This Blog: February 2017

I was in the elevator of a building where important people are known to frequent and I overheard an interesting conversation. Two men were talking about politics in a general way and one of them used the phrase “Cloud People.” In fact, he said “It is Cloud People versus the Dirt People and we will all have to choose sides.” The two men were unfamiliar to me and they did not have the look of important people. Although I have never been an important person, I have been in the same room with them and I can usually spot them.

I guess I was too obvious in my eavesdropping as it was clear to me they noticed I was listening, so I said, “I’m sorry, but I could not help but hear what you said. What did you mean by Cloud People?” The truth is, I don’t think anyone but me uses that term. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the whole Cloud People versus the Dirty People motif is my invention. But, you never know so that’s why I asked. That and I wanted to shift the focus from the fact I was listening to their conversation.

The guy who was doing the talking was quick to volunteer that he had picked up the phrase on Facebook from one of his friends, who he told me worked in politics. Why he volunteered the last bit is unclear, but my guess is he just assumes that’s the origin of the Cloud People stuff. Regardless, it was a funny moment for me. It is entirely possible that I have coined a phrase that is now getting some circulation in the wider world. These things have to start somewhere, but I’ve never put much thought into where or how they get going.

It did remind me that I have not posted a site update in a few months. In fact, it was back in November after the election. The readership keeps growing. According to the tool I use to estimate average monthly readership, I’m pushing 90,000 now, which is about ten percent increase since November. I’m never quite sure if that tool is correct, but it does seem to track with overall site traffic. In fact, traffic is way up setting daily records on a regular basis so maybe that’s why my pithy expressions are getting loose in the general public. I could be famous and not know it.

I am, of course, grateful that people take the time to read my posts and share them on social media. Facebook and Twitter continue to be big drivers of traffic. Gab is now starting to be a big source of traffic. Something I’ve noticed is I get a fair amount of links back to specific comments, meaning that part of the increase in traffic is the active and interesting comments here. I can’t help but notice that the volume of comments is way up too so that means more traffic and more new readers.

One thing I have noticed is that when I write about the Cloud People stuff, those posts get passed around a lot. This one broke a record for hits in a day. I thought it could be the Trump angle, but looking at the traffic numbers, the Cloud People/Dirt People topic is just more popular than I would have guessed. The great divide in America is never discussed in the popular press and even the hate thinkers tend to avoid it. My guess is the admonitions against class warfare from our betters is the reason few talk about it.

The plan going forward is more of the same. I have been looking at maybe doing a podcast or perhaps get on the GabTV ride. I listen to a lot of podcasts and internet radio, but I don’t know if I have the voice or the talent to actually do it. The video stuff has the advantage of being easy as the smart kids have worked out the technology to do it from a  phone or tablet. The downside is that all the ones I have seen look like hostage videos or really bad video dating examples. The result is I’m still mulling these options over.

The other bit of site news is I am working on a book. I’m looking at the self-publishing options mostly because I just want to see how it works, but also because I have no interest in dealing with publishers. I have a friend in the book game who says I am nuts and I’d have no trouble finding a publisher that would make the process simple. We’ll see about that, but I have to write the book first so that means I may stop posting on weekends in order to make time for the new project. We’ll see how that goes.

Otherwise, I thank everyone for reading and I’m grateful to those who pass the word and bring new readers into the fold via social media.

122 thoughts on “This Blog: February 2017

  1. It’s a useful one, though, so great if it’s becoming a meme. Beyond that, certainly looking forward to this site going from strength to strength. Some days it soothes my soul. The ‘aha moment’. I remember thinking, “Wow, that’s it in a nutshell.”

  2. First time I heard of CP/DP was right here, & I worked in politics for yrs. I also have BLATANTLY ripped it off, (c’mon, it’s brilliant & I can’t be the only one), and I’m personally thrilled anything you write gets out into Normieville.

  3. “Cloud People / Dirt People” is a really good term. I think most people immediately get it without explanation at all. The sign of an excellent meme.

  4. I started reading this blog in the past six months. I come back regularly. Interesting and informative. Cloud and dirt seem to me, to have originated on this blog. I have used it once or twice myself. It will spread because it’s a great metaphor for the reality of our hugely stratified culture. The middle classes are existentially threatened. They are all that stand between globalization and individual freedom. The war is coming.

    Thanks for writing these great pieces.

  5. I like this blog because Z has such sensible and clear perspectives which draw on history and culture. Also gets the comments are part of the blog not a necessary evil and clearly sees himself as one of the dirt people which I really appreciate. Also the commenters listen and reply in a spirit of comradary without the usual scoring of point and trying to get over on each other.

