Armenian Existential War, Meloni Ready to Combat Human Trafficking?, Twitter as DoD PsyOp Base, TradCaths in Poland Take on Clerisy, Ancient Apocalypse as Dangerous?
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Every time I see some ridiculous statement by the SPLC I'm reminded of how impressive it is that they managed to completely invent their cultural authority and "expertise" completely ex nihilo. All kinds of institutions treat them like they warrant some kind of deference, as if they hadn't just memed their way into an air of legitimacy that in fact was just made up and has no foundation.
Dec 31, 2022·edited Jan 1, 2023Liked by Niccolo Soldo
Armenians have a reasonably strong lobby in the US but it is outgunned by the Israeli one which heavily lobbies for Azerbaijan. If only American Christians cared 10% about their fellow Christians as much as they care about the Jews, Armenians could live without fear. But no, Evangelicals would rather waste all their foreign policy political capital on Israel than help their brethren on the verge of actual annihilation.
Also, thank God, Mehmet Oz didn't win. McConnell would trade F-35s for Azerbaijan for Oz supporting a 0.001% tax cut.
Dec 31, 2022·edited Jan 1, 2023Liked by Niccolo Soldo
Also someone needs to talk some sense into American Christian Zionists because if you go to to any Jewish/Israeli forum, it's very clear that at best, they think of American Christians as useful idiots and at worst...well let's not talk about that. I can say this because like many Christians in the US I was once a naive but strong supporter of Israel as well thinking of that country as some kind of ally against Islamic radicalism. It wasn't until I realized that Israeli drones were massacring Armenians that I started thinking twice about who I was supporting.
I don't think there was any deliberate policy as such. Even if there was, any proof would never see the light of day. Regardless, US interventions in the Middle East have decimated traditional Christian communities in the region. Christians went from 1-1.5 million under Saddam's Iraq living under reasonable security to just a few hundred thousand today living in perpetual fear of being the target of the next church bombing, beheading, kidnapping etc. by the hundred different Islamic terrorist groups. They also had some political power, Saddam's foreign minister was a Christian. Same thing in Syria. Assad provides safety for Christians and other religious minorities such as Druze. US openly funds "moderate" Islamists who fight him.
Christians in Western Asia are a very mixed lot. In Iraq and Syria Christians have been clients/supporters of the Ba'ath...making them a natural target for the very many enemies of that party.
In the Levant the Christians traditionally supported Arab nationalist parties, including quite a few fascist and ultra-nationalist parties (i.e. the followers of Antoun Sa'adeh). Secular Arab nationalism itself was created at the American Universities in Beirut and Cairo.
The US (like everyone else) funds whoever is useful and will work as mercenaries or agents of influence. The Christian militias in Lebanon have certainly received some support from both the US and Israel. In the past (the 50s and 60s) US intelligence was very heavily involved in various intrigues and coups in Lebanon and Syria and sponsored any number of Christian politicians.
The Christians of Iraq and Syria were collateral damage. Christianity may well revive in the region. Once the mullahs are overthrown you may well see a fair bit of successful missionary activity in Iran.
It would be more accurate to say that the Christians of Syria and Iraq depended wholly upon utterly ruthless and amoral Ba'athist governments that brought nemesis upon themselves by their inept foreign and domestic policies. Neither the Syrian nor Iraqi regimes were ever in any way humane or reserved in their treatment of domestic opponents. Both regimes enthusiastically stoked the fires of conflict and the Syrian one survives only because Russia finds having a port in the eastern Mediterranean very useful. Over decades both Syria and Iraq cheerfully supported terror groups that targeted civilians and that assassinated opponents the world over. And the Ba'ath itself was founded by men drawn from minority communities radicalised and inspired by the example of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany.
I do not support or approve of the Sunni militants and jihadists, but common honesty requires that we acknowledge the facts.
US policy in the Middle East is not determined by ethnic lobbies (which are useful for their optics and for misdirection) but by military, geopolitical and industrial factors. Evangelicals do not run Washington and never have.
Armenia is a Russian ally. They have no oil. They are of limited strategic interest to the Pentagon.
Azerbaijan is a potential rival to both Iran and Russia. It is rich in hydrocarbons and a lucrative market for weapons. It is strategically placed on the Caspian Sea and is very close Central Asia (which is of incalculable interest to Washington).
As for Christianity, the West gave up on Middle East Christians during the Lebanese Civil War when informed opinion thought it fashionable to side with the Palestinians, Arab nationalists and Syrians. In the 70s the Left began to idealise Islam, while Western business (oil, aerospace and infrastructure/engineering) wanted to cash in on the oil boom. There was no natural constituency in the West with a material interest in supporting Christian communities.
Finally, Christianity has been in relative decline across Western Asia for centuries...ditto Judaism and Zoroastrianism.
