Great post, Chris. Good reminder of how important it is to “guard your heart,” - to be careful (curate) what you fill your mind with. We often forget the power of the subconscious mind. A lot of folks are touting the benefits of “touching grass.” (Go outside and experience the real world. ) Seems as if going to an MLB game is a version of that.
I live .75 miles from an absolute gem of a park, 340 acres with ball fields, running trails, off leash dog park. I take my two dogs daily for a walk, that is my medicine.
When I see my dogs play together, my problems melt away and my heart soars.
I don’t read UK newspapers, gave up in 2016. But something leaped out at me this weekend re India and Pakistan. “Will it hold?” - no credit for an actual ceasefire being negotiated, rather at the first opportunity insinuate doubt/worry/anxiety/fear. Negativity every time.
Fundamentally, fear sells media. So the media is constantly looking for things that you fear. Should you not fear something, the media will tell you why you should fear it as a good person and you are bad for not fearing it.
It took them a little longer to find their squawks this time, but now their beaks are wide open and in full-throated alarm. Everything is fascist… Trump is literally Hitler… first they came for the MS-13 gangbangers… “I Am Kilmar Abriego Garcia.” Meanwhile, Trump ends or prevents wars, brings home hostages, kicks out Venezuelan goons, arranges fair trade deals across the planet. If this be fascism, play on. I could get used to it.
Great post Chris. To confirm, the tariffs are emptying the ports and shelves, the peace deal might not hold, the market is due for a crash after it goes up, and an asteroid exists which may eliminate all life on earth.
Chris' first paragraph is my experience in general. What I read about, and believe me I read a lot and I don't watch TV or follow MSM, stay off X, TikTok, Instagram, all of them, tells me that hatred is rampant in the streets, in the shops, within families, in government and institutions.
My own experience doesn't bear this out. Additionally, I live in Chicagoland and still find the conditions pretty good. Not the taxes, not the government, of course, but the people are just as friendly and nice as they are in my former state of Kansas and home state of Oklahoma.
If I look I can find plenty to immiserate about, but for 90% there's nothing I can do about it. I focus on the 10%, which is my own self-induced immiseration, that I can do something about.
I think Americans for the most part get along pretty well, but reporting on that doesn't generate ad revenue. Thank you, Chris, for telling us about your happy experience at the ballgame.
"The inferior league". When the Astros were switched from the National to the Inferior League, I was apoplectic.(I had followed them since they were the Colt 45's). Anyway, I've partially recuperated from that trauma, at least.
There are people who are relentlessly negative and unhappy and about anything and everything. It's best to avoid them. The problem is that when you take these folks and mix them with anarcho-communists/Islamists/insane people and they take over institutions you end up with a very toxic brew in them and everything is a crisis/Trump/MAGA/MAHA/racist/Nazi/etc. Americans are the least racist, friendliest people on earth: just look at the fact everyone on earth wants to move here and to deport anyone is a major fight. So, I'm glad you had fun at the games and enjoyed your Taco bowl: I haven't gone to a game in years but my experiences when I did were identical to yours.
This is so great, I especially like how the family adopted you at the game. We visited our son in LA recently and he warned us "don't expect people to say hi" because we are Nevada rubes and say hi to everyone. But everywhere we went, people were friendly and chatty. It didn't hurt that we had dogs with us. Dogs fix everything.
Like most things, dogs have positive AND negative qualities. For some (most?), the positive qualities of dogs outweigh the negative. For others, the opposite is true. Doesn't make them bad people.
Love that moniker: Imiserator. Wow! Perfect Mother’s Day gift! Glad you didn’t have any Imiserators around you there since there’s no crying (whining) in baseball.
Great term! I warned my kids of the “crazy makers” among their friends - same species, different type. The kids (early teens) at the time staunchly defended the “friends” who were constantly stirring the pot to rile things up, but then saw it and couldn’t ever unsee it. Our Imiserators aren’t subtle these days so it’s kind of like pointing out an albino crow among a murder of black ones.
The imiserators the ugly spawn of the baby boomers and early Xer’s won’t quit until they have slipped their mortal coils and slide into limbo. They hate themselves so much that it makes them obese or X-ray thin and it is ALL OUR FAULTS Damn it. Mommy and Daddy told ME I could be president not Orangeman Bad! The latest? An airplane. A bloody Boeing airplane that supposedly Qatar is gifting to the US DoD, which will serve as Air Force One until Boeing builds the next 3…Boeing is an American airplane manufacturer of some note not Airbus which is a European consortium….but Trump and his family are crooks and need severe jail time. Of course they do darling! And when they are all in jail and the deplorables are all in the work makes free camps we will build, so we can make our own cheap sneakers, life will be better; and better still when we burn the books and block up the churches…the really bad news for this clown show of miserable people is they are timing out. Yep, the rabbit of the baby boomers is now in the pythons belly and we are slowly being digested…it can not happen fast enough. Though you all have to admit it is fun to watch them protest again! 1968-1971 redux! 1,2,3,4 we don’t want to go to war!! Open toed Birkenstocks, hemp clothes and or tie dye shirts the smell of pot gone, don’t worry gummies have replaced the smell of the dope they need to function only now they need a bag of meds to go with their gummies, like blood thinners and no riot is complete without your Hurri-cane walking stick…let’s go Y and Z’ers! Time it neigh. Slap some bacon on a biscuit and get moving we’re burning daylight!
