It's all so tiresome - Robin Epley looks exactly how you'd expect. The Sacramento Bee should be renamed The Sacramento Bootlicker. Perhaps we should fund Bray to move to town and start The Decay Guardian...
A lot of the AWFL's don't have much experience in consensual sex of any kind. And prefer the nonconsensual kind. But don't dare call it rape of sexual assault if done by someone who shares the same AWFL value system. Like, say, most doctors today. Come up with a clever linguistic name for it, like, hmmm, "nonconsensual intimate examinations" and Voila!, it's not rape! Unconscious? No problem, got that covered!
By attending legislative bill hearings we can often learn things that aren't reported in the news. Like I learned when I attended this bill hearing in 2023:
Massachusetts 2023 H.2146 / S.1333
An Act prohibiting nonconsensual intimate examinations of anesthetized or unconscious patients
(Timestamp is descending, testimony begins when 31:23 is remaining in hearing, runs about ten minutes)
Despite this public hearing and the outrage and disgust the legislators voiced and showed on their faces during the hearing, the bill failed and it is still legal in Massachusetts and most states for doctors to sexually assault their patients while they're anesthetized, without their consent. Had it been reported there would've been sufficient outrage to pass the prohibition.
That Guardians of Decay thing. Protecting how today's leaders think of the deplorable, stupid proles reaches everywhere. Leaders and top officials are trained to think like this by what passes as higher education. Especially in the allopathic medical industry. It's taught and called Utilitarian ethics. Greater good. And the scribes for the state, the Guardians of Decay, the AWFL's are taught and practice the same ethics.
Their justification for these types of offenses and assaults?
"You might say "no."
That's on the record in the hearing recording link I provided above. Go in to get your tonsils removed, an appendectomy, leave walking funny, and not from the surgery. You might've said "no" if you knew. And they needed to be trained, practice. Your body served a greater good.
A sickening truth about the risks everyone faces when anesthetized in a hospital. And how the 'elite' think about everything they do, every violation of our individual rights. The collective is more important. Greater good. So good that it mustn't be reported or talked about in polite company. Guardians of Decay time. The masses might get squeamish about it and then they'll lose their super-good 'health' care:
Where do you think Dr. Larry Nassar got the idea he could sexually assault all of those Olympic athletes without repercussions in the first place? Medical School!!!:
Thing about Guardians of Decay, sometimes the ugly truth can't be hidden, one of their own goes too far, is sacrificed. Made out to be a one-off, not systemic. Amputation protects the rest of the decaying system.
Why do Californians put up with it? Next comes the conclusion, which is that Californians are getting what they voted for.
(which still doesn't answer WHY)
Here is why, (and it is very difficult for anyone with a libertarian bone in his body to understand:)
If a pill existed, that would literally, actually, LITERALLY turn you into a sheep. With wool, 4 hoofs and only able to herd and say only Baaa Baaa! Half of California would eagerly take it. Seriously. If they were told to and that it made them one of the good people, and they would be "taken care of" even if that meant sheered, castrated, vaccinated masked and then ultimately turned into lamb chops, they would line up to take it , and boast about it on social media.
This is not an exaggeration.
The communists here are communists because THEY WANT TO BE communists. Alcoholics are alcoholics BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE. (both have an excellence argument for eschewing their defining characteristic, but it is violently rejected.
It is easy to get lost on ramifications (no pun intended) but that is in and of itself the distraction.
As "free thinkers"/ "red pilled" etc., we need to recognize this as the problem, they are not just misguided versions of ourselves. For the first time in history, we need to teach people how to WANT to be free. This is what we are up against. But first we need to accept that is the problem to address.
People under Socialist governments get "taken care of", good and hard. Those governments collapse because of exponential growth, usually in corruption and power and bonded indebtedness to finance the largesse and pay the political class. Their obligations in terms of dollars and cents (in terms of bonded indebtedness) grow until they invariably default on their bonds, the tax base moves out, and all they have left is the dependent population which can't afford the taxes, but continue to vote for them because of the promises they make - and will inevitably break, because the money is no longer there. They end up with a destroyed and poor state. The only answer is to get rid of them - and prevent them from perpetrating the same fraud elsewhere.