I absolutely strongly recommend a reading of From the Holy Mountain, by William Dalrymple based on his trip from Mount Athos to border of Egypt and Sudan where the most southerly Byzantine border garrison was stationed. It shows the remaining Christian communities in the region. Particularly fascinating was a description of A Mass in Syrian Rite Catholic monastery conducted in Aramaic.
Thanks. I remember reading some reviews at the time it came out and some of his articles or interviews in various magazines. Fairly or otherwise, I formed a mildly negative view. WD (like more than a few of the celebrated British authorities on the region) irritated me with his tone: I got the distinct impression that he was frustrated that the region was not managed as a human petting zoo for antiquarians. You could call it the Charles Windsor-Mountbatten syndrome.
Have always intended to read Ossip Mandelstam's book on his travels in Armenia and Lord Curzon's famous work on Persia but have yet to get around to either.
I served Latin Mass and benediction as an altar boy in 60s Ireland. My wife is younger so brought her to a Latin Mass, which she, a post Vatican II Catholic found strange....priest facing altar, all prayer in Latin. I was deeply moved but perhaps nostalgia for an era lost in time?
Feelings evoked by memory are much more than nostalgia: memory functions by recalling the emotions we experienced in the past when the memories were first formed. These feelings help establish and maintain the identity of our consciousness/personality over time. They are very much part of the human element of the relationship between man and God. And the use of an alien, dead, language, embodies mystery which is very much part of the liturgy. The aesthetic achievements of the Church were (still are) impressive and the disregard for these ill-considered and unnecessary. IMO Vatican II was a train-wreck because it was undertaken at a time of overwhelming confusion and change, but in the long sweep of history you are bound to see episodes of disruption and discontinuity. I am not RC but it is unpleasant to see the disappointment and sense of loss so many feel over these issues. Ultimately, providence will sort it all out.
Wonderful commentary Philip, truly insightful. The real delicious, if mean, thrill in that Latin Mass was that the Jesuits left Limerick and sold their church- sold it. These Belgian priests have soutanes and are serious. When the Franciscans had to leave Limerick due to sadly falling numbers, they gave their entire complex to the city for FREE. Truly the spirit of Francis.
Well there's that Philip, and the fact that for centuries any Catholic mass in the world had the same liturgy, and one could learn the words easily enough.
Domine non sum dignus ! will be my valediction, if I get time to spit it out.
Dec 31, 2022·edited Dec 31, 2022Liked by Niccolo Soldo
Happy New Year Niccolo!
There are solutions to imperfect ethnic states, but the shitlibs that rule the planet are too caught up in their agendas to accept them. Take the population exchanges that occurred between Greece and Turkey, or between Bulgaria and Romania. Things should be quite clear - you live in a country that tolerates minorities well, you can risk staying and building your life there, but you're a minority still and should never have access to political power. You live in a country where the majority is hostile towards you as a minority, you pack up and leave, and if you get rebellious, you should be expelled and you'll likely remain without your land/house.
States with such imperfect ethnic separation should diplomatically decide if there's a significant danger of ethnic conflict, and if the answer is yes, go with population transfers, as to avoid war, which is worse in every way compared with controlled, limited displacement.
People need to recognize ethnic groups and homelands, we need proper borders that are internationally recognized, and severe spanking for chimping out.
Who is still accusing the US of being a Christian country? The US never had a “Christian” policy, certainly not foreign policy, with the possible dubious exceptions of Christian missionaries in Hawaii and China. The Hawaiian Do-Gooders did very well indeed, the Chinese Do Gooders not so much, unless you consider the Taiping rebellion “good.”
But that’s not the government.
Never was, and can’t be, the 1st Amendment Establishment clause is usually taken seriously enough that you can mention Christianity but by no means make Pro-Christianity policy abroad.
OTOH and you don’t get it, and probably won’t, in fairness can’t, and this remains common even to American Catholics to not get it;
American Constitutional government explicitly has no religion, BUT explicitly over and over from John Adams to Eisenhower has said our form of government requires a religious people. This isn’t a contradiction, these are complementary arrangements.
Self government requires a moral people who actually self govern.
It collapses where they DON’T self govern- see many American cities like say Buffalo, or Iraq under our er administration, or even to an extent Russia in the 90s. In all these cases of course there’s well meaning Americans not understanding it won’t travel well, and Americans thieving off the chaos they helped cause.
American government is no experiment*- despite what is given out recently- but it simply CANNOT be duplicated.
Or exported.
