North America's fastest growing network of socially responsible businesses, comprised of over 80 community networks in 30 U.S. states and Canadian provinces representing over 22,000 independent business members across the U.S. and Canada.No doubt most of you have seen some version of this in your own areas: an effort to encourage people to buy from local businesses. Another part of it encourages moving bank deposits from the major banks to local institutions. On its face, it all sounds reasonable, even something reactionaries can support, preaching as it does the building of community.
BALLE believes that local, independent businesses are among our most potent change agents, uniquely prepared to take on the challenges of the twenty-first century with an agility, sense of place, and relationship-based approach others lack. They are more than employers and profit-makers; they are neighbors, community builders and the starting point for social innovation, aligning commerce with the common good and bringing transparency, accountability, and a caring human face to the marketplace.
Unfortunately, in my view, most of the people doing the encouraging as well as many if not most of the businesses involved are the usual gang of hipsters, SWPLs, left-liberals, environmentalist goofballs, AGW promoters, anti-racists, and people who want to control every aspect of everyone's life in the name of "sustainability" or whatever other faddish nonsense is the latest to come down the pike. In short, I can't see any good reason for allying myself with these people. Most of them will be against everything I believe in, and the few that aren't are too cowered to do anything but go along. In general, they are as responsible as anyone for the mess that this country and our people are in today. If one were to raise the issue of curtailing immigration and enforcing the law against illegal immigration in order to raise employment for native-born Americans, even though building community and helping local people is their main objective, they would be the first to denounce you as a rabid, racist wingnut.
Not that big business in general is a whole lot better, but at least they don't want me to pay extra for the dubious privilege of helping someone who may be local but who is most definitely not on my side.
"I can't see any good reason for allying myself with these people."
ReplyDeleteWith enough decentralization, at least in theory, they can do their their thing and we can do ours. This might be the best approach since it forces the left to either accept this or to explain to the public why their brand of authoritarianism and uniformity is for the best, why the continued existence of tiny decentralized Switzerland or anything like it anywhere is unacceptable and must be demolished.
80 community networks in 30 U.S. states and Canadian provinces
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dennis that most of these buy local/farmers market types are our ideological opponents and supporting them versus Bank of Mexico (America) is not an easy choice.
Slightly off-topic, the above passage reminded me of something I've discussed before, namely the close knit cultural ties between Canada and the US. Do we ever see such ties between the US and Mexico?
It never ceases to amaze me when I argue against latino immigration how people can't put two and two together and realize that Mexico is an alien culture, and it is probably not a good idea to absorb 20% of their population. SWPLs are always seeking links and ties with Europeans, especially ones in the Anglosphere. Yet they refuse to acknowledge the importance of cultural similarities when it comes to immigration.
I use a local bank, but really a lot of those got in too deep with the housing bubble, so caveat emptor - they may be holding a lot of empty houses on their books.
ReplyDeleteI think there are a lot of decent people among the OWS crowd and that coalition building is in order here. I know that the culture wars make this very, very hard though. Maybe people on the left are starting to wake up. There are positive signs coming out of OWS - e.g. an understanding from their leadership that BOTH parties are the enemy.
ReplyDeleteTim Howells
There's nothing leftist about taking your funds out of the big banks and putting it in a credit union.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, if enough people did it in a short span of time, you could bring the major banks to their knees.
Generally I despise social networking sites, but in this case they could be used to coordinate a nation wide disinvestment in the major banks.
People have far more power over this issue than they imagine, and it's an issue that affects literally all working and retired Americans.
Reactionaries could easily take the lead with this and make a real impact in average people's lives.
When you help average Americans take control of an issue like this, you stop looking like a right wing boogeyman, and start looking like someone who should be listened to.
Dennis, Thanks for writing a blog with such a diverse set of interesting and important issues.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that most buy local/bank locally organisations and associations are led and infected by 'the usual gang of hipsters, SWPLs, left-liberals, environmentalist goofballs, AGW promoters, anti-racists, and people who want to control every aspect of everyone's life in the name of "sustainability" or whatever other faddish nonsense is the latest to come down the pike'.
