i am just a kitten and not a cognitive scientist of anything, so please forgive me if this is a silly question to which most people know the answer and i do not, but “can humans rotate shapes in their heads at all?”
because it seems like maybe you can’t.
and that sure would explain a lot about the kinds of precedents you guys keep setting and how surprised you always seem when they get used for something you don’t like next time…
I do. The speed at which my countrymen can do a volte face and forget about Covid to demonize Russia, leaves me astonished and half crazy. Yesterday in the car I was remembering going to the best hypnotist known to see if I could stop smoking. I got out of the session and lit one up. I really wonder if there is something WRONG with me...I apparently cannot get hypnotized. Does that mean I cannot be brainwashed? And how many people out there are like me? I heard once it is 30%, but I am starting to doubt that,...I think it is more around 10%. One person I know at work was an anti war...Iraq, etc.but was wearing the Ukrainian flag on her sweatshirt.....I am convinced today's "liberalism" in a mental disorder...and that they have collected all the data since the inception of browsers and are using AI to do this....
I guess it's about 30% who didn't take the jab so that is the % who were not brainwashed by the last psyop, but only 1-2% didn't wear a mask so it takes a lot more gusto to resist publicly. I know because I only saw one or two others per shopping trip who showed their faces. As for mental disorder - that's spot on. We now have an inflamed mob wielding torches and the AI bullhorn just tells them where to run.
It took me until the last 6 months or so to work up the balls to not mask when required (which is everywhere, until tomorrow). People around here still walk their dogs on a quiet suburban street in an N95. 🙄
Doing that in Australia too - no one is sight, Omicron not affecting anyone, but still strange people walking in the middle of nowhere with a mask on....the mind does boggle...
According to CDC, most of that 30% are children. They show upwards of 90% of adults are vaccinated (tho this drops when they redefined what vaccinated means to include "boosters").
Don't lump all the vaccinated together. My husband and I got two jabs apiece, I didn't want either, but we can clearly see what's going on and are not following anyone or anything but what we feels is the truth. O did buy in to DuckDuckGo but I'm outta there, too.
Fair 'nuff. I wasn't clear or complete. The CDC and others quote low rates to justify mandates and such when it suits them by including kids and redefining what "fully" means when it suits them. Just happened when people were challenging mandates given the high compliance rate already..just observing....
A lot of that 90% were coerced. I think 30% is probably closer to the number who never wanted to take the shots. There was at least one poll indicating that around late summer of 2020.
No argument from me. There are levels of coercion. To some level we could say most everyone was coerced by fear created by the extreme response. Others are more obviously coerced such as those told it was vaccine or the could not do what they need to do to make a living (like me).
My point actually was that the CDC was reporting over 90% as "fully vaccinated" but then redefined "fully" so as to drop that number. No claiming that this was purely political (but it was) but when there was political need for mandates to be prolonged, the need for "boosters" happened to become clear shortly...and the "rate" dropped...
Curious how many will take the booster that is coming in the Fall. Seems like they will bring the big guns out for that. Not much time to get out the Vax Fraud information.
This depends on how much science is allowed to creep into the policy demands. Speaking for myself, the last 2+ years have been devastating as my soul was created to be on the road, traveling around, meeting people for real. Right now all three shots are required for us to get back out, which is only now becoming possible even with the shots and masks. In balancing my own priorities, if it's mandated for traveling, I'll take the risk...because if I don't get back out there soon my head will explode!
My hope is that the political usefulness of vaccine mandates is fading, and so the real science may be allowed to creep back in eventually. And then it will be a choice based on actual medical factors. Hey - I said "hope"!!!
In New Zealand the booster is already being pushed and has been since January. They reduced the time from your second shot to third down to 3 months.
The booster is mandated for health, education, corrections officers, border and aviation staff and hospitality. Also anybody deemed close contact such as hairdressers.
**One person I know at work was an anti war...Iraq, etc.but was wearing the Ukrainian flag on her sweatshirt**
Virtue signalling idiots. War is little more than a big oppurtunity for woke soyboys and Karens to let everyone know just how fabulously virtuous they are.
It is also an opportunity for a great many good people to lose their lives. That part seems to be left out of the woke consciousness. Seems a high cost to sell a few tee shirts.
The woke would never enlist. A select few may be smart/athletic enough to get into a service academy but when it comes to having "skin in the game" they'll make loud noises and possibly frame their Linkedin or Facebook profile with something pro-Ukraine/Zelenskyy.
