The Story Tellers

The war in Ukraine has brought into focus a strange belief among the ruling elites of the West that the world is controlled by narratives. If they can conjure a good story that seems to cover the facts in evidence, then the story is not only true, but it will control reality for the people in it. It is a form of abductive reasoning where they start with observations of varying degrees of plausibility, make sweeping conclusion and then declare war on anyone who raises doubts about them.

Formally, abduction is a form of logical inference. You begin with a set of observations and then look for the most likely conclusion from the observations. It is simply the best available explanation for what is observed. There is the possibility that some less likely or entirely unknown explanation is the correct one. This is where the ruling class logic departs from the formal definition. The explanation deemed most likely becomes an article of faith, often in support of some other belief.

Another difference from the formal definition is that the initial set of observations are never debated or reevaluated. The faith of the ruling class in their own ability to observe and define the world rules out uncertainty about their observations. Since many of the observations are part of this process, reconsidering these observations means questioning the reasoning behind them. More important, it means doubting the reasoner behind them and that is forbidden.

With regards to the war in Ukraine, Western leaders told the politicians that Russia was nothing but a big gas station with large land holdings. They could not sustain a large army in the field for very long. They lacked the capacity to make the ammunition and equipment needed for the war. Her economy was no better than Venezuela, so a boycott would bring it crashing down and before long it would lead to one of those mysterious color revolutions so popular these days.

This set of observations dates back to the post-Cold War days when the Russian economy was recovering from the collapse of communism. To whatever extent they were true at the time, no one has bothered to update them. They have become articles of faith, pillars upon which all relations with Russia are based. Over time, the new set of observations about Putin have been synthesized by the same crowd to fill in the gaps between the prior observations.

This mental framework with regards to Russia and the war in the Ukraine is so brittle and inflexible, it is forced to ignore facts on the ground. This story in a main Western media organ has become a standing head. In the old days of the newspaper business, a standing head was a headline used so often that it was made into a permanent block for the printer. For five months, Western media has been quoting regime experts claiming the Russians are about to run out of supplies.

The first quoted official is illustrative. “There will come a time when the tiny advances Russia is making become unsustainable in light of the costs and they will need a significant pause to regenerate capability.” This is true only within the logical framework of the belief set. The fact that Russia is obliterating the Ukrainian army and seizing large chunks of territory is ignored. The fact that the prior predictions have been false and the Russians show no signs of running out material is also ignored.

The undeniable truth of the war is that the Russians are using an expeditionary force of about 200,000 men from its professional army to systematically annihilate the Ukrainian army, which is larger and dug into fortified positions. This is possible because Russia is not a gas station with land holdings. In fact, it now has a military industrial capacity greater than the West. It can sustain its operations in Ukraine for as long as it takes to destroy the Ukraine and its ability to field an army.

None of this seems to register with the decision makers. This quote from retired Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. forces in Europe who is now with the Center for European Policy Analysis, is illustrative. “I remain very optimistic that Ukraine is going to win.” He then added, “Right now it sucks to be on the receiving end of all this Russian artillery. But my assessment is that things are going to be trending in favor of the Ukrainians in the next few weeks.”

The natural assumption by people in control of their faculties and aware of what is happening in the Ukraine is that these people are lying. Many of them, especially the ISW types, have a well known cultural affinity for lying. This general, and many like him in the decision tree, display no signs of sociopathy. They genuinely believe the narratives that they have played a role in creating. The fantasy world they have made for themselves is now more real than physical reality.

This disconnect between the world the elites imagine they control and the world that exists for everyone else is the crisis in the West. Four months ago, that general should have seen that their plan to bunkerize the Donbas and wait out the Russians was quickly becoming a suicide pact. The Russians are simply standing off and hammering these fortifications with artillery. This reduces their losses to the barest minimum, while it slowly and systematically destroys Ukraine.

That is reality, but for Western elites, this does not exist. Instead, they imagine a world where heroic fighters, who look a lot like them, are defending against an increasingly desperate horde of barbarians from over the horizon. It is the great battle for Middle Earth and the beautiful people are the elves and the Ukrainians are the humans, hobbits and other lower creatures of the world. Meanwhile, Putin is Sauron and his army are those vicious, bloodthirsty orcs.

The war in the Ukraine is but one glaring example. The gap between reality and the narratives created by the ruling class are everywhere. The energy crisis they created is not angry people paying five dollars a gallon for gas. It is the struggle to break free from hydrocarbons and transition to a world powered by fairy dust. Food shortages are just the price to be paid for transitioning to sustainable food created in labs using twigs and bugs so that the woodland creatures may be free.

No matter the problem, they have a story for it. They call these stories “messaging” but they are just stories to comport the bits of reality that interrupt the dream, with the larger narratives that define ruling class reality. This summer we will be awash in messaging in the run up to the election, which now works like an award show for the freaks that populate the political class. The best message wins. The winner then gets to spin some new narratives to please the Cloud People.


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c matt
c matt
2 years ago

I think I figured it out – Zelensky is Epstein’s dead man switch.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
2 years ago

I have an increasingly bad feeling about this crisis, that it could end in nuclear exchanges. And anyone with 3+ connected neurons can see that Washington is the aggressor. How the h… would DC respond to Russia, or China, making a strategic alliance with Mexico or Canada, placing nuclear weapons there. And, icing on the cake, declaring that it was their official policy to throw the United States out of the ranks of the great powers?? That’s what DC has served Putin for breakfast. I’m not Russian, I’m not a fan of Putin. But if he doesn’t go nearly ape… Read more »

Anson Rhodes
Anson Rhodes
2 years ago

The phenomenon described is perfectly correct. However, let’s be honest, the idea that a cabal of elites are pulling the strings of society is far too simplistic and can be considered as just another narrative that is being pushed as truth. There have always been people who machinate to secretly influence society. In recent times though, the real issue we are up against is bleeding-heartism. That’s it and that’s all. Bleeding-heartism is the one and only problem. Hysterical bleeding-heartism accounts for everything that is going on that we all hate – immigration, multiculturalism, and wokism. Bleeding-heartism is the reason we… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Anson Rhodes
2 years ago

You appear to be suffering from normie disease of media infection that makes you believe politicians and media are opposed to each other and concomitant hallucinations about the continued existence of conservatives.

The Greek
The Greek
Reply to  Anson Rhodes
2 years ago

A gave you an upvote, but there’s a few important things you miss:

1) Bleeding heartism as you call it is certainly a key component bringing down western society. However, it’s bleeding heartism mixed with tabula rasa blank slate egalitarianism. Charity and bleeding hearts isn’t necessarily a bad trait if you’re a race realist. Going to Africa and helping a village create a safe drinking water well is good. Wanting to import people who can’t engineer simple wells into your neighborhood is bad.

2: You missed a very prominent group in those that you listed as dominating the media

miforest
Member
Reply to  Anson Rhodes
2 years ago

Way normie. familiarize yourself with the worle economic forum, their young global leaders program , the great reset, and the forth industrial revolution .

Vegetius
Vegetius
2 years ago

Germania is the center-of-gravity in the struggle between the West and Russia. Ukraine is a front or theater or sideshow or whatever. I can imagine the Russians throttling things down in the autumn before waging winter war the Eurasian way in 2023. There is cold weather gear and theory to be tested, etc. But the real point would be to bring about the collapse of the weak German governing coalition and bring the pain to provincial Germans. The strategy is to drive a wedge between the German people and their government, between their government and the Anglosphere and to do… Read more »

Frip
Member
Reply to  Vegetius
2 years ago

“Simply stunning how it came to this. A predicament of Biblical proportions…” It didn’t come to “this”, or Biblical proportions, just because you said so. Pretty dramatic. Still, interesting comment. Cheers.

Xin Loi
Xin Loi
Reply to  Vegetius
2 years ago

The Russians have a lot to offer Germany besides pain. And the Poles, as usual, are overplaying their hand,

What would it take to get Berlin to switch sides?

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Xin Loi
2 years ago

A replacement of the puppet globalists pretending to be a government.

My Comment
My Comment
2 years ago

The late humorist Art Hoppe said, “Well, Washington is several miles square and about as tall, say, as the Washington Monument, give or take a little. It is surrounded on all four sides by reality.” That was in 1962 and has only gotten worse. In a way the reality distortion field has now expanded to cover the entire US and our vassal states. But still, outside of the empire, reality continues to exist. In the US the Narratives are safe. The people who don’t in them do not have power. The young are the strongest believers in the Narratives. However,… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
2 years ago

I can’t believe I’m witnessing SCOTUS limiting government power like this. Have they gone rogue or has there been a sea change?

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

I would hypothesize a connection between the leaking of the discussions of the forthcoming RvW decision and this. That leak was such an obvious dirty trick from the Deep State that it became unavoidably clear that they were actively seeking to undermine the S.C. So maybe this is a bit of fight back. They think of themselves as a third, and equal, branch of the federal government. Thomas and Alito find it easier to make their cases under these circumstances.

Maybe…

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

The EPA oral arguments predated Roe the leak by months as likely did the draft opinion. Still, it is amazing. While AINO is a goner, if this had been done even two decades ago it could have been saved.

The Greek
The Greek
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

Don’t worry, Romney et al. are going to break their ankles jumping to help the democrats pass bills to roll this back.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
2 years ago

Totally irrelevant, but ya know?
The 4th of July would be a really symbolic day for something to happen.