However, at the same time one doesn't have to be a member or direct supporter of one of these clubs or associations. In my opinion we should do the common sense thing. For example, I can purchase super tasty eggs from a local farmer for a fraction of the supermarket retail price. Doing the common sense thing with banking is far more difficult, however. In Germany at least. Most local savings banks and the newer generation of co-ops pursue a silly and dangerous political agenda. If they restricted themselves to banking, I'd be happy with them, but my local savings bank just joined the 'fight against racism'. I better stay out of there and keep my current account with Deutsche Bank.
I always thought community supported agriculture sounded like a good idea -- you know, as a way to insulate farmers from the pressures of the debt/harvest cycle. Many farmers carry a lot of debt and feel pressured to overuse pesticides and herbicides in an attempt to ensure good yields so they don't lose their land.
ReplyDeleteOT
Woman arrested for saying boorish but true things on public transit
You have to watch that sort of thing in the UK.
Might I suggest that you actually meet and talk with some of these local folks?
ReplyDeleteI don't know where you live. I'm in Miami, for example, and some of the "local food" folks here are ordinary, normal "American" citizens who share many of my beliefs about big gov't, foreign immigration, etc.
Yes, you will encounter a fair share of "leftists" and liberal do-gooders. But you might just meet some people who will surprise you, and you might make some new friends.
I did.
The farmers I buy my grass fed beef from tend to be conservative. They want to abolish the USDA because the federal inspection adds about sixty cents per pound to the price of the meat sold to a retail customer. (Buying a whole animal doesn't require a federal meat inspector, though)
ReplyDelete"I think there are a lot of decent people among the OWS crowd and that coalition building is in order here. I know that the culture wars make this very, very hard though. Maybe people on the left are starting to wake up. There are positive signs coming out of OWS - e.g. an understanding from their leadership that BOTH parties are the enemy."
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing coming out of the OWS crowd except affirmative action, immigration amnesties, PC and racial double standards.
The bankers are the lesser of two evils.
Don't agree? Go ask the OWS people what they think about a 5-year ban on immigration to help employ more Americans and lower the gap between rich and poor.
Businesses...are more than profit makers.
ReplyDeleteDead giveaway. Aside from the fact that profit making is the best way a business contributes to a community, it is also the only honest - in the sense of agenda free - way it contributes. In any case businessmen who in essence apologize for being businessmen will not turn much of a profit and therefore will not be in much of a position to do the damage they call good.
Tyler Cowan claims that the US will be begging for Mexican illegals in 20 years.
ReplyDeleteI also have nothing in common with the "Think Globally, Act Locally" crowd, however I try to patronize locally owned businesses whenever I can. I used to shop at an Ace Hardware distributor - it's still a national chain, but at least the operators are local franchisee owners. I found the merchandise to be better than at the big-box equivalents, like Home Depot, and the service was much much better. However, all of them in my town have now closed down. I've found that to be a general rule - the smaller, local businesses, although somewhat more expensive, offer much better service.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wouldn't rule it out on account of the leftists being enthusiastic about it. Just because they're for something doesn't automatically make it a bad idea (just usually). And if some clown wearing a "Hope" T-shirt, and whose car is bedecked with bumper-stickers exhorting you to "Fight Racism", "Question Authority", "Coexist", and to be "Straight but not Narrow", asks you if you shop locally, say "Sure. I patronize my locally owned and operated neighborhood gun-store".
Here's the link to the YouTube video of the lady on the tram. Hilarious. Look closely at what happens behind between the black youth and white girl. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteThere is very good chance that her family have been voting, reflexively and unthinkingly, for the very Labour Party that did this to the country, over many decades.
ReplyDeleteLet me just make the observation that when the English wake up, they really wake up. It's not necessarily attractive, but more and more of this is now inevitable.
