Over the last several years, America has experienced a new phenomenon in which people critical of official dogma suddenly endorse the dogma. An alternative form of this is where people who have made a career debunking claims that appear in the media suddenly become the most faithful consumers of media propaganda. It is as if a new virus has entered the system that causes the victim to switch sides or reveal themselves to be a double-agent all along.
The Trump phenomenon was the first example. When Trump famously came down the escalator to declare his candidacy, many assumed it was just a publicity stunt from a guy known for showmanship. Some went a bit far in criticizing it but Trump is one of those guys who can rub some people the wrong way. Once it was clear that he was a serious threat to be nominated, it also became clear that those harsh critics had contracted this new mind virus.
Granted, we did not know it was a mind virus. When Bill Kristol started waving around Hillary Clinton signs, it was just assumed he was bitter. In fact, that was the assumption about all of the neocons who were ranting about Trump. He had torpedoed their guy Jeb Bush so their attacks were just sour grapes. Jonah Goldberg was sure his old lady was going to land a job in the next Republican administration so Trump was a huge blow to his plans.
We now think that Trump triggered the forgotten Trotsky gene. All of those old neoconservatives and their progeny who had been posing as conservatives for fifty years have the Trotsky gene. Trump triggered it and as a result they instinctively returned to their natural state as hyper-violent leftists. At least it was assumed that Trump triggered it. Further evidence suggests that a virus of some sort was in the air that was the real cause of the neocon reaction.
Ironically, it was the presence of another virus that revealed the presence of this prior virus in the population. The Covid panic, which was fostered by the managerial state, triggered a reaction in some of the harshest critics of it. Instantly, people who had made careers in media criticism, usually around the issues related to the humans sciences, became totally trusting of the media. Everything in the press regarding Covid was treated as holy writ.
Strangely, this uncritical acceptance of media messaging was particularly hard on the old HBD community. These are the people who spend their days thinking about the biological diversity of humanity. As a result, they spent decades picking apart the blank slate claims in the media. Their message for generations has been that you cannot trust the media to talk honestly about biology. Then all of a sudden, they accepted all media claims about Covid without question .
It was not just the HBD people who were gripped by this madness over Covid, but they were the hardest hit by it. This is when the possibility of the cause being a virus started to make some sense. People whose psychological immune systems have been tuned to defeat a specific sort of media agitation were probably most vulnerable to a different form of media agitation. It is why they have never recovered from the infection, despite the revelations.
The war in Ukraine has brought a new outbreak of the virus. Many who chanted “fake news” during the Trump years are now festooned with Ukraine symbols and carrying on like the remaining Biden supporters. In fact, the most fanatical supporters of the regime are people who used to be Trump partisans. Sean Hannity, for example, is demanding nuclear war over Ukraine. He repeats whatever is in the mainstream media regarding Ukraine as if it is gospel.
Granted, the talks show circuit types are mostly carny folk who go where they think they can get an audience, but there are more sober minded examples. Victor David Hanson has been uncritically repeating media claims about the war. He seems to be fond of the narrative that says the Russians planned to sack Kiev, but the Ukrainians heroically defended their capital. He is lending his credibility to nonsense made up by children at the New York Times.
The war in the Ukraine is another clue that we are dealing with a virus that causes the victim to trust the mass media. Many of the people who got Covid all wrong at the start are now on the wrong side of the war in Ukraine. They either have staked out the wrong position or they are accepting media narratives. This madness transcends ideological orientation. The victims, once infected, lose the ability to critically judge what is being presented to them.
Further evidence of a virus, and that it may be deliberate, is the sudden chanting of the terms “misinformation” and “disinformation” by the media. Maybe the virus has a different impact on sociopaths than it does on other people. Media people infected by the virus become paranoid, sure that a secret cabal is feeding them lies. Perhaps the virus causes a moment of clarity which then induces madness. This is a topic that needs further research.
The cause remains unknown, but the madness we have seen over the last half dozen years points to some common cause. Perhaps this is just a symptom of modernity or maybe this is what cultural collapse causes in people. A mind virus of some sort is always a possibility, given what we have witnessed. Regardless, a plague has spread across society causing the subversives to go public, the skeptics to become trusting and the media to go insane.
If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!
Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.
The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.
Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link. If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb. Just email them directly to book at sales@minterandrichterdesigns.com.
[…] The Plague | | Many who chanted “fake news” during the Trump years are now festooned with Ukraine symbols and carrying on like the remaining Biden supporters. In fact, the most fanatical supporters of the regime are people who used to be Trump partisans. Sean Hannity, for example, is demanding nuclear war over Ukraine. He repeats whatever is in the mainstream media regarding Ukraine as if it is gospel. […]
Virus is a witty metaphor but I stick to the literal idea of hysteria, because the phenomenon surely stems from emotionality (insecurity and the need to submit to the group they find themselves in). I think no one is immune to this effect – even the members of this forum. You require an example. Very well. I see the usual dissenting comments on climate change below. Some people don’t believe the science on that – fine – but in solidifying their position on this it seems they don’t realise or accept that they are still environmentalists and that environmentalism is… Read more »
This hysterical response in The Grauniad to a man mentioning emotional women soccer players in the YUK is hard not to laugh at.
“Kenny Shiels’ talk of ‘emotional’ women is unacceptable. Football deserves better”
The link’s not worth the listen, the title says it all.
With respect, I submit that you are, by your own description, a “conservationist,” not an “environmentalist.” “Environmentalism” is a pseudo-religious belief in the deity of our planet, including the belief that humans are an infectious agent that ought to be eliminated or at least significantly curtailed in order to return to some pristine former “natural” state. What I find most disturbing in the “environmental” movement is the unspoken assertion that the humans who should be eliminated are other than the “environmentalist” himself, who deserves to inherit the pleasures of the new and improved planet after the undesirables have been purged.… Read more »
Nope. The idea that AGW is driving us to doom is BS. Everyone knows the planet has been warming and cooling throughout its existence – are humans causing some issues – no doubt. However, the hysterical “we need to do something” or else we’re all going to die is ridiculous – along with the idea it has to be done in X number of years. It’s all about control…
The virus seems to spread primarily by means of 75 ohm coaxial cable with the main vectors being post menopausal human females with government jobs. Anecdotal evidence indicates susceptibility to the virus correlates well with arrogance.
Interesting conjectures! Keeping in mind that evolution never stops— that our environment continues to shape us— the question arises of ‘What will the effect of the digital environment be on the human psyche?’ Or to put it another way: ‘How will our psyches adapt to cope with this new information-rich environment?’ Starting with hundreds of thousands of years in which it was our direct perception of the natural world— along with the shared perceptions of our fellow tribesmen— from which we gained a sense of what the world was like; Then as humans settled down into cities, the expansion of… Read more »
I like your insight. It certainly seems like a mind virus. Here across the pond in Ireland, I first noticed it in 2017 with the emergence of TDS among my fellow Irish men and women. I thought it was a bit strange, as they’d no meat in the game. But they were demented. It wasn’t until the lockdown in 2019 and naturally, having more time on my hands, that I became throughly aquainted TDS and it’s symptoms. Since then the narrative (virus) has mutated from TDS to BLM to Covid19 to now Ukraine. I’m sure there was a bit of… Read more »
The Nose owns the politicians, left, right and center. Normie cant process that. They can’t even understand they’re being genocided.. School and talmudvision=braindead motherfuckers.
I know that Jordan Petersen is of little use to the dissidents but I find him fascinating. I consider him a dissident liberal – he will never get to This Side… but he knows it’s there, that it’s valid…. and unlike most liberals, he can do a two way conversation without relying on bumper stickers and memes.
YMMV… But here, he talks about clinical contagion of mental disorders as spread by the internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWNPFydBOKg&t=191s
The proposed Mind Virus is a most curious phenomenon. For example, we have the Hunter Biden Laptop. Roundly denounced in late 2020, just before the election*, apparently now it has been at least partially conceded as being true by no less than the New York Times and other legacy media. Yet no one has retracted their 2020 denunciations, including the bevy of retired Swamp Creatures that assured the public it was Russian disinformation. In related recent news, the FBI admits to Congress they seem to have misplaced the laptop, which they obtained in 2019. Fortunately, an unknown number of copies… Read more »
“releasing damning information just two weeks prior to a major election reeks of political partisanship.”
