Another changer heard from
[Hat tip: commenters “Gothamite” and “Cornhead.”]
Here’s a change story from a lifelong leftist. One of the things his tale highlights is that changers often assume that the left adheres to certain principles and are stunned to discover that most on the left are interested far more in party loyalty, and that for them principles are almost infinitely flexible.
It can be a painful shock.
Excerpt:
You might be living through The Turn if you ever found yourself feeling like free speech should stay free even if it offended some group or individual but now can’t admit it at dinner with friends because you are afraid of being thought a bigot. You are living through The Turn if you have questions about public health policies—including the effects of lockdowns and school closures on the poor and most vulnerable in our society—but can’t ask them out loud because you know you’ll be labeled an anti-vaxxer. You are living through The Turn if you think that burning down towns and looting stores isn’t the best way to promote social justice, but feel you can’t say so because you know you’ll be called a white supremacist. You are living through The Turn if you seethed watching a terrorist organization attack the world’s only Jewish state, but seethed silently because your colleagues were all on Twitter and Facebook sharing celebrity memes about ending Israeli apartheid while having little interest in American kids dying on the streets because of failed policies. If you’ve felt yourself unable to speak your mind, if you have a queasy feeling that your friends might disown you if you shared your most intimately held concerns, if you are feeling a bit breathless and a bit hopeless and entirely unsure what on earth is going on, I am sorry to inform you that The Turn is upon you.
And after you’ve made The Turn, you will still seethe if your spouse and/or friends have drunk the “woke” Kool-Aid.
How long did it take this guy to figure it out? What adamantine walls kept reality away from him?
I have an acquaintance who still insists that all opposition to Obamacare is based on anger that we had a black president. Details are irrelevant. It’s a powerful bubble he lives in.
Dennis Prager on why changers should come out in the open:
https://pjmedia.com/columns/dennis-prager/2021/12/07/why-you-should-come-out-of-the-closet-with-your-conservative-values-n1539510
Richard Aubrey:
He’s 45 years old and says it happened to him quite a few years ago. He doesn’t give a date.
A few days ago the governor of Florida spoke of forming a Florida State Guard, something that many states already have in addition to their State National Guard Units. My old Texas National Guard Armory was used by both the Texas National Guard and the Texas State Guard. National Guard Units can get Federalized and sent overseas. I do not know of that happening to a state guard unit, but I could be wrong. I was looking at a Twitter feed on the Florida Governor and the comments about the governor and Nazis were common. Somehow many on the left have been convinced that Republicans are “ Nazis”. It boggles the mind…
23 states, including California, have state guards.
See also Sarah Burwick’s “How the Left Is Losing Me” substack: https://sarahburwick.substack.com/p/how-i-woke-up
I like these stories.
Here is another one,
https://youtube.com/watch?v=l1IVOiq2C3c&feature=share
“If you’ve felt yourself unable to speak your mind, if you have a queasy feeling that your friends might disown you if you shared your most intimately held concerns,”
If you feel unable to speak your mind and certain that if you do, you’ll be disowned… You should be asking yourself, what in the hell you’re doing continuing to associate with people who have revealed themselves to be intolerant ideologues.
You can’t change your family but you sure as hell don’t have to support them with your silence. Which is acquiescence to at best intolerance and at worst, evil.
Geoffrey Britain:
I’m not sure what you’re getting at.
The person writing that obviously was not silent. He’s writing there about the beginnings of his stirrings of unease, when it’s quite confusing to discover the intolerance of friends and family.
What’s more, for many people, it’s ALL their friends and family. Or virtually all.
After a while, also, it becomes clear that there is no purpose to fighting the same fights over and over. If friendship and family means something to a person, then after a while silence is fine if you want to continue some of those relationships.
As we have all seen before, leftists are impervious to facts. They always find a way to avoid reality.
