I have observed that your excellent writing and insights have attracted more than the usual number of physicians to your substack, Chris Bray. I followed the responses in the above video and what immediately came to mind was when I am interviewing evasive patients about alcohol or drug abuse they all come up with similar responses: i.e. pause, disingenuous explanation, defensive posture and inevitable sly( I call it FOS) transient smile. (In other words--they don't believe their own BS).
That was painful. And funny, in a sad sort of way... my "favorite" (?) was the woman who, when asked what Kamala has accomplished, said "She's the Vice President," as though that settled it, then followed up with, "The position of Vice President is... mostly... decorative." 😩
I haven't watched sportsball since they all went woke in 2020/21, but I watched every game of this World Series and got rehooked. I even watched Moneyball a couple nights ago (I never saw it back then) and got even more into it. My Significant Other is a baseball superfreak, but hadn't watched any of this season either, and was really into the Series with me and also assured me that there wasn't a game tonight. I didn't bother to check the schedule because I "trusted her."
Yeah there was a game tonight. And I was rooting for the Dodgers. And it was awesome. And I missed it. We figured it out when the headlines started. I am told to forgive, but this might be a bridge too far.
This is the first time my wife and I have watched baseball together. She hates baseball. This Dodger team is probably the only good thing to come out of LA this year.
The best part of the win was the diversion created by the celebrators in the streets. I got me a nice thick gold chain out of that jewelry store while no one was looking.
It's because they only have surface-level knowledge of the subject. You know how when people know a lot about a subject, they can talk about it for hours and hours and hours?
The opposite is true, as well.
If all you know is "Orange Man Bad".....that's all you know.
Spot on. I just had a discussion yesterday with one of my BFFs, a Kamala supporter. I asked why she would trust Trump’s opponent to learn about Trump. After a few minutes she said, “I can’t have this discussion.” I replied that this is how it always goes, but she corrected me—to her credit—and admitted that she was incapable of having this discussion because she didn’t have enough facts at hand. I reminded her that I used to share her opinion of Trump, but as I began to gather facts, I slowly but surely changed my mind.
The TikTokInstaTwitterFace has a lot to do with it. Most of the hive have little reason to wade into reality beyond the depth of their cankles. While you are talking your hate the hummingbird driving their meatsack has already swiped to the next sugary feeder.
Their entire lives are drift atop the cloud. Propped up by the most expensive and comprehensive entitlement program in human history. Liberalism. Leftism. Progressivism. Whatever you care to name it. Like the infinite genders project. Or the infinite truths project. Or the relativity theory of everything.
These beliefs and mindset are the true luxury items of our time. We have transcended the physical by solving those physical problems that kept people honest but also engaged in reality.
These people have been awash in the baptismal waters of extreme abundance their entire lives. They have been conditioned to an alt-reality that is tethered to reality by fine strands of want but little else. Their alt-reality is intractable from who they are. Which is Good People. You cannot affront one without psychic harm to the other.
The culmination of apex luxury and nearly complete banishment of physical discomforts during a time when the long march of anti-reason finally jumped the shark of reality has rendered their minds incapable of discerning not just facts and reason, but also the reality of their own experience.
The mechanism for cumulative knowledge - and practical application of such, that informs wisdom is gone baby gone. They are the embodiment of a soundbyte.
Whatever residual experience they manage to cull from the cloud is so often eclipsed by their emotions, the charred husks of their dopamine chambers, the manic twitching of their reptilian vestiges, that they are for all intents incapable of living in a world where reality defines anything. Where the Truth reigns.
The other side of this satanic inversion is literally at war with reality, which is to say the Truth. And these people are casualties. They just don't know it yet.
good point. same principle as mkultra. get the general public to practice a mantra and a ritual, then there's no need for a jen psycho making faces and shuffling her papers in front of the press crew
Many self professed liberals don’t look beneath the surface at all. They will cut off friends and family over politics. They will sit in your living room and scream at you that trans women are women and jk Rowling wants all trans people dead, right after you fed them dinner. It’s confusing. Neither Trump or Harris will come to your kids bar (or bat) mitzvah or dog sit for you or visit you in the hospital. Why do people get so emotionally attached to politicians and also celebrities? Did it start with tv and now it’s social media?
While I will never be emotionally attached to a politician or party, I too will cut off "friends" who cannot see reality. If they have become the evil zombies they constantly protest about, with zero self awareness, the friendship has been just as false. I can forgive (which the current crop of blue wave zombies seem unable to do), but I also will never forget the hate, lies and sociopathic behavior of the "vote blue no matter who" and "He's going to put y'all back in chains" insane asylum refugee crowd.
Ironically though, that's the same logic they will use to cut you off.
Perhaps this is for the best though. The only way for two people who live in such divergent forms of reality to coexist peacefully is to separate from each other. Whether that's physically or at least by agreeing not to talk about particular issues.
It went on steroids when the msm dropped all pretense of honest, independent journalism & proudly became an arm of the leftist/progressive party. The symptoms were always there but after 8 (excruciating) years of Obama, then Hillary’s loss to Trump - they lost their minds & focused on brainwashing ours. After years of cia controlled newsrooms, the brainwashing /psyop was in full gear. And it helped that TikTokInstaTwitterFace (love that) censored any attempt at exposing truth.
It has nothing to do with knowledge. It's a "narrative attack." We are in information war, and this is an attack. It's also a way to recognize the enemy -- the enemy asks "what makes Trump a racist"? A friend just applauds the hit, and cackles.
If an abusive husband calls you the wife stupid, if you try to prove you are not, you've already lost. If an abusive political party calls you all garbage, if you try to prove you are not, you've already lost. Respond to the attack, not to the message camouflaging it.
Stop telling me Trump is going to send the Molly Jong-Fasts of the world to the camps. I already voted for him once this election, I'm not allowed to do it again.