That’s what the NYT did with Trump’s tax returns. The same people then denied the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Voltaire ” Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Media zombies!
Twitching, jerking, heads swiveling as they seek some hapless victim to interview.
Origin variant A affected mostly the elderly, making them scratch chickenmarks with pen and notepad.
Media Delta made them clutch anything resembling a microphone and shout unintelligibly in crowded venues.
Media BA.2 compels them to hold up smartphones and hit the flash, flash, flash button repeatedly!
OT: i see some comments on climate change, so thought i would mention a very interesting theory detailed by EthicalSkeptic. the Earth’s innermost core is shifting (as measured by change in magnetic field) and this is causing heat to be generated and dumped into the oceans. It’s a lengthy essay, with a lot of details that are beyond my knowledge, but I found it compelling. It’s also provable as many of the effects of this core shift are measurable. Sadly there is no opportunity for graft because of this cause…
here it is for those that are interested: https://theethicalskeptic.com/2020/02/16/the-climate-change-alternative-we-ignore-to-our-peril/
The Wobble! Like a yoke in an egg. Interesting, will read!
OK, I confess. I ony said thanks because I wanted to hear the von Hungus signature sneer of contempt.
But magnetic field lines and a mind virus? Heck yeah, related. Now you’re talkin’, baby!
you are not sneer worthy.
I reckon they could graft that.
Giant boring machines digging into the earth to save the planet. With all the drama of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Is Doug Mcclure still alive? The fake budgets would be huge.
Granted they would have to can all the carbon bollocks, but given the complete control of the media, should take them about a week to do a complete reprogramming.
maybe get all the chinese to run in place to create counter-spin?
Just would not have the same graft and TV potential of hundreds of giant mole-man digging machines.
“Run right! Run reft!”
Then, all the Aussies might start jumping up and down…”Earth-quaaake!!!”
As for HBD, it’s sort of like the idea that “people are conservative about things then [think] they know about.” Boomers like Steve Sailer don’t have a general critique of science or the MSM, like Chomsky, they just think that the MSM etc. have an agenda that leads them to lie about IQ and race in particular; otherwise they were raised to believe anything in newspapers or TV. Hence, COVID is real, and Ukraine is beating the pants off Russia. Objectively speaking, S. Sailer is as likely as any shitlib to have a bumper sticker or lawn sign saying “Believe… Read more »
These people have had their psychological immune systems trained against one type of virus all their lives. But times change and that has left them naive against this new, social-media driven mind virus. It’s potent. Sailer and at least one Vdare author repeatedly claim things which are either untrue or unknowable about the war in Ukraine. Sailer assures us on Twitter that there are “thousands of grieving Russian mothers” right now and that Russia just lost the battle for Kiev. Never once did the guy provide evidence of this claim or respond to those who challenged it with facts. What… Read more »
Sailer seems to be very similar to Charles Murray, who is basically an old-school liberal in the vein of Moynihan. Murray hated Trump and believes the worst thing about identity politics is that whites might start thinking of themselves as a group and organize, i.e., whites will become an identity group. Both Sailer and Murray seem to have some concern for poor whites, but in their hearts, they’re IQ snobs. Their “people” are well-educated, high IQ types of any race. Their worldview is that of a college professor who is surrounded by smart people of various shades of skin. They… Read more »
Nailed it 0n Murray.
Carl-Gustaf Jung wrote extensively on the subject of “psychic infections.” Even said they could be contagious. May be something like that going in. I think it’s simpler than that. TV quite literally mediates reality for nearly *all* Americans. And apparently for people of many other countries, too. If it’s on TV, it *must* be true. After all, *famous* people are touting [whatever it is], and fame is the most highly valued thing in AINO. Nothing else even comes close. If you want to say that most people are psychically infected by TV, I wouldn’t argue with you. But people live… Read more »
It’s simple. Kill your TV! This monstrous technology wormed its way into our homes with the promise of news and entertainment; but it has mutated into a source of envy, greed, misinformation and despair. It truly deserves its designation as an idiot box.
Wise families will return to pastimes drawn from a small library of classic books, a few engaging board games, and a musical instrument or two. It is past time that we relearn to do for ourselves as much as we can and shun all things that make us passive and uncritical.
people under 30 watch very little TV.
Social media is even worse.
Maybe, but they more than make up for it with social media, You Tube, etc.
They’re constantly imbibing MSM on their smartphones.
I’ve heard it called ” the electronic jew”
Agree. The TV is our Bible, our Mabharata, our Q’uran.. Commonly shared stories, references, lessons, and entertainment.
Addendum, the technocracy is riding a wave of technology, as did the railroad barons and clipper ship magnates. The tech is driving social change, even as did fire and bronze.
The younguns are adapting to the new environment, just as we did. The generational divide is a tech divide, that’s why it’s so marked, especially in white society (because we invent it.)
I’ll let you research the “No true Scotsman” fallacy (also called “appeal to purity.”) Even with that limitation, as an agnostic/atheist, I would wholeheartedly agree there are few Christians left. When you say “largely successful attempts to shut down churches,” I take it to mean only during the pandemic lockdowns. Yes, that affected all churches and many other organizations (in certain areas.) But, I’d argue, the real damage done to churches was by the Frankfurt School (or term it as you like), with their march through the institutions, over nearly a century, and largely successful. Come to think of it,… Read more »
Ben layabout: Very few people are of average intelligence. About 49% are above and 49% below average. Also “average intelligence” does not equate to smart or non-idiot. The average intelligence papua new guinean, for example, is darn near retarded. And if Dutton is right, average is sliding materially lower towards the “idiot” range every few years, and we didnt start that high to begin with.
Wait, are you saying that Putin did not plan to take Kiev, that the whole northern campaign was some sort of feint or something? That seems highly implausible, to say the least! Also, I’m wondering if you could explain exactly why you are siding with Russia in this conflict. More and more it’s looking like a fiasco, but even if the invasion had gone as planned, and the whole of Ukraine had fallen in a week, what good do you believe would have come of it? Serious question, because to me it looks like a disaster across the board. (How… Read more »
Z can speak for himself but I’ll give my two cents. First, I don’t think the original push to Kiev was a feint. I’d suspect that the Russians hit across a broad area hoping the Ukrainians would get overwhelmed and fall apart. The Russians would then make the eastern provinces semi-autonomous, demilitarize Ukraine and install a new regime in Kiev. When that didn’t happen, they moved to Plan B, which is to take the eastern provinces and create a land bridge to Crimea. As to whether the entire Ukrainian war is a fiasco for Putin, it’s too early to tell.… Read more »
I generally agree with your analysis, although I believe the Russians are doing better than you think and are following their game plan. The great thing for us is the potential to disrupt the NWO plans , hopefully not at the cost of WW3.
Agreed. First, as much as the TV “experts” would like us to believe, no one in the West actually knew/knows what their game plan is. Unlike us, they don’t broadcast their intentions and options to the world. Second, the media will not be allowed to veer from the approved narrative until they are told to change it to a different narrative. So they will always present it as Russia is losing and Ukraine is the plucky underdog. As has been stated here so many times, the only thing we absolutely know to be true, is that what the media is… Read more »
Indeed. No deviation allowed.
Google just sent out a message to all its publishers that any claim Ukraine is attacking its own population, or content condoning the war as justified will be demonitized from google advertising.
Totally not coordinated with the entire MIC/media complex in the west.
Agreed that I could be wrong. I’m mainly just going off of what I see on the Military and Foreign Affairs Network on youtube. The host seems pretty fair. In fact, he often criticizes the media for their portrayal of the war and their anti-Russian slant.
Also, he’s anonymous so not trying to get his name out there and definitely seems ex-military so not just some talking head.
https://www.youtube.com/c/MilitaryandForeignAffairsNetwork?app=desktop
It seems the instant gratification phenomenon now applies even to warfare. Whereas past wars often took decades and even a century to prosecute, we now expect closure in less than a month. If that expectation is frustrated, then something must be going badly wrong, in this case, for the Rooskies. It is a silly way to look at war.
The more trashed Ukraine gets, the more billions (trillions?) the US will eventually spend in rebuilding efforts, not to mention weapons contracts.
The opportunity for another decade’s worth of graft, corruption, and sleazy kickbacks to US companies, pols, and NGOs is irresistible to US gov on both sides of the aisle.
The more destruction, the more long term graft. No wonder the West is dragging out the inevitable negotiated compromise ending.
