The Runaway Train

A popular topic on this side of the great divide is how much of what we see from the ruling class is directed and how much is emergent. Put another way, how much of it is the result of conscious coordination from some central source and how much is just the mentality of the swarm. Those who like conspiracy theories and simple answers prefer the coordination model, while those with experience in complex human systems prefer the emergent behavior approach.

Of course, both can be true. Elites in the anglosphere have been enamored by what is called nudge theory for a while now. the 2008 book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness was a big hit with the managerial class, as it suggested a feminine way to compel social behavior. Instead of ordering people around, elites would use their power over the institutions to “nudge” people in the preferred direction with positive incentives, rather than force.

As is so often the case, Nudge Theory is really an old idea tarted up with managerial class jargon that comes from the graduate schools. The tax code in America has been used this way long before the nudge idea. The mortgage interest deduction is a nudge toward home ownership, rather than renting. Business gets tax breaks for capital purchases when the economy is flagging. The government food pyramid is a way to nudge people toward one form of consumption over another.

The food pyramid is a good example of how conspiracy and emergent behavior work together in a mass society. The people behind the food pyramid are the giant agricultural concerns that control the food supply. A high carbohydrate diet is more profitable than a healthy diet, so they bribe government officials and academic researchers to promote the high carb diet. At the same time, people actually believe in the “low fat” diets now so no nudging is required.

We are seeing this with the Covid drama. The inner party has finally realized they have a serious problem on their hands with Covid theater. People have figured out that they can get two weeks out of work by claiming to have Covid, so the great winter sick-out is starting to harm the economy. Of course, the contradictions and lies about Covid are undermining their ability to tell future lies. Biden’s last speech on Covid came with a message to the media to cool it on Covid.

The White House is pushing a message to the media, which they expect the media to blast through their megaphones. You are starting to see planted stories about how Omicron is harmless and a good sign. On the other hand, the hive mind of the media has been tuned to spread fear about Covid. The front page of party organs like the New York Times are organized around Covid theater. The result is a weird whipsaw effect where the message swings wildly back and forth.

Covid theater is useful in exploring the hive mind aspects of this age. All of a sudden, tens of millions of normal people are made aware of the fact that many of their associates are not just liberal, but possibly insane. The people wearing ceremonial face gear are exempting themselves from the normal tribe and declaring their allegiance to the crazy tribe. One sort of emergent behavior, triggered by the Covid conspirators, is causing new emergent behavior among the healthy.

Those big tanker trucks you see on the road are a good model to think about when considering this stuff. Inside those tanks is either compartments or what would look like a baffles if you peeled back the skin. The point of the internal structures is to give the tank rigidity but also prevent the fluid inside from sloshing around. A ton of water sloshing forward when braking would create a tremendous amount of force. The tankers are designed to keep the contents stable in transport.

That is a good way to think of society. The hive mind, the emergent behavior is like the fluid inside one of those tankers. When the ruling class jams on the brakes or takes a sudden turn, general opinion can swing wildling in one direction. The initial Covid panic is a good example. The baffling is supposed to be local institutions, community and the traditions of society. They are supposed to put a brake on the wild swings of opinion caused by the sudden lurching of the ruling class.

This is the proper image for modern America. It is a tanker truck racing down the road half full of fluid. During the Trump years it swung from one side of the road to the other, in part due to the driver and due to the sloshing about inside the tank. The Biden turn at the wheel was supposed to stabilize things, but every reaction on their part to stabilize things has caused a new action inside the tank. Trump enjoyed the ride, while Biden is hanging on like prisoner to the machine he is driving.

The point is, much of what looks like conspiracy is just wild reactions to events that the elites set off by a legitimate effort to nudge society in a preferred direction. Just as war plans do not survive contact with the enemy, elite conspiracies do not hold up very long after contact with mass society. Covid is revealing just how little control our ruling elites have over their creations. They unleashed a panic that has become a bizarre subculture they no longer can control.

This does not settle the question at the start, but it does suggest the question is not all that important. Unless you are inclined to believe that the people “really in charge” are super-geniuses able to play four-dimensional chess, yet not realize you are onto them, it is hard to see the hand of design in the current madness. On the other hand, emergent behavior does not explain the players who are fortuitously positioned to profit from the madness unleashed by our rulers.

Perhaps the way to think about is as a process that evolves and two of the forces driving the evolution are conspiracy and emergent behavior. The former is locked in on short term gain without considering the long term consequences. The later forces are just the normal social forces weaponized by the collapse of that internal baffling that comes from strong local community and traditions. The empire is a runaway train and all of us, the engineers included, are just along for the ride.


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Steve (retired/recovering lawyer)
Steve (retired/recovering lawyer)
2 years ago

Much of interest here. First, a high carbohydrate diet is great for fending off starvation or keeping a population alive in the midst of shortage of more appropriate sources of nutrition (meat, fowl, fish). Historical examples include the diet of bread and beer that ancient Egyptians seemed to enjoy while occupying themselves in pyramid building. Likewise the dirt Irish leading up to the potato famine or the typical Scottish diet of oatmeal, since they couldn’t grow anything else in their hardscrabble, rocky soil and their British overlords deprived them of better fare. It is the opposite of an ideal diet,… Read more »

miforest
Member
2 years ago

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/stop-and-assess-2/ james looks at the same issue and comes up opposite

370H55V
370H55V
2 years ago

“The result is a weird whipsaw effect where the message swings wildly back and forth.”

Oceania has ALWAYS been at war with Eurasia.

“All of a sudden, tens of millions of normal people are made aware of the fact that many of their associates are not just liberal, but possibly insane.”

Having a vagina is a good indicator of such.

Falcone
Falcone
2 years ago

What is “emergent behavior” ?

another fred
another fred
Reply to  Falcone
2 years ago

It is most easily envisioned in bird flocks or schools of fish. The group acts as a whole without any instructions from an authority.

Society emerges from groups of humans. It is only the big wheels who think they are in charge.

As Napoleon “said”, “The people are on the march and I must go to be at their front, for I am their leader.”

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  another fred
2 years ago

Thanks!

Learn something new every day ….

trumpton
trumpton
2 years ago

Oh look the CDC now says that PCR test are completely unreliable and show positive results for up to 12 weeks after infection (i.e the immune and recovered would be positive – ignore the inappropriate cycles and false positives on top).

Then one must ask:
Over/under on how long ago they knew this?
Why the constant push for testing?
How many people were jabbed on the basis of a recovered false positive?

How is “The Science” holding up now?

Does this count as a conspiracy to achieve other ends using the last years constant push on positive cases?

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

They may start to lose the NPC dumb shits around the margins now. While I don’t think the public would even yawn if FedGov admitted it had engaged in a mass lying and terror campaign, all bets would be off if the vaccines did start to maim and kill people en masse, which I think is possible.

Some elements want off the train. Who and what, we cannot tell, but that is happening. The psychopaths who test themselves constantly, though, want to believe it is real and they will not be denied. The fallout will be lit AF.

