372 Comments

You cannot reason with a demoralized person. But you can “meme them until they cry then make memes about them crying.” As a Russian defector, I am offended by your catsplaining ;)

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author
Oct 5·edited Oct 5Author

the catsplaining will continue until morale improves.

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founding

Here's what I think you're trying to catsplain:

https://youtu.be/vijGdWn5-h8?si=CbsoN9aaLGZD585w

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Geez, that cheered me up.

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Well just like the parasite-host dynamic eventually woke will make their heads explode.

The good news is those of us here will be immune to the woke and TDS virus.

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That cheered me up, too. Now I'm imagining when 5G interacts with nanotech in Covid shots and the zombie jabbed start eating the unvaxxed.

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We should do a mockumentary!

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Now I’m reviewing ant theory. Thanks for the push. Poor ants! I’ve never seen that episode of NG.

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Hey, that's my favorite fungus!

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Fungus as a mind virus that kills the host...yet perpetuates both species.

Talk about a symbiotic relationship.

Virtually the same with humans. It's actually fun to watch evolution in real time.

Eventually TDS will speciate our species, like old world monkeys being separated by land or sea.

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I don't think I want to be one of those ants.

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😕 I don't have a favorite fungus.

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Thanks for the link !!!👍👍👍

I just wonder why Pfizer didn't call their jabs Cordyznaty or Comirzeps ??? ... 🤔🤔🤔

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Just perfect, Klaus!

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And that, my friends, is how dumpacraps are created.

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Daaaaamn that's some scary shit right there. I know some plants have ways of protecting itself from predators but this is on an evil sci-fi level. Trippy

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That’s something I didn’t need to see today.

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Are we witnessing spontaneous combustion, . . . . finally?

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We've been watching spontaneous combustion for years now.

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As a kid I used to read as much as I could hoping I could spontaneous combust, obviously it didn't work.

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I'll stick around, at least until the toxoplasmosis kicks in ... 😉🙂

But several points in your latest remind me of a famous quote from Hannah Arendt:

HA: "The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist."

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8110811-the-ideal-subject-of-totalitarian-rule-is-not-the-convinced

Somewhat moot whether there are more of those "reason-challenged" among the Democrats or the Republicans -- or among their so-called leaders and "champions".

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as it should, jeffe Gato.

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Yes. It should...

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"meme them until they cry then make memes about them crying." Then withhold the box of tissue ; )

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As a proud descendent of Poland, I am offended at your Russianness. 😁

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As someone of Germanic heritage, I am offended by both of you.

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As someone of Polish, German, and Russian heritage, I have no idea who to be offended by.

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I’d go with everyone.

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Yeah, I need to take up the cause against Polish/German/Russian supremacy.

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I think that you may actually explode….

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lol, like-me, too!

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Wow, we could be related!

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Nadolny? We don't talk to that side of the family anymore since your great, great, great, great grandfather ate my great, great, great, great grandfather's pet pig ... or maybe he drank his beer?

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I would say touché but I'm sure there are Frenchmen hanging around waiting to be offended by my cultural appropriation.

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Those cheese eating surrender monkeys don’t have the guts to chime in.

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I love banter. It’s a trait that runs strong throughout my extended family.

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Best laugh of the day!

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Now you've up and done it: offended all monkeys. Them being an inarticulate species, they express themselves by sudden action...you've been warned!

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They can and will tear your face off!

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😂🤭

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Nah, they’re still busy planting trees for the next time the Germans come to visit. ***

***derived from an old joke

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Nordic looking down on all three. ;)

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That's only cause you're taller.

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The only benefit that you will derive from eating all that lefse and lutefisk...

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LOLOL

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Oct 5Liked by el gato malo

"If you lose your ego, you lose the thread of that narrative you call your Self. Humans, however, can't live very long without some sense of a continuing story. Such stories go beyond the limited rational system (or the systematic rationality) with which you surround yourself; they are crucial keys to sharing time-experience with others.

Now a narrative is a story, not a logic, nor ethics, nor philosophy. It is a dream you keep having, whether you realize it or not. Just as surely as you breathe, you go on ceaselessly dreaming your story. And in these stories you wear two faces. You are simultaneously subject and object. You are a whole and you are a part. You are real and you are shadow. "Storyteller" and at the same time "character". It is through such multilayering of roles in our stories that we heal the loneliness of being an isolated individual in the world.

Yet without a proper ego nobody can create a personal narrative, any more than you can drive a car without an engine, or cast a shadow without a real physical object. But once you've consigned your ego to someone else, where on earth do you go from there?

At this point you receive a new narrative from the person to whom you have entrusted your ego. You've handed over the real thing, so what comes back is a shadow. And once your ego has merged with another ego, your narrative will necessarily take on the narrative created by that ego.

Just what kind of narrative?

It needn't be anything particularly fancy, nothing complicated or refined. You don't need to have literary ambitions. In fact, the sketchier and simpler the better. Junk, a leftover rehash will do. Anyway, most people are tired of complex, multilayered scenarios-they are a potential letdown. It's precisely because people can't find any fixed point within their own multilayered schemes that they're tossing aside their own self-identity."

