There is no measure for how preposterous it is that people who seemingly live to to promote the “brilliance” of those they put on a pedestal — act dumber than a box of rocks when challenged. What gives? Not you — not ever! No matter how dumb, dishonest, and delusional your asinine assertions:
You hold onto your imbecilic beliefs like they ‘re solid gold.
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.
When did acquiring knowledge become, “I don’t understand everything — so I can’t act like a moron who can’t understand anything!”? When you don’t understand something, try this on for size:
You’ll be amazed at the clarity that comes with it.
Einstein borrowed from the one below:
The worth of man lies not in the truth which he possesses, or believes that he possesses, but in the honest endeavor which he puts forth to secure that truth; for not by the possession of, but by the search after, truth, are his powers enlarged, wherein, alone, consists his ever-increasing perfection. Possession fosters content, indolence, and pride.
— Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Einstein’s is just a catchier version of the one that requires work.
A bit about work
Work is a Journey on Which You Welcome Challenge
Work does not instantly respond — work digs to discover and inquires to clarify. Work is difficult and demands discernment. Work wonders, pauses, listens, absorbs, and reflects.
Work does not rest on who’s right and who’s wrong: Work wants to know if there’s something more to see, something to learn, something that sharpens the mind. Work never stops building on the foundation of your own work and what you learn from the work of others.
Work works its way through material that is not easy.
Work recognizes complexity and the demands of in-depth explanation. Work will go on a trip to ideas that take time and effort to understand. Work knows that you can’t see your way through to a solution without understanding the different dimensions of a problem.
Work does not defend before you consider
Work does not race to conclusions — work arrives at them through careful consideration. Work is willing is rethink what you think you know. Work takes integrity, courtesy, curiosity, courage, and decency.
Work comes with the willingness to be wrong.
Work is not self-satisfied. Work does not sling snippets of certitude — work crafts argument on the merits. Work is an exchange where each party takes information into account. Work does not issue childish insults — work demands that you act your age.
You’ll find that work is far more fruitful and fulfilling than ease.
Work rises & falls
As this is the prism through which we work:
How we weigh what we see and measure our response. We’ll fall short from time to time — but those willing to work will keep each other in check.
Work respects your intelligence by using it — and shows respect to others as we work our way to mutual respect. Work won’t be pretty and might even get ugly — but work will do what it takes to work it out.
And if you wanna start solving problems — work is what it’s gonna take.
What I do takes work — time & effort to think it through.
This — is entertainment
There was a time when it was generally understood that you needed to define the problem before you laid out the solution. But that doesn’t compute in a country that thinks constantly complaining about problems is the solution. First time I ever heard of John McWhorter was in a 2017 interview. In talking about take a wild guess, he said:
He has a rather narcotic joy in dismissal and belittlement
A lot of that goin’ around
I’m out to tell a tell a larger story about the decline of America from decades of dishonesty in the Gutter Games of Government. This story takes both parties to task on the biggest & most costly lie in modern history — along with some other issues at the core of America’s decline. Sowell is simply a conduit through which to tell that story (and how his role within it could be harnessed for good). Compelling him to admit where he’s wrong will work wonders for where he’s right:
A.K.A.
But Sowell’s supporters make it impossible to have this conversation even within a single frame (never mind the bigger picture). They’re hardly alone in being so paralyzed by politics they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s anyone out there who can process anything that doesn’t come in the form of fodder in a trough.
That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong or of no value — it means that repeatedly rehashing issues is not the mark of problem solving:
It’s the mark of a market
Shallow thinkers do not think beyond the immediate and the observable. They usually take information at face value and only look at immediate consequences. They are not capable of looking at all sides of an issue or think deeply about the issue before making decisions or drawing conclusions . . .
They also believe that their opinion is based on deep thinking because they genuinely believe that their opinion is based on truth and facts. Whereas, deep thinkers look at the whole sequence of events and the consequences.
When we dig deeper, we understand better. We can compare different outcomes, examine, tear apart, and make cognizant judgments that are derived from different mental models.
Left and Right
I’ve yet to find a single person who digs beyond the depth of their immediate domain of interest. In our entirely transactional times, America endlessly rehashes topics of today — never once considering the totality of events that created them (or even having a notion of the need to).
With the issues I address — you might as well be saying the Civil War wasn’t germane to the assassination of Lincoln.
[D]eep thinkers look at the whole sequence of events and the consequences.
There was a time when we did
“Wut”
In my youth, I could not have imagined a world in which even people with PhDs would act like imbeciles in the face of information they don’t instantly understand. That an entire country could take satisfaction in insulting your own intelligence on a daily basis just astounds me.
Adulthood is about spending the time to think before talking . . . Adulthood is about controlling our emotions, learning to take a deep breath and modulating our moments of anger or frustration.
And because of that, it’s almost impossible to establish something as simple as this:
While I’m a fan of Sowell, it would be nice to get the WMD issue out of the way.
If one Sowell supporter could grasp that about my goal, why can’t you? I’m not out to “DESTROY” Sowell! Quite the contrary! Stick around — you’ll see. Ask some questions, you’ll see more clearly. I’m not just taking Thomas Sowell to task because he’s got it comin’: I need this guy for what I have in mind to right this ship. But in order to do that — first you need to see that he is not the follower of facts he fashioned for you to see.