I know too many people who fell for the neocon line following 9/11. They returned from Iraq and/or Afghanistan feeling misled if not also dealing with some form of PTSD and medical issues related to 'burn pits' and the other things that go along with "Thank You for Your Service."
i had nearly the same experience with a hypnotist years ago - for me it was for help with a blood/injury fainting issue (i still can't get a blood test without fainting). anyway, i was completely aware of the hypnotist throughout, and quietly rejected every suggestion she made. i was in a trance of sorts and very relaxed, but i found her voice annoying and ignored her while i meditated and explored a little dream world i was creating myself (that had nothing to do with my phobia). i remember clearly wishing she'd just shut up. when i got home i took a nap and had a very vivid dream i was a young girl in some french city in what must have been around the 16th century.
i agree with you that people who resist hypnotic suggestions are also likely to resist brainwashing of any kind, and sadly we are a minority. it must be something innate in us- not learned.
most people have completely surrendered to the mighty wurlitzer- they have no thoughts of their own, and probably never have. i've seen the same thing as you- there is no underlying sense of values, only switches activated by the latest agitprop.
I watch a tv commercial and want to have a coke. But I don't have a coke because I know it's empty calories, highly inflammatory and the caffeine gets me wired in a bad way.
So where does that leave me?
Like most, I'm susceptible to the programming. I have my own internal set of values and principles that override the programming - that's where I/we differ from the masses.
Very cool story. Sorry about the fainting. A friend of mine had the same experience. I was told that some people have a defense mechanism that collapses veins when they are pierced and that can understandably cause fainting if enough veins respond?
I had a series of hypnotist sessions for the exact same reason - a blood phobia, annoying tendency to faint during blood tests - and a similar response. The sessions were very relaxing, and may have done me some good, but I did not believe a word of the spiel.
you probably got the same spiel i did- the hypnotist assumed i was a victim of abuse or something. she really annoyed me. another commenter here said there might be a physiological cause- the veins collapsing when punctured. a friend of mine once suggested it might be a sensitivity to a blood pressure drop.
or maybe it's a past life thing. the strange dream i had after the session has stayed with me for years. it wasn't a violent dream at all, but extremely vivid, and historically accurate in fine detail. and it wasn't a memory of any movie i'd seen either.
but it is tricky to keep a phobia from expanding. i'm uncomfortable around docs and hospitals of course, but i have fainted just listening to someone going into graphic detail about medical stuff. i tolerate it well most of the time, but sometimes i have to get away. educating myself on the damage the covid shots cause has been a challenge for me.
exactly. since i'm an incurable optimist, i believe the future of the medical profession won't be as creepy as it has been. it simply has to change now.
We have had wave after wave of hysteria ("Me Too," trans rights, and earlier, though I can't put names on them), culminating, so far, in covid. I have the horrible suspicion a fair percentage of folks are now addicted to hysteria and need it to feel "normal." So when they're offered a fresh fix, they jump for it.
A stop smoking tip—because I always try to be helpful even if the topic is some other important thing—get a book, “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking”, by Allan Carr. I read it in ‘09 and haven’t craved a smoke since. I mean, not counting 3-5 seconds of contemplating lighting one up and then thinking “nope, no way.” Very effective.
It was very effective for me too - no-nonsense, concise, in-yer-face instructions. But you have to be ready to stop. I read it twice, and it only worked the second time, because I wasn’t ready to stop the first time.
It's shocking to see how suggestible the vast majority of people are. You, like me, are one of the lucky ones. I recall a time at Penn State that a magician/hypnotist was doing a show in one of the auditoriums where he asked the crowd what they thought the next card he "pulled at random" out of the deck was going to be. I can no longer remember what the actual card was, but almost the entire crowd shouted the same card, which he then showed was the one he had picked.
He had been planting subliminal suggestions for the 10 minutes leading up to it. I had chosen an entirely different card (J of diamonds - funny that I still remember that lol) and there was maybe 5-10% of the audience that raised their hands when asked if they had picked something else. All this was long before my political awakening. It's amazing how much public information smells like BS once you realize what it is you've been smelling for so long...
Darren Brown did some excellent programs showing him "telepathically predicting" what people would choose or say or draw, and then ended with 10 mins of behind the scenes footage on how he filled his act with suggestions and prompts leading the mark towards that final "I predicted you would do that" outcome.