"I keep seeing health in people and sickness in institutions." Exactly right! A warning label needs to be put on the miserable immiserating immiserators.
I just had to tell one of my closest friends this Friday night. This emotional manipulation is making her crazy, to the point I had to walk away and go home because I couldn’t believe what came out of her mouth. It’s exasperating and too much to handle. I just want normal life.
I don’t think they understand the damage they are doing to themselves and everyone else.
She sent a text a few minutes later saying she was embarrassed, but I just don’t want to be around it. I can’t imagine having those thoughts. What is happening in their heads if the stuff they let out is that crazy.
Walter's comment about AOC, Bernie, and Liz just being a smokescreen for the looting of the public trough seems spot on in light of the $20B EPA shoveled out the door to obvious grifters and crooks: https://www.thefp.com/p/exclusive-internal-documents-reveal
We used to make fun of this sort of stuff in Latin America ("New President? The old one will flee the country and we should expect a currency devaluation.") but this behavior is appearing here as well.
I never found baseball interesting when I lived in the US. But here in Japan I've become a convert.
Another substacker wrote this - https://rionne.substack.com/p/why-there-are-no-organs-in-japanese - about the difference between watching baseball in a Japanese stadium and a US one. One thing in common is helmet food, though what is in the helmet depends on which stadium. But he misses one critical point - having pretty ladies pour beer for you while you sit in your seat is a major plus!
You will also experience this at the beach. At the height of the “America is racist” troping we enjoyed watching folks of all different colors and backgrounds playing in the waves together, helping with planting umbrellas and joyfully watching the dolphins swim by. Race baiters be damned.
But in our beach town, during the plandemic, a former CBS imiserator wrote a letter to the local paper about how it must have been the unmasked(!) bastards on the beach who gave her Covid. This while beach parking and hotels were closed, only residents on the beaches, and very few of them. I suspect the Venn diagram of imiserators and leftists is very close to a single circle.
Great post, Chris. Good reminder of how important it is to “guard your heart,” - to be careful (curate) what you fill your mind with. We often forget the power of the subconscious mind. A lot of folks are touting the benefits of “touching grass.” (Go outside and experience the real world. ) Seems as if going to an MLB game is a version of that.
I live .75 miles from an absolute gem of a park, 340 acres with ball fields, running trails, off leash dog park. I take my two dogs daily for a walk, that is my medicine.
When I see my dogs play together, my problems melt away and my heart soars.
bsn
We really don’t deserve our dogs and their unconditional love.
Good message Whip.....Meditation.....read the Sutras of Patanjali
MLB is finally coming to their senses.
I don’t read UK newspapers, gave up in 2016. But something leaped out at me this weekend re India and Pakistan. “Will it hold?” - no credit for an actual ceasefire being negotiated, rather at the first opportunity insinuate doubt/worry/anxiety/fear. Negativity every time.
Fundamentally, fear sells media. So the media is constantly looking for things that you fear. Should you not fear something, the media will tell you why you should fear it as a good person and you are bad for not fearing it.
You have summed up, amongst other things, the entire situation surrounding the notion of climate change.
It took them a little longer to find their squawks this time, but now their beaks are wide open and in full-throated alarm. Everything is fascist… Trump is literally Hitler… first they came for the MS-13 gangbangers… “I Am Kilmar Abriego Garcia.” Meanwhile, Trump ends or prevents wars, brings home hostages, kicks out Venezuelan goons, arranges fair trade deals across the planet. If this be fascism, play on. I could get used to it.
Great post Chris. To confirm, the tariffs are emptying the ports and shelves, the peace deal might not hold, the market is due for a crash after it goes up, and an asteroid exists which may eliminate all life on earth.
Our media, don't we love em'.
I'm not gonna lie.....those helmet nachos look pretty delicious.
😉😁
Chris' first paragraph is my experience in general. What I read about, and believe me I read a lot and I don't watch TV or follow MSM, stay off X, TikTok, Instagram, all of them, tells me that hatred is rampant in the streets, in the shops, within families, in government and institutions.
My own experience doesn't bear this out. Additionally, I live in Chicagoland and still find the conditions pretty good. Not the taxes, not the government, of course, but the people are just as friendly and nice as they are in my former state of Kansas and home state of Oklahoma.
If I look I can find plenty to immiserate about, but for 90% there's nothing I can do about it. I focus on the 10%, which is my own self-induced immiseration, that I can do something about.
I think Americans for the most part get along pretty well, but reporting on that doesn't generate ad revenue. Thank you, Chris, for telling us about your happy experience at the ballgame.
"The inferior league". When the Astros were switched from the National to the Inferior League, I was apoplectic.(I had followed them since they were the Colt 45's). Anyway, I've partially recuperated from that trauma, at least.
