Protective Stupidity

As The Cuckening rolls on, both those who despise the term and those who gleefully deploy it understand it is effective because it is so devastating. As Michael Enoch of The Right Stuff explained in his appearance on The Radix Podcast, being “cucked” cuts to the core of a man’s sense of value. The blogger Heartiste phrased it even more directly some time ago—being “cuckolded” in the most brutal sense, by unknowingly raising another man’s child due to infidelity, is the female form of rape.

Yet the soul-crushing pain of that scenario only results if a man actually discovers he has been betrayed. Most men will convince themselves that a child who doesn’t even look like them is biologically theirs. New mothers are evolutionarily wired to find physical similarities between their child and their current male partner, a mechanism to subliminally reassure new “fathers” so that they assume paternal responsibilities. As about three percent of births in Western countries are products of cuckolding, millions of men are unknowingly raising the spawn of another, having convinced themselves otherwise.

And anyone who has experienced infidelity—as the victim, the perpetrator, or both—can understand how this occurs. The flimsiest of excuses are eagerly accepted by a partner who wants to believe their loved one is remaining faithful. In retrospect, of course, your boyfriend’s car didn’t actually break down on the way to your house at three in the morning . . . of course your girlfriend didn’t stay with her “old friend from college” last weekend . . . But with ego and identity at stake, the human mind will more readily believe an obvious lie than a difficult truth. Our brains interpret new facts by incorporating them into our already existing worldview, a worldview often constructed to guard our own heroic self-image. And when a man is forced to confront a horrific and undeniable truth about himself, it may destroy him utterly.

For that reason, our mind is heavily guarded against an unwelcome epiphany, fortified with mental blocks preventing our consciousness going down the wrong path. It’s a kind of protective stupidity necessary for our own psychological survival. When someone does change their opinion about something fundamental—particularly when it comes to something deeply held like religion, moral philosophy, or politics—it rarely comes in a sudden flash but takes place as part of a gradual process, something far less threatening to our own well-being.

Which brings us to the conservative movement. For a brief period of time, perhaps as little as a few hours, there were signs that the Overton Window in the conservative movement was going to shift, and that certain forces within the conservative movement, were showing what could be the first signs of racial awareness—a practical sense of how utterly self-defeating it was to be so showily post- or anti-White. Yet with few exceptions, the new orthodoxy within the Beltway Right was quickly established and loudly protesting the use of #cuckservatism became the new way to signal your loyalty to “respectable” American conservatism.

Indeed, many conservatives decided to champion #cukservatism as a banner of pride. A small sample:

@BanCollectivism I am PROUD to be a #Cuckservative. It means both my brain and my heart work properly.

— Jefferson McIrish (@MrCuckservative) August 2, 2015

@yesnicksearcy @Phantom1077 Yeah, Nick, I’m a proud #Cuckservative, too. Gotta have you on my radio show again! http://t.co/b10QBMoStS

— Michael Graham (@IAMMGraham) August 2, 2015

Yep, #cuckservative and proud of it, given that’s a pejorative applied to real conservatives by white supremacists. https://t.co/9pXRc5kZAy

— All American Gay (@MericanGay) July 31, 2015

I got my official #cuckservative badge today. Never been more proud. pic.twitter.com/kPeBS5KT6K

— Aaron Gardner (@Aaron_RS) August 11, 2015

A proud self-declared #Cuckservative https://t.co/ySoUlco40h

— Cypriot (@dkwoqc) July 29, 2015

Alt-righters who deploy these dank memes in order scold and shame the Beltway Right will be forever disappointed. Never forget that most conservatives really believe their own bullshit, in the same way a cucked father will tell himself the child is really his, or an ex-boyfriend will tell himself his girl will come back if he just sends another pleading four-part text message. You might as well try to talk someone out of a cult, or tell an animal hoarder she’s not helping the cats she believe she’s protecting. They have to believe it, for they lose their very identity if they concede otherwise.

Once this is understood, Conservatism Inc.’s seemingly absurd strategy of promoting a term in order to marginalize it no longer appears self-defeating. Instead, it fulfills the internal objective to protect the status quo and the self-image of those in the “movement.” Rather than pushing back against a term that can be used by anyone (not just the racially conscious) who rolls his eyes at the empty virtue signaling and pathological cowardice of the Beltway Right, Conservatism Inc. is explicitly agreeing with the critique implicit in the term “cuckservative” and is increasing its internal policing. Now, using #cuckservative is career ending within the Beltway Right, the equivalent of showing awareness of racial differences in intelligence. Expect many more to suffer the fate of Parsell, Derbyshire, and Richwine. The ritual sacrifices will continue until morale improves.