Frances
Frances
2 years ago

This is right in line with the “believe all women” theme. As soon as an accusation is made—no matter how lacking for evidence—it’s treated as absolute truth no matter how much evidence comes out to the contrary. It was true in the Kavanaugh charade, the Rittenhouse trial, across the entire Trump presidency, and in numerous “me too” incidents. A large segment of the population is seemingly defective and unable to independently process information.

Krustykurmudgeon
Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

Here’s a question I have – to what extent was the green movement really using the anti-smoking playbook? What they did was take a true statement “excessive smoking can cause lung cancer or emphysema” or “carbon emissions can.cause rising sea levels” and use it as a blank check for whatever ulterior motives they had The big reason why anti smoking push never got the backlash that the green movement did was that it was less abstract (seeing smokers at 55 that look 75). The green movement was always something of an abstraction and had a much bigger risk (i.e. power… Read more »

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

Well, they have been assiduously trying to make the “climate crisis” out to be a matter of public health. The same playbook is invoked with “raycism!” as a public health matter. And then there has been a similar logic invoked surrounding the Coof and vexination. Hmm.

“Public Health Crisis!” Is a common thread here, it would seem.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

Stampeding the credulous populace after some conditioning, lately, in the case of the Coof, a major component of the conditio ing being operant conditioning; comply or be punished, because you know, “We’re All In This Together”.

Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
2 years ago

Everything is a narrative. Science is a narrative.

The question is, for someone with power, how many people are you willing to shame or fire or cancel or banish or kill in order to insist that your failing narrative is The Truth?

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Credit where due: last winter I distinctly remember repeated media headlines warning basically “Russia gonna invade Ukraine!” Turns out, sure enough, they were correct. I’m the first to admit that what I’ve just offered is both an example of selection bias as well as as relative rarity by the powers that be: propaganda that turned out to be true. Yes, the little boy cries “Wolf!” very often to a false alarm. But sometimes the wolf actually shows up.

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

The media in the last 25 years have predicted war with every country on earth (and dont forget space aliens too) except Canada and fiji. They’ve predicted nuclear war with India, Pakistan, Iran, France, and Russian (and maybe space aliens too?). It is quite literally just FUD disinfopro.
Here’s a market prediction you can take to the bank: today, the Dow will either go up, down, or stay the same! Hey look, tomorrow I will have been 100% correct 1/3 of the time!

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were lying at the time and didn’t think Russia would really invade.

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Oh, I think TPTB have known that Russia would invade Ukraine for some time. They’ve been goading them to do it since 2014. Once the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic were declared, it was just a matter of time. I can’t help thinking they thought the Russians wouldn’t win, though.

threestars
threestars
Member
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
2 years ago

Why do you imagine the powers that be thought Russia wasn’t going to win? In the preamble of this war, every single prediction made by western “expert” sources in the media saw Russia taking over Ukraine in a matter of weeks.

The only ones who didn’t consider an Ukrainian army quick collapse all that likely were, ironically, those who didn’t think Putin was reckless enough to invade.

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

“Why do you imagine the powers that be thought Russia wasn’t going to win?”

Why? Because TPTB don’t think they can lose. Do you think they would keep pushing Russia if they expected them to win? If Russia wins, the BRICS system will grow in power, the petro-dollar will be useless, and the West will be a second class federation. Whether or not a large population of the West is suicidal, TPTB are not. They will live forever. Of course, they need an endless supply of babies to sacrifice and to get adrenochrome from.

James J. O'Meara
James J. O'Meara
2 years ago

I do wish you would stop calling this “abductive logic”. Abductive logic is simply the logic of scientific discovery — hypothesis formation. Hypotheses are then supposed to be tested, not blindly followed whatever the data. I suppose the word for that is “faith.” Yes, you make some qualifications in the second paragraph, but “here is where it departs from the formal definition” simply means you’re misusing the word. Oddly enough, what you are doing is exactly what you accuse the Elite of doing: clinging on to a narrative. It’s like calling something a “vaccine” when it doesn’t prevent or cure… Read more »

miforest
Member
2 years ago

they don’t believe their narratives. they are stories to keep the masses enthralled. they work really well to. meanwhile the blackrock/central banker/CCP crowd continues to destroy our civilization and depopulate us. they think that AI and automation means they don’t need a worker middle class anymore.
sure hope I’m wrong about this…..

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

They’re vastly overestimating the capability of AI and automation.

And I wish them the best of luck trying to run an aluminum smelter using wind power.

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

C’mon, Mr. Howard. Nobody believes they can run an aluminum smelter with windmills. That is just foolish.

They will use solar panels.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Mow Noname
2 years ago

Or big honkin’ magnifying glasses

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 years ago

But just like those solar panels, you need a nice sunny day, and likely cloudless, too.

miforest
Member
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

once we are gone or enslaved they will go back to oil and coal. as I said, They don’t believe any of their lies. the lies are an end to a means . they tell us the lies so we don’t understand what they are really doing . you notice they all have multiple mansions, private jets, and yachts the size of of an ocean freighter. clearly they are not worried about their carbon footprint.

Whiskey
Whiskey
Reply to  miforest
2 years ago

I think they believe it. And there is some basis for their belief. We lasted twice as long in Afghanistan and had minimal casualties to their massive ones. We kicked Iraq’s behind twice and Russia trained/equipped those troops. We defeated them in Syria (supposedly) and Russia had to flee/retreat from Snake Island a day after boasting about seeing off attacks. Russia’s navy is a joke and the Turkey deal means US Naval forces in the Black Sea will sink what remains of it soon. Russia’s attempted take-over of Kiev and Kharkiv was a debacle (like Arnhem) with repeated attempts to… Read more »

miforest
miforest
Reply to  Whiskey
2 years ago

your info is just western media propaganda. next you will tell us the ghost of kiev will shoot down the Russian air force in an afternoon. I am sorry to say none of what you have been told is true. there are a number of more accurate appraisals :
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUnc496-PPmFZVKlYxUnToA

out there https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDuran/videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfUzUq5L9NFv2GMVGbEBgkg/videos

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 years ago

OT: saw you are in market for a new TV. get something made in Japan, for best quality. now being made by a Japanese company doesn’t necessarily mean made in Japan. the Sony models that begin with an “X” are what you want 🙂

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Good lord are people still watching TV?

Owlman
Owlman
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

“Good lord are people still watching TV?”

No, now it’s watching THEM.

David Wright
Member
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

They are used for other sources than just broadcast tv.

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

My electronic recommendation would be a new computer monitor for anyone doing work that requires them.

There is a real sweet spot for 27″, 2K (2560×1440) monitors right now.

Graphics cards are returning to normal pricing now that crypto interest is plummeting in sync with prices.

Glenfilthie
Glenfilthie
Member
2 years ago

It’s all fun and games until the narrative collapses. Bracken notes that recruitment for the US Military is at an all time low. They’ve dropped the requirement for a high school diploma in hopes of finding people naive enough to enlist and serve with the trannies, queers, and menstrual women and take orders from them. There seems to be a lull in the action for the moment. It might make sense. Vlad can give the boys a breather, and let the economic war rage and take its toll. Fwance and Germany are near the end of their ropes and the… Read more »

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

ever seen a Polish compass? E and W are reversed!

miforest
Member
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

china won’t need to move on Taiwan. the Taiwanese have seen how effective NATO and US protection was in the Ukraine. they will accommodate ccp wishes .

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

China’s smartest move would simply be to buy off the current Taiwanese government or pay them to step down in lieu of China friendly leadership.

B125
B125
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Wouldn’t surprise me if pro-CCP infiltrators are already in the government just waiting for the signal to go out. I suspect it’s the same in Vancouver.

And, given the way the West looks right now I wouldn’t blame Taiwan for going back to China. is anybody really going to fight to remain a part of the American Empire (other than Ukrainians)?

My guess is bloodless takeover and initially great reconciliation from CCP towards Taiwan to try and bring the people back into it’s fold. Xi Jingping is many things but he doesn’t hate his own people.

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

Huh. Not so sure. More like this:
Taiwan: let’s just be friends with benefits, while keeping our distance and options open?
Emporer Xi: Ho, bring yo azz hur NOW, fo I go upside yo head.
Taiwan: y..y.yes sir, Mr. Xi.

Din C. Nuttin
Din C. Nuttin
2 years ago

Speaking of creating a narrative to fit the observation, Nancy was just adjusting the little girl’s position for the camera, like we all would have done – with our elbows?

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Din C. Nuttin
2 years ago

Din C. Nuttin: Nancy’s a shrew and the little girl a mere pawn. And I despise the repukes lionizing the girl’s immigrant Mestiza mother as yet another super duper real conservative of color. Never forget, family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande, and diversity is our strength.

miforest
Member
Reply to  Din C. Nuttin
2 years ago

waste of time normie politics.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

“The energy crisis they created is not angry people paying five dollars a gallon for gas. It is the struggle to break free from hydrocarbons and transition to a world powered by fairy dust. ” I wish they would just look at their own numbers. Solar is at best a 6:1 EROI (energy returned on energy invested). They are hoping, probably falsely, that fusion is going to be positive when the experimental reactor under construction is finally fired up, but even if it is positive, it’s not going to be 50 to 1. It will be lucky to be 1.2… Read more »

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

Wind ROI is probably negative, when all the maintenance costs are factored in, and the fact that wind has a low load factor, which requires spinning backup reserves (negating the whole benefit)…Wind is a straight boondoggle….

