Fleeing the Collapsing Imperium
The American Conservative,
by
Rod Dreher
Original Article
Posted By: Boni,
6/6/2020 8:34:20 AM
I’ve been thinking that the US is in a May 1968 moment, but that’s probably too optimistic. A reader who is a prominent Washingtonian (he identified himself, and I verified it; I’m not using his name to protect him) wrote this morning to say that he and a number of people he know are leaving the city for good in the wake of this past week’s violence. He writes, and I quote with his permission:
I’m out.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
franq 6/6/2020 8:39:42 AM (No. 434445)
It is getting more evident where I work. This past week, 5 corporate emails came out, all expressing solidarity with the minorities. The one yesterday was the most disturbing. We will be having training and round tables, which we are expected to attend, in the coming month. The tone of the email was pretty authoritarian. Lord, help me through to retirement.
30 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Safari Man 6/6/2020 8:58:11 AM (No. 434475)
I agree with most everything in the article except I do not agree that Trump is weak and indecisive. Trump can’t fix it alone when there are 50-100 years of “progress” on the left. Certainly not when he must get re-elected.
I’ve often thought of bailing out of the USA, but its not so easy... so I found a spot where I can watch the apocalypse in peace.
36 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Urgent Fury 6/6/2020 9:19:25 AM (No. 434523)
There is only one way this gets resolved.
17 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
ajaxliquor 6/6/2020 9:30:55 AM (No. 434541)
I noted the “weak and indecisive” remark as well. It did not stop me from continuing to read the piece. I normally lose interest after such an observation about our President. The emigrants from NYC are right to get the hell out for sure, and for the right reasons. (I hope they were renting, because selling their abode would be tough). Anyway, it’s not a pretty sight in these liberal metropolitan cities. Leaving is the only solution for most now awakened citizens who failed to see it coming. I was in Fairfield County, CT and fled eighteen years ago. Stamford City Council was comprised of an 80:20 ratio D to R. It was a socially dark community. No one spoke convivially with anyone. If the emigrants are in the 45-65 age group, they are not conservatives. They are thick headed moderates unfamiliar with American or World History. The writing’s been written on the walls for decades. They just failed to see it.
20 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 6/6/2020 9:34:42 AM (No. 434552)
I’ve often thought that I would be cut down with empty rifle in my hands - now I’m sure of it.
16 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
sw penn 6/6/2020 9:37:03 AM (No. 434559)
The one could not dis-agree more with the premise of this article.
This is precisely why one lives where one does.
Ones progenitors did not freeze at Valley Forge,
the 1st Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Infantry were not
decimated by actual democrat shot and shell at Gettysburg,
the 2nd Rangers did not scale and take Pointe du Hoc from German nazis,
so that this generation could surrender their country
to panty wad black block antifa American nazis.
This ones' state will slide into darkness because this one is dead!
And I'm not tired of "winning bigly" yet!
24 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
TLCary 6/6/2020 9:43:06 AM (No. 434566)
"too weak and indecisive and lacking in credibility'
It's irrational. He has been so strong that even in the face of an unprecedented coordinated attack by the establishment GOP, the media and the deep state - he has prevailed and accomplished his agenda, the best economy the USA has ever seen, higher poll numbers than previous Presidents, and even gotten detractors Primaries out of Congress. Indecisive on what? When did he fish-flop? Credibility - only questioned by CNN and other proven liars. Russia Hoax challenges everyone else's credibility.
Where do people come up with this stuff?
29 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
LeeBertie 6/6/2020 9:48:48 AM (No. 434572)
Dreher gives powerful voice to the vague but oppressive depression my wife and I have been dealing with for several years. We live comfortably in Southern Suburbia and continue to live generally like the doctor who escaped to Wyoming, but we can see from our distance the destructive weakness that is taking America down - the cowardly submission to extortion by our families,our corporate leadership, our public (and increasingly private) education, our government institutions, our religious communities. We have often looked at each other and asked "but where would we go". We are the result of generations of Americans, we have no Hungarian options. The mob WILL come for us as well and we don't see how it ends, short of the cataclysm it insists on bringing destroying itself.