*The actual Founders simply took what they had that worked and created a very limited Republic , most of the governance was and is still local or state, see Police and Police powers. What the Federal government established in 1789 was centralize minting coin, consolidated and paid off debts, controlled war, diplomacy and trade at the Federal level (and no they weren’t and indeed it took decades for war, diplomacy and coin to really be consolidated) and just those vital functions , along with mail, some roads infrastructure. This 🇺🇸 isn’t and wasn’t an experiment.
In the early years of the Republic the foreign policy of the pious was opening up markets for gun-trading, opium and slaving. Nothing un-Biblical IMHO but I am unfashionably old-fashioned in my sang-froid.
Missionary activity was a very big thing too in the Pacific and in the Far East. The old China Lobby (pre-Nixon) was an amalgam of Churches, arms-manufacturers and bankers.
In the early 19th c. Yankee missionaries aimed to evangelise the Islamic world. They failed and instead set up universities in Beirut and Cairo, which gave birth to modern Arab nationalism.
And the bloody Yanks can't even do that properly. They have taken the madness of Caligula and Heliogabalus and made it boring and sanctimonious. Wilde, Fairbanks and Maugham would be disgusted.
And the prophets/saints of the new civic cult of things African are bitter scolds, barefaced grifters and phonies.
Great collection to end the Year - your penchant for assembling an eclectic weekly compendium of journalism that that would normally bypass me continues - keep up the good work.
I will clarify; me and Tom Holland say those are post Theist , post Christian Protestants. Get rid of pesky Christ, let fly. I did not mean those are actual believers.
Get rid of Christ, you have the Beatles, and these assorted trash. All employed by 👁 USG in the end. Or GAE if one prefers.
Then again get rid of Catholicism and you have America’s Jesuits; The Central Intelligence Agency.
Wild indeed. Three words to add: James Jesus Angleton, fooled by Philby. Recall in 70s the head of the Jesuits, Arroyo, was basically a Marxist, called, like all holders of that office The Black Pope. It used be received wisdom that a J would never be Pope, like a Bavarian would never be Chancellor. They are recruited from a certain social class mostly. Yet here we are, with J holding the Keys of the Fisherman. Heard a Franciscan joke once about hearing a J preach 'as Jesus said, quite correctly in my opinion'...
Had a gutful of 'leadership' fantasies...messianic/arthurian thinking makes for great narratives but does not deliver politically.
I'd prefer an abundance of very pushy plebs who can't be pushed around and who will stand up for themselves. The Corsicans push back against Mid East immigrants in exemplary fashion. Without prickly, easily angered, masses there is no hope.
Ok Philip. Europe needs a lot of fucking assholes as citizens and it also needs assholes in charge of their governments, really to kick 💩 out of other elites. I agree with you. I do.
Corsicans are a great model.
Ultimately though with governments determined to betray you, being an asshole on the street isn’t enough.
Immigrants will assimilate IF held to it, but IF they get a subsidy and scholarship to not assimilate, THEN they won’t.
Could not agree with you more. Have reached the stage where I no longer dream of possible reforms in either gov't or education.
The system will become irrelevant. The currents of competency and reliability will strengthen rival institutions. Renewal is inevitable, but it is coming at a terrible price.
If you haven’t attended Latin Mass you haven’t seen a Catholic Mass. Easily the Church’s 2d biggest mistake was letting Latin go, the 1st being not expelling predator priests.
For over 1500 years any Catholic anywhere in the world could attend Mass and know the liturgy, if not one word of the language of that land.
You may be right, but the mistakes were quite possibly beside the point. Traditional Christianity was undermined by economic and demographic change: the consumer society, Americanisation and the increasing fragility of family life, with all its implications for fertility and child-rearing.
IMO, the Church hierarchy was bitch-slapped and overwhelmed by the 20th c. The inability of the Church to restrain the combatants in WWI, the reckless rapprochement with Mussolini etc left the Curia without the authority or opportunity to resist the cultural/ideological onslaught of the post WW2 era. Vatican 2 was indeed a train-wreck, but the old order was unsustainable. Hardly anyone alive remembers the Papal Court of the 40s and early 50s.
Very interesting, as ever. I’d say Bakiewicz is pronounced Baah-khye-vitch, though (I’m Polish, but have lived in the UK for 20 years), there is no “n” there at all.
When an investigation of Twitter ends with the equivalent of "mistakes were made", that is indeed underwhelming. Will the events of the last 3 years follow a similar outcome?
The trouble is that as the IC consumes the polity like an oversized python, the IC swells and chokes on the enormity of its varied responsibilities.
Even worse, the politics of the IC takes on the ideological colouration of Clown World itself. Tammany Hall were great at running cities, but the old boy networks of the IC are now having to deal with recruiting girls, affirmative action hires and the current crop of college grads. In place of genteel sociopaths like the Rockefellers and the Dulles (or aesthetes like James Jesus Angleton) we are assured a shadow 'elite' from an Aaron Sorkin fever-dream...Tinker Tailor as West Wing...Smiley's DEI brigade. You gotta laugh.
