This is handy — all those reflexive cliched phrases used by the alt-right, especially that odd phrase, “virtue signaling”, are entertainingly explained.
Except one. The new insult, “spengler”, is mentioned but left undefined. Now I have to make it my life’s quest to clarify spengling.
As in like, Egon Spengler?
There was an early 20th century German historian of ideas called Oswald Spengler, whose main thesis was that Western Civilization was in terminal decline. That seems like the sort of nonsense these kinds of arse-mongrels latch on to.
What happens if you misspengle spengling?
I remember coming across virtue-signaling during the whole ongoing Adjective Puppies debacle in SF book fandom. Apparently ‘people like different books than you and that’s okay’ was impossible for some people to understand: we couldn’t be voting for books like Ancillary Justice because we actually liked them.
The alt-right using the phrase seems to indicate that they can’t imagine why someone would care about advocating for others without an ulterior motive. Even ‘this affects my family members/friends, so it becomes my problem’ isn’t seen as good enough motivation.
As cartomancer@2 says, Oswald Spengler wrote The Decline of the West in the early 1900s.
I am not familiar with either Spengler or the book. According the link:
However, apparently Spengler had some rather idiosyncratic definitions; e.g., the abovementioned “Faustian Culture began in Western Europe around the 10th century and according to Spengler such has been its expansionary power that by the 20th century it was covering the entire earth, with only a few Regions where Islam provides an alternative world view. […]”
An interesting — and quite possibly germane — point is that, apparently:
I am not making any claim Spengler’s work, or parts thereof, is what the term is referring to, but it certainly seems plausible (based entirely on an admittedly quick reading of that link).
Wow, that system shock 2 part at the end was pretty fantastic, really brilliantly done.
The weird thing about that “spengler” insult is that Oswald Spengler was a prominent member of the so-called “Konservative Revolution” in Weimar Germany a group of far right-wing intellectuals who had important influences on National Socialism without being directly associated with it (some actually resisted to the cost of their lives).
The “Nouvelle Droite”, which is very influential in the far right in Europe (especially France, Austria and Germany – cf. the growing so-called “Identitarian Movement”) claims them as their paragon, which enables them (the New Right today) to basically talk like hardcore fascists while disavowing Nazism.
From this, it seems that “spengler” wouldn’t be an insult at all for these a-holes, on the contrary.
Also, H. Bomberguy rocks. Also watch his “Cultural Marxism” video.
Spengler’s books were influential in the development of Nazism. He argued that though the “West” would die, “a new breed of hard-hearted conquerors could arise in the Fatherland. Here, following the dictates of an ancient myth, a New Order would be established which, he wrote, would be called Das dritte Reich: ‘The Third Reich is the Germanic ideal, an eternal new dawn’.” His 1919 manuscript Prussianism and Socialism was a “savage indictment” of the Weimar Republic and the whole idea of democratic government in Germany, arguing that ‘Parliamentarism in Germany is either nonsense or treason’. He claimed that Marxists weren’t real socialists and the only real socialism was national/German/Prussianist socialism. This is how the book ended:
He also argued that countries exist to make war and that war was ‘the eternal form of higher existence’. He saw history as a struggle in which ‘race quality’ and the will to power always won.
Robert G. L. Waite, in The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler (from which the quotes and information above are taken) says that Spengler was “at first attracted to Hitler” as a man of destiny but “was soon disabused.” (Incidentally, this is noted in the context of discussing how Hitler was incapable of sustained, focused effort: Waite quotes Spengler as saying to a psychiatrist shortly before his death, ‘If Hitler is not defeated by anything else he will be defeated by this: he cannot really work’.) So if the insult is related to him, it might be about his having been an early fascist ideologue who turned against the movement. Just one possibility.
I would guess the reference is to Egon Spengler, the Ghostbusters character, but…
Virtue signaling: the idea that there’s no such thing as a good person, everyone is just as shitty and selfish as I am, and it gives me a sad when people act like I’m a shitty person and they’re not.
“Spengler” was actually made up by Hbomberguy to parody some of the ridiculous sounding alt-right buzzwords (though I’m guessing he probably coined it in reference to Oswald Spengler):
http://ask.fm/Hbomberguy/answers/137420527659
But apparently the word actually caught on.
It’s possible “spengler” is joke — someone who may be Hbomberguy writes:
And also:
Oh, FFS. Well, it was an opportunity to share some history.
