Post by Cali on Jan 22, 2014 8:09:57 GMT 1
So has anybody been following this neo-reactionary movement that's been a little more vocal as of late? It's essentially a third-position style political movement that combines both the most obnoxious and puzzling traits of both the left and right, mostly non-egalitarian libertarianism. Disproportionately comprised mostly of programmers, IT drones, pagans, and middle class white men.
While these folks can vary pretty sharply in their ideologies and opinions, the most (unfortunately) common traits of a neo-reactionary are as follows:
1. The majority are white, heterosexual, cisgendered men, and the movement seems pretty heavily centered around them. The ones that aren't (very rare, usually white heterosexual women and middle class "Uncle Tom" blacks) are usually advocating or arguing in defense of this demographic.
2. Radical traditionalism - This is the movement's most unique and weird trait. A lot of them are wannabe aristocrats and Sir Walter Raleighs, yearning for the days of monarchies and feudalism, and are very anti-democracy, believing it has crippled Western civilization. Kinda funny how these folks think they wouldn't be serfs in the middle ages, romantic or classical eras. Their support of Monarchy doesn't seem to just extend to "What's best", it gets more into the "By Divine Right" at times. Weird...
3. Atheism and Anti-Christianity - While Abrahamic and other religious reactionaries definitely exist (such as the incredibly fucked-in-the-head fantasy author Theodore "Vox Day" Beale, for instance), the majority are atheist, agnostic or skeptics. There are also a fair bit of pagans within.
4. Anti-feminism - A large percentage of the movement is strongly opposed to feminism, to pretty much nobody's surprise (they're a bunch of nerdy dudes, after all). The disdain varies from one reactionary to the other, from (slightly) sympathetic thinking it was once a valid and honorable movement that's gone too far, to something that's always been socially, economically and biologically hazardous and think women should be baby factories and spend more time in the kitchen. It's kind of funny to me, because I can't see the (neo-reactionary) ideology being anything more than a form of birth control.
5. Anti-capitalism/consumerism - Seeing how Fight Club is basically an unofficial Bible in some circles of theirs, it's pretty easy to see why they'd be against it. A lot of these dudes are Gold-standard nostalgists and Ludwig Von-Mises libertarians. A lot of them seem to think the bartering system should make a full comeback, and regulations lifted. I'd say they've been playing too many fantasy RPG's, but that's just me.
6. Scientific racism - Arguably, the most despicable and concerning of the movement's ideologies. While not all of them are racists, the ones that are happen to be fairly numerous and vocal. There's a strong belief (from very questionable sources) there that black people's IQs are around 20% lower than that of whites and asians, and how they commit more crime or something. How they don't seem to mind the numerous whites with lower IQ's and criminal rap sheets (they tend to ignore them, being racist) I dunno. A rather annoying thing is that they have a tendency to swear they aren't racist, and just stye themselves as "racial realists" and label their detractors as "racial denialists".
7. Eugenics and "Social Darwinism" - A fair bit have aspirations of wannabe mad-scientists, obsessed with racial and genetic purity to spergy and Nazi-esque levels. The fact they seem to care so much about this is hilarious if you consider the fact that they so strongly seem to display tendencies of Tourettes and Aspergers syndromes. No offense to people who have either of these (unless you're a eugenicist)...
8. Homophobia - In most cases, neo-reactionaries are only slightly more accepting of the LGBTQ crowd than your average mainline conservative (in that they don't SEEM to wanna legislate anything that goes against their lifestyle). In some other ways, they're a little more irate. Since the majority of them are atheists, with no religion to justify hatred for them, they've settled with saying that gays are biological anomalies, and useless by evolutionary terms, so much that they should hate them or be distrustful of them. If you think that sounds pulled out of the ass, you're not the first.
9. And finally, just all out rejection to the majority of modernism/modern ideals - Neo-reactionaries hate modernism, and think that none of it is working. They seem to just wanna go back to a time before the French Revolution/Norman Invasion of Britain/Apartheid/1960's/etc where women, the poor, and non-whites "knew their place", and where things were "simpler" or "functional".
Some neo-reactionary websites:
lesswrong.com (A mixmash of weirdness. Arguably the least crazy of the bunch.)
thedarkenlightenment.com (Wannabe mad scientists and racist dweebs)
therightstuff.biz (Some very obviously confused people who identify with the Left)
alternativeright.com (White nationalist, male chauvinist, and dare I say "Nazi" as all hell.)
Some articles on it.
A map of many neoreactionary bloggers
An editorial article (from a mostly Tory website) about the movement.
Mainstream Republicans/Right-Wingers aren't too fond of the movement.
