IS COMING …
By Will Folks || Before you ponder the power of the idea I’m about to drop on you, a few confessions are in order: First, because narrow-minded people still base opinions on things like the skin color, geography and phallic status of their authors, I am a white male resident of the state of South Carolina.
I was born forty years ago this September at a Baptist Hospital in downtown Columbia, S.C. – right across the street from the building where they signed the Ordinance of Secession.
Thankfully I ain’t Baptist (as they say in the local parlance) … but in the interest of full disclosure I’m not opposed to the notion of secession.
Not for the reasons you might suspect, but …
Anyway, I was educated (for the most part) in my state’s failing government-run schools, where progressive views have only recently been incorporated as part of an ongoing cultural indoctrination. Of course I resent that cultural indoctrination – and the entire government-run education system, for that matter. But again … not for the reasons you might suspect.
Basically I wouldn’t ordinarily peg myself (and others wouldn’t ever peg me) as some sort of “fount of enlightenment.” On the surface everything about where I come from – and what most people think I believe – screams antiquated, ignorant contrarian.
“Whack-a-doodle,” even.
For the past seven years, though, I’ve run a website that has proudly (and intelligently) advanced socially progressive, fiscally “conservative” views. Personally I don’t view myself as a fiscal conservative – I’m more a strident supporter of freedom (both with respect to my individual choices and the marketplace in which those choices are made).
I sure as hell ain’t no Republican …
What makes me proudest of my little media outlet is the small, localized role it has played in the ongoing proliferation of the Fourth Estate – and the modest contribution it has made to the robust public debate accompanying that proliferation. It used to be a handful of legacy media outlets told us what to think – locally and nationally – with very little in the way of an energized public debate after the fact. Today the new media has exploded the old order – and the rise of social media has spawned a vibrant, growing marketplace of discussion.
These are good things … no matter how vigorously the two main parties protest the “contentiousness” of the debate. Or how zealously the legacy press impugn the “reactionary” nature of new media.
All of which leads us to “the most dangerous realization in the world …”
Ready?
Slowly but surely … people are waking up to simple truths, core commonalities and fair solutions.
Black or white, man or woman, gay or straight, “wealthy” or poor … people are gradually starting to realize certain facts are unimpeachable, certain common interests are unavoidable and certain ideas are long overdue.
They are realizing in growing numbers that government is not their friend … that it is in fact fighting to repress their liberty and limit their prosperity. Oh, while bankrupting their kids and grandkids (which it hopes to keep in the dark by dumbing down/ drugging up).
They are realizing that all the myths they’ve been sold – myths aimed at fomenting division along ethnic, racial, sexual and socio-economic lines – are wrong. And all the myths about government healing those divisions – and doing everything else under the sun to “fix” the country – aren’t true either.
Things have gotten worse … not better.
And most importantly, they are realizing as they look at their friends and neighbors up and down the income ladder that it is getting harder to get by. Everybody makes less money. Everything costs more. And yet the government keeps squeezing and squeezing and squeezing … on everybody.
Yup. The most dangerous realization in the world is that … at long last … We The People are starting to figure it out.
“Maybe not today … maybe not tomorrow.” But there’s a genuine enlightenment on the horizon, one that’s going to include a veritable rainbow of rebellious voices who don’t agree on much beyond a shared desire to keep more of their money and be left the f*ck alone.
For the sake of the country, let’s hope that enlightenment comes before it’s too late …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the website you are currently reading.
61 comments
A Phallic Pic of Sic. Sic’s phallic pic (see above.)
Bravo the enlightenment!
You didn’t mention which drugs helped you come to this insight.
I still say Tommy (Ravenous drug appetite) Ravenel..is a more, self-absorbed, self-important, cushy, cul-d-sac, narcissistic yuppie than FITS…
But FITS, based on Tommy’s success as the two perceive it, is making a strong push…to be just as gag-reflex, obnoxious as Tommy….
And FITS: from reading your “BIO”….I see why you are as cliché or banal and simple-thinking, as I indict you for being…
I can’t believe I just up-voted a GT post. Going to shower now…
No need to resist…there are a lot of people like you…no need to be scared of the feeling…Go with it…
That sounds homo-erotic.
Just the tip, baby. I promise!
Funniest comment of the month!
Every woman in America has heard that phrase, and GT of course.
That’s what he tells those young men who are at first a little resistant to his advances.
