Argentina defaults

So much for the strategy of preventing a foreign sovereign from defaulting through claiming sovereignty over its bonds:

At the stroke of midnight last night, Argentina officially defaulted on $29 billion worth of debt. It was the eighth time in its history, and the second time in 13 years, that Argentina told its foreign creditors it would not pay its bills.

But this time was different, and rather bizarre. When Argentina last defaulted, in 2001, it had roughly $80 billion worth of debt it couldn’t pay back. It was, at the time, the biggest sovereign-debt default ever. This time, Argentina—Latin America’s third- or fourth-largest economy, depending on who you’re asking—had the money on hand to pay a $539-million bill due by close of business on Wednesday. It didn’t make the payment, and as a result has now technically defaulted on the entire $29 billion it owes international creditors.

The defaults are still pretty small. But a fair amount of new credit will have to be issued to make up for that $29 billion contraction.

And why might that be?

Charles Krauthammer, an American Jew, laments the resurgence of world anti-semitism. And yet, neither he nor anyone else ever seems to ask the obvious question: why is it resurging now? Are we expected to believe that it is a complete coincidence that various peoples around the world suddenly appear to have developed, apropos of nothing at all, a sudden and simultaneous dislike for a relatively small group of people?

[T]he other problem for Israel has been the inability to win over public opinion around the world. “The rest of the world’s reaction to what’s happening in Gaza is Orwellian,” Krauthammer said. “It is shocking, especially in Europe. It is a resurgence of anti-Semitism not seen since the `30s, this is a recurrence, it’s all over the world, and don’t tell me its anti-Zionism. You listen to the slogan, you see the sign, Hitler was right in Germany, a sign in Germany saying that this is a veneer that is a front for anti-Semitism and it is back. It’s all over the world. And that’s what we’re now beginning to face.

I’ve been warning of this resurgence for several years now, as I picked up the first signs of it during the 2008 financial crisis. Now that it’s being mentioned in the mainstream media, perhaps more people will begin to take the matter seriously. The first thing people have to understand is that emo-posturing and affecting shock and horror accomplishes absolutely nothing. The guilt trip simply doesn’t work anymore and it’s time to abandon the Holocaustian dodge. The Shoah wasn’t the worstey worstest event in human history; far worse genocides, both in terms of absolute numbers and percentages of the people being targeted, have occurred since. It’s not even the worst thing to have happened to the people of Israel in their history, 11/12 being considerably more than half.

One would do well to reflect upon why the Roman treatment of the Jews was so much harsher than their treatment of nearly every other people they conquered from Britain to Egypt, aside from the Carthaginians. Were the Romans mysteriously anti-semitic too or did the Jews manage to upset them in some manner? Regardless, the fact that nearly everyone with any direct experience of the Endlosung is now dead, combined with the fact that the world is considerably less Eurocentric than it was, means that virtually no one gives a damn about the Holocaust anymore. That card is played out.

Try it on the Chinese. Or the Cambodians. You’re going to expect tears, cash, and prizes for six million people killed during the biggest war on the planet seven decades ago when the Chinese more recently offed eight times that many of their own people over nothing more than resource allocation and lunatic political theory? Ask the average half-illiterate 80-IQ American public school student about the Holocaust and he’s as likely to think it has something to do with slavery or Palestine as World War II.

Another American Jew, Richard Cohen, is aware of perspectives changing: “A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that among Americans age 65 or older, 53 percent blame Hamas for the violence and 15 percent Israel. For those ages 18 to 29, Israel is blamed by 29 percent of those questioned, Hamas by just 21 percent.” 

Second, understand that the resurgence of anti-semitism is happening for a reason. What that reason may be is up for discussion, but not that logic dictates its existence. Anti-semitism can be irrational but it is not always so, and pretending otherwise is both disingenuous and futile. The world knows what Ben Bernanke did last summer, so to speak. The world knows who is funding President Goldman Sachs and it understands why the head of a petty state in the Middle East can tell him off and expect him to fall in line. The world knows that the U.S. Congress is Israeli-occupied territory. The world knows who owns Hollywood, the U.S. media, and the bailed-out banks. The world knows who has been flooding its nations with third-world barbarians who don’t even understand the concept of indoor plumbing.

