The Long Game

End of an Era

London Calling

I listen to and enjoy many podcasts during the week while I drive around the country. One of the many that I regularly listen to is London Calling with James Delingpole and Toby Young but if you’ve never listened to it I’ll summarise. “Team James” think that pretty much everything is part of a vast conspiracy from the replacement of Paul McCartney in the Beatles, through the invention of dinosaurs, to Building 7 right up to the Covid “death jabs” and Chemtrails. Meanwhile “Team Toby” sticks rigidly to the idea that its all just one giant misunderstanding or cock-up by those involved and that if we can just get the right politicians in the right place then sanity will return.
I’ve enjoyed the podcast over the years I’ve listened, but its become obvious in the last few months that it could not continue because the two friends are entirely unable to find common ground between their two positions, and that what can’t continue will not continue. I know that this is something replicated across the country and indeed the world and I think it’s a shame that they haven’t been able to reconcile their different opinions, but I don’t think it’s entirely surprising.

I’ve found similar issues in my own life, it always feels like if you can just find the right fact that a friend will listen and change their mind and consider a new view, sadly though this is almost never the case. At this point its hard to even know where to start, when the basis of most people’s opinions are so far away from reality that even the build up to an explanation of current events would require an in depth discussion that no one is interested in having and that would not move off the most basic of facts before ending in argument.

How do you talk to someone about the attacks on the second amendment in the US, without first explaining that the very basis of the tax system is backed by the power of the gun? How do you talk to someone about Donald Trump with someone who still hasn’t moved away from the ‘all Mexicans are rapists’ lie, or the ‘very fine people’ hoax?

Recently a friend of mine asked ‘Why are people still upset about the Covid thing?’ as if it was just some passing irritation that didn’t really matter. They were genuinely very concerned that I had been through a ‘very dark time’ during the Covid years, without realising that the reason for my ‘dark time’ was not the lockdowns or the insane rules, but that almost none of my friends would even engage in conversation or consider my opinions on the matter forcing me to keep quiet and turn inward.

Indeed when I pointed out in March 2021 on facebook that the data analysis of the United Kingdom infection rates should be looked at with caution because the recovery rates were not being published - meaning that infection totals only ever went up - I was told to “tell that to someone who’s parents have both died”. When I asked if that person had experienced this terrible loss, they said ‘no’ but that ‘someone on Facebook would have’ and that I should therefore ‘keep my opinions to myself’.

I think the end of London Calling proves that there is a huge gulf between ‘them’ and ‘us’ these days that is simply not reconcilable, and things like the death of the Public House, the reactionary and remote nature of internet ‘discussions’ on social media and the name-calling of those with different views on matters eg ‘climate deniers’, ‘covid deniers’, etc certainly doesn’t help.

One Party Rule

With a helicopter view many things are obvious that are not clear when focussing on the details. For example, the right side of politics or ‘far right’ as we are encouraged to call it, is demonised so heavily these days that to mention that you don’t support any ‘current thing’ is a social faux pas equivalent to dipping your genitalia in someone’s soup. However if this is the case, we are simply in an era where the State and its actors are telling us that there is One opinion, One choice and One Party - and everyone knows - or should know - by now that a One Party State is a very bad thing.

It always drives me mad when the word ‘draconian cuts to services’ rears its ugly head when a Conservative party dares to make any tiny cuts to the funding of Public Services. It has been pummelled into us from a young age that ‘draconian cuts’, ‘tory cuts’ or ‘slashing the funding’ of these departments is always a very bad thing. No one seems to ever point out that these services are actually funded by a tax payer that is constantly searching in its private life for better value for money. When you walk around the supermarket do you just buy the most expensive coffee? Or are you looking for the best coffee at a good price? Or to put it another way, if you are choosing anything but the most expensive coffee in the supermarket, why are you making DRACONIAN CUTS to the coffee budget? Simply pay double for the same coffee and it will definitely be twice as good.

