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“how to learn” is lost in “what to learn” and most of what is learned bears little resemblance to reality."

I'm so old that I had a third grade teacher who told us, "It's not as important what you learn, but that you learn how to learn." I might have been the only one who listened to her, but that's how I've lived my life.

This is the best column I have read from you, Gato.

Glad I subscribed.

Merry Christmas to all!

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This is the fourth post where someone has said "Best ever post!". El Gato has been on a roll for a few months now. Either the Cat Crusader's had a streak of inspiration, the writing has evaluated to a new level. Let's hope it's the latter. (Sorry Kitty, don't mean put pressure on you to top your previous work.)

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Indeed, I find myself asking me "Didn't I say that nice thing last time?"

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One of the best, for sure!!

I often said in 2020-2021 as I researched and read voraciously, subjects I never cared about or even heard of before became so familiar I could teach classes in them today. I earned a virtual PhD in a half dozen fields. More actual knowledge and critical analysis ability than most actual PhD's in them today. They shouldn't have kicked me out of my career, stripped me of my distractions and then paid me to sit and study what makes them tick and how they pull this shit off. I knew enough about the system after many years in it. But I never looked far beyond my direct field, off to the sides, above, below and to the rear. Too busy living life, not choosing to care. They made me care too much. Now I get to share information, add another voice to the emergent consciousness. With added value. They done f'd up calling me a nonessential human. They have no idea how essential we were and are, and will be for a future that won't be kind to them. They done f'd up. Big time.

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💯🙏💜

Merry Christmas counter-economics people and kitties, of course. 🎄💥🎉

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Most excellent. It is not surprising that the liberals were not impressed by my paper re: why I wanted to teach was all about setting-up a foundation for them by teaching them to love to read.

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Merry Christmas, to El Gato Malo and to everyone here!

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A Christmas gift from the baddest Bad Cat there is. Yay!

Merry Christmas all you deplorable critters! :-D

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...and to You and Yours.

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Merry Christmas!!!🎄🎁🎉

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This is basically a description of my entire profession. The problem, however, is that so long as state licenses are required to be credentialed with insurance panels, and the granting of licenses hinges on accredited academic institutions, (mental) healthcare will continue to be captured by the uncritical monolithic non-thinkers. Or at least if you want to use your insurance benefit for treatment.

You see, we can't just learn good counseling (or medical) techniques on X and YouTube, though it's possible; we still must go through the dogmatic higher education institutions. One dares not launch a coaching businesses because it's deemed "illegitimate" by the system and could incur cease-and-desist letters from The State for daring to challenge the orthodoxy. Doctors can't simply leave the system and create a new one because the entire mechanism depends on the paper crown of academia and the other paper crown of occupational licensing. Even financial advisors, real estate brokers, and barbers are mandated to have certificates of minimum competence. I certainly can't get antibiotics for my sinus infection without a fully credentialed prescriber who orders it from a state sanctioned pharmacy. I can't even get x-rays without those regulatory processes having vetted every step.

It's not so easy to break free and create parallel processes. The hope exists but don't expect the system to roll over and die. It will fight back because systems must maintain themselves, first and foremost, regardless of the benefit to society, culture, economy, or man himself.

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guild systems are systems of control, not just of production and price, but of what sort of products may be brought to market. this is trebly true of services like medicine and mental health. control of such orthodoxy through "regulation and accreditation" ultimately always amounts to "thought licenses" granted by the state and state proxies (for non other can mandate a guild).

the price of "safety" by requiring medical licensure is freedom of thought among the medical profession. it is not a price worth paying.

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Since the ACA was passed and consolidation of healthcare into behemoth medical centers the "get in line" control authoritarianism has significantly worsened. Its why I said "screw it" and retired.

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They're just "protecting the public" as statutorily required. What they forget to read is the second half of that statute that also compels them to "promote the profession."

Seems that little nugget gets conveniently overlooked when crabs-in-a-bucketing for hegenonic control of the profession...as if there's not enough hurt to go around.

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With Iatrocide being the third leading cause of death - death by doctor - how much does that medical license protect all the people killed by unsafe doctors?

Where do you think the whole, "grateful for the protection, it could've been worse" mantra used by the vaccinated who get sick, and those who die comes from?

Iatrocide victims are similarly grateful for the protection of their licensed doctors, because it could've been worse.

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If a doctor wants you to be safe, they will pay attention to what they see on your chart history and speak to you as if you are human. Some read scripts and prescribe 'scripts and that's all folks.

