I don’t enjoy being that guy who says, “I told you so.”;
I did my bit: Supported you when I had to and called you out when I had to, with the thinking that it would make you sober, but I learnt very quickly that taking a donkey to the river and getting it to drink are two different things. I have been riding for you from day one. I even gave you the co-sign before you asked, because I’m loyal like that. I didn’t leave you; you left me. So right now, I am going to give you that uncle talk on some things with the hopes you will be humble enough to turn these Ls into lessons.
A Force Of Nature
You don’t have to like a man to respect him. This was your original mistake; you underestimated Jehu. Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t ignore Jehu. His emergence is an indictment of you; if you hadn’t taken care of business, he wouldn’t have emerged. The Jehu archetype is that of an insurgent; this means he usually struggles as an incumbent, but you have dropped the ball so badly that even as an incumbent, he is at the peak of his powers. People are so pissed off at you that even when you hurt him politically, it hasn’t translated to any benefit for you. Most people would rather choose a madman who they believe fights for them than a muppet who doesn’t. These people know he is a piece of work, far from being the finished article, but that didn’t mean they would reject him simply because they were told to do so – it was their call to make and they chose to give you the middle finger.
Let me say the quiet part out loud, Jehu is not a traditional conservative – he’s an anomaly. I tried to against going on a “fool’s errand”; and how using the same playbook then to fight him now will just lead to more unforced errors. You insisted, and it ended with eggs on your face. Factually or otherwise, a large swath of people see the chaos he causes not as the endgame but as a leverage–strategic ambiguity. The irony is that you used to love the common folk but power corrupted you and you became uppity, Jehu who is from the upper echelons of society is now loved by the common folk not because he’s one of them but because he can relate to them – he is essentially a class traitor. Instead of looking at him as a man, you should have viewed him as the face of a movement. Not as a person but as a policy, not an individual but as an institution. Ultimately, people chose what in their estimation was a chaotic path to redemption over a peaceful descent into hell.
Real Recognise Real
You have an authenticity problem, cosplaying Jehu won’t cut it either. You’re too scripted; you listen to pundits more than you listen to people. Let me give an example of what people say about Jehu privately: “I know that dude is crazy, I don’t agree with half of what he says or does, but he keeps it real. He is as advertised, warts and all.”; Even when he blurs the line between disruption and destruction, he’s perceived as a known quantity because he has a signature way of doing things. Here is the real hypocrisy: the causes you’re against now are causes you used to support, but seeing Jehu align with those causes made you shift, and people saw that your opposition to Jehu is stronger than your belief in those causes. Telling people Jehu is bad doesn’t necessarily make you an attractive alternative; you still have to convince the people of why they need to choose you.
People want results, not reports; they prefer action takers who may not have the best execution over those who are all talk but no action. Your challenge is not necessarily a messaging problem; it’s also a policy problem. If you say 1+1 = 3, no matter how much you spin it, that argument is fundamentally flawed, and it makes you look funny. Then it makes people say, “Jehu might be a madman, but at least he acknowledges that 1+1=2.”; That’s how he wins the culture wars: the sheer audacity to state the obvious and let the chips fall where they may. Unfortunately, the only happy meal on the menu right now is the humble pie. You may not be loving it, but that’s your first step to redemption. If you don’t course-correct soon, more people, including very unlikely figures, will join the chariot of Jehu.
The Mainstream Media & Cancel Culture
For the first time in a long time, the curtain was pulled back and people had a glimpse of what really happens behind the scenes; they saw the coordination of the intelligence agencies, media, big tech, social and religious organisations. These people are not evil for having a different opinion; getting them cancelled or ‘de-platformed’ costs you big time – those who lost gigs, friends, and perks for not going along with the narratives of legacy media forged a bond from the crucible of their pain points. The silence of the people didn’t mean they agreed with the media; it’s more because they were afraid of backlash – that’s why there’s always a strong but silent support for Jehu. People are tired of the hyperbole, fear-mongering and astroturfing. People trust the mainstream media less now because it never took responsibility for previous lies. These were lies that ruined families and relationships, affected people’s businesses, education and lifestyles. You don’t get to come back after a while and position yourself as the moral authority.