And the world doesn’t like it. Not one little bit. Actions have consequences; the problem is that the consequences are not always proportionate.

It’s absolutely useless to try to continue hiding behind claims of Jewish wonderfulness, supercapability and work ethos. First, virtually no one buys it. Too many of us know how the game is played; too many of us have seen incompetent, inept, and lazy Jews advanced in tribal fashion over far more capable, competent, and responsible Gentiles. Too many of us observe that Germany and China appear to be doing rather well these days despite lacking the benefit of Jewish guidance. Second, and much more importantly, no one cares why.

Does this mean that I endorse this rising tide of anti-semitism? No, of course not, otherwise I wouldn’t have warned Jews of it in the first place. If I were anti-semitic, I would smile like a helpful SS-Totenkopfverbände officer meeting a train and tell every nervous Krauthammer and Cohen on board not to worry, everything is just fine, everything is in order, isn’t it shocking that some of those terrible animals in the Holy Land can’t seem to get over their irrational hatreds of your wonderful people!

But I understand why the hatred exists and I know that it is, to a certain extent, merited. It observably is. Jews don’t have to like that fact, they don’t even have to accept it, but they will have to deal with it nevertheless. And I also suspect that the growing hatred is going to get out of hand as the global economy worsens, that the innocent will be caught up in the angry tide along with the red-handed guilty.

The idea that post-nationalism and demographic divide-and-conquer would make the Jews in America safer was intrinsically wrong, as wrong as the idea that amassing vast wealth and political influence serves as an effective form of community protection for a small minority. People like helpless refugees. People rather like grateful immigrants who settle quietly in their own communities and gradually integrate over time. People hate rich people who tell them what to do. And people really, really hate rich and powerful foreigners with supremacy complexes who tell them what to do while settling criminally-inclined aliens in their neighborhoods.

In successfully attacking the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant nature of America, Jews destroyed the American exceptionalism that offered them protection. Now that it is essentially gone, Jews have not only lost a reliable Gentile shield against global anti-semitism, but aside from Christian Zionists like Sarah Palin who fly the flag of Israel in their churches, the white Anglo-Saxons who previously defended them are no longer much inclined to do so. And, contra Spengler, I very much doubt that the Chinese are likely to serve as an adequate substitute for white American Christians. Reflect on what the Han have done to the peaceful, harmless people of Tibet and then think about how well they are likely respond to tribal gamesmanship.

You can argue if you like. You can call me names if you like. You’ll hardly be the first. But look at it logically: if anti-semitism is like the weather or cancer, then the world will just have to suffer it forever without much hope of anything changing until such time as the Jews finally go the way of the Amalekites. My perspective is actually the optimistic one, because if the rise in anti-semitism is largely a rational reaction to material Jewish actions, it should be possible to avoid its most dangerous forms, outside of those implacable sentiments genuinely inspired by the ongoing territorial conflict in the Middle East.

If you seek pro-Israeli propaganda, you’ll have to go elsewhere. If you wish to read anti-semitic rantings, this isn’t the place to find them. On this controversial subject, as with all others, I am only interested in the truth and its probable ramifications for the future. If I am incorrect, by all means, feel free to show me how and I will modify my thinking. But if you have nothing but groundless assertions and fervent personal opinions to offer, you needn’t bother.

Migrate them to Honduras

It’s a bit ironic that the technocrats are talking about migrating Californians out of California due to the extreme drought conditions, even as tens of thousands of Central American immigrants continue to migrate into California:

It’s going from worse to worst each week in California.

Suffering in its third year of drought, more than 58 percent of the state is currently in “exceptional drought” stage, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map. That marks a huge jump from just seven days ago, when about 36 percent of the state was categorized that way.