The worse, the better.
And they get to impose all the artificial energy impoverishment policies on the west they have been trying to push through for the last 10 years.
“The Russians would then make the eastern provinces semi-autonomous, … ” So it is your theory of international relations that once a government officially recognizes the independence of another country, the next logical step is to send troops into that country to make it semi-autonomous? That makes *zero* sense. “The Russians certainly haven’t performed as well as people thought that they would.” How would you know such a thing? Do you know what “people” thought would happen? If so, how? Do you know how the Russians have performed? How do you know that? Have you been on the ground in… Read more »
How do you know Russia or Ukraine exist?
How do you know there’s a war?
Which epistemic principle allows you to dismiss opinions based on observable events ?
I am not questioning your ideas but this: why would you believe anything you’ve been told about the Russia-Ukraine conflict? Perhaps you’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to check various sources? I dont even closely follow the news from there, except perhaps seeing a headline by chance, because I’m convinced I’d be reading propaganda.
Why are you concerned in the resolution of this conflict? This is not 1985 and Ivan is not ready to come through the Fulda Gap and conquer Europe. I am still not sure why anyone on the right would take an active stance against Russia.
I have no interest in who wins. However, Russia did a fine job in saving Syria from US/Israel/Saudi proxies and that alone is enough to with them well.
Why do people on the American Right see Russia as a proxy champion for their own culture war? Russia is not going to be your path to salvation. Russia is not rightwing or even christian and harbors a seething resentment for the West. It has its own official race theory for the Russian genome that makes Russia an opponent of European peoples.The theory allows Russia to act as a global champion against white people who the Russians delight in labeling as imperialists or Nazis. Europeans are aware of this which explains why Rightists in Europe don’t necessaily support Russia’s invasion… Read more »
“Also, I’m wondering if you could explain exactly why you are siding with Russia in this conflict.” Where did ZMan say that? “More and more it’s looking like a fiasco, … .” Only to lamebrains. ” … but even if the invasion had gone as planned, … .” To quote you, “wait, are you saying that” it didn’t go as planned? And how do you know that? How *could* you know that? “and the whole of Ukraine had fallen in a week, … .” Was that the Russian plan? How do you know that? ” … what good do you… Read more »
Russia entered Ukraine with less than 200,000 troops arrayed against over 450,000 AFU regulars plus territorial units. They sent 40,000 at Kiev in order to fix in place the 110,000 defenders that were emplaced there to secure the seat of Ukrainian government. The Russian Crimean forces struck west, north, and east in diluted attacks against Kherson and Mariupol in much the same fashion to lock in place AFU units in the south. This allowed the main Russian force to box in the AFU’s best corps located in the Donbas, which are now sandwiched between Donetsk and Lugansk militia units in… Read more »
“Putin wants Zelensky alive because he needs someone “credible” to the West to sign the peace treaty.” You might very well be right about this, as incredible and insane as it sounds. Why on *earth* Putin should give a moment’s thought to what the West will say or do is beyond my feeble mind. I can’t dismiss him as a slow learner, but he seems to be a slow learner. How many times does the West have to demonstrate its utter treacherousness and faithlessness before Putin realizes once and for all the the West *never* acts in good faith? That… Read more »
Too many make the error thinking that events are cleverly planned in detail. Russia clearly had (has) some plans, at which we can only guess. Here’s a guess: the reports of millions of refugees are not part of Russia’s plan. But whether or not that’s true, here are some obvious (?) truths: 1. A large portion of those refugees are not Ukraine natives (e.g. they are non-Whites.) I suspect that Russia is more pro-White than any Western country. So from their view in other words, good riddance. 2. A large influx of refugees will only destabilize the rest of Europe.… Read more »
It is, as I’ve stated before, looking more and more a Putin “blunder”. At this point, I’d say there is little to no upside for Putin–regardless of outcome. As I said, the “clock was ticking” once Putin invaded Ukraine. He has perhaps revealed the Russian national armed forces to be a true paper tiger and embolden her one enemy, the GAE. That being said, what was in it for him? What was in it for us (DR)? Russia was slowly being engulfed by the GAE, via its flunky NATO. It was basically an uninterrupted continuance of the Cold War–after the… Read more »
There is plenty of upside for Putin if Russia obtains its objectives in Ukraine, which I fully believe it ultimately will. The most obvious benefit for Russia is that the GAE’s expansion to Russia’s border is checked. That means the GAE’s military threat is obviated, and that its base of cultural subversion of Russia is supplanted by pro-Russia forces.
“The most obvious benefit for Russia is that the GAE’s expansion to Russia’s border is checked.” I do not agree with you on this point, although I do on your others. IF Putin has made a mistake here–and I am by NO means convinced that he has (and I don’t even suspect it)–it is that he waited FAR too long to ACT, apparently expecting good-faith actions from the people he continued to call “our Western partners” right up until he sent troops into the Ukraine less than a week after Zelinsky announced in Munich that the Ukraine was going to… Read more »
“… it is that [Putin] waited FAR too long to ACT, …” That is a at least in part a function of the demented ignoramus Joe Biden’s installation into the Presidency. I have no doubt that Putin in consultation with his senior strategists and generals made a formal war determination MANY YEARS AGO. Russian decision makers (this is not just Putin acting in isolation as a dictator) decided that war was inevitable and therefore carried out measures necessary to prepare for it. That’s track 1. Track 2 was diplomatic headed by Lavrov continuing to attempt to alleviate the conditions that… Read more »
Yes, Ukraine into NATO checked. Now what about Finland (on same border position) and Sweden? What about NATO and the possibility of a ground war with Russia? More or less likely? The (NATO) Baltic states are more or less likely to retreat from neutrality and expand/admit NATO bases? We now know that Russia, with their vaunted military technology, could not overrun (blitzkrieg) Ukraine agaainst “defensive” anti-armor/anti-air weapons used by grunt level ground troops. Nor does it seem that air superiority is complete. Nor that Russian supply line systems are satisfactory to support ground troops. These aspects are observable/deducible from Russian… Read more »
The relatively short border between Finland/Karelia is infinitely more defensible for Russia than the vast steppe lands of Ukraine, and that assumes Finland actually allows NATO troops there. Likewise, the terrain and climatic conditions in the far north are far less propitious for invasion of Russia than in the relatively temperate south. As for the conduct of the war itself, I never thought it reasonable to expect Russia to roll over Ukraine tout suite. Unlike messages on a sail foam, wars take time to prosecute, particularly against a landmass as large as Ukraine. Is Russia having an easy time of… Read more »
Ostei. You ignore my point. NATO/US weaponry has bogged the Russians down, as well as their own lack of ability to support their army in the field and achieve their objectives (whatever they were). This bad showing will not go away with a victory–even if Ukraine outright capitulates. The longer this David and Goliath war goes on the worse it looks for Russia’s touted military abilities. Thus a show of weakness to intractable enemies such a GAE. Prior to this “demonstration” of military might, Russia was touted to have countered most US weaponry. They had better tank sophistication, anti-aircraft batteries,… Read more »
Has anyone seen the reports (many) in the press recently about Sweden and Finland possibly joining NATO? That such reports are in the news is easily checked: there are many, perhaps dozens, at news.google.com. Is this some type of propaganda? More jockeying by the Deep State? I am totally conjecturing here, not even with any benefit of having read any of the news reports, which I would dismiss as of questionable provenance in any case. But merely consider the following: The powers that be have decided it’d be A Good Thing having those two nations in NATO. They are small… Read more »
The problem with NATO joining is not the size of the force addition, but the location and basing of NATO assets in these two countries.
This is not entirely dissimilar to our objection in the early 60’s to the USSR basing missiles in Cuba. These missiles were what, 20 minutes from Washington? So Russia should be agreeable to such an possible assault from Ukraine (about 4 minutes from Moscow)?
If anything, such alliances makes us *less* secure in a nuclear armed world as Russia might then be obliged to launch on “detect” lest they be decapitated by a first strike.