I have to admit, the way some Trump detractors talk, it is like they are saying they believe they deserve it. I am reminded of one time I heard a crash downstairs, and found my middle child (about 4 at the time) next to a pile of books off the shelf.
"What happened?"
"I am not going to tell you."
"Uhm... ok. Why's that?"
"Because you are just going to put me in time out!"
"Why?"
"Because I was climbing the shelf to get a book and knocked all these down!"
Those with guilty consciences often fear more punishments than others intend to inflict; expectation of retribution is rough when the judge lives inside you.
Well, the fact she knew she should not have been doing it then did it anyway demands punishment. With her the challenge has always been “If you know dad says you shouldn’t do it, that’s a reason to not do it, not just a reason to avoid being caught”.
In the event she just got a lecture on how dangerous it is to climb bookshelves and I made her pick up the books and put them away. I am not a big fan of time out when more situationally appropriate punishment is handy.
Which came first, the stupidity or the propaganda? My 89 year old neighbor called me one day in glee that Trump had been found guilty of 34 felony counts. She wanted to know how I felt about THAT. So I asked her exactly what felony it was he was guilty of. Her response was “Oh you know”. I had to ask her three more times before I got a response. She hung up on me.
It's funny when leftists bring this up, given they're so concerned with "de-carceration", defunding police and ending the "stigma" of those who've "encountered" the legal system. They go from ACAB to Bull Connor at the drop of a hat.
When I was growing up, we called homeless people “bums.” It wasn’t a pejorative, it was a term for people who “bummed” money. When someone hadn’t combed their hair, we’d say, “You look like a bum.” Then we were taught that it wasn’t proper to use that term, we should say “homeless people.” Now when someone’s hair is uncombed, we say “you look like a homeless person.” And now we have to say “unhoused.” How long before that word becomes pejorative?
Yeah I've seen it floating around somewhere: don't say "felon" or "ex-con" but some bullshit euphemism that "progressives" spend all their time mulling over.
I was held hostage by a shop owner in New Mexico today whose literally 30 minute tirade complete with red face, standing up, sitting down, pacing, complete inability to stop himself to help customers who had come in, was triggered by me saying we were visiting from Texas. I thought I heard all of the crazy until this guy asked Rachael Maddie to hold his beer. Did any of you know that Trump has never, not once, never, stepped inside a church in his life? Do you know that if a New Mexican drives into Texas with NM tags on their car, they’ll get run off the road? (This is not an urban legend-it happened to his own brother in law who had HIS 8!!!!! YEAR OLD DAUGHTER IN THE CAR). Just for having a New Mexico license plate. Were any of you aware that at MD Anderson Hospital, not one single doctor will treat a woman with pregnancy complications because of Trump and his “minions” Paxton and Abbott? Well, it turns out if a pregnant woman in their hospitals has complications, a nurse hands them a stack of towels and tells them to go bleed out in the parking lot (again, he knew this for a fact because he heard it from his niece, who is a nurse at that hospital). I have to admit, “take this stack of towels and go bleed out in the parking lot” is a significant upgrade from “women will die in back alleys with a coat hangers sticking out their hoo ha”. So much easier to visualize the towels, the parking lot, the one flickering stadium light in the parking lot than all variations on “You’ll die if you can’t get an abortion in the 9th month within 15 minutes from your residence, paid for by someone who isn’t you” 1.0
I admit to using one of my favorite tactics, refusing to escalate with a hysterical person, on him. I never told him who I support (but I’m sure in his telling, he knew I was an cold hearted Trumper because I wasn’t outraged by the 8 year old or the bloody towels in the hospital parking lots). When he seethed “Trump is not a Christian” I replied “Anyone who was hoping for a Christian to vote for in this election is shit out of luck”. When he told me about Uvalde, Texans not doing a damned thing about it, latest shooting in Nashville 8 shot, 2 dead and Trump says “everyone just buy more AR-15s and AL-47s” I told him I agreed with him (I don’t but I’m a despicable Trumper so what could he expect) and asked what was the best plan he had heard of for confiscating all the guns already out there. He did go straight cliche on that one-new laws banning sales, no loopholes (because mass shooters may murder random children but they’re certainly not the type of dudes who would buy a gun illegally). My favorite question for the magical disappearing guns supporters is “ok, say you’re right and mass killings with guns would end if we passed laws saying “it was legal to buy that gun when you got it, but now it’s illegal to own it.” Now, who would physically go to every gun owner’s house, subdue them, find where their guns were hidden and confiscate them? How would they know there were no other hiding places? Given it’s conservatively estimated there are around 400,000,000 firearms in civilian hands and less than 1,000,000 law enforcement officers in the U.S., who would continue the confiscation after all the LEOs were dead, had quit, or had refused to confiscate guns? You all know the response. Let’s all say it together: “Trump will never fix the problem because he doesn’t CARE!!! how many people die”. Someday I hope enough data will come out that will be able to post up how many people died from mass shootings versus how many were killed by mass vaccination.
Also, rural America is going to turn to dust because Trump is a liar and absolutely no jobs are coming back. Their jobs are not coming back, their kids are not coming back and their towns will die.
I’d tell you how my attempt to find common ground on “the media on all sides stoke up a lot of anger and fear to get clicks, viewers and advertising dollars” went, but I’m afraid my comment is longer than the original post.
If you made it this far, you deserve to hear this warning from my store owner: for all those Texans who think civil war sounds cute and think it would be like a fun movie, just running around shooting people (ominous music) “Other people have guns too”. Proceed accordingly, Substackers. .
I grew up in NM but I do not live there now. There are actually some nice and reasonable people living there. The ones with TDS will never be satisfied. Sad. Got to ask yourself why they all tolerated or liked Trump the businessman/ entertainer prior to 2015. I guess their infallible unique to Trump "Hitler detector" wasn't activated until he decided to run for office.