Urban Dictionary
Urban dictionary explains, its from Egon Spengler of Ghostbusters fame, who’s contraptions to catch ghosts was pointless. Hence to Spengler means to be pointless and a waste of time. Sounds like self-reference to the alt-right.
Oswald Spengler, Oswald Mosley, Lee Harvey Oswald….
What is it about people named “Oswald”?
What a Maroon @16: You see what the careless naming of children leads to?
(Says someone named “Nelson Ebenezer” by his parents….)
This has now become too stupid for me. Whether it’s Oswald or Egon Spengler, whether it’s a real thing or not, it’s just too stupid. I thought actual real-life Neonazis were stupid, but these guys bring stupidity to whole new levels. I’m going back to playing Stellaris.
From Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge: “from Anglo-Saxon Osweald, from os ‘god’ and weald ‘rule’.”
And from the Online Etomogly Dictionary: “from Old English Osweald ‘god-power, god-ruler,’ from Old English os ‘god’ (only in personal names) […].”
So— Delusions of grander?
(There are, of course, perfectly decent people named Oswald.)
Oh good grief— “Etomogly”? Is it possible to have multiplle afterings ta Typos inn one wrod?
blf,
And here I was thinking it meant “bone forest”.
Of course, but they can’t be happy with the associations.
NelC,
Yeah, I’m very happy that my parents gave me one of the most boring names around. Except for all the times I get emails meant for my tocayos.
@Maroon #16:
…Oswald Cobblepot? I know! Spooky, isn’t it?
After reading Wikipedia, I think the key fact about Spengler is:
So a “Spengler” would be a person who is on the alt-right but refuses to follow Trump, on the basis that Trump is a short-fingered vulgarian who parrots alt-right rhetoric but doesn’t really understand it.
In German der Spengler is a plumber or a metal worker, especially in tin. If it is indeed an alt-right word (@12 blf casts serious doubt on this) perhaps it has to do with plumbing, sewage, etc.?
I doubt that alt-right types are this creative, but it could be stretched to mean a Tin Man. No heart? Nah. No way. That would really take some imagination.
Okay, I totally missed that “spengler” was made up by H. Bomberguy. After all, last time I exercised skepticism regarding alt-right insults, it turned out that “cuck” was a real thing.
The video seems to accept “spengler” as referring to Egon Spengler of GhostBusters. (Egon is the background image when the word is first mentioned)
That urban dictionary defn. (above) makes a lot of sense for an insult, EG:
spengler = (v) cobble together useless inventions (dot) (*whisper* … to confront the occult)
is my interp.
all the references above to the historical figure named Spengler is quite informative. Thank you historians.
We can too easily forget these are porn-obsessed college dropouts, not at all the sort of people interested by or able to understand obscurantist political philosophy from the Weimar Republic.
The obsession with “cuck” incidentally, does come from porn. One of the foulest trends in porn right now is the “cuckhold” where a husband watches (or is forced to watch) a wife/girlfriend be unfaithful. To get off on that, deep down you’d have to consider the woman your property, so it is strange they should associate it with liberals. Anyway it sets MRAs off something fierce.
The other big trend is superhero porn, and is 100% non-con. This is what’s flooding the brains of middle-class males 18-25, not Oswald Spengler or Hermann fucking Hoppe.
I remembered! The whole thing of mistaking nonce ghostbusters terminology for a German interwar historian reminds me (loosely) of this.
Right there. See also: White knighting
Cuckold porn may be a recent trend, but cuckold as a word has been around for a long time. Old french that comes from cuckoo, and refers to the birds habit of laying it’s eggs in other birds nests. There is also the “putting horns on someone” idiom. Odd that these are the same dudes who claim all their abusive behavior stems from their failure to get laid. You need a partner before you can be a cuckold, so how odd for them to use cuck as an insult to married men for failing to join their he man women haters club.
Like so many things (Pat Buchanan’s speech at a long-past, but never forgotten, Republican convention, for one), Oswald Spengler’s book-title The Decline of the West sounds much better in the original German: Die Untergang des Abendlandes.
Sounds like Trump, who even admits he has a short attention span.
So he was a loon.
Germany lost two world wars. After WWII they were in ruin and divided as war booty between the west and the USSR. I guess the Ubermenschen weren’t so Uber.
Sounds like John Bolton, William Kristol, and any neocon. Who are also always wrong.