    When I heard the terms cloud / dirt people I thought of Goethe’s poem Prometheus….to the cloud people (who really were gods) he said ,Du mich beneidest’

    http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/goethe-prometheus-from-german.html

  6. If you’re headed for the big time, get a copy editor. Every post has at least one typo, missing word or syntax problem that is difficult to explain when I print and send to my mother.

  7. No. You’re not allowed to stop posting on the weekends. 7 days a week is mandatory with an 8th post doubled up in there somewhere. We folks in Wisconsin have had a long running nickname for our mostly unwelcome neighbors to the south. (IL) FIBs. Fuckin Illinois Bastards.
    25 plus years ago behind the wheel of my semi somewhere down around Stoney Island I’ve got dickheads mouthing off on the cb. So at that moment and totally off the cuff I come up with FISH. Fuckin Illinois Shit Heads. Sorry Al!! : ) That apparently circulated enough to get back to one of my sisters something like 5 years later. I said “Huh? What was that?” She said “you know FISH? Fu–” I said yeah I get it. I make my living running those freight trains down there and back now so…
    Al you’re the only one that knows any of this. : )

  8. Hi Z, congrats on your success and may you continue to succeed. The Zblog has been my first stop of the day for the past couple of years. The cloud/dirt thing is a stroke of brilliance and also rolls from the tongue like warm honey. Write the book and prepare to be outed, I was outed and survived by refusing to apologize having “good size” and little patience for fools. Keep in mind those who thrive on exposing different-thinkers are usually quite easy to physically intimidate, and this adds to the fun.

  9. Zman…I’ve only seen the sky vs the earth people on your blog….and I have to admit that I used the terms in a political discussion with my wife. She immediately stopped me mid-sentence at the time for a “translation” for dirt/cloud people. When she asked where I’d heard it and I explained, she loved it! The descriptions are succinct, accurate, and pragmatic, considering the present cultural context. Keep them coming, and write that book! We both look forward to it…

  10. Zman…I enjoy your blog immensely, and I retweet it often. I am happy but not completely surprised that your Cloud/Dirt coinage is gaining currency. Brand it! Sell a T-shirt or hat with “Member: Dirt People”
    I have wanted to start my own blog for about 2 years now. I think I am a pretty good writer, and editor. But you often express the same thoughts I have, on the same topics I consider, and you do it regularly and so eloquently, it is somewhat intimidating.

    • Do it, you could always do a sailer and fill it in with – cut/paste/comment if you get a little light on inspiration.

  11. I too will add both my thanks and congratulations to you, Zman, for your hard work, and success. One can tell you really enjoy doing this and I hope the enjoyment only increases.

    I would also like to thank the many commenters on your site. The content and contributions here are definitely a “cut-above” the rest in the blogosphere. The range of comments from folks with technical and medical backgrounds, business people, lawyers, care givers, manufacturer’s, traveler’s, well, the diversity is awesome and very educational. Simply put, I learn so much and I enjoy learning about all kinds of things.

    This is like grad school to me but of a different kind. My father used to say he, one of the Dirt people, earned his degree from the school of hard knocks. His goal was for me to get a good education. That I did. But I also learned in grad school, that many I went to school with were both very well educated and very extremely smart people. They had been given educations that my simple schooling in East San Jose could only stand in the shadows of many of the folks from Ivy League schools. Their readings in the Classics, their vocabulary, their ability to debate, their confidence, etc. were all things that took me a long time to acquire, things I still work at acquiring. Thank you for your work at making me a smarter, more able person.

    My hope would be that more people would stop with their protesting and blind hate to spend more time with thought provoking material like yours and learn more about the past (history) and the present and what we can do about things today rather than simply bitch about what we don’t like. Godspeed Zman!

  12. Sir: thanks for your thoughts, writing and a willingness to share them with us. As far as the concept of “dirt people, I need to git the wranglers off which are splattered with green alfalfa calf projectiles which in time will turn into quite fertile dirt. LOVE being involved in the dirt manufacturing process. Calves also produce
    “clouds” but they are quite aromatic…….Soapweed

  13. I’ve been using the Cloud People – Dirt People model since I read it here, both in conversation and in various posts.. It has terrific power of explanation.

    Here’s an interesting observation. When I talk to people, especially my Trump volunteers, the Dirt People grasped it without requiring a single word of explanation. The few Cloud People I used the model with had to have it explained. Then they rejected it.

  14. For SOME reason, my first “mental image” of cloud/dirt people, as I first read here, was of the nice folks in the movie “Zardoz”.
    Of COURSE it’s firmly implanted in my brain now, with the exception of unrelated “cloud people”
    whose entire essence is ensconced in their co-dependent relationship with their “smart” phone.

  15. I was at a Boston Red Sox game once long ago, as a kid (cutting school) and I remember starting up one of those clap cycles – you know, clapping at 1 – second intervals to get something going besides trash talk. It caught, and swept across the ballpark, and pretty soon the whole place was clapping; It peaked and then died a natural death, as these things do – one of those giddy mundane experiences that never completely leaves you.