It's not just Californians. Or just communists. It's most people, whether we want to admit it or not. And we knew this, probably were guilty of this ourselves in high school.
I think most everybody reading this Stack went through 9th grade in an American school. That experience alone is enough to know why so many people go along and follow the herd.
Reflecting back on that time of life, it could've been 9th or any number of grades before or after, but 9th is in the middle of the experience of which I speak. Sitting in class. All of the kids surrounding us. The Nerds. The Jocks. The Princesses. The Rebels. The Misfits. And all the variations in-between. Only the nerds really wanted to be there. Most everybody wanted to be somewhere else, with other people doing something else. And were only interested in doing the least amount they needed to be doing to get through it.
Most all didn't even want to be noticed. Get in, get out, no hands up to answer, no hands up to ask, most praying no teacher called on them. On top of that there was often the friend we wanted to meet in between classes, the cute guy/girl we hoped to catch the eye of, maybe talk with in the hall. We suffered class because we had to, and just wanted the time to fly until the next break.
Inevitably the class would have the smart nerd, or the really annoyingly slow kid who raised their hands. Both would generate the eyerolls exchanged between classmates. "This kid is so stupid always asking questions." "This kid thinks he's so smart always having the answers." And the even more dreaded "Who's this kid think he is correcting the teacher, he thinks he's so smart...oh...wait, he was right...but so what! He could've just let it pass, nobody was paying attention anyways!"
90% of the class had those thoughts going through their heads when those hands went up. Eyerolls:
"This better not make us late getting out of class! The teacher was going to let us out early, I could've hung out with friends/love interests longer! Reallllly?!?!? Just shut up, go along with it and it's better for all of us, we all want to get out of here and you're holding us up! Nerd! Idiot! Just go along with it and it's over faster for all of us!"
It didn't matter if a teacher made mistakes, if others just wanted time to understand what was being taught better. 90% wanted the easiest path involving the least amount of thinking so they could get back to doing what they wanted to do more. And the Guardians of Decay came of age.
This is what happened on a society-wide, global level in 2020. And happens daily with multiple issues like Chris shares. And most people, just like those 9th grade classes, move on and don't care about what happens. They do what they're supposed to do, keep quiet, want those of us who are raising our hands to just shut up and do what we were told, make it easier on everybody so they can go back to doing what they want to do more. Which they've done and do. And don't know why we drone on about it. They're perfectly happy to let the teacher's mistaken lessons or abuses stand as truth or get ignored. And get annoyed when we point it out. And cheer on the Guardians of Decay.
That said, I don't care if I annoy them, nor does Chris or most of us on this Stack. I want to annoy them. I want to provoke them, incite them, spark something in their heads to make them curious enough to question, to engage the critical thinking skills all were born with. But most were conditioned in the school system and social-cultural environment (Guardians of Decay) to turn off. The absence of critical thinking skills is hazardous to ones health. Only when our classmates decide their health and freedom is more important than the many other exciting and interesting distractions we're provided by our ben(mal)evolent betters will they turn on their critical thinking skills.
Which is to say we're swimming upstream against very strong currents. But we do it anyways. Like salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Gotta be strong. And it may kill us. But we do it for our posterity.
“Freedom”, that’s just another word for “nothin’ left to lose”🎵. My point being, the ideological rot has been set in for decades. What we are experiencing now are the ramifications of an unmoored culture. The Californians would happily get sheered because they have not been taught what is worth fighting for and preserving. Sadly, this is true not only in California, but in many places across the country and the Western world. Our education system and other cultural institutions have been infiltrated and manipulated and the general population does not have the critical thinking tools to recognize the threat nor to fight it. What to do, what to do?
You've hit the major problem with the media these days: They don't exist to inform, they exist to persuade. So you get the journalism filter of "help the narrative" in EVERY SINGLE STORY. This attitude is perfectly captured by the video in this article: https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/ok-biden-was-senile-but-we-still
Chuck Todd claims OF COURSE the media knew about Biden's "condition", but they had to be SUBTLE about it so as not to help Donald Trump.
That's the state of the media. Not to inform, but to persuade.