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Nah, its “emergent behavior”

No conspiracies here!

jpb
jpb
Reply to  Bilejones
2 years ago

I supposed the mass vaccination hysteria to get the spike protein delivery system into our children’s bodies was just emergent behavior of the hive mind buzzing around the media narrative until I heard RFK describe Pfizer’s liability exemption for vaccine injury depends on the vaccine being approved for children. Pfizer knows it’s going to kill some kids but business is business unless you think there is a conspiracy to monetize the human immune system. By design—hell yes!
https://odysee.com/@TimTruth:b/Rfk-child-vax-immunity:1

another fred
another fred
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

The CDC also says that labs should develop protocols that can distinguish between flu and Covid-19, which “says”, but does not admit that they’ve been reporting flu as Covid for two years.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Team D (and not a few Team R) elites have conditioned too many Americans to think they can stay home forever, receive government aid, and never work again because “Covid”. Reality is a bitch. The left has wrecked the economy partly with inflation, but more so with the idea that infinite money printing is the exact same as 350 million people working their asses off to struggle and survive. It’s not, and the elites just figured out that while their portfolios have never been higher, paper wealth means nothing if there’s nothing to buy. (The serfs are NOT going to… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 years ago

OT: am driving across the country this week :). this is day#3, am outside of San Antonio. Texas is a handful, has a weird entropic vibe, so empty; went 200 fuckin’ miles with 0 services available. you had better plan your fill-ups, when going across this state. thinking about the end of Easy Rider, as I prepare to enter Louisiana. Have about $20k of stuff (including several pounds of silver) in my car :p. Give thanks each morning when i come out of my room, and it hasn’t been ransacked. Hotel rooms are in short supply, and are the controlling… Read more »

David Wright
Member
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

I would be more worried about cops ransacking your valuables and laying claim to them, which they almost assuredly would if given the opportunity.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  David Wright
2 years ago

if my car gets searched in Texas, ransacking won’t be my main worry :P. have some “things” to help with the tedium of driving…

Falcone
Falcone
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

We just made the drive from LA to Florida. We went down I-40 because wife didn’t want to drive through the monotony of Texas via I-10. But we did go through Amarillo and then down to Dallas on highways and across the 20 to Jackson. Texas is weird. There were so many ghost towns too up around and to and beyond Amarillo, which was surprising. I like Amarillo because it was chill but Dallas was hell. Drivers are insane. People are rude. I told myself I’d never set foot in the state again. It was funny but when we got… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 years ago

Zman, was the title of this post, a reference to the excellent Jon voight/Eric Roberts movie, “Runaway Train”? Because, god damn that would be tres cool…

David Wright
Member
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

That was a great movie, worth a rewatch now.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Well not technically a runaway train, today’s essay title reminds me of the scene in Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Because of labor shortages, a decision is made to ignore a railway red light so a high-speed passenger train with VIPs that could not be delayed goes full speed into a tunnel heedless that an oncoming military Munitions train is already in there, blocking the only East West railroad line.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Did you enjoy the book? 🙂

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Don’t want to start a Rand debate here, because…erm…well, what’s the point. But, you gotta admit her Fauci-like character was pretty spot on.

usNthem
usNthem
Reply to  Outdoorspro
2 years ago

Speaking of another Rand, as in Paul – sure has been taking fauci out behind the woodshed (lol), accusing him of causing thousands of deaths. Yet curiously, isn’t demanding that sob twerp be arrested immediately – maybe just resign – really Rand? A real hardcore tough guy. All we’re hearing about lately is that f*** will retire with the largest fed pension of $350k…

fakeemail
fakeemail
2 years ago

TAXES are the ultimate “nudge” or way to subsidize behaviors and PEOPLE themselves.

Since the 60s, TRILLIONS of tax dollars have gone to the r-selected at the expense of the k-selected. Hence, lot more r peeps and a lot less k.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  fakeemail
2 years ago

If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.

– Ronald Reagan (who was unfortunately wrong about many other things)

KGB
KGB
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Over the course of our lives, we’re all wrong about many things.

Maniac
Maniac
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Never understood the Republican infatuation with that dude.

Bilejones
Member
2 years ago

Unless you are inclined to believe that the people “really in charge” are super-geniuses able to play four-dimensional chess, yet not realize you are onto them, it is hard to see the hand of design in the current madness. So Schwabs WEF who have prophesied that “You will own nothing and be happy,” after the Great Reset” have no role in the up-coming; sometime in ’22 economic collapse? It’s purely coincidence that the Real Estate markets have been roiled by Hedge Funds buying up surburban middle class housing sight unseen at 20% over listing, by the hundreds where available. And… Read more »

Andy Texan
Reply to  Bilejones
2 years ago

Mr Z does not believe in the plandemic and Great Reset conspiracies although the perps are weirdly prophetic (almost like gods).

Disruptor
Disruptor
2 years ago

Swings of sentiment favor those with the strength/means to endure and profit. A slow season at the mine means miners losing jobs and homes. All manner of people are forced out. Traders and insiders have the connections to finance and insider knowledge to profit from the misery. They know when there are going to raise and lower rates. They know when they are going to push a pandemic/downturn and thus create a market drop, and stand at the ready with trillion of free money to profit. An everyday steady state allows for folks to advance at a reasonable rate. To… Read more »

NateG
NateG
2 years ago

On the Biden truck/trailer, there doesn’t seem to be any baffles inside the tanker. They slammed on the brakes and the liquid sloshed to the front of the tanker, causing it to go out of control and end up in a ditch. What baffles me (pun intended) is how incompetent Biden’s handlers are.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  NateG
2 years ago

As their intention appears to be to destroy the US by any means necessary I say they are doing pretty well.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

what is being destroyed? was it good before? i see the cage doors swinging wide open…

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Did you previously live in a disfunctional nation with so many third world migrants shitting on the sidewalk in some cities that there is a mapping app, organized looting gangs stealing from shop in broad daylight with the support of the Justice dept, your own legislators kneeling in congress with masks on in memory of a black felon, the Federal govt flying tens of thousands of illegal immigrants around the country on charter flights and the entire media calling for the practical internment of millions of white americans as terrorists?

If so then its probably the same.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

since you missed my point completely, i will not bother explaining.

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  NateG
2 years ago

The Biden Regime is a Tumbleweed Cluster-Fuck.

There is no driver.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

OT: I am currently on the ground in a fairly red state, just over the border from one of the worst blue states. Life here is largely normal. I have yet to run into a business that even has a sign requesting face diapers be worn or hand sanitizer by the door. Last night at the bar the 20-something white couples were talking about hog hunting, shooting, and applying to the University of Tennessee. The young women at the diner this morning greeted me with beaming smiles and refreshed my cup of coffee with relentless cheer. Driving around after breakfast… Read more »

La-Z-Man
La-Z-Man
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Tell us at least the county and state this is. I’d like to move there judging by the description.

Maus
Maus
2 years ago

The allegory of a baffle-less tanker truck is a good one. I am seeing more evidence of this strange whiplash local versus global bifurcation at the level of individual choices. Spending Christmas with my younger sister and brother reinforced this. Food was ordered takeout or delivery, but only from local “ethnic” joints: Thai and Mexican. It was made clear that chain restaurants are double plus ungood. But over the course of the week, Amazon delivered packages each day. My niece actually proposed trying on shoes at a local shop purely for the purpose of ordering the “right” size on Amazon.… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
2 years ago

Dumpster Fire World.
If yesterday’s was stellar, this one’s positively galactic. Lawsy, this one’s deep.

The Greek
The Greek
2 years ago

Not sure if you’re familiar with Endeavor’s work, but he had a recent video on exactly his topic that’s worth checking out. His hypothesis is based on the philosophy of William James that war serves a purpose for men as giving birth does for women. In the absence of wars, governments can and should set up moral equivalents to fulfill that purpose. A constructive example of this would be having men build skyscrapers, bridges, etc. In the wake of WW2, liberal democracies, based on individualism and capitalism forced their way upon the world and set up the moral framework. He… Read more »

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  The Greek
2 years ago

“In the wake of WW2, liberal democracies, based on individualism and capitalism forced their way upon the world and set up the moral framework. He believes covid and global warming will be used as the new moral equivalent to war to set up the moral framework for more globalist and collective goals.”

