Problematic Words

Note: This is by no means an exhaustive list, nor are these definitive definitions. Rather these are my observations to which I welcome discussion and dissenting opinions. I also use the term Progressive to describe those on the Far Left. You can replace the word Progressive with Ctrl Left, Alt Left, Far Left, authoritarian Left, and liberal (as far as liberal means American liberal/Democrat that is far to the left). I try to distinguish those on the extreme left from those who are more center left or those on the left that do not fully understand the ideology that has a hold of them. Remember that words matter and to never yield linguistic ground to those you disagree with, for if you use their definitions than you are playing their game and even if you win, you still only win their game. Words are the ground the culture war is being fought and you do not want to fight a battle on the ground your enemy has selected.

People of Color – This is simply just a fancy way of saying anyone who is not white. It is a way of excluding someone based on skin color that is hiding behind a mask of compassion. It is also discriminating against the ‘People of Color’ by assuming that all people who are not white have the same experiences and desires. This is why you see such vitriol directed toward ‘People of Color’ who defy the norms being forced on them by Progressives.

Ally – This is the term used to describe people who are white or male that support those who are not. Again this is a way to separating white people, men and white men in particular from other groups. It carries connotations that while you might support Progressive ideas you cannot fully become part of the group, simply because of immutable characteristics determined at birth. It also implies that you do not get to call the shots but need to be submissive to those who call you an ally or you will lose that status and become an enemy.

Islamophobia – This word is simply a cudgel to beat people into submission. It is used to brand those opposed to the Progressive party lines as someone driven by hate of someone else. It is curious that there is no corresponding word for other religions, no Christophobia, no Buddaphobia, and no Hinduphobia. The closest thing is Anti-Semitism which usually takes the form of racism. Criticize the Bible, put a crucifix in a jar of urine and burn the American flag and all is fine, but criticize Islam or draw a picture of Mohammed and you’ll be branded an Islamaphobe and probably have riots of Muslims that are excused by mainstream media as justified outrage. It also holds back those Muslims who seek to reform the religion away from the violent fundamentalism prevalent among terrorist groups. It also keeps those Muslims seeking changes in a system of oppression.

Racism – The Progressives are trying to change the meaning of the word racism to mean Power + Privilege. This is so they can justify racist acts by simply denying they are racist. If someone lacks power or privilege then they cannot be racist from this perspective. They are in essence absolving themselves from the sin of racism in their core ideology.

Privilege – This word simply means someone who is doing better than someone else. Of course the Progressive will attribute this success to systemic racism and unconscious bias as opposed to sacrifice and hard work. Again white straight men are the most privileged regardless of everything else, the poorest white male is more privileged than the daughters of former president Barak Obama. This word is also used as a slur against those who disagree with the Progressive ideology.

Unconscious Bias – This is the idea that people are inherently racist/sexist/homophobic etc. No scientific test has been developed to accurately determine Unconscious Bias and if you are asked to attend Unconscious Bias training I would recommend refusing to attend or recording it and sharing it with the world. No one regardless of intention has the right to force you to alter your unconscious, do not allow them access to the deepest areas of your mind, that is your and yours alone.

Systemic Oppression – This is the idea that any given system is set up to oppress certain people. While this might be true in that a hierarchy of competence will exclude the incompetent. The Progressive will generally be referring to a specific company or government agency keeping out ‘people of color’ and women. This is often cited as the reason for the need of equality of outcome.

Equity – This one has been hotly debated but when put forward by a Progressive it means that everyone ends up with the same in the end. While this might sound good on the surface the only way this is possible is through the use of force. It pushes aside hard work, talent, competence, and sacrifice. This means when the Progressive looks at any structure or system and do not see parity within that structure with society (50/50 men and women for example) than it is not equal and that is due to Systemic Oppression.