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  pyrrhus
2 years ago

I’m just going by the numbers they publish, which is about 18:1, which, if true, is not that bad and worth pursuing. But you are probably right in there are a lot of rosy predictions about things like lifespan and maintenance.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

“The numbers they publish”

Without knowing anything about wind power, if the G said it, it ain’t true.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

Maybe 18:1 on an optimally windy day, but not one so windy that they have to stop the wind turbines for fear of damage. On low wind to dead calm days, well…

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

I’m with Bartleby below. Although I claim no engineering credentials, I dabbled in the renewables debate last year. I read enough to know or at least “reasonably suspect” that virtually all the data published, even by apparently impartial non-profits and so forth, was shall we say, not of the highest credibility. As with many large organizations, a mere inquiry into the known or probable conflicts of interests various entities have, alone, would make anyone be dubious of almost any claim. While the data are perhaps a bit harder to obtain in something complex like alternative energy or electric vehicle merits,… Read more »

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

windmills don’t even produce enough energy to offset the energy used to make them!

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

But windmills have been used a very long time. Sure, the big megawatt commercial electricity generating windmills are not Dutch Windmills, but we do know windmills powered sawmills and water pumps and the like for a long time. Really, wind is a very good energy source, especially if you are turning the wind directly into work. But the big problem with figuring this stuff out is there are all kinds of subsidies and other distortions that interfere with true calculations, especially calculation by proxy like cost. Still, it is hard to imagine wind being a net energy loss. Wind is… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

What is the lifetime and build input I wonder of the old style windmill (hundred years?) versus modern wind turbines?

Are they comparable?

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

the old style windmills didn’t require smelting (except maybe for nails, but probably not even them). and as mentioned by others, they have/had a working life measured in hundreds of years.

Xin Loi
Xin Loi
Reply to  pyrrhus
2 years ago

“Wind is a straight boondoggle”

And it’s ugly. Driving down the A10 from Paris to Orleans and beyond, those stupid generators make it look like the aliens have landed.

Key question is: Does shoveling up the dead birds count as a green job?

Glenfilthie
Glenfilthie
Member
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

Nope. It takes more power to make the solar module than it will ever produce. This is a complex issue with many very important variables with huge impacts on the module’s performance. Shading is an issue. Most modules degrade at 1% per year with most being much worse. China produces the bulk of the world’s solar power modules because they can use slave labour with no environmental constraints on manufacturing. Seasonal fluctuations in intensity and length of exposure vary widely by region as do the effects of mechanical damage from rodents, weathering and corrosion.. Your average environmentalist f-tard can play… Read more »

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

I’m a fan of the oil companies. I would volunteer to shill for oil. (big oil is a bit of a misnomer. Most “big oil” is state owned oil/gas companies like gazprom and Saudi Aramco) Nothing else in human history has had anywhere near the impact of fossil fuels and oil in particular. We ourselves are human SUVs deriving most of our food energy from oil and other fossil fuels. I read fairly recently that the average food calorie in the US has about 20 fossil fuel calories “embedded” within that 1 calorie. I absolutely hear you on the Chinese… Read more »

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

Solar panels are also Goldilocks when it comes to efficiency versus temperature.

If the temp isn’t just right, efficiency plummets:

https://blueandgreentomorrow.com/energy/can-solar-panels-overheat/amp/

I bought a battery pack with a built-in solar cell. You can’t leave it in the summer sun to charge because it rapidly overheats. Thinking of sending it back.

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Well, if it makes you feel any better, the solar cell is probably just a gimmick and would take a month to charge the battery. I’ve seen many of them reviewed and they all say the same thing, that the solar part is useless.

miforest
Member
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

dude. they know dammed well and that there will be no green energy. they are busily disenfranchising the 99% for their own enrichment . they want us living in dense cities , in dorms , and never leaving our unit except for work . the lies they are telling now are just to keep people from resisting . as long as joe lib and joe normie believe there will be a green way to live life as they live now, they won’t resist. when all the cars are gone, the gasoline and diesel are gone, and the rolling blackouts last… Read more »

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 years ago

Hydro isn’t so great either; hydro looks good looking backwards, but water is a scarce resource nd getting scarcer due to demand. Most hydro facilities are out west and have replenishment problems (most of them self-inflicted) that are only getting worse as the development locusts ravage the intermountain west. If Denver, Vegas, and Phoenix double in size yet again, there will be tough choices like “do you want water to drink today, or the lights to stay on?” That and TVA, so probably the SE Duke grid will remain stable for a while. Might have to go back to isolated… Read more »

Altitude Zero
Altitude Zero
2 years ago

And of course, the “Russia is about ready to run out of supplies, any day now!” is particularly absurd, because if there is one thing that the Russians are good at, it’s churning out huge numbers of cheap, reliable, and not particularly sophisticated weaponry. Even under the old USSR, dysfunctional as it was, they could create enough fairly good weapons to equip a massive military, and there is every reason to believe that the current Russian MIC is more efficient than the old USSR. The Russians may or may not be able to match NATO with regard to high-tech weaponry,… Read more »

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Altitude Zero
2 years ago

Of course, Z-man was being nice about the “observations”…they are mostly made up too…

CorkyAgain
CorkyAgain
Reply to  pyrrhus
2 years ago

Their observations are most often what philosophers of science call “theory-laden”. Their predetermined theory or “narrative” colors their interpretation and description of what they see.

Götterdamn-it-all
Götterdamn-it-all
Reply to  Altitude Zero
2 years ago

If the US had not entered WW2, the Germans would have eventually prevailed, though at great cost.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Götterdamn-it-all
2 years ago

Götterdamn-it-all: If US domestic production had not equipped both Britain and Russia, the Germans would most certainly prevailed. Not to minimize the Russian production of solid, basic weapons, but people continue to discount the 400,000 US made jeeps and trucks sent to Russia, not to mention tons of other materiel.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

And as Anthony Sutton clearly demonstrated in his technical analysis books, The US carried on funding and building the Soviet Military all the way through the cold war.

https://archive.org/details/pdfy-Iqz3ytYcb3wWYJ0c/page/n5/mode/2up

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

There was a US Army supply officer in Montana that logged all the trains the US was using to move material to the West Coast to ship to the Soviets.

The numbers he recorded were absolutely mind-boggling.

mike faulk
mike faulk
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

During the war or during the Cold War?

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

Mike-

During WW2.

Pretty sure this officer was stationed at a rail depot in Montana.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Altitude Zero
2 years ago

Dumb, low-tech shells backed up with drone and even satellite spotting and coordinates derived therefrom are working very well, indeed. There is video out there demonstrating this fact.

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

Meanwhile the mostly titanium whizbang M777 howitzers go out of alignment or even get bent out of shape after a few rounds.

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Titanium? Gee where did they get that rare metal from so we can fix and replace these m777s… Oh, snap, this isnt good.

Its the F15 problem all over again. We have a great, cheap, workable weapon, but profit margins are just too tiny to allow those post-tenure kickback jobs for the senators. $500k for a m198 steel howitzer, $2m+ for the Titanium m777. Stupid MIC.

B125
B125
2 years ago

I noticed that creating a false reality & narrative out of nothing during the COVID pandemic too. They were saving people’s lives by wearing a mask and staying in. They would get really shaken up when I say something like “no, you’re just cowering in your basement, and wearing a mask alone in your car doesn’t save anyone”. Or, the narrative that the vax is “keeping them safe”. Angry NPC face when they get told that if the vaccine worked they wouldn’t have gotten sick. It’s getting worse, they’re increasingly unhinged, “Christofascist” is the new word, pickup driving, kkk member,… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

“They won’t wake up.” It is worse. The CAN’T wake up. Something has been done to their brains. Whether trumpton’s theory about mind worms is correct or not, he’s onto something there. A mechanism has been found to speed up the lemmings going off the side of the cliff. We are powerless to stop it, and given the increasing likelihood of weapons of mass destruction raining down on us because of the mass insanity, we had better pray there is at least some element of the military/national security state sane enough to stop it by hook or crook. Don’t bet… Read more »

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Yes, most will only learn when their stomachs are empty. And some, unfortunately, even when starving to death, will think they’re saving the world.

miforest
Member
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

the level of insanity in our young people is completely off the charts. between LGBTERQPEDO++ and havin no idea how to deal with members of the opposite sex they are crazy. meanwhile , https://www.fox5ny.com/news/mob-attacks-man-during-robbery-inside-brooklyn-subway-statione

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

the strongest lemming drowns the furthest out.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

The theory about mind worms feeds into my thoughts about the hysterical reaction to the anti-parasitics proposed as early Covid treatments.

It was almost as if the hysterics were under the influence of an organism trying to defend itself.

I mean, there’s evidence that toxoplasmosis creates cat ladies. Who knows what else is out there?

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

Seems likely.

Before Cochran went nuts over the coof his analysis was that male homosexuality is better modeled as a parasitic infection in the population, rather than genetic.

Make a lot of sense as to why the anti-parasitical was so attacked in the west and access to children is a primary goal.

Lucius Sulla
Lucius Sulla
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

If you accept the theory of evolution as plausible, that rules out homosexuality being genetic. Homosexuality is an evolutionary dead end.

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

homosexuality increases under conditions of overcrowding. it’s too persistent and prevalent to be a mutation or anything other than “part of the plan”.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Lucius, so it would seem, but not all believe homosexuality is a genetic “dead end” in that it stops genetic inheritance. Think “group” propagation and survival, not individual. For example, I’m gay, but my brother isn’t. He shares genes with me. I promote and protect his progeny and in doing so promote my own genetic lineage through him.