Ancient apocalypse, the first of two episodes which I've seen in any case. Is clearly bullshit. I'd love to talk to you about why I'm quite certain of that if you'd like. The only expertise I can claim is a as of yet unfinished degree in history and just being reasonably well-read. But debunking ancient apocalypse can mostly be done with mere simple logic.
I dunno. I've just started watching it, somehow I don't care about the truth, somehow it's not the point.
What does it matter? The biggest illumination is the wailing and rending of garments about it. The Guardian, what a neurotic prissy clenched little rag.
Jan 1, 2023·edited Jan 1, 2023Liked by Niccolo Soldo
Sure. the usual suspects calling it racist and dangerous and whatever is rarded. I don't see how that illuminates anything. The Guardian being a neurotic prissy clenched little rag is something that's been clear for years, the reaction to ancient apocalypse is just another grain of sand on the massive dune of evidence about of how the cathedral has become this subzero IQ blue-haired leviathan spouting the most absurd ideological shlock ever devised in history.
Ancient apocalypse is still just hilariously wrong though.
But if you watch it for mere entertainment that fine I guess, just don't ever fall into the trap of praising it as history merely because the mainstream criticism of it is monumentally stupid.
I was a big fan of von Daniken as a child and remain a sucker for weirdo pseudo-archeology (it makes me feel young again). Even bad ideas are useful in stimulating inquiry and fresh thinking and are often great enttertainment.
The Cathedral is a self-defeating freak-show. Science will thrive outside it (mainly in the private sector) and the humanities will right themselves when restored in samizdat form once people on the fringes get their act together. IMO the blue-haired misfits deserve the dying institutions. They will accelerate the decline of their rotten world.
He never defines the type of civilization he believes existed - there would still be remains of a materially advanced and global one based upon biodegradation rates
Yes it may be Bullshit , but is it really racist , white supremacist bullshit ?
Galileo got a fairer deal from the Pope [whom Galileo had unwisely insulted].
The Pope convened a board of astronomers and Galileo was silenced by peer review, actually a jury of his peers.
Science simply can't stand any challenge to it's orthodoxy and can't be bothered to refute, David Stove went into this in 1972 about Velikovsky being refuted by those who hadn't read him, despite being an established figure.
Science has become academia and a faculty board weakly channeling the CHEKA in drag.
What's that James Lyndsay says? Call everything Racist until you control it. Seems it also applies to harmless old hippies with off the wall notions. No opinion can exist without the stamp of respectability
Of course it isn't and that's not the point I'm making. I wouldn't be reading Niccolo Soldo substack articles if I were a person that was into 21st century race-grifting.
Before I read and comment, it’s Jan 1 here so Happy New Year to Niccolo and fellow commenters. It’s been a fun ride in 2022 and it’s gonna be wild this year.
Love the War Nerd.
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Every time I see some ridiculous statement by the SPLC I'm reminded of how impressive it is that they managed to completely invent their cultural authority and "expertise" completely ex nihilo. All kinds of institutions treat them like they warrant some kind of deference, as if they hadn't just memed their way into an air of legitimacy that in fact was just made up and has no foundation.
Also, if you haven't read it yet, I enjoyed this: https://www.palladiummag.com/2021/05/17/why-civilization-is-older-than-we-thought/
SPLC has still not received the take down that it deserves. I shared that Palladium piece some time ago on here.
Armenians have a reasonably strong lobby in the US but it is outgunned by the Israeli one which heavily lobbies for Azerbaijan. If only American Christians cared 10% about their fellow Christians as much as they care about the Jews, Armenians could live without fear. But no, Evangelicals would rather waste all their foreign policy political capital on Israel than help their brethren on the verge of actual annihilation.
Also, thank God, Mehmet Oz didn't win. McConnell would trade F-35s for Azerbaijan for Oz supporting a 0.001% tax cut.
Also someone needs to talk some sense into American Christian Zionists because if you go to to any Jewish/Israeli forum, it's very clear that at best, they think of American Christians as useful idiots and at worst...well let's not talk about that. I can say this because like many Christians in the US I was once a naive but strong supporter of Israel as well thinking of that country as some kind of ally against Islamic radicalism. It wasn't until I realized that Israeli drones were massacring Armenians that I started thinking twice about who I was supporting.
The multiple illegal wars the last 20 years in MENA seemed to actually target ancient Christian communities.
Have you any further information on that?
No, sorry, just my general impression.
