Optimism Is Cowardice

A Defense of So-Called “Black-Pilling”

By guest contributor Memphissippi.

Among serious right-wingers, there is a divide between those who emphasize strategic optimism (“plan-trusters”) and those who voice persistent, reactive pessimism (“black-pillers”). This essay defends the pessimistic temperament not as defeatism or gleeful demoralization, but as honest observation and a necessary guard against complacency. Different personalities need different forms of morale; forcing everyone into relentless positivity distorts reality and undermines the truth-telling that defines our side.

1. Introduction

(Disclaimer: this essay is directed at right-wingers who are highly engaged and highly disagreeable when it comes to regime social and political norms. This category of people could be classified as the far right, the dissident right, the real right, whatever you prefer to call this thing. I’m referring to people who read Spengler, Evola, Yockey, and similar thinkers. This discussion will not make sense to the average Fox News Boomer, or even to the TPUSA striver.)

If you keep up with Twitter/X, or the right-wing podcasting circuit, you will be aware that there has been some mild infighting relating to political strategy lately that can loosely be defined as the “plan-trusters” versus the “black-pillers.” I have no desire to get into the more offensive terms each camp has developed for one another, as the venom of those terms is a big reason for why the fighting exists, and they should never be thrown at your friends.

I think that a tiny fraction of these “fights” would amount to anything of note if these conversations were held in person, but unfortunately we are increasingly a chronically online culture. If some of these e-fights are bad enough to end real friendships, which they most certainly have, then I think that they are important enough to discuss in a serious manner with a serious attempt to reach a resolution.

I am (seemingly) very pessimistic, especially on the surface if you know me in person. I rarely smile, and I maintain a stoic demeanor almost permanently. I’d like to say I am this way due to a rigid personal discipline, but the truth is that I just always have been like this, at least as long as I can remember. There are some advantages to it, such as calmness in high-pressure situations that can have a soothing effect on others around me, or the fact that I am often passed over for annoying small talk and little favors that manipulators seek because I am generally considered an intimidating person. On the other hand, there are plenty of costs associated with this demeanor, along the predictable lines of career advancement and ability to form close friends. This essay is not intended to be an endorsement for pessimism and callousness (at least what others perceive as callousness), because that is a difficult path to walk and the advantages associated with it are subtle and inconsistent. What I intend to communicate is the thought process of a so-called “black-piller,” because I genuinely think that there is a communication breakdown between these camps.

2. Oswald Spengler and the Title

The title comes from the end of Oswald Spengler’s Man and Technics. The passage is describing Faustian Man and the certainty of his fate:

…[a]lready the danger is so great, for every individual, every class, every people, that to cherish any illusion whatever is deplorable. Time does not suffer itself to be halted; there is no question of prudent retreat or wise renunciation. Only dreamers believe that there is a way out. Optimism is cowardice.

We are born into this time and must bravely follow the path to the destined end. There is no other way. Our duty is to hold on to the lost position, without hope, without rescue, like that Roman soldier whose bones were found in front of a door in Pompeii, who, during the eruption of Vesuvius, died at his post because they forgot to relieve him. That is greatness. That is what it means to be a thoroughbred. The honourable end is the one thing that can not be taken from a man.

This passage gets to the essence of my opinion about the world and where we find ourselves today.

3. What Is Black-Pilling, and Who Is a Black-Piller?

There are certain bad actors and talking points that I would agree are detrimental influences on the broader movement.

A noteworthy black-piller is Devon Stack. I quite enjoy a lot of his content, and he will do deep dives on subjects that almost no one has ever bothered to cover. A complicated figure, he has some nuanced views on politics that can be coaxed out under certain circumstances, but in general his schtick is that it’s over — hence, the name of his channel, Black Pilled. There is a breed of Devon Stack superfan who may be quite rare to encounter on the Internet but is, in my opinion, the most insufferable and poisonous type of person you will ever interact with. In general I agree that this specific type of person is cancerous. So how does someone like me compare to the worst specimen of this man’s followers? Well, depending on the day, I might be complaining about many of the same issues they are, and other days I might be complaining about those guys themselves.

What this current divide is primarily driven by is how much you complain about the Trump administration and to a lesser extent the Republican Party at large. At a fundamental level, I am not against Trump for ideological or personal reasons; I was supportive in the past and could be supportive again. I had a change of heart due to specific actions and policies. Others, however, have been hostile toward the administration since the campaign, and in their specific cases it has created a perverse incentive to take glee in the administration’s failures because of the personal clout and vindication they receive for their correct predictions. I do not think that these are personal failures that are specific to them, as I think that anyone who is not careful runs the risk of falling into a trap like this. So in short, I draw my distinction for justifiable black-pilling (or more aptly, unintentional demoralization) on whether or not you are reactive to real problems you see as they occur, rather than actively constructing a negative narrative before it even occurs as a basis to look more intelligent than others, and then using that clout in an arrogant and gleeful manner.