    Don’t kid yourself. It came from you, there’s an iron-grounded truth and a wicked perceptive quality to what you write.

    It’s catching on because these are worthwhile ideas – fair coin in the free society we yearn for.

  16. To offer yet more unsolicited advice, this time on content, I think a revision of your Mokita page, or simply a less prominent placement in your site, would be a good thing. I’ve been reading you every day for well over a year and I think there’s some stuff in there that doesn’t reflect your outlook very well. Perhaps I’m way off base and it does so perfectly but either way the summarized nature of it gives a very abrasive introduction to you. Then again, shit, maybe that filter is the key to the uniquely amicable commenters.

    Some of it nearly turned me off from your site from the get-go. That would’ve been a bummer b/c I now spend a little chunk of every day here. Your take on gays/lesbians the thing in particular. Maybe it’s an age thing. I’m 34. Being gay hasn’t been taboo for a while now and that has to shape personality outcomes. That certainly jives with your context. It’s truly more rare for me to encounter the miserable folks you caricaturize than friends/coworkers/family/etc. that I like quite a lot. To my sensibilities its Mokita’s prominence in your main menu means it will continue to be among the first pages visited on your site (it’s gotta be top three, no?).

    I realize I may catch flak for the above comment, like I’m a marketing consultant (cucksultant?) trying to water down your work for broader appeal. That’s true I suppose. It’s the #1 reason I share your articles only rarely and with very few people. Surely that page (and, again, specifically its prominence) could prove to be an obstacle in some of the other pursuits you talked about in your post, at least with a publisher. Sidenote: self-publishing is remarkably easy and high-quality. And please contact me if you need an illustrator and/or designer for chapter breaks or the cover etc.

    • With me it’s a toss up; either this site or the weather first thing each morning. Glad to see the well-deserved increase in traffic. Reading through the comments about spam it struck me that you rarely have trolls – a blessing. I enjoy reading the regular commenters, too. Thanks for what you do. Write the book(s). Best regards, R

    • tamaleman, time to check your biases. You may have cloud-people sympathies. If you know lesbians and homosexuals– and I have since high school– you know this to be true.

      You know gay men are mostly jerks who are unhappy except when they are getting some (was told by one that “it’s really all about the sex, nothing else”). You know lesbian women either dress like men or like women who dress like men, and that they are unhappy.

      The whole point of Z-man’s Mokita post, as I read it, was to state certain truths that must not be mentioned in society. In criticizing the truths he’s written there about unhappy homosexuals, you’re making Z-man’s point.

  17. Zman – Been meaning to chime in every time you do one of these posts. I have some technical insight for you, really low-hanging fruit that’s very worthwhile. You may be well aware of all this—others will learn something either way.

    First, a simple change to your site would have a dramatic effect on visibility long-term: Semantic URLs. For example yesterday’s post would look something like thezman.com/wordpress/somewhere-eichmann-smiles. This is a simple flip of a switch in WP settings. Easily configurable with dates, categories, or other data if desired. URLs contain SEO data of top-level importance, up there with and the first and . Whereas ?p=9648 means nothing to a search engine (or human).

    But real words do. Even with your titles, which are rarely keyword dense, the cumulative effect of meaningful link content would be massive. A side benefit is people being able to preview a link’s content before popping open the page (I do this all the time, hovering via mouse, pressing + holding on phone, before opening a new tab).

    You’d want permanent redirects from the old URLs to the new to maintain search engine status, but I think that’s automatic with WP these days, and very easy to do if not. Also a free plugin that submits fresh Google etc. XML sitemaps regularly would speed up search engines’ indexes. Probably rapidly for a site with your traffic.

    Second, running your blog from a directory called /wordpress is no bueno security-wise. It makes you an easy target for bots sniffing around for exploits since it’s so common and obvious for your root installation. Far less important, it’s needlessly long. Something like “/z” or “/blog” would do. This is an easy change as well, though you want to be careful not to bork your admin when making the change. It’d make sense to do this at the same time as the semantic suggestion if you decide to. If you have managed hosting and can’t be arsed to handle it, they’d knock this out for you gratis I bet.

    With the traffic you get, I have to imagine you get tons of spam and security attacks / attempts. The fact that I’ve never once seen a spam comment suggests you’ve got one or more things working quite well in that department, whether it’s Disqus and/or Akismet or other stuff going on. I’ll add an endorsement for Wordfence, which I use on my own site. It’s an excellent plugin, free to use at your level, and they are on top of emerging vulnerabilities like fat kids on cake. Actually just read an interesting (and strenuously apolitical) email from them giving expert insight into a compromised WP site involved in the supposed Russian hacks (one takeaway: impossible to determine genuine origin of that particular injection attack).

