There’s reciprocal relationship between the Left and the Right. So when you ignore evidence to serve your agenda, guess what?
The opposition follows suit
So while you may serve your short-term interests — you’re harming them in the long run.
Look around
7 years ago, I wrote and produced a documentary that takes both liberals and conservatives to task for being in lockstep in denying reality.
That my scrutiny spares no one should tell you something.
But ya gotta want to know the truth to see it.
You don’t — so you evade it by mocking the messenger (and bitch about those who do the same to you).
Whatever road to you took to the path of least resistance, I never went down it.
Comforted in the Cloak of Loyalty’s Lies, it just doesn’t register that by refusing to hold your own accountable — you do a cosmic disservice to your leaders, yourselves, and worst of all — America and the world around us.
Blind loyalty would bore me to death, so I fail to find the attraction on that alone.
So even if you pooh-pooh my mission for honesty, integrity, and decency — try it out just for somethin’ different to do.
If we don’t right this ship soon, returning to some sense of complying with reality has no chance — not in our lifetime, anyway.
There’s nothing more complicated than dealing with human nature — as there’s no measure how far people will go in their refusal to recognize the obvious.
Tolstoy wasn’t talkin’ about me
My record for admitting error is impeccable.
For telling the truth, I’ve been met with jerks, jackasses, and know-it-alls for decades — and a time or two I let that contaminate how I handled an interaction.
Instead of doubling down as the delusional do — I seized the opportunity to say:
Sorry about that
The right thing to do
That’s all I cared about. I felt much better after sending this Tweet — and that’s plenty reward all by itself.
Alas, you want something in it for you in order to do the right thing. So be it — I don’t care as long as the problem gets solved.
I have an idea
And it could turn the tide.
But it takes time and effort to digest it — and to see the benefit it will bring you.
All day along, the internet is flooded with endless streams of the same shit that gets us nowhere. How many times are you gonna have the same debates before you realize that your way isn’t working?
I’ve been asking this question for a long time — and I damn sure don’t see anyone else doing it.
Now — let’s analyze what’s been working for us
To understand the depths of America’s problems — you need to recognize your role in creating them.
We cannot solve life’s problems except by solving them. This statement may seem idiotically tautological or self-evident, yet it is seemingly beyond the comprehension of much of the human race. This is because we must accept responsibility for a problem before we can solve it.
If I saw what you see below — I’d instantly know that this guy’s got something unique and significant to say.
That it wouldn’t immediately register — would intrigue me all the more.
But that’s me
And this is you
This Land Is Your Land
This Land Is My Land
This is how I roll
See, there are certain things you should expect from a President. I ought to care more about you than I do about me. I ought to care more about what’s right than I do about what’s popular. I ought to be willing to give this whole thing up for something I believe in.
This is how you roll
You’re so concerned with squabbling for the scraps from Longshank’s table . . . that you’ve missed your God-given right to something better.
The malignantly narcissistic insist upon “affirmation independent of all findings.”
— M. Scott Peck (borrowing from Buber)
In a nation that pollutes even the purest form of fact — what hope can we have of ever solving anything?
From Part 3
And THIS does not = THAT
Lemme get this straight
You want the Left and the black community to get its act together on matters deeply woven into the fabric of America’s long history of brutality and disgrace:
Slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, murder, decades of civil rights violations, questionable shootings, and so on . . .
While you won’t even look at the material properties of a tube:
The manipulation of which f$@*#% up the future of the entire world.
What’s wrong with that picture — and this one?
Hmm, so the dimensions exactly match the tubes used in Iraq’s history of manufacturing the Nasser-81mm artillery rocket (a reverse-engineered version of the Italian Medusa).
Be quite a coincidence if they weren’t . . .
Ya know, connected
If I told you that on the biggest and most costly lie in modern history . . . .
10 pages of reading trumps 10,000 hours of TV
“You Can’t Believe Everything You Read” is typical of your type.
Same standard to snub someone who’s read 10,000 — on world-altering affairs you snicker at.
I’m a bit old-fashioned . . .