Dutton has some interesting writings on this topic, but admittedly is controversial.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

That’s because Twitter is what the hive people think is reality. It is an embarrassing display of mental illness.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

B125 They cant wake up. Like any true believer, if they wake up and embrace reality, their whole world view is shattered. As has been said here, and I’m relating more and more to my people, a parallel society/living arrangement is the way to break free from their nightmare. Food to expensive/not available? Grow your own and/or live in farm country. Your surrounded by food. Gas too expensive/not available? It’s only a matter of time before and enterprising person or people start refining their own fuel. And it won’t have ethanol in it to tear up ones engine. I’m not… Read more »

Mike
Mike
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

Follow what Z does, always say “the Ukraine” not Ukraine. It’s not a real country and never has been. I prefer the Russian term for it though, country 404. Their language is basically Russian, they used Cyrillic and culturally had always been close to Russia until probably the Holodomor. But even then, they refuse to admit that the rest of the USSR suffered equally during that time. So pretty much screw them and they deserve to suffer just for stupidity.

Crabe-Tambour
Crabe-Tambour
Reply to  Mike
2 years ago

Fuckin’ A, Mike!

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  B125
2 years ago

Tldr: they hate us and want us dead, our children raped, and our women enslaved. Welcome to the party, pal.

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
2 years ago

“Another difference from the formal definition is that the initial set of observations are never debated or reevaluated. The faith of the ruling class in their own ability to observe and define the world rules out uncertainty about their observations.” This is not true for the ruling class. Its not that don’t know they are lying, its just that it is part of the job. This statement is only true for the peasants that rely on the disinformation and lies of the ruling class for their view of the world. I remember a time when people believed that the political… Read more »

mmack
mmack
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
2 years ago

“There were always politicians that were known to be engaging in criminal behavior, but they were always in another State. OUR politicians always had our best interests at heart.”

I was born, raised, schooled, lived, and worked in Illinois until I escaped.

We knew they were all crooks. Still are.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  mmack
2 years ago

Old man Daley used to say “you can steal, you just have to leave something for the people”.

My dad would say that the G leaves the proles just enough so they would whine.

They want everything now. Screw the dirt people.

crabe-tambour
crabe-tambour
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 years ago

Duh Mare (1902-76) was at least a serious guy, as were most of his portly, besuited contemporaries. His son, who had a rocky start in the state Senate (his sense of entitlement got him the nickname Dirty Little Richie), matured as States Attorney (he had his prosecutors actually convict the black underclass) and as Mayor. He made some blunders, such as privatization schemes, and some of his bureaucrats ended up in federal prison, but he learned from his father that power and authority would solve the problem of wealth, something that even powerful aldermen failed to learn. Richie abdicated when… Read more »

joe tentpeg
Member
Reply to  crabe-tambour
2 years ago

Aye.

And under ‘Hizzoner’…

…you didn’t look sideways at a Chicago cop.

Now they’re assassinated.

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

Illinois has a lot to answer for. Abraham Lincoln. Barack Obama. Chicago. It might be a decent State if they just decapitated Chicago from the body.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
2 years ago

Here here!!

Most everything south of I-80 is Red. There’s even a guy who has a huge “Trump Won” billboard complete with a nap of states on it, along 57 north around Kankakee.

I’ve read that there are things in the works,(amazingly that are not reported Ted on the mainstream media), that a large portion of southern Illinois is trying to be some southern Indiana.

Who knows. I wish them well.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
2 years ago

The problem is, democracy selects for bad people, people whose stock-in-trade is mendacity and sociopathy. Basically, democracy is just stupid people deciding which bad people will rule.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
2 years ago

Anonymous White Male: My dearest friend used to be a super-duper patriot. Loved the constitution, etc. She now recognizes all the lies she was taught. Although she still loves the heritage American people (of whom she is part), she now questions whether real America and its history was ever remotely like the stories. It’s actually very sad to see her former pride and trust so shattered.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

the red pill is bitter indeed.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

It is her sorrow, but not her fault. That largely lies with the 18th-early 19th century stream of “boat people” streaming in from Europe, with some small propotion of these most culpable for later, pernicious developments.

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
2 years ago

True, but I’m a simple man. I just want to have lived in a time and place where it was “Leave it to Beaver” on the tube, wife in the kitchen, and kids non-killed at a public school.

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

Great post. One sticking point – let’s never call them anything that contains the term elite. Elite implies earned and proven superiority in some general or specialized field. These people are not elite. Unaccountable Failed Ruling Class Parasitic Ruling Class … … We have all opened a closet door on this cultural rot. As a youngster I learned the classic forms of essay and writing: Succinct thesis; concise argumentation and supporting evidence; summary. I got my first job at a startup that ended up being a candidate for buyout by a now infamous Mortgage Company. The buyout didn’t happen but… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
2 years ago

People need to believe in something, right? Punch a hole in someone, and you can fill it with whatever you want. These are one trick ponies. Demoralize, subvert, rebuild with lies. Only works from the dominant position, but it takes some self-awareness to realize that.

I mean, it’s already over. We’re just witnessing the spectacle as that self-awareness creeps in like the first flood waters.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

“you can fill it with whatever you want” One of the most difficult conclusions that I have come to in my life is that the media must be controlled. In any sort of representative democracy, where the people influence policy, control of the media is everything because people are so easily manipulated by the media. If you don’t control it then your enemy will. Few people are more in favor of free thought or “Live and Let Live” than me. But if you don’t want to be crushed by your enemies then you must engage in dirty and unpleasant work.… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  LineInTheSand
2 years ago

Every revolution movement since print media has understood this simple fact.

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  LineInTheSand
2 years ago

Well said. It isn’t just the media. It is any person who is acting to subvert the first principles of the civilization. In terms of my orientation on how to organize a civilization, my most intentional conclusion was the minarchist libertarian solution of self organizing with a central government limited in powers and individuals protected by property rights voluntarily interacting/freely associating. That is all well and good when the vast majority of the civilization wants to be civilized. This is where I agree with ZMan that libertarianism is unworkable. At least, the libertarianism that castrated the parts from the founding… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  LineInTheSand
2 years ago

At the risk of injecting religion, something I puzzle over from time to time is how Jesus preached not to resist evil, while also saying He came with a sword, disciples should sell their cloaks and buy swords, etc. Seems a profound contradiction. I read VD’s post earlier about American genocide of Indians, and the chickens coming home to roost or whatever. But, as he acknowledges, it’s complicated and that’s how history goes. Even Buddhists have armies. The best I’ve ever come up with is that there is always the aspirational and the practical. Life is the cross, and we’re… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

“Jesus preached not to resist evil,”

I think the money changers in the temple might have a different view of Jesus.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Indeed. Plenty to confuse a person!

RealistsRule
RealistsRule
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

Tales of genecide lack all subtlety and truth. A huge percentage of the native hunter gatherers died in contact with no natural immunity to European diseases. That accounts for most of the devastation. They had no resistance to alcohol. Most of the rest exchanged all they had for booze. They also had their own plans and schemed with each other and the French and constantly attacked settlers. In the southeast they never cooperated and thus, yes, we’re removed. A time when our leaders and citiz me were realistic and serious about protecting civilization and the nation. They weren’t innocent victims.… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  RealistsRule
2 years ago

Yes. Locally, the Amish initially settled in what’s now Berks County on land Billy Penn had acquired from the Indians iirc. The Indians killed them anyway, and the Amish moved into what’s Lancaster County now. Meanwhile, Scots-Irish along the Susquehanna went vigilante, and massacred Indians. Penn tried to establish PA on friendly relations, but bad actors on both sides and the French and Indian War really soured all of that in this area. It’s complicated, but this was their land and I don’t begrudge them long remembering what happened. At the same time, I’m not plagued by guilt because it’s… Read more »

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
2 years ago

The story telling works just fine in Illinois, where free elections are not allowed.

$6.00 gasoline, 5% income tax, 10% sales tax, diversity and unlimited votes coming out if the Chicagoland hive. According to the official propaganda organs, more people voted for JB the Hutt, who was running unopposed, than in the Republican primary.

Meanwhile, reality is private/ homeschools, concealed carry permits and for everyone who can, U-Haul trucks.

mmack
mmack
Reply to  Mow Noname
2 years ago

If you’re still in Silly-nois, GET OUT! Yeah, you’ll take a haircut selling your house, like we did, but the sooner the less ugly the loss. Speaking of JB, your worries may soon be over and America’s worries may soon begin. That bloated buffoon aims to take a run at the Presidency (well, in JB’s case more like a waddle at the Presidency) Feast your eyes on this bit of hagiography: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a40461683/pritzker-reelection-primary-win/ There are two comments to the story: “Thanks for recognizing our governor. He may not be Barack Obama, but he has governed quite well. I will be proud… Read more »

crabe-tambour
crabe-tambour
Reply to  Mow Noname
2 years ago

“JB The Hutt.” Gotta steal that one. My neighbors and I are relatively well off, here in our “Kosciuszko Park” neighborhood, but there are signs of changes-a-comin’. There are already several Black Sign People in our “cop and fireman” community. And there are not a few Fruity Ensigns “flying” here and there. I fear they may stay up long after Shame Month. It may be in my self-interest to sell to these wealthier folks, but I’ll hold out for married East European immigrants like my neighbors. OUR pride flag is Old Glory. Either way, capital gains taxes will be the… Read more »

Anglo-Welsh
Anglo-Welsh
2 years ago

There are psychological consequences to relentless lying; you’ll come to believe the lies and cut off your hold on reality. From the moment their obsession with foreign policy began in the 70s, the neocons ceaselessly churned out exaggerations, distortions and outright falsehoods to justify their warmongering. The USSR had thousands more ICBMS; Grenada was a mortal threat to America; the Sandanistas were really SMERSH in sombreros, and so on. They became very skilful in manipulating the media in Washington through so-called ‘perception management’. At the beginning, there was a lot of knowing cynicism behind all this; they did what was… Read more »

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Anglo-Welsh
2 years ago

Z: “The natural assumption by people in control of their faculties and aware of what is happening in the Ukraine is that these people are lying. Many of them, especially the ISW types, have a well known cultural affinity for lying. This general, and many like him in the decision tree, display no signs of sociopathy. They genuinely believe the narratives that they have played a role in creating. The fantasy world they have made for themselves is now more real than physical reality.” A-W: “There are psychological consequences to relentless lying; you’ll come to believe the lies and cut… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
2 years ago

Both my liberal and conservative friends will spontaneously start talking about how evil Putin is. He has successfully been cast as the new Hitler. My friends are simply unaware of how programmed they are by the media. It’s sad and funny. And they all think that they are so smart and discerning. I can’t stand to lose any more friends as this point, so I bite my tongue. If someone should ask my opinion, I will say, “I’m America First and this conflict doesn’t concern us. We’re a broke country and we shouldn’t be sending billions to protect a border… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  LineInTheSand
2 years ago

I would dump them as if push comes to shove they are going to be offering you up without a second thought to the new stasi.

