Lassiez-Faire Anarchist, Shit-Talker, Armchair General If you think my advocacy for freedom is extreme, that says more about you than it does about me.
'Straya
Joined September 2017
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I am a libertarian.
That means I want a fair and equitable world. And what I mean by that is everyone is free to find the best way they can serve the needs of others, and be served in turn.
I am an anarchist.
That means I believe the best way to do that is without a state.
CapnPipsqueak retweeted
If you're a disaffected young man who identifies with Anakin, then learn the lesson he didn't:
Palpatine hates you.
He's only fueling your anger and resentment for his own dark purposes. He will cause you as much pain as he needs. And in the end, he will discard you.
Maturing is realizing Kreia was correct on the prognosis but incorrect on the diagnosis.
"The Jedi are arrogant and prone to inaction."
Yes.
"The Sith are shallow and slaves to self-indugence."
Absolutely. 100%
"Therefore the Force itself is the problem."
NO
Since everyone still talking about Star Wars, and I've been on an anti-Sith, anti-Empire binge lately, let's talk about the Jedi's flaws instead.
Because they're both terrible and I can prove it.
Because what other explanation is there?
Hanlon's Razor cautions against blaming malice for what can be adequately explained by ineptitude.
Key word, adequately.
If someone has the power to prevent an outcome that even they agree is negative, ineptitude is no longer adequate.
You know this shit is fake as hell because the carrier's anti-missile defences aren't shitting smoke, chaff, and CIWS travers everywhere.
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CapnPipsqueak retweeted
*sigh* Fine I'll put my imput on this.
Anakin is a villain-protagonist of classic tragedy, like MacBeth and Creon from Antigone. He starts off well-meaning but the point of his story is that fate turns against him and makes him descend into villainy.
The very point is that both the Jedi AND the Sith are wrong. Luke actually defies Yoda and Obi-Wan in ROTJ because they believed Vader irredeemable, and Luke turns out right. Lucas was also trying to make this point in the Prequels: Anakin is someone capable of redemption. It's why he's at first portrayed as a well-meaning young man who corrupts into something evil.
The prequels are thus inherently tragedy. Heroes lose, and heroes corrupt, while evil prevails. It was the natural storytelling answer to telling how the Empire could rise. Why does this happen? Because the institution of the Jedi corrupted (Yoda points this out in AOTC) and led someone like Anakin astray, while the corrupting force swooped in as a phantom to turn the Chosen One to evil. Palpatine IS a villain; but the Jedi are not faultless. Even Obi-Wan points out, "I have failed you" to Anakin. He is remorseful.
It takes the reforms of Luke Skywalker to change Anakin. The Jedi turned cold and distant to the galaxy's problems which led to their fall, and thus Luke only really wins when he actually shows genuine love for his father.
Really, the prequels are a lesson on how turning one's eyes to corruption leads to evil. Anakin is the physical embodiment of this lesson, as when he corrupts, so does the Republic which then turns into the Empire. And that's what makes it a good tragedy.
However, Anakin is indeed the villain one should avoid becoming, and why the prequels resonate with me. It's why his redemption is so important. He gets the ending he deserved.
CapnPipsqueak retweeted
I’d actually use Faramir over Aragorn to contrast the things people are saying regarding relating p Anakin.
Faramir was the second son of steward who was slowly going mad. He was overlooked, disregarded, and disrespected by his father. He grew up in a kingdom that had been in a state of unease his entire life. Once his kingdom had been great but those who came beforehand had mishandled it and let it fall into a lesser state. Aragon had a life and upbringing that wasn’t easy, but in many ways was affirming and encouraging of him and his purpose in life, but Faramir was raised in as bleak a situation as Boromir but without the same amount of love and affection and affirmation that Boromir received.
Even beyond just to his father, Faramir was in the shadow of Boromir and seen as inferior to him. It would have been easy for Faramir to despair about his lot in life. His mother had died, his father didn’t show much love for him, he lived in a crumbling kingdom without a king and their enemies were amassing power.
Then he loses his brother, which puts further strain on his relationship with his father. And in all this bleakness he is given an “answer” to his problems. A defenceless pair of hobbits carrying a great weapon. Something that would promise to turn the tide of the war, defeat his enemies, prove to his father that he wasn’t worthless… but no, Faramir used wisdom and discernment to detect the lies in the promise, to detect the evil that was seeking to manipulate his very real feelings.
Before the end of the story Faramir loses his father to despair and madness, a madness that almost took Faramir’s life, as well. He’s outlived his whole family and he’s recovering from grave injury. But even in the midst of that, he finds hope and he gives some of that hope to another, Eowyn.
Faramir has many reasons to feel bitterness and despair, to fall into temptation and find ways to try to justify doing wrong things for the sake of himself or even some greater noble goal. But he doesn’t because he learned to seek out wisdom, he humbly learned from people like Gandalf, and he had much discernment and clarity about what truly mattered.
Don’t empathize with Anakin.
Identify with Aragorn.
He’s the ultimate anti-doomer.
When all seemed lost, Aragorn still acted out of principle & not self-interest.
He didn’t change his actions based on feelings or probabilities.
He didn’t harbor vengeance.
He had a duty, and he risked life and love to fulfill it (saving both in the process).
You cannot vote your way out of a corrupt democratic system, because the incentives inherent to a democratic system is what inevitably makes it corrupt.