12 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Boni 6/6/2020 9:53:00 AM (No. 434582)
SW Penn, this author wrote the book, The Benedict Option, which suggests that Christians will need to separate themselves from the culture in order to be able to live their lives in relative peace. But, the Left will not leave you in peace. They insist that you kneel, chant, confess. I had to unsubscribe from some education-focused FB pages because the authors were threatening to hunt down and expose to their employers anyone who did not agree with their opinion on the MN police incident, and this was after some members of the group simply asked that the focus remain on education and not on politics.
11 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Bluefindad 6/6/2020 10:12:40 AM (No. 434609)
Many of the writings of the Founding Fathers were published under a pseudonym. They understood the repercussions of contesting the will of those in power - destruction of their businesses, families and friends. We have become too trusting of our faith in the First Amendment's guarantee of "Freedom of Speech", not understanding that it only restrains the government from blatant and provable acts of repression. It is time for conservatives to understand that the tide has turned against us. It has already begun. The job applicant who is turned down for a position with a tech firm or the highly qualified business major mysteriously rejected for a 'slam dunk' position does not realize that his or her Facebook and Twitter accounts have been scrutinized for political content. Nor do they realize that the bias against them is not provable or, if it is, requires tens of thousands of dollars and years to bring to light. In these times, we must consider reversion to anonymity or our ability to live and raise our families will be removed. The 'Social Scoreboard' is already here. Many of us simply don't realize it yet. I stopped using Facebook and Twitter long ago. My wife uses them only for recipes and superficial communication. And since we're retired, our exposure is not as great as some. However, my son-in-law is looking for tech work. I'm advising him to take down his conservative posts.
15 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Delilah 6/6/2020 10:22:27 AM (No. 434626)
I use the internet for information and social media is anything but information. Unless one wants to know what one's enemies are thinking. Never used it and never will. Trash talk doesn't inform.
I do have a grandson who came out of college hating this country but now makes a good living managing a Walmart so now he's leaving when he retires. Don't think that will ever happen either. He's welcome to leave any time as far as I care and he knows it so he now keeps his mouth shut around me. His late grandfather volunteered for WWII and would be very ashamed of his blood being so ignorant.
12 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
hershey 6/6/2020 10:23:04 AM (No. 434627)
#11 is 100% correct about all of the social venues...I've never used Reddit or Twitter and as far as Facebook, I dumped it two years ago..I had been put in 'jail' 6 or 7 times because I tried to point out, not the liberals, but the muslims and the problems they bring...and honestly, I don't miss it at all....I go up to usa.life once in awhile and it is conservative and religious together...and yesterday when I went to Amazon I was troubled by their support page for BLM... it is heartening to see that gun sales were WAY up in May...'we' may need them in the near future...
7 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
sw penn 6/6/2020 10:28:57 AM (No. 434646)
Please excuse second post...
This one believes you have lost the point #10
One faith is one's culture.
"But, the Left will not leave you in peace."
So running is not an option.
The Faithful should not be seeking peace or war, but God's will.
Jews in Warsaw had "peace" through compliance.
Did it last ?
Was the "peace" worth the cost?
"They insist that you kneel, chant, confess."
If you will "kneel, chant, confess." for "peace" or job, or any earthly reward,
You are guaranteeing that you will not have it!
Freedom is never "free".
Freedom is never "easy".
It must be fought for in all times, in all places
The Soviets did gift us one worthy phrase...
"Not One Step Back"
Use their own tactics against them.
Boycott, shame, and ridicule their employers.
Mob their businesses.
Picket their homes.
You don't have to politely die for their convenience.
11 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Highlander 6/6/2020 10:34:33 AM (No. 434664)
As Ronald Reagan famously said in one of his speeches, “Freedom is only one generation from extinction...”
Well, here we are. I hope and pray our side will prevail. I’m not real optimistic of the outcome, considering the spectacle of L.A. cops kneeling with BLM goons, and some National Guard doing the same. There’s way too much brain crap in the upper levels of our educational institutions, the MSM, and local and state leadership.
9 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Rather Read 6/6/2020 10:35:07 AM (No. 434667)
Dreher really hates Trump but can't give a good reason why he does, other than Trump is a big mean bully.
