Evolving From Social Matter & Friday Reads
Where did Social Matter go? Why did Social Matter shut down? I do not know, and except when I wish I had an old essay of mine, I do not care. Things evolve and change. Someone asked if we at The Sun were the new Social Matter, and I said no because circumstances change, two different projects and all things evolve. If you want to consider American Sun an heir to the old site, you can.
I do not work with the old Social Matter leadership at all. To paraphrase an old movie, “you're nothing to me now. You're not a brother, you're not a friend. I don't want to know you or what you do”. I doubt Hestia is even still a thing. After all, all sites were taken down. That surprised me, as prior to my exile, the idea was Social Matter would always be up as a sandbox of sorts for fringe right theory, commentary, etc. They (Hadley & whomever) changed their minds likely for good reasons. Thermidor shut down when P.T. Carlo disappeared. No one was left. I wish all the best of luck in their endeavors.
So what have we got here? The Myth of the 20th Century team and I run a site very similar to those two old sites (using writers from both like Richard Greenhorn, Fred Watson, Henry Delacroix, Nathan Duffy, etc.). They sit on the Overton Window’s edge or outside of it that involve theory, commentary, historical revisionism, power analysis, practical solutions, project oriented ideas, culture bits, policy ideas, etc. Sounds like Social Matter & Thermidor. We will never be as academic as Social Matter aspired to be, and we avoid friendly fire posts that would pop up on Thermidor. Focus on goals. Focus on ideas. Focus on policies.
We will always have an open door policy as I have seen the value in friends, not cultists. Very few submitted essays have been rejected for better or worse. There is *always* value in a pseudo site because anonymity allows freedom. There is additional long term value because if you pay attention to normie right publications, they are posting things you saw years ago on SM, Xenosystems or my old blog. Ideas formerly off limits are moving along a pipeline to broader audiences. I chuckled when American Conservative posted on OnlyFans, tech/porn warping gender relations and a need to restrain porn. We bring up alternative political arrangements because those debates are happening elsewhere on the right (in private) and will continue as the US Empire unwinds.
We will be a site that lets an insider shine a light on TikTok nurses being a logical outcome of feminism and also a site that discusses how corona and the TikTok dancing will be absorbed by our giant culture & propaganda machine. We provide the 5 ways to fight xenoestrogens and small right wing initiatives you can take to improve your community. Where else can you find BAP essays? We will also be a site that remembers it is a free group blog. No pretensions or delusions of grandeur.
On to the links...
Maine Loner - One man lives as a hermit in the Maine woods for years. He steals what he needs to survive. Locals have a variety of opinions about the whole situation.
Subscriptions Up but the NY Times is Dying - Content wise the NY Times is dying. The 1619 Project was a big sign, not just from roll-out but for their reaction of who cares when they were called out for shoddy research. The Times now has over 5 million subscriptions. Why? Every liberal all across America knows to read it to be a proper, good liberal. Huge centralization of goodthink propaganda and message distribution.
Planned Obsolescence of the Heartland - This interview covers it all about the decay in the heartland. I agree with much of the points brought up because I have seen it first hand. There is a very plausible future of a zombie America creeping along just competent enough to provide food for China and not one bit more capable.
How to make college worse - Will corona and tech allow a handful of universities to dominate. This would be another massive centralization of the cathedral. The indoctrination matters because if we do get to this point why wouldn't they just say "transfer cash for the good future slotting you want"?
Cuban funny money - Great article on Cuba's two pesos. Could happen as governments run into financial issues with all of this printing.
Chinese tech adapting - Decoupling may happen. The dam has broken on not just investigating Chinese assets here but in turning them into media nuggets. I doubt a decoupling occurs if Biden wins, but there is potential if Trump wins and Navarro + the military return enough of our supply chains to America. If it does, the Chinese are getting ready.
Roubini predicts a depression - Roubini makes the case for a depression in the '20s.
The NSA maps all - This article goes into detail about how the NSA operates and handles that data rather than just the initial Snowden revelations. This is why fedposting is bad.
How the Dems became the UMC Party - This is a nice essay that has to carefully avoid some hard truths. It does describe how the party is the party of the upper middle class, but it fails to answer why the other part of the Democrat's support coalition is what it is? What is the reason that nonwhites vary on social issues but are Democrats, as pointed out here, "Socially conservative whites have largely left the Democratic Party and socially liberal whites joined it, while nonwhites of varying views on social issues are mostly Democrats". What could it be? What policies created new Democrat voters to pair with an increasingly left wing, college educated white voter bloc.
The lockdown’s founding myth - Not even the Imperial College model assumed lockdowns. Seeing the revisionism from the chattering class about the Corona Crisis is sickening but par for the course.