People want an authority to tell them how to value things, but they choose this authority not based on facts or results. They choose it because it seems authoritative and familiar — and I’m not and never have been familiar.
— Michael Burry, The Big Short
If that were not overwhelmingly true, this site would not exist. I would not have been practically spit on for 20 years of telling undeniable truth of mathematical certainty (of world-altering consequence, no less). That painfully obvious deception shaped everything you see today — and the Tweet below embodies the asinine ways of people who couldn’t craft a argument on the subject to save their lives.
So, on an issue involving an industry where fractions of a millimeter matter — you wanna ignore the evidence to show off your math skills by splitting hairs over the meaning of “mathematical certainty”?
by the way
Decorating your points with special punctuation does not make meaningless crap magically have merit. And lo and behold, that’s coming from crowds who put endless faith in authority figures who throw 99 items of shit on the wall to make damn sure you never discuss what matters most. And how eagerly you comply with the contempt they conditioned you to have for anyone exposing the truth and how they gutted it.
Anything Goes for Old Glory while going for gold in the Gutter Games of Government:
But that’s Tweet’s mild-mannered compared to the savagery I’ve seen — the kind who’d seize on that opening quote to speak of their passion for facts and results. First off, we’re not talking about your love of talking about your love affair with facts — we’re talking about having a history of objective scrutiny that shows your commitment. And for people who flaunt their love for facts — you sure have a helluva lot of hate for irrefutable facts that fly in the face of your calcified convictions.
And about those results: If you’d take a break from broadcasting your beliefs once in a while, you might take notice of the counterproductive nature of the win-at-all-costs manner in which you pursue them.
I felt the need to say something about that — so I wrote & produced a documentary that takes both parties to task on the biggest & most costly lie in modern history (along with other issues at the core of America’s decline).
The liars who led you to believe — not only got off scot-free (but many of ’em are richly rewarded for calling out problems they helped create). As I said in my doc below, anyone with an open mind could put that puzzle together (or at least listen to the person who put it all on a silver platter):
[But] I’m not and never have been familiar . . .
Taking on the entire country by myself is worlds away from what everyone else is doing. That makes it exponentially more complex to explain: Not because it really is that complicated, but rather because human nature goes out of its way to obfuscate the obvious:
Gleefully gutting the truth and getting Liked for it to boot.
“Wut?”
In my youth, I could not have imagined a world in which even people with PhDs would debase themselves by responding in such ways. That an entire country could take satisfaction in squandering its intelligence on a daily basis just astounds me. There’s a long history behind how that happened. Same goes for this horseshit:
I play an aggressive game. I don’t flop. I’ve never been one of those guys
— LeBron James
There was a time when it would be embarrassing for a ball player to feign being fouled on the level of theatrics in King James’ court. You’d be laughed off the court for pulling stunts like that in my day. It’s all the more absurd when you consider that even with the hardest-hitting fouls back in the 80s — nobody flailed about like that on impact.
Never mind Lebron’s built like a Tiger tank.
Tiger Tanks Could Withstand a Dozen Sherman[s]
The only way that so many levels of sham and stupidity could be so easily accepted — is that it was normalized little by little over time.
Ain’t that America
His words are pure fantasy . . .
But it doesn’t matter, because that’s the country we’ve become — where words are empty and you can feign offense to avoid having to answer for anything. As I said in my doc:
It’s astounding how the mind can pull off psychological gymnastics that allow us to believe what we say without any sense of accounting for it.
— Richard W. Memmer: Act V
On that note
I’d like to share what prompted this post. And for those can’t comprehend the connection because it doesn’t instantly unfold for standard scrolling with ease: Your track record is not what I would call astute.
I fail to understand how you think we can solve anything in a country that can’t even get the self-evident straight:
We’re well beyond “disagreement” in America — this is madness (countless millions miserably failing to follow even the most fundamental methods of how understanding works). The second you shun evidence that doesn’t fit the narrative you want — you have contaminated your judgment.