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- Haruki Murakami

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A little off topic but I think it applies.

These days on the craziness of the world, I created a simple strategy. I create a short list of things I want to get done.

At the end of the day instead of beating myself up for nit getting more done. I have started congratulating myself for completing that small doable list. I let myself succeed.

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founding

Yes. I have to do the same thing.

I always tell my employees to accomplish 3 small things per day; 3 larger initiatives per month; and three projects in a quarter.

And to not get bogged down with a list of 184 things....because the list will always be there. It's really hard for younger employees to get that. They think they have to check off everything so that it goes away the next day....which it never does in reality.

Plus if you structure your days like this many items on a list take care if themselves by virtue of just trying to accomplish the bigger to-dos vs. managing by crisis.

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I always told my employees "I don't pay you to sit on your ass". Didn't work out so well because they were software guys so, maybe I WAS paying them to sit on their asses.

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The main problem is that males no longer hunt.

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This is so true. Not sure if you're joking or not.

But there's nothing like having to kill your meal to eat. Same with working with your hands to make shit happen.

Both sharpen the senses.

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excellent Ryan, great advice and guidance from the "boss"

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Lolol. I'm the best idiot boss this side of the Mississippi

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😂 I doubt that

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Oh yes. Well thought out plan, Linda. I am the same.

back in the day I was a super multitasker - BAM I got a zillion things done.

I have changed of course, now, I DO make that list every day and then do the things

that more importantly make me "feel" I accomplished the necessaries over desires.

My oldest daughter just turned 40!! I suggested she just work on keeping the kids on their "rafts" and healthy, and do one necessary thing and one thing that you want to do.

Then you do not feel like a slave. Those days with kids in early school years were crazy.

Now I am older, I do more wants than needs haha haha

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My problem is that I lose the list after I write it. 🤪

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Lol. Sometimes i spend more time consolidating list than clearing them.

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lists.

I "inherited" this condition from my father.

Lists, notebooks. It is not always productive.

We are cleaning up and downsizing (not strenuously) and I found a pile of papers with about 4 old lists. LOL funny. One was three years old hahahaha

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Oct 5·edited Oct 5

I like it.

I've tried ending the day with a What Went Right? reflection but perhaps not frequently enough.

Sound like it should be more central.

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If nothing else it saves time over the What Went Wrong? list! ; )

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The "pull" advice at the end of this post is astute. As Ben Hunt puts it, when ingesting the media, we should always ask: "Why am I reading this, and why am I reading this NOW?" Everything "pushed" at us is driven by an agenda and a narrative. We need to understand both before consuming.

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I turned off push notifications on all my apps years ago. I would never turn them back on.

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founding

Otherwise you're the "product"...in both senses of the word

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"One should endeavor to keep one's ego small, and entirely to oneself." ---Me

Gotta go, have a good one.

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"At this point you receive a new narrative from the person to whom you have entrusted your ego. You've handed over the real thing, so what comes back is a shadow. And once your ego has merged with another ego, your narrative will necessarily take on the narrative created by that ego."

This is the precise function of the corporate media. When interacting with my friends still inside the media bubble/matrix, it is clear to me that the effect of propaganda is to transfer the 'existential' fear that the regime (correctly!) feels about Trump on to them, to make them feel as if Trump is a direct and personal threat to themselves -- it becomes their identity.

Defending the narrative then becomes an act of self-defense; they feel personally threatened by those opposing viewpoints and this explains their complete inability to engage with, understand, or even view them.

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The moral is never entrust your ego to anyone or anything, then your ego cannot be corrupted or influenced. Always question authority and opinions.

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Excellent quote. Thank you.

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I missed the initial quotation marks and thought "Wow, that's extremely profound and insightful! Ryan is quite the philosopher." Then I get to the end.

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Still apropos, right?

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Of course. Just disappointed. I was ready to get you a book deal.

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I was pretty pumped too and then saw the author's name and went, "Oh."

But, yes. Apropos.

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Shiiit...you know I'm not that smart!...:)

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🤣

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See, I'm not the only one this happened to.

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Homerun, Ryan.

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Emotional group-oriented people (and peoples) create a story about reality, which they then super-impose on reality, trying to force reality to become as the story say it is.

Pragmatic task-oriented people (and peoples) look at the reality at hand here and now, and then decide together how to act according to actual reality.

Most women are more group-oriented than most men. Most men are more pragmatic than most women. Most women are more emotional than most men, and most men are more fact-oriented than most women.

Therefore, women in charge and women in a group will always revert towards creating a story about reality, while men in charge and in a group will tend towards more pragmatic approaches to immediate situations.

Thus, the optimal societal structure is a merit/proven ability/deed-based one, where duty to family and society comes before personal emotions or personal profit(eering), as evidenced by reality itself:

Compare and contrast Norway to Venezuela, or Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, or the USA pre-1960s to post-1990s.

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Behind every good society is good men with good women behind them.

That should earn me some feminist anger. 😁

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Nah, that's been true throughout history - behind The Man you'll find a woman, or a group of women even (mother, wife, daughters, sisters and such) all influencing him in different ways to get their will manifested.

