A Glimpse Behind Enemy Lines

My Facebook conversations with self-described “Reactionaries” and “Race-Realists”

“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion… Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them…he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.” — John Stewart Mill

It was the above quote that made me willing to talk with anyone. About anything. I’ve never looked back.

[ADDENDUM/EDIT] Disclaimer — I’m not claiming that my efforts which you’ll read a sample of below are going to change the minds of racists.

Anti-racist activists seem to think that for white people to stand up and confront the racists among us is going to turn things around. I’m quite skeptical of that assumption. I’m doing this not because I’m some kind of saint, it is closer to the opposite. I’m indulging my shadow in a way that I know I won’t feel guilty about later.

As “HOUND”, who I’ve come to know pretty well, correctly accuses me of in the dialogue, I’m just in it for the sick pleasure of rhetorical combat. I savor the schadenfreude, basking in the neurochemical rewards of my ability to silence antisemitic trolls. And yes, if there’s any doubt in your mind, these folks are undoubtedly racist antisemites. I’ve looked through the profiles of the ones I didn’t know and I’ve had numerous previous debates with others. I know what they believe, these are not vacuous accusations. So how can I tolerate their presence and humanize them, or sometimes even befriend them?

I guess I like to think my superpower is that I am to the toxic Thunderdome of Facebook what Deinococcus Radiodurans (aka “Conan the Bacterium”) is to nuclear reactors. Or maybe I’m the keyboard warrior version of Dexter, stabbing into the minds of those who dream of race war and planting seeds of doubt.

Well anyway… back to the original article.

A tendency I’ve noticed among many anti-racists is to imagine there is a meaningful separation between themselves in their trenches, and the racists they oppose in the opposite trenches. A divide between the righteous, and the unrighteous. If only. I’m afraid the divide is just as superficial as skin is.

“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn’t change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil.

Socrates taught us: ‘Know thyself!”

― Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

I consider the typical desire to uncover, banish, or persecute racists to be tragically misguided. I believe it is generally rooted not in a desire to push humanity forward, but to alleviate white guilt.

Many if not most people in Western society seem to have been crippled by fear of being complicit in something terrible and driven to desperation by a desire to exonerate themselves. The fear of being called out as “racist” has become all-consuming for some people. It is so bad that it inspires many to pre-emptively call-out, just so that they are later not called-out for failing to call-out.

Dear reader, allow me to free your conscience with this nugget of wisdom: you can’t undo your complicity in injustice, so let’s just own it from the start, shall we?

“No! It isn’t true!” you shriek incredulously… as you read this from an iPhone built by exploited Chinese workers (where as much as 70% may have experienced sexual harassment), using stolen African raw materials.

Just try to relax, will you? Breathe.

As far as how we approach the evils of the world, I’m afraid none of it is as easy as we’d like. Most of the simple problems are already fixed (at least in America). What remains are the wicked problems. Whatever you’ve been told, one cannot defeat hate by hating the hateful. That just doesn’t work.

My Approach: Radical Humanism

A century ago, our ancestors literally fought to the death with one another in trenches. Today, the trenches are online, and the battle lines of the culture war are everywhere. In the age of social media, we are all keyboard warriors.

As a Sapien, all cultures are mine to appropriate. All historical figures are mine to emulate. Any tool or idea is my inheritance. From Attila to Zoroaster, all of it is “me” — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

From Socrates I learned to “know thyself.”

From Sun Tzu, I learned to “know thyself and thy enemy.”

From Jesus of Nazareth, I learned to “love thy enemy.”

My approach is born from the confluence of all of this.

If it seems objectionable to anti-racists that I deliberately humanize the “enemy” in conversation or that I take the entire road as “my lane”, then that’s perfectly fine with me. Since I see myself fundamentally as pro-human rather than strictly anti-racist, my moves might feel familiar but nevertheless my game is different from the playbook you might be used to.

My objective is the successful reunification and re-integration of our species after tens of thousands of years of separation. My goals are in direct opposition to the white identitarian reactionaries I’m interacting with. And yet, even so, they are still part of the broader Sapien “Us”. So yes, I unapologetically humanize them, even as I mock them.