What Happened to All This Jazz? Sowell’s Army of Mindless Slogan Slingers
And that story
Is a conduit through which to this story. It’s bad enough that you make it impossible to do so, but the concept of correlating events seems to entirely escape you when clinging to your baseless beliefs. And how convenient! You instantly seize on what you think you see — instead of thinking it through to discover what you don’t.
Behold the product of your predictably counterproductive pursuits:
[T]here could be no country that makes less use of the accumulated experience of those who have served it – none that is more frivolously neglectful and improvident of these assets – than the United States of America.
— George F. Kennan, Around the Cragged Hill
“Now! . . .
Let’s Analyze . . . What’s Been Working for Us”
Just What am I to do . . .
When This is the World of Your Making:
And this is the world of mine:
“I am a maker” . . .
Just because you hang a banner on a building doesn’t make it true. “We are Purdue. Makers, All.” No, you’re not — but I am (as these words reflect a lifelong record in what do, not simply what I say):
I think work should be about making things work. Better, Faster, Smaller, Smarter. So I build bridges between what’s known and what’s not. I tinker. I toil. I write poetically in an abundance of languages (including code). I hack. I dissect. I have an insatiable desire to un-complicate the complicated. I am easily inspired.
I believe that just because it hasn’t been thought of doesn’t mean it won’t be. Potential is my thrill ride. Imagination is my most-used tool. I am a maker. And I am what moves the world forward.
Funny they mention that about that bridge. Stick around — you’ll see!
V for Victory — How Fitting . . .
A world where you can win an argument without even knowing what the issue is about. What you do 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
“WUT” reflects a society tuning in to people who perpetuate problems under the pretense of seeking to solve them. Some are sincere (or at least started out that way). But they all lose their way in the adulation and rewards from feeding the frenzy. I coined Star Wars Syndrome to capture the plague of allowing nostalgia to create the illusion that a movie is far better than it actually is. In and of itself, wildly exaggerating the quality of movies is harmless.
But when it becomes habit in how you see everything — either gushing with over-the-top praise or seething with over-the-top scorn:
That’s a plague!
You think I just come up this stuff out of thin air?
In these echo chambers of self-congratulations (for accomplishing absolutely nothing and making matters worse to boot): Regurgitating garbage gets people to Like you — celebrating “victory” by clicking “bravo” to bad manners and bunk. A world where 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
It’s not my writing, my graphics, or my doc: The flaw is within you and it always has been. You have no original ideas and not a molecule of courtesy or curiosity for those who do. I have to spoon-feed you like a child while you spit it out and cry about being hungry. You have no imagination and are utterly devoid of any virtue that would allow for actual conversation to take place.
Not that lickety-split, self-satisfied crap you flood the internet with daily.
there’s this jazz:
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.
The Substack Sector
(revised version renamed to title below)
Echo chambers across social media worship channel hosts as “National Treasures” — treating them like they’re some of the greatest minds to ever live. At the helm of these cesspools of certitude — are people 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 wise in their ways: They’re oblivious to how they’re feeding the very problems they’re ostensibly trying to solve.
Just where do I go for in-depth discussion on original ideas with people who’d cut off their arm before they’d use “WUT” in response to anything? When you’re all part of the same shitshow of America going out of its mind — is there anyone left who can walk and chew gum at the same time? Because it appears there’s not a person left who can process anything that doesn’t come in the form of fodder in a trough.
Isaac Newton and Einstein were brilliant — partisan hacks and high-minded influencers fueling your fix, are not.
Across all these echo chambers:
Are people taking endless delight in flooding the internet with ceaseless claims about their immaculate critical thinking skills:
But don’t do any of this . . .
What does it say to you that for 3 years I’ve been trying to have this conversation on my idea: Across communities where claims of critical thinking are everywhere — and I haven’t found it anywhere? On an idea that addresses multidimensional problems in a multidimensional manner, your one-dimensional mindset has made it impossible to get past the people & interests you’re protecting:
In order to see how you’re harming them and how my idea would help them. Whether I support some of those interests or not is immaterial to my mission.
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).
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.
Then again . . .
Do people you put on a pedestal really wanna solve problems anyway? Do you?
Man is at least as much a problem-creating as a problem-solving animal. Better a crisis than the permanent boredom of meaninglessness.
— Theodore Dalrymple, Life at the Bottom
Speaking of the moon
Simply for sharing this . . .
A 5-minute excerpt from my doc that exhaustively explains the biggest & most costly lie in modern history (that shaped everything you today) — where I take both parties to task on that topic and more:
I’m met with this . . .
Keep in mind, there was no website with an array of illustrations to gripe about. No correlating of multiple contexts to tell a larger story in this clip. No long story to take up your time. Just 5 minutes of your life to look at argument woven with surgical specificity.
But without watching one second of my work:
I’d suggest heading on back to that backwater school, Purdue, for a little more indoctrination, er, I mean education.
“BACKWATER SCHOOL“
To call the Cradle of Astronauts “backwater” is award-worthy for asinine statements.
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 “Get help!” 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?
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.
As I said in my doc:
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
That sounds worthy of consideration — don’t ya think?
not to PKIA’s crowd
And their kin who came before them:
It is as though with some people — those who most avidly embrace the “we are right” view — have minds that are closed from the very get-go, and they are entirely incapable of opening them, even just a crack.