Octavian had his Livia, and she was no meek little "Handmaid's tale"-wannabe. There's basically not a general, dictator, high priest, whatever throughout history without a female confidante helping him along.

The problem for the feminists is, they always only go looking for "positive" examples, instead of actual reality: can't hold up Theodora of Byzantium without also holding up Erzsébet Báthory too, so to speak.

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There's a long list throughout history. Lucrezia Borgia comes to mind...

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“ Therefore, women in charge and women in a group will always revert towards creating a story about reality, while men in charge and in a group will tend towards more pragmatic approaches to immediate situations.” Tru dat. This dynamic is also responsible for the enshitification of lots of formally dependable institutions.

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I think you mean "Formerly dependable institutions". Although they ARE formal institutions. I disagree that women create stories about reality, whereas men problem solve reality. I think daily hours of social media platforms + omnipresent internet engagement through handheld devices have programmed women towards their worst extremes of projection of what they NEED to be real, onto what IS real. Women are the majority of the internet users engaging in high traffic on those platforms. Of all ages. They have been the worst and most egregious example of how to socially regress AND condition multiple generations at once. And get them to pay for it. From the women in their 50s and 60s to the teenagers - the difference between the women who are glued to their phones/tablets and those who aren't is the same as your description above about who actually engages with reality when pushed into a group dynamic.

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I agree. It’s real sad to see it eroding the former richness of our cultures.

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The 19th amendment needs to be repealed. It can happen. 30% are sheep who just vote with the crowd. if we get the momentum, we could easily take away this amendment that should’ve never even been thought of.

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I love these narratives because they are completely without any consideration of the long history of humanity, which has been - almost without interruption - ruled by men with facts, and it has not been a primrose path of sweet paradise. Men with facts rule Afghanistan. Men with facts rule Iran. Men with facts rule North Korea. Men with facts ruled Nazi Germany. Men with facts gave us nazism, socialism and communism. Now more men with facts are saying women with emotion are to blame for the wide spread ills that plague mankind today.

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As our formerly rational, competent, and productive society descends into estrogen and SSRI soaked madness, the best you can do is "but what about the Taliban"? Really?

Can you point to a single rational, competent, and productive society in history run by women? Just one? Because to me rule by men looks like a necessary precondition. All you are saying that rule by men alone is insufficient - a proposition which few would disagree with.

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It would be hard to do as you've asked, as there really haven't been many instances where women have ruled. But if more female way of thinking and acting has taken over, who allowed it? Women vote in far larger numbers - why? You are correct that sane men must reclaim the narrative, but first they must stop shoving the blame on women and step back up. "She did it" isn't going to get anyone out of this mess.

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I think you may have answered your own question. There are no examples of a society where women have ruled, because women are terrible rulers, generally. Of course, life is a bell-curve, and you always have outliers, like Hatshepsut and Boudica, but the normal distribution of men vs. women, men make better rulers or leaders. Why is this? Nature. It's that simple, and part of the problem with modern society is that we have completely denied Nature. We think we can create our own reality where the laws of Nature do not apply because we are so smart nowadays. But you might as well try living at the bottom of the ocean. It will be about as successful.

Who allowed it? We allowed it. We thought we wanted weak men so we could be in charge. I mean that sounds so great. Kinda like the way they market terrible ideas to you when you are young, like Marxism. Weak men make bad times. And here we are.

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I agree. So what have I done personally, and what do I advise others to do?

Vote, as you say, but also start saying "no". A lot.

I've done this at work against the constant race baiting these women are involved in (with the occasional - and I do mean occasional - cucked beta male).

I'm no longer involved in a church that recently hired a female pastor that does this insane shit (to the unnecessary detriment of my personal relationships, thanks pastor girlboss), I'm off social media entirely (substack does not count, IMO, because it can be anonymous, thus it doesn't drive social signaling as much), and I'll say things that make people uncomfortable when they bring these things up in person.

My approach is to tune it out online, but confront it pretty aggressively in person.

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I see why you call yourself “no name” - you are so offensive. I can’t imagine that there are any females of sensibility and quality who would even tolerate being in your presence.

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Oct 7·edited Oct 7

Cry more.

Edit: I just went over your substack history. Over the past 15 years, I have watched women like you relentlessly discriminate against competent men because you cannot tolerate the fact that maybe people are not blank slates and you can't kneecap men to get equality of outcome (see James Damore as one example), while completely ignoring not just reality, but everyone else's civil liberties and material wellbeing.

I have seen women like you start ethnic riots for "justice" which lasted months, killed dozens, and did billions of dollars damage to people's family businesses. There are still some neighborhoods where cops won't go and little kids (including little girls) must endure relentless domestic abuse so you can feel like you're marchin' to Selma.

I have seen women like you embrace government censorship, calling *facts* you don't agree with "hate speech", including the idea that Covid came from a lab in Wuhan, China.

I have seen women like you force an experimental medicine on working people, killing them with Myocarditis, leaving women without husbands, men without loving wives, and children without parents... Because the TV said so, and there is no moral panic or group think you won't jump on, like the neurotic sheep you are.

You're now backing a candidate who says they want a border wall, completely ignoring the fact that people like you called this "white supremacy" 8 years ago.