I got a text at 6:22 AM from a friend on her way back from Spain. Her connecting flight got rescheduled to arrive after midnight and she asked if I could “scoop her up” from the airport. Delightful language from a charming lady who was nothing of the kind that night. I was already worn down from a colleague complaining at every turn as she clings to her old ways without even understanding the new.
Like all of America anymore — she doesn’t allow the conversation to breathe. She understands nothing of this principle below, and it’s increasingly rare to find anyone who does.
In my condition, maybe I should have backed out on going to get her, but I’m old-fashioned when it comes to my word and many other things. A friend asked for my help and I wanted to be there for her. It was as simple as that — until it got complicated. I would have gladly gotten her an Uber and stayed in bed instead (or just given her the money to get one herself if she’s running short on funds).
I don’t know why she didn’t just get an Uber in the first place, but I didn’t ask and I wasn’t about to analyze it.
The night was wearing on me and even after a nap, I knew there was no way I could drive. Surely, I can’t be the first person to get an Uber to the airport to pick up someone. However unusual, I’d think that being there is what matters most. Trouble began to brew the moment I was dropped off at Terminal D (as it closes after 8:00). Why her flight was set to arrive there after midnight, I do not know. Nevertheless, I made a mistake by forgetting to check for any changes. Turns out she’s at Terminal A — and as a bonus, the shuttle train doesn’t run that late.
Not for a second I did I concern myself with the added burden this was on me — all I thought about was getting to her up as quickly as possible so she could get home to get some sleep after a long trip. She had no such notion of consideration — as the second she found out I took an Uber, this unfamiliar approach didn’t compute and was now a matter for debate. While I’m rushing through this seemingly never-ending tunnel, I’m getting politely hassled about my status and concerns about her lack of sleep and starting work so early.
Hold the phone!
You go off globetrotting for weeks on some pilgrimage and return in a window with no margin for error — and it’s my fault you’re losing precious minutes of rest? I’m not disrespecting her journey — she is, and she clearly left some lessons behind. And with all that grounding in the grass, I would have thought you’d found some grace.
But no, at issue is my mistake in forgetting to check for updates on the Terminal. And my blunder for failing to factor for the possibility that the shuttle doesn’t run at that hour. And the nerve of my oddball ways of spending $80 for a roundtrip Uber to be there for my friend because I said I would. And how I should have told her this and that — so that others waiting in the wings could come to the rescue. Perhaps I didn’t get that impression at 6:22 AM on the day of your return. Forgive me, I was a little foggy from being treated like shit for weeks — only to show up for a friend who forgot her manners when she came back to a country that lost them long ago.
One voice began to echo through the night. One voice raised in song. The song was terribly out of tune — but sung with great enthusiasm.
One voice became two — and two became three.
— Admiral McRaven
Ah, the pooh-poohers of possibility:
Forever on the front lines of lowering the bar while I’m trying to raise it — you’ve been a constant companion almost all my life.
Where would I be without you?
Remember that guitar in a museum in Tennessee
And the nameplate on the glass brought back twenty melodies
And the scratches on the face
Told of all the times he fell
Singin’ every story he could tell . . .
It was as if they had looked at all the possibilities Rock had to offer, and built their music out of only the best parts . . . Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers made music like the last of the true believers. They gave back to their audience what they took from Rock & Roll themselves . . . the best of everything.
Sounds like a good way to build a country — but that’s me.
The best of everything: Imagine
Yeah, yeah, yeah — I know it would never be like “the best” above or even close. But come on! We could at least do something in that spirit, couldn’t we? I can see that each side makes more sense on some things:
Why can’t you?
Had I driven, I’d still be at the wrong gate. Granted, I would have been able to return to my car and driven to Terminal A. So, I could have saved an entire 10 minutes had I driven instead. And I should have confirmed the gate — a slip-up no matter how you slice it. But had the train been running, I would have been there in a jiffy.