I don't think there was any deliberate policy as such. Even if there was, any proof would never see the light of day. Regardless, US interventions in the Middle East have decimated traditional Christian communities in the region. Christians went from 1-1.5 million under Saddam's Iraq living under reasonable security to just a few hundred thousand today living in perpetual fear of being the target of the next church bombing, beheading, kidnapping etc. by the hundred different Islamic terrorist groups. They also had some political power, Saddam's foreign minister was a Christian. Same thing in Syria. Assad provides safety for Christians and other religious minorities such as Druze. US openly funds "moderate" Islamists who fight him.
Christians in Western Asia are a very mixed lot. In Iraq and Syria Christians have been clients/supporters of the Ba'ath...making them a natural target for the very many enemies of that party.
In the Levant the Christians traditionally supported Arab nationalist parties, including quite a few fascist and ultra-nationalist parties (i.e. the followers of Antoun Sa'adeh). Secular Arab nationalism itself was created at the American Universities in Beirut and Cairo.
The US (like everyone else) funds whoever is useful and will work as mercenaries or agents of influence. The Christian militias in Lebanon have certainly received some support from both the US and Israel. In the past (the 50s and 60s) US intelligence was very heavily involved in various intrigues and coups in Lebanon and Syria and sponsored any number of Christian politicians.
What is an 'illegal' war? Or a 'legal' one?
The Christians of Iraq and Syria were collateral damage. Christianity may well revive in the region. Once the mullahs are overthrown you may well see a fair bit of successful missionary activity in Iran.
It would be more accurate to say that the Christians of Syria and Iraq depended wholly upon utterly ruthless and amoral Ba'athist governments that brought nemesis upon themselves by their inept foreign and domestic policies. Neither the Syrian nor Iraqi regimes were ever in any way humane or reserved in their treatment of domestic opponents. Both regimes enthusiastically stoked the fires of conflict and the Syrian one survives only because Russia finds having a port in the eastern Mediterranean very useful. Over decades both Syria and Iraq cheerfully supported terror groups that targeted civilians and that assassinated opponents the world over. And the Ba'ath itself was founded by men drawn from minority communities radicalised and inspired by the example of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany.
I do not support or approve of the Sunni militants and jihadists, but common honesty requires that we acknowledge the facts.
Can you give me a list of the most prominent Jewish/Israeli forums? I have to do some research on this.
US policy in the Middle East is not determined by ethnic lobbies (which are useful for their optics and for misdirection) but by military, geopolitical and industrial factors. Evangelicals do not run Washington and never have.
Armenia is a Russian ally. They have no oil. They are of limited strategic interest to the Pentagon.
Azerbaijan is a potential rival to both Iran and Russia. It is rich in hydrocarbons and a lucrative market for weapons. It is strategically placed on the Caspian Sea and is very close Central Asia (which is of incalculable interest to Washington).
As for Christianity, the West gave up on Middle East Christians during the Lebanese Civil War when informed opinion thought it fashionable to side with the Palestinians, Arab nationalists and Syrians. In the 70s the Left began to idealise Islam, while Western business (oil, aerospace and infrastructure/engineering) wanted to cash in on the oil boom. There was no natural constituency in the West with a material interest in supporting Christian communities.
Finally, Christianity has been in relative decline across Western Asia for centuries...ditto Judaism and Zoroastrianism.
I absolutely strongly recommend a reading of From the Holy Mountain, by William Dalrymple based on his trip from Mount Athos to border of Egypt and Sudan where the most southerly Byzantine border garrison was stationed. It shows the remaining Christian communities in the region. Particularly fascinating was a description of A Mass in Syrian Rite Catholic monastery conducted in Aramaic.
He traveled in mid 90s.
Thanks. I remember reading some reviews at the time it came out and some of his articles or interviews in various magazines. Fairly or otherwise, I formed a mildly negative view. WD (like more than a few of the celebrated British authorities on the region) irritated me with his tone: I got the distinct impression that he was frustrated that the region was not managed as a human petting zoo for antiquarians. You could call it the Charles Windsor-Mountbatten syndrome.
Have always intended to read Ossip Mandelstam's book on his travels in Armenia and Lord Curzon's famous work on Persia but have yet to get around to either.
happy new year.
I can attend Latin mass nearby, in usa.
we start adoration in my church with o salutaris hostia. Latin is fine with me, I was 13 when we went vernacular
My parents are both old enough to remember Latin Mass but I have never attended a single one.
The Latin Mass is quite authorized Nico, you are missing out. Here’s global Latin mass finder, there’s 2 churches in Zagreb.
https://www.latinmassdir.org/country/hr/?lat&lng&area&radius=all&days=any&communities=all&venue_status=active&view=list
The ones in the USA usually have the missals with the translation in the local tongue to Latin.
I had a missal with the English.
I know a Latin mass parish a half hour from my home, I plan to attend sooner or later.
Some of us are old enough to have looked up rude words in the English/Latin dictionary. Not very religious, but it seemed thrilling at the time.