And, after all that, women like you are still weaseling your way into positions of "leadership", destroying relationships and organizations, still using zero discernment and still expecting no accountability.

This might be impossible for you to comprehend, but this is eventually going to escalate to violence, and that's not going to be good for women, including the ones I care about...

But I've seen so much from women like you at this point to say there is no reason at all trying to convince you of anything. You'll ignore every warning sign... Every word of advice, no matter how sage or politely stated, and when this blows up (and it will), it will cause no introspection at all, because the whole reason the rest of us live in this world is so you can feel like a stunning and brave girlboss.

So I'm offensive? Good. Fuck you.

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Don't bother, Julie. I read his diatribe below against "women like you." Anyone who doesn't use their real name is a coward not worthy of engagement, period. If one is not brave enough to put words to a name, then only bile and hate will come from their mouth.

He says you're "weaseling" your way into leadership, whatever that means. Does he mean by getting elected? He accused you of "destroying relationships." Did some woman hurt his feelings? And all this with "no accountability." He says that with no irony at all as Mr. No Name.

I truly believe in Men's Rights as a movement. (I'm guessing this is where he's coming from?) I recommend watching the documentary "The Red Pill," as I believe its truth will resonate for you or anyone watching. But this guy? He's shrill and far worse than those he rails against. Hard pass.

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The Mosuo are the only matriarchal (or close to it) society I know of. It can be done, but its rarity makes it an exception that proves the rule.

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90% of people in the world, including women, hate female bosses

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I am not one of them. I had good female bosses. Some bad too, but more of the good ones. Some really crappy male bosses -- probably because male bosses were then much more common.

I wonder why people think this is a "sex difference" issue. I think it's far more an "asshole" issue. More men are personality disordered (with the exception of borderline). But plenty of assholes everywhere. Even one of them will ruin a workplace.

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Perhaps if you read what I wrote instead?

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I did. Pragmatically.

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What's wrong with it then?

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I wrote a whole Substack on this theme (and I am a woman, btw): https://pairodocs.substack.com/p/where-have-all-the-real-men-gone-c3b

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Oct 7·edited Oct 7

Thank you. Fishing for a woman on here to talk about this. Guys have fallen into a binary critique in general, and if we're going to learn about who engages or projects a false reality (and why) - so we can NOT become those people, we need more nuance. Otherwise we won't have an accurate strategy.

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If you are not a woman, a black or a homo, or a Hispanic, or a good, or an Indian, or a Muslim, or an Indian,...why do you defend any of these groups if I offended them? Did you know if someone offended straight, white, Christian men, non of these groups will defend you. I say eff them all if they don't stand for equality.

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A homo?!? Are you living in the 1940s? Jeez

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No, he’s living in 2024. Where during pride month sex is pushed on everyone including kindergarten in school. Don’t dare try to say no because I’ve seen the disgusting books. They are reading to them. How come these perverts at the library don’t want to go to old peoples homes or nursing homes? Why just children?!!

You are a woman and you don’t ask these questions ?!?

I’ve also seen a naked gay parade in Canada, where they let children line up on either side to watch naked men with chaps, parading up and down the street

In my old blue state, I saw a game during a pride event, that had little children throwing different colored dildos to win a prize at a game. All you have to do is look it up. They have pictures of it.

Look it up groomer !!!!!

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You need a few more history books in your library, Rikard. I don't have much time, but as examples of that 'pragmatic, task oriented' person [man] you speak of, I'll offer Caligula (may as well throw in the rest of the Roman leaders), all of the popes, Napoleon, Churchill (likely responsible for WWII) [https://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Churchill/1/index.html)], John D. Rockefeller & progeny, Pol Pot, George Bush (pick your fave), Daddy Gates and Bill, Bibi N — men in charge. Those who "look at the reality at hand here and now, and then decide together how to act according to actual reality," by your measure.

Women haven't been ALLOWED to be leaders. Ah, you're probably just unaware of the impact of religion on women's roles in culture and society over the last 5 millennia. That's okay. You and your cheeky brethren here can catch up. A few femmes did slip through though. Catherine the Great and Cleopatra would have had you by the short&curlies, you can betcha. Indira Gandhi — now there's a woman who 'always reverted towards creating a story about reality.' Women led the fight against slavery in America, Rikard. Before they were ALLOWED to vote.

Looks to me like you and the smirking frat boys below are the ones creating stories about reality. Entering my 7th decade on this grand earth, I'm all too familiar with it...

btw, you may be interested to hear Craig Murray talk a couple of days ago about the singular judge (gasp, a female!) credited with Julian Assange's recent freedom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzH3lW7xs3Y

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See my reply to Agent-1-4-9 above.

My advice to you, speaking as a former professional:

Drop the aggressive style, drop the vitriol, drop the aggressive-tone-as-defense stance (what you English-speakers call "passive-aggressive" for some reason) and drop all Ad hominem and similar fallacies, and you'll find people actually care about what you say.

As it stands now, your reply simply serves to prove my initial point about emotionality and creating stories instead of studying reality.

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Keep fighting and we will repeal the 19th amendment and not have most of the problems we have now.