My hope is that the AFU command in Donbass will surrender en masse before the coming battle commences. There are over 80,000 white guys in the cauldron that do not need to die for the GAE. Once the Russian 1st Guards Tank Division rolls, it will be slaughter-on-steroids and nothing will stop them from smashing everything into smithereens. The only upside would be that Hannity may actually have to commit suicide in solidarity with Asov Nazis rather than admit he was lying the whole time. The key lesson of the Ukraine War is that the Cloud People will do the… Read more »
I am 58 yo , the former soviet union was expansive and had many ethnicities , at that time many peoples were also moved about to different jobs far from their place of birth . The nicest being the closed cities which came with better perks , housing etc , exclaves they came to be known as I believe . Look at all the …..stans that exist . I am not a geneticist , and am talking above my paygrade and knowledge , admittedly . The former soviet union seemed like quite a mix of cultures and ethnicities , look… Read more »
“Wait, are you saying that Putin did not plan to take Kiev, that the whole northern campaign was some sort of feint or something? That seems highly implausible, to say the least!”
Indeed, why wouldn’t Putin adopt the winning strategy of Hitler and Napoleon? Head for the capitol, and dig in. Just makes sense!
Maybe it’ll work when Russia is the aggressor 😀
Putin was aiming at Kiev and hit the USD as a reserve currency. And the ricochet broke loose most of the non-Western world (from the grasp of the GAE). The amount of damage Biden and Boris have done to their own interests is incalculable. Makes Nero look like a piker…and you are still butt-hurt henry!
Fear not, for there is still time to cuck!
This is fact, western “special forces” are controlling the ground war. They have complete Intel resource signals, satellite etc.
These are top tier operators who have been there for a while.
Putin knows this. How far will this thing go? I’m worried.
“The cause remains unknown, but the madness we have seen over the last half dozen years points to some common cause.” The cause I believe is a distinct lack of interest in what happens above the mortal realm. No God. No higher cause. Nothing. For many people without a sound set of principles and a motivation for the good, it is all to easy to succumb to The Evil. Some people – perhaps those of a DR mindset – seem to be able to order their lives without higher belief; but, for most people I think they just get lost.… Read more »
It may be true that people are believing machines, but it does not follow that your particular religion is the answer. People on the dissident right keep talking about how we can’t go back to the original constitution. It was a product of it time. It failed and got us to where we are today. However many of the Christian DR just expect everyone go back to church without considering that what can be said about the constitution can be said for Christendom. Christianity has been in retreat for 500 years and its slow decay has many causes that predate… Read more »
not to mention tons of normies are self-identified christians – and are simultaneously some of the most likely to go for the lure every time.
“The “believing machine” isn’t going to believe for purely utilitarian reasons.”
Luke 16:31
All you have done is to put on display your profound ignorance of Christianity.
Okay, so what? It’s not for you. So what?
Christianity has *always* taught that it is not for everyone. You have said nothing new at all. Or even anything germane to the DR.
Your response is angry and incoherent. I am right over the target you little fairy tail believer.
[…] ZMan does some detecting. […]
As for the media, I worked for a long time on the production side of TV news. It really just comes down to one thing: these are not intelligent people. Go into any newsroom and you meet a bunch of pretty, relatively affluent types who’s only real goal is to be TV “personalities”. Their only private reading material is pop-culture fluff. Their only concern is getting that resume tape just right so they can land the next gig in the next larger market, or if they are older, finding that comfortable market to enjoy their working retirement. They will never… Read more »
A client of mine owns a regional transportation service company.
Several years ago, he interviewed an applicant for an entry level sales position. The applicant proudly brandished his academic bona-fides: he had majored in African-American Studies with a minor in Modern African-American Communication.
Any good Dissident should not be surprised to learn the following:
(1) The applicant did not get the job and
(2) The applicant was whiter than Opie Taylor
“The applicant proudly brandished his academic bona-fides: he had majored in African-American Studies with a minor in Modern African-American Communication.”
My God, can you imagine working with someone like that?
At the risk of brushing up against the fence of autism, allow me to be literal, yes, I can imagine it – and that is why I would never do it and it is why my client did not hire the sack of soy.
I wonder if he was fluent in ebonics?
The jokes write themselves.
He could read readin’, but he couldn’t write writin’.
In the future, you probably won’t have to imagine.
TV newsrooms across the country are now just cut and paste shops. The newsrooms run automation systems that make it easy to just drag and drop stories from CNN or Reuters or AP.
No checking for accuracy and even if they could check the stories the people running these systems are so dumbed down they have no idea where to begin.
They have been doing this for decades.
20 years ago the large papers in London all worked like this, the journalists got centralized feeds tagged by type and just rewrote them in their own style, added some stuff from the fact checkers and fed them into the editorial desks.
I disagree. The Daily Telegraph used to be a very good newspaper until an American advised them on how to be more appealing to the digital market. Even the Guardian would have some pretty interesting opinion pieces. The Daily Mail still manages to produce stories which challenge “diversity is our greatest strength”.
I got the same vibe from a lot of the environmentalists interviewed in Planet of the Humans Almost none of them could articulate any position other than, “durrr durrr green energy good!” Even a state level director for the Sierra Club couldn’t articulate a basic position on biomass energy. As for the film, it was pretty good with only a few missteps. It was nice to see people on the other side realize TINA to fossil fuels. The film also made me aware of the horror of the biomass energy industry, which basically shreds forests to burn the wood to… Read more »
I. too, have worked as a journalist, although in print media, not TV. But I have *always* said that they don’t know *anything*–EXCEPT … how to get ahead in their chosen field.
You have nailed it. Great post!
Oh, yeah, the guy who put O’Bamacare together and who remarked to an open mike that the people are too stupid to know or understand any of it. Forgotten his name. Doesn’t matter. He once said that the average journalist in Washington is 27 years old and doesn’t know anything.
Today’s pop music suggestion: Whiny ex-Eagle Don Henley’s first (?) solo hit “Dirty Laundry” recounts precisely about what you describe:
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/donhenley/dirtylaundry.html
You could either spend a lot of time carefully researching all of these issues, Ukraine, Covid, etc, or simply take the opposite side that Soros, Hillary, Kamala, Obama, the neocons, CNN, MSNBC etc are on, and either way, you’ve probably hit the nail on the head.
Exactly. Why waste time even bothering to research these secondary issues at all? We know that The Evil supports them, and most importantly, they are simply not issues for most of us: but The State does which to make them issues for us. I don’t care about Ukraine. The Shamdemic was so grossly exaggerated that I cannot look at most human beings the same way I used to. The Climate Change? I’ll tell you when my face boils off about how I feel about that one.* * One question I always asked, which was met by either silence or “It… Read more »
Remember when they picked 350 ppm as the magic doom number for atmospheric CO2 and developed an entire international media cult and grifting operation around it?
Not unlike the magic six foot distance to keep the covid germs at bay – any closer and it sets them off like a hornet’s nest.
Ha ha ha! Too funny.
Try “What temperature should the earth be?”
Roman warm period… medieval warm period…. 1550 – 1820s little ice age… Holocene Climate Optimum…?
Couldn’t somebody just turn down the thermostat?
The interesting thing about asking the cultist morons that question is
1) all of them have no idea what the current average temp is
2) have no idea as to what the actual ranges are around the world
3) have no idea the other periods even existed
If it was not so pathetic how NPC it is, it would be laughable.
Succinct and not a new revelation to me, but I believed, before Putin publicly stated, the US is just an Empire of Lies. It is. I just plainly is. In fact, it is lies placed upon lies placed upon more lies. From here to infinity.
I don’t care if it is Biden or Mcarthy, not a principled, decent bone in either reptiles’ body.
Mattias Desmer, a Belgian psychologist, has done some work on what he calls mass formation, but which resembles mass psychosis. You start with high levels of generalized anxiety, coupled with a strong degree of social isolation (people look at screens instead of each other) and a feeling that things just don’t make sense anymore. Such a population is vulnerable to a narrowing of focus: Covid, Ukraine conflict; this is the source of the problem. The routines (hand washing, masks, innoculations, expressions of support for Ukraine and dislike of Russia and Vladimir Putin) become a way to cope. People feel part… Read more »
That whole thing was just so NPCs did not have to face the fact they are, and always will be NPCs.
Translation: Most people are idiots.
Guys, it’s not that complicated. There’s no “virus”. They are just communists. These commies have been pretending to hold DR views. They lie and pretend to hold certain viewpoints in order to gain trust and infiltrate *every* institution and movement that they can. It’s the same reason you can hire a “dedicated educator” to teach your children and then when your back is turned you find out she’s telling them that boys can have periods and that they should hate themselves for being white. Commies have been doing this shit for over a century now. It is their nature. The… Read more »
how do you reconcile the west’s animus towards openly communist countries?
