One of the dumbest concepts of the stupid culture I happen to inhabit is "cultural appropriation." Intelligent and savvy people call it "cultural transmission" and recognize it as a good thing. If there's any hope for the survival of the best my culture has produced, it lies with appreciative foreigners, whose youth haven't been brainwashed into joining a cult of myopic, androgynous totalitarians. Maybe one day they'll help us--should any of us survive--reconnect to elemental reality. Maybe they'll even remind us of what was once great within ourselves.
1000% correct about the concept of "cultural appropriation." But that's a concept that only gets applied in one direction. American black girl learns some traditional Irish dance: a cause for celebration of diversity! White girl wears braids: cultural appropriation! It's just one more bullshit ideological cudgel with which to demoralize whites and beat them into submission.
Bingo - charges of cultural appropriation are just yet another manifestation of antiwhite racism.
Just as the policies of the historical Hitler Nazis were colored but their deranged hatred for Jews; so are all the policies of our contemporary Progressive Nazis colored by their deranged hatred for both whites and Jews.
It is probably a good thing too that she is not American, or she would have had her soul sucked dry already, by the Industrial Entertainment Complex, like Staley. She must have a strong family too, to keep her away from those vultures. Strong families being another thing Western elite seem determined to destroy.
With America, if the family is involved it's usually in a negative way (leeching off of the artist and embezzling money, like Whitney Houston's dad) or in some dysfunctional, domineering way (like with the Jacksons' dad). But having a strong family will help artists stay grounded and, therefore, less vulnerable to the unscrupulous people in tbe industry.
I'll have to check that out. I love the original, especially the intro. For me, Bob Dylan songs seem to be that way. I very much prefer Jimi Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower, and even though I know Bob Dylan fans would consider this sacrilege, I also prefer Guns 'N Roses version of Knocking on Heaven's Door. Dylan was a great songwriter, but definitely not my favorite singer or musician, although I've always loved Subterranean Homesick Blues: https://youtu.be/MGxjIBEZvx0?si=vDV2P1cHXOTTdXoi
Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtowers was far and away better than Dylan's. Even Dylan acknowledged this, iirc.
Here's another cover better than the original: Imagine, as covered by A Perfect Circle. They manage to flip the song on its head completely. Most of the covers on Thirteenth Step are great, but with that one in particular I think they really added something to the original.
I see the same evils here, but for now not as bad as the Anglosphere.
Much of this article almost scream "I kinda accept the extinction of my people", which is a huge concern since no one of sane mind wants his people extinct.
Thanks, me alegra que aún sepas lo que son un hombre y una mujer en argentina. Here in America, we no longer know, apparently. I don't see my people as going extinct, but our country (the USA and it's Anglosphere satrapies) is totally detached from reality and is going to be going extinct (absent some miracles from God). However, "our people" is distinct from "our country." In fact, our country's government actually hates us and wants either us dead or so demoralized we wish we were dead. Either way, the country and the people are very distinct, and that distinction will only become more obvious over time. I am still hopeful that our country, or some version of it, will be reformed and prosper once again, but even if it does not, I believe the people will survive and will, someday, thrive again.
"Maybe after the United States of Enron collapses, we can learn to be Human again from the countries and cultures where people never lost that ability."... Now THAT is what I call "Hope springing eternal".
This is also true of the metal scene. Nearly all of the best metal nowadays is being produced in third world countries like Indonesia, Mexico, Chile, and Bosnia.
My favorite metal from the past few years has been The Hu. Mongolia is definitely not the first place you think of when you think "metal", but there it is.
As a country, we went bankrupt in every sense of the word, but especially spiritually and culturally; slowly at first, and then suddenly. Now we're in free fall, with no bottom in sight. From now through January 2025, we'll find out if we have a parachute. If we do, our psychopathic elites will do their damndest to destroy it before it can be deployed.
The most impressive twenty somethings I’ve encountered are really into nineties culture and music. It’s where today’s rebellious youth go for refuge from the stifling and insane mainstream culture we now find ourselves in.