Just recently I got a notice that an Earth Wind and Fire was canceled in CT due to Covid!! I posted a comment that they should come to Florida where they could fill any venue. Immediately a leftist pops on and makes a comment about “DeathSantis”. Another person jumps in with data about case rates in Florida etc. The leftist discounts it all, so the other fellow shows data direct from the CDC. The leftist immediately twists himself into a pretzel saying Florida lies to the CDC.
Even when a source the left trusts contradicts the world view, they can’t deal with it.
Before I was kicked off of Twitter, a patent lawyer with NE ties attacked me for retweeting a post by Andy Ngo. Andy’s tweet had the picture of a white stabbing victim and the black attacker. This was the Columbia University case in NYC.
Patent lawyer said I was doing a Willie Horton thing. But the facts of the race of the attacker and victim were the facts. But I’m supposedly a racist.
I, along with my parents, have always been conservative, but I have some friends & family (sister & BIL & that side of the family) who are progressive. During the O-care discussions, I mentioned to my BIL about the “death panels” and other issues. He emphatically said I was wrong and I replied that I was reading the actual draft of the bill. He immediately started looking up the sections of the bill and then shut up for the rest of the visit. Facts matter!
A few years later, my sister called to hesitantly say that the two of them were going to a different church (Episcopalian vs the Roman Catholic that we were brought up in). She was actually afraid of my reaction. But, I was truly happy that she had found a place to worship. It freaked her out that I was so tolerant… I guess she thought that conservatives were not supposed to be that way!
But, the two of them went to school in DC and have continued to live in the area, so they will be progressive to the end.
This brought to mind a speech by Governor Schwarzenegger quite a few years ago (I think it was for the Republican National Convention, but I’m not sure) where he made a variety of statements like those of the “lifelong leftist” and ended them with “Then you are a Republican.” I thought it was remarkably effective…
To wit: “if you have questions about public health policies—including the effects of lockdowns and school closures on the poor and most vulnerable in our society—but can’t ask them out loud because you know you’ll be labeled an anti-vaxxer, then you are a Republican!” This is a better rejoinder than “…the Turn is upon you…”
Neo– I read Geof”s comment as saying something along the lines of “why do you care if these people will still be your friend?” and “why would you want them in your world?” If I got the wrong vibe, I have a feeling I will be corrected.
Agreed that it is hard to do with family, but it can be done. (Just ask my wife, re her sister.)
Another MIke:
Because there is far far more to life than politics.
Because they don’t all insult you and call you names.
Because it might amount to your ENTIRE family and virtually EVERYONE you know.
Put simply, a subset of Jews change political allegiances when they can no-longer stomach the Left slavering for the destruction of Israel.
And that is fair enough. Turkeys don’t vote for Thanksgiving. I’m not going to donate a single shekel to anyone who has ever had a nice thing to say about the ANC, for example.
That doesn’t mean that their other political inclinations change. They don’t necessarily suddenly start wanting an immigration moratorium or come out in favour of crucifying that vile shit-shoveling desecrator of all Gentile decencies, Seth Rogen (would be nice). Doesn’t mean they don’t mind Somalis coming to *your* neighbourhood. But yes, it’s nice that they don’t vote for Chuck Schumer anymore.
Politics is about self-interest. We are *all* pious hypocrites and dress up our selfish desires in principles. That’s no sin. It’s human. What *is* a stupidity (if not a sin) is to not see this.
It’s OK for Jews to be interested in things which suit Jews. At least pro-Israel Jews are saner than Full-on Progressive Jews. And the sanest ones are in Israel securing their conquests.
But when a Jew wakes up and decides to flip political parties because of primarily Jewish survival interests is great news for Jews. At best it is mildly of interest to Whites whose awakening and looking to White interests is anathematised. Generally by Jews 🙂
I look forward to reading more glowing stories in the Tablet about awakening Whites who start to realise which side *their* bread is buttered on.
I turned in 1992 because of this woman and her husband.
https://twitter.com/SteveInmanUIC/status/1468720121292021765?s=20
The common thread in stories about leaving the socio-political family is personal courage – and most people don’t have much of that. There were a lot more settlers than pioneers, and it’s a whole lot easier to yell and scream during the Two Minutes of Hate than to stand against it.