Meanwhile, I think the “race realists” as they call themselves will absolutely be furious with me for sharing this, as I was utterly brutal in manhandling their egos with a level of arrogance and bluster they’re probably not accustomed to in their cloistered bubble.

But in fairness to these humans, the problem is a lot bigger than the few individuals I interacted with. If you haven’t seen the social dilemma on Netflix then you very much need to, and it will give you an idea of how their (well, all of our) susceptible minds have been hacked by the algorithms in a way that is not advantageous to the users but is instead manipulatively beneficial for the platform and its advertisers.

It is our technology that is radicalizing people this way and using our neurological profiles against us. All the more reason to hate the sin, fine, but love the sinner.

If you still need more reason to understand why I still see a pathway for redemption even for the worst of the worst people, Christopher Piccolini’s talk may explain why.

Anyway, if this article lands badly, that’s okay. Most of the people whose approval I’d truly care about died a long time ago anyway. So, to my righteously indignant readers of any political stripe, by all means, send me your nastygrams. For all the good you think that will do.

And with that framing well established, we come to a recent conversation of mine on a public Facebook page, edited for confidentiality and readability. The names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent. May you find it as interesting as I did.

ORIGINAL POST — PAL: “Neutrality is an admirable ideal that is no longer affordable.”

JESSE: So what’s the plan for “making the stand” exactly? Round up those of us who disagree with you and “re-educate” us until we do?

Just as the antifa folks seem strangely just like fascists when they shout at white ladies for not doing their special salute, y’all remind me of Commies plotting a revolution.

It’s so weird how people justify evolving into the very thing they claim to hate.

Maybe “evil hordes seeking to destroy us all” is kinda… I dunno, melodramatic?

Maybe?

Teensy bit?

Maybe most of the “Marxist” people that you’re so terrified of would be cool with getting a few bucks raise and some days off once in a while? Mmmm? [gif of Will Smith looking perplexed]

PAL: Let me know when right wing groups take to the streets for four months straight, committing terrorism, vandalizing, assaulting innocents, destroying neighborhoods, looting stores and doxxing people.

When people start to get fired from their jobs for disagreeing with conservatives, then maybe you’ll have something plausible to argue in the suggestion of “people evolving into the very thing they hate”.

Otherwise, you don’t have an argument, you’re just upset that I disagreed with you on a post.

MOPEY: Who is this Ya’ll you are so melodramatically accusing of being melodramatic? And where are you quoting from?

JESSE: PAL, nah, I’m not upset. I think it is silly for you to strike a victimhood pose given the circumstances, but “upset” isn’t it.

Look, either you are badly misinformed or deliberately gaslighting, and my money is on sincerely confused. You strike me as someone who wants to know what the truth is even if you may not like it, and so the fact is right wing and white supremacist terrorism has been the overwhelming source of the problem in 2020. https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalating-terrorism-problem-united-states

MOPEY: How did you manage to turn “Neutrality is no longer affordable” into “Round up people who disagree and reeducate them” ?

And couple that with an accusation of being Melodramatic without laughing at yourself?

PAL: LOL. Okay pal, it isn’t white supremacists lighting every major city in America on fire. It isn’t white supremacists doxxing people. It isn’t white supremacists rioting in the streets, looting and vandalizing businesses.

MOPEY: The astonishing thing, is that they actually believe it is!!

JESSE: MOPEY, read FRITTER’s comment and see the heart for it.

PAL: Imagine posting a link that lists “incels” as a serious terrorist classification. 🤣

MOPEY: Oh so one guy quoting someone is “ya’ll”

JESSE: PAL, doesn’t seem like you read the report or are aware of recent attacks. I’ll give you time to digest, or I’ll depart because it is your intent to remain ignorant of the facts. Either way, adieu. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/02/incels-toronto-attack-terrorism-ideological-violence/

MOPEY: And… didn’t say anything about camps or reeducation.. Hey.. guess what.. you deciding what is “at the heart” of what someone else said, and turning that into comments about rounding people up and putting them in camps, is WAY TF more melodramatic than

We can’t afford to be neutral”

PAL: Isolated shootings, as are discussed in the link, aren’t comparable to overall terrorist activity done by masses of people, and none of the groups named are engaging in rioting or any of the behavior discussed. Most of them troll on the internet. Seriously, do you think the NSM is burning down atlanta or something?