If they think we can’t do it, they should remember abortion. And don’t forget, 30% of people don’t have convictions at all, and just jump on the bandwagon. If people keep talking about repealing the 19th like I see all over Substack it will get repealed.

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Please see my reply to Annette's reply to you, above.

And do understand the nature of my bluntness. It is not personal. I mean it as a challenge in a positive sense because I see value in what you contributed - or I would not have bothered to reply at all.

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Eh, I find your simplistic criticism of religion to be as similarly unconvincing as Rikard's binary thinking about pragmatic men vs. projecting women. Both of you have potential, but you could both use some help. NOTE: 1) Religion has done more to empower women than biology has. Why do you think so many female "Saints" were martyred and witches burned? 2) No one ALLOWS a man to take charge. He fights to ascend the pyramid. That's how men form hierarchies in the history of great human civilizations (Hunter gather tribes notwithstanding). 3) Rikard, up the ante to something no one is talking about. You men are disappointing me online. Like How the great social engineering coup of our time (Handheld, ubiquitous internet and "Social media" which is neither social nor media), has being primarily engaged by women of all ages. The great reprogramming of our society has a HUGE gender gap if you look at user identity and frequency of engagement. Hence the apparent female susceptibility to "Unreality" (As in "Unmade") and the almost pathological tendency to project need on to truth.

To be honest guys, I never check threads. I find them a flat excuse for a conversation. The lack of tone or facial expressions in "talking" to you, make everyone including me hypersensitive to offense - paranoid and defensive all at once. I'll probably delete this tomorrow because that isn't fair to you all.

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That Dr. Natalla one sounded like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDHisWRsE98

That aside, someone went off on me about the first Trump assassin. They exploded with, "Next time, hire an adult with better shooting skills!"

I guess the "voice from the TV" where they get their news failed to tell them that the shooter was twenty years old, practiced shooting at a range where ATF practiced and was known as an excellent shot, and also had multiple cell phones and connected to overseas encrypted accounts.

What triggered this was a comment by me that it was amazing how the story disappeared from the media, unlike other assassinations of my lifetime: JFK, Wallace, MLK, Bobby, etc.

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Dr. Natalia's post goes to the heart of how indoctrinated and twisted a significant segment of humanity have become. Kamekazi pilots out of "love" for humanity.

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Yes. Exactly.

And they'll strap their helmets on without noticing the irony.

It's virtually passed parody at this point.

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Lemmings free-falling between the precipice and the sea...whilst embracing their love for lemming-ness all the way to impact?

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SPLAT...:]

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that is horrible. leftists have hearts of ash, gravel, soot.... just damaged hearts. I feel bad for them.... sometimes

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True. All the fear mongering drives you nuts. I unsubscribed from several Substackers, because they are just as bad as the other side - media. I expected to see a comment from Yuri already and I did not get disappointed!

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Good for you.

It's always good to keep in mind that the shepherd often eats the sheep in the end.

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At the least he sells them out.

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Precisely. Haha. I literally almost inserted ellipses after "in the end" and added "or sell them down the river"

But I thought it would muddy the waters...lol

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The point is, isn't it, that the shepherd provides excellent care in the protection of the value of his commodity and not because he loves the sheep for themselves. This is of course a very widely applicable trait of all shepherds. Otherwise you'd prepare them for good survival skills and let 'em go.

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I can't find it, but I remember reading about a sociological hypothesis about how what kind of livestock a people kept influenced how that people developed culturally.

Just compare what happens if you let sheep, goats and pigs roam free respectively.

Sheep get eating. Goats devastates the environment by eating everything.

And pigs go feral inside a year if not tended to.

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Pigs have such human traits.

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Interesting.

I didn't know that about pigs.

But it makes sense; they're smart enough to know they just want to be themselves.

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"the shepherd provides excellent care in the protection of the value of his commodity"

Ding Ding Ding!

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Yes. It's a bit like the bittersweetness of parenting.

When you boil it down a parents job is to "train" their children to become independent by "helping" them increase the length of time before they become homesick.

If not, they just become "sick".

I'm not looking forward to it...but it'll be my job once I send my twins off to college.

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Don't worry. Your twins will train you to be a competent long-distance parent. It's hard, and they'll need to be lovingly firm with you, but you'll get through.

Signed, Successful Graduate of the Program

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Ryan, on my 18th birthday I went on an all-night drunk with a couple of my friends. That morning, at 0700 at the friend's house where I spent what was left of the night, my old man showed up and said "okay today you sign-up for the draft, but first get dressed - we are heading into town to visit all the military recruiters." And that's what we did, USAF, USMC, USN....skipped the Coast Guard, inexplicably. Chose Navy as they offered the best school and the best chow. "College?" ...Uncle Sam'll pay for that. 1959, and he had more kids than house.

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Seems the major business plan of most of the social media era is building a base of followers so they can sell their "influence" to the highest bidder (which is always one of the government agencies because they have no limits to spending). So it makes sense that we see so many sell outs.

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But this has always been true no matter what the medium of communication is. The dogma of anything always has its authorized version, not to even speak of its special language that has magical import.

This is why words get changed out all the time for the new allowed words which usually say in many more syllables what the previous concise word conveyed excellently.