The Seattle scene that went nationwide in the early 90s was really the last mainstream music movement that felt organic and genuinely innovative and interesting. Aside from Indie music that is commercially unsuccessful, most everything else since the mid-90s has been top-down, overproduced, over-marketed, tech and producer-driven (rather than musician or songwriter-driven), uncreative, unlistenable shite. If you're a genuine artist looking for a musical scene to get excited about, early 90s Seattle was probably the last one that really hit the big time.
I grew up in Seattle in the 80s and 90s, so the grunge scene made an indelible mark on my psyche. The combination of the music and the weather definitely took me to some dark places. The music directed our attention towards the darkness within, an inward hero's journey into an abyss (down in a hole) from which some -- most notably the kings of grunge themselves -- never return. I still often sit with my guitar in the dark by myself and belt out Alice in Chains, Nirvana, etc. It's a sort of spiritual practice.
By contrast, today's mainstream music is completely vacuous, embodied by the likes of Taylor Swift. The attention of the Swifties is never directed to the darkness within. It's a combination of rainbows, unicorns, and evil men. There is no journey. There is no struggle. Rather than exploring the darkness within, the Swifties project everything outwards, onto Trump and his supporters, the patriarchy, Russia, anti-vaxxers, Milei, or whatever the Establishment's villain of the day happens to be. The current zeitgeist, which the music shapes and is shaped by, has created an army of soulless NPCs, poised to support whatever evil machinations the Establishment has in store. Maybe some sort of grunge revival or something like it is needed.
There was nothing fake and ghey about it, unlike Taylor Swift, about whom everything is fake and ghey. What you said about Swift was spot on and could also be said of any number of the mass-produced, indistinguishable and utterly unremarkable music acts around today.
Swift is literally manufactured by the industry, yeah. From the ground up. A completely artificial persona. A point upon which I won't elaborate because it would potentially give away too much information about me, so take it or leave it. I think it's less obvious in her case because she didn't follow the typical child star -> teen sex symbol -> cringe whore cycle.
It died shortly after and settled out into alt-rock. Which hey, I don't dislike. But I don't think anything survives commercialization. Too many conflicting incentives between "make something authentic and meaningful to me" vs. "sell a million albums."
Hello Daniel, thanks for Restacking my thoughts on your article.
As a native Filipino growing up in the Philippines, I genuinely wanted to live in the US and live there because I genuinely wanted a better standard of life but COVID was a both a big redpill moment and a blessing in disguise in that I am better in my place in the long run.
Aside from the woke infestation as being a reason not to move to the West, here in the Philippines and in most developing countries, the state is very inefficient and feeble minded in imposing their tyranny. Corruption in the US not only is bad of course in a general sense, it is also malevolent due to how much power it yields from the Federal Reserve to Wall Street backers and the FBI and CIA treating normal Americans like terrorists. Here in the Philippines while of course the corruption here is rampant, it is not malevolent to the extent as in the US. We mostly just have shitty politicians that want to accumulate wealth with no other further motive just one-dimensional pretty much and not to mention how low-tech we are that a globohomo technocracy is difficult to initiate here haha
However it does not mean they are attempting to build a globohomo technocracy here as the oligarchs and our politicians here or aka Our own Deep State are trying to(i.e. COVID obviously RFID, Central Bank promoting Digital Money, Climate Scam which I do articles and reports in my Substack) plus CIA glowing activities here to destabilize the country such as The National Endowment of Democracy (NED) as we basically are a bitch to the American Deep State.
But regardless, at least the progress of globohomo is not strong and slow enough to prepare for what will come as opposed to most Western developed countries.
This is my long take on these things and I hope to make a Philippine Deep State series in my Substack soon as we do not have enough people looking deep in the corruption here which people especially Filipinos need to know. Sorry again if my post is long as I have plenty of thoughts on this topic haha.
Thanks for commenting on this post. It seems that less sophisticated technology and less efficient systems are your friend when you have a malevolent ruling class trying to create a dystopian mashup of Brave New World and 1984 for all the regular people. In the USA, it will be the "backwards" regions like Appalachia, southern swamplands, western deserts, the Rocky Mountain West, etc., that will give the regime the most trouble as it attempts to tighten the screws on its control system. Increasingly, the dividing line of Humanity will be those who want to be Human vs those who want to be domesticated pets and livestock for the ruling elite. Anyway, thanks again for the comment, and Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you as well!