4. What Is the Basis of the Current Divide?

First, we need to establish a crucial point here, and that is how much we do or do not influence policy with our posts, podcasts, etc. It is my opinion that our influence in this regard is much less than what people in this sphere want to believe. There certainly is an influence, but it is difficult to measure, and there is also clear evidence that power will outright ignore what is clearly an online consensus when it suits them (at the time of writing, we were still on the verge of major strikes on Iran, something considered deeply unpopular across the board). It is my opinion that the influence we wield bears fruit that is primarily rhetorical, as there certainly has been an obvious shift there, but this raises other sorts of concerns (such as the possibility that it’s a pacification tactic).

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that our influence is actually very large. This seems to be the primary factor that motivates the committed plan-truster to lash out at the black-piller, as he believes that the black-piller is bringing down morale, and that it translates to real world policy and voter turnout consequences.

The plan-truster position is not irrational. In any mass political movement, morale is a force-multiplier. If enough people believe that “we are winning,” they donate, phone-bank, show up, and recruit. History is littered with hopeless causes that became self-fulfilling victories the moment the faithful recommitted. Strategic optimists are right to fear contagious despair; they simply over-apply the lesson by treating every skeptic as an enemy.

Yet beyond the over-application problem, this view makes a couple of other critical errors. One is that they are only factoring for other people like themselves, optimists, in the broader mass that is being appealed to. One of my mutuals recently made an excellent point I had never seen articulated, which is as follows:

…we find white-pilling demoralizing. For anyone seriously interested in morale, the many, many people of this pessimistic type also need their own type of morale-boosting, which is slurred as “black pilling.”

I agree with this sentiment completely. A podcaster or poster who is obnoxiously positive and spins everything as a win is so off-putting for some of us that it is borderline nauseating. If you are someone who understands that, then there’s nothing else to say, and if you don’t understand it at all, then I also don’t really know what to say, except that this is just the way of the world. Some people are like this, and there’s nothing good or bad about it; it just is.

A second error is a calculation they are making that it is preferable to put out positive propaganda, even bordering on false narratives, rather than to complain and demoralize fellow right-wingers and swing voters. Most of them likely would never state it in those terms, but let’s put it another way: they would prefer that you focus on positive things rather than highlight negative things, even when the negative thing is the biggest story at that moment. There are some egregious examples of this over the past few weeks, with major scandal coverage being minimized or downplayed while less consequential stories are amplified. The biggest problem with this selective focus is that the people you are trying to reach can see it, and they know what you’re doing. We just went through this entire cycle from the other side, watching the liberal media for decades gloss over uncomfortable facts, focus on irrelevant puff pieces, and generally gaslight you to paint a false reality. Am I claiming that the plan-truster narratives and demeanor have reached those levels? For the most part, they do not, but they have the same tactics, and for many individuals, it is in fact in the realm of comparable distortion. One of the pillars of our branding as right-wingers is the proclamation that we are the side that looks at reality the way it is and gives you the truth. Do some on the black-piller side make distortions of their own? Certainly, they do, but there are many good-faith critiques that are observing real, disturbing phenomena, and those critiques are attacked all the same by the committed plan-truster.

5. Why Would Someone Want to Be a Black-Piller?

Again, we need to reiterate some terms. As the basis of my defense, I am not considering a black-piller the type of person who runs targeted demoralization campaigns, but rather the general pessimist.

Before we move on, let’s look again at that Spengler passage quoted earlier and keep the spirit of that passage in mind for this section. What is unfortunate about the current divide is that people talk past each other and do not understand what is beneath the rhetoric that they present to the public. Someone might interpret my disdain for the current administration’s tactics as despair and a sign that I’m giving up, but this could not be further from the truth. I am acutely aware of my surroundings, the state of the country, and where things are heading. I have internalized that there are others like me out there who have recognized the fragility of our civilization and the current state of our people and are willing to do anything to protect it. Anyone who falls under this category is watching what is playing out in the political arena and knows that it is neither good enough nor close to good enough, and pretending otherwise is dangerous. Because of this, I aim to get through to people who can receive the message that political systems and parties as they exist can at best be used dispassionately as tools to achieve what our ultimate aims are, and those aims for me personally are the liberation of my people to control our own destiny. I view casually absorbing and amplifying the talking points put out by the administration, without the least bit of scrutiny or skepticism, as a threat to our mental and spiritual acuity.