A rocket ship is just a wooden wagon with several tweaks specific to its purpose.

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what may be different now is the sheer amount of competition among different talking heads and "public" figures. I saw a list of the influencers and celebrities that the government was paying and it was thousands of names long. In the old days, it might have been three tv stations, the NY Times/WAPO and a few celebrities.

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Well, child preachers ye shall always have with you. And being paid to yak at people is a lot easier than having a real job. That's why telemarketing became such a growth industrly long before we had them teeny hand-held computer thingies.

It's not new to need a hearty dose of common sense to make it through life. It's not new to need to shut the book or put down the magazine when it gives ridiculous advice.

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Or turns them over to someone who will.

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Ditto! Many in the so called medical freedom community were making me anxious and angry and had to unsubscribe. Curate your social media and you’ll feel a lot happier!

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This post showed up after I spent the better part of a couple hours last night trying to discern the real story on whether FEMA is helping everyone in Asheville recover or they’re deliberately confiscating any and all materials to let the the citizens rot (the competing viewpoints on social media). I wasn’t able to find anything I thought reliable, and how is that possible???

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It is sort of amazing that the post hurricane rescue effort in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and (?) should be the biggest news story in the country, especially if FEMA is doing such a poor job. I feel as if I can no longer trust the news media about anything. It used to be you couldn’t trust them about anything political, but now it seems like you just can’t trust them, period.

You shouldn’t trust anything on the internet, but I believe the account of the helicopter pilot who says he was interfered with while trying to save people, and I believe Musk when he says the Feds were preventing him from trying to help out.

It seems like we as a nation have drifted / pushed? / steered? into a situation where we can’t distinguish between truth and fantasy, or for that matter, right or wrong. - where it is impossible to make correct decisions, or have effective agency.

We hear a lot about Asheville, and maybe hundreds of deaths, but everything else is sort of vague. This “misinformation / disinformation” crap needs to stop.

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This noticeably increased with Covid. We didn't get real news. Just proclamations no one could verify. Ukrainian/Russia, the largest war in Europe since WWII, seems to have almost no war correspondenst, no cameramen, and no real coverage. Most of what I've seen is from amature video. Now we have this happening in the aftermath of Helene. It seems that they will not let any news out that has not been passed through the "narative filter". Massive Ukrainian deaths and annihilated infrastructure in Appalachia can't be easily spun, so they don't make it through the filter. I believe the Elites are so desperate about keeping power that they will censor anything that might tip the scales against them no matter how small.

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"Just proclamations no one could verify."

Often release in pairs of opposing narratives. It's difficult to verify one story when both sides are just flooding the zone with propaganda.

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Yes, and the truth is lost in a sea of propaganda. When you identify as your idea, it becomes your primary truth, even beyond objective reality. If it supports your idea it must be true, if it doesn't it's a lie, or must be promoting a lie. If it's an indisputable fact that disproves your idea, it's ignored.

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Us and Them

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This is an interesting point.

There was a time when there were really only 3 managed public information conduits (largely owned by elites/ruling class) ; print , tv and radio.

I’m not sure we ever got information which had not passed through a “narrative filter”.

The internet effectively sits above those these legacy media in that links to print , sound and image can be spread rapidly and that rapidity can give the information a false importance. Often internet based media are now created to look and sound like legacy media. Of course some media is made to look like “the horses mouth” and appears to have low production values - eg Joe Rogan Show - lacks glossy video back drop and sofas and classic studio lighting etc. Does this imbue what he says with veracity? No , but mental gymnastics will have people thinking that “he’s not on proper TV because the “elites” can have anyone telling the “truth” publicly.

In the good old bad old days most people would agree that the “news” we got was the objective truth because to think otherwise labelled you a conspiracy theorist or worse a “communist” etc. “it must be true otherwise why would they print it?”

The any objective truth if it ever was in legacy media is now confronted by a wall of ever-morphing “truths” ,some of which are objective and some merely appear to be objective because someone said them in a particularly way or in a particular setting. For instance Jordan Peterson looks and sounds like he ought to for a university professor - he sounds convincing he must be right, right? In reality Peterson promulgates Randian right-libertarian ideas like they were his own sagely invention and uncritically - ideas which resonate with a mass of people who are cut adrift from a reality and floating on a sea of un-objective, relative “truths” compounded by the immiseration caused by the apparent imminent collapse of Capitalism and the deindustrialisation which has gone hand in had with globalisation.

There are left wing internet pundits like Rogan and Peterson too - who equally like to mine the treasure of “cult of personality”.

and some flip-flop eg Russel Brand who went from “in your face truth-sayer” to Neocon Christian in a couple of years.

Daniel Pinchbeck has written at length on this BTW if I can find the link I’ll post it.

Paul Virilio said that the “internet would have profound effects on society , the economy and democracy” I think this now becoming unavoidablly true - where go form here is another question.

