A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations Quotes

“Cthulhu may swim slowly. But he only swims left. Isn’t that interesting?”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

“sometimes I even regret my own inability to believe in God.​ But no one who knows anything about the 20th century can fail to believe in the Devil.”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

“In a fraudulent pseudoscience, there is no incentive at all for uncovering error, because the only result of a successful dissent is to destroy your job and those of your peers.”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

“Under this pattern, the intended effect of the policy is to inflict some good or other on America, the rest of the world, or both.​ The actual effect of the policy is to make the problem which requires the policy worse, the apparatus which formulates and applies the policy larger and more important, etc., etc.​”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

“estimate climate sensitivity, all you need is an accurate model of Earth’s atmosphere.​ Likewise, to get to Alpha Centauri, all you have to do is jump very high.”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

“Conservatives, whose political motive is generally mere human altruism, and whose tightest point of natural agreement is an abstract, ill-defined ideal which has no clear recipe for implementation, is generally stated as vaguely as possible so as to attract the largest possible headcount, and exhibits patterns of error perfectly adapted to deflect the respect of the intelligent, cannot conceivably compete on any level playing field with the self-coordinating progressive movement, which has no ideals at all—being defined only by the willingness to swallow some drop, teaspoon, quart or vat of epistemic ordure, as a ticket to hop on the big bandwagon, inhale the party line and join the winning team.​”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

“Nonetheless, it is not (as most conservatives believe) true that the Soviet Union collapsed solely because it provided such awful government to its subjects.​ No.​ It wasn’t just that the Russians were governed incompetently and reprehensibly.​ It was also that they had a clear alternative which was readily available and apparently superior.​ I.e.: American democracy.”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

“The reason USG is so stable is not that it is (a) structured militarily to retain power without the broad consent of its subjects.​ Nor is the regime (b) especially loved by said subjects.​ Rather, USG is permanent because there (c) exists no credible alternative to its services.”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

“This is the miracle of capitalism, so familiar and yet still so strange.​ The capitalist restaurant is operated for the benefit of its owners.​ The Communist restaurant is operated for the benefit of its customers.​ But which has better food?”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations

“Reality alone - bleak, elegant, mindless reality - is the null device on the Reactionary's black flag. Anyone who tells the truth, who believes her own lying eyes, who knows whereof the fsck she speaks, is in that moment as bitter and uncompromising a reactionary as ever put foot on the earth.”
― Mencius Moldbug, A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations