88 Comments

pretending it never happened does not work for me.

Expand full comment
founding

Agree. We need an accounting of what happened, in particular, during covid.

If not, it will happen again. Maybe not a pandemic "crisis", but for some other manufactured crisis.

The bar was set low. The truth must get out or regular folks will fall for the same tactics again.

Expand full comment

Came down to the comments to say pretty much the same thing.

There needs to be a Reckoning, and _at the very least_ there needs to be exemplary punishment of the COVID Cult's "Thought Leaders". There need to be trials and executions.

I've long held the view that "victor's justice" (e.g., Nuremberg after WWIi) is a grotesque parody of actual justice, because the people administering it were as guilty as the people they put on trial, and the evidentiary rules were farcical and self-serving.

That doesn't apply here: 'we' (the COVID realists) didn't do (or advocate) ANY of the rights-infringements that the bougiecrats helped foist on society.

We have CLEAN HANDS, and if we get a bunch of blood on them it's because it's actually OBJECTIVELY the right thing to do.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

The evil of Virtue Signaling is exactly why there needs to be real consequences for our “Thought Leaders” etc. Their lies and damages will continue to escalate in severity until actual incarcerations, financial penalties or other legal ramifications - up to taking of life are actually imposed.

Expand full comment

Yeah, I’m still very angry. It’s going to take me a while to get past that

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022·edited Sep 23, 2022

2024 a Republican could run on an antivax platform and probably win the Presidential primary. A main policy proposal would be full executive branch investigation of what went on.

Expand full comment

That candidate won't be Trump if he keeps bragging about his Warp Speed accomplishments.

Expand full comment

Not a bad reason to move on.

Expand full comment

...which, effectively, many of us have done. Blaming Pence (and, effectively, Kushner) after putting him in the very position that gave us the vaxxes is the poorest excuse I've heard lately. Nope. For all the hand grenades Trump tossed (which I loved), he's going to have to jump on this one if he wants us back.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

The irreparable harm to our culture was financed by our own unwitting investments in Vanguard, Fidelity, BlackRock, et al. ESG is a pitiful smokescreen for communism and the ultimate control of the elites (cue to low-IQ “Global Leader” Jacinda Ardern, her horse face grin and hilarious virtue signaling, along with pretty boy vapid Trudeau who has an even lower IQ). If we could just radically work together to figure out the financial piece- the rest would fall into place. Sadly (or maybe not) I’ve lost all my woke friends one by one on the altar of NPR and their woke college kids screaming woke commands at them from their basements.

Expand full comment

The financial piece is hard because of the way the system is set up. How many choices does a person really have in his 401(k)? It's all the same stuff, funneling the money through all the same people, and it's not as if there's any other way to get ahead. I agree with you, though. If there were a way to set up an alternative to the bad-actor-controlled financial services machine, that would be a big part of the solution. (Another big part would be getting our taxes back. I can shout all I want about no more war, but the government already took my money to pay for it, and is devaluing the currency to pay for it some more.)

Expand full comment

Strive Mutual Funds is publicly traded. You can buy their energy fund (DRLL) or the newest, STRV, the corporate fund.

Expand full comment
Sep 24, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

Jacinda Ardern and her government in New Zealand look to be on the slide to oblivion in next year’s election. They have decimated this tiny country economically and socially and the 2023 election can’t come soon enough. The watershed moment was this week when in a Mood of the Boardroom survey gave Ardern a 1.7 out of 5 for delivery and engagement with the business community. I’m actually surprised it was that high, she clearly still has some support. For most though, the damage done is too devastating and the ‘virtue signalling’ becomes a luxury industries in trouble can’t afford.

Expand full comment

Wow do I relate to this comment Veronica. I’ve been diligent about putting my money where my mouth is and getting away from any company espousing woke ideology on a personal level since this all started, but getting away from powerful ESG aligned investments is next to impossible. I just had a less-than-satisfying email exchange with our financial advisor not two days ago on how possible divesting from these companies really is. My husband has a small business, so it’s not just our personal money we are playing with. The slow pace of the emergence of alternatives feels maddening. And for every victory we manage claw ourselves to (Vivek creating Strive was an encouraging step!) there will be three more places the woke BS crops up. It’s like playing the whack-a-mole from hell :)

Expand full comment

Truly we are experiencing the same thing- there is one bank I think that does not subscribe to woke ideology and that’s Cattle Bank out of Seward NE- I am still investigating-- I had my HSA with them - maybe we can stay in touch if you or I come up with any other ideas. Ed Dowd, while not giving specific financial advice said it would be good to get some assets into cash but I don’t want that cash sitting in vanguard, fidelity etc - need to move it out. Interestingly when Vivek was in the news I got 2 emails in the last 2 months from Fidelity asking me what I “wanted to see” with regards to Fidelity’s services. And I am not a 1 percenter- just an avg family.

