Lets face it: many of us purchased membership here not only to satisfy our intense desire to support this miraculous efford done by Bill and his team, but also because of the depressing loneliness most of us feel. It is an undeniable fact that to find understanding as a conservative today is hard and rarely achieved. The reasons are many, and Bill has done a much better job than I probably ever will to discuss them. I’m talking of course about the complete domination of legacy media and the social networks by leftist ideology. More and more of us are being ostrasized everyday and we have to do something about it.
The question is, how do we deal with the cultural and political isolation that is forced upon anyone who expresses his conservative beliefs through speech or, even better, through action? Is there a way for us to coexist with people who are so radicaly opposed to any one of those fundamental principles we hold sacred? And finaly, what can we do to create a sense of community and protect ourselves from the intolerable dread of being exluded and left out?
The first thing that comes to mind is to be wise in our battles. This topic can of course be an article all by itself (and perhaps I will turn it into one in the future), but it is necessary to mention it here nontheless. Do not get me wrong, we have to speak up in every way we can, that is an undeniable truth, and I can not state that enough. But in doing so we must never lose sight of our goal, and that is to spread the ideas and values we believe in. This requires tact, cool-headedness, and knowing when to start and when to stop. At this point, reading (a very thing to do) the book Art of War is perhaps an excelent choice. When we go through this book, let us try to apply the principles we find inside on our everyday experiences of confrontation. There’s another great idea for an article.
In these turbulent times we have to be warriors and fight the battles mentioned above, but we must also understand that God made us social creatures. That means we have to find refuge in places with like-minded people. This site is probably one of them. But whether by itself and in its current state it is enough is a question we have to ask ourselves. What more can there be done to bring more people into our communities? A couple ideas pop up. One is to find other lone conservatives and mention to them how our presence here has helped us with our own loneliness. Another is to try and be more active on platforms ourselves, by reading more, commenting more, messeging, interacting, trying. More. Ever more.
To conclude that the path to breaking out of this isolation is paved out for us is to miss the point. After all, things are much easier said than done, and as conservatives we have to know that in our bones. I hope this article starts a conversation on this topic, that would be more than enough for me. Am I wrong? Who knows? Perhaps never having lived in America means I’m as oblivious about the whole thing as mr. Biden is about “badagathcare”. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Take care everyone!
5 replies on “Contemplating on conservative isolation and loneliness.”
It’s a hard problem, but the first part of my answer has been to face this world with a smile. When in ideologically hostile company, gently question their assumptions with a smile: “Is that what we’re supposed to want?” “Is that what makes life better?” Smile at the absurdity of a liberty-minded culture having been turned inside out and upside down. Smile at the nonsense they invent and expect everyone to accept. Smile knowing that their house of cards is built on anger, envy, resentment, control, and constant berating that normal, sane people are bound to get tired of and seek to escape. Be the embodiment of free-wheeling fun in a culture that demands 24/7 earnest seriousness and unquestioning submission. Their entire philosophy and means of governance is built on force, and it’s only a matter of time before people rebel against it in a big way that they aren’t expecting or accounting for.
As for community/camaraderie, I’ve definitely found that here and on Stratosphere Lounge chats when I can make it. (If you can watch live and join the chat, by all means do — it’s been one of the best things going for me as far as getting to feel at ease and enjoy the company of friends for a few hours each week.) Twitter, for all its despicable manipulation, is next up for the amount of greatly enjoyed connection with liberty-minded people it’s given me. I’m on Parler and Gab too, but haven’t found them to be nearly as conversational yet. Those I follow on Twitter are a great bunch and have done a great deal to help keep me saner and happier. I’d certainly like to see free-speech alternatives eclipse Twitter and FB, but we’ll see. I’m a bit torn, since publishing where non-conservatives can have a chance to see and encounter our ideas is important too. For that, and the conversations, I continue to post on Twitter for the time being.
I think Bill is right in the long-term view that our side’s cultural platform is more easygoing and fun, and I expect people who are desperate to escape the endless Maoist struggle session of current American life to flock to it in significant numbers once they see that. I hope we’ll be able to rescue this place successfully enough to make it worth your while joining us in person someday. If not — ad astra! It would be my honor to buy you a cold one at the “Stratosphere Lounge” on the Moon.
“Perspective” offers some earlier thoughts I posted on coping, that I hope will help!
The honor of having a beer with an american friend on american soil would be all mine, so I will work hard to make it happen! I will definetly check out your suggestions, you have my thanks! And I’ll make sure to read your article aswell!
Have you tried GAB.COM? They are conservation free speech social media. They have been de-platformed and had to stand up their own servers. They have been de-banked by visa and only take checks by mail and crypto. Andy is hanging in there and finding a way to give conservatives free speech. They just put up the equivalent of you tube so check them out.
I haven’t, it’s the firs time I’ve heard about them!. I’ve heard about Parler though, I think they are trying to substitute twitter.
There’s also MeWe (Facebook replacement that doesn’t censor) and Parler (Twitter replacement, also doesn’t censor). Plus Rumble (YouTube replacement, no censoring).