    Anyhow, regarding the semantic URL suggestion, I hate it when one of my favorite bands blows up and I can no longer see them play at clubs and pubs, instead forced to attend theater and pavilion gigs. Likewise if your commenting audience grows any bigger I won’t be able to read through all of them like I usually do. Plus there’s bound to be some decline in quality and the emergence of trolls, which this blog is remarkably free of. So I hesitate even to make suggestions that could help spread your stuff even wider, but I also think more people ought to read it.

    FWIW I agree with Ivar. I prefer the written word. Case in point, Mark Steyn used to be my first daily visit. Now it’s you big guy. I love Mark. I devour his books. I like hearing him speak, too, but I just don’t have the time to watch his show. I read at lunch, in bed, on a smoke break, on weekends. Phone’s in my pocket all the time and doesn’t require headphones or a strong connection. Podcast I could fit in more I suppose, but only while doing something right brain. You know, like autoerotic asphyxiation.

    • Thanks for the tips! I agree on the directory change. Been on the list for a while. For spam, I found an easy way to kill most of it. I block most IP’s from Asia. That alone knocked the spam down by 90%. The spam trapper catches the rest.

      • Settings > General > Site Address (URL)

        ^^ To change the nominal ‘directory’ (or lack thereof) shown in link text / URL.

        Settings > Permalinks > Common Settings

        ^^ To change URL-writing rules.

        Easy breezy!

      • Blocking most IPs from Asia… kind of genius in its simplicity. Can’t believe it never crossed my mind. I just did a cursory search and the top results are all saying the same thing basically. I’m going to do it now. It’s amazing how much web form spam I get from Asia. Even more amazing that Google + Akismet fail to catch so much of it.

  18. The phrase certainly captured my attention. After following a link in a comment section to this site I became a regular reader last year. The first reference to the Cloud People I see from ZMan is from back in early 2015 when he gave his initial descriptive overview. Good reading for those who may have missed it.

    “The global elites are the cloud people. They float above us, detached from language, culture and history…”

    http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=3689

  19. Tell you what dirt person means. It began in the spring, all through the summer working in the garden, tending the critters, after reading about us dirt people, i wore bare feet like when we where little, it some how felt good to these old bones, that connection to the dirt, it seemed proper. Plant potatoes…dirt people, plant peas and bean, set onion rows, tend the tomatoes, feel the dirt between the toes walking along the rows guiding the seeder planting cane and the great food and other makings that it promised. My farmer neighbor and best friend asks me one day why the bare feet Yank? We are dirt people Randy, it’s the connection to God’s green Earth kind of thing. Randy nods his head and smiles, lets have a pull off that shine and go up top the ridge, we can purvey as masters upon all we see of our land. Randy says you know, we got it made. I say you fuckin’ know it. My friend says a few minutes later, you know we only care take this land. It’s up to us dirt people to be stewards of it. I say yup, your dead nuts right, I’ll drink to that. And looking out not just over our land, but as far as the eye can see, I say to Randy, Dude look out there, there’s this great place, and there’s all kinds of dirt people, every kind imaginable, and I hope they all see that. That it is a tie that binds us. And if we all know that, nothing can break that bond. It was a good day.

    • Carrots taste a lot different when you’ve grown them from seed you’ve planted, watered & tended them, kept the critters off of ’em, and then finally! You get to pull one out of the ground, brush the dirt off, and bite a chunk off. It hardly needs chewing, and just bursts into your mouth like technicolor. Oh man!

      Closest taste to heavenly that I’ve ever encountered. Thanks for bringing that memory back, Doug.

      I’ve been living in the city for too damn long!

      • Same goes for home grown beef steak tomato’s or jalapeno pepper’s. My Dad would grow some that were so hot, your fingers would tingle just from touching them. And the taste … phenomenal!

        • I’ll bet your Pop put the chicken manure to them peppers. That makes them peppers, and garlic real hot. Hey, next time he grows those peppers, take them and remove the seeds and stems, puree them bad boys it your blender, then get a half gallon mason jar, put those that pepper mash in it with some sea salt, leave the lid on just enough to let the pressure out while it ferments. Takes 1-2 months. Give it a shake once in awhile. You will have the best pepper sauce in the world. And about 80%+ of the heat goes away. Fermented, it has such a robust mouth watering pepper flavor. I put garlic, fresh rosemary, basil and radishes in with the peppers too. Nothing like it. Next year I’m trying smoking it in the smoke house in a crock with some cheese cloth cover, let that creosote flavor the pepper sauce. Mmmmm!