Intersectionality – This is the Progressive attempt to rectify the idea that a straight white woman has more privilege than a straight black woman. It is a way of organizing society and determining levels of oppression. Almost like a caste system, with white straight cis able-bodied men on the bottom (have the most privilege) and black queer Trans disabled woman on the top (has the least privilege). The interesting thing about intersectionality is that taken to its logical conclusion you end up with individuality. Meaning that no two people are going to intersect in the same way.

Hate Speech – This is just censorship hiding behind the mask of compassion. Since what is considered hateful is subjective it leaves it to those in power to determine what is and is not hate speech. Of course to the Progressive the only thing that is real in the world is power, so they can justify the use of it to do what they want.

If I left anything out please leave it in the comments below and I’ll do another post adding to this one.

Logos and Skyrim: Shouting Order From Chaos

The video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released on November 11^th 2011. Having played the last two installments in this series I eagerly awaited this game. I watch trailers, I read articles on it, and looked through reviews of early game play.

The game revolves around the story of the hero, the Dragonborn, and the return of dragons to the world. A hero using sword and sorcery to fight dragons seems like pretty standard video game fair but the game was a huge success.

It was not until 2017 that I realized the story of Skyrim was more than just a game, but rather a retelling of a powerful older story full of symbols that I knew but never recognized. This is the story of the hero and his journey.

This significance came to me as I was replaying Skyrim and listening to Professor Jordan Peterson. This is my attempt to untangle the importance of the hero’s journey to the individual and society through the game Skyrim.

The Hero’s Call

The game starts with the hero in the back of a cart with rebels and criminals, bound, on his way to his execution. This is an odd place for a hero to be yet this is how the journey starts.

The people with the Dragonborn are dangerous. This hints at the idea that the Dragonborn himself must be a dangerous person as well. The philosopher Carl Jung would say that the hero has integrated his shadow. Meaning that to be a hero you must accept that you are capable of evil and struggle against that capability.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes this more clearly when he wrote in The Gulag Archipelago that “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts.” This is also seen in the Judeo-Christian concept of original sin. Meaning that sin or evil is within all of us and that is something we all must struggle with our whole lives.

Failure to recognize that you are capable of evil (Pride?) or recognizing it and refusing to resist it will cause an individual’s evil side to grow. It is this internal struggle within ourselves that we see played externally in the hero’s story.

The Dragonborn is also bound and on his way to execution. He was captured while wandering, seemingly without aim. This points to the idea that without a goal and without responsibility a person will find themselves in a bad place and on a fast track to death. This is seen played out clearly in young men without direction joining a gang or someone getting into drugs.

Humans have evolved our eye sight in order to have aim so that we are better at finding food. On one level humans have evolved the ability to aim in order to survive. Yet in order to aim clearly on a conceptual level we need to be able to articulate what it is that we want. It is hard to hit the target if you do not know exactly what the target is. Speech helps us clarify the thing at which we aim.

The Dragons Return

The hero is taken into a town and has his head placed on the chopping block. As the headsman raises his axe you hear someone shout, “what is that?!” A dragon lands on a tower above you and shouts, causing a hail of rocks. Chaos ensues.

It is this dragon’s shout (Speech) that frees the Dragonborn. He is freed from the execution as well as aimless wandering. In a very real, giant and dangerous way, responsibility hits the hero hard and calls directly to him. It says I am the biggest problem here, you need to deal with me or watch your world burn.

Dragons as a concept have been around for a long time. Professor Jordan Peterson sees the dragon as an amalgamation of predators of our early ancestors, combining the traits of snakes, birds, and large cats (like lions). If that was not bad enough it can also breathe fire and is intelligent. Despite the danger of dragons they possess gold, meaning there is something of value to be gained by defeating them.

Professor Peterson goes on to say that dragons as a symbol are the problem of all problems. From an evolutionary stand point the biggest problem our ancestors faced were predators. The dragon, the ultimate predator, logically stands in for the idea of problems.

It is from this reasoning that you see hero stories. Of course people would tell stories of the person who willingly went out into the world and killed those predators. Not only did they end the problem that predator posed, but they would be able to bring back food and perhaps a fir to keep them warm.