This illustrates why I don’t even try to discuss things with people any more. The art of conversation/discussion/debate has become nonexistent. I do give you credit for trying, but you’re spitting into the wind, unfortunately, and accomplishing nothing, other than losing a half hour of your life you can never get back. I know this sounds defeatist, but how can one debate with a brainwashed zombie? The issue of shootings has zilch to do with gun laws - it’s all about mental health + depression medications. So, arguing about gun laws is fruitless. I don’t know what to do any more, other than refuse to comply with what I call ‘bad/wrong rules’, asserting my individual civil rights, and trying to be a kind person - while keeping my boundaries intact.
My son in law’s job takes him all over NM and 1/3 of Texas. He’s back and forth all the time without issue. This guy has just connected a traffic incident his brother in law had or perceived he had to Trump because TDS.
Not everyone’s given up. I was reading comments on a Note today about how unbelievable it is that it has only been 50 years that women have been allowed to have a credit card without their husband’s permission and one of the comments went something like this “if the felons elected again by the Nazi cult, it won’t be long before we go back to that”.😂😂
I don’t think that was ever true. Legislation was passed preventing banks from discriminating on the basis of sex. It wasn’t illegal to give women credit cards before that. Women had bank loans etc well before that.
I just looked it up out of curiosity and the Equal Protection Opportunity Act was passed in 1974. If you do a search on it, there have been a number of articles written about it this year. Some say that prior to that a woman couldn’t get a credit card in her own name while some say that banks could choose to deny credit based on gender. All I know is by the time I graduated from college in 1984 I was inundated with credit card solicitations from many banks.
Raping E Jean Carroll. I said he wasn’t convicted. Her claims fell flat. Her story made no sense. “Well why does he have to pay her $85M?” For defamation. I told her He said she was a liar as he didn’t rape her. He hadn’t. That was proven. But because he called her a liar the Judge awarded her $85M for defamation. She said ‘that makes no sense’
Part of this syndrome is the postmodernist brainwashing that's been going on in the schools -- lower and upper alike -- for decades. When I first started teaching at a university (1981, my third career), most of my students didn't know how to construct a logical argument, but once I showed them the techniques, they worked at it and were glad to have a chance to defend their ideas. Then, more and more, they'd been taught that defending a position wasn't necessary, that reactions (emotions) were all they needed. And gradually more and more had been taught that logic itself was a Bad Thing: racist, phallologocentric, patriarchal, heteronormative, and all the rest of the buzzwords. There was no "truth," only "my truth" and "your truth," and "your truth" was evil (see above, racist, patriarchal, etc.). I retired from teaching in 2009, much earlier than I'd planned to do.
I hear the words "my truth" from someone and it's a helpful signal that their IQ is probably around room-temperature (and I'm Canadian, so that means Celsius).
I had a similar experience at a dinner party over here in England last weekend, where we can afford to be a bit more detached (but not much, given that when you sneeze we tend to catch the cold).
Woman (whom I know and quite like): 'can you believe people are going to vote for Trump?'
Me: 'I would if I were a Yank.'
Woman: 'Really?? But he's such a racist.'
Me: 'What did he do that was racist?'
Woman: 'Well, you know, he... I mean, he's also corrupt.'
Me: 'What did he do that was corrupt?'
Woman (starting to giggle a bit, like, OK you got me): 'Well, I mean... but don't you think he's just a coward?'
Me: 'The bloke got shot in the face, bounced back up and started punching the air and shouting FIGHT! I'd say that was pretty brave.'
Woman: 'Well but... I just think he's really thick (dumb).'
Me: 'In what way? Did you see the Rogan thing? Three hours straight, no rules, he did say a few daft things but it's his style to freewheel and joke a bit, and anyway who wouldn't in three hours? It's the first time I've ever seen any politician do anything like that. That's not the action of a stupid man.'
Woman: 'Er...'
Me: 'So you'd vote for Kamala? Why?'
Woman: 'I don't really know.'
She's not stupid, this woman, she's run a high end business for a while and is in a relationship with a millionaire German who is his country's only antivaxxer.
It showed me how penetrated the minds are of most people, and reinforced the belief I have held since 2020 - that the mainstream media is the enemy.
". . . the mainstream media is the enemy"--within. Not to mention border czar Commie-la's tens of thousands of military aged men in brand new boots and matching outfits.
I heard a guy on the radio today saying, “ How can you vote for a convicted felon for president? Kamala is vice president, and she has a law degree!!”
Need I say this is in Los Angeles? Not just uninformed voters, but truly stupid voters. They constantly vote for candidates and policies that raise the cost of living in California, then wonder why they can’t afford to live here.
Exactly. I tell my leftist friends that when they put Trumps face on Mount Rushmore, complete with Fight fist, they will be told to be happy. Imagine the joy!
I went to CSU Monterey last weekend for an open house. In a large lecture hall, the provost and VP of Admissions spoke, a bit heavy on the equity inclusive type stuff, then seven students introduced themselves, each with the requisite pronouns, most had far more than 2, the winner being a queer woman who spoke (AND I FUCKING KID YOU NOT) though a puppet. She was as close to a Mr Garrison (from SOUTH PARK) as you would ever find. Of course the school was happy to present her and a badge of their inclusiveness.
As I was committed to the rest of the tour, we went to the business department where the head of the accounting department, who looked and acted EXACTLY like Tim Waltz, gleefully explained how the best jobs are in compliance, and that is the focus of his department. Other (very unimpressive) teachers spoke, and I got the same vibe, never did they talk about entrepreneurship, inventing, AFAIK there wasn't a single 3d printer on campus. When Musk bought Twitter it was 20% doers and 80% social justice warrior types (which he promptly fired). CSU Monterey is a school designed specifically for the 80% and without any legacies of competence that other schools have had to neuter for the Woke to really settle in. This was a school where you could be a professional mask Scold / vaccine passport verifier and call yourself a medical professional.