There are people who are relentlessly negative and unhappy and about anything and everything. It's best to avoid them. The problem is that when you take these folks and mix them with anarcho-communists/Islamists/insane people and they take over institutions you end up with a very toxic brew in them and everything is a crisis/Trump/MAGA/MAHA/racist/Nazi/etc. Americans are the least racist, friendliest people on earth: just look at the fact everyone on earth wants to move here and to deport anyone is a major fight. So, I'm glad you had fun at the games and enjoyed your Taco bowl: I haven't gone to a game in years but my experiences when I did were identical to yours.
Danny Huckabee
Since AIUI both leagues now have the DH, is there really any difference?
One of the things I like about Japan is that the Central League still makes the pitchers bat, and some of them are pretty good.
This is so great, I especially like how the family adopted you at the game. We visited our son in LA recently and he warned us "don't expect people to say hi" because we are Nevada rubes and say hi to everyone. But everywhere we went, people were friendly and chatty. It didn't hurt that we had dogs with us. Dogs fix everything.
Does certainly fix everything 🥰
I'm very suspicious of people who don't like dogs!
Like most things, dogs have positive AND negative qualities. For some (most?), the positive qualities of dogs outweigh the negative. For others, the opposite is true. Doesn't make them bad people.
Love that moniker: Imiserator. Wow! Perfect Mother’s Day gift! Glad you didn’t have any Imiserators around you there since there’s no crying (whining) in baseball.
Great term! I warned my kids of the “crazy makers” among their friends - same species, different type. The kids (early teens) at the time staunchly defended the “friends” who were constantly stirring the pot to rile things up, but then saw it and couldn’t ever unsee it. Our Imiserators aren’t subtle these days so it’s kind of like pointing out an albino crow among a murder of black ones.
The imiserators the ugly spawn of the baby boomers and early Xer’s won’t quit until they have slipped their mortal coils and slide into limbo. They hate themselves so much that it makes them obese or X-ray thin and it is ALL OUR FAULTS Damn it. Mommy and Daddy told ME I could be president not Orangeman Bad! The latest? An airplane. A bloody Boeing airplane that supposedly Qatar is gifting to the US DoD, which will serve as Air Force One until Boeing builds the next 3…Boeing is an American airplane manufacturer of some note not Airbus which is a European consortium….but Trump and his family are crooks and need severe jail time. Of course they do darling! And when they are all in jail and the deplorables are all in the work makes free camps we will build, so we can make our own cheap sneakers, life will be better; and better still when we burn the books and block up the churches…the really bad news for this clown show of miserable people is they are timing out. Yep, the rabbit of the baby boomers is now in the pythons belly and we are slowly being digested…it can not happen fast enough. Though you all have to admit it is fun to watch them protest again! 1968-1971 redux! 1,2,3,4 we don’t want to go to war!! Open toed Birkenstocks, hemp clothes and or tie dye shirts the smell of pot gone, don’t worry gummies have replaced the smell of the dope they need to function only now they need a bag of meds to go with their gummies, like blood thinners and no riot is complete without your Hurri-cane walking stick…let’s go Y and Z’ers! Time it neigh. Slap some bacon on a biscuit and get moving we’re burning daylight!
"I keep seeing health in people and sickness in institutions." Exactly right! A warning label needs to be put on the miserable immiserating immiserators.
I just had to tell one of my closest friends this Friday night. This emotional manipulation is making her crazy, to the point I had to walk away and go home because I couldn’t believe what came out of her mouth. It’s exasperating and too much to handle. I just want normal life.
I don’t think they understand the damage they are doing to themselves and everyone else.
She sent a text a few minutes later saying she was embarrassed, but I just don’t want to be around it. I can’t imagine having those thoughts. What is happening in their heads if the stuff they let out is that crazy.
Walter's comment about AOC, Bernie, and Liz just being a smokescreen for the looting of the public trough seems spot on in light of the $20B EPA shoveled out the door to obvious grifters and crooks: https://www.thefp.com/p/exclusive-internal-documents-reveal
We used to make fun of this sort of stuff in Latin America ("New President? The old one will flee the country and we should expect a currency devaluation.") but this behavior is appearing here as well.
I never found baseball interesting when I lived in the US. But here in Japan I've become a convert.
Another substacker wrote this - https://rionne.substack.com/p/why-there-are-no-organs-in-japanese - about the difference between watching baseball in a Japanese stadium and a US one. One thing in common is helmet food, though what is in the helmet depends on which stadium. But he misses one critical point - having pretty ladies pour beer for you while you sit in your seat is a major plus!
Helmet sushi? I hope not…
No. Fried things mostly Potato Fries, Fried Chicken.... Or nachos
Karage chicken, the very best fried chicken
I’m in!
You will also experience this at the beach. At the height of the “America is racist” troping we enjoyed watching folks of all different colors and backgrounds playing in the waves together, helping with planting umbrellas and joyfully watching the dolphins swim by. Race baiters be damned.
But in our beach town, during the plandemic, a former CBS imiserator wrote a letter to the local paper about how it must have been the unmasked(!) bastards on the beach who gave her Covid. This while beach parking and hotels were closed, only residents on the beaches, and very few of them. I suspect the Venn diagram of imiserators and leftists is very close to a single circle.