This is the reason dragons have gold. If you extract the idea out farther it explains that within problems are something useful and solving those problems will allow you to be rid of the predator and to bring back something of value to make things better, for yourself and society.

The society the Dragonborn finds himself in is in the middle of a civil war. On one side you have the Stormcloaks and on the other you have the Imperials/Empire. The motivations of these two groups are complex but for now all we need to know is that they are at war with each other, they were both at the execution and they both know that the dragons have returned.

If you approach these groups in the game it is clear that they are refusing to deal with the dragons and are still focused on fighting each other. To them it is more important to battle one another than it is to deal with the return of the dragons. They are blind to the real problem, the dragons, and what it could mean for the world. Instead it is up to the hero to take on this problem himself.

The dragons are returning all across Skyrim, but as you progress through the game you find out that they were not hiding somewhere but were in fact dead and are being brought back to life. Relating it to the real world you can see these old problems coming back to life.

The ghost of Communism has spread across college campuses and work itself into a multi headed dragon (hydra). Authoritarianism attempting to shut down free speech, people in masks looting and rioting in urban areas, and religious extremists murdering innocent people being excused due to Political Correctness. These dragons have been resurrected and are currently running free across the world until a hero is willing to step up.

Sky Shattering Thu’um

In Skyrim the hero has the power of a Thu’um or a shout. This is a type of magic that allows the hero to do amazing things simply by speaking words. The way the hero gains this power is by slaying dragons, absorbing their power and reading words of power from the past on dragon walls.

Words, spoken or written, are a person’s attempt to manifest an idea into the real world. By reading these words on the dragon walls, what the Dragonborn is doing is building his power based on the foundations of what has come before. He is resurrecting the culture and giving it new life.

The benefit of slaying the dragons is to gain power in order to use additional words. When the hero finds a dragon wall he cannot read all the words, only part of it stands out. This is the logos revealing itself to the hero, who will carry it into the world.

Logos is the root of the word logic and comes from a Greek word meaning, ground, plea, opinion, expectation, word, speech, account, reason, proportion, discourse. Logos in the West is a term used when describing Jesus as being the Word of God. Yet before that in Western philosophy the term was used by Heraclitus to mean “a principle of order and knowledge.”

It is a complex word and concept which Jordan Peterson describes as meaning something like “the articulated Truth.” (A YouTube video of Peterson explaining Logos here). When the Dragonborn kills a dragon and gains the power to shout, the game is acting out this idea. The idea that if you willingly go out and face down problems (dragons) you will gain knowledge and power (logos) which you can bring to the world to make it a better place.

Rescuing your Father from the Underworld

This is a common theme in mythology as well as in video games. Beowulf goes into the depths and fights Grendel’s mother, Pinocchio goes to the bottom of the ocean to save Gepetto, and the Dragonborn makes his way to Sovngarde.

These are all great stories in their own right and to dismiss them as superstition and fairy tale would be to miss out on the essence behind the story. First we must look at what the Underworld and the Father is and why the Father is in the Underworld.

The Underworld is the place you go when you die, an unknown place, a place that cannot be known. The Father is the old king or rather the culture built by those in the past. In these stories death is not the end, but rather a turning point. It is same idea that is represented by the tarot card death. Culture is always dying and being reborn because chaos is always pushing against order and to maintain order change (or chaos) is needed.

So the hero goes out into chaos, brings a part of that chaos back so that the culture can change in an attempt to maintain order. The hero going into the Underworld (chaos or the unknown) is his attempt to bring back something of value that will, hopefully, update society so that it will not collapse into chaos.

In Skyrim the main adversary is Alduin, a soul eating dragon that can rain chaos from the sky with a shout. He was defeated in the past through the use of an Elder Scroll (a fragment of the divine), yet this was only a temporary defeat. The Dragonborn must use the Elder Scroll and learn what the heroes of the past knew so that he can deal with the problem of Alduin and restore order to the world.

The hero does not destroy culture or society, but instead builds on it to make it better. He joins with the old heroes to defeat Alduin, using their power and his own to defeat the problem once and for all.