Most times, regular people are the real experts; they are tired of being told to reject the evidence of their own eyes and ears. How can a group of people claim to be experts at everything except the obvious truth about Ahab? The reason more people are switching to independent media is simply because they are tired of the BS. If the so-called experts conveniently plead the fifth every time they are caught carrying water for Ahab, people figured they might as well listen to folks with common sense on alternative platforms, not some political operatives cosplaying journalists. People are not even annoyed that the mainstream media is partisan; they are annoyed that it pretends to be neutral. Smart media isn’t about regurgitating talking points; it’s about actually talking to people about what is important to them. The concept of speaking truth to power has a time utility; nobody is interested in hearing that water is wet after the fact. You’re not sorry out of remorse, you’re just sorry you got caught. Liar, liar, pants on fire!
Policy, Messaging and Leadership
You’re still stuck on stupid, doubling down on dumb and pandering to a vocal minority over a silent majority – this combination is a recipe for disaster, as you have experienced firsthand. If such positions are the hills you’re willing to die on, then Jehu will stack up Ws for a long time to come. When people are at their dinner tables, they say things like this: “Jehu might be crazy, but at least he’s speaking to the things that matter to us”;. A reason the ad nauseam ad hominem against his personality is not as effective as it used to be because more people judge him from the prism of his policy positions, contrary to what you think – there’s only a handful of people who are sold on the cult of his personality.
Understand that there is a difference between how insiders in the media or information industrial complex process news and how the common folks do. When you tip the scales of justice, it’s no longer prosecution – it’s persecution. When you persecute Jehu, you not only make him a martyr, you prove to people that he’s not part of the establishment, and in a season where people have a huge appetite for outsiders, he will easily be favoured. That’s why even when he becomes an incumbent, he is still telegraphing that outsider shtick by upending the establishment. What you need going forward is new leadership, common-sense policies and more relatable messaging. Call an audible on this clown show and wrap it up!
In A Populist Era
The biggest scandal in a populist era is not to be perceived as a patriot. You can call Jehu an angry patriot, a crazy patriot or even a bad patriot, but the consensus on the streets is that he’s a patriot, hence people are willing to give him more latitude than they ordinarily would. You cannot root for the homeland to fail, enter into with Ben Hadid or take sides with the opps and call yourself a patriot. You cannot burn the house to the ground and feel entitled to the support of the survivors – you’ve gone so extreme that you made the madman look normal. You have a big problem when your heroes, those you have an unnatural allegiance to, are those who hate the homeland, hence people struggle to put you and patriotism in the same sentence. Also, you cannot achieve a populist movement by faux outrage. Jehu achieved his via policy – even when most people are not his biggest fans, they held their noses and aligned with him.
In a populist era, you don’t want to be perceived as defending the status quo. Even when Jehu moved from an insurgent to an incumbent, he’s routinely slashing and burning the bureaucracy not just in an ambitious attempt to dismantle the machine that carries water for Ahab but also as a signal to the people that he still possesses his anti-establishment bonafides and that despite being in power, he remains the ultimate outsider. Young men are rallied around Jehu for many reasons; they want a leadership whose semper fidelis to the homeland is not in doubt, those eunuchs that were robbed of their masculinity physically by castration and socially by humiliation turned against the machine and aligned with him, they loathe leaders that talk down on them – they want someone who they can feel free to disagree with even when they are on the same team. The downside of is identity crises, when what usually works for you is being upended by the people; you become stuck.
Metanoia
If you choose to remain incorrigible and refuse to change your ways, you might be out in the wilderness for a long time. The bad news is that the worst isn’t over yet; more peril awaits you down the road. I may not be the biggest fan of Jehu, but I can tell you without fear of contradiction, it’s not a wise thing to bet against him; he’s playing with house money. Bro is out there hitting homeruns like a hammer – you can’t touch this. He’s locked in for the long game; the homeland will never be the same again by the time he’s done. Then everyone came for him, this time he’s coming for everyone – that’s why he’s cleaning house. Step out of your echo chambers and talk to people who can tell you the truth to your face. Remember this: “Not the ones calling the shots; they answer to men in grey suits who pull the strings behind the scenes”; – that was one of the many instances I called you out on being a . You threw tantrums and channelled your gaslighter-in-chief role instead of coming clean. How has that worked out for you so far? If you ask me, I’d say the conspiracy theorists have turned out to be right more times than I can count. You need to do some soul-searching. When the time comes, I’ll share some home truths on Jehu – I promise to address the elephant in the room. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