As far as that particular bill goes, I'd imagine my high school sex life would have fallen off a cliff if I offered to buy sex from a classmate - especially for $20! (Even back then!) Scottie boy constantly gives off "that" vibe, and I'm pretty sure we all know why.
Nice thought but not going to happen. He's destroying these lunatic's political infrastructure and patronage networks. He's going to need the force of law and the credibility to use it when they get violent.
“…holy shit is that model broken.” (e.g., truthful journalism telling us honestly what the regime politicians are up to). Indeed. The evil, perverted “guardians of decay” that get elected KNOW that what journalism is supposed to do, so they bought the journalists off. MSM has no viable financial model without “bribes” from the government funds through NGOs and from Big Pharma. Follow the money to figure out why the model is broken.
this is why the only path to freedom is cutting government budgets to the bone. We're indebting future generations to pay for our own political enslavement now.
Will re-read more thoroughly but just had to remark on this:
"...asking what's true is itself the problem."
But that /is/ the problem to any True Believer or authoritarian! Someone asking if "it" is true is the problem, because by asking they open the door to "it" not being true at all. And the second question will always be:
"If you rule because you are the arbiter of "it" and you claim your rule is legal and just and justified because of "it", but "it" has been proven false compared to your claims - how can you have any authority at all!?"
And that's why "...asking what's true is itself the problem.".
1,500 bills introduced, 1,000 pass. What isn't a crime in California? Paying a minor for sex. I'm sure I've done something that IS a crime in California, but nothing as bad as what IS NOT a crime.
Not to in any way praise the WA legislature (especially after their tax and spend potlatch this session) but at least they are part-time as well. Limited to “short” and “long” sessions during a biennium. They can only do so much damage that way 😑.
So to sum up what is going on with this bill, the proponents have resorted to reductio ad absurdum, a logical argument where a (otherwise reasonable) position is refuted by taking it to an absurd extreme. Too bad no one studies logic any more. No one but Chris spotted it, the Dim perv politicians use it at will, and the Sacramento Bee is an enthusiastic practitioner of this kind of intellectual dishonesty. I think, eventually, someone is going to get killed.
I thinks perhaps you have a slight typographical error. The correct phrase is "reductio ad absurdum". But your meaning is clear, and your comment worthy. Thanks!
Laughed out loud at “If you don’t spend your days listening to Scott Wiener, you’re winning at life. Chris Bray is apparently not winning at life, but let’s put that aside for now.” I occasionally question your tendencies toward intellectual self-abuse, Chris…
Maybe the last official act of the Dept of Education should be to compel journalism schools to rebrand as “Decay Guardian” academies??
Don’t let Californians off the hook so easily. The Sacramento Bee may be Guardians of Decay, but many Californians reject out of hand other sources of information, such as Tell Me How This Ends.
When I dispute a false narrative offered as fact by a liberal friends by saying something such as “read the bill,” I’m often accused of parroting MAGA lies. They won’t read the bill and if they do, like the Sacramento Bee, they’ll tell me what it really means, which is never what it says.
I'm old enough to remember when the official Party line was that all age disparities in re sexual relations need to be first scanned and frisked for Foucault's Magic Power Dynamics™—meaning the unseen but oppressive miasmic power that flows between all of us—and that a man over 20 obviously has the heavy weight of Patriarchy on his side when dating a younger woman, and this should be discouraged in order for women to feel Safe (the highest of all values) and maintain proper levels of self-esteem. Hey, that guy buying french fries for his date might be the manager where she works or the editor of the college newspaper where she wants to publish—that smells just like the Handsmaid's Tale!
Who/Whom morality is the handy Swiss Army knife of our time, you can stab your enemies and protect your allies, and never know the difference.
It came back w a vengeance for #MeToo, but I think this time it was jettisoned so no one would ask too many questions about Biden showering w his daughter and doing lots of non-consenual hair sniffing.
Sadly, every city in the country has a Craptacular business that produces both online and real bird-cage liner. The Atlanta Urinal/Constipation in my fair city is little better--as it continually tries to foist cetacean candidate Stacey Abrams on the good people of Georgia. Far from being stupid, these writers (Anne Applebaum excepted) are educated enough to understand good rhetoric and honesty well enough to avoid both at every turn. But what can we as a society do? These businesses are immune to boycott as their purpose is to lose money so their Private Equity owners can claim an operating loss on their portfolios.
