Social Incentives and White Trash

The Game and The Thread

Hello everyone, it feels good to be back at my desk writing and feeling reinvigorated after spending the last weekend away outside of Nashville at this year’s Scyldings Conference. Having the pleasure to speak at the event and meet so many like minded individuals was an absolute pleasure, and being away from my phone and the perpetual hot take machine was certainly a fringe benefit. Yet the conversations amongst the political personalities, attendees, and organizers was the discourse from the perpetual hot take machine that we access almost daily on Twitter Dot Com.

Considering how quickly the “discourse” moves in this day and age I wanted to address something that only took place last week which already makes it aged, but had gotten the eyes and ears of nearly a million people. Quite an impressive feat for a sub 5k follower account to get that kind of attention. My friend

Kruptos

had become what you might call “the main character” for the day of June 20th, 2023 and it went just as well as you expected for a guy whose thread launched a million tweets.

You thought you were escaping this discourse weren’t you?

Before I go too in to it I feel the need to get the obvious out of the and put in some key facts. For starters, Kruptos is not a communist, Marxist, or any kind of social progressive. He is of the Reformed in the neo-Calvinist tradition and a pastor, whom I’ve spoken to him at length both on my YouTube Channel, and the group chat that he and I are both in containing just about every type of Christian under the sun. I know that Christianity and The “Dissident Right” don’t get along on most things, in part for the most obvious reason; we are called to pick up our Cross and try and to follow Christ through the narrow gate, to be with him in heaven, as he is with us until even the end of the age. It puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to the temporal nature of politics, as this is only a short earthly sojourn (my life) before something much more eternal for a Kingdom that is “Not of this Earth.”

Nevertheless, you have every denomination with its own political theology. Symphonia, Integralism, Distributism, Two Kingdoms Theology, Christian Nationalism, Monarchism, the Constantinian State, and so on. More on this later, but I wanted to get to the thread itself, and some of its reactions in order to address what I think the principle elephant in the room is.

Kruptos takes on the Id of the DR and online right in general sort of head on.

These are your people. Just in the same way that a Lord’s people would have constituted a heavy number of peasantry, these are yours. While many were insinuating the idea that this thread was “Marxist” or “Working Class MAGA Communism” for their respective counter-signaling polemics, it raises the simple fact that your baseline lower/lower-middle class is in dire straights. (We’ll get to the Only Fans thing shortly.) I had seen for years now so many hoity-toity liberal pundits throw accusations of hypocrisy at White Evangelicals for voting for Trump. In a better world, Trump would be lambasted in a St. Ambrose of Milan fashion for not being faithful and denied communion but Donald Trump isn’t a Christian in any real sense other than an acknowledgement of some higher power in the nominally American Christian sense. What he does do, is speak to the issues of his voters. A speaking style meant to reach the lowest common denominator (I recall The Economist Magazine saying he speaks at 5th or 4th grade reading level) while also addressing everything from the vast de-industrialization of America and the Opioid Crisis- which happens to affect White people more than it does any other demographic in this country.

We live in a world where the destruction of the Black Middle and Upper Classes in the wake of the newly pushed “Great Society” in the 1960s and ‘70s has found its new target in a pursuit of egalitarian homogenization and that is the core demographic of the United States, White People. Marriages are falling apart or are less common, the social and financial incentives encourage people to focus on the tiniest sliver of a minority or “oppressed” identity to play the affirmative action game, and ESG/DEI initiatives tell them that there really isn’t any social mobility for you anymore. Just as ushering in “equality and fairness” before the law in the 1960s led to the objective destruction of Black Communities in America, who were more religious, married, and middle class back then they are now, the same has come under the banner of “anti-racism and equity” for the White Communities of America today.

Social Incentives

As the thread took off, what immediately came next were responses as it came out that the woman in the video had an Only Fans page, and had an abortion that would have been child number five out of the four she was taking care of. For most “trads” out there, the idea of a woman having that many children (under the strict confines of marriage) by 22 would be a dream for some, but today we see that only as a symptom of fooling around, teenage pregnancy, and promiscuity. Kruptos nor myself until the thread had taken off found out about her OnlyFans page.