From a lifetime of practice: Reflecting on what I should have done or could have done better is just second nature to me. But nowhere to be found in my friend was taking any responsibility for her poor planning that put her in that position. As an international traveler, she should damn well know better. On top of that, her worldliness should find its way into how she rolls with obstacles. I wouldn’t care if I’d just crossed an ocean, had barely slept in days, was starving, and starting a new job the next morning:
There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that I’d be griping about how my friend chose to come “scoop me up.” I might be half past dead but my senses would still be alive enough to know that a friend spent a good chunk of change so as to not to inconvenience me. And however I might feel about their goofy way of getting here, my friend came through. Maybe I’ll choose someone more reliable next time: Who’ll remember to check for changes and come early in case the train’s not running and whatnot. And maybe I’ll look back upon my own decisions and realize that starting a new job just hours after returning from an overseas flight is not smart move (even if everything goes perfectly).
But whatever would be running through my mind — I’d know that now is not the time to lay a guilt-trip on my friend over his flaws to absolve me of my own.
Not now, not ever!
Is there any chance you might be avail to scoop me up and take me to my bro’s. Whether you can or can’t, thank you, and I appreciate you 🙏🏼💫
Look around!
And yet words are all that matter anymore: Bios advertising virtues & beliefs that have no bearing on your record. Following facts going the direction you desire doesn’t count — anybody can do that! And you’ve got your content creators stringing you along with that glorious feeling of participating with the least possible effort it takes to feel involved: Firing off whatever immediately comes to mind (coupled with rapid-fire ridicule for satisfaction in full).
And this gem of window dressing . . .
Until the rise of podcasts, twitter, and the various forms of independent media / journalism, people weren’t really aware how legacy media was influencing their thinking. I think people are finally waking up and may surprise you here, especially if more talk about it.
New formats for funneling information that caters to your cravings is not what I’d call enlightened. And those who couldn’t spot clearly dishonest actors before — think they’re wide awake now? The Twitter bio behind that quote begins with “Groupthink averse.”
It would never occur to him that everything in that Tweet is Groupthink 101.
That you don’t understand how you’re all being played is bad enough, but that you make it nearly impossible to explain it to you reflects how new media has hardened you even more than legacy did. None of these boxes of beliefs are entirely wrong, but bonding within them makes you think you’re entirely right (on everything).
In this world — the rush is everything:
- The rush to respond
- The rush you get from responding
- The rush to roll out the next issue of concern
- Repeat and never reflect
At the helm of these cesspools of certitude — are influencers who peddle repeatedly rehashed insight their followers praise like they split the atom. To be sure, some of it is insightful. But these “geniuses” are so full of wisdom that they’re oblivious to how they are feeding the very problems they’re ostensibly trying to solve.
Purveyors of virtue are put on a pedestal telling you what you wanna hear every goddamn day. They haven’t accomplished anything with their aimless arguments. But who cares about the efficacy of their efforts when failure is a pretty profitable enterprise these days.
If you think you’re making progress because of ever-increasing attention to your concerns, I suggest you reconsider.
Repeatedly rehashing issues is not the mark of problem solving: It’s the mark of a market. All these channels are blunt instruments . . .
Including those I agree with:
I’m sure it’s intoxicating to amass a following and feel like you’re making a difference. But I’m gonna weigh your impact partly as a reflection of your community: How people behave, not what they believe. If you can’t get that right, I don’t care how big your following gets — you’re taking this nation nowhere.
What’s more, you’re making matters worse and being rewarded for it.
I’m going to show you how to fix the problem you don’t even know you have. And I assure you — the gains you get now pale in comparison to what awaits you. All ya gotta do — is do what you say you do. And my idea is a framework for debate that boxes you in to do exactly that. You won’t like it — but here’s the deal: Your opposition won’t either.
And who knows, you might learn to love embracing challenge, changing your mind, and the fruits from demanding across-the-board accountability.