As I would politely ask, “What’s the lie, what’s the article. and what’s the math?”
Inside of 60 seconds:
I don’t understand — what’s the context?
If I didn’t have to coddle you with information before you swat it away — you’d know from the get-go.
From decades of dealing with your disdain for correction — this is the reaction I expect . . .
So I gotta navigate around your predictable behavior to penetrate your hermetically sealed mind.
And I’ve got about a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.
You like to be spoon-fed
As childish and pathetic as that is, even that wouldn’t be so bad if you had the guts and integrity to consider what’s in each spoon.
Or even one of ’em.
But no, the contents amount to nothing more than ammunition for rapid-fire ridicule.
These people are not problem solvers — and proudly poison the atmosphere for those who are.
They don’t debate in good faith — they aim to pass the time and rack up Likes in fellowship of fury . . .
Tap dancing to talking points in doubt-free delight. Mentality of a Mob and Rolodex of Ridicule were written about their kind.
Their behavior is Impossibly Stupid — squandering their intelligence to entertain themselves.
Story after story on this site shows how dumb, dishonest, dangerous, destructive, and delusional their thinking is.
They embody what Albright is talking about below.
Who’s Albright?
Imagine
If only we lived in a world of such wonder and willingness to courteously inquire.
Half the country ignores the word of a physicist — in favor of professional know-it-alls who won’t go anywhere near this topic and never have.
Cue the context you cry for — and commence . . .
eye rolling
You don’t know jack about what you’re talking about. You don’t know who this guy is. And the second you get the context you called for — you’re rolling your eyes:
Instead of pausing for one moment of courtesy and courage to think. . .
Maybe I should consider what those screenshots are saying.
Granular as it gets
As what point does it dawn on you that I have a command of this material and you don’t?
But instead of respecting knowledge and listening, you don’t do your homework, mock those who do . . .
And think you’re right about goddamn issue under the sun.
You walked into the party
Like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself gavotte . . .Well I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your horse naturally won
Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well you’re where you should be all the time
A short and supportive message to one of the leaders in the Facts Over Feelings Parade — with a 5-minute excerpt that crushes his baseless beliefs.
Looks like feelings over facts to me. You see any interest in responsibility and accountability? How about a hint of counterargument or remorse?
Is this the mark an adult to you?
“Expert” By Association
He shot his mouth off right out of the gate . . .
And the second he saw that I had some serious knowledge on the subject — rapid-fire ridicule and bullshit were the basis of his counter.
Do you happen to know what yellowcake is . . . in case you’re stupid to read the article
An explanation about uranium hexafluoride was not something he expected in response.
Instead of taking my evidence, arguments, and expertise into account — he had other ideas:
The “arguments” of “Expert” By Association — taking cue from his kin on Rolodex of Ridicule:
- “You use words like honor, courage and commitment as punch lines at liberal cocktail parties” — ripping off A Few Good Men and thinking I wouldn’t notice
- The “therapist” routine
- “Academia”
- “I’ve stood on the wall — have you?” — Jesus, why not toss in “You weep for Santiago” while you’re at it?
What does any of THAT have to do with the price of tea in China — or THIS?
While I was writing Two Sides of the Same Counterfeit Coin, I discovered that Thomas Sowell is not the saint his loyalists see him as.
And before you assume I’m out “discredit all of Sowell’s work” in his wheelhouse — I don’t even object to it.
Making that assumption is a violation of Sowell’s standards — and you should know that.
But on this matter of world-altering consequence, he didn’t follow a single one of those standards — and you don’t know that.
That you don’t is bad enough — that you don’t care is unconscionable.
And that height of hypocrisy — harms your own interests and his.
This — is party-line hackery
What McWhorter said below is not true.
And that’s no two ways about it.
“Hostility and hatred”
That’s virtually all I’ve gotten for nearly 20 years on this topic — and their “National Treasure” acts like I imagined it all.
And incredibly, I have to spell it it out . . .
It’s not about what he’s saying about the Left below — it’s that he brazenly ignored the debauchery in his own camp to do it.