      • Oh ya, you said it, heaven, fresh peas right out of the pod! Candy. Ever bite into an ear of corn the second you pick it? Or a cantaloupe picked on the spot? Beautiful.
        A neighbor traded me cane seeds for some real Tabasco pepper seeds. Randy has an old cane squeezer we resurrected, we planted it late, but managed to realize 15 gals of cane juice, and an incredible 24 gals of seeds for next year. But that cane juice, oh lord it is like a milk, super sweet with a green earthy taste. We boiled it down like maple syrup. it’s dark like molasses, but light flavor more like honey. The pigs and cows go crazy over the squeezed canes. Nothing goes to waste. We are going to try running our corn stalks through the cane mill next year, see if we can get corn syrup out of it. The old timers say the corn squeezing’s makes the finest corn liquor on earth.

  20. Your blog, and James Lafonds site are read first, before breakfast even! My stomach usually comes first.

  21. I first heard the terms “Cloud People” and “Dirt People” back in 1996 when I lived in Washington D.C. and a friend of mine was making the same observations you are regularly making today, i.e. the growing gap between the 99% of people who don’t live inside the Beltway and the 1% who are constantly advocating for constituencies or a policy of one kind of another, whether as their way of making a living or simply because they are passionate about a cause. Doesn’t matter if you’re discussing the NRA or AIPAC or Planned Parenthood, inside the Beltway it’s all the same in this respect. As my friend and I observed two decades ago, for the vast majority of Americans who will never visit DC, what goes on there is often frightening because the place seems so far away and yet impacts their lives in ways they may not like. Ditto for many of the state capitals where most of the rules that really impact our lives are actually drafted into enforceable state law and regulations. The great thing about America is that everyone can play the game and (hopefully) have their voice heard. But the downside is that Americans are trained by our schools, real life factors, etc. to regard what goes on in politics as something they have no control except when they vote for elected officials. Although people are aware of their right to actively lobby for policy or law, the vast majority do not. So they watch as events in DC unfold. then comes a day when they realize that the elected class is not doing what they want it to do. End result: a voter revolt like November 8, 2016.

    • I find DC a creepy place. All this fancy stuff around, with no way to detect how it has been paid for (of course, we all know who paid for it). And then the people who work there mostly act like they own the place. In the immortal words of Obama, “you didn’t build that”.

  22. Good luck with the book Z. One of the questions on which way to go with it will be will it be a one-off, or the first in a series.. heh. Love the blog and the clarity of thought you write and in the comments. Z, you write well enough, I’d enjoy historical fiction from you too,… you are creative and appear to me to have a good grasp of life, so… you never know. Anyhow, good luck. I can’t imagine how you write as much as you do here, and then to be writing a book on the weekends… well. I salute you sir and wish you the best with it.

  23. I thought I started hearing the terms “Cloud People” and “Dirt People” after the movie “Elysium” came out a few years ago. I came to this blog after seeing your blog posts on “The Burning Platform”.

  24. I too am a recent viewer of your blog and one of the first to read in the morn’ You always have a informative view and take on current events. A book would be a nice addition to your repertoire.

  25. Oh, just a bunch of thumbs up – for everything. I’ve done the publishing thing – mostly retired. If you need any help just holler. There’s no downside to putting the manuscript out for review with the ‘real’ publishers. Depends on how much time you want to spend waiting for rejections. Best way in to mainstream is to know someone who knows someone. Nevertheless, it’s way different than it used to be – Plan b is to self publish and I can give you some tips on that. Just do it!

  26. Eloi and Morlocks
    Elysians and Earthlings
    And now Cloud People and Dirt People.

    A nice updated term for the conflict between the ruling class and the rest of us 🙂

    Love the blog, please keep writing and look forward to the book

  27. All the best to you and well earned. Keep in mind that a book is a statement. Once it is done, it stares back at you, rigid and unmoving. I say this because one of the very valuable aspects of this blog is that it moves, it evolves, and the give and take between the blogger and the commenters is a big part of the value of the thing. I am proud to think that, in some small way, I contribute to the value of the thing with my dribblings. Certainly I get insights from the commenters as well as from Z. We have also avoided the snark and crap-throwing comments that sites like ZH have evolved towards (effective moderating, perhaps?). This site is a living, breathing thing that a book cannot be. Not to discourage you from publishing, but to remind you that this blog and a book are apples and oranges.

  28. You definitely introduced the terms, and I hear them more an more outside the ‘net too. It is the most concise way of describing the current situation that has come along!
    It’s fun watching you grow. Thanks, and good luck.

  29. I see your blog linked on Lew Rockwell fairly frequently and I know the Diplomad reads it as well. I’ve seen some phrases similar to Cloud People/Dirt People, but I have always thought the phrase originated here. Maybe you’ll be like the Flight 93 post guy and get a gig with the Trump Administration 😉

  30. My friends and I in the contracting world like the blog, and totally buy the Cloud/Dirt People construct. No where is it as obvious as it is in the Capital City of the Empire.

