot from exactly these people, driving people apart, awakening hatred, aggravating or creating conflicts, and now these people speak of “healing” and “unity”!?!?!? It is sick, it is twisted, it is inexcusable.

That a POTUS winner is rewarded with “person of the year” is unremarkable—it appears to be a knee-jerk reaction. However, even discounting that the election is still not decided, the motivations are truly tasteless. For instance, Fox quotes Time* as saying:

*The Time website is not accessible in my browser.

it wasn’t about fighting Trump with righteous vengeance, or probing any deeper rot that might have contributed to his ascent. Biden believed most voters simply wanted reconciliation after four years of combat, that they craved decency, dignity, experience and competence.

Absolutely, utterly, utterly, inexcusable!

We have had five years of disgraceful hate attacks by Democrats on Trump, most of them void of justification. We have had years of racialist and racist hate mongering by Democrats. We have seen U.S. colleges ruined by hate-mongering and pseudo-scientific “social justice” freaks. Etc. Decency and dignity has been nowhere to be seen. (And while Biden might be experienced, few consider him very competent, at least today, while Harris, so far*, appears to be neither.)

*I reserve the right to modify my impression of her in light of future events.

And now the hate mongers are given awards for being the candidates for peace and reconciliation—those who won through hate and defamation—unless they won through cheating.

I can only call for a complete and exceptionless boycott of the brain-dead shitheads at Time.*

*I am very, very deliberately letting this formulation stand: they really do deserve it.

Excursion on the choice of Harris:
Looking at Wikipedia, it appears that the POTUS winner has received a blanket award of “person of the year” since 2000, including Trump in 2016, and with a very good chance in the years before that. However, this seems to be the first time that the vice president is included—something very telling in the overall scheme.

Excursion on other years:
While it is obvious that Time has not necessarily made choices based on e.g. virtue in the past,* but more on importance, recent choices are ridiculous. Last year, e.g., we saw Greta Thunberg, a climate populist with no accomplishments to her name, short of being-famous-for-being-famous, and who might not even truly understand the issues that she push. The award has increasingly been given to vague groups of people, like “The Guardians” in 2018 or “The Silence Breakers” in 2017**, let alone the ludicrous “You” of 2006. Other problematic recent winners include the horrifyingly-bad-for-the-Internet Mark Zuckerberg and the very disappointing Angela Merkel (cf. [3], regarding another person-of-the-year award, and e.g. [4]).

*Past winners include Stalin, Hitler, and Khomeini.

**Pushing the mostly harmful “me too” movement. Cf. a number of earlier texts, e.g. [2].