Professional stage hypnotists get a lot of people on the stage and quickly work out which are susceptible and which aren't through a rapid selection process.
You can be hypnotized if you want to be. Regarding smoking, the best method, as it's a real, physical addiction, is to get all nicotine out of your system. It drastically reduces in 3 really, the first 3 days are tough but doable, after that it's much easier, after 3 weeks really easy, and by 3 months there is zero desire even if you try to want one. I learned the 3-3-3 thing 10 years ago and have never smoked since, don't even want to. And that's after smoking from the age of 12 to 44... You can do it, and hypnosis can do amazing things, but cold turkey is best for smoking cessation. Good luck
I dunno, Bigs. I was hooked on the moist snuff years. Even now, it's all I can do to not buy a can when I stop at a convenience store. A friend of my brother told me he had been a heroine addict for several years and found it easier to get clean from that than the nicotine he was also using. You are a better man than I am.
Vaping is a good alternative if you don't want to quit altogether.
I quit cold turkey several times in my life and you're right, I found it the best way. But after a few years, I'd want it again and started vain instead. I don't like traditional cigarettes anymore- the smoke is unpleasant to me now. I'd never quit coffee, either.
I can live without them but I choose not to. So far my health remains very good.
I tried being hypnotised at a college show and only enjoyed the relaxing trance-y bit but could not pretend to go along with his commands and was sent to my seat; I tried again ten years later with a practicing friend and again enjoyed the relaxation and gave myself images of ocean flowing back and forth but did not follow commands. I get the impression that neurodivergent people with demand avoidance cannot be hypnotised even though I thought it would be fun and wanted to be. . . . I can self-hypnotise though; my dad taught me that I could tell myself I wasn't ticklish as kid, to avoid being vulnerable to tickle attacks I didn't want, and it worked.
I sadly can be hypnotized in an instant, but very very early on became skeptical of the narrative, so there may be other things at play. I early on also became skeptical of the liberal progressive agenda asvI myself became reformed. It seems to me that there is quite a division of world views that have become firmly set and were established (in cases of shifts) at different junctures over the last 2 years. I am astounded by the lack of knowledge by so many well educated friends (e.g., a professor and a lawyer) of such things as vaccine injuries and VAERS (another even said she does not read such conspiratorial things!). These are NPR or MSN loyalists. The hope is that giving them more exposure(where they are willing), may move them to a new juncture and shake their assumptions.
I'm also wondering about liberalism (and some others) as mental disorders. Some people seem to have lost all bearing and seem to be drowning in total relativity in a world that changes it's opinion every other minute.
I think the trap of binary thinking has trapped a lot of people, imho, mainly because they want to simplify the world, not to have to judge each person by their character.
I've wondered the same thing about hypnosis. I've seen and heard some amazing things: a classmate called up on stage and told to freeze, who couldn't even blink his eyes until the hypnotist's assistant noticed his distress and gave him permission; college students made to delete the number 5, and the looks on their faces when asked to figure out how many fingers they had by counting or multiplying; the males told that they were the world's first pregnant man, and half the guys in the audience around me eventually going into labor. But I can't seem to get there at all, even trying.
In my case, I think it may be a native disengagement with language. For me, words are a tool I can use with effort, but if I'm not trying they just spin around loose without doing much. A lot of other people though seem to do their entire thinking through them. The result is that they are much better at speaking and interacting socially, but they are rather at the mercy of verbal manipulation. Does that ring a bell with your experience?
Duchess, you may (Not) be surprised that the research and "evidence" for smoking causing the issues it is claimed to cause is as flimsy as the evidence for all the nonsense we've been put through for the last two years. I mention this if you're concerned about your health. You may be wanting to quit for other reasons. Just thought I'd mention it.
Lung transplants are done with the lungs of smokers and non-smokers alike. The only people who have lungs damaged enough to see are those who have worked in coal mines or people who live in heavily polluted cities.
whaaaa? Would you want some smokers lungs? I do not think lungs of a smoker are suitable for transplant unless the "smoker" is 25 and exceptionally healthy, Still. I do not know how to interpret your information. It sounds dodgy
Well, never having been in a position of needing a transplant of any organ, I could not speak directly to it. However, I would assume that if I needed a transplant and the organ is considered useful, I'm pretty sure I'd opt for that organ no matter who it was. Right?
My mother was a pack a day smoker for more than 50 years. A lung x-ray in her later years showed perfectly clear lungs.