9 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Aubreyesque 6/6/2020 10:47:29 AM (No. 434706)
"...how the Russian Revolution advanced years before actual fighting broke out, when the parents of the privileged refused to stand up to their children:..."
Someone listened in on a conversation with a dear friend of mine, where I said almost the exact same thing about the hippie generation, how all my life I have been in amazement that we had to endure the 60s/70s idiocies of Berkeley and flower-children and Weather Underground etc. without any pushback or any reprisals from the people whose progeny were putting the nation through it all.
5 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
TJ54 6/6/2020 10:48:58 AM (No. 434709)
Rod Dreher, never, Trumper moron, destroys his credibility in this article with one reference. Referring to President Trump, the strongest and most decisive President of my lifetime, as Tsar Nicholas II, the weak, indecisive ruler of Russia who ended up being killed by the Communists. Rod, go F Y
13 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 6/6/2020 10:49:25 AM (No. 434710)
I've read nice things about Costa Rica.
2 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
DVC 6/6/2020 10:51:04 AM (No. 434712)
It was an interesting read down until he said:
"Trump is our Nicholas II: too weak and indecisive and lacking in credibility to do a damn thing about it."
If this "conservative" believes this, I really don't think he's a conservative, and I really don't care what other stupid things he has to say.
14 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
bad-hair 6/6/2020 10:56:12 AM (No. 434726)
God Bless the USA. I will not be fleeing anywhere but I may end up living in the Republic of Texas rather than the State of Texas.
9 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
planetgeo 6/6/2020 10:58:53 AM (No. 434729)
I completely disagree with the entire premise of this article, which in effect is, "so where are you going to escape to?"
The very reason that the leftists keep taking over more territory, both literally and figuratively, is because too many people are being too dang nice, polite, and conciliatory (i.e., surrendering) to them at every step. Police chiefs taking a knee with them. Parents taking a tongue-lashing from indoctrinated children home from college...and still forking out the 60 grand each year for more woke indoctrination. "Friends" unfriending them on Fakebook without any response.
I've got news for those people emigrating to supposedly new safe havens in Hungary and other parts of Eastern Europe...if the United States ever collapses, they're going to get eaten first by the big, hungrrry Russian bear. Welcome to reality.
People, THIS is the last best place on the planet Earth. FIGHT to save it or die a slow, ugly, and painful death wherever the heck you bug out to. Here. Now. Fight to save it..
20 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Pegmo 6/6/2020 11:07:41 AM (No. 434744)
Rod is the problem. Anyone who has lived in DC his whole life, lived off the government tit, loved it and didn't see a problem till someone yelled at a car driver is thick as a brick. So many of these government types are unable to relate to others and only get 'sensitized' when their lifestyle is directly threatened. Tone deaf. And Trump is not indecisive or weak. He's just challenging your status quo Rod. Wake up.
14 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
LadyHen 6/6/2020 11:15:31 AM (No. 434758)
Dreher is a rabid anti-Trumper... hence the spit and venom at Trump in EVERY single article he writes. He sees Trump and his supporters as mindless fools, uneducated dunderheads who aren't in tye know like him and his NR buddies. Not saying Rod doesn't at times make sense but he has been a National Review author and proponent of some of the leftist enviro movement. He is also very prolife and Christian. Just know all that when reading anything by him. I always take a big grain of salt with his articles.
6 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
dbdiva 6/6/2020 11:28:40 AM (No. 434783)
Thank you, #22. I agree with your perspective. That being said I am very glad I'm in my 70s and not my 20s.
3 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
mc squared 6/6/2020 11:45:18 AM (No. 434815)
The first 'splash' screen on the Amazon Prime streaming channel now says Amazon is supportive of Black Lives matter. The first row of selections are all 'racial grievance' movies.
6 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 6/6/2020 12:10:01 PM (No. 434849)
Rod Dreher was an arrogant putz when he wrote for National Review 25 years ago. He hasn’t changed. He’d fit right in with the current arrogant putzes there.
I stand with #7. My son is the first of his lineage in 5 generations that did not serve in the U.S. armed forces, and the first in 4 generations that didn’t fight in a war. He shares our love of freedom, and firearms. We’re not turning our country over to a ragtag bunch of totalitarians unless we’re out of ammunition and dead, after having taken a boatload of them with us.