Exceptional drought, the most extreme category, indicates widespread crop and pasture losses and shortages of water in reservoirs, streams and wells.

If the state continues on this path, there may have to be thoughts about moving people out, said Lynn Wilson, academic chair at Kaplan University and who serves on the climate change delegation in the United Nations.

“Civilizations in the past have had to migrate out of areas of drought,” Wilson said. “We may have to migrate people out of California.”

Now, I’m no expert on water usage, but it seems to me that before California starts forcibly migrating its residents out, it might want to consider not permitting any more people to migrate in.

That being said, no sane governor would permit the Californication of his state. Californians have trashed what used to be the Golden State; imagine what they will do wherever they descend next. It seems to me the only just thing to do is migrate them to Honduras. Then migrate all the pro-immigration people on the East Coast to the dessicated remnants of California so they can experience the benefits of the policies they’ve been advocating.

They’re dumb enough that one can simply tell them: “Drought? Oh, don’t worry about that. You’ve got plenty of water. Look, you’re right on the ocean!”

Et tu, Bibi?

Netanyahu not only doesn’t know how to run a 4GW war, he apparently doesn’t understand that Americans don’t give a damn about his expectations:

In a phone call with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, Netanyahu vented his anger, according to people familiar with the call. Netanyahu told Shapiro the Obama administration was “not to ever second-guess me again” and that Washington should trust his judgment on how to deal with Hamas, according to the people. Netanyahu added that he now “expected” the U.S. and other countries to fully support Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to those familiar with the call.

Yeah, I don’t think that’s likely to happen. Not when articles like this have appeared in The Times of Israel before being belatedly retracted:

When Genocide Is Permissible

Judging by the numbers of casualties on both sides in this almost one-month old war one would be led to the conclusion that Israel has resorted to disproportionate means in fighting a far less- capable enemy. That is as far as what meets the eye. But, it’s now obvious that the US and the UN are completely out of touch with the nature of this foe and are therefore not qualified to dictate or enforce the rules of this war – because when it comes to terror there is much more than meets the eye.

I wasn’t aware of this, but it seems that the nature of warfare has undergone a major shift over the years. Where wars were usually waged to defeat the opposing side, today it seems – and judging by the number of foul calls it would indicate – that today’s wars are fought to a draw. I mean, whoever heard of a timeout in war? An NBA Basketball game allows six timeouts for each team during the course of a game, but last I checked this is a war! We are at war with an enemy whose charter calls for the annihilation of our people. Nothing, then, can be considered disproportionate when we are fighting for our very right to live.

The sad reality is that Israel gets it, but its hands are being tied by world leaders who over the past six years have insisted they are such good friends with the Jewish state, that they know more regarding its interests than even they do. But there’s going to have to come a time where Israel feels threatened enough where it has no other choice but to defy international warnings – because this is life or death.

Most of the reports coming from Gazan officials and leaders since the start of this operation have been either largely exaggerated or patently false. The truth is, it’s not their fault, falsehood and deceit is part of the very fabric of who they are and that will never change. Still however, despite their propensity to lie, when your enemy tells you that they are bent on your destruction you believe them. Similarly, when Khaled Meshal declares that no physical damage to Gaza will dampen their morale or weaken their resolve – they have to be believed. Our sage Gedalia the son of Achikam was given intelligence that Yishmael Ben Nesanyah was plotting to kill him. However, in his piety or rather naiveté Gedalia dismissed the report as a random act of gossip and paid no attention to it. To this day, the day following Rosh Hashana is commemorated as a fast day in the memory of Gedalia who was killed in cold blood on the second day of Rosh Hashana during the meal. They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over. History is there to teach us lessons and the lesson here is that when your enemy swears to destroy you – you take him seriously.

Hamas has stated forthrightly that it idealizes death as much as Israel celebrates life. What other way then is there to deal with an enemy of this nature other than obliterate them completely?