But why does she have one? Why does anyone have find themselves addicts or pimped out, digitally trafficked “stars” for such a site or others like ManyVids or Clips4Sale? Why is she advocating for the murder of the unborn?

Social Incentives and a Fallen Mind.

Modern Man and Modern Woman are in a spiritual, economic, and physical abyss. More people are overmedicated, obese, sexless, angry, polarized, and distrusting. The world has become increasingly fragmented despite promises of a global digital village of learning and optimism. We find ourselves, even the most religious and faithful among us caught in this great fragmentation, living in the digital discarnate despite following in the teachings of the Incarnate Word of God. Promotion of the self through niche fantasies and desires to be “unique” only leads to individuals reducing themselves to holes, paypiggies, and insular introverts who live wholly separate lives online. I do this too, my parish friends don’t know about “The Prudentialist” (my priest does) in part because I don’t wish to bring any possible attack against my person back to the one thing that keeps me sane, The Church.

For many however, this isn’t the case. We live in the ashes, not the ashes of a nuclear fallout, but the fallout of the Pill, The Revolutions that came in the Nights of The Depression or Race Riots. Weaponizing the liberal instincts of a population to nuke its own immune system into general civilizational dysfunction.

This account (who kind of reminds me of Hakan) put it best.

Now you might be thinking, the woman in Kruptos’ thread had children, but she was surely supportive of pimping herself out and promoting abortion! Thank you strawman sentence man, we’ll be getting to the point that the other social incentives such as sleeping around, not getting married, and not having anything means that we’ve reached one of the important stress points of our modern “culture”.

One can only be “seen” in an oversocalized world by conforming, and to make the most in the hope to have some kind of big break that enables them to break up the monotony of their own world. There is a digital global village, homogenizing, its language now almost a universal lingua franca. As I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, I live in a place where kids ride their horses to the park, to the school, and to just go riding, but still speak about Jerma, Tik Tok stars, and Fishtank. The rural Texan accent fades away for the more animated, wide eyed and hyperbolic gesticulations that is their socialization for how the world actually works. The girl next door fantasy is still accessible, but rather a romance it is now transaction, and you can have the girl next door for just eight bucks a month on OnlyFans.

For those who are “red pilled” “trad” “Christ Pilled” “Pagan Gang” - if you are sincere in your beliefs and are riding that tiger, revolting against the modern world for the Kingdom of Heaven you are very much in the minority. In a secular society, whose political theology has given way to a homogenizing managerialism that encourages deterritorialization from any roots at all, while longing to belong in the digital in the hopes of becoming an electronic deity for the digital masses to worship and adore, even if the moment is only fleeting (as all escapes from the real are.)

White Trash

More books have been written on this subject longer than the number of months I’ve been alive on this earth, and if the reactions to Kruptos’ obvious point was any indication it was that no one wants to identify with, or be associated with that crowd. “Trump supporters are White Trash Hicks who are doomed to die” says the Newsom 24 Fan. Time and time again the subject what rural Appalachia, Midwest and North Texas live and experience is either turned into misery porn like that of the Netflix adaptation of “Devil All the Time” or something more honest and analytical like Hillbilly Elegy.

Even now as Mr. Fink of Blackrock weasels his way out of using “weaponized words” like ESG, the impact of its tyrannical kleptocracy can be seen just by driving to the the poor part of town or your local seller of mobile homes or RV parks.

To be clear I really like Patrick, but I have a slight nitpick here.

Outside of the “MAGA Communism” crowd or those who pay lip service to the trailer park communities of the world there is no one on these people’s sides. Her being on OnlyFans (like so many others) has her as a product of the decay in our world. I don’t idolize her, neither does Kruptos, but it illustrates a very clear point, our commentariat class, myself included cannot relate to these people in any way. We speak of the issues that affect them, but we cannot relate to them. We don’t want to be them, heck I don’t think even those in the double wides or mobile homes want to be in that situation either lest they’ve risen from objective poverty or homelessness. Even my family members in them cut from a much different cloth, had made decisions that got them there and others who are making the most of the situation before them - working a ton of jobs, trying to get some community college or certification, and hoping somehow they’ll have enough for a wife to come their way or a kid.

