Counter-Currents
Émile Betsellère, Forgotten!, 1872.
1,792 words
Editor’s note: This article is adapted from the original post on Beau Albrecht’s blog here.
First of all, if you’re going to be a quitter, do it for the right reasons. If you’ve reconsidered or found that your beliefs don’t match your new ideology, that’s acceptable. It’s a legitimate reason. If you want to support mainstream conservatism instead, well, that’s up to you. I’m not so sure that Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz or some controlled opposition figure really will save this country, but believe it if you will. If you want to be a liberal, that’s your call too. Actually, that will be a good thing if you also can figure out how to make money grow on trees; it’s a problem they’ve been struggling with for quite a while.
The catch is that after you took the Red Pill and found out how the world really works, enlightenment is a one-way street. Therefore, if you do a 180 degree turn and start rejecting everything that you once stood for — as opposed to choosing a more moderate viewpoint — then be aware that you’re making yourself look pretty silly. Moreover, if you abandon the Alt-Right for something like Marxism, feminism, anarchy, or some oddball cult, then you probably never were with us for the right reasons and shouldn’t have joined in the beginning.
Some people bounce around like that. The problem is that they tend to be loose cannons on deck and are rightly avoided. Hobbyists are another problem. We need more than just warm bodies. We have to be selective. In many ways, Rightists emphasize quality over quantity, and this is one of them.
It’s been said that the Alt-Right isn’t very welcoming. That’s a valid point, but there are reasons. We do encourage others to change their minds, get enlightened, and step out of The Matrix. There also should be reasonable room for forgiveness of past mistakes. (We’re not living in a traditionalist society, and not many of us in Clown World remained unscathed all our lives.) Still, “Saul on the road to Damascus” type conversions don’t always gain immediate acceptance for reasons that should be pretty obvious.
It’s also important to prove oneself. Basically, show that you’re serious and willing to take action. Those who don’t earn a little proper street cred might end up disgracing themselves and leaving the wrong way.
Bad reasons to be a quitter
Benedict Arnold, the first American renegade
One bad reason to be a quitter is because of minor differences of opinion. These things shouldn’t get in the way. If your friends are 95% on your wavelength, why get too hung up on the other 5%? There’s certainly room for constructive debate on ideology, tactics, and so forth. Still, the operating word is “constructive.” Other than that, never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
The Alt-Right isn’t unified and monolithic. (There are reasons why this is a good thing.) You might find a different variety that is a better match for your views. Alternatively, you can go it alone and explain your own perspectives. Finding that you disagree with some of the Alt-Right doesn’t mean that you have to give up everything and embrace Karl Marx, Andrea Dworkin, Mikhail Bakunin, Sun Myung Moon, or whatever.
Another bad reason to leave is because of personality conflicts. Granted, this is something we need to improve. We tend to be pretty individualistic. A few of us — most, unfortunately — have big egos. Corneliu Codreanu, in the Nest Leader’s Manual, emphasized that personality clashes must be put aside. The Iron Guard’s goal was Romania’s salvation, and bickering had no place. These days, we don’t have time for that either. Is some petty dispute more important than the fate of the country?
Codreanu also mentioned that the enemy attacks both by suppression and (if that doesn’t work) by trying to stir up internal conflicts. We need to be aware of this possibility too. Unfortunately, there are those who thrive on gossip or even are chronic troublemakers. One might wonder whose side they’re really on. That’s another reason why quality over quantity matters.
For the most part, Leftists settle their differences out of public view and then follow along with whoever is calling the shots. Furthermore, I’ll have to credit them for skillfully assembling a broad coalition that has little to nothing in common with each other except a grudge against normal society. (That’s contemporary cultural Marxism in a nutshell.) Then their united front goes after whoever they see as their enemies. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but they do a pretty good job of setting aside their differences to reach common goals. (I don’t care too much for their goals, but that’s another story.) If we did the same thing and stopped sniping at people on our own side, we’d be a lot further along.