News anchors such as those from CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera have not missed an opportunity to point out the majority of innocent civilians who have lost their lives as a result of this war. But anyone who lives with rocket launchers installed or terror tunnels burrowed in or around the vicinity of their home cannot be considered an innocent civilian. If you’ll counter, that Hamas has been seen abusing civilians who have attempted to leave their homes in response to Israeli warnings to leave – well then, your beginning to come to terms with the nature of this enemy which should automatically cause the rules of standard warfare to be suspended.

Everyone agrees that Israel has the right to defend itself as well as the right to exercise that right. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has declared it, Obama and Kerry have clearly stated that no one could be expected to sit idle as thousands of rockets rain down on the heads of its citizens, placing them in clear and present danger. It seems then that the only point of contention is regarding the measure of punishment meted out in this situation. I will conclude with a question for all the humanitarians out there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly stated at the outset of this incursion that his objective is to restore a sustainable quiet for the citizens of Israel. We have already established that it is the responsibility of every government to ensure the safety and security of its people. If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?

It’s not a hard question to answer. The answer is no. Genocide is not permissible. If genocide is permissible for the Israelis, then it was every bit as permissible for the National Socialists, who also believed they were fighting a war that was “life or death” against world Jewry. As well as for the Khmer Rouge, and the Soviets, and the Hutus, and the Chinese Communists, and everyone else who believes that total war on civilian populations is acceptable.

That Israeli journalist isn’t the only one speaking in genocidal terms. A rabbi in New York City actually declared that anyone who even participated in the political process in Gaza was “not a civilian casualty“.

When you are part of an election process that asks for a terrorist
organization which proclaims in word and in deed that their primary
objective is to destroy their neighboring country and not to build
schools or commerce or jobs, you are complicit and you are not a
civilian casualty.

I used to wonder how on Earth the first-century Judeans could possibly have been crazy enough to decide that taking on the legions of Rome was somehow going to end well for them. Not so much anymore. Deciding that because your military is capable of defeating a few fifth-rate Arab militaries and inflicting a 23-1 kill ratio on Palestinian civilians, you are the world’s premier military power is beyond delusional. I am beginning to suspect this Jewish supremacy complex, especially vis-a-vis the Arabs, may render the adoption of 4GW tactics very difficult for the IDF.

Especially if more members of the Israeli Knesset start speaking out in the same vein as Ayelet Shaked:

Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”

Strange, I don’t recall the Jews accepting the Nazi’s idea that every Jew was an enemy combatant and therefore a legitimate target. Israel has a right to exist. She also has a right to defend herself. Those rights do not encompass the genocide of the Palestinian people.

The non-problem of pain

Gene Wolfe explains why the so-called “problem of pain” is simply not a credible argument for the non-existence or non-beneficence of God: 

You once said that pain tends to prove God’s reality rather than the opposite; that pain was not a theological difficulty for you.

No, it isn’t. If you catch a dragonfly and bend the end of its body up, it will eat itself until it dies. When people have had their mouths numbed for dentistry, they must be warned not to chew their tongues. I think if we assume that pain is simply an evil we’re oversimplifying things. 

[Thinks a moment.] You’re saying that pain may be a necessary design feature that the Divine Engineer—

Yes, absolutely. 

—put into his animated machines.
 If you had living things without pain, they would have a very rough time surviving.

More than ten years ago, I pointed out a similar observation concerning the existence of evil, which, far from being any sort of theological problem, is in fact evidence of the factual basis of Christian theology. Wolfe is observing that pain has an important purpose in life, as it is there to provide negative feedback to self-destructive actions. This does not mean that pain is good per se, only that it provides a good purpose.

For those interested in discussing the literary aspects of Mr. Wolfe’s observations, some of the more interesting parts have been posted at Castalia House, as well as a link to the full interview.

Objectives are the key to war

And when one looks at its objectives, it is apparent that Israel is losing the Gaza Tunnel War, both in 4GW and tactical terms:

As frustration grows in Israel over the military’s limited success so far in trying to neutralize Hamas, the militant Islamic group that governs Gaza, some military experts say it is increasingly evident that the Israel Defense Forces have been operating from an old playbook and are not fully prepared for a more sophisticated, battle-ready adversary. The issue is not specifically the tunnels — which Israel knew about — but the way Hamas fighters trained to use them to create what experts in Israel are calling a “360-degree front.”

