Fear.

It’s universal, distributed among humans and animals alike.

As such, and as much as we’d like to think otherwise, there are few emotional states, and quite possibly none, that underwrite our politics to the extent that does fear. The reason for this is simple enough:

Politics in its barest, most fundamental sense is nothing more or less than the enterprise of adjusting social institutions so as to facilitate peaceful co-existence—i.e. mitigate potential violence—between human beings.

The very existence of government of any sort is an affirmation of this truth, for what is government other than a vast oasis of power?  While its level of intricacy will vary from one government to another, at bottom the fact of the matter is that any government is an organized apparatus of weaponry that exists always to instill fear, the fear of violence in one species or another, in its subjects.

It is as well non-governmental actors who appeal to violence—even if, at times, only implicitly—in their interactions with other citizens.  Criminals, of course, have been doing this from time out of mind.  Sometimes, though, criminals succeed in cloaking their criminality behind a veneer of legitimacy by framing, or having others frame, their thuggery within the context of a larger political cause.  Black Lives Matter and Antifa are the most glaring recent illustrations of private actors using overt violence to impose a political agenda upon others.

However, the agents of so-called “Cancel Culture” are examples of those who utilize violence more subtly, for by singling out those who dare to defy the prevailing Politically Correct orthodoxy for ostracism and shame, their intention is to render dissidents vulnerable to all manner of abuse—including, of course, physical abuse.

Nor is it only more or less anonymous keyboard Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) who encourage violence of the sorts for which leftist domestic terrorist organizations have become known.  Journalists and commentators, celebrities in Hollywood and in the world of professional sports, academics and CEOs (and, of course, politicians)—all have blood on their hands for not only acquiescing in, but openly encouraging the systematic and systemic campaign to literally bully, beat, and burn those who only want to live in peace but who are relentlessly demonized as “White Supremacists” and “Nazis.”

Why?  There are multiple motives, none of which are new or especially difficult to understand.  From those “White Supremacists”—i.e. virtually every white person, and most definitely every white person who votes Republican or is otherwise not on the left—their libelers know that they stand to gain much in the way of material, moral, and political advantages.  Yet there is another, more primal, simpler reason for these attacks:

The assailants have no fear of reprisals from targeting “White Supremacists.”

For all of their melodramatic rhetoric, “anti-racists” and “anti-fascists” know that the object of their hysteria is an easy mark from which they have little to lose and much to gain in targeting.

If this wasn’t true, then we should expect for Black Lives Matter and their supporters to descend upon places like South Central Los Angeles and other formerly black-turned-Hispanic neighborhoods where, according to such self-styled “Hate Watch” organizations as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” and “anti-black terrorism” has been prosecuted by Hispanics against native black residents for decades.

And during the BLM riots of last summer when citizens across the fruited plain were joining together and taking up arms to protect their communities against the ravages of vandals, Hispanic gang-bangers in places like Chicago distinguished themselves on account of their zeal: They not only bludgeoned and shot at black criminals, but as well terrorized law-abiding blacks who happened to reside within or pass through the Barrio.

And yet—and yet!—to this day, we still hear not a peep from BLM, Antifa, and/or any other “anti-racists” and “anti-fascists” about the horrors of Brown Supremacy.  No calls to launch mass demonstrations in the Barrio, no demands to “burn that bitch down!”

The answer for this deafening silence is staring us in the face:

Those fearless Social Justice Warriors know that if they so much as murmured a peep about stirring up shit among these Hispanics as they routinely do among middle and upper class whites, those Hispanics would end their shit before it even got started.

Keep it real: Raw fear is what renders black and white SJWs alike mute in the face of an anti-black brutality on the part of Hispanics that dwarfs any of the anti-black offenses of which they (almost always dishonestly) accuse whites.

Hispanics, and those Hispanic gang members who despise blacks, wouldn’t think twice about going scorched Earth on any SJWs who attempted to disrupt their communities by chanting “Black Lives Matter,” “No Justice, No Peace,” or any of their other little mantras.  As the events of last summer revealed, when the “concerned citizens” of the Barrio so much as suspect that a black person is in their hood to cause trouble, no black person is safe.

Yet no demonstrations.  No chants.  No rallies.

And sure as shit no riots.

