Almadora/Light of the West/1. Why is the West Shrinking?.md

This is the question I asked myself in January, as I watched the American border disappear.

Illegal immigrants poured in, forming giant crowds in Eagle Pass. Joe Biden tried to force them in. 

Shocking.

I was deep in my own project and company. Suddenly, my work could not distract me. 

Biden was never competent, but this cut deeper. Foreigners walked into our land, and took our money to do so. 

As we saw the news, Americans agreed: we don’t want open borders. 

Even former liberals spoke out, such as Stephen A. Smith and Elon Musk. But the people’s voices changed nothing. The opinions and desires of Americans went unanswered.

So I wondered - why? 

Why are Americans forced to accept a giant invasion, and even to pay for it? 

I watched the news. I watched liberals gloat over the outrage. They said “What? Are you afraid of a little competition?" Something about that felt strange, but I did not know why.

I saw Mexicans rejoice. They released vitriol and resentment against whites, which I had never seen before in this quantity. They bragged about the demographics changing. They rejoiced that the illegals would take jobs. 

Still, that question stuck in my mind. "What? Are you afraid of a little competition?" Still, it confused me. 

Why doesn't it make sense?

This attitude isn't just from liberals. It comes from some conservatives too. It is the attitude that economic performance is the only thing that matters. To these people, political identities and problems are largely irrelevant. As long as the system allows a man a job and some money, what is there to worry about?

This is the ideology of individualism. It is the ideology of the American mainstream. It is the one I was taught as a child.

But somehow, that ideology has failed. The nation is getting invaded; foreigners are ascendant. If this continues, America will be nothing like it was when I was a kid, and certainly nothing like I want it to be.

This was not an economic problem for me. I already have a job. Two, actually. I just moved to Austin, my tech startup was growing rapidly, and the future looked bright. Illegal Mexicans are not an economic threat. If anything, they are probably helpful, because they provide cheap manual labor. I am not in that industry, so there is no competition.

But what about the nation? Do I want to live here if everybody speaks Spanish? If everyone is Mexican? What happened to the America I grew up in?

That America is dying. Fast. In this moment, I don't actually care about the economy - I care about the nation. The culture. The people. All of which are, apparently, dying.

Seeing this existential situation, I think back to my childhood. I attended Classical Christian schools from the time I was seven to the time I was eighteen. They were very English, and very Protestant. Now, I have fond memories of growing up in that culture. A culture which was, undeniably, my own.

I never recognized the Englishness of these schools before. Strange. To me, they just seemed normal. But now, in the face of a foreign culture, my own is more clear. My high school in Texas had four houses that each of the students would get sorted in. Each was named after an English author. Not American, not European, but English. My grade school in Florida had a memorable logo: A red shield with a blue cross, and a gold lion on the front. Like Richard the Lionheart.

In the literal sense, a huge proportion of the students and teachers were English. 98% or more were white.

And I liked it.

If that culture is dying, then I must know why. In this moment, nothing else feels important. Nothing else matters.

And then I realized:

THIS IS THE COMPETITION.

One people holds a territory, another covets it. What competition is older than this? 

A war, to decide who wins. That is the oldest competition of all. It is a competition we have lived for thousands of years.

After all, what does a nation do but own land? The jobs and economy are secondary to that simple purpose. We own this land, and they do not. That is what it means to be a Citizen of the United States.

The more I considered, the worse it was. Forcing in foreigners is what a government does to its enemies, not its citizens. Ten or twenty million would permanently change the nation. If they vote, it could even change this election.

For months, I had followed politics on the surface level. I had watched all sorts of extreme opinions flying about. Through it all, I always remained focused on my work. But this time, it was different: 

This is a coup against the American people. 

Now, whoever imports and bribes the most foreigners can rule the land. We, the people, mean nothing to our leaders. We do not rule this land. Our very land, the basis of this nation, that is shrinking. We are literally losing ground.

I considered this, and why it impacted me so much. Nothing else in politics had. All I could conclude is that the opening of the border is far more important than just a presidential policy, and my reaction is far more primal than just a political opinion. The reason is simple:

What man wants to lose his land?

The border dispute is not simply American, but human. Men are territorial. Man’s desire to rule land is as old as all the nations. For thousands of years, we have forged governments and fought for land. Even animals do the same: clans of Chimpanzees fight over their borders, defending and expanding their nation. Our civilizations are measured by their land. 

This is even why we remember Rome: land is the eternal measure of achievement.

In that great measure, Americans are declining. We are being forced, by our own government, to let in foreigners. Our borders were our nation’s influence; the land we owned. Now, those borders are caving in. Our leaders are importing millions, and even using our money to bribe them. 

The tyranny that began the American Revolution was nothing compared to this. King George made our stamps expensive; Biden is giving away our birthright.

Perhaps the immigrants are nice, hard workers. But it is still wrong to open this land up for all. It goes against Americans’ basic interests. It destroys American culture, since many immigrants don't even speak English. It hurts many of our own young men, who now have more economic competition for resources. 

If we were really the rulers of our own country, we wouldn’t do this. 

But apparently, we’re not. 

We no longer rule this land. 

So who does? 

Obviously, the Democrats are the ones opening the border. They are the party of elites, globalism, multinational corporations, and the political establishment. They are the heirs of neoliberalism, which began around the 80s. They are the party of the urban: men less connected to the land.

But as I considered the Democrats, I realized: Europe is open too. As we speak, Europe is being invaded by Muslims, Africans, and Indians. The people don’t want more migrants, but they are forced to accept them.

So, it's not just the Democrats. It’s across this civilization: an open-borders alliance of bureaucrats, liberal citizens, big corporations, journalists, and intellectuals. 