And I tie this to the conversations you (and I) have had with Kamela supporters, because they, the students at CSU Monterey and the teachers all have a massive death or any intellectual curiosity. (Which I have always held a a cornerstone of intelligence),. 4 year olds are supposed to ask like 300+ questions a day, I get the feeling this was a student body who asked none. (I can hypothesize why)
How do we fix this? The dodos will have to learn to fly, and they will have to want to learn to do it.
On another note, I have NEVER been to a campus where, (if I were 18 again) there was not a single woman you would want to date. My wife tells me Ditto for the guys who seemed very sub beta.
I live near the University of Toronto and I've noticed the same thing: this is a...*homely*...cohort. It's no wonder they seem to be having less sex than any generation before them.
The sad part is that clueless kids stumble into for these brainwashing stations because they had a high enough SAT score to get in, or it was close enough to commute from home, or whatever and Voila! We have a whole generation of these “let’s make the puppet girl our behavioral benchmark” robots.
I went to college in the late 70s in the UC system. At least back then intellectual curiosity and logic were still encouraged, though the rot was beginning to set in.
My child has had a classical Christian education from K through 12th grade, and is applying to college. My fear is that despite a rigorous education (or maybe BECAUSE of it) she and her peers will be unable to overcome the huge amount of emotional dreck passing for “learning” in our society. I pray for a revival of education in this country. It has to start somewhere!
A good metaphor. Dodos attempting to fly is fatal for most of the dodos.
Here's a good basic rule: if your last job was in any field remotely connected with DEI or postmodernist academia, your next job should be as janitor. Not to punish you, but so you can learn that the real world (the smelly, unpleasant, messy toilet, vomit on the floor real world) actually exists.
The only way to get these people to rejoin reality will be to utterly demoralize and financially ruin them, the political version of the firebombing of Dresden.
I lived in Monterey for seven years when it was sane and went back for a month every year in Carmel until the state became an insane asylum. I used to love the peninsula. I had planned to eventually retire there because of the physical beauty and perfect weather. But I decided against it because sanity if more important than beauty and weather.
Forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats would favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Such a policy would be opposed by a strong majority (71%) of all voters, with 78% of Republicans and 64% of unaffiliated voters saying they would Strongly Oppose putting the unvaccinated in “designated facilities.”
I'm just voting against the people who tried to force me to take shots the Not Safe and Not Effective thing, and now want to take my car away. That's about it. I guess I'm just a two issue voter!
But it tells you a lot about the people who tried to force us to take an experimental jab and now are trying to experimentally see what would happen to our beloved country if they remain in charge.
My dear, sweet 67 yr old retired teacher neighbor:
“Trump is a racist and hates women.”
My wife and I ask how so.
Looks at us strangely and starts a disbelieving, sarcastic laugh. She has no answer. She never does. But she keeps the TV on msm news all day. It’s all she hears over and over and over.
Over the last few years I’ve become appalled at how effectively most people can be so easily brainwashed. The propaganda/marketing is extremely sophisticated…and very successful, unfortunately.
"If Donald Trump wins this election, returns to the White House, and doesn’t put his opponents in internment camps, and then JD Vance runs for president, the same people will warn us that JD Vance will put his enemies in the camps. "
Well, it seems to me that the solution to this problem is staring us in the face.
They actually started the narrative on DeSantis for a very short spell. Well before he was even in the primaries, I saw paranoid comments about DeSantis and how they'd all have to get the band back together to stop him. This was the early days when they all believed the Dem weaponization cabal would squelch Trump. I have seen a little sample of what they will do. This article is fucking Spot. On.
Remember AOC, decked out in white, was photographed weeping outside the “detention cages” at the border? That disappeared after someone figured out the facility had been built by the Obama regime.
I've had similar conversations with British people as well, because that's how most of the media here portrays Trump, although at least our friends here are more open to listening. Once you get a conversation going they can see how they've been spun. And most are surprised, genuinely, that a bad ass woman would support Trump. I can see how incredibly important this election is for the rest of the world though, and if Kamala the neocon puppet gets in its game over for all of us.
These arguments, illustrated:
https://x.com/0rf/status/1851746166137921809
I have observed that your excellent writing and insights have attracted more than the usual number of physicians to your substack, Chris Bray. I followed the responses in the above video and what immediately came to mind was when I am interviewing evasive patients about alcohol or drug abuse they all come up with similar responses: i.e. pause, disingenuous explanation, defensive posture and inevitable sly( I call it FOS) transient smile. (In other words--they don't believe their own BS).
I've noticed the physician thing, and it's very interesting.
That was painful. And funny, in a sad sort of way... my "favorite" (?) was the woman who, when asked what Kamala has accomplished, said "She's the Vice President," as though that settled it, then followed up with, "The position of Vice President is... mostly... decorative." 😩
Wow! I don’t even know you, Chris, and yet we both appear to know all the same lefties. Scary!
They're all pretty much the same, at least in terms of their mental processes.
Thus the NPC meme
In other news, what a great World Series, at least for those of us who have the misfortune to live in Los Angeles. Enjoyed every minute of that one.
Where are these camps? Are they in the room with us now?
That’s a good one!
Best comment!
Like!
I haven't watched sportsball since they all went woke in 2020/21, but I watched every game of this World Series and got rehooked. I even watched Moneyball a couple nights ago (I never saw it back then) and got even more into it. My Significant Other is a baseball superfreak, but hadn't watched any of this season either, and was really into the Series with me and also assured me that there wasn't a game tonight. I didn't bother to check the schedule because I "trusted her."
Yeah there was a game tonight. And I was rooting for the Dodgers. And it was awesome. And I missed it. We figured it out when the headlines started. I am told to forgive, but this might be a bridge too far.
This is the first time my wife and I have watched baseball together. She hates baseball. This Dodger team is probably the only good thing to come out of LA this year.
Hey Brian the Kings are looking ok to start the season! GKG
I might have to watch some hockey this year!