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

you are right, those “friends” are like Ole Yeller; sad that he was shot, but it was necessary (once he contracted rabies).

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Yeah. I’d rather be alone than have friends like this.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  LineInTheSand
2 years ago

Line: Obviously you know your own situation and needs best, but I’d be extremely careful with those ‘friends.’ As trumpton says, they’d offer you up on a platter to the authorities for wrongthink without a second thought. There are very few people I legitimately consider ‘friends’ – where I don’t have to censor my thoughts or words and whom I would trust with my life.

Diavolobello
Diavolobello
Reply to  LineInTheSand
2 years ago

Strongly considered changing my Facebook profile pic to a Russian flag behind the words “No Russian ever called me Deplorable” but I’m probably better of not having done that.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Diavolobello
2 years ago

If I was still on FB, that’s probably what I would have done.

And that’s why I’m not on it anymore.

Good for you for showing discretion.

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

put a pic of a Weber grill for your facebook profile.

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  LineInTheSand
2 years ago

That’s the thing I hate most about this brave new world we live in. Having to hold my tongue with everybody or else I can’t have a social life. The worst in recent memory was this middle-aged blowhard that was paying me to harvest some of my bushes (I guess florists pay for twigs or something). Somehow he got on a track about how tough and tenacious the Js are and how Israel is doing so well without any help whatsoever even after those Germans were so mean to them. I was sorely tempted to do a John Cleese and… Read more »

TomA
TomA
2 years ago

So, recently I’m on a long driving trip with literally a Mars project scientist and we’re having a wide ranging high IQ conversation in which the Ukraine War comes up. This very intelligent person, who is normally very judicious in his comments, suddenly starts making assertive proclamations about Russia and it’s conduct in the war. Apparently, according to this borderline autistic engineer with two masters degrees and a PhD, the Russian army has already suffered 40,000 dead and lost almost all of it’s tanks and armored vehicles. Worse yet, every single NCO and field officer is now dead and won’t… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

I have described this before.

There is something akin to an information tapeworm that is simply implanted wrapped inside other media (mostly moving pictures) that exploits the neural structures and lives independently from the conscious mind. Most people are infested with many of these and they all live independently of each other and the host’s symbolic capacity it seems.

The worms become extremely agitated when input touches on the boundaries of their domain or threaten to dislodge them and they create massive emotional and physical agitation in the host.

You see it all the time.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Your worm concept is very akin to “crimestop,” one of several Newspeak terms found in the glossary of Orwell’s “1984” :

“Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity”

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

I mean a little more literally as in some form of information virus that is passed inside other information and is structured to basically form a running circuit in the neural framework in the brain.

You see echoes in the idea of spells as affecting the perception of reality, and the fact that most effective programming techniques appears to be via 3/4 word closed loop phrases with specific cadences that build around other similar interlocking phrase structures.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

TomA, I think we all have a similar story with some variation. Your intelligent friend simply doesn’t understand how the media is controlled.

For many, that’s a big hurdle to clear. I’m sure he thinks your sources are fringe lunatics or something. After all, they’re not on ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN.

Maybe there’s a psychology where it’s comforting to believe the mainstream sources, and the information outside of that is unsettling.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

Wolf

I think the intelligent folk who are mesmerized by the MSM don’t cop to being deceived because they think it would make them look stupid, or less intelligent. It would be admitting a mistake, and we can’t have that.

Good ol' Rebel
Good ol' Rebel
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 years ago

Disagree. It is an exploit of human nature. We are pattern-finders. You cannot effectively find patterns if you inherently distrust what you see, smell, or hear. So we believe what we hear until something triggers a disbelief. We are the opposite of formal logic’s dictate that the proponent of a proposition bears the burden of proof; the human mind works opposite, assuming truth of any new statement and requiring disproof to stop believing. For example: If I, an anonymous voice on the internet, tells you that I have a tractor, you will probably believe it. If I tell you I… Read more »

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

you are fortunate he didn’t try and crash the car into something. STEM fields are totally pozzed now, and have been for awhile.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

lucky he wasn’t in the car with trump.

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

hehe good one!

kvhkvhkvhkvhkvh

BeAprepper
BeAprepper
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

Humans are meaning making machines. Myth makers. We’re uncomfortable living with MUD, mystery, uncertainty, and doubt.

This makes us vulnerable to stories told to us by handsome, attractive, well groomed actors who tell us stories, the “News”. Better to believe something rather than nothing, no matter how unbelievable. Something needs to ground us.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  BeAprepper
2 years ago

It’s a hardwired, universal human need. While we have certain innate powers that can be called rudimentary memory, logic and reasoning (Most higher animals do — if we had none, we’d all be dead in very short order). As humans however, we also have far greater mental powers. Alas, as you note, some of these are subject to going awry. It’s a fact that the human psyche prefers a story that “makes sense,” that seems to have some purpose. Many lessons that could be, often should be, learnt do not fit that preference and the mind resists them mightily. The… Read more »

DLS
DLS
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

TomA, high IQ types can actually be easier to indoctrinate than those with normal IQs. For example, psychological studies have shown that it is much easier to hypnotize those with high IQs. I am not sure what the mechanics are on this, but it’s a similar pathway to political indoctrination.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

He sounds like the “fearful believer” I mention below: people who are otherwise intelligent but afraid to let go of the narrative and accept some uncomfortable truths. Like our democracy is dead/a joke, our military is not invincible, we are not the Bea on of justice in the wod, etc.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  c matt
2 years ago

Beacon of justice in the world.

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

Scientists may be intelligent but not broadly so. If you ever listen to any of those science documentaries on TV, they do have people on there who are legitimate scientists that have actually done something (not just popularizers like Bill Nye or Black Science Man). The thing is, once they drift into social issues they have this retarded naivete about human nature as if the future will be Star Trek: Next Gen where Wesley listens to classical music and does science fair projects instead of spending all his time coating the holodeck with space jism. Or they’ll prattle excitedly about… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Ploppy
2 years ago

If I’ve read correctly, Isaac Newton was one of the brightness to have lived, but spent his later life as an alchemist.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

This is not because he was an idiot trying to turn dross into gold, but rather a pattern seeker. He was more akin to followers of Pythagoras, seeing the mystical linkages between numbers and the material, corporeal world. Or perhaps more directly in the alchemical tradition that flows from the Hermetic tradition – as above, so below – seeing correspondances between the higher spheres and the lower spheres of existence. He was also obsessed with the numerological underpinnings of Biblical texts. Like I say, a pattern seeker, but translating his pattern seeking back onto his own spiritual life, and not… Read more »

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
2 years ago

Whether it’s “Green” energy or “Let’s start a war!”, I can’t stop thinking about Stalin in the 1930 pushing forward with massive “collectivization” leading to the deaths of about 10 million people (this was separate from the Holodomor). Mao did much the same thing, with many of the same results. Our elites are mad when it comes to “green” energy. Poverty, death, and despair are a small price to pay for everyone (well: not EVERYONE) to be forced into a golf cart. Energy disruption, leading to supply chain problems, not to mention making it impossible to start a major war…which… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

Only to you.

Paranoid delusions are often internally consistent to those suffering from them. The brain just fills in the gaps to make it seem to fit the world.

I would expect that you could not explain the madness to the G7 meeting even if you tried.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Z, have you ever read Doomberg?

They have a number of very accessible articles on the insane energy policies in the US and Europe. They seem to be ex-energy industry scientists and executives who now run a consulting firm. Doomberg is their anonymous public outlet.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Or even that the hydrocarbons are not from fossils.

Mike
Mike
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

If you’re talking about the abiotic oil theory, yes. Nothing is proven or really can be but it’s an intriguing theory and I wouldn’t discount it.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Mike
2 years ago

Given massive amounts of hydrocarbons are on Titan, in the Horsehead nebula and lots of other places in space I would say its more than a theory.

Care to hypothesize a biological basis for these?

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Mike
2 years ago

Trumpton. We can have “fossil” fuel from both sources—can’t we?

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

“Fossil fuels? Where are the dinosaur space ships?”
Re Titan’s methane seas.

Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

How about ‘promised land energy”? Doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as salvation but twists the knife a little more.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

You must mean a Garden- immortality, health, youth, beauty, peace, love, knowledge, diversity, inclusivity, and equality in a perfected world.