There is no curiosity in them. There are no questions in their minds. There are no “what ifs?” or “maybes.”
— Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Who’s PKIA? The better question would be to wonder why I felt the need withhold his identity for now: So you’ll weigh his words in isolation from his immaculate image. What would you call someone who shoots their mouth off without addressing the evidence — but banks on their fabricated reputation to create the impression that they did?
Or Not . . .
I don’t understand. I don’t know understand. It’s all so incoherent and confusing with all these things I have to stop and think about.
That’s because you wallow in a world of paint by numbers — where people telling you what you wanna hear every goddamn day: Package it all neatly into nursery-rhyme narratives (turning your mind into mush).
Whining about my website and throwing a tantrum like a child is the best ya got?
Oh, you’re so condescending
Your gall is never-ending . . .Your life is trite and jaded
Boring and confiscated
If that’s your best, your best won’t do
Turns out
You were just fine taking it — and had no qualms about losing it.
You’ve probably heard of yellowcake — how about uranium hexafluoride? Does calling someone a “Bush hater” strike you as a valid counter to that question? Never mind this story goes straight to the top with who’s in the White House right now — on very specific culpability to boot.
How so? How I’d love to live in a world where you’d ask not out of party-line pursuits — but because it’s on the trail to the truth.
Do I strike you as someone who participates in party-line politicking? I beat the hell out of both sides, so if you can’t take a hit — you might as well bail right now.
I’m looking for fiercely independent thinkers for an idea that could turn the tide, and if you can’t handle some heat — you don’t qualify (so I don’t need ya). If you’re not interested in hearing me out and having meaningful conversation — we have nothing to talk about and I wish you well. But if you’re game for good old-fashioned conversation — please contact me through the site, Anchor.Press.gg@gmail.com, or DM (Direct Message) on Twitter.
As I have an idea that could turn the tide (which would serve your interests whether I agree with them or not): All conversations on here fit under the umbrella of mine. If you’re not interested in such discovery, let’s not waste each other’s time. Thx 🙏
I’ve tried that route — and I’m still shown nothing but contempt.
There was a time when it was generally understood that you needed to define the problem before you laid out the solution. But that doesn’t compute in a country that thinks constantly complaining about problems is the solution.
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
America’s in perennial pursuit of ideologies — warfare waged with galactic levels of baggage & bullshit bolstered by . . .
opinions lightly adopted but firmly held . . . forged from a combination of ignorance, dishonesty, and fashion
— Theodore Dalrymple, Life at the Bottom
As it turns out though — that is an opportunity (to take a problem and turn it into a solution). I’ve got an idea — and it’s got teeth. There’s a way we can harness folly from the past for the benefit of the future.
A.K.A. Learning
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
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 catastrophic damage by doing so. Even the best of the bunch are part of the problem they’re trying to solve.
Don’t shake your head. I’m not done yet. Wait till you hear the whole thing so you can . . . understand this now . . .
My Cousin Vinny is maybe the most hilariously educational movie ever — and this scene is at the core of our culture’s communication divide:
My idea is simple:
Cutting through our Crap is King culture to you to see it — is not.
Where infantile insults are celebrated
The doubt-free who don’t do their homework are the experts.
Those who belittle and outright reject correction — are the righteous and wise. The ones with courage to admit when they’re wrong — are the weak. Tireless dedication is mercilessly mocked — while intellectual laziness is esteemed. Original thinking and uniqueness are bashed — while conforming to the trite is trumpeted. Depth is discarded with disdain — while shallowness is embraced with love.
The honest & sincere are shunned — while manipulators & liars are welcomed with open arms.
This is my story — and if you read it in full, you’ll find it’s part of your story too. You’ve all dealt with the same behavior I have — the difference is that I get it from every direction.
When you don’t understand something:
Try this on for size!
You’ll be amazed at how questions bring clarity into the equation. “WUT” doesn’t count (as that is the mark of a child). So if that’s your game, go back to playtime — as I have no time for you.
- If you are here without having considered the clips above, you’ve gone too far
- Either turn around and go back or go back to where you belong (and please block me when you there)
- Don’t breeze by my work then come crying to me about what you can’t understand in what didn’t consider
You can’t imagine how laughable it is to me that the only question that crosses your mind is childish & clichéd crap like “AI-generated?”: Congratulating yourselves for infantile insults while insulting your own intelligence.
Just what I am to do
With people who sling snippets of certitude so eager to “correct” me about my electoral map? If you’re gonna grip about my graphics, can you at least understand what an illustration is? Since I wasn’t writing anything about the election, on what basis did he come to that conclusion? None — he just saw what he wanted to see (just as all of America has been conditioned to do for decades).
- Text
- Graphics
- Back to text
- Repeat pattern
Instead of considering the patently obvious patterns of hypocrisy & lies (by people you put on a pedestal as bastions of virtue): Of paramount concern to you is: My patterns in presenting their hypocrisy & lies.
You think I wanted to chop up my doc into clips to accommodate America’s attention span of a child?
