The Umpires of Reasonable Discourse (T.U.R.Ds)

Many of us, as we try and navigate through our own red pilling journey, start to notice all the provoking and agitative rhetoric or actions used by the Left. We no longer take the media at face value. As we take a look around in the Public Sphere (Habermas) we see actors across the political spectrum. Both the radical and the moderate become more apparent to us. There are a few pundits like Jordan Peterson and James Lindsay that are a bit more…let’s say polemic in their positions against the radical Left (or Right).

Figures like Peterson and Lindsay speak unapologetic Truth when it comes to the danger of these Sociognostic cults eating away at our Liberty. Their unvarnished warnings, however, eventually run afoul of another group of actors. Actors that perhaps you’ve sided with before because they present themselves as “reasonable”, “nuanced”, and “centrist” in discourse of our times. They have a few names, perhaps you’ve heard of them, Very Smart People (VSPs) or “cryptowoke” for example. Well, these Actors have a very specific role to play in our postmodern world, whom I now call, for very specific reasons, The Umpires of Reasonable Discourse, or from now on T.U.R.Ds.

How to Identify a T.U.R.D.

T.U.R.Ds usually compromise well-known "Centrists" in the media, punditry and intellectual sphere. Mostly overwhelming Left-of-Center, but they can cross over the spectrum of Left, to Center, to the Right of Centrism. Most of these players you've heard of: Cathy Young, Jesse Singal, Michael Shermer, David French, Johnathan Haidt, Bill Maher, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Steven Pinker and many of the prominent signatories of the Harper’s letter...you get the idea.

There specific reason I call them "Umpires" of “Reasonable Discourse” is because that is exactly their role. Someone has to do it, right? The world might go to shit without their steady hands of "nuance" and "centrality" steering the ship! They are of course being as reasonable and nuanced as they are >self-appointed< to this very important task.

These Umpires call all the balls and strikes on Tyranny (as they see it) on both sides of the radical Left and Right.

Who better to call this postmodern "game" than those who've established how fair, impartial, nuanced, reasonable and centrists as the self-appointed T.U.R.Ds.

There's just one itsy-bitsy problem with the "neutrality" of T.U.R.Ds.

They are anything BUT metaphysically neutral about how reality operates.

T.U.R.Ds as Dialectical Agents

T.U.R.Ds are either unwitting, or willing Dialectical agents, and in some cases both. They are Controlled Opposition for the Left because they participate in the Praxis of Dialectical Conflict and call it "Reasonable Nuance". They are the mechanism of synthesis for the Dialectic. This perpetual activity is always in service to move society ever Leftwards. T.U.R.Ds are a principle player in the operation to reorient society towards Leftism, which is an array of various conflict-based Sociognostic cults.

How do we know this?

Because T.U.R.Ds are willing to entertain beyond an acceptable threshold the metaphysical beliefs of Leftism, which reject, at its foundational levels, objective reality, truth, and the Nature of Man.

Now T.U.R.Ds are of course mystified by Leftism and would tell you that being open to entertain Leftism is in of itself a Liberal ideal in the Marketplace of Ideas. T.U.R.Ds provide an exoteric cover or means to esoteric ends.

The Esotericism of T.U.R.Ds

This is to say the rules by which T.U.R.Ds use to govern the Marketplace of Ideas are based in Sociognostic Idealism and NOT the rules of a Marketplace of Ideas based in Liberalism and Common Sense Realism. In other words, the rules of reality for Sociognostic Idealism are rooted in social Constructivism and NOT objective realism. The use of the Dialectic is the means by which Social Constructivism nudges and bullies itself over all of us who hold to objective reality and common sense.

In essence, those of us who believe in Liberalism and Common Sense Realism, would summarily reject the Marketplace of Ideas being governed by Sociognostic Idealism, whose only purpose is to nullify belief in Liberalism and Common Sense Realism.

And guess who gets to determine which Marketplace of Ideas we get to participate in Idealism or Liberalism? Ah yes, the T.U.R.Ds do. At least they like to think they do in some regards greater or smaller...