This seems disturbingly plausible.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

Emergent behavior is far more important than conspiracies, as is also implied in the OP. It seems exceedingly likely that the elites are not really in control of the situation, that they are also responding to, more than creating, events. And, in both the tank truck model (which seems to make a lot of sense) and society, the more momentum is picked up by the masses (of fluid or ‘common’ people)’ respectively, the less control any conscious being (the driver, the elite) can exert. If the tank truck model is generally valid for understanding this dynamic, what does one do… Read more »

John Flynt
John Flynt
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

It was too perfectly done in the US to be emergent. Civil rights law was ingeniously crafted to destroy old America. Without central planning it would have more flaws and tinkering needed. American elites are extremely evil, very smart. and foreword thinking. They know how to use Liberalism and Conservatism to get what they want, thats why they have settled on those two political ideologies as their vehicles for control. And why was civil rights supported by both rock ribbed conservative republicans and liberal democrats unanimously? These sides threw chairs at each other over minuscule differences in tax rates, but… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  John Flynt
2 years ago

What a load of drivel.Its the same all over.

Europe and the US pretty much simultaneously (within a few years) altered their entire immigration legal framework and embarked upon the large scale and systematic importation of the third world directly against their population’s wishes on all side of the voting spectrum.

At the same time huge propaganda pressure was used against the population in news and tv.

Where did that emergent behavior come from?

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

edit: ignore the first paragraph

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

no, it was a load of drivel.

not being rude here, but do you really understand what is meant by “emergent”?

because you are part of it 🙂 as are all of us.

“what is driving it”. human nature, all the way down the line.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

by that definition everything is emergent and there is no agency

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  John Flynt
2 years ago

I disagree, of sorts. If there was no emergent behavior, i.e. if the culture had not gone more ‘humane’, soft and such, subversives could get nowhere. They might still be around but marginalized if not persecuted. That’s also why the two ideas, conspiracy and emergent behavior, are not mutually incompatible. But the latter, emergent behavior, is far more important, it is the ‘driver’ of the system. To see why, compare Frederick Douglas’ efforts to Martin Luther King’s. Douglas was a far deeper, more intelligent man. But he worked in a far more masculine society. Slaves had been released from bondage,… Read more »

John Flynt
John Flynt
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

“We need to toughen the F up. The West is a mess because white men are pussies and sissies and wimps.” It had nothing to do with people not being tough enough. A certain segment of the population is going to be enamored by the magic glowing oracle box in their living room. Like a shaman in front of a campfire performing inactions. This is deeply hardwired in parts of some people’s primitive lizard brain. The TV is going to capture a large segment off the population by default. The elites were ready to mass murder people with soldiers in… Read more »

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  John Flynt
2 years ago

“You can’t tough your way out of this. How many traditional societies have been crushed to prove this point.” Well Afghanistan certainly wasn’t, despite 20 yrs of ‘hyper power’ efforts. You keep a masculine culture, also in the elites true, you’re not going to have the kind of degeneracy overflowing now. There isn’t much I like about the Taliban but I do find their bloody nose to globohomo somewhat inspiring. As an individual what can you do about all this? Not much but you can toughen up, look for likeminded ppl. Compared to the only other real option of cowing… Read more »

John Flynt
John Flynt
Reply to  John Flynt
2 years ago

The elite hate regular whites much more than they hate the Taliban.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  John Flynt
2 years ago

So you both acknowledge that they hate you, want you dead and that it’s a bad idea to toughen up? How does that work?

If we all toughened up we wouldn’t be sitting around whining about women and ferals acting crazy, we would be correcting the women and ferals in our own lives. If that grew a lot, we’d have emergent behavior. Who knows what could come of that?

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

I’ll toughen you up 🙂

This is down to the individual. Some are born “strong” others are born “weak”; and that’s that. I see strength as the supreme virtue, and I practice what I preach.

Forget about converts, there aren’t any.

Hi -Ya!
Hi -Ya!
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

physical strength?

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

this situation is like a hurricane, or a tsunami, etc. head for high ground, and hope the gods find you worthy. because the time of testing is upon all of us 🙂

analogies only go so far. what is happening now is beyond analysis, too much is happening all at once. control is not going to be regained in this instance; i.e. the truck has plunged off a cliff and is headed for the ground below. but not everyone is in the truck :). I’m not.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

If they really wanted to stop this, all they have to do is simply walk back the restrictions. The fact that they are increasing, rather than decreasing them indicates they don’t want this ended.

Xman
Xman
2 years ago

I have been skeptical of conspiracy theories for some time. Elites and leaders are more often than not simply arrogant and narcissistic, and frequently half-crazy and/or criminal. They simply lack the capacity and sobriety and introspection to ask “What if we fuck up?” “Let’s overthrow the Iranian government and install the Shah? What could possibly go wrong?” or “Let’s invade Iraq and topple Saddam — the people will surely love us!” A lot of policy is mere reaction to, and cleaning up the mess of the people who fucked up — because with all their credentials and degrees, they couldn’t… Read more »

jpb
jpb
Reply to  Xman
2 years ago

Just because elite individuals and institutions are corrupt and incompetent, doesn’t mean they aren’t conspiring.

Steveaz
Steveaz
Reply to  Xman
2 years ago

COVID pulled the fire alarm switch so the Dems could avoid their midterms.

Classic college prank. Heads need to roll!

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  Xman
2 years ago

You might listen to this piece from some bugger calling himself Zedman from as long ago as December 5th.
https://www.subscribestar.com/posts/479208

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  Xman
2 years ago

If you dont believe in world-changing conspiracy theories, please explain your understanding of the phrase, “et tu, Brutei.”
The Yalta conference – what was that, if not a conspiracy to divide post-WW2 Europe? What is NATO, other than a conspiracy against the spread of communism? What was the Comintern, and the foreign directorate of the nkvd, if not conspiracies to globally spread Marxist-leninist revolution? What does the CIA do all day?
“Conspiracy theory” is as mindless but effective truth-value-free rhetoric as “racist.” It is pure feminine emotionalism to shut down all logical inquiry. Stop falling for their tropes.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  Good ol' Rebel
2 years ago

That’s a strawman. Of course there are conspiracies. The ‘conspiracy vs emergent behavior’ question is a different one; whether deliberate human planning, conspiracy or otherwise, OR whether uncontrolled forces and events, resulting from a mix of human nature, technological progress, external events etc, are what ‘drives history.’ Of course both matter but if you’ve ever been in charge of planning and strategy, even for a small company, you realize how difficult that is, if you’ve ever had an affair or similar you realize how hard it is to keep anything secret. On the other hand, emergent behavior is everywhere, in… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

Where is the strawman in the above comment?

It only appears to be saying that the term is used to intentionally prevent inquiry into events.

That appears self evident from the FOIA CIA released docs coining the term to be pushed by their media “assets” and other “friendly parties” to prevent discussion about Kennedy.

Err….. oh wait is that what we would call a conspiracy?

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

On second reading go Rebel’s comment I think you’re probably right. I read his comment as ‘it is conspiracies OR emergent behavior and conspiracies are real’ and the strawman I saw, which admittedly may not be there, was that it is ‘conspiracies OR emergent behavior’. Both are real enough, emergent behavior is more important to the long-term trends of history. Sorry about that to Ol’ Rebel.

Xman
Xman
Reply to  Good ol' Rebel
2 years ago

OF COURSE there are conspiracies. I didn’t deny that, and I cited the deliberate — and successful — plot to control American foreign policy by Israel as an example.

I just think that stupidity and arrrogance explain more events than carefully planned, subterranean schemes.

Dinothedoxie
Dinothedoxie
Reply to  Good ol' Rebel
2 years ago

The conspiracy to murder Julius Caesar is a good example of such things because it led to the deaths of the conspirators in a short period of time, a decade and a half of civil war and ultimately a military dictatorship at least as bad as what they feared from Caesar.

So even in success it was a fucked up mess and delivered the opposite of what the conspirators believed they were achieving.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Dinothedoxie
2 years ago

Thesis – Antithesis – Synthesis

Conspiracy – Emergent Behavior – We’re Fuqued

Kestrel
Kestrel
2 years ago

Re: the local customs, etc. that used to serve as the ‘baffles’ in this tanker (great metaphor). I look at the neighborhood that I’m in… Those old customs were held in place partly by all sorts of small institutions. We had the Legion, VFW posts, lots of churches, ice cream socials, various fraternal orders, and so forth. Also, our neighborhood was originally populated by VERY blue-collar mill workers from Appalachia. Now, however, the mills are gone and there are no small local institutions, but instead we have a lot of scientists, academics and med school students. Their behavior is extremely… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Kestrel
2 years ago

Kestrel: Spot on. Many up votes.