“Hamas has changed its doctrine and is using the tunnels as a main
method of operation,” said Israel Ziv, a retired general who headed the
military’s Gaza division and its operations directorate. “This is
something we learned amid the fighting.”

In the Gaza war that began in late 2008, 10 Israeli soldiers were
killed, four of them from friendly fire. This time, 63 soldiers have
been killed, mostly in combat, and one is now a prisoner. “The military has been playing it by ear,” said Amos Harel, a military affairs analyst for the newspaper Haaretz, who added that despite the Israeli military’s knowledge of the tunnels, its planners did not draft a new doctrine for prosecuting a land invasion. “But it is pretty good at doing that, and has done it many times.”

In this latest asymmetrical war with Hamas, the third in five years, Israel thought it was prepared. It had built up an integrated communications systems able to transfer intelligence in real time to air and ground forces, an advancement that military officials called a “force multiplier.”

Precision-guided missiles have destroyed up to a third of Hamas’s rocket stocks, according to Israeli officials, as well as hundreds of houses or apartments that the military described as militant command-and-control centers and many other weapons production sites and stores. In 24 days of intense bombing, 4,300 targets have been hit….

What Israel was apparently less ready for was Hamas fighters who are
willing to engage and are trained to use tunnels, a tool of war whose
roots go back to antiquity. During Israel’s last ground incursion in the
winter of 2008-9, Hamas fighters largely avoided clashes, melting into
the crowded urban landscape. This time, they were prepared for combat.

War is not sport. Body counts are not a relevant means of keeping score; the fact that the IDF has killed more Hamas fighters than Hamas has killed IDF soldiers is entirely expected. That is one reason why the war is referred to as “asymmetric”. As always, air power is overrated, as the fact that 24 days of intense bombing hasn’t prevented Hamas from killing more than six times as many ground troops as in 2008. It seems the lessons of Tarawa and Iwo Jima still have not been learned by the descendants of Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell.

War is about using military force to achieve one’s objectives. Israel’s objectives are:

  • End the rocket attacks
  • Demilitarize Gaza
  • Deterrence
  • Eliminate Hamas’s senior military command and political leadership
  • Prevent Hamas from being able to rearm

Debka notes: “That nine of the 10 Israeli servicemen who died in the counter-terror
operation against Hamas Monday, July 28, were killed on Israeli soil was
a wake-up call for Israel’s war leaders. It meant that Hamas had used
the 22 days of combat to carry the contest from its own home ground into
Israel by grabbing the tactical advantage of surprise.”

After a month of war and considerable collateral damage among the civilian population of Gaza, it does not appear that Israel will be able to meet any of its objectives in this war. This is why it is so vital for Israel to learn to adopt 4GW tactics in asymmetric conflicts like these, as another 2GW victory and 4GW loss will only encourage Hamas and Israel’s other enemies. In another post, I will address what tactics I think should be adopted in preference to this 2GW pound-and-ground.

Did not see that coming

For reasons related to World War II, my heritage is a little complicated. I’ve always known there were issues with the Official Story, for the obvious reason that one parent’s age did not harmonize well with a grandparent’s military service record, even though the birth records supported it.

Now my brother has sent me the results of the genetic test he had done recently and several of the results were a little surprising. Namely:

  1. I’m not of English-German descent on one side, but English-Irish.
  2. I’m definitely Hispanic, but I’m not Asian after all. This was a little surprising at first, given the appearance of one of my brothers. But I’m still tri-racial because….
  3. I’m Native American. And not in the Fauxcahontas manner either. We’re talking about enough to qualify for membership in most Indian tribes. And, as it happens, more than enough to qualify for the relevant one.

So, as it happens, the racist whites of SFWA not only expelled a Person of Color, but one of its very few Indian members. I have to admit, I’m rather looking forward to the next person to resort to the “well, are you a Native American?” argument during a debate concerning the evils of immigration.