The worst reason to be a quitter is if you get in trouble and then try to save face by turning your back on your old friends. Trouble comes in many forms these days. (If it’s legal trouble caused by doing something stupid, then you probably already gave your opponents a propaganda victory.) Long ago, Tom Metzger said something about those who get busted and then become renegades to seek leniency. Basically, it was that if you end up blubbering to the prison’s parole board that you found GEEEEZUS and renounce your cause, it would’ve been better if you never had attempted any activism beyond yelling at the tube. This principle also applies to those who think they can stop an HR inquisition or SJW mob by mouthing off about their old buddies, or outright throwing them under the bus.
Finally, if you get kicked out of an organization for doing something stupid, this isn’t license to get even with the people whom you disappointed. Instead, accept it quietly and learn from your mistakes.
You can buy Greg Johnson’s It’s Okay to Be White here.
The right way to be a quitter
If you’re leaving for the right reasons — again, finding that you have a substantial ideological disagreement — then you still need to exit the right way. This means go quietly, gracefully, and with no fanfare. There’s no need to denounce everybody or write nasty letters. If you badmouth your old friends, assuredly they’ll be saying much worse things about you.
One of the worst things you can do is go to the media and make some godawful confessional. Almost certainly it will be run through their narrative filter. They’ll also embellish it beyond your own stretching of the truth. Much worse, your interview will provide a little more grist for their propaganda mill. They will run their story about you, using it to push their poisonous narratives and fool the public a little more. You should’ve learned that the MSM is one of the main reasons why society is the condition it is. At first, you opposed this corrupt institution, and now you’re helping it, which is a lot worse than merely chickening out. Don’t disgrace yourself like that.
Can you go further with it? A few Benedict Arnolds got book deals. There even has been a docudrama or two. Still, don’t expect that you can cash in very much by selling out. Being a turncoat certainly isn’t a great career path. Get your fifteen minutes of fame some other way.
There’s another thing that you should know about being a quitter, all the more reason to leave the right way. If you betray your cause, you’re not going to get a lot of respect, nor will you deserve any. You’ll mark yourself as untrustworthy. Even your former enemies who use your story to their advantage will look upon you basically like an ex-convict. You’ll draw a lot of attention to yourself, and all the wrong kind. Don’t imagine that you’ll just go back to being a “normie” in everyone else’s opinion. Don’t count on a hug-fest either.
Perhaps even worse, obtaining political rehabilitation depends on sucking up to those who you knew darn well are a bunch of shmucks. You must seek the approval of presstitutes, “watchdog” foundation staffers, or other bottom feeders and make yourself useful to them. Do yourself a favor — preserve your dignity and self-esteem, and don’t go down that path. Again, if you’re disillusioned or changed your mind, you can just move on without shouting about it from the rooftops.
Dissident politics isn’t for wimps
Chairman Mao said that revolution is not a dinner party, and I’ll have to admit that he knew what he was talking about with that. More to the point with our present situation, peaceful reform countering hostile entrenched forces isn’t a walk in the park either. It’s serious business, not a hobby, and not something to be set aside the moment it stops being entertaining. It’s a pursuit for the strong, decisive, and dedicated. If that’s you, then do your part. On the other hand, if you can’t shoulder the responsibility of standing up for your nation’s future, then find something else to do.
After you’ve taken the Red Pill, there’s no going back to blissful ignorance. Moreover, if you speak out or otherwise deviate from The Narrative, you’re part of the “basket of deplorables” that charming Hillary mentioned. Simply put, according to the opposition, you’re a heretic. The good news is that opposing globalist shmucks is a service to humanity. Remain aware that once you take a step into forbidden territory, the only way to go is forward toward victory. Running away is for losers.
Let’s wrap up here. Remember that if you want to be a quitter, any reasons other than substantial disagreement are bad ones. Also, avoid disgracing yourself. Don’t go to the media so they can write up yet another cringing confessional. Lastly, Samuel Adams — one of America’s Founding Fathers — had some advice for you:
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
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9 comments
You can’t “un-believe” some things, can’t “un-know” them. Not without severe self-induced amnesia. And even then, you’ll still bump into the same facts that led you down this path in life, and since the same person is at the wheel, they will lead you back to the same conclusions. Before you know it you’re back where you started.