This is especially true if voting is universal, because it breaks the wisdom of crowds and enables parasitism.
My contribution.
The Prequels really are the perfect analogy for today. The Republic is genuinely corrupt, the Jedi have lost their way, old institutions are failing, and so a young man with tremendous potential, but who can never quite live up to it, gets frustrated by the system, thinks he deserves more, makes a deal with the devil for power and control, and ends up issuing in a far worse regime and destroying himself.
I think the rise of the Woke Right really owes a lot to the back to back brutal killing of Iryna Zarutska and Charlie Kirk. It revealed a justice system poisoned by liberal judges who care more about protecting criminals than innocent people. Kirk’s assassination showed there’s a side of the Left that just wants to kill you and will ghoulishly celebrate your death.
The solution is not going to the Dark Side. It’s voting. Elect better judges, better leaders. Clean up the toxic socialist propaganda dump that universities have become. The Dark Side is not more powerful. It’s just quicker, easier, more seductive. But it always ends in destruction.
The quote "A democracy can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote to loot the public treasury" may be apocryphal, but it is very real.
The other perverse incentive is to circumvent the voting system entirely. What good does a vote do if you're always outvoted?
CapnPipsqueak retweeted
So, I see everyone is Anakin posting now. Very cool. I’m a big fan of Anakin as a character, so seeing him pop up more has been great. However, much like the Malfoid phenomenon, this trend seems to have a lot of thoughts behind it and feels very personal. A lot of Gen Z and late millennial men are personally relating to Anakin and his story. But from what I’ve seen, it’s two very specific versions: the pre-fall Anakin (Ep. 2 into 3) and fallen to darkness (end of Ep. 3). And at the risk of sounding like a massive shitlib, I’m going to say I think that’s actually a mistake.
Meme magic is real. You know it and I know it. Malfoid has shown it by giving tens to hundreds of thousands of men (and some women to a lesser degree) a sense of yearning for love that they didn’t know they had or hadn’t felt in ages. On its current trajectory, Anakin has the potential to do something similar, but in one of the worst ways possible. Instead of creating a sense of yearning, focusing on this version of Anakin will end only in hate. And I’m not talking about the kind of “hate” that gay modern sensibility defines as not being nice or sufficiently liberal enough. I’m talking about real hate. The kind that festers in your soul and kills you from the inside.
It’s not exactly hard to come to that conclusion either. It is exactly where Anakin himself ends up. After his fall and full transformation into Vader, he is the living embodiment of hatred. Not even for others, but for himself. He is a man who let his dissatisfaction with the status quo and his fear of future events lead him down a path to his own corruption into something vile. And yes, while Vader has mad aura, he is vile. He tortures and kills with no remorse. Inflicting the pain of his own misery and self-loathing onto others.
That is not the kind of person you want to be. Trust me, I know. I lived as a person that was fueled by hatred for a long time. You’ll tell yourself that the fire of hatred inside of you is making you stronger, but it’s really just hollowing you out. Burning you away until it completely consumes you. It makes misery your default. Even if you gain power, title, and position, you’ll never enjoy it. Because nothing will ever fill the void in your soul.
And that’s why I think a different version of Anakin should be the focus: The redeemed Anakin. The man whose love for his son allowed him to overcome his hate and destroy it. That’s inspirational. It’s love conquering hate. And again, not in the gay modern way where they just use the vague concept of words. But the actual emotion of love conquering over the emotion of hate. Like a white lily blooming from salted earth that had previously surrendered to the destruction and rot.
And that’s my take on it. Am I overthinking it? Maybe. But I like talking about these things. I like talking about fiction and the real human emotion attached to it. Because while fiction is fake, it doesn’t make the emotions one can associate with it or the impact on people any less real.
The Imperium of Man is infinitely more justified in-universe than the Galactic Empire could ever be.
The Imperium, at its core, seeks to preserve humanity against the innumerable material and immaterial horrors of the galaxy.
The Empire exists to serve Lightning McWrinkles.
CapnPipsqueak retweeted
Im sorry, but this "Le Empire Good" discourse is retarded.
They never actually cleaned up the Galaxy, they just made normal people's lives more annoying while continuing to let crime syndicates operate as long as they paid the right people.
Yeah they had a powerful military, but it never adapted to guerrilla warfare. Their leaders never had a desire to improve the welfare of the galaxy, instead they fought with each other for territory, to the point of wars within the Empire.
The Republic was weak sure, but the Empire certainly wasn't as strong as you think they are. They have shiny cool equipment, but in reality were inefficient and corrupt.
CapnPipsqueak retweeted
Notice how they completely miss the fact that he had not actually lost anything that he was trying to protect in this film. Until he allowed himself to be manipulated into sacrificing everyone and everything he ever knew and loved to be become a slave to a proven liar.
The prequels, at the end of the day, are about a young man trying to claim what is rightfully his. And he’s treated with suspicion, contempt, or even outright hatred because of it.
He wants skill, power, influence, order, hierarchy etc. and isn’t afraid to tell people that. He kills the guilt that he used to feel for wanting what he should have.
It’s remarkable how relatable all of this actually is for many young men. Made to feel guilt for who or what they are. Denied what is rightfully theirs by birth. Villainized by a weak, corrupted, aging Republic that has long outlived its usefulness.
Fortunately, everyone seems to be on the same page on this. We’re going to reclaim what is ours.