It’s that final collapse of the will after the struggle that trips his trigger.
It’d be shocking if he wrote something that wasn’t.
The average Russian citizen came to this realization long ago – without the benefit of a SC public education or blog site. Solipsism is the actualization of dangerous realization. Narcissism presumes that others give a shit.
I hardly think that an attitude of ‘let me keep my money and leave me alone’ is anything close to what might be considered as “genuine enlightenment”.
Certainly not as “enlightened” as, “we are the government and we will take as much of your money as we like and do whatever we damn well please with it”, eh?
we will take as much of your money as we like and do whatever we damn well please with it
The difference is, nobody believes in unlimited taxes for unlimited spending, but people certainly do believe in low-to-no taxes for a lifeless government that can’t and won’t do anything to improve society.
“We’ll take a percentage of your income to fund retirement pay for old people.”
“We’ll take a percentage of your income to give old people health coverage.”
“We’ll take a percentage of tax revenue to make sure the working poor don’t starve to death and can actually take their kids to see the doctor without going bankrupt.”
That’s what liberals support. Hardly seems like “take whatever we want” or “spend it on whatever we want” to me.
But it is just that, Smirks. They never have enough. Witness the taking in progress in Lexington County right now, where scumbags like Banning, Jeffcoat, Summers, and more are pushing for everything they are worth to add another penny to our sales tax, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO SPEND IT ON! Instead of continually bleeding us more and more, every time we turn around, these bastards need to learn to budget, to cut out things which aren’t necessary like cronyism and other graft, rather than continually draining the taxpayers every time they want something. We are literally being nickel and dimed to death by these self-serving scum, who are no different than the thug who tries to take your wallet at gun or knife point, only they have color of law to say that their thievery is somehow “legal”.
But nobody complains when the “free” market does the same thing.
If the market is “free”, then no one could take anyone’s money…it’s all voluntary exchange…that’s what makes it ‘free’.
Folks is basically just an old 80s “trickle down supply sider” who believes the more you cut taxes for the wealthy the better off everybody is.
Anal retention is something you need to go see a doctor about. Please go to your nearest emergency room asap! Lastly, when Sic makes you angry, as he obviously has, he owns you.
Don’t mistake anger for amusement. :)
I agree, enlightenment would be “get all up in my shit” and “take my money”.
Don’t forget, “government is your friend” either.
Ah, yes, this would reflect the manic phase.
Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. It’s not going to be pretty when he comes down from this one.
“Everybody makes less money.”
Yeh FolksI bet Howie Rich ,Sheldon Adelson and of course the poor beleaguered Koch Brothers are making”less ” money!
Hahahaha!
And Soros, the Clintons, Obama, the Bushes, etc…
Money in politics, in general, is a poison that will slowly choke the life out of this country. Red and blue don’t matter when the primary language in D.C. is green (and I’m not talking about the Green Party).
Then it is not all bad news.
Waiting for the other shoe to drop. The one where Will takes a job with some national “think tank” a la Jim Dementia and leaves this little slice of heaven behind for some other narcissistic blogger to plunder…
This would require a think tank to hire him. Unless it’s run by his bro, T-Rav, I don’t see that happening.
Perhaps he suspends the site while running T-Rav’s campaign for a while. He did label himself a “consultant”.
Contrary to popular belief, think tanks don’t require a lot of thinking.
Do you mean like if Mace doesn’t win she may take us back if Will leapfrogs over her back to something greater and brighter?
Think he’s hoping to get another govt job when T Rav gets elected. :D
Good post, Will! Thank You for keeping this site going and for the investigative reporting which is either absent, or heavily suppressed (Jody Barr at WIS-TV) in other local media. Most of all, THANK YOU for keeping the comment section on here uncensored and NOT using Fecebook as a comment medium.
Jody is leaving us for Ohio so, Will is going to be the only man standing.
This post has a certain Glenn Beck quality to it,promising to deliver some great news or insight.Then after reading it you realize its just the same old BS.
social progressive+fiscal conservative= a promoter of morally and culturally BANKRUPT communities under the faux disguise of caring about individual rights and their wallets.
More dangerous than liberals because history tells us socialism doesn’t work and liberals are idiots and RIN0’S because RINO’S don’t believe in a damn thing anyway-just want to be liked.
