Category Archives: Paleoconservatism

UPDATED (5/22/021): NEW COLUMN: The Moral Writer’s Commandment: Cite Your Sources! (And A Bit Of A Salve: The Beatles)

Argument, Canada, Conservatism, Ethics, Etiquette, Free Speech, Ilana Mercer, Journalism, Morality, Music, Paleoconservatism

My first submission ever to an American news magazine was as a Canadian, in the early 2000s. What was visited upon me, on that occasion, shook me to the core.

I had been published by the Canadian Financial Post, a national newspaper, on the topic of intellectual property rights. Oh, the luxury of intellectual pursuit for the sake of it; these days, survival as free individuals is the pressing topic of the day.

Naturally, I credited scholarship galvanized in the making of my argument. And so, mentioned were Sir Arnold Plant, Tom G. Palmer and Stephan Kinsella, with whom I later collaborated in an IP symposium for the now-defunct Insight magazine.

The IP column submitted to the American Magazine was fielded by a well-known editor, a gate-keeper, who, in the unethical American model was both editor, writer and syndicated columnist. Still is.

Unethical, why? Because division of labor in our profession prevents corrupting conflict of interest. The latter always and everywhere gives rise to unethical conduct, all the more so given the grubby, ego-driven nature of journalism and journalists in America. With a few admirable exceptions (Townhall, American Greatness, CNSNews), almost all conservative editors also colonize their own editorial pages with their own copy.

Such opportunistic misconduct is zero-sum. The bad pushes out the good. In direct conflict with their mission, editors have the greatest incentive to keep talent off the pages, in-case it usurps theirs—and worse.

This particular editor-cum-writer-cum-syndicated columnist replied to my submission in the negative: My  piece (similar in “shoddiness” to “How Things Would Work In A Copyright Free Universe“) was just too shallow for his magazine. In other words, “Be gone with you lesser Canadian woman.”

My piece, however, was not too shallow for—wait for this—the American Editor’s syndicated column, where my column’s ideas cameoed in the United States under the dishonest man’s byline. Oh, yes. American Editor had excised smarty pants woman, seized upon her argument and her scrupulous citations of American scholars—and got himself a neat little column for his dry-as-dust syndicated slot.

Perhaps one day I shall name him, although to what avail, I don’t know. While it repulses me and I will not countenance it or be victim of it—unethical conduct doesn’t repulse many conservatives in the least.

I continue to be appalled afresh along this long and winding road (to conjure the pathos of the Beatles), and as the unfortunate topic of this week’s column attests.

Here’s the take-away lesson (as the kids like to say): Ecumenical submission to heavily promoted second-handers is not in me. When these second-handers pick the brains of longtime, marginalized, prolific, independent dissidents sans acknowledgement—they will be called out.

The new column is on WND.COM and The Unz Review, the staunchest defenders of my speech.

A bit of purity and inspiration amid a lot of moral ugliness:

The Beatles – The Long And Winding Road from Lennon-McCartney on Vimeo.

UPDATE (5/22/021):

This from a new and devoted reader I “met” through Michelle Malkin’s “Sovereign Nation”. His language is so vivid and filled with passion about ethics and justice.

Friday, May 21, 2021 11:30 PM
Subject: Fwd: RESPECT IDEAS!:> “HOMO EROTIC SUBMISSION > A MERCER ORIGINAL IDEA

Dear Friends,

The following LINKS are for an excellent essay by Misses Ilana Mercer on ideas and their, not only origin, but the acknowledgement of credit where credit is due. And this is not a case of shallow egocentricity, of a blowing of one’s own horn, and at that, out of tune. It is something I imagine a number of you have come across; that which concerns one of the most vile forms of censorship. The DISPLACEMENT of a human being, by the dishonest pseudo-intellectual weakling, who subsequently RANSACKS his victim’s artistic-intellectual-scientific creation rendering it his own. The vomitory irony is that this dishonest action of cerebral faggotry is carried out by either one who has the power to bludgeon many a time the true creator into a living oblivion or is aided and abetted by those who’ve not any concern for the truth. Have no sympathy, their hearts are as cold as ice, and know not a beat of life. I am not preaching: they’re one degree of an evil hierarchy. Be forever courageous and take the ax of a woodman to this disease ridden tree.

What Misses Ilana Mercer has written is of a most profound importance, and always has been, with broad-spread consequences not just culturally, as in artistic production, but in all the dimensions of our lives, including the financial. I ask you all to think about this; truly contemplate it. Exactness and precision is called for to-day!

https://www.unz.com/imercer/the-moral-writers-commandment-cite-your-sources/ or: https://www.wnd.com/2021/05/moral-writers-commandment-cite-sources/ Read and pass on.

Rob Shimshock’s First Book Promises To Be Wonderfully Unwoke

Conservatism, English, Free Speech, Kids, Literature, Paleoconservatism, Race, THE ELITES

I look forward to gaining insight into the mind of a young American writer, who’s on the wrong side of creation (pale male), to say nothing of the issues (non-woke)—ilana mercer

A young dissident, editor Rob Shimshock, is already up against The Amazon Machine, in his attempt to advertise his first book, Nightmare Crescendo: Breaking the Chokehold of Woke Capital. He tweets,

AmazonAds suspended an ad campaign for my new book, for being controversial and having…incorrect capitalization. Incorrect according to what, the AP, which insists you capitalize “black” but not “white”?