And Another Thing

While I’m on the subject of things that should be obvious, here’s another one. It almost certainly doesn’t matter who wins the next US election - even if its Trump. We seem to have become dragged into the short term game of Political drama, while missing the broader, zoomed out view. If Trump wins the next election he has a matter of four years to put all of the current ills in US politics, economics, the judiciary and social issues right. He also has to completely overhaul the incentives for politicians. At the moment people entering politics are clearly self interested, they want power, they want fame and they want money. In no other job is it possible that earning a $100,000 wage means you increase your personal wealth by several million dollars. While this is possible in politics - and largely ignored - you will always attract people who are incentivised to enter for that very reason. Clearing this up and punishing corrupt politicians in a four year period is clearly impossible, and what is almost certain to happen instead is that Trump gets tied up in court, delayed, overruled where possible and distracted by other issues. Even if positive changes are made they will be undone shortly afterward.

We saw this during the first term where tax rates were lowered, the stock market soared, unemployment fell to its lowest level and manufacturing and energy industries roared back into life. Yet only a year into the Biden regime all of the good work was undone.

So the correct question is not ‘will Trump get back in’, it should always have been ‘what happens after Trump?’. There will never be another person in history who is independently wealthy, altruistic, sober and with almost no skeletons in his closet. It’s why the rule of law involves investigating a crime, rather than investigating a person to find the crime - because almost certainly everyone has done something that the State deems to be against the law. The bar has now dropped even lower, if for example you once typed an off the cuff ‘offensive’ remark on a text conversation with a friend then its likely that you’ll be person non grata before you even know it.

So where are we heading?

Disunited States

We started with the idea that what cannot continue will not continue and I think the best demonstration of this idea is with the United States. The ‘right’ has been demonised, abused, locked up (in the case of the January 6’ers) and seems firmly on the side of Trump whereas the ‘left’ has become entirely reliant on the State for its income, its ideas, its acceptable opinion and for fixing any given issue. Like Toby and James there is no middle ground, and not even a place to start to build one. It’s entirely possible that the United States - in some not so distant future - sees States leaving the Union. Whether this is a formal secession or a less formal ‘autonomous zone’ I have no idea, but with the current split in US politics I don’t see any other future in the short term.

And who does all this benefit? Looking at the thread of recent events in the world, its pretty clear to me that several events are linked and almost certainly not coincidental.

• Trump declares ‘Trade War on China’, a China that has built its entire culture on export of goods to the world.

• Within 6 months a Pandemic that shuts down the Western world for two years+ arrives, from China

• Economies across the Western world crumble, while China keeps quiet and carries on

• Trump is removed in a dodgy election made possible by an overwhelming amount of postal votes (because Covid).

• Biden gets in, now proven to have been paid by China via his network of dealings with his son Hunter

• The US weakens itself in energy, spends billions and billions of dollars in Ukraine, literally sinking itself into an economic mire that will take decades to escape from - if ever.

• Inflation caused by Government spending crushes the standard of living in the West

Which country benefits from all and is involved in all of the above events? China.

Which country has escaped any scrutiny for breaking international law when clearing up the outbreak zone of the Pandemic? China.

Which country has continued building coal powered energy while the West wastes time and effort castrating itself with windmills and solar? China.

Which country is the second biggest economy in the world behind the US, the second biggest military power behind the US, and the country most likely to become ‘the superpower’ if the US breaks into pieces? That’s right, China.

We are moving into very dangerous territory if China becomes the dominant Superpower in the world. I also find it deeply suspicious that the (seemingly Chinese controlled) US is currently using a proxy war to weaken Russia, the only other possible contender to the throne.

To me all of this seems pretty obvious and backed up by current events, but even close and respected friends think it’s far fetched. The US has been the dominant Superpower in the world for many years now but as I have said many times already ‘what cannot continue will not continue’. I’m sure in the final days of Rome they simply couldn’t imagine anything other than Rome as the dominant force in the world. How little they knew.

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Thanks for reading & sharing
~Z