Grin ’Em to Death

Our enemies hate to see us smile.

By guest contributor T.J. Martinell.

“You see, there’s nothing so absolutely irresistible as an old-fashioned, good-natured grin.”
– Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier

Previously, I’ve written on how Americans can improve their aesthetics as one way to combat the present crisis we face. But there’s something that’s even easier to do, at least (literally) at face value. One of the ways that we can drive our enemies out of their minds is simply by smiling. Regardless of circumstances, we should smile more often.

“Grin ’em to death,” as Davy Crockett would put it in the Disney miniseries. This idea might perplex you, or perhaps you have already sensed the reason yourself: our enemies hate many things about us, but what they really hate is to see us happy. Moreover, they really hate to see us smile.

Consider the case of Nick Sandmann, a high school kid wearing a MAGA hat during a field trip to Washington, D.C., that resulted in his being confronted by a drum-banging Indian. Sandmann became infamous thanks to social media, and the sight of him evoked a seemingly inexplicable amount of hate and rage from fake or anti-Americans, particularly in the media.

Some noted how calm and collected he remained while having an adult yell and beat a drum in his face, but I’d argue that what provoked such indignation is that Sandmann was smiling a sincere smile. I recall one Twitter account describing this as “weaponizing” white supremacy.

There are many reasons our enemies hate to see us smile. One is that they themselves are not happy people. I could list countless reasons why. Their ideology is rooted in resentment, envy, and destruction.

To borrow from Star Wars, their hatred gives them power, but it also drains them because it is so toxic and negative. It’s the equivalent of using methamphetamine: it initially gives you power but comes at a cost.

One can just look at what they produce — architecture, fashion, films, art — to see the ugliness of their beliefs. It is inherently opposed to that which is beautiful, which, as I’ve written before, they consider to be “fascist.”

Misery loves miserable company, but it hates to see someone else happy. However, like with good aesthetics, there really isn’t any context for their anger to make sense. Lashing out at someone for smiling only makes you seem like a lunatic and, in the case of Sandmann’s detractors, can cost you millions in defamation lawsuits.

It’s also an effective form of subtle evangelism for our cause. Most people don’t respond to logic. They react mostly to good rhetoric, and when they see someone smiling and another person with bitterness all over his face trying incoherently to justify his negative reaction, they’re going to identify with the person they wish to become.

Yet, there is perhaps a much deeper reason for their uncontainable vitriol.

Americans like ourselves and Sandmann are being subjected to what can only be described as a state-sponsored invasion and conquest that is in its final stages after decades of subversion. For those of us old enough to remember, we had many institutions and organizations for American boys and men that have either been destroyed or subjugated by those who despise both us as Americans and the very entities they control.

Our history is revised to erase us, our heroes made taboo, our holidays mocked, and our monuments removed or desecrated. We’re lectured about our privilege by foreigners who have had everything handed to them on a gold platter as they sit in seats of power in all levels of society and culture and openly advocate on behalf of foreign interests.

Outside of explicit dissident activist groups, there is no one advocating for us even on paper. Those who should have held the line abandoned it, either to protect their own personal interests, or out of cowardice. No one even pretends to care about us, which is both a blessing and a curse. We know that we’re not even worth giving lip service to in their eyes, but we also are fully aware that no one is coming and it’s up to us. It is impossible to escape that brutal but vital reality, and ironically, that is something that we should be grateful for.

In short, everything that can be thrown against a people, apart from outright mass violence, has already been thrown at us. Yet, we still manage to smile, not in pretense or falsity, but with joy.

These people have everything. Every single aspect of the U.S. is saturated with their beliefs and norms. They control it all, and they won it without much of a fight. When they see us smile, they see people who have endured much more than they could ever imagine, which they know that they themselves could not survive.

When we smile, it’s a defiant reminder to our adversaries that they haven’t broken us, yet. As Al Pacino’s character noted in the film Scent of a Woman: “There is nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit; there is no prosthetic for that.”

For as long as we keep our spirits up, there is hope. Maybe not hope for the kind of America we once knew. Maybe not for the kind of America we’d like in an ideal world. But hope that the American nation will not perish from the earth.

We hope that our current struggle is not in vain. Hope that future Americans perhaps not even born yet will one day look at our perseverance and be inspired by that to achieve that which we can only see in our dreams, while those who hate us will not even be remembered by their own.

And that should be enough to make any American smile.

Recommended Reading

• “Battlefield Aesthetica”

• “Rush Week and Red Hats”