And it’s worth noting that in our modern-day culture, say the past 4 years or so, the penalties for being a dissenter have become quite specific and very very focused on getting the misbehaving back in line and stripped of their personal credits, or else. You’ll be noticed, and it won’t be nice.
I wonder if two additional things in the news lately will change other leftists hearts and minds …
1 – Seeing what happens to parents when they disagree with what is going on
in their local school board meetings. (not to mention ‘work from homes’
seeing what cra… uh … stuff their kids are being taught in Zoom classes)
2 – seeing trans ‘male’ utterly dominate their daughters in womens sports
Tuvea:
I suspect many liberal/moderately left Democrats are having second thoughts quietly about your two issues.
I’d add Joe Biden’s obvious mental deficits which, like Voldemort’s name, must not be spoken aloud. Then there’s the astonishing waves of brazen group thefts in blue cities.
I think Democrats are discovering they are Wile E. Coyote suspended in mid-air and noticing it is a long, long ways down.
All these “what took him so long” sneers are pretty baffling coming from readers of your site. “Changing” like this is extremely difficult for human beings and much of what you post here are thoughtful and thought-provoking personal explorations of this.
All these “what took him so long” sneers are pretty baffling coming from readers of your site.
Harry Wolper:
I confess a similar impatience.
IMO to understand someone else, you must be able to put yourself aside, then see it, hear it, feel it, experience it from inside the other person.
Which is not to make excuses for the other, but to get what they are dealing with.
It’s not easy and I notice conservatives aren’t any more gifted at this than leftists.
At best it is mildly of interest to Whites whose awakening and looking to White interests is anathematised.
Much of the current generation of We the Pallid has been indoctrinated since the 60s, from junior high on up, and ceaselessly through the ‘news’ media, to open up to ALL the sins of previous Pallids, to ignore ALL the sins of previous non-Pallids, and to wholly blank out all the benefits brought to these more-or-less United States by generations of Pallids.
Said benefits include the whole Enlightenment (from which we get the concept of individual ‘rights’), the bulk of English law (by which non-Pallids sue their way to preference and prosperity), and by far the majority of the discoveries of science and technology, and their employment in the enormous improvements in EVERYONE’s standard of living over the last two centuries.
Seems like some folks want the golden eggs regardless of damage to the goose. The damagees could conceiveably object.
The interesting thing about some of these stories – this one in particular – is the continued need to remain tethered to the media narrative about the “right wing”, “MAGA cult”, “insurrectionists”, i.e., those “eveli rethuglicans”. I read a few of her pieces at SubStack, as she’s new there subsequent to her “turn”, but I don’t see much acknowleging the media’s part in this. They are, in my opinion, BY FAR the biggest problem in this country, like a tall wall preventing otherwise sane, thoughtful people that are not right of center, be they centrist, or moderate left of center, from seeing the truth about both sides of the political spectrum.
I would actually caution on how Magnus described it above, as “You’re a Republican”. Even knowing the lies told by the media, even I’m hesitant to associate with the establishment GOP, the RINOs, and their continuous betrayals and failure theater.
McConnell just handed the debt ceiling to Democrats on a silver platter in exchange for nothing and calls it a victory. And in doing so, perpetuated the media / Democrat lie that to not raise the limit necessarily causes default. There are many terms we can use for the right of center where the “red-pilled” ultimately land, “Republican” would not be one of them, and we shouldn’t feel bad about that.
Zaphod:
So interesting that you don’t seem to think Jews are white. Fascinating, actually, and unsurprising.
And by the way – most people (and that includes Jews) don’t change political affiliation because of one issue, even an important one. Usually it has a cascade effect and once they cross into forbidden territory – the right – they discover there are a lot of good things there.
@Brian Lovely, regarding Sarah Burwick’s “How the Left Is Losing Me,” I may be wrong, but I think Burwick is a fake.
