There’s a way we can harness folly from the past for the benefit of the future. It’s as out-of-the-box as it gets but rooted in timeless truths America made outdated. I’ve already done all the work: I just need a little help in having it land in the right hands. I have a very specific target audience, so it wouldn’t take much to get this in gear.
One email could set off a chain of events that could open the door to the kind of conversation this nation’s never had.
The problems that plague America are interrelated — and anything short of addressing that is going nowhere. But everyone’s wrapped up within their wheelhouse — operating under umbrellas of interests that don’t account for complexities outside of them.
It astounds me that some of the most brilliant minds in the world seem incapable of correlating how “unrelated” issues impact one another. The most harmful pollution on the planet is noise — narrative that drowns out sensible discussion.
You could blame those who amplify that deafening noise with delight — or be smart by not doing dumb things that drive the narrative in the first place.
Pursuing aims in ways that predictably damage your cause is bad enough. But once the outcome becomes clear, it’s beyond belief that you refuse to reflect on your methods. Even if you’re right and have the best of intentions:
If you’re not smart in making your moves, you can exponentially worsen the problem you’re addressing — along with seemingly unrelated ones.
And already have — again and again:
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
Anyone wanting to know the truth would not behave in ways that ensure they never will. If you abandon your critical thinking skills the moment you even perceive a threat to your interests — doesn’t that bring those skills into question?
How can you expect anyone to admit when they’re wrong if you won’t? And every time you allow emotion to run roughshod over reason, you further calcify habits at the other end of the spectrum from these:
Rather than assert that all opinions are equal, students in seminar learn to judge opinions on the basis of the reasons given for those opinions.
Nobody ever had to explain that to me. I’m sure you all feel the same:
And yet here we are
The smorgasbord of sub-cultures has created another dimension of delusion in America — hardening minds not broadening them. The commentary in these communities speaks volumes about social media and the state of society:
Habitually hailing high praise for purveyors of virtue — virtues that vanish the second they’re called to put them to the test.
But we’re all here because we share some important things in common: a commitment to reason, curiosity, independence, decency, and a hunger for honest conversation. In our upside-down world, holding fast to these ideals can sometimes feel lonely. More than ever, we crave the company of people who share our core values.
— Bari Weiss
It’s a nice gesture for Bari to bond with her audience. But what people crave is the company of those who see themselves as they do — never mind their record doesn’t remotely reflect their claims.
Following facts going in the direction you desire doesn’t count: Anybody can do that!
But one echo chamber stands apart from all others:
These people make it nearly impossible to put a pinprick through the envelope of intransigence encasing their brain. In 2 years of writing about Thomas Sowell, I’ve seen everything from “polite” dismissiveness to sheer savagery.
Never mind this . . .
His disciples defend defend him before they even know what the subject matter is. I’m even assailed on things we agree on, because they assume I’m out to discredit Sowell on everything.
Blind devotion is not a path to understanding anything — which does a colossal disservice to your purpose. And that behavior is a gross breach of the very principles upon which you put him on a pedestal.
They’re not about to look at undeniable evidence warranting that they change their mind:
So they change the rules . . .
Right on cue | Never fails
A lot of that goin’ around . . .
Festinger would have a field day with the underworld of absurdity I have witnessed around the cult-like following of Thomas Sowell: A fraud who fabricated a fantasyland of “following the facts where they lead.”
On the biggest and most costly lie in modern history — he peddled partisan hackery that poisons political discourse to this day.
Following Facts Where They Lead
“Said so and so”? . . . that’s one helluva trip you took there, Mr. Sowell.
Stirring Defense!
In the aftermath of 9/11 — did Thomas Sowell have motive to lie in order to support his party in the invasion of Iraq?
I asked that question to the guy running The Genius of Thomas Sowell podcast — and he wouldn’t even acknowledge what could not be more obvious.
For all these geniuses you love to laud — you sure aren’t learning much.
Never mind this . . .
