In all-things Band of Brothers, out comes the commentary on leadership, honor, courage and sacrifice — in a nation that worships people who are the opposite of every virtue you revere.
What gives?
Leadership’s defining quality is honesty. To honesty, add fairness and consistency.
— Conversations with Major Dick Winters: Life Lessons from the Commander of the Band of Brothers
I don’t know how people find the path of least resistance so satisfying — as I love the demands of difficulty and discernment. To not step up my game in the midst of opportunity or challenge — would be tantamount to treason upon my very existence.
This nation has no such notion
America wallows in a fantasyland of circular certitude — where denying the obvious has become a duty to defend your tribe.
Hiding behind your force field of fallacy:
You win from the start and even more at the end — reinforced by the fellowship of friends cemented in the same standards. No amount of irrefutable evidence & expertise can convince you of anything in your race for satisfaction and insatiable appetite for glorifying those who give it to you.
I’ve always hated Twitter and when I’m done doing what I gotta do — I’m never goin’ back. Until then, I’m sending out a certain set of messages looking for intelligent life (fiercely independent thinkers who want to solve problems — not endlessly talk about them).
Think of my signals as a poor man’s SETI:
I’ve got an idea — and it’s got teeth.
Going by the galaxies filled with rock stars of reasoning across the social media universe — I should have no shortage of people eager to examine my idea and discuss how we could improve on it and proceed.
What I have in mind could turn the tide. I’ve already done all the work — I just need a little help in having it land in the right hands. That doesn’t seem like much to ask, but first you gotta understand the story. Alas, everyone seems more interested in complaining about problems than doing what it takes to solve them.
Unlike efforts out to change policies, laws, institutions, or society as a whole — I just need to expose one Professional Know-It-All with a cult-like following who’s not what he claims to be — and I can demonstrably prove it.
“Demonstrably” — that word used to be mean something. But many things that once meant something, now mean nothing.
Speaking of which . . .
Fact:
truth verifiable from experience or observation
If you have a history of hypocrisy and lying — you are a hypocrite and a liar. If you don’t like being called those things, don’t do those things. But so typical of the times — nothing has meaning anymore.
Calling criticism “mudslinging” is just somethin’ to say to escape scrutiny.
And the irony is
I’ve received almost nothing but mudslinging for decades — by people who cry foul with counterfeit claims on what they do for real. And let’s face it: You need it to be mudslinging, because if it’s not — your beliefs are gonna fall apart.
We ain’t talkin’ run-of-the-mill politics here — this involves irrefutable evidence of mathematical certainty (of world-altering consequence, no less). But believe it or not, I’m not out to “DESTROY” this man — quite the contrary.
Admitting where he’s wrong will work wonders for where he’s right.
Elevating him is not my aim, but I can live with it to stem the systematic self-delusion that’s taken this nation totally off the rails:
Right & Left
Unlike most of America — I don’t have situational rules:
do what you say you do
And all will become clear. But if you’re not interested in hearing me out and having meaningful conversation — we have nothing to talk about and I wish you well. If you don’t want to engage in fruitful discussion — just block me and be done with it (or request that I block you if you wanna play it that way).
I don’t want to bombard you with more messages — so let’s just go our separate ways.
See how how easy that is? But that’s just it — as you’re not looking to learn, you’re looking to respond.
And entire industries are engineering that need.
We get rewarded by hearts, likes, thumbs-up — and we conflate that with value, and we conflate it with truth.
“I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works,” . . . Palihapitiya’s criticisms were aimed not only at Facebook, but the wider online ecosystem.
“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works,” he said, referring to online interactions driven by “hearts, likes, thumbs-up.” “No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth.”
My generation got off easy
All we were called to do was weigh information — but even that was too much of a burden. As we got more, we became less.
It’s all the more absurd when searching “Social Dilemma” delivers no shortage of concern about the state of society — but ask ’em to do anything to address those concerns that takes time & effort to think through:
For telling undeniable truth for 20 years — I’ve been practically spit on for following principles those same people promote on a daily basis. I did the doc to address such behavior, but in the last 18 months — I’ve seen savagery beyond anything that inspired it:
And that — is a golden opportunity!
On the title alone, if I came across this and hadn’t done my homework — my first thought would be: “I must be missing something pretty big.”
In what parallel universe are you living in to fire off fanatical loyalty to people who couldn’t counter my work with a sound argument to save their lives? Anyone worthy of this ridiculous hero-worship wouldn’t want it — as they’d have a helluva lot higher expectations of their supporters.
Button your lip and don’t let the shield slip
Take a fresh grip on your bulletproof mask
And if they try to break down your disguise with their questions
You can hide hide hide behind Paranoid Eyes
While I’m not out to ruin PKIA — lemme put it in terms you’ll understand. If he stepped into a debate with me on this matter, the beating he’d take would be biblical.