> how do you reconcile the west’s animus towards openly communist countries?
Simple:
> They lie and pretend to hold certain viewpoints in order to gain trust and infiltrate *every* institution and movement that they can.
“how do you reconcile the west’s animus towards openly communist countries?”
If you consider the ‘West’s’ (GAE…Global American Empire, Schwab, Soros, and the Royal Family) position towards communism as ‘animus’…
…I got a N95 mask ta sell ya that protects against biological agents.
” …I got a N95 mask ta sell ya that protects against biological agents.”
Not necessary. I saw it on TeeVee: If you hide under your bed, the virus can’t get you.
Spread the word.
“how do you reconcile the west’s animus towards openly communist countries?” There are two kinds of communist, nationalist and internationalist. Communism started out as internationalist. They failed to successfully sell their vision of the future to the European working classes who were their original target audience. The only places where communism has successfully resonated with working classes are where the latter felt the need for a national liberation movement, either from oppressive foreign occupation or from an indigenous oligarchy whose exploitation became intolerable. If the people willing to accept guidance or material help from international communists were either nationalists or… Read more »
I agree that there was a great influx of communist (Marxist, socialist, etc.) ideas into the West via the Frankfurt School etc. And surely the Soviets did support, overtly and covertly, various international movements during their reign. But you seem to paint a too-optimistic view of centralization of power during Soviet rule. Even a passing knowledge of world history will show the ruthless purges of early Soviets (e.g. Trotsky) as well as the multiple purges during Stalin’s term. Far from being a united international movement, China broke away even pre- WW II (Yugoslavia, Albania, etc.) Some of these fiercely maintained… Read more »
I didn’t write clearly enough; sorry too rushed. Thank you for reading it. I’m not claiming it was centrally controlled on a planetary basis, but exactly the opposite. They tried for that repeatedly, and failed because of nationalism. One central theme running through Soviet is their continued struggle to control nationalism and tribalism amongst the various populations they controlled. I’m merely noting that it was the Supreme Soviet which had power over all of its subordinate soviets in the various socialist republics, which were essentially administrative, carrying out decisions rather than formulating policy. They didn’t trust the lower level soviets… Read more »
The fall of the Soviet Unuon must’ve hell for you.
When cattle roam too freely in one direction, they’ll eventually come to a fence. The acreage can be vast and make the cattle feel unconfined, but it’s there. And beyond that fence lies the estates of the owners of our society….meaning owners of us. Nearly 100% of traditional media personalities are handlers on the estate. They earn their pay keeping the cattle fed and watered, removing downed cows, looking for pathogens among the herd. Those same pathogens described above. Perhaps viruses that affect the mind, and cause the cattle to charge the fences. They’ll even send in dogs (Antifa) to… Read more »
Hayward, from from Old English hege-weard, fence/hedge guardian, to protect fences to prevent cattle from breaking in while the crops grew.
Little boy blue come blow your horn,
I have a glorious dream. If Elon Musk isn’t just trolling everyone, and if he does somehow manage a hostile takeover of Twitter, I have but one hopeful request of him. I do not want a “Free Speech” Twitter. I want an inverse Twitter of what currently exists. I want all the current crazies who run Twitter to he run out on a rail and replaced with people with right-wing sympathies. I want the top-down management to be in accord on this and decisions to be made with a right-wing bias. This will hopefully cause a mass exodus of the… Read more »
FWIW: Never been an Elon Musk fan boy. But I recently went down to Boca Chica, TX and paid a visit to the SpaceX construction site. It’s incredible. Activity everywhere. A huge launch/recovery tower that took 13 months to build (NASA took 10 years to build their newest). Rockets everywhere, nonstop loads of fuel being delivered. For the first time in a very long time it felt like America, doing great things. What an American must of felt like during the Apollo 11 mission. NASA is a dinosaur. Blue Origin is an extension of a playboy billionaire who wants the… Read more »
They might not be allowed to launch from Texas, the EPA won’t give them the permits, rockets are too loud for the local birds or some crap like that
I agree SpaceX are one of the great things happening in the US now, back to the Moon and on to Mars in the next few years
Ad Astra
Space X and the colonization of Mars is a fever dream. Much technology must be developed before such endeavors will be more than publicity stunts. When you see the technology perfected, you’ll know they are making progress. And in the case, “it *is* rocket science”!
Yeah for me it was when i saw that rocket gently reverse land. His control room crew were pretty light skinned as well.
There is too much valency now. We can not be ourselves anymore.
The fake news about Ukraine is coming from our mainstream media. 1000 Ukrainians surrenders in Ukraine, Mariupol today and very little word about it in our media. It is as if the U.S. media works for Ukraine.
This surrender video of Ukrainians happened today in Mariupol https://youtu.be/EPY2GKt0P3E
Its more likely the US/western media/govt work for the same people the Ukranians work for.
Imagine if it was toxoplasmosis coupled with herd behaviors driving the majority to run madly to the cliffs. Nature finds a way to achieve population balance.
Odd that the most vitriol and legal suppression was saved for an anti-parasitical treatment.
Right?
It is almost as if there is a percentage of the parasitized that are keenly aware of the greatest threat to their ongoing survival.
Its more likely the parasite.
Cat Ladies are catshit crazy
Certainly appears to be a mass psychosis of some sort. I’m no champion of the field of psychology–reading Jacques Lacan will do that to a reasonably normal person–but I’d be interested to hear what the shrinks have to say on the subject. Alas, you’d have to terminate your research somewhere in the 1990s, because in that decade the entire field succumbed to whatever it is that is producing the mass psychosis right now.
The shrinks helped cause it. Didn’t anybody else find it strange that covid death stats and cases could be found everywhere in the media. They didn’t want you to forget because it was so real. Just like you couldn’t go into the office because it was so real.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/02/state-fear-ministers-used-covert-tactics-keep-scared-public/
Here’s another theory. The virus of sports ball addiction has been expanded to other areas of life. Because most people’s life is so incredibly pointless and empty, the only way they can get a buzz (other than drugs and alcohol), is by watching some fast person of a darker persuasion crossing a goal line or putting a ball into a hoop or a net and then shucking and jiving, pointing to the sky, and acting like baboons. So, to get this feeling in different contexts, they adopt a “my good team vs. your bad team” view of reality. TPTB understand… Read more »
I don’t think you’re kidding at all. And I don’t think you should be.
“… America was justified in defending themselves from external aggression was the War of 1812…”
Perhaps a bit of historical research is in order, America started the war of 1812. There was little reason to start such–certainly no power was about to “invade” our shores–except for factions within our government that wanted to demonstrate *new** American power. It was exactly what our Founders feared.
Someone has said to me that we now live in the new Walt Disney World order in the nation of Transgendervania.
We need to secede from this union somehow.
“children at the New York Times” . . . Damn it if I don’t love it when Zman casts succinct yet accurate barbs. This whole essay today is excellent and really out to spawn a couple sequels. Hell, it could be the basis for an entire book.
“really OUGHT to spawn a couple sequels.”
Z has a gift for writing those pithy little zingers that deliver a high dose of scorn and ridicule.
Having noticed that same thing has me wondering of there is a commodity market in horses heads. The unanimity of opinion on the Coronadoom, and the Russki cannibal orcs vs. the saintly Ukrainian hobbits that infects even Fox News and normally reasonable people like Victor Davis Hanson indicates that orders to “toe the line or else” are being given. The question is by who? Herr Schwab’s WEF, Black Rock & Vanguard seem to be likely culprits, but they’re just the hired help. The Bank of International Settlements remains pretty mysterious, and there are those Sci Fi types who think we’re… Read more »
Supposey the Earth’s magnetic field is weakening and that is causing the mass craziness.
There are actually papers describing studies that purport to show weakening magnetic fields negatively effect human brain function.
I’m not sure how much I believe those papers, because we do know there is a reproducibility crisis in every scientific field.
Beyond some simple examples, like birds and perhaps other animals that have magnetized organs that help them navigate, I am no aware of a scrap of evidence thta the Earth’s magnetic field has any direct effect upon humans. I freely confess that having done zero research, I would not be expected to have any evidence 🙂 All that said, the magnetic field is actually quite a good thing. If it did not exist, we’d all be dead in very short order.