The surgical specificity of this clip puts this lie in its place in 5 minutes alone.
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.
— Thomas Sowell
DOE’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.”
— Richard W. Memmer: Act II
Between Sowell’s words and mine
Which ones strike you as glib?
But I’ve noticed nothing strikes you that doesn’t serve you:
Out of 31 tubes in subsequent testing, only one was successfully spun to 90,000 RPM for 65 minutes — which the C.I.A. seized on as evidence in their favor.
One D.O.E. analyst offered a superb analogy of that contorted conclusion: “Running your car up to 6,500 RPM briefly does not prove that you can run your car at 6,500 RPM cross country. It just doesn’t. Your car’s not going to make it.”
In an industry where fractions of a millimeter matter, these guys were playing horseshoes with centrifuge physics.
— Richard W. Memmer: Act II
And these are on the mild end of the savagery I’ve seen.
You couldn’t carry Sowell’s jockstrap!
Seriously? Get a life. It doesn’t matter what you say, he’s better than you basically in everything.
You deserved to be treated that way! You’re a moron and pathetic character assassin
Holy shit…. a video of a circle jerks with a nut in the center talking about RPMS. Yet somehow Thomas Sowell is a liar.
How do you reconcile that with this?
On top of unconscionably ignoring irrefutable evidence of mathematical certainty, he has a habit of toeing the party line. Not only did Sowell flagrantly fail to follow the facts on all-things Iraq — he brazenly ignored the debauchery in his own party to politely pounce on the other:
All of which flies in the face of the principles upon which he’s put on a pedestal. And yet somehow his patently obvious history of hypocrisy has gone unnoticed for decades by people heaping praise upon him.
You introduce statements and arguments of people who aren’t Thomas Sowell
As this story is also
About the behavior of the echo chamber around Sowell — it’s kinda necessary to include other people to properly illustrate the problem. And I wouldn’t mind explaining everything — if you thought about anything.
Then tell me how he was wrong about one thing that he has no expertise in.
lemme get this straight
A layperson with limited resources and no connections:
- Can do countless hours of research & writing
- Interview a world-renowned nuclear scientist
- Correspond with Colin Powell’s chief of intelligence — along with a key physicist
- Spend $15,000 of his own money to write & produce the most detailed documentary ever done on WMD (taking both parties to task for it)
Qualifying me to exhaustively explain how half the country could not be more wrong on this issue of world-altering consequence.
But it’s all good . . .
That Sowell cranked out this crap that any Iraq War cheerleading jackass could issue in chain-letter lies — topped off with smug sloganeering.
After all — he doesn’t have any expertise in it.
“It’s indefensible!
Don’t you know that?”
Make no mistake
There’s a big market for sucking up to Sowell . . .
I obliterated the basis of Maverick . . .
And all of you have a vested interest in denying reality to preserve a belief that is glaringly false. Riley flagrantly ignored the totality of Thomas Sowell’s record to manufacture a Maverick.
As a distinguished scholar once said: “The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.”
— Thomas Sowell
It’s painfully obvious what this guy’s up to: He’s engineering an illusion — and you bought it. It took me all of 10 minutes to size up Sowell. On WMD — it took 2.
He has a habit of headlines oozing in partisan pettiness . . .
I’d never done any journalism when I interviewed that nuclear scientist, but I was striving for the best of what it’s supposed to be.
My Prime Directive
- No leading questions
- If this man wants to talk — scrap the script and keep my mouth shut
Because of that — I obtained information that nobody else did. But I wasn’t trying to tell a story that served me — I was trying to tell the story.
The likes of Riley don’t roll that way. I spotted Sowell’s questionable patterns of behavior with ease. Are you gonna tell me that someone of Riley’s experience, position, and connections couldn’t discover the disconnect in Sowell’s record if he really wanted to?
To believe he’s a “great man” and “fearless” Maverick with what you knew of him — is one thing. To continue to believe it in the face of overwhelming and irrefutable evidence:
Is pure fantasy
Anyone worthy of this ridiculous hero-worship — wouldn’t want it, as they’d have a helluva lot higher expectations of their supporters.