There is nothing that can stop the descent into hell.
Anon.
I've thought about this before, Mangan. Most (if not all) of the so-called localist groups have a strange sense of what constitutes 'local'. Is it a small farming community with several extended families that go back generations? No, their sense localism is any third world prole outsider that crosses the bureaucratically drawn up borders of whatever locality they happen to live in.
ReplyDeleteIt's things like this where the contradictions in the leftist worldview are stark and unmistakable. On the one hand, the leftist wants to stick it to 'the man' (Big Business) using the ties of local community as a rallying cry. But as we know, things like large extended families and small towns are also nefarious concepts to the leftist, being breeding grounds for fascistic viewpoints. The leftist solves this problem by nullifying their idea of 'community'.
On a related note, I'm not sure organic farming is very good from an immigration restrictionist perspective. Organic farming is very labour intensive and large-scale organic farming operations often tend to pay very low wages.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said: (Some things that I agree with and ...)
ReplyDelete"The bankers are the lesser of two evils."
Wow! you lost me there. The OWS crowd is deluded on the race-realism issues, but they are by and large decent people who are starting to wake up. Check out this interview with Chris Hedges (a leftist who I would disagree with on many things). Here's the money quote, and I endorse this whole-heartedly:
"Those who are protesting the rise of the corporate state are on the political spectrum the true conservatives because they are calling for the restoration of the rule of law. The radicals have seized power and they have trashed all regulations and legal impediments to a corporate - a reconfiguration of American society into a form of neo-feudalism"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAhHPIuTQ5k
Right!! Now these sincere, decent leftists just have to realize that the most important weapon in the arsenal of the political class is mass third-world immigration - the demographic destruction of the organic nation state. That will be a tough sell at the moment, but the times they are a'changin. Let's not burn our bridges just yet.
Tim Howells
Anon 4:26- And after you ask the OWS loonies about a 5 year ban on immigration, ask any Wall Street player how they feel about it....the answer won't be much different.
ReplyDeleteI've been frustrated by this for years. On the surface, I agree with leftists on the "buy local" and certain aspects of environmentalism.
ReplyDeleteI despise so-called conservatives who blindly support transnational corporations that encourage mass immigration and the destruction of family values.
I wonder if issues surrounding "buy local", urban farming coops, environmental awareness etc could be used as a trojan horse to possibly convert leftists.
The aesthetic of tight knit communities, local shops, local produce, clean communities...those are RIGHT-WING issues dammit!
You'll never succeed as a political leader, Dennis.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteYou'll never succeed as a political leader, Dennis.
What an informed, reasoned, and insightful comment by a brave man willing to go on record calling me a failure at something I've never even aspired to. It's for comments like this that I write this blog.
Touchy!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the main point here - and your views on race, immigration, decline of the west - but...
ReplyDeleteI think many of us are too quick to side against lefties on all issues, just for the sake of tribalism.
Have any of you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? The sustainability of our way of life, and its impact on our environment are absolutely of GRAVE importance.
Our way of life is insane and has been based on burning through unimaginable amounts of resources on an ever-increasing basis.
Whether or not technology is the solution, it certainly is the problem (7 billion people arent sustained by hunting and gathering).
When you buy from big business, you know for 100% certain that you are giving your money to people who want to destroy you. Big business is why all the state level initiatives to enforce immigration laws have stalled. These people give tens, maybe hundreds of millions a year to pervert our government and fund anti-white groups like La Raza. On racial and cultural issues executives at large corporations are just as bad as sociology professors.
ReplyDeleteOn banks: Right before Washington Mutual went down--the biggest bank failure in US history--there was a quiet run on the bank. A LOT of money was withdrawn.
ReplyDeleteOn local: All big box stores and chains are "absentee ownership" which generally doesn't give a flip about the communities they are strip-mining for money.
Also, Wal-Mart enables all the immigrants to make it here, with their low low prices. Go into a Wal-Mart and it's a damned 3rd-world dump in there.
