From the White-PillBox: Part 35
Black Pilled libertarians seem to need a post 2022 midterm White Pill. Happy to help...
There’s a reason libertarians and anarchists are easily Black Pilled. We see the world without blinders; which means we see more clearly how politics can damage society. The relentless parade of statist news can indeed be frustrating and demoralizing. It’s no surprise that feeling Black Pilled becomes routine for many freedom lovers.
But how we react to the negative is under our control. If we go beyond mere recognition of it, and allow it to dominate our attitude, that’s on us.
We give statism the win; we let our negative attitude limit our perception. We allow the Black Pills to blind us to the White Pills…the very things we need to stay motivated. So again, if we let that happen, that’s on us 1.
So let’s inject a little reality into the post 2022 midterms by taking a hard look at the alleged Black Pills…
It was a disastrous midterm!
Step back. It was just politics.
If there’s one thing anarchists should know, politics does not define humanity. It’s a parasitical infection that most human beings still believe they have to suffer with. Its current form of democracy involves playing pretend ever few years, to give people the illusion they have some control. Let’s remind ourselves that, in the big picture, politics provides near-zero power to all but the politically connected. And let’s always remember that fundamentally, the State is a weak adversary.
This means 2022 was just another round in the game. True, that’s not a White Pill. But treating it like a Black Pill is simply unnecessary. Stop it.
The red wave never happened!
You saw the COVID fiasco; you see racism and surgical gendering being advanced in grade schools, inflation wrecking peoples’ lives, politicians toying with World War III. And all in the last two to three years.
You expected people to rise up more than they did.
But when we set expectations like this, we set ourselves up for disappointment.
The masses are indoctrinated. You know this. Perhaps you learned that their indoctrination was deeper than you thought…that they are willing to take more abuse than you imagined.
That means you assumed wrong. So again, that’s on you. The degree of mass indoctrination is the same as it was before the election. Your frustration comes from your own incorrect assessment.
If it helps, recall any documentary you may have watched, about cult members overcoming their indoctrination. You probably shook your head in frustration over how much mistreatment and b.s. they were willing to accept; how obvious their manipulation was and how blind they were along the way.
But empathy should allow for at least one possibility: that their life experiences may have been damaging enough to set the stage for their indoctrination 2.
Now think of the State: a millennia-old cult that encompasses the planet. The vast majority are indoctrinated into statism to a degree that makes standard cults look like kindergarten.
If peoples’ statist indoctrination is stronger than you thought, it is more sad than frustrating.
The smaller White Pills - to lessen the sting
Stalemate
The political result of 2022 means one house of Congress will favor the left, the other the right. A fairly normal division of power will prevail. This means a good deal of stalemate. Good. The more government’s hands are tied, the less mischief they can do.
Midterm turnout
Turnout barely reached the level of 2018 3. For all the doomsday hype in each of these so-called “most important elections of our lifetime”, we can still observe that over 50% simply did not vote.
Perhaps the masses are smarter than you give them credit for. The non-voting masses, that is.
The Libertarian Party
If your strategy involves libertarian politics, there’s even a White Pill for you. The Republicans had every reason to have demolished the left after the last several years. Their lame showing only helped cement their irrelevancy. Libertarian political activists may see this as an opportunity to advertise liberty to a directionless public. 4
The bigger White Pills - your armor for what’s to come
Doubling down
The left has gotten its way quite frequently over the last few years and the midterms were hardly a repudiation of this. They are sure to feel empowered to accelerate their brand of statism. So be it, then. Welcome the White Pill that comes with it: by doubling-down they show their hand more clearly.
Ironically, the light of day is their enemy because it is the true road to helping more people overcome the false belief in statism. The more light, the better. It will increase dialogue about secession, and indeed anarchism itself. Eventually the light of day will doom statism, exactly as it did slavery.
It’s not how many are blue - it’s how many are red (pilled, that is)
At the heart of what makes someone Black Pilled is this: their focus on the fact that the overwhelming majority of people are statists. The Red Pilled are a tiny minority in comparison. It’s a daunting imbalance.
That gap will remain wide for years, and likely decades to come. Being Black Pilled about it accomplishes nothing, except to discourage us.
The reality is that statists have always been indoctrinated, and most will remain that way.
But that means the number is not changing all that much.
The White Pill focus should be on the increasing number of the Red Pilled. This is a population whose numbers grow daily. It is true we have no accurate way to verify the numbers. But we can observe the exposure that anarchists and libertarians are enjoying, especially compared with decades past. They have enormous followings on social media and podcasts. Many are creating parallel institutions to better people’s lives, independent of the State.
Conclusion
The side show of the recent midterms was yet another left turn on a long road. But it’s like stubbing your toe…it may hurt when it happens, but before long it is forgotten. Best to laugh it off, and do your best to continue to leverage the positive (a White Pill attitude that can always come in handy).
In this essay I am being particularly blunt towards Black Pilled liberty communicators. This is not however intended as a criticism. Instead it is a reflection of my confidence that they treasure honesty and can handle it like adults, while still occasionally needing positive encouragement. We cannot have our best communicators tying their own hands by allowing themselves to give in to hopelessness. If there is a Remnant out there keeping liberty alive, they need the strength of will to persist.
Just as it is possible that, were it not for your own Red Pill experiences, you could still have been a statist to this very day.
It is true that 2018 and 2022 turnouts ticked upward from previous contests, as was also true in the general elections. This however is not reflective of a renewed faith in politics. It is a sign of the desperation of the public. The State infects so many aspects of society that the public feels less in control of their fates than ever (the COVID overreaction being an obvious recent example). When they feel less direct control over their fate, the public will look to politics as a way to feel some measure of control, even if a pitifully small one.
The author will leave it to the more politically inclined libertarian activists to find more White Pills in the political sphere.