@Z-man – I agree with your observations, and indeed this is what I’ve been writing about on my blog for the past several years (but from a Christian perspective). I call these ‘viral’ issues the Litmus Tests. To adopt the Establishment side on any one of them (others you don’t mention include climate change and the transagenda) , defines your existential position wrt life in this world. Each test that comes along causes another cohort of people on the Good-side to switch sides and affiliate with the global totalitarian leftists – and once they’ve switched sides they always seem to… Read more »
I think Trump was the virus. Up until he came along, the left (and “right”) were secure in their bubble and secure in their power and control over virtually everything. When he actually got elected, the insanity erupted. Everything that has occurred since then is straight out of a lunatic asylum – Russian collusion, bogus impeachment, covid, fraudulent election, J6 hoax, Ukraine. A lot of it was background noise during the Trump years, but has gotten increasingly strident. It’s like they have to amp up the volume to make sure the plebs get the message and stay on board with… Read more »
I think they’re going to try to push it as far as they can to see where the breaking point is, and we all know what happens then.
Personally, I can’t stand the NPCs. I’ve had my fill of them for several lifetimes.
In your list of nutzo things, don’t forget the Passion of the Floyd and subsequent corporate-sponsored BLM neighborhood burnings. Tranny-mania and whitey statue toppling also deserve honorable mention.
While the Covid response among those who should know better remains a mystery to me, the response to Trump and Ukraine doesn’t. Both threaten the system and give dirt people bad thoughts about fighting back, either politically or with actual violence. Hanson, Hannity, Sailer, etc., all rely on the current system and don’t want it overturned. There’s no place for them in that new world. They’re not dirt people, after all. In a sense, they’re the court jester. Well, the court jester needs the court. They all believe that the system can be reformed. They also feel that they have… Read more »
“They want to mock or slightly alter the system, not overthrow it.”
It’s more banal than that. They are expressing concern that the system is pursuing policies that will reduce their future material standard of living rather than maintain or increase it. They’re concerned about their future comfort. It really isn’t more complicated than that.
Sean Hannity illustrated your point in a 2003 Faux News broadcast in which he “interviewed” Vernice Kuglin and her attorney, Larry Becraft. Vernice was a Fed-Ex pilot who had been charged by the IRS for six counts of tax evasion. Rather than plead for mercy, she went to trial. She testified that she had not filed an income tax return for the preceding 6 years and that she had not paid any income taxes during that time. She was facing a maximum 30 year vacation at Club Fed. The jury acquitted her on all six charges. Well, the great Hannitizer… Read more »
“They all believe that the system can be reformed.”
Therein lies the problem. The system is incapable of reform because the mechanisms to enable reform either don’t exist or are broken and in some cases, broken beyond repair, at least in the short to medium term.
I think this is why there is so much talk among dissidents about the system collapsing under its own weight. Deep down, everyone knows that you cannot reform this system and so collapse is, in their minds, the only real mechanism to change.
As it pertains to “conservatives” like Hannity and VDH, I noticed that what they profess and say they believe is what they think their dads would have thought and said if they were still around. IOW they are trying to be good, dutiful, and loyal sons. And notice how other conservatives like Cruz and Rubio base their entire worldview on what their dads experienced. Rush was much the same. They are talking and living through their fathers. It seemingly is the polar opposite of liberals with “daddy issues”. But it is merely the flip side of the same coin. And… Read more »
Sean Hannity is the patron saint of the Nutclutcher Patriots. That tends to be a cohort of conservatives that are always happy to support a war, any war. At the drop of a hat, they’ll be charging off with their swords in one hand and their balls in the other, ready to Make the World Safe for Israel, or solve a Great Humanitarian Crises, or Destroy the WMDs. I’m astounded that sort of crap has any audience at all, but unfortunately it seems to be doing pretty well for itself.
Yeah, it is all pretty bizarre but I think what it boils down to is that these are guys with daddy issues. With Hannity it even goes into more storage territory where he not only tries to find acceptance from his father but from truckers and cowboys or “real men.” But since he can’t find any truckers or cowboys to pal around with he ends up cavorting and taking the stage with country singers, as if they are a real alternative. I remember me and my plumber laughing for a good day when Hannity was on the radio saying how… Read more »
Looks like someone needs to be Hannitized!
Yeah, it sounds like Falcone’s not a Great American®.
“Yeah, it sounds like Falcone’s not a Great American®.”
KGB, which it today’s “bizarro world” makes Falcone a very *great* American. 😉
MC Hannity: “Hanni time!”
Who does he think he’s fooling? Conservatives flock to him, but it’s not because they think he’s one of them.
“At the drop of a hat, they’ll be charging off with their swords in one hand and their balls in the other.”
Edit to: At the drop of a hat, they’ll be pushing others forward to charge off with their swords in one hand and their balls in the other.
I had the good fortune of spending a lot of time with my grandparents growing up. They had a different perspective than my parents and teachers, obviously. That taught me that everybody has an incomplete perspective on life, which ultimately if belatedly made me resistant to the programming I was receiving. It also gave me a sense of place, family, history, and cultural continuity. Identity, iow. To your point, I agree a lot of people seem to try to live up to or rebel against their parents. Imo they’re trapped in a limited perspective that makes parents seem far too… Read more »
I think you’re on to something here. We’re not evolved for the nuclear family and this is having all kinds of deleterious effects on personality development in the West.
There’s a whole body of pretty convincing research on Good Enough vs ‘Dead’ Mothers and childhood development. Not having grandparents in the same household just ups the odds of things going wrong in childhood.
And that’s before we get to single mothers, toxic media culture, toxic educational system, et.
Let’s call it “Dissident Fatigue”. The soul-sucking amount of psychological bandwidth/energy consumed by holding dissident opinions claims a lot of fatigue victims. I think this phenomenon explains a lot of the inconsistent/weird behavior Zman cites. For anyone with a public profile, it’s really hard to be at constant odds with the consensus. Of course, history shows that this is when the biggest mistakes are made. Say what you will about Ron Paul, but he’s one of the few who had the steel balls to resist the major errors of the GWOT and Patriot Act. Nearly everyone else finally succumbed under… Read more »
Dr. Paul and Pat Buchanan revived my faith in America after the Neocon termites of the W. Administration shredded it. Shame that we as Americans are such creatures of habit that so few were willing to give him a chance.
Paul cucked hard on race and the public accommodation laws and free association and worse still, disavowed himself in the most cucky way.
The other problem with Paul is he is an extreme ideological Libertarian. (cue Reason clown music)
Ron Paul was anti-war but he was also not an immigration restrictionist, and I believe he was pro-free trade, if I remember correctly. He was only aligned with Buchanan on war.
Yes. Ron Paul was very good on certain issues and terrible on other issues. It’s hard to separate the seemingly good man from the political animal. He always came across as sincere and likable and with integrity. That is why people still like him. OTOH, he wants to legalize heroin. There are places in Canada where you can buy Dilaudid (Hyrdromorphone), an EXTREMELY potent and addicting opiate in vending machines. (To be fair, I think access is still controlled). Ron Paul could write for Reason. No matter how much anyone likes Ron Paul (as a person or because of the… Read more »
To my knowledge, the Libertarian Party has always been open immigration, as well as not opposed to child sex. Those are two reasons alone that even in my 20s, I never joined the Party. I have voted for their candidates several times, as I supported and still support many of their core values
I’m not familiar with Rand Paul, but if others’ depictions of his views here are accurate, then at least grant him credit for sticking to the LP platform.
Then they are probably not truly “dissident” then Being a dissident, when all is said and done, takes a man who has strong inner confidence and courage. It is never easy standing up to the crowd. And given that so many of the people we live among virtually and via the TV and computer screen are men in makeup and who play a role, their true aim is to be a crowd pleaser, or to go where they think the audience is as Z says. Even these seemingly “normal” people we see who seem to hold dissident views are really… Read more »
Alright, so let’s call it “Dissidence Fatigue”. In any case, do you accept my point that it’s exhausting for most regular people to resist the Borg constantly? As to business people who go into conservative politics, I agree with you that most would find Hannity weird. (I have met many of them IRL through business.) The point is that these guys are not professional dissidents. To do business, they have to maintain cordial relations with a pretty broad spectrum of people and they wouldn’t be electable if they didn’t. A large role of the Dissident is to exert intellectual influence… Read more »
I think the capacity for resistance to the borg is a unique personality trait that maybe 1% of the people have. I think “normy”wants to be part of a team,their natural inclination is to be part of a team, while the DR today is more a bunch of lone wolves hanging out amongst themselves. Will normy ever truly be comfortable being among lone wolves? Maybe for a day or a week but not for the long haul. That is not how they are built. Look at the military; the typical Army guy is the typical normy. They like the structure,… Read more »
But don’t most dissidents start as “normies” and as time progresses become “abnormies”. So the question would seem, how do I know a normie is on the dissident path unless I interact with them?