4GW commenting

I’ve been thinking a bit about how one might apply the principles of 4GW to blog commenting, mostly inspired by what happened in the comments at esr’s place after Andrew Marston showed up the other day.

What got me thinking about it is observing that online trolls have much the same sorts of advantages as non-state actors do in war; they can’t be destroyed even by overwhelming force, they are perceived as the weaker party, and they have the ability to control the time and place of the engagement. Even when they are roundly defeated, they can simply retreat only to reappear without warning in the future.

4GW teaches two forms of engagement, de-escalation and the Hama model. I think Tom Kratman’s direct assault on Luscinia/Marston can be taken as a good form of the latter. The challenge of the Hama model is that it is time-constrained. William Lind says that with today’s 24/7 global communications, a state actor has three or four days to fully unload on a non-state actor without taking serious flak on the moral level. The Syrian army took four days to flatten Hama, after which it spent three weeks hunting down insurgents in the rubble.

I interpret this to mean that if you’re going to go all out rhetorically against a troll, one has three, perhaps four comments before people start to get sick of it and turn against you. Not that sympathies will turn towards the troll, but they will begin to adopt a “pox on both houses” attitude and the moral level will be lost.

Moreover, the Hama model is best adopted when one possesses overwhelming force, which is to say, the delete key, because one has the ability to prevent the troll from answering back and prolonging the engagement.

As to what the de-escalation model would entail, I shall have to give the matter further thought. But I do know the one thing it relies most heavily upon is information….

Immigration and overpopulation

Finally a group concerned with overpopulation is turning its attention to the actual problem:

A group dedicated to saving the planet by cutting runaway population increases is raising a new and shocking issue in Washington’s bitter fight over immigration reform: Most of the nation’s population growth is from immigrants, and they are consuming resources dangerously fast.

According to Negative Population Growth Inc., 80 percent of the growth in U.S. population comes from immigration, legal, illegal and among American-born children of immigrants.

“With increased population, we see a direct increase in the problems our nation faces on a daily basis: pollution, over-consumption, traffic gridlock, crowded schools and hospitals, overburdened social services, unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, urban sprawl, over-development, threatened or extinct animal and plant species, and dwindling natural resources,” said said Tracy Canada, the group’s deputy director.

It is madness that groups opposed to housing spread, pollution, and overpopulation have remained silent on immigration for so long when 80 percent of the population growth comes from immigrants. The environmentalists, in particular, are guilty of selling out the environment, with groups such as the Sierra Club having had their silence on the subject literally purchased by the son of a pair of Jewish immigrants, David Geffen. 

Overpopulation is a third world problem caused by first world do-gooders. And more do-goodery isn’t going to solve it, but will merely make it worse. One of the best arguments for shutting down immigration and repatriating low-productivity immigrants is that otherwise, the first world will be in no position to help the third world once its infrastructure begins to collapse.

8 million views

8 million views for 2014. Just passed the number. Thanks to ESR for the assist. I’ll note again that this is just the views recorded by Google’s software; the actual number of views is higher. I’ll have a full report at the end of the year. But still: 8 million views. It doesn’t suck. Thank you.

I’m afraid I’m not being completely honest here. The actual number of Google pageviews recorded was 8,352,092, so 8 million was passed about a week ago. I just thought it was funny to imitate McRapey’s self-congratulatory auto-backpatting for his all-time best year… at the end of July.

And speaking of things I found amusing, this extended apology from Giuseppe, who felt he misjudged me, would have forced me to accept it on that grounds alone, if I had been inclined to take any offense in the first place, which I’m not.

Hi Vox.

Fuck! I read a lot more of your blog. And actually writing this e-mail is literally kinda painful. Honesty and honour demand it, but fuck, I don’t need to enjoy the process right?!