Figuring out a way to starve schools of Journalism of funding might be a good start, but how do we get that ball rolling?
The Waco Tribune is so bad they only publish a real paper three days a week, which has to be mailed, have only 4 employees ( I believe), and is going broke. But they still go out of their way to be as liberal as possible for central Texas. Goodbye and good riddance.
It's amazing how many mentally ill are in positions of governing and writing laws. Maybe it's time we all have to scrounge around for food again. That would get our priorities straight right quick.
This, and the "You're Not Crazy..." essay, really clarified some things for me. This is exactly correct: distract, reframe, deceive-all in service of an agenda, which is assumed to be (a priori) righteous and helpful, regardless of the experiences or values of voters.
It's all so tiresome - Robin Epley looks exactly how you'd expect. The Sacramento Bee should be renamed The Sacramento Bootlicker. Perhaps we should fund Bray to move to town and start The Decay Guardian...
Sacramento Bee Ess...
I think you’re being too polite in saying “Bootlicker”. Another word springs to mind - mine anyway.
Don't think she has much experience in the cash for sex trade--at least not as the payee.
A lot of the AWFL's don't have much experience in consensual sex of any kind. And prefer the nonconsensual kind. But don't dare call it rape of sexual assault if done by someone who shares the same AWFL value system. Like, say, most doctors today. Come up with a clever linguistic name for it, like, hmmm, "nonconsensual intimate examinations" and Voila!, it's not rape! Unconscious? No problem, got that covered!
By attending legislative bill hearings we can often learn things that aren't reported in the news. Like I learned when I attended this bill hearing in 2023:
Massachusetts 2023 H.2146 / S.1333
An Act prohibiting nonconsensual intimate examinations of anesthetized or unconscious patients
Committee on Public Health, 9/20/2023
https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4682
(Timestamp is descending, testimony begins when 31:23 is remaining in hearing, runs about ten minutes)
Despite this public hearing and the outrage and disgust the legislators voiced and showed on their faces during the hearing, the bill failed and it is still legal in Massachusetts and most states for doctors to sexually assault their patients while they're anesthetized, without their consent. Had it been reported there would've been sufficient outrage to pass the prohibition.
That Guardians of Decay thing. Protecting how today's leaders think of the deplorable, stupid proles reaches everywhere. Leaders and top officials are trained to think like this by what passes as higher education. Especially in the allopathic medical industry. It's taught and called Utilitarian ethics. Greater good. And the scribes for the state, the Guardians of Decay, the AWFL's are taught and practice the same ethics.
Their justification for these types of offenses and assaults?
"You might say "no."
That's on the record in the hearing recording link I provided above. Go in to get your tonsils removed, an appendectomy, leave walking funny, and not from the surgery. You might've said "no" if you knew. And they needed to be trained, practice. Your body served a greater good.
A sickening truth about the risks everyone faces when anesthetized in a hospital. And how the 'elite' think about everything they do, every violation of our individual rights. The collective is more important. Greater good. So good that it mustn't be reported or talked about in polite company. Guardians of Decay time. The masses might get squeamish about it and then they'll lose their super-good 'health' care:
https://www.atyourcervixmovie.com/
Where do you think Dr. Larry Nassar got the idea he could sexually assault all of those Olympic athletes without repercussions in the first place? Medical School!!!:
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/20/nx-s1-5042289/years-after-the-larry-nassar-scandal-are-olympic-athletes-safe-from-abuse
Thing about Guardians of Decay, sometimes the ugly truth can't be hidden, one of their own goes too far, is sacrificed. Made out to be a one-off, not systemic. Amputation protects the rest of the decaying system.
Amazing how the greater good never seems to work out in my favor. What are the odds?😂
Highly doubt she's the paid either!
I’m in for that. Go, Chris, go.
Noooooooooooooo no no no no no
Go Go Go Go Go Go!
Sacramento Confidential?
RE:
Why do Californians put up with it? Next comes the conclusion, which is that Californians are getting what they voted for.