All Western leaders are opening our borders. All Western leaders are giving away our land.
These actions, which seem so contrary to the idea of a nation, are brazen and clear.

But why?

I listened to one of Britain’s political debates. They said it was economics. They said birth rates are declining, so they need migrants to work jobs and maintain quality of life.

I had heard this once or twice before. I never gave it much mind. But as I thought more, it became strange. Our populations are shrinking? Why do our leaders sound so indifferent? Do they not care about us more than a random foreigner? 

But that’s when I realized something much more important: it’s not our borders.

It’s us. 

*WE* are shrinking.

Losing our land is just the result.

Our nations themselves, our people, are on the path to extinction. 

But decades ago, when our leaders found out about the birth rates, when did they ever bring it up? When did they try to reverse it? Strangely, they sought the opposite: they encouraged feminism and women in the workplace. They outsourced our manufacturing jobs, impoverishing millions of men. Together, these policies destroyed the middle class family.

Our leaders pushed comfort and consumerism, and the birth rates fell. Now, they use the birth rates as an excuse to give away our land. 

Before, it seemed like a coup. But this seems more like a murder. Or like a suicide. Either way, the nation ends up dead. 

So why? Why would they do this?

They say it is about economics. To them, it does not matter which people are on the land. They don't care about the people, and they don't care about the culture. Instead, they care about the system: the government and the economy. 

Somehow, “by the people and for the people” has been hung upside down. Our government is now “by the system, for the system”. We are just numbers in a spreadsheet.

Our governments have gradually shifted the goalposts to imply that they, the system, are the source of the nation’s greatness. The conclusion this leads to is good people support the system. Those who don’t are traitors. 

This puts Westerners in grave danger: our governments were meant to be our collective will. They were the guardrails to our lives. Now, if our governments are betraying us and their new slaves are attacking us, where can we go? We are trapped between a runaway system and angry barbarians. We have no state at all.

How did we get to this point? Don’t we have leaders that care about the people?

Where are our conservatives? Where is our tradition? Entire countries are falling apart, and many are simply complaining on the internet. They don't say it - we are shrinking.

Instead, all they say is: “Can we open the borders more slowly?”

Our conservatives don’t discuss land and people at all. They only know a third word: "culture". Year after year, our conservative politicians speak of "preserving culture" and "assimilation." They never mention the birth rates; they never mention the land. They talk merely of preservation, as we watch millions of random foreigners pouring in.

European culture keeps on shrinking. Christianity is at an all-time low. Divorce rates are at an all-time high. Vulgarity prevails in the media. Migrants assimilate less every year.

Is it really any wonder why? If our people and land are shrinking, why would our culture grow? And if we never make an effort to gain more people or land, won’t we keep shrinking?

If we never make an effort to grow, why would we even *exist*?

Isn't it simpler to have children than try and force our culture on foreigners? And yet, nobody says it. Nobody campaigns for more people or land.

Our traditionalists only try and *conserve* what exists. That is why they are called conservatives. Our liberals work to give it away: abort more children, import more immigrants. 

If one man in the rowboat paddles backwards, and one doesn't paddle at all, won’t we always go backwards? Of course. With these two choices, we always shrink. We never, ever grow.

Seems obvious - even scandalous. Our entire political system of liberals vs. conservatives aims toward one outcome: 

We will shrink.

But nobody talks about it. 

And so, it continues.

How long has it been this way? 

How long has this been going on? 

How long have we been shrinking? 

In America, the last time we had a birth rate increase was 1945. The rate peaked at 3.65 children per woman, and then steadily declined ever since.  

These are the demographics of the past 60 years:

In 1960, 35 percent of the Earth was white. 
90 percent of the U.S. was European.
99 percent of Britain was British. 

In 2024: 
Whites are 9 percent of Earth.
Europeans are 54 percent of America.
The British are 80 percent of Britain. 

And nobody has said a word.

With 100 more years, there would be no whites on Earth. Europeans would cease to exist. Yet - not a shot fired. No wars killing us. Only ourselves.

Only in the past ten years have populists appeared, infusing more energy into these vague ideas of “preserving culture.” Almost always, these leaders act shocked at recent events. They talk about the "Great Replacement," as if it's a new idea. But haven’t our people, culture, and land been disappearing for the past 60 years?

For the first time in more than a millennium, we are shrinking on the world stage. 

We are accepting unvetted young men from foreign countries. We are welcoming danger and watering down our culture. We have lost the will to be fruitful and multiply, and we are losing control of the land our fathers gave us. This is not a healthy civilization, but a dying one. 

And the only way to reverse this decline is to seek growth.

When is the last time a leader campaigned for growth? 

And why aren’t we doing it anymore? 

Unfortunately, this one was an easy answer.

April 1945:

the last great Western Expansionist shot himself in the head.

And, ever since, we have shrunk. 

By 1970, all European nations had abandoned their colonies. The only future aspiration? Conserve the postwar borders and conserve the traditional culture.

In 2024, even that is ambitious. Our men are jailed for ideas. Our women are threatened in the streets. Our borders no longer exist.

Only America, supposedly the great victor of World War II, still clings to a shred of freedom. And even here, in the gilded postwar cage, we see:

humans do not reproduce in captivity.

Our leaders welcome migrants through the door, luring them onto the land and handing them the livelihood that my grandfathers fought to obtain.

But still:

we think it evil to grow our borders, expand our culture, or multiply our people.



After all: isn’t that what Hitler did?

Isn't that what the Nazis did, in all their regalia? The embodiment of all evil in this world, who every child is taught to fear?

But it's clear:

that was last time we tried to grow.



So,

As we see our nations trampled, standing between Hitler and oblivion,

We must know:



Why does the West shrink?