If it wasn't for medical stuff chaining me here, I'd long since have accepted the invitation of a Colombian friend I met in Buenos Aires in around 2009, and be the fuck out of here.
My knowledge is a little out of date, but if you want to give South America a try, I traveled extensively from Southern Brazil and Bolivia down into Patagonia. You seem like good people, I'll tell you where to go. A whole big world of choices. Learn some Spanish, enough to survive, then immerse, and learn it for real.
I've been trying to learn Spanish off and on for years but have never been able to get really proficient. I think I'm going to start prioritizing it for real, though. I have school-age children, so we're here for the long haul, but . . . things are so unpredictable these days, we may reach a point where the migration starts flowing south from the USA.
But yeah, things don't look good for the poor ol' US of A. I'll die for sure when the SH the F, but I'm old and used up so I don't care. If I had dependents, I'd be working hard on getting out. In the meantime, trying to get close to Latino culture here. Maybe just find a Mexican bar/restuarant and someone who will chat with you if you buy them drinks/dinner, mostly in Spanish.
You can't get proficient without immersion: being someone where everyone speaks it, where the background conversations you hear are in the language, where people you want to talk to don't speak English. I did an experiment in passive language acquisition after age 40 in Buenos Aires, became fluent in a few months without study or anything but natural effort. We are born with passive language-acquisition hardware, and it apparently doesn't completely go away with age.
Drinking helps a lot: if you can find a place where hispanoparlantes drink and talk, and if they will grant you observer status, that'll be better than any class you can find.
Much of what is wholesome in American tradition will be preserved abroad. In Thailand, where I live, I’ve been touched to find people who love old-time American songs like “Oh, Susanna” and “Yankee Doodle”.
She nailed the guitar in Down in a Hole, but I don't think her vocals really captured the original's angst. It's got a bit of that "zoomer xanax cover" thing going on which I'm not a fan of. Still, she's got some talent. Hope she takes it beyond doing covers.
Brazil continues to enjoy the civilizing effects of religion America did in the '60s throught the early '00s. But the same forces are at play there as wrecked our culture here. Religion is being debunked and the rot is at the door. Is there some force at work there which failed to stem the tide here? Entropy is not just a law in physics.
I suspect that in the 21st century the economic and cultural rolls of North and South America may well reverse. The trend line in El Norte is firmly down; in Latinoamerica, things are pointing in the other direction.
At least things are trending upwards somewhere! If the regime gets everything it wants here, America will get a closed border -- closed to keep Americans from escaping. We'll get a border wall like the East Germans used to have in Berlin.
Widar's cover is preferable--to me at least--because of the haunting audio quality. It really highlights the lyrics, creating a lonely yet soothing atmosphere. It's almost saying, "Hey, I'm down in a hole, but at least it's comfy down here."
The Alice in Chains version is "I'm down in a hole, but at least I look cool while doing it."
Interesting, what you picked up on with the mood of each version. Also, I used to think Layne Staley *was* cool -- I mean, he really channeled the raw energy of these moods we've all felt at some point in our lives, and he did so in a manner and context that lots of people my age (back then) looked up to, so when I was a teenager he really did seem cool to me -- which is probably why his end-state and death were especially unsettling to learn about. His biography almost has a mythical quality to it, like Narcissus looking at his reflection, Staley stared into the darkest depths of his soul and sang about it -- until he eventually fell in and drowned.
One of the dumbest concepts of the stupid culture I happen to inhabit is "cultural appropriation." Intelligent and savvy people call it "cultural transmission" and recognize it as a good thing. If there's any hope for the survival of the best my culture has produced, it lies with appreciative foreigners, whose youth haven't been brainwashed into joining a cult of myopic, androgynous totalitarians. Maybe one day they'll help us--should any of us survive--reconnect to elemental reality. Maybe they'll even remind us of what was once great within ourselves.
1000% correct about the concept of "cultural appropriation." But that's a concept that only gets applied in one direction. American black girl learns some traditional Irish dance: a cause for celebration of diversity! White girl wears braids: cultural appropriation! It's just one more bullshit ideological cudgel with which to demoralize whites and beat them into submission.