But still that wasn’t enough — as you won’t consider 160 seconds, let alone 160 minutes. I do all the work, you do nothing and consider nothing — then blame me for failing to convince you. In slinging your insults, you’re insulting your intelligence far more than you’re insulting me (not to mention being in gross breach of those precious principles you preach).
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.
You know what they say: Fail, fail again, fail better, succeed
They say other things too – like “work smarter, not harder.” By all means, keep trying — but examine the efficacy of your efforts and adjust accordingly. Just picking the “root cause” that works for you doesn’t cut it.
You’ve gotta look at interconnected causes across-the-board.
Surely a discussion on the importance of expertise coupled with a rock-solid idea on how to address this problem in a way that would actually make an impact that matters: Would be welcomed by a culture craving a return to a time when expertise was respected and considered with seriousness.
Of course not! What was I thinking?
The Death of Expertise Division
Building on his enormously successful first edition. Tom Nichols confirms his thesis and proves that the assault on expertise has only intensified.
So, outside of selling books and building a following, you didn’t succeed — at all. But who cares about the efficacy of efforts when failure is a pretty profitable enterprise these days. When a deservingly popular book didn’t make a dent in 7 years (and everything’s gotten worse to boot): I fail to understand the excitement for an expanded edition doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of making a dent either.
Such questions do not compute with this crowd or any other:
Congratulating yourselves for ordering a book and broadcasting it for Likes: It’s all so pointless (as there’s no purpose beyond pretending you’re part of some glorious pursuit of the truth and what’s right). Never mind you all refuse to listen to any expertise that challenges you — which flies in the face of the whole f#@king point!
That cat is so fitting for the folly of our times:
“And now, even now” . . .
The cat . . . TOTALLY out of the BAG!
Your followers are so passionate about expertise — that they blow off the person who was years ahead of you in explaining this problem (and in far more sophisticated ways):
Not to mention offering real-world ideas on what to do about it.
The same person telling you that new edition has exactly zero chance of doing of any better than the first (in actually accomplishing anything). And when that prediction comes true: All your audience will care about is congratulating you when you come along advertising the 3rd edition:
Waiting in line for the signed copy they crave!
Unbelievable!
To understand how far America has fallen in its folly: You’d have to see the essence of the entire story and how it all connects. You’d have to follow the facts for real — and who how has time for that when so busy faking your love for them among friends. And on that note:
Facts Over Feelings Parade
In the face of unclear & uncomfortable: You’re devoid of the curiosity and courage it takes to investigate anything that doesn’t instantly materialize in meaning and serve your shortsighted interests to boot. And why learn from your mistakes when it’s so much more satisfying to forever repeat them in the passion of your purpose.
Speaking of your echo chamber of choice behind your force of fallacy: Throughout this piece I’m going to share short excerpts from some of those factions. Whatever I think of all of them, each one has some invaluable truth to offer. Perhaps if you’d consider some of what they have to say, they just might do the same for you.
Seems like it would be worth a shot to find out, don’t ya think?
But you know best
The March of Folly of Mentality Always Does
Like many alternatives, however, it was psychologically impossible. Character is fate, as the Greeks believed. Germans were schooled in winning objectives sby force, unschooled in adjustment. They could not bring themselves to forgo aggrandizement even at the risk of defeat.
— Barbara Tuchman
Unschooled in Adjustment
I put it all on a silver platter for you 10 years ago:
When I Saw the Writing on the Wall
“A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.” That quote’s been around in various forms for over 300 years (evidently the original being from 1710):
Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect.
I know the feeling, all too well!
I took on the automatons of the time (Left & Right). No one listened, and lo and behold — automatons exponentially multiplied. Those times were tame compared to today. In the last few years — I’ve seen savagery beyond anything that inspired the doc. The toxicity of venom has been taken to a whole other level with pride.
As it turns out though — that is an opportunity (to take a problem and turn it into a solution).
But the same people who proudly made it impossible to tell that story 10 years ago — are in the way now more than ever (and they’ve got friends). But with what I do, even their enemies are in my way. If you’d all just stop talking and start listening — you’d find that you’re in your own way.
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 said about the people pushing the aluminum tubes fantasy that took us to war — and how fitting for the times:
Even after 20 years
You still won’t STFU long enough to get this straight:
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?
As I said in my doc:
All the sarin gas shells in the world would have no bearing on the aluminum tubes and other intel, but loyalists to logical fallacies are not burdened by the inconvenience of FACT.
They will nitpick over pebbles while refusing to even glance at the mountain of evidence that crushes their “convictions.”
— Richard W. Memmer: Act V
For the sake of argument: Let’s say Saddam had full-blown active WMD programs on chemical & biological weapons. The tubes would still be a lie — whether the war would have been justified in that scenario or not. I’ll go one further: Let’s say he had a uranium enrichment program in operation as well, but that the rotors were carbon fiber — not aluminum.
Once again, the tubes would still be a lie.
Getting lucky in finding something you didn’t know about — does not absolve you from a case that was woven out of whole cloth.
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:
“And now, even now” . . .
The cat . . . TOTALLY out of the BAG!
And to this day
You make it impossible to discuss even a single screenshot — and yet have bottomless nerve to bitch about my website:
Half the country took the word of professional know-it-alls over nuclear scientists. And when your camp came up empty on WMD — you just bought more bullshit from the same people who sold you the first batch:
Shrewd!
