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Jon "J Onwuka" Wuka @nearzone.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

If you are reading "What Is A General Strike?" (journalofcogency.com/2025/03/02/w...), at the beginning I talk about issues I have with the UAW's planned general strike of 2028 (just corrected). I didn't get to them in the article but I'll talk about it here.

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What Is a General Strike? – Journal of Cogency

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Jon "J Onwuka" Wuka @nearzone.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

New post on Journal of Cogency: What Is a General Strike? Briefly exploring five* modern historical examples and trying to find the common traits: journalofcogency.com/2025/03/02/w...

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What Is a General Strike? – Journal of Cogency

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 19/02/2025

Just posted "A Non-Grand Thesis of Luxury Politics", which is the introduction to my in-progress explanation of the fascism of the current moment through a philosophical-psychological exploration, ~14 minute read: journalofcogency.com/2025/02/19/a...

Right now, I am starting to put together a work of philosophy, a thesis. My goal with this work is to explore this question: How does a smaller group of people manage to rule over a larger one? Why is “there are more of us” not enough to create change? My answer to that question is “the subjugation effect” and this work is my attempt to explain what that is.

To properly explain this phenomenon, I need to proceed in six stages. The first stage, political systems, will set the basic context of the argument. The second stage, money as a medium, will explore the binding force of money as an example of such forces. Third, the way we think, will develop the second stage and show how this “binding” can be generalized to other agents. Fourth, the mystery of cogency, will discuss the construction of social power and indirect action. Fifth, the subjugation effect itself, where specific manifestations of political-cultural subjugation will be examined in light of the first four stages. In the last stage I’ll explore the reason which motivates the continuing of the subjugation effect: the desire for luxury.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 19/02/2025

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 16/02/2025

Read my first-blush review of "Nietzsche and Philosophy" by Gilles Deleuze, in which I refine my position against Nietzsche: journalofcogency.com/2025/02/15/d...

I think that the core appeal of Nietzsche is in asking the question again; I’ve said this before. I didn’t, perhaps, give enough credit to what a monumental moment that may have been. This might be a historical fallacy; that is, because it’s such a common thing now, I assumed it was always the case. Surely there must have always been iconoclasts who went against the philosophical grain.

Also, Nietzsche’s dramatics and poeticizing are aesthetically appealing. It appears to be a much different way of doing philosophy than anyone else, and for that reason it appears to be saying something which is different than anyone else. It seems to demand appraisal on its own terms because it does not easily fit within the run of philosophy as such.

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Jon "J Onwuka" Wuka @nearzone.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

I wrote another anti-Nietzschean manifesto, this one is also a review of "Nietzsche and Philosophy" by Gilles Deleuze (12 min read) journalofcogency.com/2025/02/15/d...

Why do I want to do this? I have said this before, too. It’s because these ideas are conservative ideas. They are the conservative justifications for their political agenda. As such, they have no value for those who want real justice. They have less than no value because they make you second-guess the things you would do to achieve justice. They make you wonder whether even if you got a lot of support if it’s “the right thing”, if you are organizing “without ressentiment“, if you are not determining right and wrong through “slave morality”. It serves only to convince people that they should not seek to redress wrongs and it does this through leaps in logic and disguised interest. Holding onto Nietzscheanism is one of the biggest flaws that leftists have currently and its one they absolutely must let go of.

I am the man of ressentiment. I am the man of bad conscience. I am the slave who triumphs. Nietzsche put the poison pill down and I am swallowing it, and I will shit it out, too. I refuse to be afraid of being accused of the ideas he made up.

I am also the philosopher with the hammer. Nietzsche is the anvil. And I will never stop beating him to produce something better.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 29/01/2025

Because I'm feeling generous to all the losers: Why I Hate Nietzsche substack.com/home/post/p-...

But more than his existence, I hate the people still cite him approvingly. People listen to ideas about bad conscience and ressentiment, where Nietzsche is saying "you, the reader, are nothing but malice unless you are an elite" and say "yes actually, I feel so much ressentiment and that's why I want justice." They try to convince themselves that actually Nietzsche was being more nuanced than he appears to be.