It is with the defeat of this dragon that order is restored to the world. Yet when the hero returns from the Underworld he sees several dragons flying overhead spreading across the world. This means that there are still problems in the world but the world is a little bit better with one less problem.

The Hero’s Song Lives On

The hero’s journey is the journey of each individual. The man who wakes up at 5am and goes to work all day so his kids will have a better future then he did is a hero. The mother who spends countless sleepless nights caring for a sick child is a hero. The hero is inside of us all and in order to access it we must understand that we are both hero and monster. That both good and evil is inside of all of us and that the first thing we must do is recognize that struggle and actively take part.

Each individual must use his logos to find what he is aiming at and shoot. There is no guarantee that you will hit your mark or that you are aiming at what you think you are. Yet by speaking the truth as clearly and as best you can you will have a chance of hitting the mark.

If society is falling apart the answer is not to tear it down and start over. Rather it is to deal with the problems by building on and renewing the foundation. Preserving the traditions of the past while updating them to meet current situations.

The story of Skyrim and the hero’s journey is so popular and powerful because it is the story of ourselves. We must look honestly at ourselves, recognize the problems in us and in our world and try to solve them by taking willing responsibility of them. It is in the solving of these problems that we ease the suffering of life for ourselves and those around us as well as in the world at large. The great thing about the story is that anyone no matter how inadequate or useless has this potential inside of them. That potential could be called the divine spark within us all.

Social Justice Utopia: A Brief Story

The police lights flashed in the neighborhood as two police officers stood over a man on the ground in handcuffs with a gag over his mouth. The younger officer motioned to his more experienced partner who was writing down some notes on a pad. The older officer looked up to see a woman approaching and put his pencil in the binding of the pad and placed the notebook in his pocket.

            “I’ll handle this rookie,” said the older officer stepping forward to meet the woman.

            “Why are you arresting my husband?” She demanded

            “Please stay calm. May I ask your preferred pronouns?” The officer said in a calm deep voice.

            Her eyes narrowed on the officer and she slowly said “She/her.”

            “Thanks you. Now this is your partner?”

            “Yes this is my husband.” She said her emphasizing the word husband and fixing her eyes on the officer.

            “I have not asked for his pronouns yet so I’ll have to take your word for it for now.” The officer said. He reached into his pocket and produced his notebook. “I have a few questions to ask you if you do not mind.”

            “I mind,” She said “But I assume I do not have a choice.”

            “You have a choice,” the officer said “We are only here to help.”

            “Yeah my choice is cooperate or end up like my husband there.” She pointed to the man in handcuffs on the ground. The cuffed man moved a bit and tried to look at her but the younger officer put his foot on the man’s back.

            “Do not resist, Hate Speaker.” The young officer said pushing his foot down on the man’s back. The young officer looked up at the woman to find fire in her eyes that startled him a bit. He lifted his foot and regained his composure by placing his hand on the gun on his hip.

            “Look at me miss,” the older officer said, “Is your husband a part of any hate group such as The Republican Party, The Sons of Reason, the Free Speech Movement, or the First Amendment of the Constitution Truther’s also known as the F.A.C.T.?”

            “No.” She said nothing more.

            “You know it is a crime to lie to a police officer correct?” The older officer said while writing something down.

            “I am aware.” She said steel in her voice.

            “Just making sure. Is your husband currently or has he ever been associated with infamous Hate Speech outlaws like Ben Shapiro, Carl Benjamin A.K.A Sargon of Akkad, or Jordan Peterson?” Her teeth clenched and she shook her head no. The officer wrote something in his notebook.

            “Why do you have a gag over his mouth? Can’t you take that thing off?” The woman asked looking between the two officers.

            “It is on for everyone’s protection.” The younger officer said his eyes narrowing as he looked down at the man on the ground. “He has already committed felony levels of Hate Speech, we would not want anyone, including you, to be harmed by the things this Nazi says.”