Preach responsibility and take none
You can’t seem to comprehend that I don’t care what damage the truth inflicts upon politicians of any brand. I have this crazy idea that across-the-board accountability is always in the best interests of the nation.
As for my frustration — I have this thing about people who regurgitate nonsense in the face of overwhelming evidence that counters their baseless beliefs.
— Richard W. Memmer: Act II
It’s impossible for you to fathom the mountain of childish & spectacularly stupid shit I’ve seen on this topic for 20 years: By people who couldn’t craft a sound argument on the subject to save their lives. But who cares in a world where Anything Goes when going for gold in the Gutter Games of Government.
And you get away with it with ease — because you’re constantly reinforced by friends in your fellowship of fury. Like you in your echo chamber of choice: They have no qualms about promoting principles in one breath and abandoning them the next.
Or as I coined it
The individual believer must have social support. It is unlikely that one isolated believer could withstand the kind of disconfirming evidence we have specified. If, however, the believer is a member of a group of convinced persons who can support one another, we would expect the belief to be maintained and the believers to attempt to proselyte or to persuade nonmembers that the belief is correct.
These five conditions specify the circumstances under which increased proselyting would be expected to follow disconfirmation.
— When Prophecy Fails
First time I ever heard of John McWhorter was in a 2017 interview. In talking about take a wild guess, he said:
He has a rather narcotic joy in dismissal and belittlement
A lot of that goin’ around
To see the character of the government and the country so sported with, exposed to so indelible a blot, puts my heart to the torture. . . . Or what is it that thus torments me at a circumstance so calmly viewed by almost everybody else? Am I a fool, a romantic Quixote, or is there a constitutional defect in the American mind?
Were it not for yourself and a few others, I . . . would say . . . there is something in our climate which belittles every animal, human or brute. . . . I disclose to you without reserve the state of my mind. It is discontented and gloomy in the extreme.
I consider the cause of good government as having been put to an issue and the verdict against it.
Hide and Seek
The question comes down to whether or not you’re basing your belief on something in the realm of reason — not some fail-safe fantasy that allows you to believe whatever you want.
— Richard W. Memmer: Act III
Any questions?
Fuggedaboutit for Those Who Follow The Yellow Brick Road
And right on cue . . .
Marching to Black Lives Matter with the first black president sitting in the White House — was that a smart move? The answer should be abundantly clear and yet the question is not even considered. I’ve been blocked on Twitter for just politely suggesting that BLM is a counterproductive cause.
Instead of considering how you could fight for justice more intelligently — you act like I’m saying you shouldn’t fight for it at all. And whatever I think of the Right:
They’re right on the money about the impossibly stupid pampering of woke:
I don’t see what the problem is
— Typical Tweeter tapping earth-shattering insight
You don’t see — a lot!
Your track record is not what I would call astute — and the Right doesn’t have anything to write home about either. I fail to understand how you think we can solve anything in a country that can’t even get the self-evident straight:
Was that smart move?
Instantly firing back with boilerplate beliefs is not an indicator of understanding the premise of that question (or even caring to). Such inquiry requires reflection and the willingness to examine the efficacy of your efforts: And what role you play in harming your own interests by the manner in which you pursue them.
on that note
The Right wants 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 the Right won’t even look at the material properties of a tube. 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-81 mm artillery rocket (a reverse-engineered version of the Italian Medusa)
For two decades
America has made it impossible to have that conversation: Painfully obvious deception that shaped everything you see today. But we’ve got all the time in the world to talk about Titan:
Strikingly similar — don’t ya think? . . .
I’m a retired engineer, electrical not mechanical. You are absolutely correct about technical limits on materials such as this sub design. It’s insane this guy took the sub to its breaking point. It’s sad but a good lesson to future explorers. Don’t push the physical limitations of the materials and design.
— YouTube user
There was time when people saying, “Show Me the Evidence” — would look at it when you did. It was a time when newfangled ways of “argument” wasn’t all the rage — where you furiously fire off some fashionable form of “You’re wrong!” and dish it all day long: Insisting on “affirmation independent of all findings” (borrowing from Peck who borrowed from Buber).
I don’t roll that way.
You’re wrong — and here’s why
That’s the discipline — to have a work ethic in the way you think. Without “here’s why,” you’re just whistlin’ Dixie.
Take note of the trite & trendy language that follows: Strikingly in sync with PKIA‘s (as you’ll soon see).
CIA is not the all knowing God of the Bible. The CIA could do everything 100% correct but still not know everything.
There’s another reason why they wouldn’t know everything: Nuclear scientists don’t work there — they work at the Department of Energy: And that — is what this is all about. You’d know that had you watched Trillion Dollar Tube instead of trying to educate me on things you know nothing about.
Note:
I modified the Intelligence Community image above by overlaying CIA on top of Director of National Intelligence — to show how the IC effectively operated pre-9/11 and before DCI took center stage.
On matter a mathematical certainty in centrifuge physics:
Where you have absolutely no idea what’s going on here: On what basis are you so doubt-free? Not to mention how you gleefully and proudly refuse to have a conversation that would put your binary beliefs in the dustbins of self-delusion where they belong.
Why don’t you enlighten me
By explaining how hermetically minds who can’t even get things straight on the most obvious and demonstrably provable facts imaginable:
Think you’re clear-eyed on this crap:
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 cry
Say, 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 . . .