PAL: Your own link even says the overwhelming majority of these crimes are linked to religious terrorism on behalf of a group that is only ever defended by the left. No photo description available.

MOPEY: Yeah, IDK.. Rule of thumb.. Anyone who punctuates arguments with GIFS shouldn’t be taken seriously.

JESSE: MOPEY, yeah… well, judging from the ecstatic glee y’all got from the dead leftists in the Kyle Rittenhouse news cycle, maybe “re-education” isn’t quite what you’ve got cookin’.

After the “Kenosha Mile” meme I guess maybe I am being a bit silly to still be that optimistic.

Fair enough that the caliber of your rifles has “other plans” written all over it. My mistake.

I do get frustrated with the left’s apologetics not just for mainstream Muslims who are fine, but for toxic Islamists as well. But if you believe for one moment that the right wing has any moral high ground whatsoever when it comes to terrorism, I’ve got a building in Oklahoma to sell you.

VIKING: This guy reeks like pumpkin spice and yoga pants. Muh horseshoe theory! Don’t give him any more of your time Avy. You’ve got more important things to do.

DEARY: Jesse Rogers numbers of white hate groups happen to be low in comparison to black hate groups. Just saying. Play with these numbers. A LOT of stats in this piece. https://theredelephants.com/black-americans-most-likely-to-commit-hate-crimes-join-hate-groups-and-commit-interracial-attacks-here-are-the-numbers/

DEARY: Jesse Rogers According to the department of homeland security, black Americans are over-represented by 19.4% in domestic extremist attacks, while white Americans are under-represented by 32% in domestic extremist attacks. Black Americans make up only 13% of the American population, yet made up over 32% of the domestic extremist attacks from 2015 to 2019. White Americans make up 62% of the population, yet during the same time period accounted for 29% of the domestic extremist attacks. Image may contain: text that says ’33 attacks Anti-Abortion 2.9% Anti-Govt 8.8% Islamic Supremacist 26.5% Black Nationalist 32.4% White Nationalist 29.4%’

DEARY: Jesse Rogers calling into question the recording of right wing extremist attacks: “On page 31, they document that a “Far rightist murdered a homeless man” and counted this as a right-wing terror attack as well. On page 32 they describe a “White supremacist who shot and killed 9 at his community college.” That shooting was the 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting, carried out by a self-described “mixed race” individual who singled out Christians for his attack. On page 30, the study lists a case where six white supremacist inmates beat another prisoner to death. According to the report, this attack occurred while the men were in prison, and was counted as a ‘right-wing terrorist’ attack.”

DEARY: Jesse Rogers Image may contain: text that says ‘Extremist Murders Since 9–11 Whites vs Muslims Per 100,000 People 3.5 3 2 0- Muslim Extremist Politifact: 0.05 White Right-Wing Extremists more-trror-attcks-us-soi-right/’

JESSE: DEARY, to your point that Black hate groups are as dangerous or even more dangerous (“depending on region of the country”, I’d add) than white hate groups… sure. Of course.

But then again, Black hate feeds White hate, and White hate feeds Black hate, and on and on your cycle of hatred continues like a bunch of 21st century Hatfields and McCoys. It’s a dumb game to play.

It’s particularly dumb given the scale of the problem. From the article in your graphic:

“PolitiFact recently examined the GAO report and found, like the Reveal investigation, that more attacks were carried out by far-right violent extremists. But more people died during attacks connected with Islamic jihadists.

Of those 225 deaths by extremists:

• 106 individuals were killed by far-right violent extremists in 62 separate incidents; • 119 individuals were killed by radical Islamist violent extremists in 23 separate incidents;”

So admittedly, team Whitey does have more dum dums who are caught before they can complete their murderous acts, and so the blood on your side’s hands IS lower. But not for lack of trying.

Anyway, over the course of 15 years, from 2001 to 2016, all of the extremist actions together amounts to just 225 deaths.

