The art of the argument, always and forever.
This is one of those where I have to start out with definitions. We’ll go with the most commonly accepted definitions and then I will refine.
- Opinion – a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
- Argument – a reason or set of reasons given in support of an idea, action or theory.
There’s the old English idiom on opinions, “Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.”
Opinions can be viewed as the garbage that NPC’s spit out. They’re reactions based on one’s personal programming. The more a person is programmed, ergo the less self-knowledge they have, the more they tend to spew out opinions.
It could accurately be said that White liberal women are a collection of opinions based on State and corporate programming. There is a full scale blitz on White women, through the State and Facebook/Instagram, to refashion their programming so that they will open doors to invaders and ultimately wreck their own tribe so that they no longer pose a threat to a certain outgroup. We must all live as a rabble with White men torn asunder.
Opinions are generally effortless to elicit from NPC’s. Most people have never been validated by their parents, that is to say, had their opinion-forming process checked over for integrity and soundness. Most people are hard-up to get some kind of validation from someone with more status than them. This goes deep into childhood and remains the case for most people as they age, only they care less and less about anything because they burn out from private hedonism and turn into nihilists.
When you encounter someone that has been “elevated” by someone much higher in status than them, you know they are an initiate in the cruelty of the elite. Opinion-forming is the work of the elite.
You can’t get arguments out of people because most people have never been trained in logic, rhetoric, argumentation, etc.
If a person hasn’t been trained in these things, there’s an exceedingly high chance they will not be able to display the skill set. The only people who pick up The Argument through their form of employment are entrepreneurs, people in non-employee roles. This is because entrepreneurs live or die by their wits. They have little to no institutional support to lean back on. Some people who are intelligent employees will ape entrepreneurs but are ultimately not invested in their own arguments and tend to defer to entrepreneurs when the going gets rough.
Opinions (“this is bad” or “this is good”) are difficult to elicit from people with self-knowledge. This is for a number of reasons. One that springs to mind is that mobs tend to form around opinions. Pitchforks, torches, and all that. Mobs will attack or disregard based on a person’s opinions, which can even default to whether a random on the street is conservative-presenting or not.
Another reason people with self-knowledge tend not to give opinions readily is because it prioritizes opinions, which can change with new evidence, and it deprioritizes The Argument. Making an argument is a complex art and if you can do it well, you appreciate just how much deferral of opinion went into the building of the methodology for you.
Another thing with opinions is that if you’re “highly opinionated”, you tend to incept yourself further and further into an existence that is dependent upon your ability to read the tea leaves and surf power dynamics. This is why businessmen flock to major cities. This is why businessmen turn to politics when they can no longer tolerate making value appeals. They turn to securing loot for a constituency while hiding CIA/Moss*d assassination threats from that constituency.
Opinions are highly dependent on the experience of people receiving them. This is because opinions aren’t reasoned to. They are a form of manipulation borne from programming. This is why it is supremely easy to corrupt politicians and non-productive enterprise businessmen – i.e. businessmen that aren’t involved in anything that is actually made. They didn’t have integrity to begin with, just the “profit motive” that the Communists are kind of in the ballpark mildly correct about (even though they’re much bigger pieces of shit than a somewhat spineless White dude businessman could ever be).
Now and then you will encounter a businessman who thinks he’s a big swinging dick with philosophy but if you scratch the surface, you’ll find he’s like a poopy baby who will knife you if you reveal his poopiness to anyone. It’s kind of a trip but these guys flash money around and hey, a nucka gotta eat. And remember, dyed-in-the-wool Commies are like a thousand times worse. And they’re massing, waiting for a Democrat POTUS to give them carte blanche. And Newsom would.
I mention businessmen with bad consciences actually because I think my material can be of use to them. I make no overtures to liberals but am always pleasantly surprised when one finds my material and can reform to some extent.
He read Marcus Aurelius in college and Nietzsche through the Internet.
I try to not offer opinions. I do some on X and that’s probably not a good thing, in the long run. The things I say that do well tend to blend some with the programming that Elon Musk’s handlers have decided X will put into the average American’s head. Always to get inflamed and indignant, never to organize, always to rely on the government to do something about something. No sheriffs allowed.
I also will post links to songs that I like over on my public chat group on Telegram. I view this as Opinion Lite.
The Argument means that you are displaying models for reasoning as opposed to neat end products for mass consumption. All of my favorite artists (Bach, Van Morrison, Queen, Sting, a few others) are adherents to methodologies. They are not going for “hits”. Hits get people high. But bread and butter is in songwriting. It is a love of the craft, of something well done to internal standards of excellence. This is why I don’t like noodlers on the guitar. Sure, it’s a show of virtuosity and that’s nice in brief bits, but ultimately, nothing existential is being conveyed to the listener. Existential exposition interfaces with philosophy because the strength of the story in a song lives or dies by the internal consistency of the songwriter. Musical noodlers usually don’t have consistency because of their obsession with practicing the instrument. They tend to get obsessed with substances because of their addictive nature that drove them to virtuosity. People like this are better contained in an ensemble, even as the lead man, where they learn to be reliable for others. You can hear their voices “even out” and “broaden” as they get older.
This is why I do not put stock in youthful “flash in the pan” energy. I put stock in consistency of production and integrity of internal standards – which of course is only a proxy for the kind of discipline it takes to form an actual argument. Ultimately, I want philosophy over anything else. But I understand not everyone actually gets there – yet they still have wonderful things to offer the world.
That was a nice jaunt, eh? If you liked it, be sure to DONATE.
I know this Trump/Epstein/Lutnick economy is complete trash and it’s brutal for people out there, so if you don’t donate, it is what it is. I would ask that you share instead and leave a ‘like’ to boost engagement. Some fiat is better but it’s tough out there.
This might be my last article for a week or so. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll squeeze another one in here soon. I’m going to take some personal time off, just waiting on the thing, wink wink.