I personally do not believe people change. I think this is a prerequisite to being a devotee of the New Right. People can change their opinions, they can change their surroundings, but they cannot change who they are, in their DNA, their personalities, again barring severe brain damage. A man is not a blank slate, a coat rack where he can hang whatever opinions and personal traits he chooses. Personal belief is to a degree in-born the same way personality and culture is. Some beliefs you are destined to espouse. To change your opinion on something so all-encompassing as race, it requires a radical self-reinvention, it requires so much to change about a person that they might as well be dead, with a new person in their place. In a figurative sense; to betray the redpilled convictions on race is death, and claiming to have had a change of heart on race is like claiming to have died and stood up from the grave as a new person. Unless one has a belief in divine resurrection, nobody is going to believe you. Least of all yourself.
What about taking a break? Dissident politics is extremely tiresome. At some point you have accepted the truth, and after that point, it seems like the movement has little to offer but blog posts and movie reviews. I guess I don’t want to be involved in politics at all, it’s just that the future of Europe worries me so very much, and I don’t know any way to help right now, but to help myself.
I’m an addict. I always resolve to quit reading these websites and to become normie, but I just keep coming back every morning. Like irmin Vincent once said, I doubt anyone comes to this point of understanding about race, the universe and everything and then goes back to believing the races are equal and the system is biased in whites’ favor, but they might quit out of hopelessness.
I’d say having a “normie” life quit the horizon for most of us here quite some time ago. Being naturally skeptical and questioning, it isn’t a surprise that I ended up here. I’d bet most of us here have those same traits.
But, I’m glad to be here. A journey of collecting red pills is a journey of collecting truths, finding solid ground to stand on, and establishing camaraderie among fellow WN and white advocates. I’m not a “bigot” for wanting to be around my own kind and I don’t need to browbeat myself over having that desire anymore. I don’t have to overlook the fact that blacks commit a crazy amount of impulsive crime and get caught because of their incompetence and lack of future planning (thanks to their low IQs).
I feel normal, and free from the indoctrination I’ve been spoon fed most of my life. I’ve got a duty to protect and defend my family and extended white family. Maybe I’m overly optimistic, but that’s what I derive from this movement. A solid sense of place and purpose. I understand the doom and gloom some on our side feel given the current state of things, but isn’t that exactly where our enemies want us? Feelings of despair and isolation.
Hopelessness slides to nihilism. The only reason I can think of someone attempting to reenter blue pilled life is because their views have been exposed and they’re desperately trying to keep their family who wants to disown them. Like an extreme social shaming event after being doxxed or whatever. It shows their resolve was never really solid and they’ll always live a lonely, miserable life knowing the red pilled truths inside their mind. As Vauquelin stated above, some things you just can’t “un-know.”
If/when I’m ever “found out,” I think it would be even more freeing. However the chips fall, I’d work around it and make moves to more openly help my extended white family. Our movement doesn’t need more wishy-washy men.
Nice post, IV. Made my day.
Well written, of course, as usual.
But hey, my brothers and sisters, let’s move forward. We have analyzed all aspects of the enemy, narrative, and various so called zombie “leaders” and their endless corruption to the nth degree. All of us are nowadays more than well educated on these matters. In fact, it is so clear that in most of the cases it is well enough to read the first ten lines and that’s it.
Personally I have been street active and that is another world. Now that gives some satisfaction. With a Big S. Also I have marched with three thousand patriots through our capital, and whatever “opposition” there was, it bloody well kept quiet.
I dare say that the pendulum has reached its apex and it is now turning the other way.
I would love to see practical advice and ideas about moving the movement from the digital world to the actual world, where our People are struggling against the Evil. And sure, it goes without saying, only legit advice, although you can never expect legit behaviour from oue enemies.
Taking a break is one thing. The major point is that there’s no need to make a dramatic exit, burn bridges, denounce old friends, and give the lying media another story.
I do understand that things can get difficult. What we need the most right now is getting the message out – conditions are ripe for that much, and when we get enough public awareness, then other possibilities will unfold. We each have to decide for ourselves the level of commitment we can make, keeping in mind that we’re faced with a relentless opponent.