Now, being a longtime Padres fan, all I can say is...the boys in blue had to get past US to get there 😊
Never mind-congrats, Dodgers...always good to see the Yanks go down....
Heck of a come back Chris Bray , great game
The best part of the win was the diversion created by the celebrators in the streets. I got me a nice thick gold chain out of that jewelry store while no one was looking.
It's because they only have surface-level knowledge of the subject. You know how when people know a lot about a subject, they can talk about it for hours and hours and hours?
The opposite is true, as well.
If all you know is "Orange Man Bad".....that's all you know.
Spot on. I just had a discussion yesterday with one of my BFFs, a Kamala supporter. I asked why she would trust Trump’s opponent to learn about Trump. After a few minutes she said, “I can’t have this discussion.” I replied that this is how it always goes, but she corrected me—to her credit—and admitted that she was incapable of having this discussion because she didn’t have enough facts at hand. I reminded her that I used to share her opinion of Trump, but as I began to gather facts, I slowly but surely changed my mind.
Kafka: ‘It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves’
The TikTokInstaTwitterFace has a lot to do with it. Most of the hive have little reason to wade into reality beyond the depth of their cankles. While you are talking your hate the hummingbird driving their meatsack has already swiped to the next sugary feeder.
Their entire lives are drift atop the cloud. Propped up by the most expensive and comprehensive entitlement program in human history. Liberalism. Leftism. Progressivism. Whatever you care to name it. Like the infinite genders project. Or the infinite truths project. Or the relativity theory of everything.
These beliefs and mindset are the true luxury items of our time. We have transcended the physical by solving those physical problems that kept people honest but also engaged in reality.
These people have been awash in the baptismal waters of extreme abundance their entire lives. They have been conditioned to an alt-reality that is tethered to reality by fine strands of want but little else. Their alt-reality is intractable from who they are. Which is Good People. You cannot affront one without psychic harm to the other.
The culmination of apex luxury and nearly complete banishment of physical discomforts during a time when the long march of anti-reason finally jumped the shark of reality has rendered their minds incapable of discerning not just facts and reason, but also the reality of their own experience.
The mechanism for cumulative knowledge - and practical application of such, that informs wisdom is gone baby gone. They are the embodiment of a soundbyte.
Whatever residual experience they manage to cull from the cloud is so often eclipsed by their emotions, the charred husks of their dopamine chambers, the manic twitching of their reptilian vestiges, that they are for all intents incapable of living in a world where reality defines anything. Where the Truth reigns.
The other side of this satanic inversion is literally at war with reality, which is to say the Truth. And these people are casualties. They just don't know it yet.
"TikTokInstaTwitterFace " I'm so stealing that one.
IOW, we're in the Soft People part of the cycle.
good point. same principle as mkultra. get the general public to practice a mantra and a ritual, then there's no need for a jen psycho making faces and shuffling her papers in front of the press crew
I love this commentary.
Many self professed liberals don’t look beneath the surface at all. They will cut off friends and family over politics. They will sit in your living room and scream at you that trans women are women and jk Rowling wants all trans people dead, right after you fed them dinner. It’s confusing. Neither Trump or Harris will come to your kids bar (or bat) mitzvah or dog sit for you or visit you in the hospital. Why do people get so emotionally attached to politicians and also celebrities? Did it start with tv and now it’s social media?
While I will never be emotionally attached to a politician or party, I too will cut off "friends" who cannot see reality. If they have become the evil zombies they constantly protest about, with zero self awareness, the friendship has been just as false. I can forgive (which the current crop of blue wave zombies seem unable to do), but I also will never forget the hate, lies and sociopathic behavior of the "vote blue no matter who" and "He's going to put y'all back in chains" insane asylum refugee crowd.
I am moving away from the forgive part, myself. Been there too many times, all to virtually no avail.
Ironically though, that's the same logic they will use to cut you off.
Perhaps this is for the best though. The only way for two people who live in such divergent forms of reality to coexist peacefully is to separate from each other. Whether that's physically or at least by agreeing not to talk about particular issues.
It went on steroids when the msm dropped all pretense of honest, independent journalism & proudly became an arm of the leftist/progressive party. The symptoms were always there but after 8 (excruciating) years of Obama, then Hillary’s loss to Trump - they lost their minds & focused on brainwashing ours. After years of cia controlled newsrooms, the brainwashing /psyop was in full gear. And it helped that TikTokInstaTwitterFace (love that) censored any attempt at exposing truth.
It has nothing to do with knowledge. It's a "narrative attack." We are in information war, and this is an attack. It's also a way to recognize the enemy -- the enemy asks "what makes Trump a racist"? A friend just applauds the hit, and cackles.
If an abusive husband calls you the wife stupid, if you try to prove you are not, you've already lost. If an abusive political party calls you all garbage, if you try to prove you are not, you've already lost. Respond to the attack, not to the message camouflaging it.
Stop telling me Trump is going to send the Molly Jong-Fasts of the world to the camps. I already voted for him once this election, I'm not allowed to do it again.
I have to admit, the way some Trump detractors talk, it is like they are saying they believe they deserve it. I am reminded of one time I heard a crash downstairs, and found my middle child (about 4 at the time) next to a pile of books off the shelf.
"What happened?"
"I am not going to tell you."
"Uhm... ok. Why's that?"
"Because you are just going to put me in time out!"
"Why?"
"Because I was climbing the shelf to get a book and knocked all these down!"
Those with guilty consciences often fear more punishments than others intend to inflict; expectation of retribution is rough when the judge lives inside you.
Very astute
And you said - good analysis guess you don’t need a time out !
Right?
Well, the fact she knew she should not have been doing it then did it anyway demands punishment. With her the challenge has always been “If you know dad says you shouldn’t do it, that’s a reason to not do it, not just a reason to avoid being caught”.
In the event she just got a lecture on how dangerous it is to climb bookshelves and I made her pick up the books and put them away. I am not a big fan of time out when more situationally appropriate punishment is handy.