(which still doesn't answer WHY)
Here is why, (and it is very difficult for anyone with a libertarian bone in his body to understand:)
If a pill existed, that would literally, actually, LITERALLY turn you into a sheep. With wool, 4 hoofs and only able to herd and say only Baaa Baaa! Half of California would eagerly take it. Seriously. If they were told to and that it made them one of the good people, and they would be "taken care of" even if that meant sheered, castrated, vaccinated masked and then ultimately turned into lamb chops, they would line up to take it , and boast about it on social media.
This is not an exaggeration.
The communists here are communists because THEY WANT TO BE communists. Alcoholics are alcoholics BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE. (both have an excellence argument for eschewing their defining characteristic, but it is violently rejected.
It is easy to get lost on ramifications (no pun intended) but that is in and of itself the distraction.
As "free thinkers"/ "red pilled" etc., we need to recognize this as the problem, they are not just misguided versions of ourselves. For the first time in history, we need to teach people how to WANT to be free. This is what we are up against. But first we need to accept that is the problem to address.
People under Socialist governments get "taken care of", good and hard. Those governments collapse because of exponential growth, usually in corruption and power and bonded indebtedness to finance the largesse and pay the political class. Their obligations in terms of dollars and cents (in terms of bonded indebtedness) grow until they invariably default on their bonds, the tax base moves out, and all they have left is the dependent population which can't afford the taxes, but continue to vote for them because of the promises they make - and will inevitably break, because the money is no longer there. They end up with a destroyed and poor state. The only answer is to get rid of them - and prevent them from perpetrating the same fraud elsewhere.
It's not just Californians. Or just communists. It's most people, whether we want to admit it or not. And we knew this, probably were guilty of this ourselves in high school.
I think most everybody reading this Stack went through 9th grade in an American school. That experience alone is enough to know why so many people go along and follow the herd.
Reflecting back on that time of life, it could've been 9th or any number of grades before or after, but 9th is in the middle of the experience of which I speak. Sitting in class. All of the kids surrounding us. The Nerds. The Jocks. The Princesses. The Rebels. The Misfits. And all the variations in-between. Only the nerds really wanted to be there. Most everybody wanted to be somewhere else, with other people doing something else. And were only interested in doing the least amount they needed to be doing to get through it.
Most all didn't even want to be noticed. Get in, get out, no hands up to answer, no hands up to ask, most praying no teacher called on them. On top of that there was often the friend we wanted to meet in between classes, the cute guy/girl we hoped to catch the eye of, maybe talk with in the hall. We suffered class because we had to, and just wanted the time to fly until the next break.
Inevitably the class would have the smart nerd, or the really annoyingly slow kid who raised their hands. Both would generate the eyerolls exchanged between classmates. "This kid is so stupid always asking questions." "This kid thinks he's so smart always having the answers." And the even more dreaded "Who's this kid think he is correcting the teacher, he thinks he's so smart...oh...wait, he was right...but so what! He could've just let it pass, nobody was paying attention anyways!"
90% of the class had those thoughts going through their heads when those hands went up. Eyerolls:
"This better not make us late getting out of class! The teacher was going to let us out early, I could've hung out with friends/love interests longer! Reallllly?!?!? Just shut up, go along with it and it's better for all of us, we all want to get out of here and you're holding us up! Nerd! Idiot! Just go along with it and it's over faster for all of us!"
It didn't matter if a teacher made mistakes, if others just wanted time to understand what was being taught better. 90% wanted the easiest path involving the least amount of thinking so they could get back to doing what they wanted to do more. And the Guardians of Decay came of age.
This is what happened on a society-wide, global level in 2020. And happens daily with multiple issues like Chris shares. And most people, just like those 9th grade classes, move on and don't care about what happens. They do what they're supposed to do, keep quiet, want those of us who are raising our hands to just shut up and do what we were told, make it easier on everybody so they can go back to doing what they want to do more. Which they've done and do. And don't know why we drone on about it. They're perfectly happy to let the teacher's mistaken lessons or abuses stand as truth or get ignored. And get annoyed when we point it out. And cheer on the Guardians of Decay.