If you think can challenge me that, I invite you to try. I’ve been inviting you for a really long time.
The blankness it must take to see the ingenuity, artistry, and specificity of everything above and not wonder what’s behind it. And have you ever heard of anyone taking someone to task for the purpose of putting them in a positive light that could change the course of history?
That sounds intriguing — but that’s me.
Guaranteed — someone’s ramping up to say:
Well I don’t see any specificity at all
In addition to interviewing world-renowned nuclear scientist, Dr. Houston Wood, I also corresponded with David Albright (the physicist above who wrote extensively on the tubes) — as well as Colin Powell’s chief of intelligence at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Greg Thielmann said the following in 2013:
It will be up to Iraqis to debate whether their country now has a brighter future than it otherwise would have had without foreign invasion and occupation in the first decade of the new century. But it is uniquely incumbent on Americans to understand who and what were responsible for an enterprise that proved so costly in terms of U.S. lives lost, money spent, international reputation tarnished, and a campaign against al Qaeda diverted.
America just casually moved on
I didn’t — as I knew then what few know now:
The immeasurable value in the willingness to be wrong, understanding why, and looking to learn from it. And that not doing so — increasingly compounds the consequences of no accountability.
Look around
Ripping on woke is all the rage
And outrage industries of dish it but can’t take it — would talk about race and responsibility till the end of time. But heaven forbid we have a single conversation about war and responsibility.
“That’s so 2004”
Except we never had that conversation in 2004 — or ever.
I point you to a 7-part, 2 hours and 40 minutes doc — that distills a story that demanded a massive amount of effort, thought, research, and writing: And you tap a Tweet with a talking point or two — thinking you can inform me.
So if you count your kind of conversation — there’s never been a shortage of that.
Never mind this . . .
By Design
America Remains Mired in the Murky
What does it say to you that on evidence claimed as components to build a nuclear bomb — the “debate” was hijacked by 10-second sound bites?
Shouldn’t any debate establish what the debate is actually about? What does it say about a country that can’t even establish that much on a matter of this magnitude?
The road to reality is blocked by detours designed to keep you going in circles. Purveyors of poppycock reroute you with narratives that avoid detail like Black Death. The way out is to start with an inconsistency or two that’s narrow in scope — and take the trail where it leads.
To ascertain the truth on any topic
If you’ve got something concrete to go on — that’s your point of entry. By all means, keep the door open in every direction. But by nailing down the definitive first, it paves a clearer path to all the rest.
This country does the exact opposite on everything — lumping it all together and never even approaching where you should have started in the first place:
This chart is misleading in several respects . . . Beams centrifuge never actually worked . . . We can infer . . .
Sounds pretty sloppy to me
Perhaps we should have a conversation to clear up what all this means on issues that have eroded reason beyond recognition?
If only you’d laid it all out exactly as I like it — then I’d abide by the principles I preach
Is that how it works?
That’s about the size of it. I guess I figured that if you didn’t understand something — you’d try this on for size, but I’m old-fashioned that way:
Funny how there’s always an excuse
Back in the day — there was no website with an array of illustrations to gripe about. I was just sharing Trillion Dollar Tube to all these fine folks flaunting their badge of beliefs so FAIR.
Showing a modicum of courtesy for a 5-minute excerpt doesn’t seem like much to ask such bastions of virtue. But without watching one second — self-satisfied scorn was your gold standard for gleefully gutting the truth.
And why mess with tradition?
Rehashing the same issues every day would bore the hell out of me — I don’t know how you stand it. Not to mention the fact that nothing you’ve done has made a dent in the atmosphere of absurdity that’s suffocating our country.
In fact:
You’ve made matters worse — including those I agree with.
I explain all this but it takes time and effort to think it through. That the decline of America over the last 30 years in the Gutter Games of Government — doesn’t unfold for standard scrolling with ease, is not a flaw in my argument and array of illustrations:
It’s a flaw in your willingness to work through it — absorbing each building block of information your brain is well-equipped to handle.
Or at least it used to be before information became so funneled in a fashion to your liking — you don’t even know what to do with anything that isn’t. Don’t you ever get tired of everything being so goddamn easy?
Isn’t there anyone out there who wants to work at something demanding but worthwhile?
And yeah, some of you are putting some serious time and effort into your purpose. But the “demanding” deal I’m talking about — starts with examining the efficacy of your efforts. I don’t see anybody doing that, do you?
With some adjustment in your approach — you’d be amazed by the difference that would make.
therein lies the problem
Like many alternatives, however, it was psychologically impossible. Character is fate, as the Greeks believed. Germans were schooled in winning objectives by force, unschooled in adjustment. They could not bring themselves to forgo aggrandizement even at the risk of defeat.