ROFL……
This is why it’s so depressing being me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G_zSos8w_I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRdAe3UAIVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bObItmxAGc
“… let’s hope that enlightenment comes before it’s too late …”
damn right skippy
hitch up the donkey, load the carts, sharpen the blade, fill up the sawgrass baskets
fuck’em, fuck’em all
Will….until we the people decide to take back our dear Country, by force if necessary, it’s all talk. November will set the bar….I’m no Republican (anymore) either, but we the people have to start somewhere.
Take back our dear Country from what exactly?
Democrats of course.Hes a victim of what is called NonRepublican Republican Syndrome(NRRS for short).The declaration that he isnt a Republican is a dead giveaway(see Fits similiar declaration in this rant).
The miain symptom of the Syndrome is continually declaring one isnt a Republican while voting almost exclusively for Republicans(sometimes a Libertarian or such for some unimportant office,only to further the myth of course) and supporting the Republican platform,while expressing outrage that they dont(in the NRRS sufferers eyes)sufficiently advance its goals.
There is no known cute.
We the People are starting to figure it out.
Judging from the comments on this site, figured out what? We argue all the time.
Judging from the comments on sites like Daily Kos or ThinkProgress, or Breitbart or NetRightDaily, figured out what? How to be frothing at the mouth, crazy-eyed wingnuts, maybe.
Judging from my own observances, we are starting to figure out things like domestic spying, but we aren’t doing a whole lot about it. We don’t stop what government shouldn’t be doing and we don’t force government to do what it should be doing. We never throw out the politicians in droves that support the most disturbing legislation that is considered.
If/when Graham wins his reelection bid, what will you tell us that “We the People” figured out?
ROFL…….
If you’re going to post a picture of yourself with a cigar, light the fucking cigar.
No, everyone does not make less money in today’s America. Unless you’ve been completely asleep, you know the top income brackets in this country are doing extremely well while the rest of us are languishing.
Even at the height of the great recession and the housing collapse, Washington DC house values held and its resident continued to earn more year after year.
Will is only forty!?! Dang! He looks 20 years older.. However, it DOES explain some of his more vociferous writings. I, too, enjoy the openness of this web site. Good on you, Will.
Normally old Chinese dudes don’t age badly.
”…right across the street from the building where they signed the Ordinance of Secession. ..”
Uhm, yeah – not so much, the first meetings of the Secession Movement were in fact held at First Baptist but shortly after convening the convention was moved to St. Anthony’s Hall in Charleston ostensibly for fear of a smallpox breakout but mostly to get the rabble rousers out of town. Obviously, your “…educat[ion] (for the most part) in my state’s failing government-run schools…” was as bad as you claim.
So I see Grand Tango is writing your stuff now.
Georgia Unveils New Slogan: “We Make Florida Look Safe”
ATLANTA (The Borowitz Report) — Flanked by members of his state’s legislature on Wednesday afternoon, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal proudly unveiled Georgia’s new official state slogan, “We Make Florida Look Safe.”
Gov. Deal told reporters that the slogan was “more than just words,” reflecting Georgia’s determination to best its rival Florida for the nation’s most reckless gun law.
“When Florida passed Stand Your Ground, we knew we were playing catch-up,” Gov. Deal said. “Thanks to the fine men and women in the Georgia state legislature, we’re No. 1.”
Gov. Deal said he hoped that the state’s newly enacted Safe Carry Protection Act, which makes it legal to carry guns in bars, schools, churches, and some government buildings, would send the message that Georgia was taking its competition with Florida “very, very seriously.”
“In recent years, if you wanted to fire off a gun any damn place you pleased, there was a sense that Florida was the state for you,” he said. “We’re hoping to change that perception.”
South Carolina
AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled “The Constitution of the United States of America.”
We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the “United States of America,” is hereby dissolved.
Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Source: Official Records, Ser. IV, vol. 1, p. 1.
Big fan of this site and the light cast on SC politics not shown by media…..BUT…. I think Will is pumping up hisself worth just a bit. This self pumping rant acts as if FITS news alone started the conversation about Big Gov. vs. Small Gov. That argument has been going on since 1781 with the anti-federalist saying Big Gov. will doom us and smother freedom and the Federalists saying Big Gov gives us power and equal rights in all states.
So keep up the good work but stop the “people will rise up” and veil hints of succession crap.
Amen and Amen! The Fed’s,the state.even the county’s government are crooked. I vote for Will to lead the new rebellion.
Too bad this state does not know how to fund higher education. SC needs to add a 1% sales tax for higher education.