I am so picking out my Eloi wardrobe now, swanning about in white linens. Getting a head start before the Season begins, you know.

joe tentpeg
Member
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

It’s more accurately called ‘Greed Energy’…

…given all the kickbacks to the Biden and obozo crime family cronies making Don Quixote toys and silicon grid squares.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  joe tentpeg
2 years ago

[Warning! Incipient Spanish Lit flashback 😀 ]

The Quixote reference is very apt. Permit me to pontificate. In the story, the windmill is real enough (they were actually a practical use of wind energy: to mill grain). Don Qiuxote thought they were monsters and thus he charged with lance upon horseback, to poor effect.

In today’s world, mayhap his delusion would be somewhat altered. He’d be a Greenie seeking to replace a working mill (albeit fossil powered), with a monster that looks like a windmill.

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

C’mon man, we’re not all as poorly read as you intimate. I watched the Don Coyote cartoon.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Ploppy
2 years ago

And me, the Barber of Seville. Figaro! Figaro!

That’s worth a graduate degree, at least.

mmack
mmack
Reply to  Ploppy
2 years ago

And I know Wagner!

“Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit!”

joe tentpeg
Member
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Aye.

I’m picturing a soy boy with a man bun…

…standing with his lance in the ‘sun roof’ of a prius (pun intended)…

…that’s run out of juice yards before the windmill…

…and he’s on the smart phone askin’ the tow truck guy if’n he’s got a generator (gas-powered).

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

Maybe you could go with something like, “I am overwhelming grateful to Putin for getting the Covid insanity out of the news so people finally moved on from it.”

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

Hehehe. You think Covid is gone. You’re going to be in for quite a shock come next flu season, I mean, the outbreak of Omicron II: electric boogaloo this fall.
The ride never ends.

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

Golf carts?

At the rate the lunatics running the collective West are moving we are going to be lucky if we find ourselves in a place where we can keep a decent bicycle running smoothly.

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

Wild Geese: Have you seen the price (and lack of availability) of legitimate Gorilla carts lately? Massive utility in all sorts of scenarios; absolutely insane prices.

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

3g4me-

The Gorilla cart shortage could be local to you. My local Home Depots are showing good stock.

Generator stocks here are also solid. I really need to get that figured out soon.

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

Wild Geese: They are available here at Home Depot; I just wanted different models (out of stock at Amazon). Just found a good deal on one at Walmart – got spousal approval to buy one for my friend’s birthday and an extra for ourselves. Now to figure out where on earth the box is going to go in the garage.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Given Stoltenberg’s talk of electric vehicles for NATO in the next war against the Russian climate heretics, perhaps the new troop deployments in Eastern Europe have been assigned all the golf carts in your area?

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Begging the Colonels pardon Sir, but if vehicles with batteries are used in a conflict, and that conflict has really cold winters like,say,Russia, I’m pretty sure the batteries would be useless in such scenarios.

Am I thinking correctly?

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Stoltenberg has cunningly accounted for global warming to heat up the Russian winters.

From now on all places will be Florida weather.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

The USPS, of all people, were so adamant about it that they all stood up in unison, and screamed at the top of their lungs, “Oh hell no!” to the Biden Administration’s plans to deliver the mail via electric vehicles. That was back in February of this year. I guess the American Postal Workers Union didn’t like the idea of running out of juice in the middle of nowhere, miles & miles & miles from the nearest charging station, shivering in the cold, when the snow & sleet & hail of a major winter storm struck, with a dead battery… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Well, that was my thought wrt electric vehicles for the USPS. However, I assumed they’ll just equip/hire an additional arm of the PO to maintain/rescue their “stranded/disabled”vehicles. This is the USPS after all and are not required to follow profitability after all—only make the government look green.

BeAprepper
BeAprepper
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

Insanity?
Vengeance too.
“Yes we will suffer too. Monkeys flying airplanes, doing disease research, building iPhones? Maybe not, but when the apocalypse comes we will bring the white man down low too and it will have been worthwhile.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
2 years ago

“In fact, it now has a military industrial capacity greater than the West.” Very true. The readers here should read Andrei Martyanov’s “Losing Military Supremacy” and the two subsequent books he came out with (many here probably have). To tie in today’s post with yesterday’s, the West has become a self-deluding idiocracy incapable of dealing with any sort of objective reality. The problem for today’s aspiring young desk jockey (whether military or political) is that to win advancement he or she has to internalize ruling class lunacy. He or she has to be incapable of thought crime. The system selects… Read more »

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 years ago

I have followed the thinking of Andrei Martyanov for some time, first becoming aware of it at the now pitiable blog run by Col. Lang, at which he was a some time commenter.

He and his family immigrated to the US from Azerbaijan during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. A trained engineer, he landed employment at Boeing, and was well-positioned to observe the increasing rot of the US. Along with his prior career in the navy of the SU, this provided him with the parallax useful to inform his subsequent books.

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
2 years ago

The GAE elites breezy dismissal of Russia capturing UK territory and destroying their army reveals something about themselves.

Specifically that they dont think capturing territory matters at all. Which fits with their lack of concern regarding what happens with the borders of the US. What matters to them is controlling the network of their empire and the narrative.

mmack
mmack
2 years ago

“Right now it sucks to be on the receiving end of all this Russian artillery. But my assessment is that things are going to be trending in favor of the Ukrainians in the next few weeks.” What a glib, tin-eared statement. Someone ought to grab Former General Hodges, stick him in a fortified bunker in an open field, and open up on the bunker with some 105 and 155mm howitzers and see how much it “sucks” to be on the receiving end of “all that artillery”. “With regards to the war in Ukraine, Western leaders told the politicians that Russia… Read more »

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  mmack
2 years ago

And not to be forgotten was the part played in the late start on Operation Barbarossa by the Serb uprising that necessitated a large intervention by German troops to quell. The late start meant that General Winter had a large role to play soon enough. The Serbs, yet again, played a role as a tripwire, taking one in the neck, with their effort paying off down stream for Russia. Likewise, due to the unhinged NATO attack on Serbia in the more recent Balkan war, even Yeltsin began to wake up to the geopolitical danger to Russia when that happened, this… Read more »

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

Land war in winter in Russia! Our Values of Who We Are in our Rules Based System demands it! Forward to the everlasting glory of Next Tuesday!

usNthem
usNthem
2 years ago

Yesterday I read we are moving actual units into Poland – 101st airborne for starters and more naval assets into the Mediterranean – along with more idiotic sanctions. These GD people are not going to let this go, and the lapdog Europeans willingly go along with it. Erdogan has now dropped his opposition to Sweden & Finland joining nato. I seriously doubt Putin wants a WW3, but how much more provocation he is willing to accept before enough is enough? These bastards and bitches (mostly ours) are seemingly willing to slaughter millions everywhere in the name of THEIR “higher” cause… Read more »

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
Reply to  usNthem
2 years ago

Its pretty obvious that the regime wants war with Russia. Hell they probably need such a war to survive in the short term. Its pretty common in history for the clique controlling a fading empire to seek war as a distraction and buttress for their own position. This one has a Valerian vs Persia feel to me.

The europeans are going along with it as subjects of the empire, ie their actual desires are irrelevant.

Gaiseric
Gaiseric
Member
Reply to  Dinodoxy
2 years ago

They NEED war with Russia, because if Russia wins in the Ukraine, it sends the entire narrative of the ruling elite tumbling down.

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

all their narratives collapse! it never wakes normie up, so why would they treat ukraine narrative any differently? just declare victory and move on to the next fantasy…

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Yeah, I’m more curious about the Ukrainians and Germans than the Americans. How many of the Ukrainian troops in the field are from western Ukraine vs eastern Ukraine? Are Ukrainian troops in the field in the Donbas mostly from that region or nearby regions? Will Ukrainians from other parts of Ukraine be willing to continue fighting in the east and the south after witnessing the losses there? As to the Germans, they’re setting themselves up for a long-term drop in their standard of living. They relied on cheap energy from Russia not only for heating their homes but for powering… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Western elites envision the shared meaning and sacrifice of FDR era ration cards.

Since Covid, I imagine half the population will jump at the chance. Hollywood will stage spectacular paens, except this time Bing Crosby will be a light creme mulatto with hair like a dust mop.

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Interesting. So who fights this war? It doesn’t seem like this is one that fits the pattern of Special Ops forces breaching doors in villlages or urban ghettos with air cover and/or small squads getting in firefights and calling in aerial bombardments. That is the War on Terror. Russia is a real power with a real army. Our special ops guys are the best, but this requires a real army. Do Poles and Lats fight? Do young Americans fight? Somewhere I hear Xi laughing while the West’s FRC continues its self immolation. Perhaps someone will wise up and drag the… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Zman: In addition to cost/lack of supply of energy and food, metal prices will rise. Not because of Goldman Sachs’ estimate (they’re often quite far off the mark) but because the US Mint’s finite and limited output and distribution for the rest of calendar year 2022 is going to be way below market demand (not to mention dropping stock market and industrial output). This will primarily affect gold, and in turn drive up the cost of other metals.