His crowd thinks they’re part of some revolution in reason by ceaselessly Tweeting the tenets of Thomas Sowell. Never mind they instantly abandon them the second he’s under scrutiny.
I’ve never seen so much ass-kissing in all my life — it’s just pathetic.
I wouldn’t care if Sowell cured cancer: You don’t get a pass for basking in baseless beliefs that cripple the country — and have the bottomless nerve to preach responsibility & accountability to boot.
That is a cancer of its own . . .
The poison he pumped into the atmosphere helped destroy the internal organs of America. So we have very different standards as to what qualifies as a “National Treasure.”
There are far worse culprits on all-things Iraq, but I’ve been down that road for decades.
Discovering Sowell and the force field of fallacy that shields him — makes him ideal to put these lies in their place once and for all: And change the dynamic of debate to boot.
There is no measure for how asinine these acolytes are in defending the indefensible — automatons devoid of rational thought & manners. Your behavior has not an atom of integrity, courtesy, curiosity, courage, decency:
Or any virtue of any kind
On evidence involving artillery rockets and material properties of centrifuge rotors — the apostles of Sowell smugly cite his books on economics, race, and whatnot: Anything to glorify him as they abandon any notion of accountability:
Butchering his bedrock beliefs as they dance in delight behind their force field of fallacy.
These people do nothing but question my motives, mock my site, and assault my character — then proudly post quotes of Sowell looking stately as he condemns the very thing they’re doing.
- Repeat slogans: “Everybody believed Iraq had WMD”
- Question people’s motives: Bush hater, Bush basher, Bush Derangement Syndrome, Plamegate & plenty more. Adding to the arsenal of childish crap to continue the tradition: Snowflake, Libtard, Libturd, Cupcake, TDS, Demon-crat, Democrat Party
- Bold assertions: Russians said so, British said so, Bill Clinton said so, Leaders of both parties said so . . .
No coherent argument, Repeat slogans, Vent their emotions, Question people’s motives, Bold assertions . . .
On a matter involving war in the Middle East in a post 9/11 world — the stakes don’t get much higher. For a “Maverick” who’s worshipped for “following the facts” — wouldn’t he take the trail to where they matter most?
As in the marquee evidence used to manufacture this fraud?
I did — Sowell didn’t
His army of apologists are gutless in the face of facts they don’t like — disguised by their goose-stepping glory in the Facts Over Feelings Parade.
And that is a golden opportunity.
If you want to start solving problems, first you need to clear the clutter that’s crippled this country. To do that, you don’t go after everything, you go after one thing that ties to everything — and you do it by going after one man.
Alas, everyone seems more interested in talking about problems than solving them. In The unconscious is not what you think it is TEDx Talk, Dr. Joel Weinberger proudly proclaimed the following on being right about Trump’s 2016 win: “How did we get it right and everyone else get it wrong?”
By miserably failing to ask the right questions years before — you unwittingly created the conditions to “get it right.”
I may be a nobody — but this nobody was way ahead of everybody.
And now look where you are — outraged over Roe v. Wade and Trump on the rise once again (oblivious to how you brought it all on yourselves). And out comes the commentary so typical of the times: Chit-chat comprised of praise and self-congratulations.
As I told the good doctor:
Enough talk. Enough analysis — when we don’t even use an infinitesimal fraction of the knowledge we’ve got (not to mention the fact that your field talks about bias while flagrantly ignoring your own). On certain subjects, I have to walk on eggshells when contacting your colleagues.
Why do you think that is?
Even the use of “certain subjects” is evidence of it. It’s time to think outside the box — and you’re in luck, as I’ve already done all the work for you. For the life of me, I cannot understand how people so passionate about understanding the mind could be so lacking in curiosity:
The willingness to wonder what you might be missing — because you’re too busy telling others what they are.
One Voice Became Two 