I served Latin Mass and benediction as an altar boy in 60s Ireland. My wife is younger so brought her to a Latin Mass, which she, a post Vatican II Catholic found strange....priest facing altar, all prayer in Latin. I was deeply moved but perhaps nostalgia for an era lost in time?
Feelings evoked by memory are much more than nostalgia: memory functions by recalling the emotions we experienced in the past when the memories were first formed. These feelings help establish and maintain the identity of our consciousness/personality over time. They are very much part of the human element of the relationship between man and God. And the use of an alien, dead, language, embodies mystery which is very much part of the liturgy. The aesthetic achievements of the Church were (still are) impressive and the disregard for these ill-considered and unnecessary. IMO Vatican II was a train-wreck because it was undertaken at a time of overwhelming confusion and change, but in the long sweep of history you are bound to see episodes of disruption and discontinuity. I am not RC but it is unpleasant to see the disappointment and sense of loss so many feel over these issues. Ultimately, providence will sort it all out.
Wonderful commentary Philip, truly insightful. The real delicious, if mean, thrill in that Latin Mass was that the Jesuits left Limerick and sold their church- sold it. These Belgian priests have soutanes and are serious. When the Franciscans had to leave Limerick due to sadly falling numbers, they gave their entire complex to the city for FREE. Truly the spirit of Francis.
'By their fruits ye shall know them'. Enough said.
Well there's that Philip, and the fact that for centuries any Catholic mass in the world had the same liturgy, and one could learn the words easily enough.
Domine non sum dignus ! will be my valediction, if I get time to spit it out.
[The Centurion's prayer - Lord I am not worthy].
And I can't stand to go in anymore, nor observe.
But being Irish there's no getting away from it.
Happy New Year Niccolo!
There are solutions to imperfect ethnic states, but the shitlibs that rule the planet are too caught up in their agendas to accept them. Take the population exchanges that occurred between Greece and Turkey, or between Bulgaria and Romania. Things should be quite clear - you live in a country that tolerates minorities well, you can risk staying and building your life there, but you're a minority still and should never have access to political power. You live in a country where the majority is hostile towards you as a minority, you pack up and leave, and if you get rebellious, you should be expelled and you'll likely remain without your land/house.
States with such imperfect ethnic separation should diplomatically decide if there's a significant danger of ethnic conflict, and if the answer is yes, go with population transfers, as to avoid war, which is worse in every way compared with controlled, limited displacement.
People need to recognize ethnic groups and homelands, we need proper borders that are internationally recognized, and severe spanking for chimping out.
Too late now. Even post ww1, borders were fuzzy and populations mixed. The last 100 years hasn't improved matters much
One man's solution is another man's genocide.
The only question in politics is who/whom? Who gets to be master?
Who is still accusing the US of being a Christian country? The US never had a “Christian” policy, certainly not foreign policy, with the possible dubious exceptions of Christian missionaries in Hawaii and China. The Hawaiian Do-Gooders did very well indeed, the Chinese Do Gooders not so much, unless you consider the Taiping rebellion “good.”
But that’s not the government.
Never was, and can’t be, the 1st Amendment Establishment clause is usually taken seriously enough that you can mention Christianity but by no means make Pro-Christianity policy abroad.
OTOH and you don’t get it, and probably won’t, in fairness can’t, and this remains common even to American Catholics to not get it;
American Constitutional government explicitly has no religion, BUT explicitly over and over from John Adams to Eisenhower has said our form of government requires a religious people. This isn’t a contradiction, these are complementary arrangements.
Self government requires a moral people who actually self govern.
It collapses where they DON’T self govern- see many American cities like say Buffalo, or Iraq under our er administration, or even to an extent Russia in the 90s. In all these cases of course there’s well meaning Americans not understanding it won’t travel well, and Americans thieving off the chaos they helped cause.
American government is no experiment*- despite what is given out recently- but it simply CANNOT be duplicated.
Or exported.
*The actual Founders simply took what they had that worked and created a very limited Republic , most of the governance was and is still local or state, see Police and Police powers. What the Federal government established in 1789 was centralize minting coin, consolidated and paid off debts, controlled war, diplomacy and trade at the Federal level (and no they weren’t and indeed it took decades for war, diplomacy and coin to really be consolidated) and just those vital functions , along with mail, some roads infrastructure. This 🇺🇸 isn’t and wasn’t an experiment.
In the early years of the Republic the foreign policy of the pious was opening up markets for gun-trading, opium and slaving. Nothing un-Biblical IMHO but I am unfashionably old-fashioned in my sang-froid.
Missionary activity was a very big thing too in the Pacific and in the Far East. The old China Lobby (pre-Nixon) was an amalgam of Churches, arms-manufacturers and bankers.