Just one source of many: https://thedeepdive.ca/us-mint-cancels-2022-morgan-and-peace-dollars-due-to-silver-shortage/

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
2 years ago

You begin with a set of observations and then look for the most likely conclusion from the observations. It is simply the best available explanation for what is observed. There is the possibility that some less likely or entirely unknown explanation is the correct one. This is where the ruling class logic departs from the formal definition. The GAE elite have taken it a step further. They believe that their narratives create reality. They aren’t trying to deceive the public. They aren’t fitting observations into an obsolete mental paradigm. Instead, They know that they are creating reality with their stories.… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Dinodoxy
2 years ago

This works when you control the media, academia and the enforcement mechanisms. The full spectrum dominance allows you to blare it 24/7 in people’s faces using the cultural pathways, produce endless studies and support articles professing intellectual word salad support and the old favorite to punish those whose still resist. So within the boundaries of the country it works fine and they have been using it for decades. Its just not as evident as to its joined up nature as with this. With Russia, they do not control all the information, the academics cannot hide the physical evidence as its… Read more »

c matt
c matt
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

I agree there is a fair portion of the public that buys into this from simply weak minds/low IQ/hatred of opponents. But I can’t shake the impression that a significant number buys into the gaslighting because facing the reality means we are f@cked.. accepting the fact that Trump won and the Dems stole 2020 is accepting our democracy is dead, if it ever existed. Many would accept the existence of space aliens before accepting that truth. These people will continue to buy into the Ukraine debacle because facing it means facing other uncomfortable realities. But reality is about to reassert… Read more »

Bilejones
Member
2 years ago

My assumption is that the usual suspects are lying: their professed beliefs are so far removed from observable reality that deceit is Fr Occam’s choice. I saw yesterday that there are more and bigger countries queuing up to join BRIC’s than EU. Current tally G8 countries 770 million people. BRIC’s 3,300 million people. The GDP of the West (Actually Gross Domestic Spending not production) actually goes up if Twitter hires another Karen to ban the Z-man’s ilk. How is that production? Increasingly however honest belief in the fantasy may be a/the factor. The Lithuania fracas is one example; I gather… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Bilejones
2 years ago

“Increasingly however honest belief in the fantasy may be a/the factor. ”

Fantasy and delusion are driving most of this insane bumbling into war. Greed and opportunism are there to be sure, but most of this is straight up insanity. The West hardly would be the first civilization to fall into madness, but it would be the first to do so with nuclear weapons (I don’t include the Bolsheviks because by the time Stalin got the bomb from Tribal traitors the USSR’s fantasists largely had been purged).

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Bilejones
2 years ago

Its already baked in.

As Boris fuckwit says long term instability and hunger in the west is a price worth paying to continue to support the ethnic hatred of Russia and their own delusions of “standing together” (Gods how I hate the puerile stupidity of that phrase).

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Yes. At the outset of the war, handmaidens of the Clouds here routinely asked Americans how much they were willing to sacrifice to bring Drag Queen Story Hour to Keeeeevvvvee. The answers must have been unacceptable to them because the question stopped being asked.

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

“Be safe”, Trumpton.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Mow Noname
2 years ago

Lol.

I am not sure which i one is more irritating. During the coof that got awfully grating.

Not heard it for a while thank god, but the stand with seems to be everywhere about everything at the moment.

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

I hope they get to stand together at the bitter end. With blindfolds and a final cigarette.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Bilejones
2 years ago

Think like a vengeful Khazarian; it’s the Morgenthau Plan, just a little delayed in its impementation. Besides, if you can’t strike a blow against the hated Russians, the consolation prize is to crush those dastardly European gentiles who, according to tribal lore, themselves did nothing to save the Juice. And a good, teachable moment for us gentiles here in Oceania about what awaits those who deviate from subserviance…even if it takes 80 years for vengence to be fulfilled.

As to the consequences for the Tribe of these strategems, eh, details. Just savor the moment.

Slick Willy
Slick Willy
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

Incoming writ served pro (their) bono by Arnold Bloch Leibler in 3, 2, 1… Goyo!

Hehe.. Not really funny though.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Bilejones
2 years ago

It seems they believe that managing scrip for proles to buy bling is an actual, sustainable economy.

We’ll all be grilling and entertaining in our lovely Hollywood sets, wearing fabulous clothes, glam jewelry, and living nifty campus lives in an urban mod.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
2 years ago

“Messaging” seems to be synonym for “lying” and “fantasizing.” Lies are preferable to fantasies because the latter also is a synonym for “delusions.” The latter is now more the case than the former and a grave danger when nuclear weapons are involved. I’m an agnostic on Russia’s Alexander Dugin, who is both a major intellectual and a cheerleader when necessary, but this piece he wrote yesterday is chilling because it is so accurate: https://katehon.com/en/article/united-states-court-against-ideology-progress Please read that. What Dugin labels as pragmatism and ideology are also realism and delusion. The Russians know full well the madness gripping the elites of… Read more »

imbroglio
imbroglio
2 years ago

Each dollar of American financial aid could be a Rider of Rohan, sweeping in… here they come… and out… there they go, “dollars,” too, being a narrative.

The usual explanation for narrative “trumping” fact is the hubris of the believers, but that explanation requires explanation in a way that doesn’t end in a tautology.

I’d like to see more Zman reflection on this conundrm that’s dragging us down to the Cracks of Doom.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Dead on. There was a time when leaders who were not philosophers surrounded themselves with people who understood what they believe. No longer. Like all totalitarians, those in control most of the West need an echo chamber and amplification of The Current Thing. We live in a very dangerous time and moment.

Member
2 years ago

Part of the blinders that our Dear Leaders, political and military, have put on with Russia is an acceptance of dismissive stereotypes about the Russian soldier, going back to the beginning of the 20th century and the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, continuing through both world wars and ending with their small wars, most notably their Afghanistan war in the 1980s. The extremely short version is that the Russian soldier is a barely literate, drunken, incompetent, unmotivated, and undisciplined peasant, incapable of warfare, and led by thickheaded, vodka fueled officers, and saddled with obsolete weapons. The only time he can win… Read more »

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  Pickle Rick
2 years ago

Been reading some of Alexander Dugin’s thoughts on the Russians as a people, and, if his analysis is correct, it’s very clear that they are a people with a frame of view of the world completely and utterly at odds with western conceptions of reality. Doesn’t make them superior or inferior as a people, but the effect of our diplomats in finger waving about international norms and universalism among them has just about as much effectiveness as speaking Korean to your average American. Our rulers automatically assume whites who don’t think like white westerners are backwards and barbaric, all the… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

I linked Dugin above precisely on this topic. It may be a translation issue, but what he terms Western “ideologues” in yesterday’s piece are more or less fantasists and psychopaths.

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

One of the great ironies of globohomo is that for all their talk of cultural relativism they are at heart cultural supremacists.

They act as if their own culture – deviant NE puritanism – is self evidently superior to all others to the point that other cultures don’t actually exist.

They’re hamfisted latinX bullshit is an example. Only some group completely ignorant of Latin derived cultures and the spanish language could come up with something so idiotic. But they thought it was awesome next step that all the darkies would embrace.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Dinodoxy
2 years ago

It is worse than even that. They have been told that very thing by the people to whom they applied “Latinx” to stop it and in response decided the Latinx simply didn’t appreciate the brilliance of that term. I increasingly understand why Stalin snuffed Most of the remaining original Bolshevik leadership: they actually believed their own bullshit propaganda.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Nietzsche (and no doubt others) makes the interesting point: In many eras, such as during the Inquisition and related religious persecutions of medieval Europe, the authorities prosecuting for (say) witchcraft were entirely sincere in their belief in the truth of the charges. In many cases, the accused were equally accepting that they bore some guilt. This was also a feature in the New England witch trials. Now surely there must have been cases where one or both parties knew the charges were fabricated. But the take-away from this lesson to me is: In many cases, both accuser and accused keep… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Dinodoxy
2 years ago

They don’t exist in a real sense to them, unless its tourist native basket weaving ec.

Any opposition is an existential threat to the hive and so must be destroyed. Its instinctual not cognitive.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 years ago

how did these people get this way? they are like drug addicts living in a make believe world that is cocooned away from the real world. and they are physically very vulnerable, at the point where the control structure interfaces with the cocoon. for some individuals, this is their private security, for others it is the armed forces. but they are very close to the point where they get taken down into the basement for their final “narrative”. they are an impediment to the world, and so they will be removed. perhaps they sense this impending conclusion, and that is… Read more »

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

I wish it would just happen already. They are an insufferable, reprehensible bunch.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

” but they are very close to the point where they get taken down into the basement for their final “narrative””

That literally made me laugh. Will it happen before they get the rest of us killed, though?

Anglo-Welsh
Anglo-Welsh
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

The West does feel like Jonestown the day before the end. I wish it weren’t so, but wishing doesn’t make it so.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Anglo-Welsh
2 years ago

To play on KvH’s hilarious and brilliant metaphor, someone either takes the “Western leadership” to the basement for its final narrative first or the Western leadership takes all of us to the basement for our final narrative. Tsar Nicholas II nods from the great beyond.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

it was the Tsar and his family that I was thinking of when I used “basement” 🙂

David Wright
Member
2 years ago

I’m glad you used a Lord of the Rings analogy instead of the tired Star Wars one.
It’s a funny thing about Putin, either he is a demonic genius who can control foreign elections and subvert their economy or a sickly dying leader of a third world economy destined to get obliterated in an unwise war.

How long can a country survive with the likes of a ruling elite running an idiotic and ill advised political show trial? Paraphrasing Kissinger regarding both political parties in the U.S., why can’t they both lose. No, we lose.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
2 years ago

The greatest narrative fail has to be the difference in Military spending between Russia and the United States, with the U.S. spending something like 6x the amount of Russia on defense, with zero curiosity about how much actual tangible military output comes out of said spending. With a multitude of military bases, the middle east debacles, and the rapidly accelerating costs of keeping troops, it’s clear Russian is getting at least 3x the bang for their buck. For one anecdotal story, one of my previous employers was tasked with upgrading a fleet of C-130 planes, which are very old but… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

whiz bang toys are nice, but if the personnel and decision makers (behind them) are incompetent, your military is going to get flattened.