Since we've been snookered about so many things (and especially the last two years) I was curious about the claims that have been made about cigarettes and lung cancer and heart disease, particularly since there has been a significant drop in smoking over the last several decades and yet heart disease and lung cancers have increased. So I decided to look into those claims a little more. I was quite surprised at what I found because I had assumed the same things you did.
Hi Duchess. As a hypnotist who has hypnotized thousands of people myself, I just wanted to weigh in.
My success rate for single session stop smoking clients over the last twenty years is 100%. Every time a client has come to see me for smoking, they have left the session as a true non-smoker. It sounds impressive, but the reason it is that number is simple - I have a potential client fill out a two page questionnaire to determine if they are ready to be a non-smoker. after which I have a pre-talk explaining what I need to see from them. If a client is not ready to be a non-smoker, I will not waste their time and money by hypnotizing them anyway. Sometimes they are ready, but before we can even set an appointment to do the session, the pre-talk has helped them to stop smoking already.
So just so you know, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you - you just weren't ready. As a result, you were not ready to suspend certain critical thought patterns, which you would when you were ready. Barring brain disfunction, anyone can be hypnotized, in fact we slip into a hypnotic state several times a day naturally.
Btw, those are the same thought patterns that sniff out the BS the left is pitching, so please keep them strong. Remember to be the master of your own thoughts.
Same person in your office was wishing death on the unvaccinated. I’d mention to her that Ukrainians are only 35% vaccinated. She might whip that ridiculous virtue signaling flag, right off of her clothes.
Not really. Barry O’Bama, that bastion of progressive ideals and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, is in the highly rarified club of presidents who were at war every day of their two terms.
He personally ordered drone strikes and got off watching the videos of the carnage and destruction.
The whole “anti-war” schtick of the left was as much a ruse as their claims to support free speech and be “for the working man”. They were always slogans behind which to hide their singular lust for power at any cost.
And have been for a century or more. Many businesses play both sides. Or egg-on the war, get rich selling arms then get even richer “rebuilding” in the aftermath. It’s obscene.
I don't know if they ever really were. OG progressives in the US straight up lusted after it (thinking of TR here but he aint the only one).
I'm being a little obtuse because I know that in the 60s - 00s it was a different story, but one could argue that they're getting back to their roots. The "old right" (people like Albert J Nock et al.) always had more principled and intellectual opposition to the warfare state than hippie dippie leftists in the 60s did IMO.
I mean they think government coercion is the answer to everything, right? As long as "the right, moral, progressive" people are the ones calling the shots.
TBH though these days leftism seems to just be blind obedience and faith in whatever the state/corpo-complex/intellectual class feeds them. Whether that's covid containment, climate change, war, "social justice" or whatever the next swindle is.
No. They were never for free speech and they were never antiwar.
I recall leftists talking about freedom of speech as being sacrosanct while they revered Castro and admired the Soviets, hardly defenders of free speech. The left was only for free speech in so far as it was a tool to subvert societal norms by allowing pornography.
As for their being anti-war, the left was behind WWI (and also vigorously suppressed free speech during that time) and WWII. Vietnam was more complicated because the CIA-right of Buckley / Burnham / National Review was successful in subverting Conservatism into an establishment cause [for example, Russell Kirk was against Vietnam but could not speak out if he wanted The University Bookman published] while the draft-age generation was opposed. And during the 80s many on the left sided with the Soviets over the Americans, thus fooling many on the right into thinking that they were pacifists.
No political group is anti-war, at least not in large enough numbers to affect the whole. You may be against the other guy's war, sure, because *his* war is an unnecessary act of aggression that will cost blood and treasure, while *your* war is an existential struggle for freedom and everything that is high and noble in the human breast. It's a cliche to use this quote, but:
“The specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemy.”
There are plenty of people on the left and the right who are pacifist (I'm a hard right isolationist myself), just like there are plenty of people on the far ends of the spectrum who were vehemently anti-COVID measures. I have more productive discussions of issues with tankies and anarchists than with acceptable Ds and Rs. Alas, it seems we are doomed to smothering effeminate rule by the most hysteric among us; and so we stumble from one conflict to the next.
Nice post. On isolationism, I have moved significantly in that direction after a lifetime of working in foreign policy and defense, supporting NATO, etc. We in the west have shown that we really don't value liberty anymore, so what is the point of any of this stuff? And how do we pass ourselves off as the good guys?
