I 99% reject Rome-USA comparisons but the one that I’ve found useful to keep in mind for myself is that Sulla’s dictatorship happened about 30 years before Caesar became dictator, very similar conquest with about the same underlying causes. And Roman institutions bounced back for a while afterward! But Sulla’s dictatorship changed what felt possible, elevated generals, introduced civil war. Feel like a lot of people are looking for a Rubicon moment but I think Sulla suggests the time and damage it takes to get to them - even catastrophes that aren’t fully realized can lead to worse.
"The Conservative Movement played the long game and worked tirelessly, for decades"
The conservative movement strategized and hacked and chiseled and dug as if it was fighting for its survival, while the rest of us effectively assumed our majority would naturally and automatically triumph. And now we've arrived at this dissonant reality where the majority indeed dominates western culture, while the conservative movement dominates US politics.
The two are not just dissonant but increasingly in real conflict (see Florida vs Disney). I don't foresee a scenario where a broad political coalition forms to combat what conservatives are doing, because the range of viewpoints across the majority is too diverse and irreconcilable, even when we agree on specific issues.
Instead I think there will be more and more battle lines drawn between culture and politics, and these will be the domains that each side weaponizes against the other. Unfortunately that has never gone very well for the 'culture' side, because the state has tanks and guns.
One would very much like to see a broader reflection among political maximalists (DSA types, or the much bigger maximalist-nihilist constituency of “fuck it, they’re all the same”) on the historically shifting meanings of “bourgeois” vs. “radical” political positions. Just as “radical” positions on gay rights, women’s rights, voting rights, labor rights could once get you killed or jailed , “bourgeois” positions in 2022 on those same issues potentially threaten to once again get you killed or jailed. At certain historical moments, just hanging on and not going backwards might just be the radical (and responsible) choice.
I 99% reject Rome-USA comparisons but the one that I’ve found useful to keep in mind for myself is that Sulla’s dictatorship happened about 30 years before Caesar became dictator, very similar conquest with about the same underlying causes. And Roman institutions bounced back for a while afterward! But Sulla’s dictatorship changed what felt possible, elevated generals, introduced civil war. Feel like a lot of people are looking for a Rubicon moment but I think Sulla suggests the time and damage it takes to get to them - even catastrophes that aren’t fully realized can lead to worse.
This is something that stood out from your post:
"The Conservative Movement played the long game and worked tirelessly, for decades"
The conservative movement strategized and hacked and chiseled and dug as if it was fighting for its survival, while the rest of us effectively assumed our majority would naturally and automatically triumph. And now we've arrived at this dissonant reality where the majority indeed dominates western culture, while the conservative movement dominates US politics.
The two are not just dissonant but increasingly in real conflict (see Florida vs Disney). I don't foresee a scenario where a broad political coalition forms to combat what conservatives are doing, because the range of viewpoints across the majority is too diverse and irreconcilable, even when we agree on specific issues.
Instead I think there will be more and more battle lines drawn between culture and politics, and these will be the domains that each side weaponizes against the other. Unfortunately that has never gone very well for the 'culture' side, because the state has tanks and guns.
One would very much like to see a broader reflection among political maximalists (DSA types, or the much bigger maximalist-nihilist constituency of “fuck it, they’re all the same”) on the historically shifting meanings of “bourgeois” vs. “radical” political positions. Just as “radical” positions on gay rights, women’s rights, voting rights, labor rights could once get you killed or jailed , “bourgeois” positions in 2022 on those same issues potentially threaten to once again get you killed or jailed. At certain historical moments, just hanging on and not going backwards might just be the radical (and responsible) choice.