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There's a great youtube video of Milton Friedman circa 1978 speaking to a group of physicians and nurses at the Mayo Clinic regarding ending the state licensing of physicians.

Friedman's point was that all such state licensing systems are run by current practitioners with the goal of so constraining supply that wages remain above market clearing levels. The incredulity of the professionals in attendance is pretty funny.

As a holder of an inactive CPA, I can attest that for my profession, this is exactly correct...

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Having chaired my own board and having <ahem> prompted the ousting of more than one overly zealous gatekeeper, I can affirm that sentiment. While professional standards have their place, they should not be enforced or compelled by The State, but rather the market, and definitely not when that particular state (Nevada, e.g.) ranks dead last in every category you don't want to be ranked dead last.

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People believe that standards must be univesral in order to function properly, but universal standards only serve to stifle innovation. Systems of stands must compete against each other. Self policing has only a limited effect.

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yes. We need high standards, not uniform centralised standards. It’s easy to imagine having competing bodies that set their own standards. Every county could have their own medical standards, for example; or perhaps a nation could have 5 or so competing standards bodies. It’s like having competing insurance companies. There is no need for uniformity or centralisation. Once upon a time even individual schools set their own standards for matriculation, and I believe universities still set their own standards. Decentralisation and competition and disclosure are hallmarks of high standards

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Education and professional development are too important to be left to the State.

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Thanks, outstanding analysis. I told one of my credentialed (former) supposedly left-leaning friends that I didn’t fall for mainstream characterizations of RFK as “a conspiracy theorist“ or “mentally ill “ because those phrases were coined by the CIA and even the Soviets to downplay political skeptics. She could not compute.

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"One of the most constant characteristics of beliefs is their intolerance. The stronger the belief, the greater its intolerance. Men dominated by a certitude cannot tolerate those who do not accept it."

Gustave Le Bon

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It’s all so tiresome.

When are the COVID-19 “vaccines” going to take them to woke Valhalla? I’m getting impatient.

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Patients Grass Hopper, many more patients to go. Wax on, wax off…and organic 🍿🍿🍿 with real butter. Because 🌽pop is not 🍿.

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You are wise and follow The Way. I will listen.

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Waze

You art ‘way’ wise.

A disciple complained to his Master, “Master, nothing is happening, I am tiring of these ways!”

The Master asked the other disciple next to him, “Grasshopper, what of these ways?”

The other disciple said, “Master, turn it down please, it is too much, too bright!”

The first disciple looks puzzled at the Master, inquiring why the difference.

The Master quietly says, “He listens…”.

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Yes. I will ponder this.

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Merry Christmas. Shiny ornaments and all!

Now that you have listened, pondered and knocked, the door is now opened. Before you wander out and about, read the writing on the door.

A one posted door, even anchored well to that post, swings 360 degrees in the wind. Better than no post at all, but it still depends on who is in power where it stands open or closed. All theocracies must eventually end in Lawfare Tyranny. And an Anchor post to the Creator in the Declaration of Independence needs the Bill of Rights backstop post. Freedom of diverse opinions, anchored in reality. And our right to defend against an over reaching Goober$Mint. Even after they violated the Establishment Clause, with their Lawyer monopoly on all three branches of checked power. And made pseudo science Scientism the American religion. For the same reason King Henry VIII co-opted his religion. And set out to destroy any other version to solidify his Theocracy Monarcy Tyranny. Wokie TransHuman GoreBully Scientism funded and codified by the US Congress of psuedo scientists worshiping their golden calves.

Like zero gravity does not mean the absence of gravity, silence does not mean the absence of sound. Listen. The only language with out boundaries to encompass all of Divine Wisdom is silence. But nature hates a vacuum. So when you clean out a demon, refill to overflowing with with coherent positive and constructive. So anything else runs off like oil on top of water. Lest you return home to find seven more squatters. And a one posted self serving door again.

The Ocean can exist with out waves. Waves can’t exist with out the Ocean. Grasshoppers should never get out over their skis, and remember Who is in charge. And why we are here. As we waves wave to each other out in the vast ocean of infinite Light, Love and Wisdom infused knowledge.

Onwards, through the 🍿 and 🌮s!

Con-science or pseudo science is conTrary to a well formed conscience.

Eye 4 an Eye Cancel Culture Censorship A I will eventually make the whole world Blind.