The continental US has been given a great gift by Providence that we have utterly squandered: a bi-coastal empire with relatively benign neighbors. We are uniquely capable of autarky, or some form of commercial rule imperialism on the North American continent, and yet our leaders have decided our interests lie in the deserts of the Middle East or the frozen plains of the Pale of Settlement.
Isolationism is a very old political idea in the US, and it is high time we start taking it seriously.
It’s all the same these days. I am (involuntarily) exposed to Fox “News” at the moment and the propaganda is hot and heavy. Sounds just like CNN. I guess there have been a few billion more of our tax money paid to pimp this atrocity.
I remember many things. I remember when I could say what I believed, attend church, visit my elderly mother in her care home, or get together with my friends for a few beers at the Legion Friday evenings. I remember when I had a choice in regard to what drugs I would, or would not take. I remember when supporting a political cause was legal. I can remember when having English ancestors did not prove definitively that I am a racist. I can remember when the fact that I am unabashedly male did not mean that I am a misogynist. I remember.
They were always hypocrites. There's a reason why Malcolm X said, "[a] White American who identifies as a liberal is the most dangerous and deceitful thing in the Western Hemisphere.”
I also remember not that long ago when the US president stood next to Vladimir Putin shaking hands and smiling, heralding the cooperation between our nations. As I recall our current president stood in the background in that picture (as he was VP at the time).
Yes, that was way back when, over the course of ten years, the Viet Nam war killed fewer millennials (58,000) than were killed in the last half of 2021 by mandates for millennials to get jabbed (61,000). Democide - death by government decree.
"Initiated" is a rather imprecise word when it comes to war. Who initiated the war on terror in 2001? That debate can get deep...
On a pragmatic (first level of obviousness) major US military actions since WWII have been driven by international obligations in the UN. The US became the "police force" of the UN following WWII. It was UN directives that sucked us into Korea and South East Asia, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan (the media wants you to forget this but it remains the actual truth).
So we can trace US boots on the ground to specific UN directives. Not always happy political fodder but there if you care to look (Gulf I, Gulf II, etc). We can go back to when the UN was formed and the treaties ratified that put the US in that role if we want to fix blame (a process that seldom fixes problems by the way).
Of course we can look at escalation, also. Our first troops sent to Vietnam officially began when Eisenhower held the chair (tho you can find reports that we had troops there under Truman). The force level was minimal, just enough to meet UN obligations but very, very limited in number of troops and roles until LBJ took the big chair, with major escalation after 1963. But was it Johnson who initiated? Some will argue it was the massive influx of troops from China and corresponding aggression by the USSR that drove the US response. If we look at historical context, Korea and Vietnam were "initiated" by expansion by China.
Geo politics is messy. The constant is politicians will capitalize on war for personal and party gain. Both dominant parties blame the other for starting it and promise to be the ones to end it and usually they are all trying to get the most out of it. Back in the 60s and 70s, a lot of people identifying as democrats were out in droves blaming the war on Nixon and his party (forgetting LBJ's role). now many of those same kids are old folks now wearing the tee shirts and jumping head long into the "stop Putin" movement, despite remaining loyal to the party who's policies put Putin in the strong position he's in back around 2012 when the same folks were applauding "their guy" Obama for creating a peaceful and cooperative relationship with Russia.
Yes, I ordered my "Make Orwell Fiction Again" tee-shirt and hat last night....
Very well! I had so many left friends at anti-war protests right up until Obama got into office and American realized it was political posturing against Bush.
Yep, If you are on the 'wrong side of history' you can be told to DIAF, because people who remind them of reality are 'literally killing' them with those words.
I do realise Facebook is for dummies. Something is seriously wrong with Facebook. I would urge anyone on it to get the hell off it and stay well away from this dangerous mind game. It serves no purpose. Go help an elderly neighbour, go donate time to counting birds in your back yard. Go find your life, Facebook is not it.
Best thing I did in 2011: Got rid of FB and any social media. Told my family if they wanted me to see pictures of kids etc... send them to me personally. I truly believe Social Media has played a huge roll in the destruction of liberty over the last several years. Heck, we have a whole generation now that doesn't value privacy because of it. Parents put their kid's pictures out for the world to see from day they are born, immediately stealing their privacy and beginning the "no privacy" training. Many young people wouldn't think twice of snapping a picture of their naked bodies to send to a prospective girl/boy friend. Yes, social media has been a really bad thing for society. And, in my humble opinion, you cannot have liberty without valuing privacy.