I was going to write something original but I'm beat. So I'll condense it down to: "what Bob said".
ReplyDelete(Not sure if it went through the first time; apologies if this shows up twice.)
ReplyDeleteI take it that I'm the only person here who reads Front Porch Republic? Localism is in no way exclusive to the left. (Actually, I think right-localism has much more real-world potential than most other alt-right movements; it doesn't require the mental calisthenics, to put it lightly, of left-localism, and it engages with issues that most other rightist movements ignore, without setting off the alarm bells that most other rightist movements fire off at jet-engine volume.)
There is nothing coming out of the OWS crowd except affirmative action, immigration amnesties, PC and racial double standards.
ReplyDeleteHuh? OWS is all about more immigration and affirmative action? I'd like to see evidence of a single White person at OWS demanding more immigration or affirmative action.
The bankers are the lesser of two evils.
Don't agree? Go ask the OWS people what they think about a 5-year ban on immigration to help employ more Americans and lower the gap between rich and poor.
Do bankers support a 5-year ban on immigration? If not, then how would they be "the lesser of two evils" even if your assessment of OWS were correct?
And where, might I ask, are the Republicans calling for any restrictions to legal immigration whatsoever?
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteAlso, Wal-Mart enables all the immigrants to make it here, with their low low prices. Go into a Wal-Mart and it's a damned 3rd-world dump in there."
Walmart - The all-American store where the people of Mexico buy the products of China.
This Left/Right paradigm causes unnecessary divisions. It reminds me of what Mishima wrote about radical left wing students in Japan:
ReplyDeleteBoth they and I represent a new species in Japan today. I felt a friendship for them. We are friends between whom there is a barbed wire fence. We smile at one another but we can't kiss.
What the students and I stand for is almost identical. We have the same cards on the table, but I have a joker -- the Emperor.
What the OWS crowd need is an injection of nobility.
I studied the BALLE website and gagged on the pseudo intellectual NGO writing style and leftist social concepts. These are a bunch of people creating a nice gig for themselves. Cloaked in a maddening web of words.
ReplyDeleteHowever, that being said, not everything they espouse is bad. I'm a microbusiness myself. I believe in local. I believe in small. I support the small hardware store, camera store, hobby shop. Experts tend to work there. I believe the playing field needs to be leveled to allow talented self-motivated citizens to form small businesses to provide for their families and service their local economies. This is a true conservative/libertarian ethic. There is a huge swath of population like myself. No one speaks for us.
Right now the high cost of health insurance coupled with corporate affirmative action/minority outreach gatekeepers stymies the ability of small business to access large organization business. 80 years ago my father was faced with signs that said "no Irish need apply". Today I'm faced by corporate websites that say "we are committed to extending ourselves to everyone but you!" I read the list of desired candidates and fail to see myself listed there. Again, I think of my father and uncles who fought a regime that based itself on racial classifications. How far we have fallen.
It's a shame that BALLE wraps the flag of progressivism around themselves. They do have a couple of worthwhile things on their site.
It's also a shame it's so food oriented. What is it with progressives and food? Enough already!
I live in an agricultural area. Farmers here are old-timers. Many are Amish. Not the same cloth as hipster organic boutique farmers. Remember, everything is tribal to progressives and hipsters. most farmers are the wrong kind of white people.
And Dennis, thanks you for pointing out this BALLE group. The left is forever on the march.
And where, might I ask, are the Republicans calling for any restrictions to legal immigration whatsoever?
ReplyDeleteSeveral of the GOP Presidential types want to end birthright citizenship, including Paul, Cain, and Bachmann. Numbers USA doesn't consider of them any good on reducing overall immigration, though they are all better than the President.