3 Pipe Problem
3 Pipe Problem
2 years ago

We have a severe case of Locomotive Breath. As the wise flautist once wrote, ‘ol Charley stole the handle, and the train it won’t stop goin’…no way to slow down.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  3 Pipe Problem
2 years ago

i am thinking more of the Grateful Dead song:

Driving that train
High on cocaine
Casey Jones you better
Watch your speed
Trouble ahead
Trouble behind
And you know that notion
Just crossed my mind?

Cameron
Cameron
2 years ago

I think this is important. Our side gets blackpilled because we sometimes imagine “they” are space-lizard, 8-dimensional chess masters. No, they’re mostly mediocre with some outright dolts.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Cameron
2 years ago

They can’t even keep their own creepy love affairs secret.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Cameron
2 years ago

Can only up vote once. Hear, hear!

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Cameron
2 years ago

So how do they dominate every large organization, people get fired for stating there are 2 sexes and every media output looks like a combination of a gay bathhouse and Botswana

If they are mediocre and dolts, our side are what?

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Jocks who’ve somehow been convinced they’d lose a fight.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

Or total pussies, which I try my damnedest to not believe.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

How did that happen on such a scale if they are all mediocre incompetent dolts?

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Men got butchered and broken in two industrial wars, the remnant periodically bled off in subsequent lower-scale conflicts. And don’t mess with the nerds or they’ll drop their Einstein bomb on you!

So either there’s a real testosterone/force deficit or merely the perception of one.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

And by that I mean most of the damage done to bring us to the yoke was done a long time ago. Trigger the trauma from time to time to keep people in line. Does it hurt that much, or does the memory amplify it? Is the bully that big, or does he only seem to be? It’s mostly psychology that’s working on people today.

Honest questions I don’t know the answers to, but I have my suspicions.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

There’s an essay by Taleb called, IIRC, the tyranny of the minority that explains this phenomena in some detail. The gist is this: normal people have fairly balanced lives, but zealots are monomaniacal. So, for example, a man who is married with kids will see 5 o’clock roll around and head home right away. An unmarried crazy who wants to move up the corporate ladder will ask of anything extra needs done, and stick around to do it. Come promotion time, the normal guy looks like a slacker and the crazy person looks super committed (heh) and thus gets the… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

they dominate like a virus does, or fleas on a dog. the individual cadres are being used but don’t mind that they will be discarded once no longer useful.

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  Cameron
2 years ago

Far more often you’ll see one of us accuse our rulers of pure retard sadism—at which any unsupervised idiot is an expert—and the response be, “Yet somehow they’re 8-dimensional chess masters, thwarting us at every turn. Make up your mind, loser.”

Our weakness isn’t paranoia. It’s Sailerbrain.

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  Cameron
2 years ago

Yes, but those mediocrities and perverts still intend to genocide our people. An idiot with a knife is still a deadly threat.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Cameron
2 years ago

I think you may be confusing different things. Yes, they are incompetent at ruling for the public good, etc. but that was never their end. They are extremely competent at consolidating power for their own benefit. Frankly, that doesn’t take competence so much as ruthlessness, which they have in spades.

The real Bill
The real Bill
2 years ago

Ooops!

Sorry about the double-post!

It looked like my OP hadn’t gone through….

TomA
TomA
2 years ago

I think there is a more fundamental reason for the current madness. Simply put, we are persistently electing actual idiots and crooks to public office. Yes, most of the stooges in DC (and even locally) are merely failed actors and marionettes, but they do tangible harm nonetheless. Why do we keep electing the worse of us? Because of a very low quality electorate (i.e. no skin in the game parasites) and the insidious use of public welfare to bribe for cheap votes. This is a systemic dysfunction problem, not a feature of either biology or hallucination. IOW, the problem is… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

I’ve often pondered that question myself: “Why do we keep electing the worse of us?” I suspect there are multiple factors, operating together: 1) a dumbed-down electorate, made up of people who are weak on critical thinking skills, quick to form an opinion, and unwilling to change it once they’ve committed to it, and operating out of a limited (and often distorted) knowledge base (see 2 below). 2) an ignorance of history, which (human history) allows us to understand human nature and view human behavior from a broad perspective. 3) a tendency to think in terms of monolithic stereotypes: people,… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

Real Bill—in other words, the (older) White electorate is diminishing. Yeah, all you’ve stated is true and applies to our younger generation White community, but it also applies in spades to our newly minted minority enclaves.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Compsci- ha! Ever the white pill.

“If you think our Masters of the Universe are bad, wait til you see theirs”

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

The biggest, the most important factor OF ALL in an election is name recognition. The vast majority of people vote because they know they’re supposed to. (“I ALWAYS vote!” “It’s the DUTY of every citizen to vote in every election!”) And when they look over the ballot and see that “I know that name!” that candidate gets the vote.

It’s that simple. And that destructive. And THAT is what most voters consider “self-government.” After all, has nobody ever told you that if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain?

And they MEAN that.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

If a name still meant something, it would be enough. Like John Adams said, our Constitution is fit for a moral people only.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

I agree wrt name recognition, but must take Your observation one step further. Here, in my Hispanic majority community, the recognition of the name means the recognition of an *Hispanic* surname—as juxtaposed to an Anglo surname. The local GOP is falling all over themselves to dig up Hispanic surnamed, conservative, candidates rather than running Anglos.

So there is such a thing as “name recognition”, but that is downstream from “race recognition”!

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

True, and as I think about it now, they tend to be race pimps feeding on their own people. Same as it ever was 🙂

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

@paintersforms

Of course, it begs the question: if they couldn’t protect their own race from being run over by foreign imports, why would this foreign imports think they would protect them from anyone else?

KGB
KGB
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

It’s probably no more complicated than the fact that the overwhelming percentage of the people attracted to a political/administrative vocation are by necessity the worst among us. It’s a corrupt, vainglorious way of life.

No one asks why the drug-addled bum living on the street tends to have a mental illness, do they?

BeAprepper
BeAprepper
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

7) Too many people vote

8) A public education system that teaches a corrupt left wing ideology

9) Diversity / Globalism

Drew
Drew
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

It’s simpler than that. Fundamentally, getting votes is not the same as welding power wisely. Since the latter is predicated on the former, you end up with a system that rewards campaigning skills to such an extent that policy and personal behavior are irrelevant. It’s basically like owning a production company where every employee is vying for a sales job so that they don’t have to do assembly work.

Joe
Joe
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

“Why do we keep electing the worse of us?”
Because that’s who’s running.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Joe
2 years ago

And who controls the running? Who decides which people are selected for candidate in each area? Who funnels the money to specific people to fund campaigns, staff, TV. Who pushes certain names into media placement and why is it through the same journalist channels? Is that all just happenstance and coincidence that a sizeable number of complete and often closely related fuckwits who struggle with basic speech are repeatedly selected and parachuted into seats and positions? Is it a coincidence that a sizeable number of current and recent world leaders and business elite just happened to get selected through the… Read more »

trackback
2 years ago

[…] ZMan peeks behind the curtain. […]

B125
B125
2 years ago

I’ve noticed a change in COVID response from some of the true crazies.

The COVID-crazy relatives I saw over Christmas were saying that the new rules “don’t make sense”, whereas 6 months ago it was life and death to keep people out of the cookware aisle at WalMart and in the essentials aisles only. They were still afraid of COVID but took their masks off inside.

It’s a very bizarre situation. Would be nice if they realized the joke, but I think it’s really just a sign that the media (and ruling class) narrative is changing.