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. And I would not have been treated with nothing but contempt for 20 years of telling undeniable truth of world-altering consequence. If evidence claimed as components for building a nuclear bomb isn’t worthy of consideration, what is? No rational person would repeatedly deny the obvious, and just minutes into any post this site, you’d know something’s not right.
But you find it’s with me . . .
[As] I’m not and never have been familiar
If I did cartwheels on TikTok to tell this story — you’d take issue with my form. We’ve created a culture that gripes over “flashy graphics” while worshipping liars in the images. Constant complaining has become a virtue — where everything of value is in the gain you get in the moment: And easy is all the rage!
And about those results . . .
Behind your field field of fallacy in fawning over the familiar:
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.
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:
True folly, Tuchman found, is generally recognized as counterproductive in its own time, and not merely in hindsight. In Tuchman’s template, true folly only ensues when a clear alternative path of action was available and ruled out.
Anyone entering this discussion with sincerity — would come away realizing that there is no debate, and there never was.
They just made it up
Red Team Paper: Nevertheless, by September 2001, the matter had more or less been settled. There was no serious debate within the intelligence community. One stubborn WINPAC analyst does not constitute a debate.
Richard W. Memmer: Then 9/11 happened — and whad’ya know, the tubes were resurrected.
— Act I
And that is what following the facts looks like:
Not your kiss-ass communities congratulating yourselves for promoting principles you don’t practice. Following facts going the direction you desire doesn’t count: Anybody can do that!
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.
Ah, the Endless Love of “Logic Lovers”:
love to use “logic” to win an argument, and then disappear before they can find out they’re wrong
Oh yeah, I know the type — all too well!
My case is built on evidence as concrete as it gets: Supported by exhaustively detailed arguments (of which you have exactly zero chance of refuting). But to “logic lovers” that means nothing:
As defending the faith is everything!
3 minutes and 33 seconds into the Prologue — the parallel in the Profile Principle is revealed (an exemplary example of applying the same rules to both sides). But rather than taking the time to digest what someone’s saying: You’re already confused — as if I invented the idea of setting up a story with a parallel that I’ll drive home by the end.
3 minutes and 33 seconds:
Ahhh . . .now I see where he’s going with this
Imagine!
There was a time when we did:
Or Not . . .
Snowflake, Libtard, Libturd, Cupcake, Bush hater, Bush basher, Bush Derangement Syndrome, TDS, Demon-crat, Democrat Party
Stirring Defense
Anything Goes for apologists trying to preserve what they perceive. I know their Rolodex of Ridicule rabbit-hole routine — all too well:
And Now for the Weather . . .
If you don’t like my illustrations, go read the bone-dry reports for yourselves: And I’ve got plenty more material to add to your reading list. But that takes work — and why bother when you can just ridicule those who did it for you.
One picture is worth a thousand words:
When you don’t want the pictures and you don’t want the words — what would you have me do?
And once I did it
We both know your next move . . .
Speaking of bullshitters:
Bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant.
— Blurb to On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt
Which do you think is more valuable? Me telling you what’s going on in that image or you working it out for yourself (and asking questions on anything unclear)? Even if I told you, it wouldn’t be compelling without seeing the story behind it (and how it it all connects to everything you see in our society).
I have no idea why this painting sold for $300 million in 2015. But I do know that I’m wildly unqualified to know. You don’t have to be qualified in order to have an opinion about whether you like something or not. But when you haven’t trained your mind to understand what you might be missing, you’re in no position to be the arbiter of truth on the value of the work before you.
I had a choice between Art or Music Appreciation at Purdue. I made a mistake — as I’ve always wished I would have taken both. The image above is to the boxset of cassettes from that course. I learned to listen in ways well beyond music. Alas, we live in a nation that never listens and never learns.
And yet, because you refuse to — I continue to.
There was a time when intrigue would have been found in the face of the imagery below. Incredibly, in a sea of sameness — the new norm is you know “WUT” is the way of the world now. If I came across this and hadn’t done my homework, on the title alone — my first thought would be:
I must be missing something pretty big!
you have other ideas:
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
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. Almost every post points to an identifiable disconnect — enough to know that something’s not right with people you put on a pedestal. But 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.
I offered you overwhelming and irrefutable evidence that exhaustively exposes the biggest and most costly lie in modern history — taking both parties to task for it (on that issue and then some): You refused to even glance at the doc while deriding my efforts with pleasure.
What is Truth
That the reaction is not to think it through, not to question, not to assemble facts, not to make arguments — but instead to wave banners and spout slogans such that you could hardly distinguish what they were doing from a manifesto that would come out of [does it matter?]
— Glenn Loury, Tucker Carlson Today
When the context suits you, such words are solid gold. What you do when it doesn’t — determines the worth of your word.
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.
And this [$#%^^>)* _ #!*&%-@+$]
Lied about a war and you whine about a website:
As a distinguished scholar once said: “The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.”
— Thomas Sowell
The man’s a magician:
As I’m practically spit on by people promoting principles I followed to find he didn’t. Simply by virtue of writing those words, he couldn’t possibly do the same in service of his own ideals?
And lo and behold — sleight of hand is how they pulled it off.