So lucky are we to have T.U.R. Ds decide this for us…

In any case most T.U.R.Ds aren't aware of the esoteric underpinnings of their belief system they simply follow the Praxis. The Praxis of Social Constructivism and the Dialectic is exoteric, abstracted, and uses polysemy -two or more meanings for a single word or concept. The intent is to get people to simply participate in Social Constructivism without knowledge of the underlying esoteric belief system of Social Constructivism (Man is becoming God).

In effect the T.U.R.Ds Sociognostic orientation creates a veneer of a “true" "Liberal" outlook which affords or entertains Progressivism as an appropriate lens or governing mechanism, or even entertains some positions from radical Leftism. The proponents of Progressivism and the Woke mean well after all don't they? It's all in good faith, right? It's all about Free Speech and the "Market Place of Ideas", right?

We can't be Tyrannical ourselves and completely block out oppositional “Progressive” beliefs lest we ourselves become that which we fight against? Right?!

Oh, how the T.U.R.Ds ever so gradually move us towards the crushing singularity of the Dialectic.

Praxis

The Praxis of T.U.R.Ds places them firmly in the Dialectical Motte, doing the work of drawing more and more Normies into Wizards Circle, by their "Reasonable" dispositions. The more people participating in the Praxis Motte, the more energy it gives the radical esoteric Bailey.

Neither the T.U.R.Ds themselves, nor the Normies participating in the Praxis of “reasonable discourse”, need know about the esoteric Bailey to give it the appearance of legitimacy.

These Sociognostic cult movements do not require belief in them, nor even awareness, they simply need participation.

Calling the Game

Lastly, as the name implies, as Umpires these T.U.R.Ds get to determine which polemic oppositional voices to Leftism "go too far", are demagoguery, are in "bad faith", have "lost the plot", or have "gone off the deep end".

It is these judgments, and worse, that someone like James Lindsay is routinely characterized as fomenting, despite being on point about a myriad of topics including, immigration, Queer Theory, Degrowth and Post-Colonial antisemitism, just to name a few.

What effect does this have?

Well, to someone like Lindsay or Peterson, perhaps not much personally, but because T.U.R.Ds present themselves as being "nuanced" and "reasonable", they are perceived as legitimate voices. They often can, and do, reorient Normies away from very important heuristics and information about the world we currently live in, much to their detriment of the Normie.  They in essence "delegitimize" the quite often necessary defenders of Liberty (like Lindsay) who stand up to Leftist tyrannical insanity. This is particularly problematic when T.U.R.Ds shoo away newly red-pilling disaffected Liberals who need these heuristics the most.

Worse yet they draw Normies into the comforting confines of the T.U.R.D Motte where everything is Dialectically skewed and distorted. That is, Normies are still unwittingly trapped in a distortion of reality where they cannot be seen to be associated with anything…and I mean anything, that may look remotely right-wing, conservative, or Republican. They are still ensnared in the Woke contrivance of Lefty Land where much needed heuristics and discernment will be out of their grasp. Here in the warm confines of the T.U.R.D Motte they will continue to participate in forwarding Leftist movements designed to politically nullify the defence of Liberty, gradually instead of radically. They are all Controlled Opposition.

Additionally, T.U.R.Ds not only Umpire the game, but also get to dictate what is considered "Reasonable Discourse". They don't even have to ask you...they just know, because ya know they're Nuanced and Reasonable, we should trust they know "Reasonable Discourse" better than us common rabble.

I would be remiss in stating that this delegitimization is intentional. If not by the T.U.R.Ds themselves, but at least by the Praxis framework that the T.U.R.Ds operate on top of.

So, we have a world of T.U.R.Ds steering us into oblivion…

Oh, what would we do without their nuanced and reasonable insight?

What would we do indeed without T.U.R.Ds do guide us in these troubled times...

What indeed…?

---

Clint Chavarria, aka Classic Liberal, American patriot and family man, posts on X about Classic Liberalism, Scottish Common Sense Realism and Anti-Communism.  He can be found on X @ ClassicLibera12