@23
So like a Rod Dreher or a Straussian, all-in for traditionalism and rightist cultural supremacy, but disclaiming Trump as a dilettante or “really a liberal.”
@30
No, that’s not how it works for these guys. You see, to them, women of a “race” all presumptively belong to the males of the race by holy fiat. Human beings and sex are totally depersonalized, a “cuck” isn’t a man being cheated on by his wife, a cuck is a man who allows his race’s female “breeder stock” to be “invaded” and “defiled.” These dudes don’t have sex with women, they “Bang Estonia,” that’s what sex is for them.
Thus a “cuckservative” is just anyone who’s merely conservative, whom creep Alt-righties want to shame for not being a “race realist.” It sounded much more erudite in the original German: “rassenschande.”
@30
I never said it was a new word, just that its recent use among MRA-types is a reaction to what they consider emasculative porn. That’s the relevant origin here.
Manosphere will be my super-villain name.
To give credit where credit is due, Eric O@11 concurrently found the claim “spengler” was invented by what seems to be Hbomberguy.
Puzzlingly, as I quoted in @12, the apparent Hbomberguy says “it’s apparently also real?” What she / he is referring-to here is unknown; I speculate it is the Urban Dictionary definition mentioned by others.
I don’t think anyone has claimed “they” understand it, only that “they” could be aware of it — e.g., spotted the book title (The Decline of the West) during a search for something (p0rn, I suggest half-jokingly) — and then invented / presumed from there. However, since it seems the term, as used by Hbomberguy, was invented as a “joke” by Hbomberguy, pursuing this — whilst perhaps interesting for that obscurantist political philosophy (or as a study in how jokes can be misinterpreted?) — seems just as silly…
*glances at the election news* well, shit.
(I dunno, maybe it’s encouraging?)
It probably says a lot about what kind of nerd I am that I thought of ol’ Oswald rather than Ghostbusters when I heard the term.
At the time it sounded like a perfectly plausible insult to me: of course the ignorant manchild keyboard warriors and braindead neo-fascists who make up the “alt-right” camp would have only looked at the title and not actually read the book (or even a synopsis), and consequently called any person they don’t like a “Spengler” because they directly cause the Western world to decline.
Sadly, assuming they’ve read even the title of the Oswald Spengler’s book is probably giving them way too much credit. Their anti-intellectual streak is as wide as it is deep, and applies to their own political ideology as much as anyone else’s. Their slang and memes are generally appropriated from other sources, and are usually the most facile and simplistic ones available. So, “cuck” from pornography (with the added bonus that this version has embedded racism and extra misogyny the archaic term lacks), and “Spengler” from the old Ghostbusters movie or the throwaway joke in H.Bomberguy’s video seems quite likely.
@27
You could have made your po
@27
You could have made your point without the splash damage of attacking kinking people.
Cuckoldry is a fetish and is very prominent in straight BDSM circles. It isn’t always about ownership but more often about humiliation.
Can we not judge consensual sex please?
I can’t stand people who moralize about consensual sex. It’s none of your business what gets others off.
Mike Smith, you didn’t do yourself any favours, though you made a good point initially.
But at least you can stand those who moralize about those who moralize about consensual sex, given you’ve just indulged in the practice.
Consensual sex, good — moralising about it, bad. Gotcha.
(Or, your message would have been far stronger had you not tried to justify it upon your personal predilection)
@john
I didn’t claim that cuckoldry was good. That’s not my position. I’m completely neutral on the subject having never engaged in it and have zero interest in it. I’m claiming it’s permissible as all consensual sex is.
I’m not straight and I’m not into cuckoldry (which is what ulI think you mean by my predilection).
But yes when a person buts their nose in the private affairs of consenting adults and does a silly ill informed psychoanalysis of very individual and personal desires as blanket genersl claim, it does irk me. It bugs me for the same reason why all consensual sex is permissible: personal autonomy.
There’s an important difference between “how those people have sex is gross” and “stay the fuck out of other’s business.” It’s a special kind of stupid to equate the too.
My claim of you stay the fuck out of other’s business does not rest relativism.
Insert ‘on’ before relativism and insert ‘should’ between you and stay.
Anyone using the term “virtue signaling” is sending deliberate message about their politics, coded in such a way that other people who share their politics will recognize them and hopefully accept them as a member of the group..
So anyone who says “virtue signaling” is engaging in the act of virtue signaling.