The Problem
What we saw on January 6th wasn't an isolated event. It follows a very common playbook involving the following factors:
A massive, unprecedented protest...
that openly stands for conservative or right-wing values...
with no vetting...
without clear, direct leadership...
without defined, universally agreed-upon goals...
in a city known for its left-leaning demographics...
in a municipality with radically left-wing governors and leaders.
This is exactly what happened in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, a city just hours away from DC. It's also exactly what happened in 2018 in Chemnitz, Germany.
What inevitably occurs is that the vast majority of attendees obey the law and stand for whatever they believe in - usually something popular, like opposing historic monument removals, criticizing mass migration, or supporting their President.
However, a tiny handful of agitators get out of hand and commit crimes. The agitators are enabled by a police force that intentionally stands down (as we saw in Charlottesville and DC). The agitators are then portrayed by the media as the entire event and used to smear the original belief.
After every one of these events, there is universal condemndation of the protest and the beliefs that inspired it from both sides of the political aisle. This is crucial, because an event only criticized from the left would be defensible. But as we've seen, both liberal AND conservative media + politicians will rush to condemn the protest and all who attended it.
This results in a massive, palpable feeling of demoralization among conservatives. Moderates and apoliticals are turned against conservative beliefs. Leftists are energized and vindicated. Even though the media spins it as a "win" for the "far-right", everyone knows that the right has visibly gone too far and thus lost cultural power.
Look back through history, and tell me that you haven't seen this exact pattern repeat again and again.
What causes this?
Events like this are the result of sheer disorganization and bad incentives on the Right, and Machiavellian tactics from the Left.
On the Left, this scenario is like a symbiotic relationship. Leftists thrive when Rightists look radical or insane. Thus, Leftists often choose to goad on the worst elements of the Right in order to make the Left look better in comparison. In a protest situation, this results in Leftist city officials telling police to stand down so that radical idiots can run rampant. This gives the Left-aligned media plenty of footage that puts conservatives in the worst possible light, demoralizing them and turning the popular will against them.
On the Right, I lay blame on everyone who posted terrible news, day in and day out, without providing any positive and constructive solutions. This blame goes especially to pundits and grifters who made a business of telling people the world was going to end, but giving them no way out. Doomposting and blackpilling are like increasing the pressure in a balloon more, and more, and more, and giving it no exit. Sooner or later, that balloon is going to pop, and it will result in the sort of retardation we saw on Jan 6.
We need to start offering people productive solutions and real hope for the future. There are many constructive solutions that are all-reward and zero-risk, for example: boycotting woke companies, peaceful grassroots organizing, and building self-sufficiency. These are strategies that work and that the successful Left has used for decades. Conservatives desperately need to start emulating peaceful strategies that work, rather than harebrained schemes and fantasies that don't.
Where do we go from here?
If conservatives don't learn lessons from these events and change our behavior, then we are surely doomed. Here are some ways forward:
Conservatives need to communicate with one another and take some time to reflect on our values and goals. Levelheaded communication is key. Please, for the love of God, stop with the "news" and doomposting for a few days or weeks and let those on the Right actually talk with one another. We need to understand our position in the world and think about where we want to go, and what ways can actually work. If we cannot learn lessons, we will always lose.
Opt for small-scale, localized, low-risk high-reward solutions. Control what you can, ignore what you can't. Don't invest yourself in nationwide political causes that you have no control over. Focus first on yourself, your family, and your community. Here are some excellent life lessons for the 2020s.
Vote with your dollar. This is the one great power that everyone holds. YOU can choose whether you want to fund far-left companies, or patriotic conservative ones. Here are some ideas to get started with boycotting and buy-cotting.
Vote with your feet. If you live in California, please move, unless you absolutely need to be there for career or family reasons. Don't live in places where you fund a far-left political machine with your tax dollars. Move somewhere where your taxes are used for beneficial purposes.
Reconsider the utility of protests and rallies in 2021. So far, the track record of right-wing rallies seems high-risk, low-reward. Keep in mind that the Left controls the media and almost all city governments. In order words, they control how a right-wing rally would be managed, and how it will be portrayed to the masses. The entire point of a rally is to reach the masses, and without control of the media, many conservative rallies merely provide negative propaganda against themselves.
Never hold a rally or protest without clear objectives, a defined goal, and direct leadership. Vet everyone if possible, and don't hold events in far-left cities. Getting a bunch of people together in one place and letting them do whatever they want is a recipe for disaster. This goes double if it's in hostile territory. Love Trump or hate him, you have to admit he failed epically by not directing the crowd on Jan 6. There was no plan, no mission, no start or end time for the rally - failure was inevitable.
Rally around POPULAR issues that the majority of people agree with. The entire point of a protest or rally is to win the hearts and minds of the people. It is NOT to satisfy yourself or your own side. This is crucially important. Imagine the difference between "Trump supporters demand $2000 checks for all Americans from Congress" and "Trump supporters demand Trump stay President". The former is charitable and would turn the opinion in favor of Trump supporters. The latter seems entitled and self-serving.
Build bridges, make a big tent, and win over the majority of people. I sincerely don't believe that conservative causes are unpopular ones. Explained rationally, almost everyone in the world can agree with at least some of them. The objective must not be to set 50% against the other 50%, but to unite the 99% of honest people against the 1% of elites.
Don't encourage violence or other flagrant and illegal behavior. As we all saw, what happened on Jan 6 didn't work. It demoralized conservatives and turned popular will against them. The future of this movement, like every non-establishment movement that finds itself out of power, must be like Gandhi or the early Christians. It must be nonviolent, and seek to win hearts and minds with a more appealing message, rather than crazy threats.
Remember that REAL change is very slow, but you can see it working. Don't trust anyone who tries to sell you the idea of lightning-fast overnight change. This includes anyone telling you a revolution, civil war, or collapse is right around the corner. We're in the position we're in because people wanted quick magical fixes rather than decades of boring hard work. It will take years and years of raising families, creating a culture, and building institutions to get out of this hole. But the real solution will always be the slow-growing natural orchard, not the lie of magic beans that blossom overnight.