Am I trying to say that Nietzsche has no complexity? Of course not. But people who defend Nietzsche's work almost demand that you ignore the things he says, things he never contradicts and that no one even suggests he contradicts.

His ideas are bad because he refused to understand the morals of his day, because he rejected their basis and therefore never considered that they might be as much a matter of practicality as they are of empathy. He never thought procedurally about why certain things might take place. The lack of connective tissue in his work is fairly alarming, and this is important because his ideas do not really make sense unless, like most philosophers, you have a little self-doubt inside that you like someone to beat on from time to time.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 29/01/2025

I'm tired of you fucking idiots who yourselves have not read Nietzsche closely coming up to tell me I didn't get it when you have absolutely nothing. Nietzsche is shit. If you think his ideas are good, you are a fool.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 29/01/2025

I say "Nietzsche promoted master morality and hated slave morality", people go "but he said we have to get BEYOND our morality", I say "yes, he says our morality now is slave morality and he says it shackled master morality, he is talking about a resurgence of that" and they just splutter.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 29/01/2025

And when I say no one has challenged them, understand me, they don't even venture specific challenges. No one has ever said "this thing you suggested is wrong". They just refer to other shit he wrote which barely supports their point. Fuck you.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 29/01/2025

I do not have any time of patience for Nietzscheans. You are all dupes. The only thing you have to say is "you don't understand what he wrote". No one has ever successfully challenged my arguments. Shut the fuck up.

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Jon "J Onwuka" Wuka @nearzone.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

I changed the title to "Why Normal People OFTEN Don't Fight Fascism" cause my point is that it's hard for normal people to fight fascism, not that it's normal to not fight fascism. Most people are anti-fascist open.substack.com/pub/jonwuka/...

Ultimately, most people are good, and good people are too trusting. That's not why the world is bad. It is why evil people get the upper hand.

Why is this?

The desire to not be bothered is incredibly powerful. It's probably the key to politics. It's why, despite everything, it's so tough to mobilize good people against the evil ones.

A lot of people forget (or want to ignore) that, to some extent, we are society. Rules and laws and norms are all things that get upheld because we collectively uphold them. This goes all the way up to national politics.

Most people are who I would call "normal people". If you're reading this, you are most likely a normal person. Do you think you're weird? You have strange politics? You're still normal. You're normal in the sense that you are willing to be a part of society to some level. If society at large decides something is a crime, let's say, a normal person will -- for the most part -- see the sense in this and work with it.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

The idea that a morality of compassion came not out of mercy but out of resentment is the key beginning of Nietzsche's reasoning and there is absolutely no reason to assume that it went that way. And if it didn't, none of what he says about morality makes any sense.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

My problem isn't that Nietzsche was mean to religious people or whatever. My problem is that his thinking is bad. His constructions have obvious assumptions and non-assumptions, the "slave revolt of morality" being the most obvious, and his absence of any idea of power-mercy.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

Obviously I'm weasel wording a bit but I'm watching this guy's video "Why Everyone Hates Nietzsche" and none of the arguments he makes would hold up against any questions of material analysis, it's all just like "well but it wasn't QUITE as mean as you think it was" and that's not the issue I have.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

While I know that there are communists/anarchists who are pro-Nietzsche, I really doubt that Nietzsche's work would endure a thorough communist or anarchist critique.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

A lot of people did and do see through it, to the point that I think most people with half a brain just avoid reading Nietzsche altogether. I wish I could get a grant or something to express just how little there is there.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

Nietzsche was both a genius and a dipshit. He's a dipshit because there's a very good reason that conservatives weren't really writing this shit down in reasoned language: it's because it sucks and people would see right through it. He was a genius for seeing that "Nah they probably won't though"

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

I have always said that the primary reason that Nietzsche gets any reading on the left is that people on the left feel like losers and Nietzsche gives them a way of justifying that feeling. Not explaining it and helping them get over it. Giving them a narrative for why they feel like shit.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

People always want to make it about how Nietzsche must have triggered you by saying this or that, and it's like look his arguments are bad. Him irritating me is just what got me to actually read his arguments and when you do that, which I have, they just fall apart.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