B125
B125
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

They’re also all triple vaxxed

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

B125: I still see people masked alone in their cars. There was a lady out walking in the sun yesterday, alone, wearing a mask. And there are still a handful of people at the gym who wear masks (exclusively east or south Asians). As you note, even if they are rational enough to notice that the official rules are nonsensical, they still refuse to let go of their faith in their little paper face diaper. They are so accustomed to compartmentalizing mutually contradictory inputs that cognitive dissonance feels normal and natural to them. And they simultaneously lack the curiosity and… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
2 years ago

The perils of 4-D chess: or “Where TF did THAT come from?” I’ve always understood “emergent behavior” to refer to behavior of complex systems which is not predictable from analyzing the individual lower-level components which make it up. Included in the notion of emergent systems is that qualities emerge which are unexpected: they exhibit traits and characteristics that weren’t evident in the component systems, or predictable from them. Thus the concept of emergent behavior necessarily includes the connotation of being new, unexpected, and surprising. From that it would seem to follow that anyone attempting to manipulate a complex system— for… Read more »

jpb
jpb
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

The true story of how the lockdown disaster originated in the science project of a 14 year old girl. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/how-covid-lockdown-fanatics-took-over-world

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  jpb
2 years ago

jpb: Fascinating. Thanks for the link. Aaaannnnd . . . . it’s a south Asian and a Juice (with links back to Bill Gates). Every. Single. Time.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

And it has not stopped—even today. Currently, the CDC uses a masking “study” by a couple of frauds comparing K-12 schools masked vs non-masked in this/my County to justify their recommendations for school mask mandates. However, the “study” is so fraught with statistical/methodological error as to be laughed at by everyone who’s taken even a first year experimental methodology course—the the paper was not even published in a journal, but rather an internal root to justify the County Health recommendations.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Does that seem likely to therefore be a coordinated action by people who know the data to be false to the detriment of the population, yet coordinate to keep stating the known falsehood in public and as policy?

Or are all those medical advisors somehow blind to this and every other study from the last 30 years showing masks are useless, but keep saying it anyway?

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Trumpton. Yes, it (purported study) is definitely considered a “scientific” fraud conceived by the local medical and political establishment to produce support for their masking mandates. Of course, the low level staff assigned this task were woefully inept and ignorant. I assume it was hoped that this fraud would remain local and unexamined, but when picked up by the ignoramuses at CDC, the lid came off so to speak and it was examined by the entire nation.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Ok – so its an intentional fraud against people by a small group. Lets call it a conspiracy.

The mask mandates then serve what purpose?

To carry on the physical fear when no one is dying around them.

And why is that?

etc…

Once we start asking what then for each of these steps its not looking much like emergent behavior I would contend.

It sure looks and smells like a large conspiracy by quite a number of people in many countries at once.

usNthem
usNthem
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Our stupid s*** county just re-upped mandatory diapering when indoors, when of course, the magic 6 foot distance can’t be maintained. This will apparently be in effect into February. These dweebs are just not going to let this thing go. There is such a large body of evidence that masking works wonders…

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  jpb
2 years ago

Good article, thanks. Some epidemiologists have been insisting from the jump that: 1) the virus is going to spread: that’s what viruses do. Just like Blacks riot; viruses spread. 2) it may spread quickly, or more slowly. But sooner or later, everyone’s going to be exposed to it. You can slow down the spread, but it’s not possible to stop it. 3) and it could even be the case that a faster spread is better, since natural immunity is achieved sooner the faster the virus spreads. 4) and at the same time it’s spreading, it’s also mutating; again, that’s what… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

Real Bill, it could be worse. There is mounting evidence/speculation that the continuing vexxinations may actually interfere with normal “innate” immunity development. Hence the imbalance between he number of “break-through” cases and first-time Covid cases—after adjusting for raw numbers of vexx’d vs non-vexx’d.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

Love the final paragraph! But I can’t agree with this: ” … so shutting down the economy, and mandating masks and social distancing, is not just futile—- since it’s not going to stop the virus from spreading— it’s positively harmful: … .” because the two are not related, except on the surface. Shutting down the economy is part of the Great Reset, which is our betters’ way of avoiding being torn to pieces in the streets after telling the truth about what they have done to the world financial system and that Socialism is dead because it has proven itself… Read more »

The real Bill
The real Bill
2 years ago

“…. not just liberal, but possibly insane….” Love it! I’ve always understood “emergent behavior” to refer to behavior of complex systems which is not predictable from analyzing the individual lower-level components which make it up. Included in the notion of emergent systems is that qualities emerge which are unexpected: they exhibit traits and characteristics that weren’t evident in the component systems, or predictable from them. Thus the concept of emergent behavior necessarily includes the connotation of being new, unexpected, and surprising. From that it would seem to follow that anyone attempting to manipulate a complex system— for example, rulers who… Read more »

another fred
another fred
Reply to  The real Bill
2 years ago

“Included in the notion of emergent systems is that qualities emerge which are unexpected: they exhibit traits and characteristics that weren’t evident in the component systems, or predictable from them.”

I would amend that to say “…characteristics that weren’t READILY evident…”

Scientists are learning to program flocking behavior into groups of drones (with sensors in the drones that can react to their nearest neighbor). This is an important technology that will probably soon rule the skies in robotic aerial combat. From there to the land and sea is a logical step.

Drew
Drew
2 years ago

“Just as war plans do not survive contact with the enemy, elite conspiracies do not hold up very long after contact with mass society.” The life of Napoleon Bonaparte is a really good example of this. In short, his rise to power was only possible because of mass dissatisfaction with first the house of Bourbon, then with the revolutionaries. He was finally done away with once the masses tired of his imperialism. What’s most interesting is that he was, for a time, the most powerful man in Europe, and his influence continues to this day. However, his plans and his… Read more »

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

Or Stalin and his attack dog Lavrentiy (sp?) Beria for a more recent example. The communists plans for establishing themselves only worked until a real badass came through. A pair of sick bastards like that could only rise in that type of environment. That metrosexual twerp from South America whose name sounds like a gourd species, Che Guevara, was another one.

jpb
jpb
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

A contemporary example of an ‘elite conspiracy’ and carefully ‘nudged’ emergent behavior that survives today is the AIDS hoax as a trillion dollar tit for scientific and medical research, Big Pharma profit, managerial employment, and bureaucratic power. https://www.amazon.com/Real-Anthony-Fauci-Democracy-Childrens/dp/1510766804

Maniac
Maniac
2 years ago

Looks like Sloppy Joe’s “vaccine” mandate will go to the Supreme Court. They’ll probably cave. I hope my workplace pays for my weekly tests, because I sure as hell ain’t.

The real Bill
The real Bill
Reply to  Maniac
2 years ago

So… if they insist that you pay for them…. what? You’ll quit?

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Maniac
2 years ago

Screw it. I’d rather not work, and I bet a lot of productive people feel the same way. Ready to starve and go homeless rather than cuck to the covidians. Life without dignity has no value.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

I mean, these people want me dead anyway, as far as I can tell. Fine, I’m ready to die. Ante up.

jpb
jpb
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

Yes–the only theory I can find that explains the last two plague years is those bastards want us dead!

Armin
Armin
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

I’ve noticed this shift in myself as well. I wonder how prevalent it is in our people, because if there are enough people who would rather die than live under this current regime, they’ve got a serious problem on their hands.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Armin
2 years ago

We don’t know, and the only reliable metric is what you are seeing and hearing with your own eyes and ears. None of their statistics is reliable–NONE. There is no diagnostic test, so ALL of the “case” figurers are utter rubbish. And as far as how many people have taken the prick AND the booster(s), if, as we are told, upwards of 60% of the general population has taken the pricks, then why the vigorous application of threats of force? I know a LOT of people, but I know only TWO (2) who have taken the prick. I suspect that… Read more »

Peabody
Peabody
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

I’m currently reading the second book in a series about the War of the Roses. There are parallels to our current situation including a feeble minded “leader” surrounded by scheming, self-interested sycophants gone mad with revenge because they don’t have all the power. They don’t care who has to suffer as long as they get what they feel they deserve. The best part so far is the aristocracy shitting their pants while watching from the battlements a howling mad gigantic mob of ordinary folk battering down the doors to the Tower of London with the intention of tearing them limb… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Peabody
2 years ago

Peabody: Please share title and author? In need of some good reading and I just cannot deal with political philosophy some days.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Peabody
2 years ago

I think we’ve already been hit with napalm (the vaxx), but that’s still just my opinion, I guess. And it’s going to get uglier. Open war ugly? I’m not sure we’re capable of it.