  31. Hands down, this is the best blog on the interwebs right now–clear thinking, well-informed, fact-based, reasoned analysis. In my book, the only competition you have is Kakistocracy. Keep it up, Z-Man.

    Be prepared for the consequences if you write a book. You will be outed, ostracized from polite public company, and quite probably fired from your job and rendered unemployable in the Corporatocracy. It’s a big step.

    There may be a second career for you as an erudite Ann Coulter type of writer. You and Ann probably agree on 95% of the issues, but she’s had to dumb down her act significantly to sell books to the masses. You may have to do the same thing. Not sure if that appeals to you, but putting food on the table is always a good motivation!

    • Maybe not the highest compliment. I like Ann fine for what she is, but please remember her crushes on Romney and Christie. Too much tool and not enough rule.

      • James, her crushes on those two served a purpose to me. They showed she is human and not a borg. If not for those failings, I’d wonder. Her wit and snark are precious to me. I’d argue, if you look at Trump’s platform, especially of immigration when he announced, that we might very well owe the rise , the final rise of Trump to her and her book Adios. I could be wrong , but I’d bet that Trump has read, and taken in all of her books actually. I’m with you though, when she talked about Christie and Romney I was displeased. And even she was very hesitant to believe in Trump, she has admitted.

        • I’m not a critic of Coulter. Her contributions are unique and we need more. There are reminders everywhere how difficult it is to not be pulled away from first principles because the world of politics and personalities throws so much dust in the eye.

          • @james Ann is definitely not afraid to “walk towards the fire” that’s for certain. (RIP Andrew) That is a tremendously courageous woman. She has more courage than any Conservative politician that I can think of minus my President. Perhaps courage is contagious. We shall see, I’m cautiously optimistic.

    • “Be prepared for the consequences if you write a book. You will be outed, ostracized from polite public company, and quite probably fired from your job and rendered unemployable in the Corporatocracy. ” thanks for the encouraging words, dick head.

      • Fuck you, asshole.

        Z-man’s Mokita post alone is more than enough to get anyone fired from any corporate or government job and render him unemployable. I don’t make the rules, fuckface.

        • hahaha what would Zman do without you advising him on everything obvious! “look out Zman, don’t walk in front of that approaching bus, it will hurt if it hits you!” you kinsey 6 you

  32. Thanks so much for the work it no doubt takes to come up with insightful ideas day after day. To me, the attraction of the Cloud/Dirt metaphor is that it organizes a lot of seemingly disparate though-threads into an easily apprehend-able framework: The ‘aha moment’. I remember thinking, “Wow, that’s it in a nutshell.”

    It is one of those thoughts that nobody could explain simply before hand and everybody thinks is obvious after they apprehend it. The cloud aspect of the old Star Trek episode fits well* but the dirt (i.e. miner) equivalent from that episode actually does** not, IIIC. IOW, it may have sprung from that episode (or not) but its explanatory power is obvious once adjusted to our present circumstances. AND you blog is the first place I remember seeing it.

    * Beautiful people in togas nattering on about esthetics deliberately oblivious to the exploitation that allows them their life of ease; Condescending toward the miners below the clouds doing the actual work.

    ** Raggedly clothed, dirty faced, yet well nourished and ripped, violent ruffians inarticulately seething with resentment, yet somehow grateful for the enlightened leadership of the female red-diaper baby who is their sassy spokesperson.

  33. You and Sailer are my first daily stops. Althouse next. Thanks for all you do. If you ever get to Western Mass I owe you a beer.

  34. When you first wrote about the dirt people and cloud people Zman it sure hit a cord in me. I feel nothing exemplifies what is going on, for me as a dirt person as, as this. With that one thing, dirt people, you destroyed the disenfranchise us dirt people have endured too long. You shattered the bigotry and hate the clouds have for us. Maybe or maybe not somebody else coined it before you, but nobody defined like you. That’s everything in my book.
    What you said also made me feel proud and my life and activities as a dirt person truly mean something worthy and good in the context of the politics and demagoguery of the day. Not that I didn’t know this already, but you defined something, you blasted with the sanitizing effect of the light of truth something so valuable, truths, legitimacy, reason, it’s so complex and rich, but it is so provincial. Hard to define. But it sure is sweet, and I can’t express how much appreciation I have for you for it.

  35. As a humble Dirt Person lodged in among the screaming horde of Cloud-ites (I live near UC Berkeley), thank heavens for your blog! This is where I come to breathe fresh air. The local SF newspaper overflows with shrill, snide vitriol against our sitting President. I once tried gently questioning the Pink Hats: but “did you _read_ the Podesta etc emails??” I am met with blank stares, and a sense that hostility might come my way. I have learned to keep my silence, or risk attack. The elevator conversation you overheard, a glimpse into a new common knowledge, fills me with hope. Could it be that as a nation we are waking up? Let us pray.