But he is just being a conservative, borderline fascist in the generic sense. Everything he thinks are thinks that you could expect a garden variety conservative to believe even if they had never read Nietzsche. That's because his big ideas are just conservativism.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

The reason that people read Nietzsche is that he is an arch-conservative and expresses that worldview. And the reason that people still read him is because the worldview he expressed is still prevalent among the elites of society, so when people read him, they feel like they understand the world.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

What I think is most irritating about critiquing Nietzsche is that he is extremely clearly an arch-conservative, to the point that people arguing that he isn't are primarily going "yeah he did say that, but...". It's all "being charitable" etc. etc. Why, though? Why do we have to do that?

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

Just to be clear, it's not that the people are consciously following Nietzsche's ideals, but this is the reversion of "Christian morality" that the old idiot wanted. People in this country think that Jesus should have killed his tormentors with a gun. That's a Jesus that Nietzsche could love.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 08/01/2025

We're living in Nietzsche's world and it sucks so much.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 30/11/2024

"Just lie to the public until you get power" = I do not respect regular people It's not a reflection of whether or not a strategy would succeed. That's just your position. Tell me which lie you think would work? It's none.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 30/11/2024

The thing about politics is that so many people with "good politics" have really horrible, unworkable ideas. They have dating advice ideas, you know what I mean? Their ideas sound good to them and their ideas make them feel good, but they are not tested in any way, not even just through logic.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 30/11/2024

I know how it works. You don't understand why your idea wouldn't even succeed and you're not amenable to finding out. Go run the same play the Democrats have been running but "leftist", good luck.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 30/11/2024

How would you achieve power? If you have achieved power, this is irrelevant as an idea because you already have power, just do what you want. If you have not achieved power, this will not allow you to achieve power.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 30/11/2024

The Democrats cannot trick their way into winning because they will never out-conservative the Republicans. The only people they could trick are those further left than the DNC and they are already doing that. The left cannot trick their way into winning because they have no institutional leverage

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 30/11/2024

The way to develop political power is to organize and deliver on promises. That's it. And don't get co-opted by another party. You can trick your way into power one (1) time, and even then, you have to be positioned right and get very lucky. After that, you better get a power base.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 30/11/2024

People have to get past this idea that you can trick the electorate or whatever. That is not how politics works. The Democrats and Republicans have the position to lie to get things done. No one, not even them, has the discipline to lie like this and then just turn on a dime when in power.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 30/11/2024

A deceptively terrible idea. Promises given on the campaign trail, especially by small parties, have to be executed on. How far are you willing to lie? Are you voting to end gay marriage "for strategic reasons"? When your base & recruits become only conservatives, will you be able to pivot?

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 27/11/2024

Hillary Clinton is like a track runner who gets the best time running but doesn't understand why she lost when the banner advertising the event says "HURDLES" and she knocked every hurdle over. That's the story of her lost election. Just a fucking idiot.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 27/11/2024

Hillary Clinton is so useless that she had to stay with her husband who was the most famous cheater in the world for a period because otherwise she would be totally irrelevant. People crying about how she was right just don't know anything.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 27/11/2024

Not in a moral sense. Hillary Clinton is a moral disaster, but that's not why she's an awful politician. She's an awful politician because she's never won a race that she wasn't gifted and the reasons are entirely her own fault. Least successful person with a big platform in American history.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 27/11/2024

It's so funny to see liberals constantly going "Hillary was right about _____!" No, she wasn't. You know this Trump guy you hate so much? Or "Drumpf" or "Fanta Cheeto"? Yeah, that was Hillary's fuckin idea. The Republicans would have beat him. She didn't know anything. Awful politician.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 27/11/2024

One thing which feels important to realize is that people can only be persuaded to hate the parts of communism that can be made to look like fascism.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 26/11/2024

Taking bets on the specific threat that Chicago PD made to the mayor. Personally I think they were more creative than threatening to throw him into the river.

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Journal of Cogency @journalofcogency.com · 25/11/2024

If you want to develop "revolutionary consciousness" I'd suggest you give this a read to help you define what it is you're trying to accomplish

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