Thomas Sowell is a magician who makes magical thinking for a living: A snake oil salesman who carved out a career craftily complaining about snake oil salesmen. It’s painfully obvious what this guy’s up to. He’s engineering an illusion — and you bought it. You assume I’m out “DESTROY” him — and right on cue, you play the hate-card.
Never mind that assuming bad motives is in gross breach the standards Sowell espouses. But why bother abiding the principles you preach when he doesn’t either?
I couldn’t agree more
But there’s another reason why so many people misunderstand so many issues.
Professional know-it-alls like you pull stunts like this while peddling lines like that as cover: To whitewash your record of patently obvious hypocrisy and lies. What would you call someone who shoots their mouth off without addressing the evidence — but banks on their fabricated reputation to create the impression that they did?
This man has a patently obvious history of hypocrisy & lies — and yet he’s worshipped as some kind of saint-like Sherlock Holmes.
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 . . .
And all the girls dreamed that they’d be your partner
They’d be your partner and . . .
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 . . .
To be fair . . .
Which is what this is ultimately all about: That last line is not true 100% true (but I’m guessing 98’s a safe bet). How come Sowell’s not a “National Treasure” for his spot-on assessment of Trump in 2016? If you wanted to honor him as a Maverick in this instance — here was your chance to deliver, as he did. And right on cue, his crowd can’t wait to sling some link about Sowell changing his mind on Trump. I’m sure ulterior motives had nothin’ to do with it: Just as you let motive make a Maverick out of someone who isn’t one . . .
Then ignore his sound words when he was.
Just for kicks — do you ever want to think about what someone’s saying before firing back with what you wanna say?
Well-crafted common sense
Advertised and delivered:
I don’t understand. I don’t know understand.
I’m not surprised!
In this shithole you call home:
I’ve never seen so much ass-kissing in all my life.
It’s just pathetic!
It’s also — an opportunity!
Yeah, yeah, yeah — you don’t understand, I got it!
Consequences matter or should matter more than some attractive or fashionable theory.
— Thomas Sowell
I couldn’t agree more
Except there were no consequences on the fiasco for the ages driven by this manifesto: The outcome of which fashioned a culture of no consequences.
At what point does it dawn on you and your beloved genius — that blind loyalty to that cause would be colossally counterproductive to your others? I’m not brilliant and I figured that out all by myself. The Right treating Bush like the Second Coming of Christ — set the stage for the rise of the Rock Star they spent the next 8 years railing against.
That doesn’t strike me as sound strategy. Dumb, dishonest, and delusional wars don’t either.
Nice work!
Sowell’s hailed as a folk hero for calling out problems he helped create (and takes no responsibility for any of it).
A lot of that goin’ around
So you found one small crack in Sowell’s character where he defended Iraq having WMD, does that hurt his credibility?
This man muddied the waters of debate to serve himself: On a little matter of war in the Middle East in the aftermath of 9/11. On top of unconscionably ignoring irrefutable evidence of world-altering consequence, 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.
In light of his history being wildly out of sync with his sanctimonious claims: That “one small crack” is a wide-open window into his character and credibility.
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.”
At every turn . . .
The faithful tap dance around reality — oily evading anything that requires them to hold Sowell to his own standards.
Hard to Imagine:
That I have to explain that quote to people who seemingly live to flood the internet with his words.
He and his flock incessantly complain about the media — and they don’t make policy. But the second I scrutinize Sowell — suddenly you have new standards.
180 — how fitting
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.
This nation has no remorse
Not for relatively recent wrongdoing, anyway. It appears I’m more horrified by my typos than America is with dumb, dishonest, and delusional wars. And truth be told, those who landed on the right side on Iraq: Most of ‘em don’t know jack either. Just because you were right doesn’t necessarily mean you arrived at it intelligently — and being reinforced by casual conviction makes for increasingly sloppy & stupid thinking.
[W]e must accept responsibility for a problem before we can solve it
— M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
In a nation that incessantly blames and complains (seemingly for sport) — no one’s taking responsibility for anything. The ever-rising ocean of partisan pettiness is gluttony under the guise of concern. What would you call untold millions marching to a Twitter-rage parade on WMD — dishing on the deaths of Rumsfeld and Powell (and whatever anniversary marks the moment):
But too lazy to get off your ass to see what we can do about it. Of course, that would require holding your own accountable as well:
So there’s that
Happy 20th Anniversary!
Seize the day to be jacked up on fuel to fire off your fury and excuses in a nation that never learns: But loves to light it up in lip service to virtues.
Ever-so bold behind force fields of fallacy that butcher those “beliefs.“
About that bridge
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 Sowell is My Bridge to Expose It All
Tuchman alighted on a root cause of folly that she called “wooden-headedness” — defined in part as “assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting contrary information.”
She also saw wooden-headedness as a certain proclivity for “acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by facts.”
A lot of that goin’ around too
A Conflict of Visions . . .
And then some!
Following Facts Where They Lead
“Said so and so”? . . . that’s one helluva trip you took there, Mr. Sowell.
Stirring Defense!
To take a story this complex and convoluted and boil its essence down to a few minutes in Trillion Dollar Tube was no small feat:
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
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 Sowell’s words and mine
Which ones strike you as glib?