In the early 19th c. Yankee missionaries aimed to evangelise the Islamic world. They failed and instead set up universities in Beirut and Cairo, which gave birth to modern Arab nationalism.
Read somewhere online, obviously by RW person that US has a new civic religion...quote "promotion of sodomy and worship of Africans". True? False?
And the bloody Yanks can't even do that properly. They have taken the madness of Caligula and Heliogabalus and made it boring and sanctimonious. Wilde, Fairbanks and Maugham would be disgusted.
And the prophets/saints of the new civic cult of things African are bitter scolds, barefaced grifters and phonies.
Great collection to end the Year - your penchant for assembling an eclectic weekly compendium of journalism that that would normally bypass me continues - keep up the good work.
NGOS; in Italy and elsewhere-
Oh dear, those are the actual Christians you were disparaging over lack of fealty to our Armenian brothers in Christ.
Yes, I’m serious; if one wonders how the Missionaries appeared to the Hawaiians wonder no more.
You didn’t have Protestants around growing up, I can tell. Clearly they don’t really exist in Canada at all. Yes, no snark.
NGOS: Sri Lanka couldn’t beat the Tigers until it saw them off.
Then they won (artillery works).
If Meloni doesn’t see them off , gone, expelled then she’s wasting her time.
Europe really needs a Hitler at this point, sorry to say.
Or it’s extinction.
Sorry.
"Oh dear, those are the actual Christians you were disparaging over lack of fealty to our Armenian brothers in Christ. "
No. The NGOs involved in human trafficking in the Mediterranean via boats are mainly anarchists and libertarian socialists from Germany.
I will clarify; me and Tom Holland say those are post Theist , post Christian Protestants. Get rid of pesky Christ, let fly. I did not mean those are actual believers.
Get rid of Christ, you have the Beatles, and these assorted trash. All employed by 👁 USG in the end. Or GAE if one prefers.
Then again get rid of Catholicism and you have America’s Jesuits; The Central Intelligence Agency.
Again serious with levity, I am Irish ☘️🇺🇸.
Used to be said CIA was Wasps, FBI was Catholic ethnics i.e Irish, Italian etc.
To an extent- but much of the Founding generation of CIA were Catholics, Georgetown Jesuits- see Colby. Half Groton, half Jesuits. Wild.
Wild indeed. Three words to add: James Jesus Angleton, fooled by Philby. Recall in 70s the head of the Jesuits, Arroyo, was basically a Marxist, called, like all holders of that office The Black Pope. It used be received wisdom that a J would never be Pope, like a Bavarian would never be Chancellor. They are recruited from a certain social class mostly. Yet here we are, with J holding the Keys of the Fisherman. Heard a Franciscan joke once about hearing a J preach 'as Jesus said, quite correctly in my opinion'...
lol
Europe is gone. Period. It's future is as Far Northern Africa or Far Western Turkestan.
Hitler would be useless. No one killed more whites or sowed more distrust amongst Europeans.
It needs a ruthless dictator
Had a gutful of 'leadership' fantasies...messianic/arthurian thinking makes for great narratives but does not deliver politically.
I'd prefer an abundance of very pushy plebs who can't be pushed around and who will stand up for themselves. The Corsicans push back against Mid East immigrants in exemplary fashion. Without prickly, easily angered, masses there is no hope.
Waffles? At Waffle House?
Ok Philip. Europe needs a lot of fucking assholes as citizens and it also needs assholes in charge of their governments, really to kick 💩 out of other elites. I agree with you. I do.
Corsicans are a great model.
Ultimately though with governments determined to betray you, being an asshole on the street isn’t enough.
Immigrants will assimilate IF held to it, but IF they get a subsidy and scholarship to not assimilate, THEN they won’t.
Add; the damn governments are the problem, after that the colleges
Could not agree with you more. Have reached the stage where I no longer dream of possible reforms in either gov't or education.
The system will become irrelevant. The currents of competency and reliability will strengthen rival institutions. Renewal is inevitable, but it is coming at a terrible price.
Happy New Year !! 🎈🎆🎊
If you haven’t attended Latin Mass you haven’t seen a Catholic Mass. Easily the Church’s 2d biggest mistake was letting Latin go, the 1st being not expelling predator priests.
For over 1500 years any Catholic anywhere in the world could attend Mass and know the liturgy, if not one word of the language of that land.
You may be right, but the mistakes were quite possibly beside the point. Traditional Christianity was undermined by economic and demographic change: the consumer society, Americanisation and the increasing fragility of family life, with all its implications for fertility and child-rearing.
