 Years ago I went to the Co-op in Cottage Grove, Tennessee, to fill up. A grain truck was already at the pump so I pulled up behind it and waited. The driver was sitting in the cab. I kept waiting. He kept sitting. I was getting aggravated. What I did not do was honk, or gesticulate my displeasure, or give him the finger from my open window. Such rudeness would have been vastly worse than his rudeness, so I did what I believe the vast majority of Southerners would have done. Nothing. I was not in a rage, rather just put out at this rude man before me who just sat there rather than either filling up his tank or pulling ahead so I could fill mine. Eventually, he finally pulled forward. I did the same and stood by my truck while it filled. I then noticed that the man had parked his rig and was walking across the yard straight at me. When he arrived he apologised for making me wait. His truck wouldn’t start. He did so because he, as a Southerner, did not want to be thought of as being rude. I did what I believe the vast majority of Southerners would have done. I told him as good-naturedly as you please, ‘Oh! No problem!’ And I meant it. It was now no problem. Any angst that I felt had vanished because he was in fact not being rude and showed me respect by acknowledging the inconvenience that he had caused. I have seen enough of the world to greatly value what I believe to be one of our people’s greatest qualities, namely, the regard that we have for and the kindness that we show to each other. This piece was previously published on Look Away on March 24, 2021.
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 We Americans have always assumed a few things about other Americans, at least since that great unifying moment after our victory in WWII. We assumed that we all agree that this is the Home of the Brave, Land of the Free, and that In God We Trust. We all believed in The American Dream, the Rule of Law, majority rule, and that we are the greatest nation ever just ’cause. Thinkers, pundits, and prophets have warned us for just as long that this is in fact not the case and warned us of the great threat of the American Left to our view of America. But when we defeated the Soviet Union back in the late eighties we imagined that any existential threat from the Left had indeed passed. Good times ahead. But after 2020 the Common Man now understands that maybe 20% of Americans not only envision a different America, but actively loathe the America that he grew up loving and believing in. And that maybe another 30% are Carnivorous Sheep, indifferent and willing to give up anything, including a legitimate democracy, in exchange for Bread and/or Circuses. Living with this new Radical Left is akin to living in an ancestral home with a brother gone insane who is determined to drive you from the house or, failing that, to burn it to the ground. He’s your brother and you thought he loved you, but every time you turn around you see smoke coming from beneath a door. You rush to put out the fires but he is getting bolder and smarter. There is smoke damage throughout, and there are few rooms remaining where the charring has not climbed the walls or embraced the furniture. And now you hear him in the basement. Laughing and talking to himself. Banging around. And what’s that smell. Dammit! Is that diesel? If you wont permit him to remodel as he sees fit, he’ll be glad to rebuild from scratch. The Radical American Left can hardly lose. What we on the Right have to decide is whether or not we are going to do what must be done to save our home. This was previously published at MCAtkins.com on March 1, 2021.
 At all times around the world there is the Common Man. He is the archetype of his people. The Common Man by his nature is historically illiterate or almost so. He knows the myths of his people and the tenets of his religion and any basic history that permeates his culture. For him to function as a member in good standing that is all he really needs to know. If he delves too deeply, he will cease to be the Common Man. It is noteworthy today, and a source of fodder for comedians, just how little the American Common Man knows about his own past or anyone else's past for that matter. This ignorance is an intentional result of a Progressive movement that has aggressively captured all forms of media and education and sought to erase and/or rewrite memory. Memory directs the present and propels us into the future, and Progressivism means to control the future. We are, after all, but blank canvases, and if we can just be whitewashed, we can be written on anew. The future is why the work of the historian is so vitally important and why we who would resist the new world that Progressivism would create must force the Common Man to see basic truths about the history of the world in which he lives. The history that would circumscribe our future. So painting with the widest possible brush let's look at the two oldest and most dominate roots of American history. America was born of two principal seeds, Jamestown and Plymouth Rock in 1607 and 1620 respectively. They grew, and by 1865 Plymouth Rock had defeated Jamestown militarily and economically in a cataclysmic struggle that reshaped our young republic. Since then America has been dominated politically and culturally by the split personality of Old New England, its political manifestation today in 2021 being the Democratic and Republican Parties, the former representing New England's old religiosity and the latter its industriousness. Looking at it cynically, on the one side is the religious bigot, self-righteous, intolerant, and toxically evangelical worshipping the Progressive trinity Freedom, Equality, and Individuality. On the other side is the money-grubbing industrialist motivated by profit; capitalism his moral code. Food for thought. This post was originally published at MCAtkins.com on Feb 10, 2021.
 We the People on the Right; We, the great Conservative Mob; We, the brave in the Home of the Brave; we… are now ‘woke.’ The Wolves and carnivorous Sheep of the Left have executed a coup and we are not going to stand for it. After 50 years of Leftist revolution we are at last replacing our gloves with brass knuckles. But today is akin to the 8th of December 1941. We are still in shock and remain uncertain as to how we are going to fight back. We are aware that the Enemy has us in an institutional headlock across the board. Unified action is impossible and there are no solid punches to land. But circumstances never remain the same and the Right has fantastic reserves of power. Leaders will emerge. Strategies will be developed. And we the grunts of the Right are ready to follow, bloody, and be bloodied. Good times ahead. In the meantime like Russian partisans in the fall of 1941 we must do whatever we can. I wish to propose a target. A bit of low hanging fruit. A supply train to be ambushed. It will require unsung sacrifice. Can we agree that Facebook is one of the great legions of the Left’s army? It is too powerful to kill but that does not mean that we should not try to wound it. I propose that collectively we cease to use it for any means other than fighting Progressivism or for bread and butter activities. That means not posting pictures for Grandma or messaging friends. Instead, for social purposes, we bite the bullet and join the migration to other friendly platforms that are still in the early stages of development. This will be a significant sacrifice for those of you that are deep into Facebook but if walking away is akin to putting down your crack pipe, well, you may have a problem. I have never used Facebook for social purposes but my wife has extensively for years so through her I understand the nature of the sacrifice. But if we cannot make this sacrifice now, in the light of 2020, what will we do when the day comes that we have to make a sacrifice indeed? This post was previously published on Look Away, MCAtkins.com on January 19, 2021.
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