In my experience, people who have long been left/liberal, not to mention progressive, do not use “Democrat” as an adjective, especially when their political change is as recent as Burwick’s. Her “red pill” reading list also looks far too hard-core for such a recent changer.
I realize that some of the greatest zealots are new converts, but I have my suspicions. Nor does Burwick’s prose style do anything to persuade me that she’s authentic. For the topic, her tone strikes me as inappropriately pert and arch, as if it’s the work of someone jumping on Substack (and on a bandwagon that is genuinely gathering speed) and trying to make a name for herself.
These stories of change all have a consistent pattern. They always demonstrate that moral immaturity seems required to be a lefty.
‘Only we care about people. Anyone who disagrees is a bad person.’
It’s not enough to disagree about the best way to accomplish certain goals. They have to denigrate others. Have to condemn them as immoral. While congratulating each other for their moral superiority, their obvious intellectual understanding and their sure grasp of the inevitable path of history.
They have the moral maturity of small children.
neo on December 9, 2021 at 12:32 am said:
Zaphod:
So interesting that you don’t seem to think Jews are white. Fascinating, actually, and unsurprising.
If you’re going to hold by racialist taxonomy, both Jews and Arabs are considered to be in the Caucasian group. According to progressives, though, Arabs are “brown” and Indians and Pakistanis are considered “Asian” (despite the lack of epicanthic folds). According to DNA, the Torah, and the Quran, Jews and Muslims are genetic cousins, so I ask progressives, if Arabs are brown, can Jews at least be beige?
My daughter likes to say that Jews are Schrodinger’s whites, both white and not white, depending on who is promoting which agenda.
@Neo:
Jews get to Choose. You even have a lovely little nuclear armed ethno state for a backup country if everything goes to hell. They can be White when they like and Jewish when they don’t like to be lumped in with those Bad Whites.
And let’s not put words into my mouth. I never said that Jews are not White. Epstein and Maxwell were/are White. And undeniably genetically Jewish. But they were not working for White Intelligence running a network of underage Jewish girls to gather kompromat on Jewish movers and shakers. Were they? 🙂
No… not at all. You know and I know and so does everyone here that in the above paragraph there are places where the word “Jew” or “Israeli” belong and others where it’s “White”.
Jews are, as JAM says above, White. But they also have the option of being Jewish or Not Jewish when it suits Anti-Semites (“Shut up Zaphod, you damned Anti-Semite!”), and Jewish or not Jewish when it suits Jews as well — e.g. whenever there is a pattern of Jews Behaving Badly (i.e. leading lights of the Anti-White academic, political, and media elites).
Mind you, you could do one of your legendary forensic drill downs on the Maxwell case and demolish my knuckle-dragging fever dreams :).
My only real issue here is that I’d like to see parity. And this notion that people change because of principles is a bit long in the tooth. Yep, I’m a terrible cynic, but I think in the long run raw bluntly-expressed self-interest has less of a body count than Principles.
Zaphod:
Your fascination with the Jews is getting a bit stale. Use your vast brain and look into the Amish, or the Jehova’s Witnesses, or the followers of The Flying Spaghetti Monster.
I think things can suddenly move when a critical mass reaches a level of disbelief.
They may not change to Trump however, some new focal point may be required.
I think Andrew Yang may be the Lincoln of our era.
Sarah Burwick’s substack mentioned the support she got from her husband in a manner that indicated it was to be expected. Lucky her.
Although I “turned” early in life, and found a lifetime partner, my partner has not turned and she likely never will. Whereas before, I was able to set this aside because of the many positive things she has brought to me and our children, as I grow older and our world seems to grow more fractious, I find this part of my life unacceptably empty. Our children, both grown women, are also lefties, so I am without comfort there too.
The male-female political dynamic seems to be widely acknowledged and taken for granted as something that is inevitable. Candidly, it is the one area of my life where I feel a tinge of misanthropy! In my chosen line of work I had many rewarding relationships with women, more than with men, but shared political orientation only with men, and only a very few of even them.