No one cares for the White Trash, the White Working Class, etc., but for those in a higher strata or are doing well for themselves they are either very much in the periphery or are something of a complete alien akin to another race of people. It’s been this way as long as I’ve been alive, and most assuredly longer than that, but the long trend of mass immigration and offshoring has only made it easier to make fun of the poor and the regional groups of people that we only speak about as victims when railing against The Sacklers of world.

Clear Divides

As I said earlier, true believers of the Christian Faith on The Dissident Right (a term I loathe to use) are rare. In part because in a lot of ways they are odd bedfellows for a group that was primarily atheistic, or focused on non-Christian ideals found in the classics, epic poems, the East, or Pre-Christian mythologies. There is an anti-universalist framework, an acknowledgement of basic human biodiversity, and anti-liberal attitudes that shirk from the post-enlightenment Christianity of the West.

There are pagans, anti-Christians, atheists, rationalists, all sorts of “ists” that you could find here. I’m friendly with most, although I’m sure among my travels there are several that wish to have me abandon my God or try and get me in the usual polemical “gotchas” that echo back to the New Atheism days. You won’t see me admonish my ancestors, for that is an insult to their heritage and the work that they’ve done for me, and I will not abandon the Christ, the God of my Fathers. There are areas of course we can work on when it comes to the temporal earthly issues (my entire conference talk was on this very subject) but of course when it comes to first seeking the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33) we will have differing views on how to treat one another.

We get it.

Nevertheless wanting to improve my fellow man’s station in life, and to lift them up from the social incentives that lead to civilizational decline. While there is so much discussion about “Christian Nationalism” or the worst kind of person, the National Review “Against Vitalism” - the vitalists have one thing that is absolutely correct:

This system cannot survive the way that it is, and needs a massive reorganization of society back towards the good, the orderly, and hierarchy. Space is conquered, we cannot be going to wine bar with gf for tasteful gay banter, but rather understand that work must be done so that our progeny aren’t being transitioned behind our backs or that the hordes of the decivilized and dehumanized don’t beat us on public transportation.

I would suggest to my Christian friends the words New-Martyr (although not canonized as a Saint for political reasons I’m sure) Valeriu Gafencu, whose words were recorded in the book The Saint of the Prisons. Escaping this crisis will not be easy, but he writes:

A Christian Elite is necessary, one that will not abandon the people but will struggle boldly against all forms of oppression and slavery. The people cannot be defended only through prayers and almsgiving, through dry formalism, but through struggle, boldness, and power. The world is under the dominion of Christ and Christians do not have to abandon it.

(Emphasis mine.)

Vitalists, Neo-Pagans, Rationalists, Formalists, all have their answers as well, and I certainly think we can learn from each other. Yet on the issue of the “White Trash” or “Not having another Waffle House Wendy” no one is extolling the virtue of an OF girl with four kids and no husband in the picture, but rather identifying that this a class of people many leave behind, and we must find a way to ensure that they aren’t left to be wantonly killed off by the regime, and to bring them back to the fullness of what this world and the Lord has to offer them.

Closing Thoughts

Kruptos’ thread launched a million tweets, and I think he got to the core crux of the issue. Do you care about the trailer park fellas or not? If one is inclined to care for their own kin, race, or whatever you use to identify with, did you view the video and thread with despair knowing this is the case for so many especially the lower classes? I understand that the attitude of “Screw You, I got Mine” is powerful, but even the atheist feels a pang for those screwed by the system.

No one wants to admit that they’ve got the poor or the trashy in their family, or the cousin or uncles from a part of the country you don’t like but you don’t get to choose who your family is. I won’t let Dark Elves or the Praxis types tell me to leave them behind. I am not going anywhere, I certainly wish to see my family and others like it rise to a better station, one of which an elite of our own can institute a political formula that is far more civilizing and effective in building a polity that doesn’t bury the problem through immigration, pharmaceuticals and dollar generals.

I know I’ve spent some time commentating on something that was a flash in the pan, but it matters. Guys that come from homes like the one in the video probably were there at January 6th, 2021, are desperately trying to work another job to afford insulin for their mother, or want to make their community a better place. It doesn’t take a Marxist, a liberation theologist, or a tankie to realize that things could be better for them, because the same social and policy factors that screwed them over are coming for you too.