The key to comprehending American conservatives is to grasp that they think they are in charge, that they are winning, and that, in some vague way, their strategy is working. The Victory Narrative of the movement—that there was nothing, Buckley arrived, purged the “crazies,” and set the stage for Reagan and eternal glory—remains largely unquestioned. The key premise is that America remains a “center right” country that can be won with a cheery messenger about policies that apply equally to all people. As Matt Lewis declared—as he beat back those “vile goddamn racists”—“be optimistic about America” and “embrace our pluralistic society.”

Rather than the supreme function of statesmanship constituting the prevention of preventable evils, the American conservative intellectual refuses to consider the possibility that such evils could ever occur. Thus, champions of a philosophy at least nominally defined by respect for tradition and caution about radical and unneeded change are now stating the wholesale replacement of the European-American ethnic core will have no ill effects. More than that, trying to reverse this unprecedented demographic transformation should get you fired, because real conservatives are “optimists.”

As a result, the Beltway Right is setting itself up for an intellectual, demographic, and eventual political death spiral. Rather than addressing mass immigration or the catastrophic impact on quality of life that will be created by Obama’s push for “diverse housing,” Conservatism Inc. intellectuals are urging war on the party’s own political base and the “activists” are trying to get the White rubes out to a Martin Luther King rally. Indeed, the calls to purge the party’s own supporters are becoming explicit, especially from those (like political consultants) who have a greater stake in the parasitic established order.

The smarter conservatives understand the limitations of this strategy and the legitimate frustration of the Republican base. Mark Steyn writes in the “Two Party, One Party State”:

When the left wins, they’re in power; when the right wins, they’re in office, and that’s all. A substantial portion of the base gets that, and is sick of it. They feel like they’re losing their country, and they want more than a party that promises merely to lose it a little more slowly.

The premise of authentic American rightists is that the conservative movement has utterly failed in its stated objectives after the Cold War. Post-Obamacare, which the conservative movement opposed with everything it had and which was eventually saved from a court challenge by a Republican nominated justice, what’s the point of voting Republican? And after the GOP’s failure to oppose Obama’s expansive executive orders on immigration and housing even after taking control of the legilsature, what difference would it make if Congress were 100 percent Republican? Believing Richard Spencer will be God-Emperor of North America and transform into a giant sandworm makes far more sense than believing the conservative movement will ever “limit spending.”

But in a deeper sense, the problem is not that the Beltway Right is too “moderate” or the “RINOs” are insufficiently loyal to the Republican catechism. The problem is that Republicans pair their weakness on issues like immigration and multiculturalism with a suicidal militancy on unpopular and destructive economic issues. Ideologically, as well as tactically, the American Right must be reconstituted if it is to actually speak to its constituency.

Nothing illustrates this more than the rise of Donald Trump, who has shown the real enemy of the White conservative base isn’t the “liberal media” but the Beltway Right itself. More than that, as usual with “far right” candidates, someone like Trump is actually the GOP’s best bet to appeal to Reagan Democrats. As progressive reporter Dave Weigel notes, Trump is “the candidate talking most directly about the loss of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries,” something which is deeply important to the Rust Belt voters the GOP desperately needs to win and yet has all but written off.

At a moment when the GOP base feels itself utterly under siege by the educational, media, cultural, and financial elite, the Republican chattering class has decided to join in the attack. Even Trump’s immigration plan crafted in alliance with Senator Jeff Sessions is denounced as “identity politics for white people.” Of course, no one who supports such a statement can ever complain about out-of-control leftism in California or act surprised when Texas turns blue. California today isn’t the opposite of what the conservative movement wants —it’s the future the Beltway Right chose when it refused to listen to people like Pat Buchanan, Peter Brimelow, and Sam Francis. Concerned trolling about the Donald Trump “circus” implies the conservative movement itself should be taken seriously as either a political or intellectual force.

Of course Trump isn’t “identity politics for white people.” Just ask these girls. Going further, Trump would probably win more non-White voters than Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio. And Trump doesn’t even oppose “racial preferences,” or what should really be called anti-White racial preferences.

But Trump still paves the way for White identity politics, because the unhinged attacks on Trump’s candidacy and supporters show the Beltway Right would rather destroy itself, and the country, than even allow discussion of how an ongoing racial transformation will affect politics and culture. The conservative movement is ensuring White Americans have nowhere else to go than Identitarianism.

Conservatism Inc. might hang on for another election cycle or two, but at best, they won’t do anything substantial if they are ever in power. At worst, they’ll start another stupid war. In response to the great crises of the day, Conservatism Inc. has no answers. For its own supporters it has only contempt. And it remains relevant only because it continues to get in our way.