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First, I would be careful in lumping together information, opinion, truth, and narative. I was not thinking about thevcult of personality, just access to reliable information. Yes, there has always been a narrative filter regarding information, but it's a bad sign when information is purposefully hidden. For example, the American actions in Laos where hidden from the American public in a similar way that direct involvement by American personnel in Ukraine is hidden. It's a sign that the prevailing narrative is losing cohesion. This sea of ever-morphing truths will persist and grow until a new guiding narrative asserts itself. As to what happens next, I think the 16th and 17th centuries are a usefull guide. The introduction of a new communication technology, the printing press, overturned a societal narrative that had dominated for at least 500 years. What followed was 150 years of turmoil. Germany, the epicenter of this change, lost 2/3 of its population. New religious "truths" popped up like mushrooms after a rain, and religious wars followed. It's my opinion that the influence of science and scientific method on society eventuality moderated the most radical religious impulses.

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I agree with you entirely - I got somewhat carried away with the cult of personality - apologies for that! What is this German population collapse you refer to? - I’ve not read of that before.

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Germany was where the printing press first began to catch on (Gutenberg), and where the Protestant Reformation began (Luther). During the 30 Years War, the population of what we now call Germany fell from 18m to 6m due to war, famine, and plague. It was the battle ground between Catholic forces of the remnants of the Holy Roman Empire and the Protestant coalition led by Sweden. This finally ended with the Peace of Westfalia, which many historians consider the end of that period of turmoil. Religious wars continued however in places like the British Isles.

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It's not misinformation or disinformation; it's no information; why? Because the truth will show how incompetent the government is and will always be.

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There is no “always be” with government. Hegemonies fail , empires crumble and out of the ruins we can build new societies.

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I'm inclined to be outraged, but I think that a lot of the reported obstruction is just officials covering their asses. They have to tell you not to rescue people by helicopter or donate through unofficial channels in case anything goes wrong. I'm waiting to see if any volunteers actually get arrested for it or not.

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there was so much news about Katrina because the local city and state governments screwed the pooch so badly ahead of time through incompetence and skimming, they had to blame someone, and Bush was right there, and had the benefit of being their eternal enemy.

This time the failure is the feds.

My next door neighbor was a Rescue EMT who had volunteered AND HAD GOTTEN WARNING NOTICES about landfall. And she was pissed afterwards because they got diverted from body recovery to doing aid work, and the Army did the body recoveries.

Here, there is apparently just a lot of people milling around being important on per diem.

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My SIL lives in Valdosta… damage everywhere… FEMA no where to be found… 🤷🏽‍♀️

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And that is the whole

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The ranting lady...what was her point?

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IKR? I had to stop watching. That is but one example of the many reasons we finally...just...had...to...leave...Boston.

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founding

NOTHING.

In the beginning was the "deed". The division between thinking and doing does not exist for neurotics; the deed itself becomes a substitute for thought.

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That’s a better explanation than mine.

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Virtue Signalling is what you do when you don't have any real virtues:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152040796661573&set=a.271447476572

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founding

That is so spot on, it's profound...and simple but no simpler

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I’d be curious to know how she’ll amend her psyche when Trump wins and she doesn’t become a slave or have to wear a red bonnet. Her therapist will be dancing in the shower of money she rains down on him/her/it/was.

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"I’d be curious to know how she’ll amend her psyche when Trump wins and she doesn’t become a slave or have to wear a red bonnet."

Something like this:

"Mistakes were made on both sides. We should let bygones be bygones. And this should definitely not be a good reason for you to not take me seriously next time."

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"my calling out of the danger made the danger go away"

This is the same logic the neighbor's terrier has towards paperboys, squirrels, bicyclists, and sheets of newspapers blowing down the street in his view.

Arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf!

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Lol

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Usually, the point for such women is to ruin your fun and force you to have fun in the way approved of by her, in a didactic manner of course, for your improvement.

For a man behaving like that, the point is usually an attempt to assert dominance over other men the only way a weak man without humility can: hiding behind social conventions and decorum to heap abuse on others.

And Ryan is Correct, as per usual: "In the beginning was the "deed"'. After that, they're on auto-pilot the same way someone experiencing a psychotic break is.

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Fun is sexist 😄

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Axiomatically, if so then sexism is fun. 😁

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Faster to ask, "what doesn't anger you, my dear?"

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I don’t think these folks have a point. Somehow their buttons get pushed and they are on autopilot.

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When their buttons get pushed they have affirmation and meaning in their lives. Pathetic!

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I find "Just doing my part!" to be one of the most evil and horrifying things an ostensibly free person could ever utter.

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"I'm black!"

That was it. That was the whole point.

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Look more than half of these fuckers are on meds. This is why the majority of people are insane! When I see past medical history after past medical history for the last 36 years of “anxiety/depression” followed by a medication list riddled with antidepressants and anti anxiety drugs it is crystal clear to me why we see the behavior we do! Overmedicated free floating anxiety = crazy town USA! This isn’t organic, it’s psychologically and pharmacologically driven.

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In my opinion, the meds are the symptom of an underlying problem. People are anxious and depressed and go to the doctor and the doctor puts them on these medications that causes even more anxiety, depression, and then crazy. The underlying problem: we've allowed poison into the food supply; we've allowed them to genetically engineer food without any long-term studies of the consequences. Many plants now make all their own glyphosate and pesticide, and people consume this, and some are more sensitive to it than others. Also, we allow fake food to be sold as actual food. Seed oils are toxic. They are not anything we should be eating. They are fucking you up, so gradually you don't understand the cause.