A paradox is two opposing forces held in harmonic tension. Like Salt. The Root Paradox of all paradoxes is, you have to follow the Rules to get to “no Rules”. But then, if you want to stay ‘there’ in no rules, the Rule is still, “not my Will, but God’s Will 🐝 done”.

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They probably forgot to get jabbed on their way to having their hair dyed green...

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Yep, it is getting rather tiresome. As for their vax Vahalla, what they're going to get is more like their very own private Ragnarök.

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Some are on their way or have gone, and sadly, lots are just unwilling dupes, rather than the full on Woke Jacobin scourge types.

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I’ve been saying this for a long time. Most people don’t seem to get it.

“so they get it backwards.

trump did not make MAGA. MAGA made trump.”

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I once had a conversation with a left-leaning "intellectual" about the now-current topic of a new Civil War (CWII). He blamed it on Fox News. If it had remained "moderate and truthful" like the MSM, the nation would not be so divided. I laughed and said "Silencing Fox News would have no more effect on preventing another Civil War than excommunicating Martin Luther wouldhave prevented the Reformation. You have confused cause and effect." He didn't know how to reply.

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That’s why we call them “channels”, instead of “sources”. However, most of the time they are channels from the elite to the plebes, not the other way around.

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I've read a bit about Martin Luther; I'd say that his persecution by the Church fanned the flames of the Reformation more than prevented it. The invention of the printing press allowed it to spread faster than they could control it until it was an unstoppable inferno.

The excellent Roman road system allowed early Christians to flee persecution in the First Diaspora, and the Internet of today enabled us to bring about the fall of the MSM and the information gatekeepers. We are living in an historic time.

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good one

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The deranged do not have the ability to build from the ground up, and therefore they do not understand the underpinnings of what makes things work, either physically or metaphysically. They think they can randomly prune the edges of societal frameworks without harm, while the truth is they are sawing through the proverbial limbs they are sitting on.

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Eric knew: "All mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it. The facts on which the true believer bases his conclusions must not be derived from his experience or observation but from holy writ."

Eric Hoffer

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You may like Matthew Crawford's (Achemedia) latest blog on this subject, reviewing the work of Phyllis Tickle. (Yes, that's her real name). It discusses the 500 year religious cycle and the structure of Christianity.

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THANKS, I shall look at it. Gustave had this to say: "At the bidding of a Peter the Hermit millions of men hurled themselves against the East; the words of an hallucinated enthusiast such as Mahomet created a force capable of triumphing over the Graeco-Roman world; an obscure monk like Luther bathed Europe in blood. The voice of a Galileo or a Newton will never have the least echo among the masses. The inventors of genius hasten the march of civilization. The fanatics and the hallucinated create history."

Gustave Le Bon

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Yes, I agree. But why were Peter the Hermit, Mohammed, and Luther not just dismissed as nut-cases like hundreds, probably thousands, before or after them? My perspective is that we're simply sparks. Most sparks just burn out, but if the spark is near unopened powder keg, then KABOOM! Men don't create history, history creates the men.

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Yes, could it be timing? Here are a couple of views: "Had Luther and Calvin been confined before they had begun to dogmatize, the states would have been spared many troubles."

Cardinal Richelieu "Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better."

Harry S. Truman

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Yes, it is timing, and opportunity. But Richelieu was wrong. The troubles would have come anyway, just with a different protagonist.

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It would seem for the moment. Yet there are those that would limit this. They have always been with us. "Why should freedom of speech and freedom of press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government?"

Vladimir Lenin

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Critical thinking *can* be taught through the Socratic method and debate where you are forced to take a side you disagree with. Most don't take to it naturally, but it does work.

Also, it's "head girls" that are the most numerous and most egregious offenders, by far. It's not just the nature of femininity, it's that chivalry protects women from consequences, so we wind up with situations where people's civil liberties and material wellbeing get tossed under the bus because it's more important to avoid conflict in only the most proximate sense by being "sensitive".

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it can be developed and aided but only insofar as those being taught are possessed of sufficient talent and capacity to begin with. a machine cannot run code that requires more processing power than it has.

the fact is that many kinds of intelligence are simply innate. it's not fair or nice or egalitarian, it simply is. the denial of this fact gives rise to systems designed to lie to themselves and to endlessly not only teach linear algebra to schnauzers, but to pretend that the pooches are proficient and to act as though their answers are accurate.