I’m envious of our ‘unsophisticated’ ancestors for their ability to see, speak, and act truthfully. Too much irony and too many head games these days, you know?

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

Paintersforms: My husband has to travel for work next week. He didn’t ‘negotiate’ but simply told them he would not fly (it’s an incubator for illness at the best of times, he won’t wear a mask, and chimpouts at the airports and mid-flight are endemic). So he’s driving 2 days down for a 3 day trip and then 2 days drive back. And he’s not taking official leave. Of course, with all the flight cancellations due to purported coof, he jokes he’ll probably end up being the only one there.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

The really good news: when planes start to fall out of the sky, they’ll only take the vaxxed with them!

(Over 150 pilots have died of heart attacks, many mid-flight, since 2020)

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

Yes, but what is the average number of such deaths prior to 2020? Pilots are perhaps the most medically checked and certified of all professions. I know they are currently refusing the jab in significant numbers, but have not heard any spokesperson bring up such a statistic.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

Alzaebo: No worries. Shaniqua and Vivek will pick up the slack.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Or at least the first to arrive.

Anyway, good for him! More power to him!

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Good on him. If one can continue to work without cucking, by all means do. I will as long as I can, but the line’s drawn, and these people have to understand it’s not a joke.

Peabody
Peabody
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

3g4me – the series is War of the Roses and author Conn Iggullden. I’m always on the lookout for decent historical drama. So far this series isn’t bad. It’s not Philippa Gregory levels of silliness in any case.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Peabody
2 years ago

Peabody: Thanks. I’ll check it out.

Peabody
Peabody
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

My husband had to rent a car to make a 7 hr. trip Monday because his 45 minute flight was canceled due to lack of flight crew availability because Coof. These people are cutting their own throats by running to get a crap test for a few days off because they (might) have the sniffles. Flying has become completely unreliable. Like your husband I refuse to fly as I can’t imagine what it would be like to be jammed into a metal tube hurtling through the sky surrounded by people who all look psychotic. And just like with the humiliating… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
2 years ago

The contradictions and confusion are a good thing. The Ruling Class controls everything, especially the propaganda organs, and if unified and on the same page they would be far more dangerous. As it is, there are multiple power centers often at odds with one another and sometimes unable to coordinate. The psychosis unleashed with Covid has rattled some of the saner factions, who wanted to depose Trump, snap up goodies and grab power, and then return to normal. It is not possible because the madness is so ingrained and widespread. Again, this is a good thing. We have seen how… Read more »

nailheadtom
nailheadtom
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Home ownership is evil now because the great mortgage crisis of 2008 messed up the banks. Developers, who must develop or become greeters at Walmart, can’t get the financing they once could for speculative construction of single family homes. So they’ve moved on to apartments, which eventually end up as the property of real estate investment trusts. They needn’t worry about missed mortgage payments, occupants that can’t make the rent go out on the street and new renters are found. Nobody knows for sure if this strategy is going to work.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  nailheadtom
2 years ago

That’s also partly–largely–due to UN Agenda 21, now called Agenda 2030.

There’s even a land-use map:

http://www.agenda21course.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Biodiversity-Map.jpg

Joey Jünger
Joey Jünger
2 years ago

One very green shoot: prior to the Covid madness I thought the “Don’t Tread on Me” stuff was just residual frontier romanticism, a way to con normies into buying Gadsen Flag mudflaps. But if you look at the way Americans have reacted and resisted compared to the way the some European countries (and old Crown holdings like Australia) just caved, it’s a little heartening. Of course, the media being as duplicitous as they are, they are no doubt underreporting resistance even in supposedly compliant nations. I haven’t been abroad since this started, and short of a mushroom cloud forming over… Read more »

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Joey Jünger
2 years ago

Maybe don’t even try to stop it. Turn on, tune in, drop out.

Two and a half years ago my mother having a cough would not have resulted in large swaths of my family canceling dinner plans and insisting on masks in the house. I could have resisted and called the women braindead and their menfolk pussies, but I’m not playing their game of react-to-the-media. I’m just biding my time until I can find a good opportunity to help tear the whole system apart.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Marko
2 years ago

Marko: Yes – just refuse to play the game. Oh, you can agree and amplify. But simultaneously smile, and continue to do exactly as you please (go around unmasked and unvaxxed).

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Feel like the best solution is to brazenly lie and gaslight them.

“Can you wear a mask?”
“I am wearing a mask” while being clearly barefaced.
“Are you vaxxed?”
“Yup” said while wearing a “Pureblood” T-Shirt.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Not a bad idea.

If they question that you are not maybe hand them an official vax card type document purporting to be from the CDC or similar that says

“This person is wearing a mask”.

B125
B125
Reply to  Joey Jünger
2 years ago

Minorities (males and females) are not fighting back but they are simply nodding yes to the authorities while ignoring every rule and doing as they please. Back in June 2020 the cbc ran a story, basically brown & black people are dying from & catching COVID at an enormously higher rate than white or east asian people. It’s really the first good look into our 3rd world future. That’s exactly the third world, non white attitude. White women think they can bark out orders and all the beta men will submit. But we saw this time that only white people,… Read more »

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

> Minorities (males and females) are not fighting back but they are simply nodding yes to the authorities while ignoring every rule and doing as they please.

It works. Get used to your low-trust future and take advantage of it.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Joey Jünger
2 years ago

There needs to be a caveat.

The United States resistance has been largely regional and often generational. If you take out the South/Midwest and X’ers and Boomers, you see very little difference between Americans and “Americans” and Europeans in their servility.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Jack Dobson: Agree. We haven’t had any of the mass covid protests in America that I’ve seen regularly in Europe and Australia. Oh, a few small pushbacks in draconian New York, but I don’t give a damn about anyone in New York (sorry to anyone here from there, but not sorry). It’s hard for me to accurately judge just who is and who is not a true believer by their public behavior. All the retail workers here in the DFW area are masked as a condition of employment, and they all have door signs saying mask required if unvaxxed, but… Read more »

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Elites are very comfortable with the masked support workers while they go unmasked in stores or parties standard. At the retail businesses used mostly by proles, no one is even trying to enforce a mask mandate anymore, they all have signs posted “if you are not fully vaccinated wear a mask” and everyone ignores it. Whether or not employees are masked seems to be at the whim of corporate management and if store managers are willing to enforce it.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Partially, our compliance *might* be explained by our multi-State system and the lack of compliance/enforcement by many. Great Britain and Australia have police goons running around ticketing folks for being more than a kilometer or two from home, or idling on a park bench for more than the “designated” time.

Here in my County, the first thing the Sheriff did was announce a “no enforcement” policy for public health edicts. This was followed by most town’s Police Chiefs as well.

Connerton
Connerton
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

More pushback in the UK than in the US, less enforcement of Covityranny in the Uk than the US.
I say the UK; England is less tyrannical than the US ,while Scotland and Wales seem to be heading towards the Australian system.