Here is a list of members of Congress who got A+ grades from Numbers USA on the Visa Lottery issue:
Adams, Sandy (Rep. - 24th) R - FL 100%
Chabot, Steve (Rep. - 01st) R - OH 100%
Chaffetz, Jason (Rep. - 03rd) R - UT 100%
Coble, Howard (Rep. - 06th) R - NC 100%
Forbes, Randy (Rep. - 04th) R - VA 100%
Franks, Trent (Rep. - 02nd) R - AZ 100%
Gohmert, Louie (Rep. - 01st) R - TX 100%
Goodlatte, Robert (Rep. - 06th) R - VA 100%
Gowdy, Trey (Rep. - 04th) R - SC 100%
Griffin, Tim (Rep. - 02nd) R - AR 100%
Issa, Darrell (Rep. - 49th) R - CA 100%
King, Steve (Rep. - 05th) R - IA 100%
Marino, Tom (Rep. - 10th) R - PA 100%
Pence, Mike (Rep. - 06th) R - IN 100%
Poe, Ted (Rep. - 02nd) R - TX 100%
Quayle, Ben (Rep. - 03rd) R - AZ 100%
Ross, Dennis (Rep. - 12th) R - FL 100%
Sensenbrenner, James (Rep. - 05th) R - WI 100%
Smith, Lamar (Rep. - 21st) R - TX 100%
In its information on the subject, Numbers wrote:
Rep. Bob Goodlatte(R-Va.) has introduced the SAFE for America Act (H.R.704) that would:
Eliminate the Diversity Visa Class, a.k.a. Visa Lottery;
Reduce overall legal immigration numbers by approximately 50,000 per year.
Huh? OWS is all about more ... affirmative action? I'd like to see evidence of a single White person at OWS demanding more immigration or affirmative action.
ReplyDeleteOf course I can't know your standards for evidence, but some searching turned up some interesting stuff. None of this stuff is accompanied by photographs so I don't know who is saying what, but I'd give pretty good odds that everyone writing this stuff is white.
She then said the only rule is that a white male can not go first in discussion. I didn't even want to speak first or at all but the fact this movement has adopted antiquated ideals of affirmative action which is just reverse discrimination under the guise of it being progressive practice made me loose faith in the people who established the framework for this movement.
[reply]
The majority of white males in the past and some in the present have earned this attitude. How does it feel to be denied certain rights just because you were born a certain way. A lot of suffering by women and people of color has been brought on by their selfishness, egos, and brutality. You're just going to have to wait it out until the the tables are equal. Are you aware American women are not permitted to engage in battle in our military? Who the hell gave the white males the right to tell another adult what they can and cannot do. Yeah, it's unfair to a white guy who doesn't have any prejudices towards women and minorities, but they are few and far between. Now you know how we women and others feel, this kind of thing has been going on our wholes lives.
Huh? OWS is all about more immigration...? I'd like to see evidence of a single White person at OWS demanding more immigration....
ReplyDeleteThe boarders should be illegal, not the people.
"The aesthetic of tight knit communities, local shops, local produce, clean communities...those are RIGHT-WING issues dammit!"
ReplyDeleteWell said, Bob.
I dunno, it's always seemed to me since the '60s that a lot of hippie-"leftie" causes are actually quite conservative -- that there's a lot of overlap between the smaller-is-beautiful/localism/good-food crowd and a fair number of righties. Some fun examples of people who confound the usual left-right thing: Bill Kauffman (of Front Porch Republic and many good books -- he's written for conservative mags as well as for The Nation) and Kirkpatrick Sale (who, although he's certainly a leftie, is a big proponent of secession). Joel Salatin (libertarian farmer) and Michael Pollan (Berkeley-leftie food writer-activist) make a fun couple too: Pollan's views and Salatin's overlap a *whole* lot, and Pollan's very willing to admit the fact. And Wilhelm Ropke's an economist who a lot of righties and lefties could enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to give this Kirkpatrick Sale fellow a look. Turn secession into a "progressive cause" and we benighted inbred bible-thumping rednecks may well end up with a country in which we could actually, you know ... live and be safe.
ReplyDelete