Bingo - charges of cultural appropriation are just yet another manifestation of antiwhite racism.
Just as the policies of the historical Hitler Nazis were colored but their deranged hatred for Jews; so are all the policies of our contemporary Progressive Nazis colored by their deranged hatred for both whites and Jews.
It is probably a good thing too that she is not American, or she would have had her soul sucked dry already, by the Industrial Entertainment Complex, like Staley. She must have a strong family too, to keep her away from those vultures. Strong families being another thing Western elite seem determined to destroy.
With America, if the family is involved it's usually in a negative way (leeching off of the artist and embezzling money, like Whitney Houston's dad) or in some dysfunctional, domineering way (like with the Jacksons' dad). But having a strong family will help artists stay grounded and, therefore, less vulnerable to the unscrupulous people in tbe industry.
My personal “like the cover better despite knowing the original” is the cover of Bad Company by Five Finger Death Punch.
Otherwise, yeah, generally whichever I heard first, sometimes I heard the cover first and discover the original.
I'll have to check that out. I love the original, especially the intro. For me, Bob Dylan songs seem to be that way. I very much prefer Jimi Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower, and even though I know Bob Dylan fans would consider this sacrilege, I also prefer Guns 'N Roses version of Knocking on Heaven's Door. Dylan was a great songwriter, but definitely not my favorite singer or musician, although I've always loved Subterranean Homesick Blues: https://youtu.be/MGxjIBEZvx0?si=vDV2P1cHXOTTdXoi
Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtowers was far and away better than Dylan's. Even Dylan acknowledged this, iirc.
Here's another cover better than the original: Imagine, as covered by A Perfect Circle. They manage to flip the song on its head completely. Most of the covers on Thirteenth Step are great, but with that one in particular I think they really added something to the original.
For me that's Death's cover of "Painkiller".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JArjr-IxzlI
I am not American, I am an Argentine.
I see the same evils here, but for now not as bad as the Anglosphere.
Much of this article almost scream "I kinda accept the extinction of my people", which is a huge concern since no one of sane mind wants his people extinct.
Just saying
Thanks, me alegra que aún sepas lo que son un hombre y una mujer en argentina. Here in America, we no longer know, apparently. I don't see my people as going extinct, but our country (the USA and it's Anglosphere satrapies) is totally detached from reality and is going to be going extinct (absent some miracles from God). However, "our people" is distinct from "our country." In fact, our country's government actually hates us and wants either us dead or so demoralized we wish we were dead. Either way, the country and the people are very distinct, and that distinction will only become more obvious over time. I am still hopeful that our country, or some version of it, will be reformed and prosper once again, but even if it does not, I believe the people will survive and will, someday, thrive again.
"Maybe after the United States of Enron collapses, we can learn to be Human again from the countries and cultures where people never lost that ability."... Now THAT is what I call "Hope springing eternal".
This is also true of the metal scene. Nearly all of the best metal nowadays is being produced in third world countries like Indonesia, Mexico, Chile, and Bosnia.
My favorite metal from the past few years has been The Hu. Mongolia is definitely not the first place you think of when you think "metal", but there it is.
When I heard about the issues with the US election in 2020 (the Biden v. Trump one), and all the bullshit coming after, my first reaction was:
"Welcome back to the Third World! America is now a banana republic!"
Edit: I live in the Third World (Philippines) where we have a saying - "Nobody loses elections, the other guy always cheats!"
As a country, we went bankrupt in every sense of the word, but especially spiritually and culturally; slowly at first, and then suddenly. Now we're in free fall, with no bottom in sight. From now through January 2025, we'll find out if we have a parachute. If we do, our psychopathic elites will do their damndest to destroy it before it can be deployed.
Americans have plenty of "money" (debt). Just not a lot of value (spiritual or otherwise).
Very well said!
Good point, money is not wealth.
Yeah, if I had to describe wealth, I'd probably call it "the state of having more money than you need".
That only works if the money is not paper controlled by government. But I was using wealth to mean things of intrinsic value.
The most impressive twenty somethings I’ve encountered are really into nineties culture and music. It’s where today’s rebellious youth go for refuge from the stifling and insane mainstream culture we now find ourselves in.