Not all military units. The unit I was assigned to for my duration of my time in service was nothing like that. It was mandatory that you needed to be proficient in a foreign language and in addition to which, you were encouraged to read the likes of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Mao, Michael Collins and Von Clausewitz. Books like “Learning to eat soup with a knife.” Thinking outside the box to solve problems was encouraged, quote my old Sgt. Major, “I don’t need robots, I can find those anywhere. When the shit hits the fan, how are you going to… Read more »
As someone in the Global American Empire’s enforcement club- can confirm. The typical imperial employee has little capacity to think beyond what they are told. Their careers and paychecks depend on them not noticing inconsistencies and contradictions within the system. Those that do notice, accept those aberrations as just one of those things. Not something to question but just whimsical happenstance.
I like Tom Woods’ explanation of bipartisanship. It’s where the stupid party gets together with the evil party and does something that is both stupid and evil. The one problem with it is depending on the issue, stupid and evil flips back and forth.
in computing systems, there is the concept of an ‘undefined state’; once a system enters this, all bets are off. nothing can be trusted from the system, even if it somehow manages to get back into a defined state (no telling what kind of mischief it got upto while undefined, that is hanging around like a landmine). all you can do is reboot and retry. i suspect that is the phenomena we are seeing now; many people have been mentally disoriented and have lost their bearings. so they beat back and forth, trying to regain equilibrium, trying to determine their… Read more »
Nominally rational people try to filter and synthesize information on the internet to find some sort of middle ground on the issues of the day. But as the days of Usenet faded and the internet became dominated by “helpful” interfaces, we exchanged ease of use for overarching control by corporate, government, and media interests. A reasonable person looking at Ukraine stories might question “Ghost of Kiev” nonsense, but accept the “fact” that Putin woke up, went mad, and invaded a pure as-the-driven-snow next door neighbor. Because that’s all most people see. The dissident side isn’t any better. It’s impossible to… Read more »
Sometimes people aren’t really acting irrationally or just snapped rather they just have had enough.
Or they run on feelings and emotion, as so many of our women do – and crash otherwise viable systems and cultures if they hurt their feelings. The Covid scam was a woman’s wish come true – lots of drama, they could pose as both brave victims and heroic fighters and use it as a pretext to harass people and make them miserable. Covid can be debunked with 30 minutes on a computer referencing biological science on the grade 11 level. But you will get female PhDs in subjects like virology and pathology that will go along with it because… Read more »
I am coming to think that women are much further along the NPC curve than men. Hence the control mechanisms are much more oriented towards women (as most media now is).
The feelings that people keep mentioning are nothing more than conditioned behaviours implanted into them.
Its when these get challenged that the drama is triggered. Outside these things pushed from outside, it seems to me most women have very little internal mind space.
I don’t think it’s as hard as you say. Discernment and humility with a bit of time and experience are all you need to land on the correct side of things. It’s no coincidence that my favorite commentators agree with me on The Ukraine, the coof, the stolen election, and the role of women.
I think it may be a combo of things. Mainly, like Z has mentioned, humans are believing machines, and they want to find something to believe in. Any excuse or coping mechanism they can latch onto to believe that America can return. I know people like this. One friend in particular keeps harping on how the ads are going to “clean house” and the adults will be back in the room. I keep reminding him how nothing will change and will probably get even worse.
Anything to cope and find something good to believe in about America.
*How the “Rs” are going to clean house. Damn phone…
Yet another song lyric recall. These from a John Prine song of exactly fifty years ago. Pardon my Literature degree kicking in. The song can be “read” at least two ways, literally as the lament of a cuckolded young man, or perhaps politically as an allegory of a naive patriot losing faith in his country.
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnprine/thegreatcompromise.html
Yeah there is a lot of that, of what you say I notice a vast difference between people who spend a lot of time on computers or watching tv versus those who don’t, the latter being far more grounded and sane. When I was last in rural Florida and doing lots of home improvement and getting things for the small farm etc, dealing with rural white guys iow who didn’t spend a lot of time on the computer, they were as normal as could be, as if frozen in time. I mean you have to wonder. The internet, as I… Read more »
Sometimes you just have to laugh at the bozos because it really is very funny. A few weeks ago, Bongino publicly lit his ass hair on fire trying to imitate Hannity’s roid rage over Ukraine. I guess he thought that that would be an entertaining demonstration of his fealty to the Borg in a virtue-signalling kind of way, but upon seeing this, I fell over laughing and couldn’t stop. I wanted to be offended by this grotesque act of self-immolation, but it hit my funny bone instead. I even thought of sending him a 5 pound bucket of Silvadene creme… Read more »
Next time watching bogino, notice his slender ladylike fingers
You would never think it because his head is a block and he has a big upper body, but then his hands….
These are not guys they pretend to be. These are psychologically damaged girl-men putting on an act. And for whatever reason their macho act has them being blowhards over Ukraine. They are too stupid to see how stupid they look.
Bongino may have lady fingers, but his ass hair was Fabian-like. I was shocked that he didn’t burn his house down.
At this point I think there’s 100,000 real people in the world and everyone else is just an automaton. Endlessly accepting and regurgitating the latest slop.
I see Ukraine flags on houses in my neighborhood, these are people who until February probably never even said the word Ukraine. I doubt any of them could even pick out the country on the map.
It’s depressing to be honest, people I respected have shown themselves over the past 2 years as people who barely exist, people with no independently generated thoughts, feelings, or desires.
I often wonder if in many ways what we see as multi-generational elite families are really just fully conscious on a genetic basis, who figured out early on (the time period is debatable) that the rest of humans are all NPCs and they have spent the subsequent generations simply farming them via various institutions and information vectors. They just joined up over time into a big conglomorate, had a few wars to sort out position and now have decided a full on farm system worldwide is pretty easy to manage via ubiquitous electronic and moving media. Tatoos and Covid were… Read more »
“Its not even feudalism, as that gives too much credit to the NPCs.”
Yeah, the peasants and serfs were more removed from farm animals. You are onto something here, I think. Maybe it is a genetic proclivity to see the inner cattle of NPC’s.
to what end? is the product of such a scheme worth anything to anyone in power?
“The domesticated animal of today is the one that is going to be slaughtered tomorrow”
My quote does not really explain anything but I think is evocative
The NPC meme is real.
“It’s depressing to be honest, people I respected have shown themselves over the past 2 years as people who barely exist, people with no independently generated thoughts, feelings, or desires.”
Quoted for truth. I want to go back to my pre-Covid friends but I cannot get the fact out of my mind, that when the government told them to stay away from me, they stayed away from me. And they’re going to do it again for the next lockdown.
Wait until the media control mechanisms tell them to report on your movements, or turn you in to the “authorities” for bad thoughts.
they will do it just the same.
Your observation shows that the media literally controls most people’s beliefs. As a consequence, any dissident revolution must include control of the media. Whoever controls the media controls the people. It’s sad but true.
No free press until we have an ethnostate.
VD Hanson is simply reverting to form after falling out with the Jews who sponsored his pathetic career over Trump.
By pretending that Ukraine constitutes some sort of latter-day Thucydidean struggle he is signaling his willingness to continue servicing the tribe. But he’ll keep honking about immigration as a way to hedge his bets.
Is Hanson considered a RW extremist on the immigration issue? To me he seems middle-of-the-pack for a Republican (business conservatives and Wall Street Journal superfans are far left on immigration).
There is an occasional liberal who supports a mainstream immigration policy, like Mickey Kaus or Bill Clinton, but this gradually got to be intensely taboo on their side when “deporting immigrants” became mentally conflated with “racism”
Talking cuck heads and their print counterparts always have shown this duality. They will point out deliberately false propaganda, and then cite the same sources when they bolster a point they want to make. It’s worse now but certainly not new.
The same duality could be seen in Trump. He would correctly condemn fake news, then such up to the same purveyors. Not quite the same but still cognitive dissonance.