    • I live near UMASS Amherst. Same story. My wife and I were out to dinner the other night and I asked ” xAm I the only Trump voter in this restaurant? I think you all know the answer.

      • You’re just living in the wrong zip code.
        Wherever the state plants its “institutions of higher learning” there you will find the heavy force of group think and leftism in near lethal doses. It’s just a fact.
        Harvard, founded ca.1635, was intended as a school to instruct its students in the proper love of God, moral courage, and to prepare the clergy in their role of preserving the teaching of the Gospel among the citizenry.
        Tell that to Harvard graduates today, and they will likely spit in your face.

        Thankfully, “higher education” is localized. And “ordinary” Americans understand the evil machinations of the “educated” whose moral compass has been corrupted by the god-haters, god-deniers, and the “if it feels good do it” campuses within which they were incubated.

    • Bulgarian throat yodeling.

      Seriously, I have half a dozen ideas. I’m thinking that maybe the better approach is for a short ~100 page e-book. People don’t like reading large tomes anymore.

      • 19th century Brits and Americans were mad to read books through magazine serialization. There is a powerful dynamic in keeping them waiting for more, and it may match the process in which you write also.

      • I’m writing novellas now (100 pages) for the same reason. Adults are way too busy for more than that, and kids have a limited attention span.

      • Hmmm….The Whole Earth Catalogue, featuring “installments” of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Universe on side bars?
        Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, with shorts of “Fat Freddy’s Cat” serials across the bottom of occasional pages?
        Of course, there’s the comic strip serial approach.
        Latch on to an established vehicle ?

      • Depends on the subject matter & treatment, IMHO. Full disclosure: I’m a reader, I read all day. For enjoyment!

        I just got Don Surber’s second book, “Trump the Establishment” which is 247 pages- and I’m just under halfway through, and already I know that it’s WAY too short!

        It’s a fun read of how President Trump took on just about everybody: pundits, pollsters, the MSM, the Democrats & establishment Republicans, the unions, bureaucracy… and won! His second book is even better than his first, and that was a knockout! (“Trump the Press” was his first.)

        Don Surber is a retired newsman who gives concrete examples of all the shibboleths he pokes a stick at, and names the names of those who thought they had Trump beaten before he started. He has an unerring eye for pomposity, phoniness and slanted cant, and he lets his readers in on the joke. His books are impeccably researched, and both his books are just a hoot to read! Highly recommended by me!

        Now I’m hoping that he will write a third….

        Check out his blog, it has frequent postings which give you the flavor of his writing, and info on buying his books: http://donsurber.blogspot.com/

  36. Well I started reading your blog daily back in late October, once I say it featured a bunch of time on Doug Ross @Journal. It has become an absolute every day read for me. Please keep up the great work. If you write a book I’m gonna want an autographed copy. (Providing you actually do the dead tree thing with it.)

  37. FWIW, your post on 5 March 2016 entitled “The Master’s Servants” is the one that “did it” for me. IMHO you should repost that one every now and then as it conceptualizes the current situation to a T. And of course, congratulations on your success. I look forward to reading your stuff every day.

  38. So glad to see the numbers on your traffic and the notoriety you have garnered! You deserve every damn bit of it. WRSA picked up on the Dirt vs. Cloud very early on as have other counter-culture sites. (Isn’t it horrible that we, who are now in a position of having to defend traditional  Judeo-Christian values, are in that “underdog” position?)

    Although the up and down votes from the comments sections don’t jibe with the traffic. Wonder why? They should be far higher. (Please note, I’m not disputing your numbers. Just a curiosity.)

    Not that I read it any longer, but Fernandez at PJM, at the end of his posts, always has a few blurbs about small pub info.  You may want to check those out just to be thorough. 

    Also, don’t know if VoxDay self-published or not. You may want to get in touch with him. Return of Kings is looking for men to write columns as well. They could use some decent writers.

  39. The cloud people/dirt people metaphor is brilliant and works because it is a double-double (quadruple?) entendre. As a proud dirt person (Scots-Irish American Redneck), I both appreciate my dirt reference (feet on the ground, salt of the earth, etc.) and scoff daily at the ethereal nothingness of the cloud peoples’ ridiculous utopian dreams. Contrawise, I assume that a clueless cloud person would, even if they sensed there was an implied insult (which there is), nevertheless be compelled to view the cloud reference as a compliment (soaring above and all that) and the “dirt” moniker would immediately play into their existing self-righteous prejudices, even if it wound up convicting their conscience as well. I use the cloud people/dirt people analogy all the time without explaining it – the metaphor speaks for itself – don’t be surprised if it has entered the cultural consciousness. You have 90K monthly followers who probably use it on a regular basis. If it is useful, it will be used.