Expand full comment

Same here - we have the small business and are by no means “big fish.” Let’s find each other with any new developments in this area, I feel like with all the people waking up to the craziness, this aspect is still very unknown to a majority. Asking people what their thoughts are on ESG usually just produces a raised eyebrow from whomever I’m talking to, even though I’m sure their own retirement accounts are being wielded by horrible giants against their own values.

Expand full comment

I’ve said it since the beginning: CASH OUT YOUR 401Ks!

It amazes me how many folks are held hostage to their lackluster jobs by these “benefits.”

Expand full comment

Cashing out a 401(k) has huge penalties- there’s got to be a better way than throwing 30% of your hard earned income back into the hands of those beating us up in the first place.

Expand full comment

"The most subversive thing in America is a long memory," (Not sure who first said it, but so true!)

The Dems are already acting as if they were not the tyrants and "branch managers" of lockdowns, respiratory obstruction and forced injections of heart poison. I hope the electorate remembers. I for one will never forget the Dems casual embrace of fascism, while pretending to be the opposite, and I can never vote D again.

Expand full comment

Where I live, in Wokeville, WA, I STILL can't get a job with the county unless I'm jabbed...

Expand full comment

"If they did, would you let them?" No. I think it's fair to say we've heard a lot of talk about "accountability" since . . . oh, probably the end of the George W. Bush administration. But we've never seen much of any.

Memories are short. Thank God for screenshots, amirite?

Expand full comment

No way I’m ever pretending the last 2 years didn’t happen. I want justice for what was done to those of us who’d didn’t comply with all things Covidstan.

Expand full comment

And... it ain't over.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

The problem is that it doesn’t matter that the support for the “current thing” is shallow and insincere. It matters that it seems that there are fewer and fewer Americans who are willing to assert their right to contest the “current thing.” The forces arrayed against individuals - the bureaucracy, media, social media, woke corporations - are enormous. Can America as it was envisioned exist in this context?

Expand full comment

America as it was envisioned has never existed, in my opinion. We have had a few moments where it comes into view, but those were short-lived.

Expand full comment

You may be right, but the founders did not envision the huge and permanent federal bureaucracy that now exists. Nor could they have envisioned the coordination between corporate media, academia, corporations generally, and that bureaucracy.

Expand full comment

What??? They didn't look into the future and see technology? ^_^

I don't understand the point of your comment.

If you think the founders didn't understand huge and permanent federal bureaucracy, then you don't understand the founders at all. What do you think they came from? ENGLAND. Talk about a huge and permanent federal bureaucracy!!

You might enjoy reading Howard Zinn's book "A People's History of the United States." Very well done.

Expand full comment

The Woke army is a Jihad. They have a common belief system equivalent to a religion. A complex and self-reinforcing belief system that explains All to those who Believe. Anyone outside that system is at least kaffir, unbelievers who may be deceived and manipulated, or worse yet simply unenlightened evil to be destroyed. They are a closed social order and if you are outside, you are game.

This is absolutely not American. American is plural, inclusive, disperate. Consensus, not unilateral. Popular, not Regime. The current Regime is not us. We have no representation. The R and D names slung about on MSM have very little meaning. The uniparty Regime is an inch away from crushing We the People.

Vote so damn hard they cannot steal it again!

Expand full comment

I wish voting could make a difference, but we are going to see exactly the same thing in the mid-terms and 2024 elections we saw in 2020. We can vote as hard as we can, but they're going to cheat even harder. And get by with it, no matter what measures are put into place to prevent it. The selections have already been made.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

OK, suppose all the election control strategies, from gerrymandering to registration tricks to Dominion-style system shenanigans, can sway an election result by, say, 10%. (Made up number, but the point is there is some number, it's not an absolute capability.) Then a quietly dissident but outwardly compliant population can be made to believe that their 61% majority is still a 49% minority, as long as they still believe the elections are fair-ish.

When that belief fails, and the population becomes so bold as to show each other their dissidence, the whole thing breaks down.

I'm inclined to agree with you, but there must be a breaking point.

Expand full comment

Part of how to measure this is crowds. Trump crowds vs anybody. Very crude but impossible to refute. The subterfuge required to hide a massive vote fraud will be visible.

The breaking point is not far away imo, which I am very sad to contemplate. I can understand the dread our Founding Fathers felt when they wrote;

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

We are damn near that place.