The contradictory beliefs held by seemingly right thinking people is somewhat astonishing. Always trying to balance facts, long hatreds and mob mentality. No one is immune I suppose.
The Gellman-Sailer effect.
The idea that we are stuck in a simulation is one of those things I don’t believe, but I don’t disbelieve.
Watching people, people I’m close with, fall back to talking points and hold completely opposite views on an issue is disturbing. They can ruefully laugh about black crime one day and the repeat civic nationalist slogans the next. Its like certain slogans activate Manchurian candidate protocols.
The lock downs should have resulted in an economic depression. That did not happen. That is why I move simulation theory from the implausible category to the plausible category. In fact, everything about modern economic flies in the face of everything we have been taught about economics. Either we were lied to or the people running the simulation changed the rules.
They just delayed it. The depression has been baked into the cake since 2008. What those who rule us fear is deflation because their wealth and power is based on inflation. The easiest way to win a game is to lie to the other players about the rules while racking up all the assets for yourself!
Still subscribe to this thesis:
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/a-self-fulfilling-prophecy-systemic-collapse-and-pandemic-simulation/
If you were crazy and a control freak, would you release a virus to remain in control of the power to issue money?
“he lock downs should have resulted in an economic depression. That did not happen” I’m going with “yet.” Trillions were pumped into the economy to offset the lockdown consequences. That is no longer sustainable. Everything we were told may have been a lie, and our rulers are liars, but this seems implausible. The Fed and Treasury are at odds, which indicates the former doesn’t think so and the latter wants to empower the looters a bit longer. Allowing the (more) blatantly Treasury Department to control the money supply indicates this. The financial people I trust are confused, but pushed they… Read more »
Yeah, but printing dollars or Euros or Yen doesn’t matter if everyone is at home. The drop in goods and services should have massively disrupted the system, but it didn’t. Sure, there are supply chain issues, but that’s not a depression. As to what’s next, who knows, but it’s at least a possibility that we’re looking at a good ol’ fashioned debt crisis, both public and private. Total global debt to gdp is ~260%. That’s level of debt is only sustainable with extremely low interest rates. But now we have inflation. Something has to give. Either you let inflation run… Read more »
What acute shortages there have been had been weird stuff, at least for my business and suppliers. One span of months I downright could not get any shipments of cycling computers, yet Amazon was flush with them. Then another month it was cork handlebar tape of all things. Other minor things that are absolutely non-essential to life, but I have high demand for. Bicycle frames, aluminum and steel in particular, I have no problem getting. It’s the accessories and supplementary stuff my suppliers can’t ship.
“Either you let inflation run hot and hold down interest rates to inflate away the debt, which will cause huge economic problems, or you raise rates to stop inflation and crash the system.”
The last half of that equation is where the deflationary cycle/Depression begins, of course. The first half is the prescription for revolution. I don’t the TPTB want an actual one.
Jack, Historically, govts have always choosen to inflate away the debt rather than going the default route. My guess is that the West will attempt to use the playbook from the 1940s, i.e., financial repression – inflation while holding real yields negative. Heck, they’re doing it right now. The problem is that we’re not the same country as we were in the 1940s. In the 40s, we had good demographics, very low private debt, a cohesive society, capital controls, very good real GDP growth, and a govt that held down spending to keep deficits well below nominal GDP growth. We… Read more »
I’d second that. I don’t care how much money you print. It’s doesn’t create goods and services in a global lock down. Don’t know if I buy into the simulation theory, but the Covid lock downs should have caused a depression and broke the financial system.
But it didn’t. Not even close. Something doesn’t add up. My suspicion is that 1) many (maybe most) workers don’t add much to a company’s output and 2) most of what we consume – and thus GDP – is unnecessary and not missed when it’s gone.
I hope that analysis (which is quite interesting) is accurate.
In the overwhelming majority of the United States there wasn’t really a lockdown. In Minnesota, whose insane governor really hammered bars and dine in restaurants, something like 72% of workers were declared essential. Most of the rest were covered by the government in one form or another.
Its also worth considering that some people didn’t have to pay rent for almost two years and alot of people still aren’t making payments on students loans after two years.
Good point on the student loans, even for a bar or restaurant worker, if you didn’t have to pay rent or your student loan payment, what is left? Your streaming services and food and a few other things you waste money on.
I am convinced Biden is going to declare some sort of partial forgiveness in September in a desperation attempt to save the Democrats in the midterms right before “early voting” starts.
Barnard,
How cynical of you 😉
Yes, it is still early days. i’ve seen many homesteads pop up around my house here in Appalachia. These people know something coming. I plan to conduct raids when times get bad. They growing those zucchini’s for me. They just don’t know it yet.
I have a suspicion that we are looking a new form of economic pain distinct from a deflationary depression. The Fed cannot raise rates too much without crippling USG, throttling the economy, and triggering massive populist anger. (Imagine if the Boomers suddenly lost their 401k savings in a few weeks and could not afford to retire.) Instead, the Fed will keep rates low, supporting high inflation and a wage spiral that has the same effect on the overall economy, except USG will continue to run incredible deficits to stimulate the economy. As the economy crumbles, the Fed will invent new,… Read more »
“I tend to concur,” said the bureaucrat 🙂 Some other overlooked aspects of inflation and/or how our modern governments work: inflation is in everyone’s favor short term. Even if/when disruptions occur, the Fed or Uncle Sam (or equivalent in other nations) rides to the rescue, just as he has dozens of times before. Yes, this is called “moral hazard” by the old timers and it’s true. But it’s also true that system is so addicted to easy money and bail-outs, there really isn’t a realistic alternative. Oh, did I mention that playing the Lone Ranger and/or Santa Claus gives the… Read more »
We were definitely lied to. As soon as it became clear that economic data impacted voting, economic “data” started being manipulated and by Current Year is almost certainly completely made up. Even among serious, well-meaning economists, the lie is that “economics” is a science at all. Much like climate “science”, the modeling has value and may even be able to accurately explain past results, but it has a 0% success rate regarding future predictions. tldr; Economics and Economic “data” are fake, and they always have been. It’s a fatal conceit to believe that we know anything about what drives “the… Read more »
I often liken modern trading software to nothing more than a video game where the graphics are nothing more than green and red price bars, along with a few colored lines for your price studies.
Obviously, the score is kept in dollars rather than points.
The simulation hardly needs to be real.
It is the same if you can get 95% of people to participate in a simulation in their heads, irrespective as to the reality.
Provided they get food from somewhere, and the conditioning keeps the mind space in line is there really any difference?
Paul Gottfried and Greg Johnson are a couple of guys I like who have succumbed to the Ukraine hysteria. Joseph Cotto spends his podcast time with Gottfried pushing back on the idea that the poor Ukranians were just minding their own business until the mean Russians came in and started slaughtering innocent civilians. I’m not exaggerating; that’s what Gottfried says, though on their most recent show on Friday, he started to at least admit that Ukraine had some major problems pre-invasion.
There is a strong alignment between DR types who fell into Covidianism who now support Muh Ukrainians.
I’m a listener as well, and I find it super odd that Gottfried has this view. Cotto is like 30 years, old. Maybe Paul is wanting to cope as well and still feels that Boomer requirement to have an enemy and he’s found it in Russia.
A truly outsider position that matches what little we definitively know about the situation, something like, “Ukraine is a semi-rogue U.S. colony irrationally and openly hostile (e.g., its president calling for world war) and existentially dangerous (e.g., ‘biolabs’) to Russia, Russians, and the world, therefore…,” requires several rejections of elite consensus. Very few of our guys can do it. The ones with self-images as intellectuals never drift more than a notch or two away from conventional wisdom. They don’t *really* think we’re misruled by the wrong people. They think there’s been a mistake that assigned them too low a position… Read more »
Uncle Joe Stalin is going to recognize the mistake and invite them to their rightful seat at the inner party table any day now.
“Very few of our guys can do it. The ones with self-images as intellectuals never drift more than a notch or two away from conventional wisdom.”
That’s so spot on I wish it could be upvoted to infinity. Yeah, they are a little slower than conventional conservatives in chasing the Left’s shadow, but they do not get all that far from it.
Remember the US-led coup in Ukraine in 2014?
Later that year Putin issued an order to reconstitute the 1st Guards Tank Army.
In WW2, this unit went from Stalingrad to Berlin.
Uncle Vlad knew exactly what that coup represented.