— Barbara Tuchman
Unschooled in Adjustment
In a blurb on yet another book on cognitive dissonance, a science-fiction writer wrote:
David Houle has seen the future
If he had, he’d know his book has no chance of achieving its aims. Conventional methods have repeatedly failed and won’t put a pinprick in today’s trench warfare between armies of unreachables:
Who always have an excuse for everything . . .
Right on cue | Never fails
PKIA had his own moves in mind
Funny how none of ’em went anywhere near the evidence on WMD or anything else on that fiasco for the ages.
The surgical specificity of this clip puts this lie in its place in 5 minutes alone.
Trillion Dollar Tube
Imagine what I did with 160
“There is no skimming over the surface of a subject with [Hamilton]. He must sink to the bottom to see what foundation it rests on.”
— Major William Pierce (Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton)
Wouldn’t it be absurd to share that quote if my clip contained nothing but trite talking points? Some circles are not burdened by squaring their walk with their talk. They seem to think that advertising virtue equates to embodying it.
Case in point
People who talk glibly about “intelligence failure” act as if intelligence agencies that are doing their job right would know everything.
— Professional Know-It-All (PKIA for short)
D.O.E’s standard is to spin a tube at 20% above 90,000 RPM before failure — so 48,000 short is a pretty loose definition of “rough indication.”
And since the entire point of testing should be to replicate the conditions of centrifuges, one would think that the full-blown testing would be performed before the N.I.E. was completed.
— Richard W. Memmer: Act II
Between PKIA’s words and mine
Which ones strike you as glib?
If I came into this cold — I’d know on the doc image alone that PKIA has no chance. If you don’t know that by now, I don’t know what to tell ya.
You think that poppycock of PKIA’s gets better from here? Trust me, I’m just warming up. And by the way — I suggest you start putting some faith in people who have integrity instead of buying it from those who sell it.
Cognitive dissonance happens when one’s beliefs are no longer in alignment with reality
— The 2020s: A Decade of Cognitive Dissonance (blurb excerpt)
On what basis would you believe that another book, conference, project, study, report, podcast or organization — would make a dent in the self-delusion driving this nation into the ground?
But integrate those same tools into an unconventional framework for honest debate — and now you’ve got something.
A world-renowned psychologist thought I might be onto something:
Elliot Aronson was chosen by his peers as one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century
— Amazon’s About the Author
He wrote the forward in When Prophecy Fails — which was super helpful in framing my message in my documentary that deals with the psychological gymnastics of human nature. And he was helpful again when he put me onto his friend and fellow renowned psychologist, Dr. Phil Zimbardo — “a very smart guy with incredible energy,” he added.
Since Dr. Zimbardo is 90 years old — that’s saying something. For medical reasons, he’s unable to get involved, but in response to an email on the essence of my idea, he wrote:
Very Interesting and original
Even in his condition, he saw what so few can. They’re busy.
You’re all busy
Why take the time to consider what might work when you can stay busy on what won’t?
You’re all operating under umbrellas of interests that don’t account for complexities outside of them.
And this — is where my Clear the Clutter framework comes in:
How do we make people realize they’ve been lied to? You have to knock down one small pillar that’s easier to reach.
The people who Tweeted those lines I combined from a conversation I came across — had no idea that they perfectly captured the principle of my Clear the Clutter plan.
I’ve got the perfect pillar
As exposing PKIA is my bridge to expose it all.
It’s time to start solving problems instead of endlessly talking about them and getting nowhere. And to do that — first we gotta clear the clutter that’s crippled this country.
To the uneducated, abstract ideas are unfamiliar; so is the detachment that is necessary to discover a truth out of one’s own knowledge and mental effort. The uneducated person views life in an intensely personal way — he knows only what he sees, hears or touches and what he is told by friends. As the unknown sage puts it, “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.”
But more than ever, even the most educated minds act in an uneducated manner in service of their interests — and do colossal damage by doing so.
The Pro-Human Pledge: I believe in applying the same rules to everyone
I don’t believe you
From firsthand experience with one of your most famous advisors flagrantly violating everything FAIR stands for:
Why should I?
And since I predicted this voice of reason would outright reject it to protect his hero — how do you think my prediction would pan out for his fellow advisors who worship PKIA?
Let’s find out, shall we?
By the way: That advisor once called my writing “brilliant” and was “blown away” by this site and signed up. That’s a helluva lot of incentive for me to think these people are the “geniuses” their ever-growing audience thinks they are.
I don’t roll that way . . .
While I maintain a degree of respect for him — and I’m forever grateful for the inspiration he provided: If you’re part of the problem, I don’t care who are you — I’m calling you out.
And that’s
One Voice Became Two 