Expand full comment

Your solution is to VOTE? Hmmmm. I was with you until that, sorry.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

Whither one minor current thing -- “toxic masculinity”? Relegated to the back of the closet like a white suit at the end of disco once the fad passed, never to be seen in public again. There was no money in it.

All these sorts of putrid eruptions are like a bubble of stinky gas breaching the surface of the swamp. They cause a foul stench for a few minutes and then dissipate, without a trace, in the slightest breeze. They but hint, albeit accurately, at the rot and decay that is their source.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

I raised my children to have integrity. These people are garbage.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

I am grateful to Vivek Ramaswamy for creating Strive Mutual Funds. It now has 2: DRLL (energy) and STRV (Strive corporate). I was able to put a small amount into DRLL and proud of it. It's spitting into the wind but it's my shot against ESG.

It's easier to swim with the tide and we see that with this corporate groupthink. The ghouls, losers and bot accounts on Twitter have convinced the corporate world the majority opinion is on the side of WOKE. It's not. However, the political leadership is and that's the frightening part.

Expand full comment

Yes.Withdraw your labor from the cult. Then, when your spirit has returned to balance, move them & take the piss out of them, without a grain of malice, to keep them on the path of humility. Don't forget, if nature wants to give them forgiveness then let them find the path their themselves & experience that on nature's time schedule, not theirs.

Expand full comment

"not theirs", nor yours. And that's the hard part.

I still practice carpentry and knot tying skills in case gallows are requested, but maybe Devine Justice is all we can hope for.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

I'm afraid this argument can be (uncharitably?) read as an admonition to turn the other cheek. That doesn't really work with psychopaths. You run out of cheek longs before they stop hitting you.

Expand full comment
author

It's not, but I understand reading it that way. I think we're facing a series of attacks and attackers that self-destruct to at least some degree because of their own inherent madness, and I'm wondering how much bad ideas just fall apart. And I'm trying to look at ways that people fight back, not all of which have to look like "fighting back." Imploding booster compliance rates is a sign of people refusing, even if they aren't in the streets. Single-digit childhood mRNA uptake is good news, even if it's not victory. I think there's a range of behaviors in both the resistance and the collapse of the thing being resisted.

Expand full comment

I agree. I think we must all refuse to comply with the ‘rules’ of these fake ‘emergencies’. Nonviolent, complete noncompliance re masks, distancing, closures of businesses, curfews, mandated injections...all of it. If almost everyone turns their back on all of this (illegal and immoral) evilness, it will stop it. Imagine every employee of a business refusing the shot, or all parents of students in a school, or every customer of a store, etc. refuse? Not just a few outliers...all of us! What’s the worst that can happen? We all complied because they told us to. Remember, we were taught to ignore bad behavior. It can work. TPTB cannot, under any circumstances, be trusted to ‘declare an emergency’. I’ll decide for myself.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

Pretend in order to get clear of it. Then strike in all sorts of invisible but significant ways.

I’m sure Sun Tzu says it more eloquently.

Life is war. And vice versa.

Never stop fighting.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

What if wokeness is literally like a cancer. Because it hunkers down and hides, do you just go on as if nothing is there? Leftism/totalitarianism is a poison, unfortunately attractive to many people, that must be eradicated when and wherever it shows its face.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

I think you may be correct. Fighting is a young persons first instinct, but the longer one lives the more one notices that the vast majority of people in this world are either stupid or evil or both. So then one eventually comes to the conclusion that fighting is simply banging your head against a 20 foot thick concrete wall. It doesn’t do much of anything to help, but it really hurts your noggin. If you wait, hopefully what goes around will eventually come around. But I DO understand your anger and anxiety.

Expand full comment
Sep 23, 2022Liked by Chris Bray

There are things: systems, projects, etc. Some are created as camouflage, like corporate DIE and ESG programs. Some are created for ostensibly good reasons: Child Protective Services, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Act, etc. Some may be created for the deliberate exercise of some evil, e.g., greed: genital mutilation of minors at various university hospitals all over the country.

However, all of these things, once set up, are manipulable by bad actors for their own ends. An insurance company that doesn't want to pay for a kid's mitochondrial disorder medication tips off CPS that the kid is a victim of "medical child abuse," and the kid is taken from his parents for months or maybe forever. Somebody who wants a promotion, but doesn't deserve it, narcs on a co-worker for having once laughed at a non-PC joke on his own personal time. Drug companies create a kajillion vaccination products and get them near-mandated by their friends in government, while facing zero liability.

Things that may have been created for "fake" reasons have a way of becoming very real. They can't be ignored; they have to be fought.

Expand full comment