In conclusion: They're a very strange, racist, misogynist, misinformed, irate, joyless, and clownish bunch of weirdos. And I sincerely hope they snap out of it, for everybody's sake.
While these folks can vary pretty sharply in their ideologies and opinions, the most (unfortunately) common traits of a neo-reactionary are as follows:
1. The majority are white, heterosexual, cisgendered men, and the movement seems pretty heavily centered around them. The ones that aren't (very rare, usually white heterosexual women and middle class "Uncle Tom" blacks) are usually advocating or arguing in defense of this demographic.
2. Radical traditionalism - This is the movement's most unique and weird trait. A lot of them are wannabe aristocrats and Sir Walter Raleighs, yearning for the days of monarchies and feudalism, and are very anti-democracy, believing it has crippled Western civilization. Kinda funny how these folks think they wouldn't be serfs in the middle ages, romantic or classical eras. Their support of Monarchy doesn't seem to just extend to "What's best", it gets more into the "By Divine Right" at times. Weird...
3. Atheism and Anti-Christianity - While Abrahamic and other religious reactionaries definitely exist (such as the incredibly fucked-in-the-head fantasy author Theodore "Vox Day" Beale, for instance), the majority are atheist, agnostic or skeptics. There are also a fair bit of pagans within.
4. Anti-feminism - A large percentage of the movement is strongly opposed to feminism, to pretty much nobody's surprise (they're a bunch of nerdy dudes, after all). The disdain varies from one reactionary to the other, from (slightly) sympathetic thinking it was once a valid and honorable movement that's gone too far, to something that's always been socially, economically and biologically hazardous and think women should be baby factories and spend more time in the kitchen. It's kind of funny to me, because I can't see the (neo-reactionary) ideology being anything more than a form of birth control.
5. Anti-capitalism/consumerism - Seeing how Fight Club is basically an unofficial Bible in some circles of theirs, it's pretty easy to see why they'd be against it. A lot of these dudes are Gold-standard nostalgists and Ludwig Von-Mises libertarians. A lot of them seem to think the bartering system should make a full comeback, and regulations lifted. I'd say they've been playing too many fantasy RPG's, but that's just me.
6. Scientific racism - Arguably, the most despicable and concerning of the movement's ideologies. While not all of them are racists, the ones that are happen to be fairly numerous and vocal. There's a strong belief (from very questionable sources) there that black people's IQs are around 20% lower than that of whites and asians, and how they commit more crime or something. How they don't seem to mind the numerous whites with lower IQ's and criminal rap sheets (they tend to ignore them, being racist) I dunno. A rather annoying thing is that they have a tendency to swear they aren't racist, and just stye themselves as "racial realists" and label their detractors as "racial denialists".
7. Eugenics and "Social Darwinism" - A fair bit have aspirations of wannabe mad-scientists, obsessed with racial and genetic purity to spergy and Nazi-esque levels. The fact they seem to care so much about this is hilarious if you consider the fact that they so strongly seem to display tendencies of Tourettes and Aspergers syndromes. No offense to people who have either of these (unless you're a eugenicist)...
8. Homophobia - In most cases, neo-reactionaries are only slightly more accepting of the LGBTQ crowd than your average mainline conservative (in that they don't SEEM to wanna legislate anything that goes against their lifestyle). In some other ways, they're a little more irate. Since the majority of them are atheists, with no religion to justify hatred for them, they've settled with saying that gays are biological anomalies, and useless by evolutionary terms, so much that they should hate them or be distrustful of them. If you think that sounds pulled out of the ass, you're not the first.
9. And finally, just all out rejection to the majority of modernism/modern ideals - Neo-reactionaries hate modernism, and think that none of it is working. They seem to just wanna go back to a time before the French Revolution/Norman Invasion of Britain/Apartheid/1960's/etc where women, the poor, and non-whites "knew their place", and where things were "simpler" or "functional".
Some neo-reactionary websites:
lesswrong.com (A mixmash of weirdness. Arguably the least crazy of the bunch.)
thedarkenlightenment.com (Wannabe mad scientists and racist dweebs)
therightstuff.biz (Some very obviously confused people who identify with the Left)
alternativeright.com (White nationalist, male chauvinist, and dare I say "Nazi" as all hell.)
Some articles on it.
A map of many neoreactionary bloggers
An editorial article (from a mostly Tory website) about the movement.
Mainstream Republicans/Right-Wingers aren't too fond of the movement.
In conclusion: They're a very strange, racist, misogynist, misinformed, irate, joyless, and clownish bunch of weirdos. And I sincerely hope they snap out of it, for everybody's sake.