Australia is on another level.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Joey Jünger
2 years ago
sentry
sentry
2 years ago

I don’t believe elites are 4d chess players, they simply don’t have a consensus on how to run things, that’s why the press can’t make up its mind on which narrative to follow. Not every one of them is in on the vaccines, some want to end the pandemic, others want to make money out of it, others want to reduce the population(yes, those people do exist, it’s not a conspiracy theory) i also find this sentence to be accurate & funny: “All of a sudden, tens of millions of normal people are made aware of the fact that many… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  sentry
2 years ago

I agree with this and it’s why I’m not quite on board with the idea that that the Bidens and Faucis of the world are just marionettes for some black hand. We are daily confronted with evidence that the leaders of our financial systems, our media, our education industry, and our government, i.e. the Cloud People, are hopeless slaves to emergent group thought. Given that, from where would this cabal of Bond villains perpetuate itself?

jpb
jpb
Reply to  KGB
2 years ago

The cabal of Bond villains perpetuates itself at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Tony Fauci’s NAAID, Pfizer, DARPA, and John Hopkins University—-and there is a long list of similarly entitled and entrenched parasites on the human immune system.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  jpb
2 years ago

jpb: I think you and KGB are both correct. On the one hand, there IS a certain amount of coordination and behind-the-scenes string pulling. On the other hand, as Zman’s excellent post explores, you have a mixture of official ‘nudging’ and uncontrolled emergent behavior.

But behind it all, I’m continually following odd lines and bits and pieces, seemingly utterly unrelated or contradictory, and tracing them back and finding a similar vortex or two. It’s looking more and more that reality is like one of Glen Beck’s drawings (and he really is nuts).

Horace
Horace
Reply to  sentry
2 years ago

“elites … simply don’t have a consensus on how to run things” Diversity is never a strength, but diversity in the ruled or working class can be managed in either federation or empire. Diversity in the ruling class is always a harbinger of death for any civilization. Many factions of our post-American ‘elites’ have very little in common with each other. They have no fundamental agreement on civilizational mission. The mission which comes closest to uniting them (not ALL are on board) is to loot white civilization before the other factions clean everything out. Climate change and covid hysterias pushed… Read more »

sentry
sentry
Reply to  Horace
2 years ago

“Diversity in the ruling class is always a harbinger of death for any civilization. Many factions of our post-American ‘elites’ have very little in common with each other. They have no fundamental agreement on civilizational mission.” I agree and I also wish to add that Trump’s inauguration coincided with David Rockefeller’s death, who was the big daddy of globo-homos, he was the one who kept them all under control. That’s when all this madness really started, trump’s presidency & the death of their supreme leader caused a chain reaction which has led to the madness we have today. All the… Read more »

WhereAreTheVikings
WhereAreTheVikings
Reply to  sentry
2 years ago

Exactly right about David Rockefeller.

usNthem
usNthem
2 years ago

So when is this runaway train going to jump the tracks? These clowns are now floating a vax mandate to fly domestically (with fauci admitting it’s just another form of coercion) and (((ezekial emanuel))) is touting removal of fed benefits for the unvaxxed. The dreaded omicron symptoms might include runny nose, sore throat, cough etc. Gee, when have I ever had those symptoms before? The committed covidians lap this swill up, but there’s definitely some conspiracy evil floating around as well. 2022 is shaping up to be more fun and games.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

Going to be fun watching the ultra-woke airlines (one in particular) issue refunds to ticket holders who bought tickets without an expectation of having to share private medical information with a public company.

How is a dictate from a senile old man trump Well established HIPPA laws, or a contracted service law (a seat ticket) even legal? What is the mechanism for verification? What about disparate impact as blacks don’t vax (but they do fly)?

Slosh, slosh, slosh.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

HIPAA laws apply to medical providers, not patients. In essence, the law requires a certain level of security and privacy from doctors. It doesn’t at all require it from patients. The basic principle is that patients can be as public or private about their health as they want, but care providers must be private. Therefore, it’s not ever a problem for a person to broadcast their health issues, should they choose, but it would be a huge problem if a care provider broadcast that same person’s problems. Thus, HIPAA laws would require that an airline, should it want to know… Read more »

btp
Member
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

Yes. This was basically what my employer said when they coerced everyone to get jabbed. Basically, this particular violation of privacy is not a violation of law because we’re demanding you, personally, tell us about this private health matter.

WhereAreTheVikings
WhereAreTheVikings
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

“Therefore, it’s not ever a problem for a person to broadcast their health issues, should they choose . . . .”

Exhibit 1: All the women on their cell phones in public places giving intimate details of their recent doctor’s examinations. The ob/gyn exploration seems to inspire the greatest powers of description.

Strike Three
Strike Three
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

“What about disparate impact as blacks don’t vax (but they do fly)?” I live in Mississippi (though I’m not from here) and I often ask myself the question, “What would happen if the government literally, in reality, forced all Mississippi blacks to get vaccinated?” Well, I’m also a school teacher, and my black (male) students ALL know every detail about the old Emmett Till case. In fact we just had this random talk in my fifth period class about 3 weeks ago. They also believe that Whitey, deep down, wants to kill all of them (because Emmett Till dindu nuffin).… Read more »

usNthem
usNthem
Reply to  Strike Three
2 years ago

Totally agree. I’ve thought for some time, there’d be a carve out for joggers and Whitey will bear the brunt. Will actually be surprised if it doesn’t happen. More fallout from worship of the holy jogger.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Strike Three
2 years ago

Strike Three: Excellent analogy. And despite others’ excellent points about individuals and emergent behavior, constant servile compliance and obedience to hypocrisy does tend to have a cumulative effect on people’s psyches, and on the culture overall. Then add diversity.

America used to be a place where a lost wallet or keys would be turned in to authorities, where people like me trusted the cops. But that was a majority White country where I still believed what I was taught in public school, long ago and far away.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Strike Three
2 years ago

“My theory is that the screws will be turned on Whitey and we’ll be forced to take it.” No way to know what you mean by “forced,” but there’s a lot going on. There is a lawsuit before the International Criminal Court about this coercion (Nuernberg Laws) and there’s Reiner Fuellmich’s lawsuit against the German Health Ministry. And there’s Dr David Martin’s deposition for Reiner Fuellmich and part of his team, in which Martin reveals the patent history of the “vaccines” and the so-called “virus” itself, which was patented in April 2003. It’s not clear at all that we’ll be… Read more »

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

The reason for their increasing pressure to take the jab is simple.
They need to destroy the control group.
Five years on, it’s very likely that there will be marked differences in the medical outcomes of the jabbed and the pure-bloods.

I don’t think they want that.

Darcy
Darcy
Reply to  Strike Three
2 years ago

“…The screws will be turned on Whitey and we’ll be forced to take it. … White people will accept this “disparate impact” and continue their drudgery until they can get their hands on their 401k money and their pensions.” The first part of this is plausible. The screws, as usual, will be turned on whitey even as POCs slide by. However, there’s a good percentage of the white population who will never, ever take the jab. By now, most white people who haven’t gotten it never will, unless they’re physically dragged out of their homes and forcibly vaccinated. And I… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Darcy
2 years ago

Yep they will.

Make an example of a few. Impose constantly escalating fines and restriction to food shopping for non-compliance as in Austria and elsewhere.

Everyone but a very few will cave.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

The New Democratic platform moved from

“Nudge”

to

“I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further”

So quickly I barely noticed.

Astralturf
Astralturf
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

That feeling when you realize 2022 is “2020, too.”

(((They))) live
(((They))) live
2 years ago

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/12/24/leaked-files-syria-psyops-astroturfing-breadtube-covid/

They like to use “independent” media voices to push their narrative. I suspected this for a long time, but sometimes it’s hard to prove that a pattern you see has control from the top behind it. Of course the rubes watching and funding breadtube will be slow to see the puppet strings

You see similar with witter when all the blue tick people start pushing the same lines

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  (((They))) live
2 years ago

Don’t forget the White Helmets’ faked chemical attacks and the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, which is run by some guy in a flat in Leeds, England.