This — is Conformity 101
Ice-cold partisan hackery wrapped in the warmth of a “white lab coat”
Which means this young man with mountains of potential . . .
Is not fully informed
So we can talk about race and responsibility till the end of time — but heaven forbid we have a single conversation about war and responsibility.
Sowell acts like Mentality of a Mob is from my imagination — and that I just wrote the poem below out of thin air 17 years ago.
If his disciples followed the very principles they put him on a pedestal for — they would hold him accountable.
And if he were the genuine article — he would want them to.
But when brought to their attention — they religiously defend him without considering anything I have to say.
That refusal (along with behaving like jerks as they sling snippets of certitude):
Is a gross breach in the core beliefs behind this guy.
He never budged one bit in the direction in those facts — and nobody refuses to do that without ulterior motives.
And those motives could not be more obvious.
If it was just an honest mistake (and there’s no way in hell you could make a sound argument that it was):
Where’s his admission of error?
Ya know, since he preaches responsibility, accountability and all.
Apologists don’t roll that way — as everything they defend fits into a formula. Anything outside of that, doesn’t compute.
It’s not his area of expertise, so unsurprisingly, I’ve never heard him comment about ; war, Iraq, WMDs, or anything of that sort until I read your post.
I imagine it’s just not a line of questioning an interviewer with limited time would typically think to ask Sowell.
The notion that simply because no interviewer asked him about WMD — that this magically absolves him of owning up to his massive mistakes . . .
Is preposterous
And he conveniently ignores that someone writing a biography — would have plenty of time to ask him about it.
Riley had motive not to:
As the brilliant and prescient maverick who preaches responsibility and such — the Godfather of Follow the Facts and all-things virtuous . . .
Was nothing but a partisan hack on the biggest deception and debacle of our time.
Doesn’t quite fit the premise of the book, does it!
While his quote below is talking about people who make the decisions, it also applies to people of influence — especially since they can shape those decisions.
He paid no price for being wrong — and his army of apologists couldn’t care less.
They just wanna float the quotes and move along.
What we’re seeing today was partly built on a foundation of manufactured outrage (which applies to most controversial issues in America over the last 30 years).
Decades of dishonesty in the Gutter Games of Government is not a nation on a path to greatness.
that — takes time to explain
Nobody wants to take the time unless there’s something in it for them — so I wrote a piece that came right out and said it straightaway.
I could explain all this concisely and easily if you simply followed the very standards you claim to love.
But you don’t
And do nothing but ridicule and complain — because I can’t dumb it down into Happy Meal morsels to munch on . . .
The ones your people use to sooth you into submission — while they put a wrench to your brain to remove it from the equation.
The Left lumps me in with the Right — the Right lumps me with the Left . . .
Delighting in The Safety Dance of Self-Delusion
Say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind . . .
We can go when we want to
The night is young and so am I
And we can dress real neat from our hats to our feet
And surprise ’em with the victory crySay, we can act if we want to
If we don’t, nobody will
And you can act real rude and totally removed
And I can act like an imbecile . . .
The United States is now a country obsessed with the worship of its own ignorance. . . . we’re proud of not knowing things. Americans have reached a point where ignorance, especially of anything related to public policy, is an actual virtue. To reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for Americans to insulate their increasingly fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong about anything.
It is a new Declaration of Independence: no longer do we hold these truths to be self-evident, we hold all truths to be self-evident, even the ones that aren’t true. All things are knowable and every opinion on any subject is as good as any other.
We no longer have those principled and informed arguments. The foundational knowledge of the average American is now so low that it has crashed through the floor of “uninformed,” passed “misinformed” on the way down, and is now plummeting to “aggressively wrong.” People don’t just believe dumb things; they actively resist further learning rather than let go of those beliefs.
I was not alive in the Middle Ages, so I cannot say it is unprecedented, but within my living memory I’ve never seen anything like it.
There’s a page called Safe-Space Central as well — and its origin is in what I wrote soon after Trump was elected:
What is Truth
Unless it serves you — it doesn’t matter.
One Voice Became Two 