225!

To put that in perspective, more than 4 times as many Americans died YESTERDAY from COVID-19 than were murdered by extremists of any kind over that 15 year period.

Which brings me to why I’m here. However murderous your desires may currently be towards “the left” (whatever that even means) I don’t view you as the real threat. We have much bigger issues.

For me, it isn’t about white or black, the game is Team Humans vs the Existential Threats. Admittedly, there’s a lot of crappy players on Team Human, but I work with what I’ve got.

Just as devastating plague and a volcanic eruption that caused climate change nearly destroyed Western civilization in the dark ages, so too is mother nature testing us with plagues and environmental catastrophes now.

Rather than continually turning on one another and making things worse, I think maybe we should PUT THE DAMN FIRES OUT, literally and figuratively. So quit obsessing about your own victimhood and the wrongs done to you, quit seeking refuge in how disproportionately unsuccessful white terrorists are, and go bloody well fix what’s broken in this world.

…also, don’t forget this.

[Image of red facemask with the text printed on it ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’]

VIKING: Racial rivalry has been occurring since the dawn of humanity and this tool bag describes it as a game.

JESSE: Open a book sometime, Viking. [shared link]

FOX: What kind of trash apologizes for the enemies of his own people? This kind of disingenuous and cowardly eunuch has always tried to sell our people to our foes, and always tried to make it sound a humane and practical course of action.

JESSE: FOX, run along, boy. The adults are speaking.

FOX: Jesse Rogers do you get paid by the word, or by the post?

JESSE: FOX, I learned Algebra from a Jew, Calculus from a Haitian, Chemistry from a Somalian, accounting from a Cuban, and now I’m learning AI from an Asian. So I do very much owe who I am to my people: Sapiens.

The only time I find myself being the smartest guy in the room is when I’m in the company of very fine people like yourselves.

In that sense, I suppose your presence is its own reward. Bless your hearts. [Image of Deadpool making a heart shape with hands]

PAL: You know, I made a decision to step back and extend some level of civility to you on your other thread and you didn’t respond, but you took the time here to type out something extraordinarily condescending because others don’t agree with you.

That says everything I need to know concerning your reasons for discussion.

JESSE: PAL, “What kind of trash apologizes for the enemies of his own people? This kind of disingenuous and cowardly eunuch has always tried to sell our people to our foes, and always tried to make it sound a humane and practical course of action.” is how he wanted to play the game.

Scathing condescension is his prize.

PAL: You initiated this entire thread with condescension. Your very first comment above was condescending.

I don’t really see any constructive point in arguing about it, I’m embarrassed with the amount of time that I’ve spent in arguing online lately when I know that it doesn’t ultimately help anything.

VIKING: I appreciate you, Avy.

JESSE: True enough.

We find ourselves in agreement once again then, as I have no doubt we could all have used our time more constructively.

When tomorrow greets us, may it find us wiser than we were today.

SPARTAN: He’s a statist bootlick…that alone discredits this guy in my book. [Image of pro-mask post on Jesse’s page]

JESSE: SPARTAN, it took me quite a while to find something on your page I could agree with, but eventually I managed to.

Image may contain: text that says ‘The best way we could ever honor those lost on 9/11…. Is to live each day like Sept 12th. There is no race, gender, or political side…In the end, the only thing that matters is each other. Americans.. First Americans…Forever Forever’

SPARTAN: Jesse Rogers And that might be the only thing… Image may contain: one or more people, text that says ‘If you worship your enemy, you are defeated. If you adopt your enemy’s religion, you are enslaved. If you breed with your enemy, you are destroyed. [Image of Polydoros of Sparta in a heroic pose]

DEARY: Jesse Rogers the current social definition of “white supremacist” is a conservative, a Trump supporter, a 2nd amendment supporter, or any person defending property or selves from mobs or criminals. It even applies to those with darker skin color. The definition has become meaningless. The fear of “white supremacists” is unfounded. And the article calls into question what qualifies as a crime from “far right extremists” or “white supremacist”.