The thing speaks for itself: Fear is the only language that the violent comprehend.  Neither the “mostly peaceful protesters” nor their virtue-signaling advocates throughout the Establishment are in the least bit interested in engaging in battle with “Brown Supremacists” because they fear having their asses handed to them.  Plain and simple.  There is real risk to be had smacking that hornets’ nest, and neither white nor black “anti-racists” are willing to gamble with their lives for the sake of combatting this form of racism.  There is also little to be gained from agitating with respect to Hispanics, for the latter, being utterly immune to “brown guilt,” have nothing in the way of material, moral, or political satisfactions for pandering politicians to “redistribute” to (ostensibly) “underprivileged” blacks.

Of course, it isn’t just Hispanics who the SJWs fear.  If BLM and their allies really gave a shit about protecting “black bodies,” then they would be tirelessly getting up in the faces of those most responsible for extinguishing the life from black bodies.  In the black body-violating contest, neither in quantity nor quality is there even a close second to black criminals when it comes to battering, bludgeoning, raping, injuring, maiming, and murdering the bodies of black men, women, and, yes, children.  Many of these low-lives are gang bangers.

It wouldn’t enter the minds of the self-styled champions of BLM to square off with Bloods, Crips, the Black Guerilla Family, etc.  And this is not, contrary to the conventional wisdom, because of any racial loyalty on the part of black proponents of BLM, or because of any “white guilt” on the part of white liberals.  It is because the “anti-racists” and “anti-fascists” know that these black criminals will subject them to unimaginable brutality before making them disappear from the Earth.

Period.

The SJWs would rather unleash their vitriol upon any and all blacks who they regard as “conservatives,” i.e. “Uncle Tom sell-outs.”  Hey, it makes sense, right?  An “anti-racist” knows in advance that Clarence Thomas isn’t going to put out a contract on his life or shoot up his home while he is trying to have dinner with his family.

Hell, even Maxine Waters and her sycophants aren’t willing to “get up in the faces” of all “White Supremacists.” Even “anti-fascists” aren’t about to punch all Nazis in their faces.  Last I checked, I don’t recall having heard of any members of the Aryan Brotherhood, Aryan Nation, or any other gang that subscribes to a White Power ideology being so much as looked at cross eyed by adherents of BLM, Antifa, or any of their sympathizers.

No, as long as it is only those “White Supremacists” who work, pay their taxes, contribute to the construction and maintenance of safe communities, express their patriotism and reverence for the Constitution; those who attend Tea Party and Trump rallies, vote Republican, and otherwise condemn criminality—it is these “White Supremacists,” these white men, women, and children with whom “anti-racists” want to fuck.  This is because, as should now be manifestly obvious, they know that the moment they even thought about delivering their “punch a Nazi” campaign to the footsteps of a member of, say, the Aryan Brotherhood, they would be carved inside and out and their remains fed to dogs.

The same can be said for Hell’s Angels, the Breed, the Mongols, and all predominantly white outlaw biker gangs, as well as for the white members of such organized criminal networks as the Russian, Italian, and Irish mobs:  Somehow, these “White Supremacists” never have any run-ins with the crusaders for Racial Justice.

The unabashed offensiveness with which SJWs speak of Christianity contrasts glaringly with the respectfulness, if not reverence, with which they speak of Islam—even though Islam, more so than any other tradition that has ever existed, contradicts every tenet that SJWs claim to uphold.  Ultimately, this silence in the presence of what is literally murderous intolerance on the part of Islamic militants hasn’t anything at all to do with any feigned regard for “cultural diversity.”  Not at all.

It is due to the brute fact that SJWs need look no further than the Charlie Hebdo massacre from some years back in order to know that Islamic True Believers won’t think twice to issue fatwas on their asses for saying or doing anything that they construe as an offense against Islam.

The Falwells, the Robertsons, and the Grahams aren’t going to behead, or so much as curse, at any of the cogs in the machine of the Woke mob.  SJWs know this.  They don’t fear Christians for this reason.  And, thus, because they lack honor and courage, they taunt, ridicule, harass, bully, and, in some instances, physically imperil Christians, precisely those who they know won’t make them pay a cost in their own blood for acting cruelly.