Which came first, the stupidity or the propaganda? My 89 year old neighbor called me one day in glee that Trump had been found guilty of 34 felony counts. She wanted to know how I felt about THAT. So I asked her exactly what felony it was he was guilty of. Her response was “Oh you know”. I had to ask her three more times before I got a response. She hung up on me.
When people gleefully talk about Trump’s 34 felonies, I like to ask, “Can you name one?” It’s a trick question, of course!
It's funny when leftists bring this up, given they're so concerned with "de-carceration", defunding police and ending the "stigma" of those who've "encountered" the legal system. They go from ACAB to Bull Connor at the drop of a hat.
When I was growing up, we called homeless people “bums.” It wasn’t a pejorative, it was a term for people who “bummed” money. When someone hadn’t combed their hair, we’d say, “You look like a bum.” Then we were taught that it wasn’t proper to use that term, we should say “homeless people.” Now when someone’s hair is uncombed, we say “you look like a homeless person.” And now we have to say “unhoused.” How long before that word becomes pejorative?
I'm starting to see "shelter-adjacent" being used among the more batshit insane activists here in Toronto.
I've been using the old-school "derelict" more and more.
“Encountered” the legal system. 😂Hadn’t encountered that one yet.
I’m sick to death of euphemisms. Completely gotten out of hand.
Don't call them euphemisms, they are "soft words"
Yeah I've seen it floating around somewhere: don't say "felon" or "ex-con" but some bullshit euphemism that "progressives" spend all their time mulling over.
Crap like this:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeseq/2021/08/16/words-matter-dont-call-people-felons-prisoners-or-inmates/
Similarly I ask my friend what was so utterly horrendous about the Trump presidency? He had nothing. But Trump is bad anyway he said.
Another friend of mine won’t vote for him because “they” say he wants to be King. It is getting quite hysterical out here in Az.
I was held hostage by a shop owner in New Mexico today whose literally 30 minute tirade complete with red face, standing up, sitting down, pacing, complete inability to stop himself to help customers who had come in, was triggered by me saying we were visiting from Texas. I thought I heard all of the crazy until this guy asked Rachael Maddie to hold his beer. Did any of you know that Trump has never, not once, never, stepped inside a church in his life? Do you know that if a New Mexican drives into Texas with NM tags on their car, they’ll get run off the road? (This is not an urban legend-it happened to his own brother in law who had HIS 8!!!!! YEAR OLD DAUGHTER IN THE CAR). Just for having a New Mexico license plate. Were any of you aware that at MD Anderson Hospital, not one single doctor will treat a woman with pregnancy complications because of Trump and his “minions” Paxton and Abbott? Well, it turns out if a pregnant woman in their hospitals has complications, a nurse hands them a stack of towels and tells them to go bleed out in the parking lot (again, he knew this for a fact because he heard it from his niece, who is a nurse at that hospital). I have to admit, “take this stack of towels and go bleed out in the parking lot” is a significant upgrade from “women will die in back alleys with a coat hangers sticking out their hoo ha”. So much easier to visualize the towels, the parking lot, the one flickering stadium light in the parking lot than all variations on “You’ll die if you can’t get an abortion in the 9th month within 15 minutes from your residence, paid for by someone who isn’t you” 1.0
I admit to using one of my favorite tactics, refusing to escalate with a hysterical person, on him. I never told him who I support (but I’m sure in his telling, he knew I was an cold hearted Trumper because I wasn’t outraged by the 8 year old or the bloody towels in the hospital parking lots). When he seethed “Trump is not a Christian” I replied “Anyone who was hoping for a Christian to vote for in this election is shit out of luck”. When he told me about Uvalde, Texans not doing a damned thing about it, latest shooting in Nashville 8 shot, 2 dead and Trump says “everyone just buy more AR-15s and AL-47s” I told him I agreed with him (I don’t but I’m a despicable Trumper so what could he expect) and asked what was the best plan he had heard of for confiscating all the guns already out there. He did go straight cliche on that one-new laws banning sales, no loopholes (because mass shooters may murder random children but they’re certainly not the type of dudes who would buy a gun illegally). My favorite question for the magical disappearing guns supporters is “ok, say you’re right and mass killings with guns would end if we passed laws saying “it was legal to buy that gun when you got it, but now it’s illegal to own it.” Now, who would physically go to every gun owner’s house, subdue them, find where their guns were hidden and confiscate them? How would they know there were no other hiding places? Given it’s conservatively estimated there are around 400,000,000 firearms in civilian hands and less than 1,000,000 law enforcement officers in the U.S., who would continue the confiscation after all the LEOs were dead, had quit, or had refused to confiscate guns? You all know the response. Let’s all say it together: “Trump will never fix the problem because he doesn’t CARE!!! how many people die”. Someday I hope enough data will come out that will be able to post up how many people died from mass shootings versus how many were killed by mass vaccination.
Also, rural America is going to turn to dust because Trump is a liar and absolutely no jobs are coming back. Their jobs are not coming back, their kids are not coming back and their towns will die.
I’d tell you how my attempt to find common ground on “the media on all sides stoke up a lot of anger and fear to get clicks, viewers and advertising dollars” went, but I’m afraid my comment is longer than the original post.
If you made it this far, you deserve to hear this warning from my store owner: for all those Texans who think civil war sounds cute and think it would be like a fun movie, just running around shooting people (ominous music) “Other people have guns too”. Proceed accordingly, Substackers. .
I grew up in NM but I do not live there now. There are actually some nice and reasonable people living there. The ones with TDS will never be satisfied. Sad. Got to ask yourself why they all tolerated or liked Trump the businessman/ entertainer prior to 2015. I guess their infallible unique to Trump "Hitler detector" wasn't activated until he decided to run for office.
Goodness, I hate it when you run into those people -- although it can be interesting. Was this like up in Taos or something? lol.
