Frequently (HA!) Asked Questions

In short, because the old one was silly and misguided - and in any case much of it became the dominant culture. What was radical during the 50s and 60s is now mainstream: moral relativism; bias against business and capitalism; bias against religious orthodoxy, targeting Judaism and Christianity in particular; the prejudices that comprise "political correctness;" and all the other elements of "liberalism" as it is currently understood. Conservatives are the true radicals of the present day.

Yup.

But we are speaking here of an imbalance manifested in ideology, not demographics. It's evidenced in K-12 and "higher" education, the legal environment, the leanings of government bureaucracies, and mass media. This will be discussed in further detail in an upcoming Recent Topic.

Unfortunately, however, if you are really interested in debating the point you're going to have to go elsewhere, because the arguments of the shrieking bozos of liberalism now tire us. Before September 11, 2001, we used to argue these issues anytime, anywhere, with great gusto. But the persistence of left-liberal silliness on issues related to national security after that event has made us think that those who still don't understand the nature of the world we live in probably aren't going to learn it via debate.

There's a whole class of beautiful people out there rooting for U.S. military and economic failure just so George W. Bush's presidency will not succeed and Roe v. Wade will not be challenged. In our view this reflects grotesquely misguided priorities, and we're not tenacious enough debaters or a skilled enough wordsmiths to go around trying to transform sick values.

So this Web site is for those who have at least a sense of why it's a good thing to be conscious of the new counterculture and those who are interested in it - not for those who dispute its reason for existence.

That being said, there is plenty of value in discussing and explaining the current state of affairs. There's a boatload of good analysis on this general topic on the Web, and if you spend any time reading the sources in our World O' Blogs, News! and Opinion! sections on this page's sidebar, the picture will become clearer.

Also, here and here on our Links page is further discussion on related issues.

No, because the contention persists among even the aging, liberal establishment lionesses that "the struggle continues" and the arguments from the old counterculture still need to be made. This myth is propagated in varied contexts, from the requisite Democratic campaign stopovers in black churches, to the class warfare rhetoric, to the current uprising of the angry left wing which positions itself as a direct link to the protests of the 60s, to the general stance that we have more to fear from the U.S. government and the U.S. military than from our enemies overseas. In all cases there is some reference to the notion that it is the liberals who are fighting "the man" for the sake of the little guy, when in fact they have been the man for quite some time. Just ask Elian Gonzalez. Ask anyone who home-schools their kids. Ask those who have tried to create conservative or Christian clubs on school campuses. Also, we might mention the strange yet amusing spectacle of activists and protesters raising hell for no apparent reason when the IMF meets, or when some trees may be cut down, or some other event gives them an excuse to have a parade. Though it's as much a caricature as ever, that group invokes the old banner: So for the sake of clarity it is useful to distinguish the new counterculture.

We are not attempting to herald any news about the culture wars here. This is an information outlet and "newcounterculture" describes the orientation. Besides, we had to name the Web site something and subgenius.com was already taken.

Despite the snarky tone, I must say this is a good question. Regarding opinion, we at newcounterculture.com see no need to add yet another voice offering commentary on every damn thing that happens in the world. There are way too many better informed people on current events out there. You can find periodic venting of our collective frustrations on the Alpaca Burger Forum, but mostly what you'll get here is writing about issues and a variety of links that may be of interest to those who have an interest in the new counterculture. Plus there are things we find especially humorous, and we do like to amuse ourselves.

As to whether another outlet distributing subversive information is needed, we believe it is at least helpful. If a totalitarian state were ever established in the U.S. it would be a dictatorship of the "progressives." These are the modern enemies of free speech and free thinking. A central assumption of liberal argument has always been: The opposing opinion should not be ALLOWED to be expressed. "Hate speech," "intolerance," and other code words of the left are elements of the big-lie underpinnings of this ideology. Identifying it is a worthy pursuit.

Our position on the major parties apparently requires some clarification. But we can start by stating that our designation of the P.O.W. is motivated by our observation that the party has many weasels at the top, and clearly some weasels in tow, yet also has plenty of decent, misguided folks who for whatever reason cannot install better leadership. By 'weasels' we refer to those who advocate policies that we deem potentially harmful to our country, and which we believe the advocates themselves know to be potentially harmful but continue to promote for their own political gain. 'Exploding head liberals' is a term of tenderness and sympathy for those who truly believe in such policies as explained here. By 'shrieking bozos' we refer to those who have been shown to be wrong, or are being proven wrong by events, yet continue to talk, talk, talk around the inconvenient facts of the matter to support their ever-more-complex rationalizations. These are overlapping groups within the Democratic Party and its band of supporting columnists, reporters, media mavens, celebrities, "experts" and intellectuals.

If the sick yet apparently established weasels contingent were to leave the Democratic Party, we would gladly put away the 'P.O.W.' designation and again refer to the 'Democratic Party' in the course of pointing out the ways in which it is usually wrong.

We align ourselves most of the time with the Republican Party not out of affection but rationality. An analogy will be useful:

Let's say you are out in the middle of the wilderness with a hairdresser and a veterinarian, and you injure yourself in such a way that a surgical procedure must be performed on you, or you will definitely die of internal bleeding. You must choose your surgeon from among your two companions - who would it be?

Obviously, you would choose the veterinarian. It is in the same spirit that we support the Republican Party.

To properly represent the current situation, however, we must add a twist to the analogy: The hairdresser is a clumsy nitwit who has a pattern of doing things that might seriously harm you. So you would still choose the veterinarian, but also keep a wary eye on the hairdresser. This is how we view the Democratic Party at this time.

The glass-enclosed nerve center of newcounterculture.com is located in Joe's Original Alpaca Burger corporate headquarters, high atop the Alpaca Burger Tower overlooking bustling downtown Reston, Virginia. Having made a small fortune over the past 20 years on direct sales and franchising of the Original Alpaca Burger, Joe is now in semi-retirement and has dedicated a portion of his earnings to advocacy of those causes he holds dear. In addition to providing a work area, Web server and modest stipend for the newcounterculture.com stable of authors, Joe's projects include: a revival of the hat boxing trade; treehouses for underprivileged children; and gaining public support for construction of two 100-foot bronze statues of Reston's founder, Robert E. Simon, at either end of town along the Dulles Toll Road. The latter effort has met stiff resistance from transportation officials but Joe vows to keep trying because, in his own words, "godalmighty, I love that man!"