8 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
curious1 6/6/2020 12:14:10 PM (No. 434859)
People, keep in mind we seriously outnumber them. They use their control of popular communication mediums to make it appear the reverse is true. If it were true, they would already have their boot on our neck just like they did behind the iron curtain. We're dealing with the same creatures, and we need to seriously be playing cowboys and leftards, to solve the problem. Playing nice never works with these types.
Don't give in, and remember, these situations are what area field of fire weapons were made for, so you don't wind up with an empty rifle and a pile of bodies around your carcass. To paraphrase Patton; Make the domestic enemies of the Constitution die for their corrupt ideology, and because you took an oath to defend the constitution.
8 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
Maggie2u 6/6/2020 12:41:10 PM (No. 434902)
Anyone here of a certain age remembers the Cultural Revolution in China. That is what is happening in this country. Our children and grandchildren have been taught to hate our country and us. If we try to reason with them we will be turned in to the authorities and sent to re-education camps.
9 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
MindMadeUp 6/6/2020 12:41:20 PM (No. 434903)
A logical prediction of impending doom for our nation. It hinges on one statement buried int the article: Trump is " too weak and indecisive and lacking in credibility to do a damn thing about it."
I fervently hope that is not true.
1 person likes this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
Edgelady 6/6/2020 1:52:58 PM (No. 434980)
If Trump is weak at all it’s because of Pelosi and the Obama holdovers and people he chose to support him in the White House. The left has thrown everything they can at him. But it’s no longer just support Trump, vote Republican - it’s more than “we’ll be okay, we’ve got all the guns” - the Right are the weak ones - we are just as capable as fighting back as the left. It starts with parents going to schools, school district meetings, going to state legislatures and bearing down on these institutions that have been taken over by the left and not permitting this leftist tripe about fluid sexuality to be taught in schools. Everyone can’t just leave their cities to then be overtaken by insane leftist thinking people - do you really think they’ll stop there? No, time to buck up, stand your ground! Speak up, write to local colleges, schools, city councils. Never run while there’s still a chance to turn the tide where you live.
3 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
wordsmith82 6/6/2020 2:14:40 PM (No. 435005)
My wife and I just moved from the Portland area to a small town in eastern Oregon. About 1300 people. I feel blessed. I can hear the neighbor's chickens clucking, and the clock on the courthouse chiming the hours. Portland seems so far away now.
10 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
swarfer 6/6/2020 3:27:11 PM (No. 435088)
We're all Jews now.
5 people like this.
Reply 33 - Posted by:
cny 6/6/2020 3:46:39 PM (No. 435104)
I cannot understand why we have to let the whole country go. Perhaps the same chunk of states that didn't completely knuckle under to the covid madness would make a nice place to keep our Republic going. The rest can be as blue as they wish and see how it works out.
3 people like this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 6/6/2020 4:18:15 PM (No. 435119)
Sorry, but he schmata-heads and their duped brothers cannot have my America and they don't have the brains or balls to take it if we won't give it.
And, yes, I do have plenty of ammo, and I practice.
As for kneeling, only to steady my aim.
5 people like this.
Reply 35 - Posted by:
Laotzu 6/6/2020 6:43:21 PM (No. 435212)
Im fascinated with concept of the Benedictine monetary as the ark of classic liberalism. But the Benedictines operated under the widespread fear of God.
Try this in America, and within six months 10% of your members will be FBI agents. Within 18 months, you will be burned out because you put insufficient postage on your water bill payment,, and there will be a press release announcing how the ATF seized a white Supremist compound.
They tried to frame with treason and got away with it Scott free. You're small potatoes in comparison.
2 people like this.
Reply 36 - Posted by:
DVC 6/6/2020 8:49:09 PM (No. 435320)
Fleeing?
THEY are the problem. They supported all these candidates and laws which have destroyed the area they live in.
When they go elsewhere, just like those NYC folks who "escaped" the Wuhan flu by going to Florida, the reality is that th ey just infected th e place they "escaped to". These political refugees will just destroy the place they take refuge in.
4 people like this.
Comments:
We will all be forced to submit to the dictates of the Left or else. I noticed on Twitter that "you about to lose your job" was trending. This is what they threaten. Submit, or we will come for you.