I am reminded of the ugly newspeak term “Incel”, for “involuntary celibate”, and I wonder if I am an unfortunate example of an “Inmis” – an involuntary misanthrop!
Apparently, being on the LEFT makes one feel good. Lots of that in the Turners’ description of pre-turn.
Hard to say if bing on the right has the same effect for me.
If I had to describe it….
I’m bigger than most guys, played lacrosse in college, trained in martial arts, and was an Infantry officer. I have defused half a dozen situations over the decades by walking up to them, and two with the laying on of hands.
I feel a combination of being alone, even in company, and safety because….not to brag, nobody’s going to mess with me. It’s been a constant for more than half a century.
And that’s as close as I can get to describing how I feel about being on the right. Have to be self-sufficient because…you never know.
But good, superior, those things we hear about pre-Turn life? Nope,
Richard Aubrey,
One of my wife’s friends married a former offensive lineman from their respective alma mater. 6’9″ has to be at least 300lbs. Incredibly nice guy. I’m not a hot head, but he’s even less likely than me to start a fight. We were visiting and I suggested we all head out to a local watering hole. He demurred. He told me that whenever he goes to a bar, just by sheer dint of his large size, invariably some joker will eventually walk up to him and start giving him lip. He wasn’t particularly concerned that he couldn’t typically handle the situation, but he said it got to be tiring so now he avoids certain public places.
Awhile back I was watching, “Gutfeld” and the subject of impromptu, barroom brawls came up. Tyrus said that when he’s out with friends and one of his friends starts doing something stupid, challenging a group of guys, Tyrus’ stock answer is, “Alright. I’ve got the first 7, but you have to be able to take care of the rest!”
Zaphod,
There are a lot of successful Jews in the world, and there are a lot of unsuccessful Jews and a lot of mediocre Jews and saints and rogues. It’s fairly easy to cherry pick causes and allegiances if one wants to create a narrative and has hundreds of years of human history to choose one’s examples.
I think all those involved with the French Revolution were Christians or Atheists, including Napoleon. Mao, Stalin, Hitler… not Jewish. Bill Gates. I think Steve Jobs’ biological father was Hindu and Steve eventually adopted Buddhism. One of the main guys who decoded human DNA is Christian. Enrico Fermi, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Astor, Kennedy… I could obviously go on for days. No shortage of historic villains and heroes who were not Jewish. We have yet to have a Jewish President in the U.S., but we have had our share of corrupt Commanders in Chief. Joe and Hunter don’t seem to be hesitant to sell out the U.S. for personal gain and neither attends synagogue.
And the behavior you ascribe to Jews, even if true, is it any different than the human nature of most folks who have ever walked the planet? My personal loyalties are as follows; God, family, country. And God and family are sort-of a tie. I don’t think I have the faith of Abraham when it comes to sacrificing my own children.
I’m pretty sure you’re smarter than this.
Rufus. I’m not that big. I suspect that anybody who wants to start something with an old guy might prevail but would consider being too tired to enjoy it. But as tempus fugit, maybe I need to change my attitude.
That said, for some odd reason, it’s the closest I can come to describing my version of the lefties’ superiority complex.
Richard Aubrey,
When I think of men I have known who are all hat and no cattle, all bark and no bite; I agree they are almost all Lefties. Very bullying, aggressive and accusatory, in tone, even physically pushy, but apt to shout “foul” the minute anyone attempts to get physical with them.
I notice this same quality with more and more young women. It’s surprising how many Antifa and BLM videos show young women acting very physically aggressive. And, stunned when anyone calls their bluff.
@Rufus:
Correctamundo. Mind you Andrew Carnegie built libraries to atone for his life of rapacity. The Annenbergs built a machine for subverting US Politics.
In the current year it is OK to take a dump on Robespierre and Marat and not OK to pull back the curtain on precisely what was going on with Epstein and Maxwell.
No major public commentator dares go near it.
It’s a puzzlement. Or it would be if there wasn’t immense power and the threat of career and life-changing things happening to anyone who dared to dig.