The Seattle scene that went nationwide in the early 90s was really the last mainstream music movement that felt organic and genuinely innovative and interesting. Aside from Indie music that is commercially unsuccessful, most everything else since the mid-90s has been top-down, overproduced, over-marketed, tech and producer-driven (rather than musician or songwriter-driven), uncreative, unlistenable shite. If you're a genuine artist looking for a musical scene to get excited about, early 90s Seattle was probably the last one that really hit the big time.
I grew up in Seattle in the 80s and 90s, so the grunge scene made an indelible mark on my psyche. The combination of the music and the weather definitely took me to some dark places. The music directed our attention towards the darkness within, an inward hero's journey into an abyss (down in a hole) from which some -- most notably the kings of grunge themselves -- never return. I still often sit with my guitar in the dark by myself and belt out Alice in Chains, Nirvana, etc. It's a sort of spiritual practice.
By contrast, today's mainstream music is completely vacuous, embodied by the likes of Taylor Swift. The attention of the Swifties is never directed to the darkness within. It's a combination of rainbows, unicorns, and evil men. There is no journey. There is no struggle. Rather than exploring the darkness within, the Swifties project everything outwards, onto Trump and his supporters, the patriarchy, Russia, anti-vaxxers, Milei, or whatever the Establishment's villain of the day happens to be. The current zeitgeist, which the music shapes and is shaped by, has created an army of soulless NPCs, poised to support whatever evil machinations the Establishment has in store. Maybe some sort of grunge revival or something like it is needed.
There was nothing fake and ghey about it, unlike Taylor Swift, about whom everything is fake and ghey. What you said about Swift was spot on and could also be said of any number of the mass-produced, indistinguishable and utterly unremarkable music acts around today.
Swift is literally manufactured by the industry, yeah. From the ground up. A completely artificial persona. A point upon which I won't elaborate because it would potentially give away too much information about me, so take it or leave it. I think it's less obvious in her case because she didn't follow the typical child star -> teen sex symbol -> cringe whore cycle.
It died shortly after and settled out into alt-rock. Which hey, I don't dislike. But I don't think anything survives commercialization. Too many conflicting incentives between "make something authentic and meaningful to me" vs. "sell a million albums."
Hello Daniel, thanks for Restacking my thoughts on your article.
As a native Filipino growing up in the Philippines, I genuinely wanted to live in the US and live there because I genuinely wanted a better standard of life but COVID was a both a big redpill moment and a blessing in disguise in that I am better in my place in the long run.
Aside from the woke infestation as being a reason not to move to the West, here in the Philippines and in most developing countries, the state is very inefficient and feeble minded in imposing their tyranny. Corruption in the US not only is bad of course in a general sense, it is also malevolent due to how much power it yields from the Federal Reserve to Wall Street backers and the FBI and CIA treating normal Americans like terrorists. Here in the Philippines while of course the corruption here is rampant, it is not malevolent to the extent as in the US. We mostly just have shitty politicians that want to accumulate wealth with no other further motive just one-dimensional pretty much and not to mention how low-tech we are that a globohomo technocracy is difficult to initiate here haha
However it does not mean they are attempting to build a globohomo technocracy here as the oligarchs and our politicians here or aka Our own Deep State are trying to(i.e. COVID obviously RFID, Central Bank promoting Digital Money, Climate Scam which I do articles and reports in my Substack) plus CIA glowing activities here to destabilize the country such as The National Endowment of Democracy (NED) as we basically are a bitch to the American Deep State.
But regardless, at least the progress of globohomo is not strong and slow enough to prepare for what will come as opposed to most Western developed countries.
This is my long take on these things and I hope to make a Philippine Deep State series in my Substack soon as we do not have enough people looking deep in the corruption here which people especially Filipinos need to know. Sorry again if my post is long as I have plenty of thoughts on this topic haha.