They don’t do this toward Muslims, however, because they know that Muslims not only won’t take it, but will respond with swift, agonizingly painful reprisals.

We could go on.  So what are decent people to do?

Well, we know, or should know, by now what decent people cannot do.  The decent who want to live good lives and protect themselves, their loved ones, and other law-abiding citizens in their communities from danger most definitely cannot turn to “conservative leaders,” whether in government or elsewhere, who are only interested in adjusting their bowties, wagging their fingers, going into full-on bitch mode over the left’s “double standards,” and all while collecting votes and profits.  Last year, 2020, should have been all of the proof that one could ever need that this approach is a recipe for perpetual failure.  It is the stuff of losers.  The Woke mob, understandably, neither fears nor respects this kind of weakness.

The Woke, however, are most emphatically, most obviously, emboldened by the timidity of their enemies.

Decent people, and decent men specifically, know that in the last analysis, it is they and they alone—and not, as those in Big Conservatism would have us think, State agents (the police, the military)—who are the last line of defense protecting innocents from predators.  To this end, they know that they must become…ruthless. 

They must become Weapons of Mass Destruction. Instruments of Terror.  The stuff of the worst of the worst nightmares.

It is not, though, the decent who just want to live-and-let-live who need fear decent men who become truly good men by remaking themselves into this kind of a human being.  It is the evil only who promise to break out into cold sweats at the thought of the fate that good men who have had enough reserve for them.

Some of us recognize the truth of Jordan Peterson’s insight that “a good man must be a dangerous man” (emphases added).  Such a man looks for trouble with no one.  He avoids avoidable confrontations as well as those people and contexts that are conducive to otherwise avoidable confrontations.  He is, ultimately, a man of peace and good will, for he only wants for himself, his family, and all decent people to flourish.

This being said, there isn’t a day, there isn’t a moment that in body and mind he isn’t training to become the monster that he may need to become in order to slay the monsters that prey upon the vulnerable—whomever these monsters happen to be.

Long before Jordan Peterson encapsulated this truth in his pithy proposition, America’s Founders did so by way of the Second Amendment.  The latter is itself a resounding endorsement of the critical importance of fear in maintaining civil association, for the wise men who decided to codify the citizen’s right to defend himself by whichever means necessary recognized that, if nothing else, the fear of being divested of their lives is more likely than any other consideration to curb the hunger for power of government office-holders and cruel citizens alike.

Guns, though, are tools.  Too many people fetishize them.  Unless a person is training, mentally and physically, to become a master carpenter, to handle with ruthless efficiency any and all tools—most importantly, his natural weapon, his body—he is not ready to stand in that place against the wicked.

Decent people, men and women, should make themselves as physically and mentally strong, and dangerous, as possible to defend themselves and their own from the dangerous and wicked among us.  To this end, they should not “body build,” but, rather weight train.  They must also become a student of a martial art—a real martial art, a real martial (or warrior) art.  This should be an art that, ideally, is a variant of World War II Close Quarter Combatives, i.e. an art designed to make average (and not particularly athletic) people of all sizes and shapes and ages into peerless combatants within a reasonably short period of time.

To put it another way, decent folks—if their goal is to defend themselves from violent attackers—must avoid training in any “combat” sport.  The Second Amendment does not exist for the sake of protecting citizens’ right to go to a shooting range or to otherwise engage in gun-related games, right?  It exists—and lets’ be blunt—to protect citizens’ right to kill those who would harm them and their own.

Similarly, just as sport was the last thing on the minds of those men who were deployed to teach American soldiers in the 1940s what would become known as “World War II Close Quarter Combatives,” a battery of simple, practical, and lethal hand-to-hand techniques for these soldiers to use against the enemy in the European and South Pacific theaters, so too is it the last thing on the minds of today’s instructors of their own variations of WWII CQC.   Students should be trained not for the purposes of survival; they should be trained to accept nothing less than victory, victory over the enemy  (There is one art particularly that I can highly recommend on this score.  Information on it can be found here and here).

America’s Founders, via the Second Amendment, knew that good, liberty-loving people had to be dangerous people.  Those who may otherwise decide to prey upon them needed to know in advance that if they considered doing so, their course of action would come at the cost of their very lives.

Consider this essay, in its essence, nothing more or less than an affirmation of the insights of our Founders.