That said, I don't care if I annoy them, nor does Chris or most of us on this Stack. I want to annoy them. I want to provoke them, incite them, spark something in their heads to make them curious enough to question, to engage the critical thinking skills all were born with. But most were conditioned in the school system and social-cultural environment (Guardians of Decay) to turn off. The absence of critical thinking skills is hazardous to ones health. Only when our classmates decide their health and freedom is more important than the many other exciting and interesting distractions we're provided by our ben(mal)evolent betters will they turn on their critical thinking skills.
Which is to say we're swimming upstream against very strong currents. But we do it anyways. Like salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Gotta be strong. And it may kill us. But we do it for our posterity.
So true.
"a gramme is better than a damn"
NI this isn't limited to california, i'm sad to say. pick any blue city
“Freedom”, that’s just another word for “nothin’ left to lose”🎵. My point being, the ideological rot has been set in for decades. What we are experiencing now are the ramifications of an unmoored culture. The Californians would happily get sheered because they have not been taught what is worth fighting for and preserving. Sadly, this is true not only in California, but in many places across the country and the Western world. Our education system and other cultural institutions have been infiltrated and manipulated and the general population does not have the critical thinking tools to recognize the threat nor to fight it. What to do, what to do?
You've hit the major problem with the media these days: They don't exist to inform, they exist to persuade. So you get the journalism filter of "help the narrative" in EVERY SINGLE STORY. This attitude is perfectly captured by the video in this article: https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/ok-biden-was-senile-but-we-still
Chuck Todd claims OF COURSE the media knew about Biden's "condition", but they had to be SUBTLE about it so as not to help Donald Trump.
That's the state of the media. Not to inform, but to persuade.
As far as that particular bill goes, I'd imagine my high school sex life would have fallen off a cliff if I offered to buy sex from a classmate - especially for $20! (Even back then!) Scottie boy constantly gives off "that" vibe, and I'm pretty sure we all know why.
Um, perhaps misinform and redirect would be more accurate. Persuade is so rational sounding….
"Who among us has not solicited a high schooler for a $20 hand job" is peak "..."And then, for no reason at all..."
And I do mean peak. This Karmelo Anthony / Shiloh Hendrix thing makes me think the manufactured fatigue is going to turn into something nasty.
Normal people can only be hectored by degenerates for so long.
if the DOJ were to avoid prosecuting street justice like the corrupt Biden DOJ did for riots, murder and mayhem, we could solve much of this.
Nice thought but not going to happen. He's destroying these lunatic's political infrastructure and patronage networks. He's going to need the force of law and the credibility to use it when they get violent.
One would think. But this has gone on for sooo long. Not sure there's an end in sight.
“…holy shit is that model broken.” (e.g., truthful journalism telling us honestly what the regime politicians are up to). Indeed. The evil, perverted “guardians of decay” that get elected KNOW that what journalism is supposed to do, so they bought the journalists off. MSM has no viable financial model without “bribes” from the government funds through NGOs and from Big Pharma. Follow the money to figure out why the model is broken.
this is why the only path to freedom is cutting government budgets to the bone. We're indebting future generations to pay for our own political enslavement now.
Will re-read more thoroughly but just had to remark on this:
"...asking what's true is itself the problem."
But that /is/ the problem to any True Believer or authoritarian! Someone asking if "it" is true is the problem, because by asking they open the door to "it" not being true at all. And the second question will always be:
"If you rule because you are the arbiter of "it" and you claim your rule is legal and just and justified because of "it", but "it" has been proven false compared to your claims - how can you have any authority at all!?"
And that's why "...asking what's true is itself the problem.".
Texas legislators meet for 140 days. Appropriately this only occurs in odd numbered years. If they're mad about something they flee to Oklahoma.
That pleases Texans, who keep the legislature around for amusement.
Miraculously, the state is prospering while California, with its annual legislative sessions, is not.
Hmm.
1,500 bills introduced, 1,000 pass. What isn't a crime in California? Paying a minor for sex. I'm sure I've done something that IS a crime in California, but nothing as bad as what IS NOT a crime.
Whenever a law is passed another lawyer get his wings. And a law school gets another donor.
George Bailey was a banker, not a lawyer. Clarence would never have received his wings if he helped a lawyer.