It has become quite clear, at least with respect to your elucidation of rhetoric vs dialectic that your understanding of the subject far surpasses mine. One could put this down to the simple fact that a number of things would seem to indicate you simply have spent more time studying the subject, and while this is undoubtedly true, as is the fact that your training as an economist no doubt also allows you to sift through volumes of data that personally I would find too boring to bother with (not saying they are devoid of instruction, just that they would not grab my attention to the required extent necessary for me to indulge enough in it that I would benefit from it anywhere near as much as you seem to have) and no doubt, other endeavours I may be better at, but the fact is that it has become clear that you excel at it compared to me because of another factor.

I don’t think you are materially smarter than I am. That is, you are very smart and in your chosen fields you will be more capable than me as a result, but  I would guess in my own chosen fields I would be more capable than you. It’s sort of academic anyway, and I don’t care, but precisely because it is extremely rare for me to come across someone smarter than me (and in a demonstrable fashion) I did notice it. Painfully sharply I have to say….

Your post on Modern vs Postmodern discourse on the Alpha Game blog was enlightening because it made me aware of how much I despise the postmodern methods (long before I came across you I came up with my own virulent hatred of all postmodern bullshit). It was so strong I literally had to take three goes at reading the postmodernist list, because it literally made my head spin with discomfort as if I had got a decent punch to the jaw. Now that this has become conscious knowledge, of course, I realise that psychologically I now have basically no option but to temper myself by full immersion/exposure to all that postmodernist babble, if for no other reason than banishing its existence wherever I find it trying to enter my life.

 [Long personal section redacted]

On some levels I still harbour a suspicion (increasingly I think I know it’s unfounded) that maybe, deep down, you’re still maybe just a very smart and well-read racist, fundamentalist Christian asshole… but… deep down I am realising this is not really the case. In fact, I recognise a certain level of natural ostracism by the crowds precisely because they are not smart enough to cope/see what you are really saying. Possibly, if I may even go so far, there may even be a certain level of humility in you. If I can see it, it is only because certain aspects of your style are not foreign to me. If the monkeys are gonna label you arrogant anyway, so be it, it’s a quick filter for stupidity.

And you may be guilty too (I know I have been) of probably taking a somewhat excessive pleasure in teasing their monkey-like brains (you bad Christian you!)

Nevertheless, all that said. I really just need to read more of your blog and learn more…. I know we are strangers, and that it probably means little or nothing to you, but I had clearly misjudged you. Honesty demands I apologise, at least to the extent that I was wrong, which I was. There are few people I can have honestly engaging discourse with. I have no doubt however, that you are one of them. Even if we were to disagree totally on some things, I am certain I would be able to respect your position for its integrity at least.

So yeah. Bastard of an e-mail to write, only one of its kind really, but it had to be done.

It is unusual for a writer to find a reader who genuinely understands him, even in part. What does Giuseppe mean by a certain level of humility in one of the most nakedly arrogant bloggers on the Internet? Well, he may not have been clear on the difference between rhetoric and dialectic, but unlike normal binary thinkers, he understands the difference between “I know I’m right” and “I know you’re wrong”. One can be humble with regards to the truth and yet utterly arrogant and dismissive of various peoples’ incorrect assertions regarding it.

He also grasps that the reason I don’t get upset about what he describes as “natural ostracism” is because I expect it. It’s exactly what has happened my entire life whenever I didn’t go to the trouble of veiling my intelligence and refraining from openly departing too far from the acceptably defined borders of consensus reality. Those who called me racist because I observed human differences when they insisted that “we are all the same inside” didn’t apologize to me when it was discovered that Caucasians and Asians are genetically different from each other, and from Africans, anymore than anyone apologized to me after repeatedly mocking me by demanding to know where the second Great Depression was when the economic recovery was declared for the first, second, and third years in a row.

It’s the behavior that is expected out of midwits. Stray too far from the intellectual fold and they are threatened by it. I’m not the first to be hated for it and I won’t be the last. But it is encouraging to learn that so many people are sufficiently open-minded to consider what I’m saying and actually think about it, rather than simply dismissing it out of hand because it is alien and scary to them.