Santa Fe
This illustrates why I don’t even try to discuss things with people any more. The art of conversation/discussion/debate has become nonexistent. I do give you credit for trying, but you’re spitting into the wind, unfortunately, and accomplishing nothing, other than losing a half hour of your life you can never get back. I know this sounds defeatist, but how can one debate with a brainwashed zombie? The issue of shootings has zilch to do with gun laws - it’s all about mental health + depression medications. So, arguing about gun laws is fruitless. I don’t know what to do any more, other than refuse to comply with what I call ‘bad/wrong rules’, asserting my individual civil rights, and trying to be a kind person - while keeping my boundaries intact.
"Anyone who was hoping for a Christian to vote for in this election is shit out of luck" 🎯
guessing you were in santa fe? NM as i know it is like nebraska, you don't see people like that dude once you leave the (few) urban areas
and he obviously hasn't spent much time on the TX border, NM plates are welcome there because that's who's bringing in the weed
My son in law’s job takes him all over NM and 1/3 of Texas. He’s back and forth all the time without issue. This guy has just connected a traffic incident his brother in law had or perceived he had to Trump because TDS.
Have you noticed that the "he's a convicted felon" line has simply disappeared. Why? Because no one could articulate what he was supposedly guilty of.
Not everyone’s given up. I was reading comments on a Note today about how unbelievable it is that it has only been 50 years that women have been allowed to have a credit card without their husband’s permission and one of the comments went something like this “if the felons elected again by the Nazi cult, it won’t be long before we go back to that”.😂😂
I don’t think that was ever true. Legislation was passed preventing banks from discriminating on the basis of sex. It wasn’t illegal to give women credit cards before that. Women had bank loans etc well before that.
I just looked it up out of curiosity and the Equal Protection Opportunity Act was passed in 1974. If you do a search on it, there have been a number of articles written about it this year. Some say that prior to that a woman couldn’t get a credit card in her own name while some say that banks could choose to deny credit based on gender. All I know is by the time I graduated from college in 1984 I was inundated with credit card solicitations from many banks.
I had someone tell me he was convicted of
Raping E Jean Carroll. I said he wasn’t convicted. Her claims fell flat. Her story made no sense. “Well why does he have to pay her $85M?” For defamation. I told her He said she was a liar as he didn’t rape her. He hadn’t. That was proven. But because he called her a liar the Judge awarded her $85M for defamation. She said ‘that makes no sense’
Part of this syndrome is the postmodernist brainwashing that's been going on in the schools -- lower and upper alike -- for decades. When I first started teaching at a university (1981, my third career), most of my students didn't know how to construct a logical argument, but once I showed them the techniques, they worked at it and were glad to have a chance to defend their ideas. Then, more and more, they'd been taught that defending a position wasn't necessary, that reactions (emotions) were all they needed. And gradually more and more had been taught that logic itself was a Bad Thing: racist, phallologocentric, patriarchal, heteronormative, and all the rest of the buzzwords. There was no "truth," only "my truth" and "your truth," and "your truth" was evil (see above, racist, patriarchal, etc.). I retired from teaching in 2009, much earlier than I'd planned to do.
“My truth.” I despise that expression! Nobody owns the truth.
I hear the words "my truth" from someone and it's a helpful signal that their IQ is probably around room-temperature (and I'm Canadian, so that means Celsius).
There’s only the truth.
I call it “womansplaining”
As a woman I approve this message.
You can’t bring a “reason” knife to an “emotional” gunfight, the amygdala wins every time.
I had a similar experience at a dinner party over here in England last weekend, where we can afford to be a bit more detached (but not much, given that when you sneeze we tend to catch the cold).
Woman (whom I know and quite like): 'can you believe people are going to vote for Trump?'
Me: 'I would if I were a Yank.'
Woman: 'Really?? But he's such a racist.'
Me: 'What did he do that was racist?'
Woman: 'Well, you know, he... I mean, he's also corrupt.'
Me: 'What did he do that was corrupt?'
Woman (starting to giggle a bit, like, OK you got me): 'Well, I mean... but don't you think he's just a coward?'
Me: 'The bloke got shot in the face, bounced back up and started punching the air and shouting FIGHT! I'd say that was pretty brave.'
Woman: 'Well but... I just think he's really thick (dumb).'
Me: 'In what way? Did you see the Rogan thing? Three hours straight, no rules, he did say a few daft things but it's his style to freewheel and joke a bit, and anyway who wouldn't in three hours? It's the first time I've ever seen any politician do anything like that. That's not the action of a stupid man.'
Woman: 'Er...'
Me: 'So you'd vote for Kamala? Why?'
Woman: 'I don't really know.'
She's not stupid, this woman, she's run a high end business for a while and is in a relationship with a millionaire German who is his country's only antivaxxer.
It showed me how penetrated the minds are of most people, and reinforced the belief I have held since 2020 - that the mainstream media is the enemy.
I think it is both mainstream media and the vast echo cloud of social media feeds.
". . . the mainstream media is the enemy"--within. Not to mention border czar Commie-la's tens of thousands of military aged men in brand new boots and matching outfits.
Your closing sentence. Yes! Exactly!
I heard a guy on the radio today saying, “ How can you vote for a convicted felon for president? Kamala is vice president, and she has a law degree!!”
Need I say this is in Los Angeles? Not just uninformed voters, but truly stupid voters. They constantly vote for candidates and policies that raise the cost of living in California, then wonder why they can’t afford to live here.
That guy obviously doesn’t know many lawyers.
Ha ha! That’s correct!
and they would absolutely vote for Trump tomorrow if the media told them to...
Exactly. I tell my leftist friends that when they put Trumps face on Mount Rushmore, complete with Fight fist, they will be told to be happy. Imagine the joy!