People will respond to statements like this and assume that I am an accelerationist. The current line is “You see what happened to South Africa, right? You can’t lose on purpose and expect things to get better.” There is truth in this statement, but it’s become so cliché and used so frequently that it is starting to lose all meaning, especially when people do not bother to examine how closely the situation aligns with America in reality. Here’s a nugget to chew on, though: the regime that caused the collapse in South Africa is the same one I’m saying is dangerous to regurgitate propaganda in service of today.

The answer is no. I am not an accelerationist. Not in the way that people mean when they ask that question. However, I think that people have lost the plot on the whole concept surrounding accelerationism and what the supposed alternative to it is. Here is a post I put out a few days ago in response to someone who said that our only options are infiltrating the Republican Party, or just giving up (i.e., accelerationism):

I’m starting to think that aggressive politicking, which [infiltrating the GOP] falls under, is actually the real accelerationism.

By that I mean our political situation and national stability has drastically deteriorated since 2016. The more alarmed we get and the harder we push, the more resistance we face and the more unstable the system becomes.

Would the woke revolution have happened had Trump not been elected? Would the Biden open borders have happened had the regime not gotten so spooked from their close call? Would Covid have happened?

Let’s think about foreign policy right now. Would Russia have taken their opportunity to strike if they hadn’t recognized this accumulated instability? Would we be doing all of this crazy shit all over the world if the Jews, who everyone knows call the shots for decades now, weren’t so spooked about antisemitism and securing their broader interests while they can? These same Jews know that everyone is trying to infiltrate the GOP right now, and are on extreme high alert and will be willing to burn the whole thing down before they hand the reins over to us.

I’m not saying that none of this wasn’t the correct and necessary thing to do, we were asleep and being boiled alive in the pot. Maybe this was destiny and it had to be this way. But people don’t need to kid themselves, you’re getting accelerationism no matter what you do. The same inevitable conflict awaits in the distance no matter what. I think it would be prudent to keep this kind of reality in mind, rather than fall under illusions that we are going to “win” under what would be considered normal political circumstances.

Yes, I do some performative black pilling out of frustration, and yes I’m sure it pisses some people off, but understand that fundamentally I do it because I think people get complacent and do not grasp how serious the situation is.

To be clear, I think infiltration is good and I’m glad people are doing it. I think parallel structures are good and I’m glad people are doing that too. I just really think people have gotten lost in the sauce of what politics is and particularly what the consequences of politics are moving forward. It requires a degree of seriousness that we clearly are not getting right now, and I fail to see why acknowledging that is out of bounds for some people.

This is why I black-pill. I do not want people to get complacent. And I think that it’s unacceptable for people to get the impression that our singular focus and path for success lies with the Republicans winning in ’26 and especially in ’28. Let me pose this question: What do we think would actually happen if the Republicans DID win every election for the next 30 years? Do we think we would get Naturalization Act of 1790 America back? Would it usher in a real golden age? People need to get real and recognize what this country actually is as it currently stands, who controls it and how, and stop willingly playing into their games. And as I said in the post, infiltration into party politics is a tool we must use, among many, but this glorification of it and rhetoric that convinces others that it is THE answer to our problems and deserves our primary focus is spiritual and intellectual castration.

6. So, What Is the Solution, Then?

There is no singular solution. We all have to play different roles simultaneously to attack all sectors at once. And this is the aspect of the bickering that is most frustrating: both camps serve distinct roles that target distinct personalities, and going after one another is the behavior of simpletons.

While there is no singular solution, my singular advice is to organize with likeminded people and find anything and everything you can do with one another to create lasting communities. Focus on the small, subtle things that build your character and morality. That is what we are most lacking in modern America and across the West. We have become spiritually and morally bankrupt, and my greatest fear is that we will position ourselves to take real power, or some cataclysmic event destabilizes the existing system to such a degree that things are up for grabs, and we find ourselves unfit and unable to seize it.

Examples of what this can look like in practice include: men’s strength and training groups that build discipline and brotherhood; homeschool co-ops or church-based education networks that protect and form the next generation; local reading/discussion circles that study serious thinkers and apply them to daily life; mutual-aid structures such as shared land projects or emergency-response networks; church planting or renewal efforts that restore moral authority in communities; and, of course, joining your local Old Glory Club chapter. These are not glamorous. They do not produce viral content or immediate regime change. But they forge the human material capable of holding post when the hour arrives.

We are born into this time and must bravely follow the path to the destined end. There is no other way.