Folk Your Folkways
The Marquess of Queensbury Rules
“Examples of folkways include etiquette and manners, such as holding a door open for someone, saying “please” and “thank you,” or not talking loudly in a library.” –Simply Psychology
Season One of the Trumpocene showed us this thing we called democracy was nothing but a notion. Stop me if you’ve heard these:
America is a Republic not a Democracy
America is an idea
Democracy is an ‘experiment’
What we learned in Season One was that all we really have are “Norms.” The “Social Contract” that we have with each other extends to our governing philosophy. The country is not held together by chewing gum and bailing wire, but a set of agreements in which we trust our brothers and sisters to uphold. In “political philosophy,” it is called “rational consent”, and it is basically hypothetical.
“The good society is one in which we accept the uncertain and embrace the unknown.“ –Brian Klaas: Fluke
We now know that a large part of the population doesn’t give a rat’s ass about those agreements. The men (it was all men) that poured the foundation for the United States built the agreements into the documents, and they warned of the types of characters and players that could wreak havoc on those agreements.
The British did their best to destroy the agreements in the War of 1812 when they burned the Library of Congress in 1814. How well read were the founders? Thomas Jefferson sold his personal collection of over 6,000 books to the government to replace the devastation of the “Library.”
Cicero, Mark Antony, Plato, Shakespeare, Plutarch… The USA was born of the Romans and the Greeks. The founders understood the fragility of what they were creating because they knew the history of societies that had failed. They trusted in the good judgment of 'men,’ while also leaving breadcrumbs of caution regarding demagogues and tyrants. Washington warned against the man that: “…turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”
If you question this, read; Federalist No. 1, Federalist No. 78, Washington’s Farewell Address.
Protocols, Plots & Psychosis
Here’s the thing about “rational consent,” it relies on people being rational. One of the more successful ways of developing irrational behavior is to flood the public with disinformation and all-out lies so that the population becomes malleable, and you can feed ever-increasing amounts of crazy into the social bloodstream. Bannon calls it: “Flood the zone with shit.”
“A significant number of Americans don’t seem to care anymore whether a statement is true. What seems to matter instead is whether any given message is consistent with their worldview.” ― Barbara McQuade, Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America
Hitler called it “The Big Lie.” Lying is successful because it takes advantage of the rational person and the belief that the person will adhere to the societal norms. But social media has allowed for steady diets of truly insane shit like Qanon, which is just another Nazi propaganda tool revised for the 21st century.
Follow any conspiracy to its roots and you ALWAYS find antisemitism. QAnon borrowed from the Nazis and they borrowed from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Protocols borrowed from 15th century conspiracies regarding “The Illuminati.” The Illuminati conspiracies were rooted in the founders Freemasonry, and the Masonic/Illuminati conspiracy goes all the way back to the Knights of Templar in the 12th century France.
Humans have been quarry to manipulative conspiracy for nearly as long as they have had language. Today’s Deep State lunacy and “New World Order” psychosis is rooted in the Skull and Bones.
You can see why it so dangerous that a man who kept a copy of Hitler’s speeches in his bedside cabinet is potentially going to be the head of the Executive branch. Again. It ALWAYS ends in “The Jews.” That is unless you are a part of the less than half the country that can name the three branches of the U.S. government.
T***p dined with two vocal Antisemites, “Ye” and Nick Fuentes two years ago. As is the case with all cults, the Republican ministers all buried their heads and acted like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Fuentes is a white-supremacist and a Holocaust denier. “Ye” has a fairly long history of Antisemitic and controversial comments.
It Asked a Crumb - of Me: la Dolce Vita
“Take a moment and write down a letter about the things you care about--that you’re willing to take a stand about…and take it out of your desk as we’re going through these things in the months ahead.” –Historian; Michael Beschloss
What are Americans to do while the Kakistocracy does a Fargo on the government? Emily Dickinson says we only need “a crumb.”
Hannah Arendt observed in “The Origins of Totalitarianism” that “totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
Remember, it isn’t just the supremely unqualified individuals being put into positions for which they have zero skill, it is the Christian Nationalists of Project 2025 who claim they are merely a ‘reaction’ to having culture shoved down their throats. The natural ‘reaction’ is to shove their religion down everyone’s throats. We need to be Saved.
The youth of America are being seduced in truly bad behaviors that do not adhere to societal norms. What are we to do in a world where an Isabella and Josiah Moody pump their “Christian” trash into the ecosphere?
Amanda Carpenter outlined some strategies in a Recent Bulwark podcast with Tim Miller:
“So, the biggest threat areas I am adhering to that were outlined in the authoritarian playbook for 2025. Because they have to do with the things that he specifically promised and will be able to enact as president that are truly threats to democracy. And this was actually a very helpful exercise and discipline in order to determine, you know…”-- Amanda Carpenter: Protect Democracy
The internet is quickly filling up with “solutions” as to how to deal with mass insanity. We may see cottage industries pop up to help “sane” people live with “Irrational Consent.” Bluesky has already become a “resistance” platform, currently at nearly 20M users and averaging 9-12 new users per second.
Is it possible to attain Aristotle’s “Eudaimonia?” Is there a la Dolce Vita?
What will be your Crumb? Books, music, poetry? Maybe you don’t want to be saved? Expansive, soul-searching action can be a series of crumbs. Rilke says: “I am much too small in this world, yet not small enough.”
My kick has been revisiting the soul music of my youth. Turn it up. Loud.