Thanks Daniel and Merry Xmas and Holidays! ;)
Thanks for commenting on this post. It seems that less sophisticated technology and less efficient systems are your friend when you have a malevolent ruling class trying to create a dystopian mashup of Brave New World and 1984 for all the regular people. In the USA, it will be the "backwards" regions like Appalachia, southern swamplands, western deserts, the Rocky Mountain West, etc., that will give the regime the most trouble as it attempts to tighten the screws on its control system. Increasingly, the dividing line of Humanity will be those who want to be Human vs those who want to be domesticated pets and livestock for the ruling elite. Anyway, thanks again for the comment, and Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you as well!
If it wasn't for medical stuff chaining me here, I'd long since have accepted the invitation of a Colombian friend I met in Buenos Aires in around 2009, and be the fuck out of here.
My knowledge is a little out of date, but if you want to give South America a try, I traveled extensively from Southern Brazil and Bolivia down into Patagonia. You seem like good people, I'll tell you where to go. A whole big world of choices. Learn some Spanish, enough to survive, then immerse, and learn it for real.
I've been trying to learn Spanish off and on for years but have never been able to get really proficient. I think I'm going to start prioritizing it for real, though. I have school-age children, so we're here for the long haul, but . . . things are so unpredictable these days, we may reach a point where the migration starts flowing south from the USA.
But yeah, things don't look good for the poor ol' US of A. I'll die for sure when the SH the F, but I'm old and used up so I don't care. If I had dependents, I'd be working hard on getting out. In the meantime, trying to get close to Latino culture here. Maybe just find a Mexican bar/restuarant and someone who will chat with you if you buy them drinks/dinner, mostly in Spanish.
That's getting easier to do where I live, so I will make the most of the opportunities.
You can't get proficient without immersion: being someone where everyone speaks it, where the background conversations you hear are in the language, where people you want to talk to don't speak English. I did an experiment in passive language acquisition after age 40 in Buenos Aires, became fluent in a few months without study or anything but natural effort. We are born with passive language-acquisition hardware, and it apparently doesn't completely go away with age.
Drinking helps a lot: if you can find a place where hispanoparlantes drink and talk, and if they will grant you observer status, that'll be better than any class you can find.
Much of what is wholesome in American tradition will be preserved abroad. In Thailand, where I live, I’ve been touched to find people who love old-time American songs like “Oh, Susanna” and “Yankee Doodle”.
She nailed the guitar in Down in a Hole, but I don't think her vocals really captured the original's angst. It's got a bit of that "zoomer xanax cover" thing going on which I'm not a fan of. Still, she's got some talent. Hope she takes it beyond doing covers.
Brazil continues to enjoy the civilizing effects of religion America did in the '60s throught the early '00s. But the same forces are at play there as wrecked our culture here. Religion is being debunked and the rot is at the door. Is there some force at work there which failed to stem the tide here? Entropy is not just a law in physics.
The satanic bankster cartel is coming for us all promoting and funding cultural revolutions across the globe.
Indeed a beautiful cover.
I suspect that in the 21st century the economic and cultural rolls of North and South America may well reverse. The trend line in El Norte is firmly down; in Latinoamerica, things are pointing in the other direction.
At least things are trending upwards somewhere! If the regime gets everything it wants here, America will get a closed border -- closed to keep Americans from escaping. We'll get a border wall like the East Germans used to have in Berlin.
I've often thought that there won't be a border wall until they want to keep Americans from getting out.
Widar's cover is preferable--to me at least--because of the haunting audio quality. It really highlights the lyrics, creating a lonely yet soothing atmosphere. It's almost saying, "Hey, I'm down in a hole, but at least it's comfy down here."
The Alice in Chains version is "I'm down in a hole, but at least I look cool while doing it."
Both great, two different vibes.
Interesting, what you picked up on with the mood of each version. Also, I used to think Layne Staley *was* cool -- I mean, he really channeled the raw energy of these moods we've all felt at some point in our lives, and he did so in a manner and context that lots of people my age (back then) looked up to, so when I was a teenager he really did seem cool to me -- which is probably why his end-state and death were especially unsettling to learn about. His biography almost has a mythical quality to it, like Narcissus looking at his reflection, Staley stared into the darkest depths of his soul and sang about it -- until he eventually fell in and drowned.
Nietzsche and the ancients always warned us about this. One can only imagine how terrifying it is to peer into an abyss so black, for so long.
White male of the right wing sexual predators are amongst your subscribers. Are you also one?