IMO, the Church hierarchy was bitch-slapped and overwhelmed by the 20th c. The inability of the Church to restrain the combatants in WWI, the reckless rapprochement with Mussolini etc left the Curia without the authority or opportunity to resist the cultural/ideological onslaught of the post WW2 era. Vatican 2 was indeed a train-wreck, but the old order was unsustainable. Hardly anyone alive remembers the Papal Court of the 40s and early 50s.
Old enough to have been an altar boy using Latin responses in Latin Mass and benediction.
Very interesting, as ever. I’d say Bakiewicz is pronounced Baah-khye-vitch, though (I’m Polish, but have lived in the UK for 20 years), there is no “n” there at all.
When an investigation of Twitter ends with the equivalent of "mistakes were made", that is indeed underwhelming. Will the events of the last 3 years follow a similar outcome?
Re Twitter; it isn’t who in media isn’t in bed with Intel its who isn’t, and this simply isn’t anything new.
The trouble is that as the IC consumes the polity like an oversized python, the IC swells and chokes on the enormity of its varied responsibilities.
Even worse, the politics of the IC takes on the ideological colouration of Clown World itself. Tammany Hall were great at running cities, but the old boy networks of the IC are now having to deal with recruiting girls, affirmative action hires and the current crop of college grads. In place of genteel sociopaths like the Rockefellers and the Dulles (or aesthetes like James Jesus Angleton) we are assured a shadow 'elite' from an Aaron Sorkin fever-dream...Tinker Tailor as West Wing...Smiley's DEI brigade. You gotta laugh.
Yes, its a horrid and funny spectacle.
Tinker Teletubby Tranny Spy
And it gets worse every day. Idiots who mistake themselves for the smartest people in every room make the Four Horsemen look benign by comparison.
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/01/01/air-base-attacks-deep-inside-russia-point-to-cia-covert-ops-and-planned-war/
Hi Niccolo, happy new years.
Ancient apocalypse, the first of two episodes which I've seen in any case. Is clearly bullshit. I'd love to talk to you about why I'm quite certain of that if you'd like. The only expertise I can claim is a as of yet unfinished degree in history and just being reasonably well-read. But debunking ancient apocalypse can mostly be done with mere simple logic.
I dunno. I've just started watching it, somehow I don't care about the truth, somehow it's not the point.
What does it matter? The biggest illumination is the wailing and rending of garments about it. The Guardian, what a neurotic prissy clenched little rag.
Sure. the usual suspects calling it racist and dangerous and whatever is rarded. I don't see how that illuminates anything. The Guardian being a neurotic prissy clenched little rag is something that's been clear for years, the reaction to ancient apocalypse is just another grain of sand on the massive dune of evidence about of how the cathedral has become this subzero IQ blue-haired leviathan spouting the most absurd ideological shlock ever devised in history.
Ancient apocalypse is still just hilariously wrong though.
But if you watch it for mere entertainment that fine I guess, just don't ever fall into the trap of praising it as history merely because the mainstream criticism of it is monumentally stupid.
I've a soft spot for this kind of thing - I blame old Charles Berlitz paperbacks during my formative years
I am interested if there was a civilization 12,900 years ago
Well, there may not be one in 12,900 days.
I was a big fan of von Daniken as a child and remain a sucker for weirdo pseudo-archeology (it makes me feel young again). Even bad ideas are useful in stimulating inquiry and fresh thinking and are often great enttertainment.
The Cathedral is a self-defeating freak-show. Science will thrive outside it (mainly in the private sector) and the humanities will right themselves when restored in samizdat form once people on the fringes get their act together. IMO the blue-haired misfits deserve the dying institutions. They will accelerate the decline of their rotten world.
He never defines the type of civilization he believes existed - there would still be remains of a materially advanced and global one based upon biodegradation rates
Maybe they were spiritually advanced but materially very primitive by our standards.
Yes it may be Bullshit , but is it really racist , white supremacist bullshit ?
Galileo got a fairer deal from the Pope [whom Galileo had unwisely insulted].
The Pope convened a board of astronomers and Galileo was silenced by peer review, actually a jury of his peers.
Science simply can't stand any challenge to it's orthodoxy and can't be bothered to refute, David Stove went into this in 1972 about Velikovsky being refuted by those who hadn't read him, despite being an established figure.
Science has become academia and a faculty board weakly channeling the CHEKA in drag.
https://www.velikovsky.info/david-stove/
What's that James Lyndsay says? Call everything Racist until you control it. Seems it also applies to harmless old hippies with off the wall notions. No opinion can exist without the stamp of respectability
Of course it isn't and that's not the point I'm making. I wouldn't be reading Niccolo Soldo substack articles if I were a person that was into 21st century race-grifting.
Before I read and comment, it’s Jan 1 here so Happy New Year to Niccolo and fellow commenters. It’s been a fun ride in 2022 and it’s gonna be wild this year.