This — is not that
This — is Broadcasting Beliefs About That
It’s pure fantasy to think that you can ignore key dimensions of a problem and magically solve it. The problems that plague America are interrelated, and anything short of addressing that is going nowhere. But everyone’s wrapped up in their wheelhouse — operating under umbrellas of interests that don’t account for complexities outside of them. Conventional methods have repeatedly failed and won’t put a pinprick in the atmosphere of absurdity suffocating the country.
The rules have changed, as in — there are none. By failing to understand that you cannot adapt to deal with it. But adapting is not exactly what America does best:
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
There’s no willingness to say, “I’m wrong.” I mean, you have to take a 2×4 to these people, basically — to get ’em to, sorta, knock ’em down and admit they were wrong.
That physicist is talking about the people pushing the aluminum tubes fantasy that took us to war.
And I’m talkin’ about you
“Wut?”
But this crowd takes the cake
I’ve never seen so much ass-kissing in all my life — it’s just pathetic! Interconnected communities are seemingly in competition for fawning over this fraud: A professional know-it-all who fabricated a “follow the facts” fantasyland with fancy quotes that amount to fortune cookies for followers:
The “genius” of Thomas Sowell is that this charlatan not only got followers to believe he’s a genius, but some kind saint-like Sherlock Holmes to boot. This guy’s a master at engineering illusion, but I saw right through it.
It took me all of 10 minutes to size up Sowell. On WMD, it took 2.
I couldn’t agree more
But there’s another reason why so many people misunderstand so many issues.
People like you pull stunts like this while peddling lines like that as cover: To whitewash your record of patently obvious hypocrisy and lies.
8. Old information at the beginning of the sentence, new information at the end.
— Steven Pinker
How do you feel about no new information — anywhere?
The rotor speed required to separate uranium isotopes doesn’t care who’s president, and when it comes to ascertaining the truth, neither do I. In order to maintain such speeds, the material properties of centrifuges are as critical as it gets. You don’t need to interview a world-renowned nuclear scientist to figure that out — but I like to be thorough. To claim that Iraq WMD wasn’t a lie should be like saying we didn’t land on the moon.
As I wrote and produced the most exhaustive documentary ever done on WMD, I would know.
I’m not out to “DESTROY” Sowell . . .
Quite the contrary! Stick around — you’ll see. But 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 you can challenge me on that, I invite you to try. I’ve been inviting you for a really long time.
And by the way: Clickbait for battles you’ll do all over again tomorrow — doesn’t strike me as destroying anything.
While you’re destroying everything:
From decades of being increasingly accommodating of liars aligned with your interests: You kept lowering the bar . . .
And now there is no bar
V for Victory — How Fitting . . .
A world where you can win an argument without even knowing what the issue is about. How you behave in denying the undeniable daily would be unthinkable for me to do ever.
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.
— Attributed to Mark Twain
Imagine America as an engine and you come along with a cross-section of it to explain why it’s not working. Since your audience shares your concerns, you’d think they’d be interested in understanding the internals of the problem. But they spend all their time talking about parts made by people they don’t like — never considering the defects in their own parts.
And even though you’ve got a rock-solid idea for how to fix the engine (or at least make it run on reason): They’d rather spend the rest of their lives complaining about problems than take responsibility for their part in creating them. The image above is for my 15-part series on factions acting as force fields of fallacy for the Left & Right: Shielding you from the whole truth while you’re pursuing part of it believing you’re after all of it.
To concisely capture the absurdity that’s canon across these echo chambers where childish behavior is celebrated:
Imagine a club for international travel made up entirely of people without a passport. Day after day, they talk about their love of going somewhere — with no interest in anyone who’s been somewhere. There was a time when people were willing to take a journey to understand what doesn’t instantly compute. Those days are long gone.
And this — is the height of your contribution:
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains . . .
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
Fools, said I, you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
As for my bio . . .
One Voice Became Two 