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I'm not a nuclear scientist, but I know that the power plant 10-15 miles from my house gives me a near-optimal solution (given our current knowledge or the knowledge at the time it was built) and lights and heats my home.

Some will not take to the Socratic method or open dialog as those who have natural curiosity or courage, but at least those who don't take to it easily can be made familiar with concepts like trade-offs or risks without turning the rest of our institutions into a raging dumpster fire... And, perhaps more importantly, get a sense of "not-belonging" in places where open discourse holds sway.

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this seems like a bit of a skirting of the issue and the substitution of learned macro for first principles thought. very few humans extrapolate well from a general theory to a specific instance (abstract to concrete) or can assess whether the specific solution to one issue is a general case solution or a tactical one.

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You could be right. This is not a new problem, human nature being what it is. Maybe I'm just coping.

One thing is for sure, anyone who cannot adapt to an environment that requires open discourse needs to be excluded. Half of all kids should not be going to college just to regurgitate garbage.

I maintain the belief that these are useful tools, but am not in agreement that only ~10% of the population benefits from them.

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This “only 10% of people are capable of critical thinking” feels like the same type of received wisdom that you are accusing the critical theory practitioners of using. Where does this come from? Some crap sociological study trying to push the idea that we need a technocratic overclass? I have no doubt that you are well practiced in critical thinking, but this is the same type of blame the other side of being stupid trap that has caused the loss of the use of critical thinking.

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You're accurate about those Head Girls if you merge it with MeanGirls/neurotic girls/radical feminists.... however there's more of us Sensible Girls coming forward every day, and we Do Not Fear a cat fight with those beotches. We're taking them on,in public spaces.

Let men be chivalrous!! And may we Battle Maids sharpen our claws as well as our spears!

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1dEdited

I hate the feminist evil witches and always have

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Thank you! Although I can be a real ass about it, I've been trying to temper my disgust with this sort of thing, as I've worked with and learned from many talented women. Many others preceded them, going back hundreds of years (Women like Ada Lovelace come to mind).

But there have to be the same boundaries with women that exist for men in pragmatic arenas. The bottom line is that women who bring up topics they don't want to discuss, then compel answers that are not based in reality are, in my opinion, the genesis of the problem Gato is talking about. When our institutions were "pale, male, and stale", these problems did not exist. That doesn't mean it's necessarily a causal relationship, but I've seen enough over the past 10-15 years to strongly suspect that it is.

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Don't forget what happened to Socrates. Some things never change.

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A generation of humans's brains have been infected with decades of injections has made inoculation to "critical thinking" apparent? Do not try to reason with zombies, their heads won't explode that way; but yours might.

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Next step is to either get people to think more deeply about issues in this reel and snippet social media world or shame the syndrome prone harder.

Bad cat, we need this on issue of climate control. The US gov is participating in large-scale geoengineering schemes with other countries in the WMO (world meteorological organization). Note: if you think the WHO is bad, check out the WMO. Many states are attempting to pass legislation to stop these crazy experiments, but how does a state secure its sovereignty when their federal government is participating in these risky, unproven experiments? Please, write about this. I’ll provide sources.

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“In October 2003 the U.S. National Research Council issued a report titled, “Critical issues in weather modification research.” In the same month the U.S. Pentagon released a controversial report, “An abrupt climate change sce- nario and its implications for United States national security,” that explored how global warming could lead to rapid and catastrophic global cooling.“

https://www.colby.edu/sts/06_fleming_pathological.pdf

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Reference:

1. White House Report June 2023 Congressionally Mandated Research Plan and an Initial Research Governance Framework Related to Solar Radiation Modification

*Scientific dimensions of solar radiation modification (SRM) systems include the use of interoperable ground-based, airborne, and space-based facilities.

Page 6 provides information on outdoor experiments for stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) and the testing of aerosol injection technologies.

Page 15 acknowledges that SRM consequences may include "more frequent extreme drought or precipitation events."

Page 22: "For SAI experiments, of interest is how aerosols are formed and evolve in the real stratosphere in response to the injection of aerosols or aerosol-precursor gases (e.g., sulfur dioxide). A variety of aerosol materials could be examined."

Page 43: "The Federal government conducts or funds limited research into SRM. Congress has directed

NOAA to fund SRM research as part of its Earth’s Radiation Budget Program for the last several

years."