I went to CSU Monterey last weekend for an open house. In a large lecture hall, the provost and VP of Admissions spoke, a bit heavy on the equity inclusive type stuff, then seven students introduced themselves, each with the requisite pronouns, most had far more than 2, the winner being a queer woman who spoke (AND I FUCKING KID YOU NOT) though a puppet. She was as close to a Mr Garrison (from SOUTH PARK) as you would ever find. Of course the school was happy to present her and a badge of their inclusiveness.
As I was committed to the rest of the tour, we went to the business department where the head of the accounting department, who looked and acted EXACTLY like Tim Waltz, gleefully explained how the best jobs are in compliance, and that is the focus of his department. Other (very unimpressive) teachers spoke, and I got the same vibe, never did they talk about entrepreneurship, inventing, AFAIK there wasn't a single 3d printer on campus. When Musk bought Twitter it was 20% doers and 80% social justice warrior types (which he promptly fired). CSU Monterey is a school designed specifically for the 80% and without any legacies of competence that other schools have had to neuter for the Woke to really settle in. This was a school where you could be a professional mask Scold / vaccine passport verifier and call yourself a medical professional.
And I tie this to the conversations you (and I) have had with Kamela supporters, because they, the students at CSU Monterey and the teachers all have a massive death or any intellectual curiosity. (Which I have always held a a cornerstone of intelligence),. 4 year olds are supposed to ask like 300+ questions a day, I get the feeling this was a student body who asked none. (I can hypothesize why)
How do we fix this? The dodos will have to learn to fly, and they will have to want to learn to do it.
On another note, I have NEVER been to a campus where, (if I were 18 again) there was not a single woman you would want to date. My wife tells me Ditto for the guys who seemed very sub beta.
I live near the University of Toronto and I've noticed the same thing: this is a...*homely*...cohort. It's no wonder they seem to be having less sex than any generation before them.
But curiously they live in abject fear of not being able to get an abortion
Well, mostly the men...
Yes they had tampons in the mens room. Didnt see if any were puppet sized...
😂
women of a certain age have seen their value skyrocket lately
The sad part is that clueless kids stumble into for these brainwashing stations because they had a high enough SAT score to get in, or it was close enough to commute from home, or whatever and Voila! We have a whole generation of these “let’s make the puppet girl our behavioral benchmark” robots.
I went to college in the late 70s in the UC system. At least back then intellectual curiosity and logic were still encouraged, though the rot was beginning to set in.
My child has had a classical Christian education from K through 12th grade, and is applying to college. My fear is that despite a rigorous education (or maybe BECAUSE of it) she and her peers will be unable to overcome the huge amount of emotional dreck passing for “learning” in our society. I pray for a revival of education in this country. It has to start somewhere!
A good metaphor. Dodos attempting to fly is fatal for most of the dodos.
Here's a good basic rule: if your last job was in any field remotely connected with DEI or postmodernist academia, your next job should be as janitor. Not to punish you, but so you can learn that the real world (the smelly, unpleasant, messy toilet, vomit on the floor real world) actually exists.
The only way to get these people to rejoin reality will be to utterly demoralize and financially ruin them, the political version of the firebombing of Dresden.
These are the people that are going to run the world in a few years?
No, but they "karenify" it. They wont write the mandates, but will eagerly enforce them.
I lived in Monterey for seven years when it was sane and went back for a month every year in Carmel until the state became an insane asylum. I used to love the peninsula. I had planned to eventually retire there because of the physical beauty and perfect weather. But I decided against it because sanity if more important than beauty and weather.
I can’t hear their cry’s. I’m still thinking about the 45% of Dems that wanna put me in a camp…
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/partner_surveys/jan_2022/covid_19_democratic_voters_support_harsh_measures_against_unvaccinated
Forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats would favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Such a policy would be opposed by a strong majority (71%) of all voters, with 78% of Republicans and 64% of unaffiliated voters saying they would Strongly Oppose putting the unvaccinated in “designated facilities.”
The thought of puppet girl ordering a bunch of deplorables onto the train is hilarious.
I'm just voting against the people who tried to force me to take shots the Not Safe and Not Effective thing, and now want to take my car away. That's about it. I guess I'm just a two issue voter!
Thats two more than most "voters"!
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
But it tells you a lot about the people who tried to force us to take an experimental jab and now are trying to experimentally see what would happen to our beloved country if they remain in charge.
My dear, sweet 67 yr old retired teacher neighbor:
“Trump is a racist and hates women.”
My wife and I ask how so.
Looks at us strangely and starts a disbelieving, sarcastic laugh. She has no answer. She never does. But she keeps the TV on msm news all day. It’s all she hears over and over and over.
Over the last few years I’ve become appalled at how effectively most people can be so easily brainwashed. The propaganda/marketing is extremely sophisticated…and very successful, unfortunately.
“I suspect we’ll need to send some of these people to the camps, but keep that part quiet for now.”
That is weapons grade snark. I salute you.
I came to the comments just to quote that. Hilarious.
"If Donald Trump wins this election, returns to the White House, and doesn’t put his opponents in internment camps, and then JD Vance runs for president, the same people will warn us that JD Vance will put his enemies in the camps. "
Well, it seems to me that the solution to this problem is staring us in the face.
They actually started the narrative on DeSantis for a very short spell. Well before he was even in the primaries, I saw paranoid comments about DeSantis and how they'd all have to get the band back together to stop him. This was the early days when they all believed the Dem weaponization cabal would squelch Trump. I have seen a little sample of what they will do. This article is fucking Spot. On.
Remember AOC, decked out in white, was photographed weeping outside the “detention cages” at the border? That disappeared after someone figured out the facility had been built by the Obama regime.
I've had similar conversations with British people as well, because that's how most of the media here portrays Trump, although at least our friends here are more open to listening. Once you get a conversation going they can see how they've been spun. And most are surprised, genuinely, that a bad ass woman would support Trump. I can see how incredibly important this election is for the rest of the world though, and if Kamala the neocon puppet gets in its game over for all of us.