FRITTER: “So what’s the plan for making the stand exactly? Round up those of us who disagree with you and reeducate us until we do?” Yes. And if you dont then feel free to join in the chimp outs and face inevitable justice at the hands of virtuous people who have run out of patience.

FRITTER: ITT: a soydrunk grown man uses the term gaslighting and evil white supremacists gave him a caprisun without a straw

JESSE: FRITTER, at last a bit of honesty! Thanks for the candor. I don’t know why your friends bother to be so coy… as if I can’t see right through you folks.

DEARY, my point in talking about how low the numbers from terrorist attacks have been is that fear of anyone — including white supremacists or Islamists — is largely ill-founded.

I know what the media’s fearmongering narrative is. I’m here to tell you that I don’t buy the line that all this racial feuding is terrifying. I simply think it is dumb, and that those preaching race war nonsense are clowns.

SPARTAN, And speaking of clowns, oh dear oh dear, little “SPARTAN”. For heaven’s sake put down your “spear”.

Outside of the funhouse mirror, away from your dress up parties, beyond this absurd echo chamber, those of us in the real world see you carrying around that little stick. You don’t quite have Leonidus’ honor and gravity, now do you? No, nor not even his abs, eh?

Just a little stick and a big imagination. [Image of a hobo clown in a similar pose to SPARTAN’s previous gif]

HOUND: Jesse, your self-inflating glibness does you no credit, particularly when you’re talking down to a collective of intelligent people who are trying their best to explain to you a very legitimate problem that even a simpleton would recognize as a serious concern.

You haven’t transcended to some ultra-rational, hi-IQ plane of thinking that is coincidentally only ever shared by men with low Testosterone.

You have become just smart enough to very articulately think yourself into a corner that will doom yourself and any offspring you might have to a miserable fate unbecoming of your ancestors sacrifices.

The fact that you can justify such an existence to yourself only proves that you’re spending valuable intellectual time and energy in the act of coping and recapitulating the modern narrative rather than seriously thinking. Arguing like this is playtime for you. It’s just the way you get the good brain chemicals.

For the rest of us, this is our future, and we won’t have it subverted and redefined by men who would sacrifice our efforts and the fate of their own progeny for the sake of their own, personal, immediate peace of mind in times of great cultural unrest and western cognitive dissonance.

SPARTAN: Jesse Rogers pound sand, eat shit, and get bent. The left eventually eat their own when things start going badly for them…and it will go badly. If they make themselves a problem to me…I’ll make certain that things go badly for them.

JESSE: HOUND, for battles of wit in this “collective of intelligent people”, the best gladiators I’m offered up are a sycophant Viking who routinely pleads for Avy to reciprocate his affections, and a wannabe Spartan whose best comeback is “pound sand, eat shit, and get bent”… with a whine about the left, for good measure. lulz.

This is the army you’ve built?

Oh please.

Let’s not kid ourselves. We’re all pawns of Zuckerberg’s crew now. Well, maybe I’m a knight because I pop up unexpectedly. But we’re ALL captives to the neurochemical hooks they’ve got in us. He’s making little trickles of money off of all of you right now, even as you produce content that curses him.

And if you leave this platform, then you’ll simply become the feed trough for the advertisers of the next one.

At least I’m old enough to know what life was like before the internet, and I’m high enough on the food chain to understand how to run ads. The rest of you seem duped into thinking you’re actually on some grand mission of your own free will, when you’re arguably more deeply plugged into the Matrix than any of the other suckers I encounter on here.

If the weird amusement I find in arguing with strangers online is like marijuana, then the “mission” you think you’re on is analogous to heroin. And you don’t even know you’re addicts, do you?

You probably think what happens in this sandbox is real, don’t you? Y’all prolly think your VPNs and multiple accounts make you ghosts that are immune to consequences, amirite?

You’re never simply using the system. The system is always and forever using you too. Might as well sit back and enjoy the entertainment while you’re here, kiddos.

…unless you want to unplug completely and buy up enough land in Utah or Idaho to subsist in your own little “whites only” utopia collective. In which case, sure. Go for it. Best of luck.

But otherwise, stay plugged in, and accept the truth: you’re the product, and your project is a farse. [gif of Maximus in the arena and the text “Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?!”]