Anyway, I recommend keeping in mind the words of Francis Parker Yockey: “The soil of Europe, rendered sacred by the streams of blood which have made it spiritually fertile for a millennium, will once again stream with blood until the barbarians and distorters have been driven out and the Western banner waves on its home soil from Gibraltar to North Cape, and from the rocky promontories of Galway to the Urals. This is promised, not by human resolves merely, but by a higher Destiny, which cares little whether it is 1950, 2000, or 2050. This Destiny does not tire, nor can it be broken, and its mantle of strength descends upon those in its service.”
As someone who did flat-out, no second thoughts, just walk out suddenly and leave my little group of community Leftists over one movie they showed at our “Peace and Freedom” group one evening in 2014. I can tell you, you definitely can change your mind in a one second over a blazing moment of clarity. My epiphany came while watching a Leftist video which weeping and mourning over the ‘outright murder of a well-meaning American citizen’ who had dared to side with Al Qaeda (by becoming a leader in their ongoing terrorist attacks against American troops and allies) and who was mortally wounded by a drone strike (ordered by Obama) when he was ‘hunted down’ in his home of choice, Yemen. Yes, you all know him as Anwar Al-Alaki — a flat-out traitor to America and us ole White citizens here.
“Oh, one of our own citizen killed by our own government, without even a trial or due process”, they wept and moaned “How Un-American and devious! Oh, isn’t the U.S. just the most horrid country for killing this poor man!” I though I would fall through the floor listening to my friends defending this guy. He was killed September 30, 2011, following his advancement in the leadership of Al-Qaeda, and his continuing videos of his speeches condemning the United States and urging further terrorist strikes. For starters, just read his Wikipedia biography. His speeches are still streaming (and screaming) on the internet.
So, about 8 – 10 friends dropped from my social life. I never said anything to them, I just walked out and didn’t return. Same thing happened again in 2016, when I voted for Trump and lost two friends I’d had for 30+ and 50+ years. With one I have remained civil and we agreed not to talk about politics on our excursions to the art museums of Los Angeles, but otherwise, I have no friends at all anymore. That is the state of politics in this country today. Even my two roommates are Leftists, and we only exchange humorous quips with one another over the so-called horrors of Capitalism, and I haven’t even touched on Biden’s blatant Dementia!
As for my White Nationalist friends, you might as well be floating in outer space, since we cannot get together in conventions and/or peaceful protests. I love reading your posts and would sure love to sit down to coffee or a dram with you, or wander through our art museums together, but alas! the Lefties are the masters of doxing. Whatever to do? Well, don’t leave! And don’t give up! We will find a way to get together and share our thoughts in person somehow in the near future. Please hang in there!
IV,
Right, skepticism and curiosity are temperamental traits common on the internet’s right. My ironclad resistance to the theory of evolution eventually made me far more open to its implications than those of my peers who accepted it as “the science” without much reflection. I learned the premises long before the logical conclusions. The good news is that people, implicitly or explicitly, are coming to the premises which are the elments of “the red pill”.
Marten,
There’s nothing wrong with that! Take a break. This movement won’t grow at the pace of news or meme propagation. We won’t catch up to cultural subversion by panic, but in the manner it was implemented. The apparently rapid degradation of culture was not build overnight.
Remember, the number of people actively engaging in “white activism” are orders of magnitude smaller of the people who accept its key premises. I would wager the subliminal effect we have is more useful than ostensive attempts to convert others outright. It is about cultivating people, to straighten the way towards the implications of what they already know.
In 2008, which I regard as my inflection point, I realized I wouldn’t argue people out of their illusion of normalcy. I don’t claim to have an encompassing ideology to spread to the world. Therefore, I have no capacity or inclination to proselytize. Prudence and honesty chip away at the fashionable beliefs of those around me.
I have a large extended family and alliances of families. That is the core. The internet subversives are only the catalyst for a larger cultural transition. I am too far out of the circulation of the main-stream to go much beyond that.
It is encouraging to see upstarts like the groypers though. The blinkers of the dominant propaganda are not a strong barrier to them. There is a reason they are considered particularly dangerous. They wear suits, they want to raise families and are unafraid of censure.
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