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Congressionally-Mandated-Report-on-Solar-Radiation-Modification.pdf

NOAA and NASA are cooperating on sampling the lower stratospheric aerosol layer in the Stratospheric Aerosol processes, Budget and Radiative Effects (SABRE) mission using the NASA WB-57high-altitude research aircraft. SABRE Platform: NASA WB-57 (noaa.gov)

NOAA FY2024 $4,946,007,000 *CREC-2024-03-05-pt1-PgS1223.pdf (congress.gov) p.178-181 Atmospheric Research, Weather and Air Chemistry Research, satellites, NEXRAD: p.646

NOAA FY2025Budget Estimate: $6,560,975,000 https://aip.brightspotcdn.com/29/22/d01f563645fc83fcfb98cf13f739/noaa-fy25-request.pdf

The cost of stratospheric aerosol injection has been calculated through 2100 - "The program relies on three successive generations of newly designed high-altitude tanker aircraft to deliver aerosols to an altitude of ∼20 km. Sulfates are assumed to be the aerosol used in conjunction with the first generation tanker..."

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Fabulous essay, well done!

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Well, they've forgotten their aphorisms but we ain't.

Even cats may sneer at kings.

And--who the hell made 'em kings, anyway? That which has been made can be unmade too.

Anyway--to all a https://redfoliot.substack.com/p/merry-baby-we-promise-was-absolutely?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=814700&post_id=153542657&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=p0wtk&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

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I sneer at lotsa folks.

Quite often because,without a forethought, I'm terrible at hiding my emotions or even my emotionsabout somethingim thinking about,that happened3 months ago.

Some day,when I'm put in a gulag for sneering at our 'king' or whomever...will you tell them that I'm just a curmudgeon, please?

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You know that scene in what I think was an Eric Ambler novel where a long line of Yugoslav Partisans had to link arms in the deep snow to stamp out a runway so a plane of The Good Guys could land?

That's all of us.

And I never forgot that image though I must've read that book fifty years ago. What people can do against all odds if they hold on hard to each other and push through.

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Also- I'm frikkin ornery.

I've learned to use it as a life-preserving mechanism. *grin*

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Haven't you noticed that that's the type that likes me?

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I hadn't. I had noticed quite a few in the stacks who appreciate you,however.

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Not that I'd ever get all sentimental and sticky--especially on Christmas Eve--but I am really, really grateful to have found myself at some mighty congenial tables set in the most enjoyable corners of the vast backyard of SubstackLand.

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Excellent description of the fury of the “credentialed,” but by your own (correct) opening statistic, the truly critical thinkers can never be in the majority. The “credentialed” sense (correctly) they are not in the 10%—perhaps this is why they project the sense of challenge onto individuals like Elon. They are being outwitted by a minority, they just don’t know how to recognize it.

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they never have been and never will be.

the question is whether they are being allowed the freedom to drive progress and flourishing. when they are, you get enlightenments and industrial revolutions, republics and renaissances.

an ethos that extol and encourages such thrives. one that vilifies and thwarts it stagnates then fails.

the only truly important capital of the next century will be human capital.

the only truly important question is will we nourish it or stifle it.

there is perhaps a question here not dissimilar to the protestant reformation:

who shall interpret? each and all or popes and pontiffs? the cathedral or the bazaar?

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I vote for Franciscans—but to explain why would take more than a comment!

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“Never interrupt your enemy when he is beclowning himself”

My new mantra! Thank you.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all Bad Cats.

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I used to be another brick in the wall...and I was miserable. More important, I failed to teach my daughter critical thinking skills...and I am paying for it dearly. Try to talk your children out of higher education...at least for a year or two after graduation. Offer to help pay for trade school, allow them to live at home and work until their prefrontal cortex and moral code is a little more 'solid'. Do WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO and give them a little more solid ground if they will let you. My daughter, whose IQ is extremely high, rejected my opinions and knowledge and now she is living in a make believe world of gaming and barely leaves her apartment. THIS, what you wrote El Gato, is the CLOSEST I have come to processing who she is now. Clear, coherent, and heartbreaking. Merry Christmas fellow readers...speak truth, and damn well dont let your voice shake anymore. Yell it, whisper it, sign it, write it, meme it---but TELL IT.

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Some of us know people who are highly intelligent yet have been captured by the propaganda because they think that if they read the NYT and WaPo plus a source on the “right” such as National Review, they’re getting a complete picture. All other sources of information are suspect because of the academic snobbery they don’t even realize they have. They are locked in prison and cannot see it.

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