(((They))) live
(((They))) live
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

It’s not just Syria, the breadtube thing is new to me, but apparently is big among UK progs, I watched a few of the trannys videos, he likes to give the impression that it’s an open look at a particular issue, but like the mainstream left, important information or ideas will be excluded the rubes won’t see this because all they read is the Guardian or the BBC, they don’t know what they don’t know Basically it’s the left for Hillary supporters, the working suckers won’t be getting a pay rise, if he wants better pay, join the millatery and… Read more »

Bilejones
Member
2 years ago

“Those who like conspiracy theories and simple answers prefer the coordination model, while those with experience in complex human systems prefer the emergent behavior approach.”

Bias much?

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Bilejones
2 years ago

how is that statement biased? it looks like “on one hand…on the other” kind of description.

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

You didn’t note the difference ?

Really?

We Hate Everyone
We Hate Everyone
Reply to  Bilejones
2 years ago

I’m not offended and I prefer simple answers. Unfortunately they can be hard to come by these days.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 years ago

the progs ae finding out that reality isn’t like TV. they think they just have to sit in the big chair and shout out orders, and the economy and state will just “work” the way they want. this isn’t like a multiple choice test, you will not get lucky and guess the right thing to do. anything that is not “right” is by definition, “wrong”; and that is a very narrow path indeed. and of course, after a couple of “bad” guesses, you will not be getting back to “right”, ever. and that’s why this madness isn’t sustainable, these bozos… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

I agree, but I am also frustrated with how many things these loons have managed to narrate into existence and how much damage they’ve already done. A lot of them may never be fixed or rolled back.

We Hate Everyone
We Hate Everyone
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Time waits for no man, changes aren’t permanent but change is… This crazed covaids trip has had me on the ropes mentally a few times. The first time being in April of 2020. Initially, in my limited understanding their motives, and general gullibility to thinking they were empathetic beings, I was onboard with the thought that 2 weeks to flatten the curve seemed reasonable. If there was a way to mitigate what was coming, and I had seen the agitprop (although I didn’t see it that way at the time) from China showing all the classic stuff that has now… Read more »

WhereAreTheVikings
WhereAreTheVikings
Reply to  We Hate Everyone
2 years ago

Keep personal liberty as your measure of everything, and from now on you will see “two weeks to flatten the curve” as the jackboot in the door that such things always are. For example, when the income tax was signed into law in 1913, it was never supposed to go above 1%. We all know how that turned out.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  We Hate Everyone
2 years ago

This crazed covaids trip has had me on the ropes mentally a few times. WHE- You are not alone. Even though it’s the holidays I’ve found myself vacillating between black-pilled thoughts of, “What’s the point?” and climbing on the hamster wheel of jab compliance to temporarily unlock employment and international travel opportunities. My personal and professional lives being in complete limbo due to the nature of the project I’m on certainly isn’t helping my mindset. I am trying to learn new skills online to prepare for a rug pull on the contract for my current project that is completely screwed… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Wild Geese: Stay strong, brother. You are not alone. Even when things look grimmest, don’t ever, ever give in. Fight like hell. I can do no other; it’s just not in me to comply or quit.

We Hate Everyone
We Hate Everyone
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Wild Geese- Stay strong on the jab front, there is a collective conscience of us out here and we are not a small proportion in the grand scheme. If we were they would not have demented old fools harping on about us being “threats” on national broadcasts. That alone should help your resolve to stay strong. It’s not a vaccination by any means in the traditional sense, that we know. Once taken, the jab can not be undone. Stay resolute and remember there are many of us out there dealing with this sham and we all multiply our individual strengths… Read more »

usNthem
usNthem
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

I have a somewhat similar situation in that our only granddaughter lives in Spain. I just read that the unvaxxed are unwelcome – as in barred from traveling there. That is a pretty strong incentive to get jabbed, but at this point I’m not willing to knuckle under and will continue to wait and see how things play out, although the trends are not encouraging. This insanity really sucks, to say the least.

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

A major component of the breakdown of the Western political system, especially in the US, is that we have a political class with absolutely no experience in practical matters, such as running a business or even doing actual work for a living. This makes them very easy for the oligarchs (who do have quite a lot of practical experience) to manipulate.

For the super rich, this system is working very well indeed.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Outdoorspro
2 years ago

And they know NOTHING about history. Particularly those with “advanced degrees” in something.

Lettie
Lettie
Reply to  Outdoorspro
2 years ago

I would agree with Z that this thing has been both emergent and coordinated. TPTB had their Gates hosted pandemic exercise, and when a bad flu emerged (accident, unfortunate bat bite, whatever), they jumped on the opportunity to try out their plans. It worked wonderfully well for the most part, and now the political arm is ready to call it a win and walk away. Carrying this on into election season is far too risky. Biden, Inc. appears to want it all to go away. Trump wants to claim the vaccine for his great success. Big Pharma (including govt arm… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Lettie
2 years ago

Lettie: I agree with your initial paragraph and excellent summation, but I’m not so certain they’ll back off. Even while they admit “omicron’ isn’t particularly lethal and they lied about 73% of covid hospital admissions having it (oops, it’s only 23%), Fauci et al are pushing hard for vex mandates for domestic flights. Even in the face of enormous business costs, I can easily see the airlines caving. The bitter old ladies and homosexuals (but I repeat myself) who comprise the ‘air hosts’ are undoubtedly all vexxed and will push hard to demand all passengers are as well. Personally, I’d… Read more »

Tykebomb
Tykebomb
2 years ago

People need to turn off the TV.

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  Tykebomb
2 years ago

Social media is worse than TV and has been for awhile. Any breed of crazy can find people to reinforce her craziness on social media. Without Facebook and Twitter several of the crazy fads would have already died out. One of the earliest signs to me Covid had triggered something truly crazy in the left was very early on when I read a Twitter thread from the woman who runs Mother Jones. She lived in San Francisco and needed to visit her elderly parents in San Diego. She was asking her followers if it was better for her to fly… Read more »

usNthem
usNthem
Reply to  Barnard
2 years ago

Social media is by far the worst, especially for females. TV is just plain unwatchable particularly now with virtually every commercial, no matter what station, populated with various joggers, chinks, pajeets and every other form of mud, with the occasional White. Extremely exasperating.

WhereAreThevikings
WhereAreThevikings
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

You mean with the occasional stupid White.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Barnard
2 years ago

Mossad managed to severely hobble the Persians’ centrifuges with a few thumb drives. Why can’t someone permanently nuke the social media sites? And when the next (((Zuckerberg))) tries to build a replacement, do it again until the message is received loud and clear.

Whitney
Member
Reply to  Barnard
2 years ago

That’s just her playing hero. Look at these great sacrifices I am making! That’s what they all think they are doing. I openly mocked my uncle, retired doctor, early on for wearing a mask alone in his car. I said oh yeah your a big hero like the guys at Normandy. I have never spoken to him again

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Whitney
2 years ago

The medical profession has totally destroyed its credibility, along with the “journalism” profession, the “education” system, most of the churches, and government at every level, to name but a few.

La-Z-Man
La-Z-Man
Reply to  Whitney
2 years ago

In my liberal city, it is not unusual to see a lawn sign with printed encomia to the ‘front line heroes’ which is how nurses and doctors are described during coof. Heck, there was even a huge banner on a riverfront mansion in one instance.

Otherwise, the town is devoid of say, displays of pride for say, the military or the LEO.

Lately, I’ve been doing the rounds of the tony neighborhoods checking for asterisked additions to the signs, like ‘ * Except the unvaccinated health care workers’

Whitney
Member
Reply to  Tykebomb
2 years ago

Why would anyone downvote turning off the tv?

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
Reply to  Whitney
2 years ago

There is a sizable contingent on this site and others where hearing something you don’t want to hear invokes a downvote. Doesn’t matter if its true or false. Feelings, nothing more than…feelings.

Whitney
Member
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
2 years ago

You made somebody feel bad😂

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
Reply to  Whitney
2 years ago

I do what I can.