Fortunately, “the book,” Rob tells me, “is still up — and got a rank of #1, in a few, new-release categories and top 5 across the board in some others — but working with Advertising has been a pain. Amazon most recently denied one of my ads for an alleged incorrect use of ‘whose’… either this guy didn’t pass 4th grade English or was just that desperate to fabricate something to nuke the ad.”

I’m a stickler for grammar, as is Rob, my editor. I don’t see Rob’s errors anywhere. Besides, from the perspective of the drones working behind “Woke Capital,” isn’t it total racism to finger a writer for bad grammar? By the Amazon-advanced woke standards, English must be fluid if it is to avoid racism.

I look forward to receiving my review copy. For a book about politics, this almost sounds like fun—and is certainly a window in the mind of a young American writer, who is on the wrong side of creation (pale male), to say nothing of the issues. Read:

In his first book, journalist Rob Shimshock dissects the sinister symphony of academia, the media, the Deep State, Hollywood, Woke Capital, and their Soros-funded footsoldiers, a mesh of macabre melodies dragging our planet into the abyss. Shimshock diagnoses the sickness and offers antidotes through a series of literary “nocturnes” featuring bite-sized allegories like a battle between the Twitter bluebird and the U.S. eagle, blistering diatribes on the “cosmopolitan palate” and libertarian “Trojan whores,” admonitions against profit-driven “pathogenerals” and reprobate resisters to his 18th Amendment prohibition gang, a game manual for MONOPOLY: Regime Change edition, an ICE reality TV show pitch, and, yes, even a press release for the new superhero Dr. Deedee O. Hess, whose kooky finesse with hacking and leaking below-the-belt selfies of Big Tech CEOs is unrivaled.

Dictators loathe the sound of laughter. But they are terrified when that glee meets a formidable strategy. The Nightmare Crescendo has grown louder than ever before. Are you ready to become the instrument of its demise?

*Image courtesy Cassandra Fairbanks

UPDATED (2/11): Trumpeting The Hardcore Libertarian Take On Jan. 6 Capitol Incident

Democracy, Donald Trump, libertarianism, Paleoconservatism, Paleolibertarianism, Propaganda, Republicans, Taxation, The State

It bears repetition, hence the repetition in this week’s column, “Trumpeting the Hardcore Libertarian Take On The Jan. 6 Capitol Incident“—an incident, riot, certainly not an insurrection—which has intensified the real insurrection, ongoing against MAGA America:

Excerpt:

…It’s no secret that rock-ribbed libertarians—as opposed to the lite, fluffy establishment libertarian—view the State, certainly in its current iteration, as a criminal enterprise. For it operates with force and without the consent of the governed.

If you are tempted to argue this theoretical point, think only of the meaning of the 2020 election:

Upwards of 81 million people, or 51.3 percent of those who voted, not of the people, get to impose their will on more than 74 million, or 46.8 percent of the voters, as well as on the millions who didn’t vote.

Moreover, the winner in an election is certainly not the fictitious entity referred to as “The People,” but rather the representatives of the majority. And while it seems obvious that the minority in a democracy is openly thwarted, the question is, do the elected representatives at least carry out the will of the majority?

The answer is No! In reality, the majority, too, has little say in the business of governance – they’ve merely elected politicians who have been awarded carte blanche to do as they please.

Carte blanche because we are no longer a republic in which central authorities have only limited and clearly delineated powers. Certainly, all the people in the commonwealth are compelled to do as the Permanent State and the new, incoming state dictate.

No! Government governs without the consent of the governed, for the most, and with the backing of often-brutal police powers. …

MORE on WND, The Unz Review, or The Quarterly Review.

UPDATE (2/11):

Jan. 6 shows the difference between the paleoconservative (Pat Buchanan) and the paleolibertarian (me): Buchanan: “Of all the riots in 2020 and 2021, [Jan. 6] was the unforgivable one.” Me: Destroying private property is way worse than harming the state.

Conjugate the Verb To Lie (As In ‘Lie Down’ And Not ‘Lay an Egg’)!

Affirmative Action, America, Conservatism, Culture, Education, English, Gender, Paleoconservatism

Forgive this English patriotism. In dumbed-down America, it would, no doubt, be derided as elitist. By extension, meritocracy and an emphasis on canon and curriculum are considered elitist — and even petty.

After all, the aim is for societal  institutions to look properly diverse. And, if this sort of diversity is to be achieved—our institutions must reflect diverse standards as well. There is no getting away from it.

The now-acceptable lack of proficiency with English grammar means that there is more crap (a good, honest adjective in this context) grammar to report, this time from an “editor” at Chronicles magazine, a conservative magazine of culture.

SHE “writes” (as she sins indulgently and promiscuously in using the Imperial “I” 1000 times, in what is a cardinal sin in writing):

“You probably expect me to now explain how awful COVID was, how I LAID around in bed.”

Past tense of “lie” down is LAY.  It’s, “…how I lay around…”

Our laid-up  “editor,” who happens to write at the 8th-grade level at Chronicles Magazine, would have been correct to write that “the chicken laid an egg.” In so writing, she would be conjugating the verb to “lay,” as in “lay tile” or “lay the table” for dinner, too.

How deep runs the institutional rot—and how disgraceful it is—that people who call themselves “editors”; market themselves as such–are bestowed with the honorific; get paid to titivate the works of their betters–are, themselves, incapable of conjugating English verbs.

RELATED: “The Dissident Right Has An Idiocracy Problem” By Juvenal Early