    As an aside, that is one of the best and most treasured aspects of Western Civilization, of which I am a huge fan and defender. One of the fundamental aspects of Western Civ is the search for the “Logos,” or meaning of existence and order, which is revealed primarily from us talking with each other. As a devout Christian yes of course I recognize (and cherish) the idea that the Gospel presents the Logos (in my view, and I believe the correct view) is not merely a philosophical principle, but is a Person, indeed the Creator, whom we can discover. Regardless, my point is that, through speaking, you have advanced our search and understanding of the Logos. Western Civ is, to my knowledge, the only civ that places that as a priority. The first amendment to the US Constitution is best viewed through that prism. So keep up the good work, glad you were encouraged by your encounter on the elevator. Be encouraged by us as well. 🙂

  40. Well I have only been here less than a year but I can’t say I heard the terms Cloud People and Dirt People anywhere before that, or really on most or any other similarly-minded blogs I visit. Unless directly citing this site, maybe. So I’ve always thought of it as a Zman coinage. It’s a useful one, though, so great if it’s becoming a meme. Beyond that, certainly looking forward to this site going from strength to strength.

    Some days it soothes my soul. Like today. It’s hard to defend a DJT press conference in general or argue against the latest Vox piece on his history of racism if you have to stick to their language. Although fortunately my workplace is missing its most vocal and obsessive antitrumpian this week.

    I used to read a lot of Unz, especially Sailer, and should go back to them, but for some reason I haven’t mustered the will. I think it’s the sheer volume of daily content and the fact that Sailer occasionally links to something in the Canadian media to which I then feel obliged to read and complain about. Last month I followed a link from him to the Toronto Star, a paper I knew as the Red Star 30 years ago and which has gone to the left since.

    But I digress. For some time Zman has been my one sure daily stop- roughly one post a day, always interesting, always illuminating, no long waits between posts, not too much per day. It’s a winning system if you can keep it up.

  41. Wear one of those V For Vendetta masks (Gguy Fallkes’ face) then the voice will naturally be muffled.

    will you be auditioning a side kick?

  42. I swiped “Dirt People / Cloud People” shamelessly (though usually with attribution!), and use them whenever I can… especially on campus, since it makes the Cloud People there squirm (Z Man, do we need a new name for the kind of person who is really really really invested in the idea that he’s a Dirt Person, but who is in fact the Cloud Person’s Cloud Person? For those of you who haven’t been in the ivory tower for a while, lots of the professoriate are utterly convinced that they’re ‘umble proles who spend their days uplifting their fellow Wretched of the Earth. It’s bizarre. What’s the point of being a 1%’er — which The Tenured are, by any reasonable definition — if you can’t acknowledge it? Or would a new term just complicate things?)

    And, of course, hearty congrats on all your successes, current and future. You deserve it, and I for one hope you get so big that Fox News has to put you on as a guest on a chat show. The very thought of Z Man and and that flouncing scarf-wearing fop on the same stage…. ).

  43. Use the “Cloud/Dirt” in conversation on a regular basis…living in the Cloud, but not being far removed from the Dirt, it is the most apt description I’ve come across. The term makes a lot of the recently arrived “Cloud” types here in NY very uncomfortable, they all want to un-remember any vestiges of their “dirt” past. That makes it all the more fun.

    • I grew up as a dirt person. Poor, living in a remote part of northern Canada. I remember it well and I want to remember it …. so as to avoid slipping back down. I can’t say I live in the clouds, but rather something more like a gentle mist. Still grounded, but not sweating the rent.

  44. I’ve told you this before and I’ll tell you again; Thank you for the free education.

    Publish the book yourself – if we’re voting on it.

    I see the terms cloud and dirt people around. Dude, you’re famous. Ha ha.

    Continued success and God bless you.

    • I hope you will stick with the written word. FWIW, I would buy your book in a heartbeat. Regarding Dirt People/Cloud People, I would have said, “Dirt People/Jumped-up Pretentious Pieces of Shit,” but it doesn’t scan.

    • You got another customer Zman.
      I’m sure you have a rich list of subjects, and in no doubt your critical thinking and observation skills deserve to get out there, but if your so inclined, write something about dirt people. If it is anything like your blog posts you will have a best seller.
      In fact, I’ll bet dollars to donuts you have what it takes to write a masterpiece along the lines of or better than Professor Angello Codevilla’s ‘The Ruling Class and The Perils of Revolution’. You could be the Gary North of the dirt people.

  45. Your blog is the only place I’ve read the “Cloud People / Dirt People” term and it seems apt to me. The first time I saw the reference, I immediately thought of the Star Trek (original series) episode “The Cloud Minders”.

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