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?
I’m not just taking Thomas Sowell to task because he’s got it comin’ — I need this guy for what I have in mind to right this ship. The ultimate irony is that blind loyalty limits him — while my criticism could elevate him to heights that hero-worship ensures he’ll never go.
So, you’re saying that your plan will elevate Sowell to worldwide recognition — by holding him accountable? That if he comes clean — he could be the catalyst to turn the tide?
That’s exactly what I’m saying
It won’t matter that he blew it on WMD or why — all that matters is having the guts to say: “I was wrong and I’m trying to make it right.” In a culture consumed with feeling right, wouldn’t it be refreshing to talk about the immeasurable value in the willingness to be wrong?
Don’t just tell people how to behave: Lead by example — especially when it comes at a cost! Compelling him to admit where he’s wrong will work wonders for where he’s right.
There are far worse culprits on all-things Iraq, but I’ve been down that road for decades. Discovering Sowell and the underworld of absurdity 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. 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:
Left & Right!
My doc was designed as a tool for honest debate. Now? It’s intended for a larger framework to clear the clutter that’s crippled this country. My plan calls for fiercely independent thinkers (to be fully realized), but right now — one will do.
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
Various versions of this video have racked up over 70 million views. Since my site was named after the turning point in his SEAL-training story, obviously I’m a fan. What I’m not a fan of is celebrating beliefs then abandoning them the instant they become inconvenient:
Particularly when the whole point is about rising to the occasion.
Back then it was about going up against institutions and all of America. Now? It’s about getting to one man. A professional know-it-all who fabricated a fantasyland of “following the facts where they lead.”
And that’s a Fact:
truth verifiable from experience or observation
Of course, you’re welcome to try to prove me wrong on that claim by simply following the facts where they lead. And since I put it all on a silver platter for you, you’ve got it pretty easy. But you’ve got a big problem on your hands in such discoveries:
What hard evidence do you have?
— Thomas Sowell
Hard enough to drop the hammer on you a hundred times over.
Consider yourself lucky that concrete evidence of mathematical certainty doesn’t qualify with your flock when it comes to protecting you and their shortsighted interests. Nor does any notion of responsibility and accountability.
Those things only apply to people you don’t like!
The cult-like following of Thomas Sowell is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. As I’ve been in the trenches battling hermetically sealed minds for decades, that’s saying something. His disciples see him as some kind of saint-like Sherlock Holmes:
Never mind his history being wildly out of sync with his sanctimonious claims.
On top of flagrantly ignoring evidence as concrete as it gets, he has a habit of toeing the party line: All of which flies in the face of the principles upon which he’s put on a pedestal. For anyone who challenges that — they share their values with venom.
Wait till you hear the whole thing so you can . . . understand this now . . .
This is just a summary on the essence of the idea:
Or — we can stick to tradition:
Wooden-headedness, said Tuchman, was finally — “the refusal to benefit from experience.”
— Russ Hoyle, Going to War
The Refusal to Benefit from Experience
[D]eep thinkers look at the whole sequence of events and the consequences . . .
Path of America’s Predictably Counterproductive Pursuits
The following quote captures far more than the source of it comprehends. It would never dawn on him that he helped create the ugliness he so beautifully articulated:
The thing that is most disturbing to me, in a sea of disturbing things — is that there is no opportunity in all of humanity, to observe the world we live in, and to see all the scope of life in the world, like being President of the United States. You sit there, and for 4 years, or for 8 years — the crème de la crème of society is presented to you.
“Here’s the bravest man and woman in the military. Here’s the smart scientists. Here’s the most dedicated children in their learning.”
You get to see the ugliest . . . what are terrorists doing in torture camps. You see the world from a vista that only a man, or one day a woman, can have that outlook. And I thought to myself: “Surely, when he won . . . he would change as a result of that.”
Every day, you’re having meetings and talking to serious people. And then you come into the Oval Office to “Here’s the winners of the Spelling Bee of San Diego.” . . . And you meet these people, and life just comes washing over you. Your heart and your mind open up. What a learning experience — how much you learn about the world.
And I thought, “It’s gonna change him.” . . .
He didn’t change one f#%@g gram!
That says a helluva lot more about America than it does about Trump. Who said it? Does it matter? To defenders of the indefensible — oh yeah! Because the source is what you’d seize on to deflect & deny the obvious: Then go right back to bitching about the opposition doing the same.
I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong:
I’m saying your staggering hypocrisy is sickening and so is the other side’s.
Lara walked along the tracks following a path worn by pilgrims and then turned into the fields. Here she stopped and, closing her eyes, took a deep breath of the flower-scented air of the broad expanse around her. It was dearer to her than her kin, better than a lover, wiser than a book. For a moment she rediscovered the purpose of her life.
She was here on earth to grasp the meaning of its wild enchantment and to call each thing by its right name, or, if this were not within her power, to give birth out of love for life to successors who would do it in her place.
― Doctor Zhivago (referenced in Into the Wild)
Remember what it was like to be uplifted by the genuine spirit of America? Maybe it wasn’t as real as I imagined it to be, but that authenticity is worlds away from where we are now.
Thank you for reading!
When you open your eyes to what’s underneath — it intrinsically trains your mind to see with increasing clarity.
One Voice Became Two 