            “Nazi!? He is not a Nazi.” She said a growl in her voice.

            “That is for a Social Justice Tribunal to decide miss.” The older officer said. Her face dropped and tears started to come to her eyes. The young officer watched her for a moment and then dropped his eyes down to the man on the ground. His face contorted into one of rage and he started to kick the man in handcuffs. People started to gather around to watch.

            “You damn Nazi,” the young officer yelled as his put a boot to the ribs of the man, “See what your straight white cis patriarchal oppression is doing, you have hurt this woman here and now she is crying.” The woman looked shocked. A cheer came up from the crowd and people started to shout “No Nazi, No KKK, No Fascist USA.” The older officer stepped over and got between the man on the ground and his partner.

            “Keep calm, we have to follow the law.”

            “Why?” The young man asked forcefully “This is what the people want, this is Social Justice and why should we not stop these Nazi cockroaches now?”

            “He needs to go in front of the Social Justice tribunal and they will decide his fate.” A boo rose up from the crowd.

            “He is a filthy Nazi and he should be shot now.” The young officer said and put his hand on his holstered gun. The older officer looked him right in the eyes and shook his head no.

            “You are going to get into trouble, partner, we need to do this by the book.” The older officer said. The young officers narrowed his eyes at his partner.

            “Are you sympathizing with the Nazi?” The young officer said loudly. His partner’s eyes went wide.

            “Alleged Nazi.” The woman said stepping up next to the older officer. “That is for the tribunal to decide.” The young officer turned and stomped off toward the police car. “What exactly are you charging my husband with? What has he done?”

            “First degree spewing of directed Hate Speech, Second degree bigotry, and felony Hate Speech violation.”

            “What exactly did he say?” The woman asked

            “He told his friend he was throwing the football with quote “you throw like a girl.” The officer started to write in his note book again. “He started to call us Fascist and Racist when we pulled up. He said that we were only arresting him because he was white. That reminds me, I need to add aggravated assault of an officer.”

            “Assault? He hit you?” The woman asked surprised.

            “No but he called us names and my partner and I were hurt by his words, that is assault.” She could do nothing but watch. The older officer called his partner over and the two picked the man up off the ground and took him to the cop car. The crowd surrounded the officers and were screaming at the man. One person punched him in the face and the crowd cheered him as if he were a returning hero. The officers did very little to stop this but the older officer finally put him into the car. The woman with tears streaming down her face approached the car.

            She sucked in a giant breath of air and screamed, “Stop it you animals! He is a human—”

            A shot rang out and the woman was knocked on her back. A moment of silence fell over the crowd as the light fled her eyes a pool of blood form on the ground underneath her. The man in the back of the car started to thrash around pulling at the handcuffs until his wrist started to bleed and chewing at the gag trying to get it out of his mouth. The young officer put his gun back in his holster and got into the car with his partner.

            “What was that!” The older officer demanded.

            “She called the crowd animals, clearly relating the People of Color in the crowd to monkey’s. It was violent Hate Speech and we had a crowd to protect, I could not just let her hurt all those innocent people. Now call it in and let’s get this Nazi to the Facility of Rehabilitation and Social Justice.” The older officer put a call in on the radio for someone to come and collect the body and drove away.

            “You did not need to shoot her. She was a person.” The older officer said on the way to the Facility. The younger officer eyed him.

            “You are starting to sound like you have sympathy for her. She was a Nazi that was all I needed to know.”

            “That is not for you to decide, that is for the tribunal to determine.” The young officer just looked out the window and ignored his partner the whole way back. They booked the man, broken and bloody, into the Facility of Rehabilitation and Social Justice and then went to file their reports.

 

The man was found guilty of Nazism, Hate Speech and Promoting Genocide and was executed later that week. The older officer had two Antifa agents show up to his home and arrest him for Nazi sympathy and for two accounts of Failure to Denounce. The younger officer was promoted to captain and had a reporter write his story. He was given a medal for his bravery in the line of duty and for fighting systemic oppression in the police force.