Those who are sensitive to this crap are the ones who wind up with destroyed metabolisms and gut issues, and they wind up at the doctor who puts them on pharmaceuticals. None of this is probably helped by the over-use of vaccines from day 1, all of which are incredibly suspect at this point. Bottom line - follow the money.

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Food is just another kind of drug for dealing with anxiety.

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Very interesting, but I think the key word in your post is "allowed". How were we supposed to not "allow" these things? Buy much more expensive and questionably authentic "organic" foods? Not eat at all?

BTW, which "seed oils" are you talking about? People have been eating sesame and flax oils for thousands of years and probably others as well. Maybe it has always been dangerous, but maybe everything has.

Who (if anyone) are we supposed to trust? "Do your own research" on a literal level is almost impossible for the vast majority of people. Reading is not research; it involves trust, and if trust has been completely lost, there is very little to recommend.

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You can't get oil out of most of the seeds on the market now without a modern chemical process. And even then, humans haven't been eating seed oils that are easily extracted like olive oil or sesame oil for that long (in the evolutionary sense) and not in any great quantity because until the modern age you were limited in methods to extract oil (like pressing) and limited to the natural seasonality of crops. So no, no one has been eating seed oils in any great quantity for very long. They are toxic.

We have allowed it by not holding anyone accountable. Is this a representative Republic or is it not? Are we really living in a dictatorship where authoritarian government decides what it does, and we have no say? I mean, maybe that is really where we are.

It sounds like you are clueless as to what is going on here. They have genetically modified crops with DNA from animals, programming them to make their own pesticides like glyphosate in the cells, and are producing all manner of frankenfoods that do not exist in nature. Without any kind of long-term study to ensure that this stuff isn't dangerous. Well now we have long-term data on the general population that this crap is killing people. The incidence of colon cancer and gut problems in young people has skyrocketed in the last twenty years. Gee, I wonder why that is? It can't possibly be any of this fake crap introduced recently into the food supply. Nah! That would impact someone's profits if we came to that conclusion.

But that's okay, keep buying the GMO laden crap they're feeding you if you want. You have freewill.

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I appreciate your reply but I think you could have been more polite. Not everyone is as informed as you seem to be.

In any case, the answer is not government action, as you seem to imply. If it is possible to prove your assertions, the response should be to publicize the findings and guide people towards alternatives.

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I think you misunderstand- the problem IS the government. They’re in bed with all this and profiting off it.

Also, text isn’t really a conveyer of politeness. I’m not going to blow smoke up your derrière and call it sunshine, so if my directness comes off at impoliteness, I apologize. I’m not trying to be a bitch. I just can’t help myself from time to time.

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In the 1970s there was a saying: Reality is for those who can't afford the drugs. It was supposed to be a "hip" line but it is, unfortunately, too true. The law of unintended consequences.

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A good person to follow on this topic is Dr. Roger McFillin and his account "Radically Genuine."

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Just last night, I made a decision, not to walk-away but to refrain from continuing to initiate kindness into a relationship (extended family) that has been focused on these very things. It is sad but a huge relief. Be informed, let the door stay open a crack just in case but surround yourself with good people and write memes about the rest and get on with your life!

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Ditto!

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I smirked and shook my head in, I don't know, sadness, maybe? I don't pity them, but it is a little sad to see because there is no helping them. You're talking a worldwide deprogramming so massive it will never be undertaken.

I also laughed, like you do when you're young and a friend bumps his head or falls down. The difference between laughing and crying is time, and I've been around long enough to laugh.

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founding

Maybe every day of our lives has been April's Fools Day, but we didn't notice it until Covid?

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Spot on. It was as though someone pulled off the proverbial blinders and collectively (for the most part) we looked around and thought, "WTF?" I know that I haven't been the same since.

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Haha, Groundhog day and April Fools day rolled into one. I like it!

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founding

Even better. That's perfect!

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Why yes! Laughter is and always has been the best medicine. Thank God I grew up and spent the earlier part of my adult life in the golden ages of parody, both print and performance.

The angriest people on social media--including Substack--are those without an appreciation for the ridiculous. It's not scathingly silly comedy they're drawn to but the sword of bitter rage, cleverly framed though they may express it.

The thing is, all cults are abusive marriages. You gotta prove your love to the abuser by sewing your eyelids shut.

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Once humor and satire became criminalized as 'hate speech', I knew we were approaching the end.

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If the first casualty of war is the truth, then the first casualty of a culture war must be sense of humor, followed by irony and nuance.

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agree-totally.

When we can no longer laugh at ourselves and (yes) others-we're finished.

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Nice.

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Suggested alternative second clause:

"... Only criminals will engage in Satire!"

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Well, the end of the current era, that's all.

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*takes down Previous Era Decorations all sneaky-like*

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*rescues some from the trash in case they might be useful someday*

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So true. My husband and I travel a lot and mix with a wide variety of people. The vast majority of our daily face to face interactions with others are positive. The powers that be profit off us being divided and in fear.

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