Good read.


https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/11/bourgeois-vice

While opening a new personal bank account today, the bank employee told me that there was a problem. She explained that I was on an OFAC watchlist. I looked up OFAC—it’s a govt agency that goes after terrorist groups.

Ten minutes later, she told me that it was an error.

OFAC appears to target foreign entities, and its list is public, so there was never any real chance that I was on there.

Regardless, that was a very, uh, interesting ten minutes.

I haven’t done anything illegal, let alone been charged with anything, but the DHS now views lawful identitarians as a threat to national security. So it’s not too far-fetched to consider a future in which those with the “wrong” opinions are denied access to the banking system.

These people would genocide us in a heartbeat if they had the chance lmao

https://twitter.com/mainepenceanime/status/1182494289131163649?s=21

Who remembers? Good times.

It was an unbelievably successful troll—so successful the White House had to clarify that I attended a public tour, and wasn’t invited.

This has so far been the largest media appearance I’ve done. Close to five million people watched it. The editing, ominous music etc. were clearly intended to arouse fear in the audience; but stripped of the editing, what I had to say was something that resonates with most Trump supporters.

This interview was released over a year ago. How time flies when you’re having fun (being an underpaid dissident assailed from all sides).

I still haven’t seen anything from NHK and Univision. Both video interviews were supposed to have aired by now.

I’ll have to email the journalists. I always ask them to send me the pieces once they’re complete, but they never do. The gall!

Listen to the crowd’s reaction when Trump says Somalia. These aren’t people concerned about illegal immigration—they’re upset with the fact that culturally-incompatible third worlders are being dumped into their towns.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1182476234036580352?s=21

To his credit, Trump has drastically slashed refugee admissions to 18,000. Additionally, he has allowed state and local governments to refuse refugees entirely, which rules.

https://cis.org/Rush/Trump-Administrations-Long-Overdue-Revision-Refugee-Resettlement-Program

Update: Yesterday, I was told that the bank account issue was cleared up. Today, they told me that I couldn’t open an account after all.

The banker with whom I spoke was perplexed—she’s never encountered something like this before.

To find out why, I have to mail a request to their PO Box.

So while I’m not on the OFAC list, which, again, is public and reserved for foreign terrorists, there’s a possibility that some government agency has instructed banks to deny me service.

I’m headed to another bank now to try to open an account.

Alright, I was able to open up an account at another bank. Still, the first bank’s response is incredibly suspect, particularly given that they wouldn’t tell the banker why they chose to deny me a personal account. I’m sending out the request today, so we’ll see what they say.

Read this.

https://theintercept.com/2014/07/23/blacklisted/

I watched Joker for the second time last night. To be perfectly honest, it was far less impressive the second time around. The film has many redeeming qualities, but Phoenix’s Joker is a stupid, pathetic creature, motivated by mental illness and spite, whereas Ledger’s Joker is far more philosophical and interesting. Phoenix’s Joker isn’t to be emulated or glorified; at best, he serves as a cautionary tale, warning us of what can happen to misfits in an increasingly meaningless, atomized society.

Still, I don’t think the film is explicitly Leftist. Atomization is an issue approached by both Right and Left. To identitarians, Fleck’s atomization is perhaps ascribed to his surrounding being little more than a diverse, materialistic shopping mall, bereft of community and purpose. To a Leftist, Fleck’s troubles are rooted in economics: his life sucks because he’s poor and denied access to social services.

Ultimately, though, Joker the character, if not the film, is apolitical. When asked about the protests, he says that he doesn’t believe in all that. “I don’t believe in anything.” A mentally ill misfit, he just wants validation and fulfillment, which he tragically can only obtain by killing. That Arthur Fleck is explicitly apolitical, but winds up leading a Leftist movement, is interesting: it shows how deranged people often wind up in fringe politics for apolitical reasons.