(((They))) Live
(((They))) Live
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

The hardware being sent to the Ukraine is better than the Russian artillery, but the Russians still have a functioning Air force. A week back I read the Russians were doing 200 sorties a day, they are also firing god knows how many cruise missiles and rockets a day to any part of the Ukraine they want, I wonder how many spies the Russians have inside the Ukrainian military, sending out targeting info SU 25, KA 52, and Hind-d, all have their roots way back in the cold war, but are perfect for a war like this. If the US… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  (((They))) Live
2 years ago

I admit I don’t have any up-to-date military knowledge. Having not been in combat arms, and it being nearly 40 years ago, I never personally touched anything more up to date than infantry weapons dating to Vietnam. That said, if you had to bet on which of the following two would win in battle, would you choose: (A) The latest high-tech gee-whiz weapon from the USA, perhaps a MLRS or similar type rocket system, that cost $50 million each, and required a platoon of highly trained crew to operate, (Just how easy will it be train rough troops that speak… Read more »

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

jeebus, the. nazis had jet fighters and ICBMs, but they couldn’t build them in volume…

Vauxhall
Vauxhall
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Going off your second point, the Germans not only had high tech weaponry but a high caliber soldier behind each weapon system. The modern American soldier is a gay tard with a medical profile that couldn’t fight its way out of a bag of Doritos. Diversity, inclusion and equity has taken its toll even on 11 bravo types.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Vauxhall
2 years ago

So you’re saying a man wearing female military attire with a pink rifle isn’t going to scare Chinese or Russian soldiers into retreat?

mmack
mmack
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

Paroxysms of laughter perhaps. 🤣

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

That reminds me, has M*A*S*H been cancelled yet? How dare they intimate that a man in a dress and pearls was a sign of mental illness!

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

No, but the time the Chinese and Russians take raping them will surely slow their advance. 😉

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

It’s hard to fathom how stupid it is for the US to be dependent on China or other foreign countries for manufacturing things that would be needed in war. This comment could also fit in the essay about incompetency a couple of days ago.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

Nonsense. With the Defense Production Act and other laws in place, our nation’s industrial base and native genius would be ready to answer a need at the shortest notice 😀

Why, just in the past few years they have been invoked to produce ventilators and more recently, baby formula.

bilejones
Member
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Stalin’s line (at least attributed to him) “Quantity has a quality all its own” has much truth in it. Coupled with that Russia probably has better systems for fighting a war, I have no doubt the US systems are much better gee whiz generators.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  bilejones
2 years ago

Delusional “Elites” just lurv them some Wunderwaffen. But, as has already been remarked, the industrial base presupposed for their production no longer is there and, critically, some of these weapons rely upon components from putative enemies, well then, bucko, these Winderwaffen may as well not exist.

Member
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

That goes back to the early Cold War,and my above comment, when the US military started thinking about how to fight the Soviets. They began by approaching all the captive German generals who had fought Ivan (and lost) from 1941 to 1945, and to a man, they promulgated their belief that the big, dumb, Red Army could be defeated by a smaller, high technology, superbly trained army like the Wehrmacht, which the US Army and Air Force took to heart. We are seeing that idea from the Ostfront still being used as a basis for war planning today.

Dinodoxy
Dinodoxy
Reply to  Pickle Rick
2 years ago

That did work in the 19th century.

Smaller much more technologically advanced western countries easily overwhelmed third world peoples.

So the German generals were in some way reflecting lessons from the 19th century, and refused or unable to update their paradigm with new evidence – ie their own experience in WWII.

Similarly, the mustache man’s goal for the east were reminiscent of what the US had done in North America 140 years earlier. He somehow didnt realize that the Russians were a couple of orders of magnitude more advanced than our Indians.

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Dinodoxy
2 years ago

Yes but that was when the technology curve was horrific. If an army had five-year old gear during that period they were going to get annihilated by a technologically superior foe. Now-a-days GAE might be able to show up with a slightly faster missile or a slightly smarter drone, and it may help out of the gate, but the advantage must be maintained which is where it really falls apart.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Come on man.

Its not crazy to set up wars at the same time with the 2 largest other powers who happen to also be your industrial base and the fuel /raw material supplier.

What could be more sensible than that?

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Take note than when “Western leaders” demand China sanction/isolate Russia or….the “or” never gets filled in. Going to war with your sole source for antibiotics, and, given the current situation, psychotrophics, is a non-starter.

mmack
mmack
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

“One is the fact that the last war won by the American empire was when America was an industrial powerhouse. The regime went to industry and said, build as many tanks, planes, small arms and so as you can so we can win this war. ” The smartest thing FDR did was appoint then GM President William Knudsen Chairman of the Office of Production Management. He was key in managing the multiple manufacturers needed and keeping a steady stream of equipment flowing to US forces and our allies. Now GM’s President is Mary Barra. Probably couldn’t tell you how to… Read more »

DLS
DLS
Reply to  mmack
2 years ago

“Now GM’s President is Mary Barra. Probably couldn’t tell you how to build a car but her pronouns are probably in her emails.” Very funny. Or not.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

That, plus Russia is motivated and its people more united. How many ‘murricans would take up arms to fight for GAE?

Member
Reply to  c matt
2 years ago

Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith. We won’t be so lucky as to get Cyclops Dan Crenshaw or Anal Pete Buttgeig to resign from office and put on a uniform again to fight for Our Democracy.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Pickle Rick
2 years ago

“Anal Pete Buttgeig” He [she? they/them?] was in the news today; he wants to outlaw “Racial In-Equity” in roads, which means that all those thoroughfares which come to a sudden stop just before the wealthy part of town will now be opened up so that the Obama Voters can waltz right into the McMansion Zone. Every shitlib university town I ever lived in had a negro neighborhood with a strong demarcation line where the streets OUT of negro town suddenly simply stopped [physically, geographically] in order to prevent the negroes from proceeding any further towards the heart of Richville. The… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

Your C-130 story is par for the course.

Space age stuff?

You mean like the latest hypersonic test failure announced by the Pentagon this morning?

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/us-hypersonic-missile-fails-in-test-in-fresh-setback-for-programme

As we know from prior discussion here, there are serious issues with the entire concept. Yet, the Pentagon continues to throw money at it.

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

city killers just using kinetic energy? no. unless they are using mass drivers in space :P. I agree that non-nuclear ICBMs change the math of war though. reach out and touch someone indeed!

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

The ICBM itself is so expensive that anything less than a thermonuclear bomb seems like a waste of payload.

Mis(ter)Anthrope
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

If the Russians need suggestions on which American cities to target, I have a list they could start start with:

1. Washington DC and
Baltimore (sorry Z, but
there is still time to get
out)
2. Los Angeles
3. NYC
4. Chicago
5. Detroit
6. Boston
7.Atlanta
8. San Francisco
9. St. Louis
10. New Orleans
11. Seattle
12. Portland
13. Baton Rouge

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Mis(ter)Anthrope
2 years ago

haha Baton Rouge?? there has to be a story there; spill :P. did you get clipped by a mechanic there or something?

Mike
Mike
Reply to  Mis(ter)Anthrope
2 years ago

I would add Austin to that list.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  Mis(ter)Anthrope
2 years ago

Yeah, you gotta have those Shitlib Central places on the list. Austin belongs on the list.

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

Your mention of Mach triggered my memory of the briefing scene in Firefox (1982) where they point out the Soviet plane can do Mach 5+ and the West’s best design melts above Mach 3:

https://youtu.be/zw4BfD1cDf8

The film actually gets it correct that atmospheric friction is an issue during high speed atmospheric flight.

This may indeed be one of the insurmountable challenges for the desired hypersonic weapons.

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

isn’t anything that flies faster than the speed of sound, hypersonic? maybe biden and co are working on “ultrasonic” missiles!

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

isn’t anything that flies faster than the speed of sound, hypersonic?

Supersonic.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

That was a good movie, but I suspect that “Mach 5” was (still is, I’d bet) about as fanciful as full mind control of the fighter plane. The SR-71 only did slightly above Mach 3, and that would have been a near-outer-space altitudes. Closer to the ground? No way.

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

An interesting bit of psy-ops from the Russians is in calling their missiles hypersonic missiles.

And Western media is more than happy to oblige them.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

In a way, this is analagous to “voting harder”. If we just stick with the plan, the problems will sort themselves out, you betcha.

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 years ago

The greatest narrative fail has to be the difference in Military spending between Russia and the United States, with the U.S. spending something like 6x the amount of Russia on defense, with zero curiosity about how much actual tangible military output comes out of said spending.

It’s budget thinking: we have a problem, we need to do something:

Politician 1: “I’ll do a billion dollars about it!”

Politician 2: “Lol faggot, I’ll do TWO billions about it!”

So when the problems turns out to have gotten worse, “not our fault, we did five billion dollars.”

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Felix Krull
2 years ago

The Russians don’t need to keep executive compensation and share prices pumped up.

The level of bureaucracy, waste, and fraud in the US MIC is epic. 3 or 4 out of every 5 paper-pushing jobs could be eliminated and productivity would be unchanged.

On an even more micro-level, the security on internal PCs is now so tight it interferes with legitimate research on legitimate technical sites.

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

Wild Geese: You mean the internal PCs with Chinese software? Not to mention all the magic paper super loyal Han ‘murrican scientists and researchers with top secret security clearances?