More importantly, who’s enforcing all these laws? Mostly, the laws that get enforced are the ones that cost taxpayers money, I.e., parking citations.
No one is safe while the legislature is in session.
Then the Okies chase them right back out.
Not to in any way praise the WA legislature (especially after their tax and spend potlatch this session) but at least they are part-time as well. Limited to “short” and “long” sessions during a biennium. They can only do so much damage that way 😑.
No one is safe when the legislature is meeting.
Not annual, he said 365.
So to sum up what is going on with this bill, the proponents have resorted to reductio ad absurdum, a logical argument where a (otherwise reasonable) position is refuted by taking it to an absurd extreme. Too bad no one studies logic any more. No one but Chris spotted it, the Dim perv politicians use it at will, and the Sacramento Bee is an enthusiastic practitioner of this kind of intellectual dishonesty. I think, eventually, someone is going to get killed.
I thinks perhaps you have a slight typographical error. The correct phrase is "reductio ad absurdum". But your meaning is clear, and your comment worthy. Thanks!
Yes. Thank you. I fixed it.
Laughed out loud at “If you don’t spend your days listening to Scott Wiener, you’re winning at life. Chris Bray is apparently not winning at life, but let’s put that aside for now.” I occasionally question your tendencies toward intellectual self-abuse, Chris…
Maybe the last official act of the Dept of Education should be to compel journalism schools to rebrand as “Decay Guardian” academies??
Don’t let Californians off the hook so easily. The Sacramento Bee may be Guardians of Decay, but many Californians reject out of hand other sources of information, such as Tell Me How This Ends.
When I dispute a false narrative offered as fact by a liberal friends by saying something such as “read the bill,” I’m often accused of parroting MAGA lies. They won’t read the bill and if they do, like the Sacramento Bee, they’ll tell me what it really means, which is never what it says.
I'm old enough to remember when the official Party line was that all age disparities in re sexual relations need to be first scanned and frisked for Foucault's Magic Power Dynamics™—meaning the unseen but oppressive miasmic power that flows between all of us—and that a man over 20 obviously has the heavy weight of Patriarchy on his side when dating a younger woman, and this should be discouraged in order for women to feel Safe (the highest of all values) and maintain proper levels of self-esteem. Hey, that guy buying french fries for his date might be the manager where she works or the editor of the college newspaper where she wants to publish—that smells just like the Handsmaid's Tale!
Who/Whom morality is the handy Swiss Army knife of our time, you can stab your enemies and protect your allies, and never know the difference.
That “power dynamic” thing went out the window when Bill was caught with Monica.
It came back w a vengeance for #MeToo, but I think this time it was jettisoned so no one would ask too many questions about Biden showering w his daughter and doing lots of non-consenual hair sniffing.
But it will be back again when it's needed...
Sadly, every city in the country has a Craptacular business that produces both online and real bird-cage liner. The Atlanta Urinal/Constipation in my fair city is little better--as it continually tries to foist cetacean candidate Stacey Abrams on the good people of Georgia. Far from being stupid, these writers (Anne Applebaum excepted) are educated enough to understand good rhetoric and honesty well enough to avoid both at every turn. But what can we as a society do? These businesses are immune to boycott as their purpose is to lose money so their Private Equity owners can claim an operating loss on their portfolios.
Figuring out a way to starve schools of Journalism of funding might be a good start, but how do we get that ball rolling?
The Waco Tribune is so bad they only publish a real paper three days a week, which has to be mailed, have only 4 employees ( I believe), and is going broke. But they still go out of their way to be as liberal as possible for central Texas. Goodbye and good riddance.
reductio ad cinerem
It's amazing how many mentally ill are in positions of governing and writing laws. Maybe it's time we all have to scrounge around for food again. That would get our priorities straight right quick.
I guess that's how Scott Weiner got sex in high school. Probably also how he gets sex in high schools now.
"that clutching pearls works to rile constituencies up"
Like if you don't let your child transition gender they will kill themself?
This, and the "You're Not Crazy..." essay, really clarified some things for me. This is exactly correct: distract, reframe, deceive-all in service of an agenda, which is assumed to be (a priori) righteous and helpful, regardless of the experiences or values of voters.
It's everywhere now.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/unfalsifiable-belief