Agreed. My wife clings to FB for pics of the grandchildren, or I would drop it immediately. I have lately been posting right-wing cartoons in the hope that they will shitcan me. I don't do twitter or any of the others and never will.
Totally agree. Worst thing that ever happened to humanity. My wife and I never joined FB or any thing else. However, with a 14 year old daughter it is a challenge explaining how things used to be without Instagram etc
It is the same hatred we've seen of the 'unvaccinated' last year and the 'anti-maskers' the year before. There must always be some "other" group for the ignorant masses to hate so their anger is directed at someone else and not the elites in power.
Good point. Growing up in the deep South in the forties and fifties, I can recall real racism. The ones with the most hate were the white trash people at the bottom of society. They had to hate someone, so they didn't feel that they were the ones on the true bottom.
They are using the same propaganda techniques the Nazis employed:
“…never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”
I deleted my Nextdoor account over a year ago when I posted actual facts from the NIH regarding ADE and got banned. I was glad to delete it, though. The site gave me an uneasy feeling, the people were strange, and I had very good suspicions that it was being used by "someone" else to push the face diapering and general Covid fearmongering.
Perhaps any keyboard warriors who utter such threats should be issued an engraved invitation to the frontlines along with the Facebook and Instagram employees who decided to sanction them.
I got spanked by twitter when posted I wanted to slap a guy in the face. He was spouting off and promoting full term abortions. They said I was promoting violence. 🤦🏼♀️
Yet anyone who called corona the "Wuhan flu" was inciting violence against Chinese people. But it's okay to incite violence against all Russians now. Oooookay.
Just got 30 days off FB for calling Saudis “Barbarians”. Meanwhile I cannot fathom what I’m reading on VK about what’s really going on in Ukraine. It’s really really bad even if only half true. The people behind all of this are purposefully trying to destroy America and no it’s not Putin either. God help us.
Ethnic Russian, here, US citizen since 2001. They want to do violence against me? Okay, then. May not work out well in real life as opposed to social media. Real humans (and cats, of course), tend to defend themselves when attacked.
My wife is also an ethnic Russian and a citizen for twenty years. Several of her acquaintances have called upon her to somehow explain Putin's rationale for Ukraine as if she is the Russian version of Jen Psaki. Let's just say that I'm looking forward to someone saying the wrong thing to her.
Fuckerberg is calling for genocide. Should be a class action lawsuit by Russians to take down fakebook. Fuckerberg should be charged with criminal liability for any harm to them.
️They're on it - Russian Prosecutor General's Office requests Meta be recognized as 'extremist organization'. And I stand with Russia on this one. All of this anti-Russian hate is just a dog whistle.
Wow, its the "2 minutes hate" of the online era. Ridiculous. What's next, will they ban Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky on Spotify? Wait... don't tell me...
They've been doing this to women for the last 5 years at least. And anybody else that they label a 'TERF' a word that has an interesting etymology I must say.
Yep, it is perfectly fine to threaten to rape, kill or otherwise immolate a woman for pointing out simple human biology. The threatened woman is then kicked off the platform for 'violence' and the threat stands.
...First they came for the feminists, but I did nothing because eff those hairy legged bees anyways...
We've been soaking in this for almost a decade now, but because it was begun targeting unpopular victims, it was allowed to grow. Now a bunch of people are waking up, but the laws and algorithims are in place. We are all 'TERFs' now in a manner of speaking.
This is a repeat of the George Floyd playbook narrative, where you overlook the sins of the transgressors, elevate him and demonize anyone that disagrees with the ongoing narrative.
Ukraine good, Russia bad. It’s okay to overlook the Ukraine aggressive, militaristic actions and killing of the people in Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014, targeting them because they are ethnically Russian, speak Russian and want to be free of Ukraine, but bad for Russia to support and defend Donetsk and Luhansk, and oppose Ukraine joining NATO, effectively putting military bases and offensive weapon on Russia’s front porch.
I have tried to get people to understand that Russia did not attack Ukraine unprovoked...told them I saw a segment on Vice News in 2018(2019?) on the eastern Ukraines ethnic Russians being shelled pretty much all the time....for years. I was made to feel like I couldn't possibly have seen that here(USA) and if I did it was Russian propaganda.....I said no it wasn't Russian. Unbelievable how so many Americans can not see they are still barbarians themselves. Government officials calling for the death of a foreign leader? Americans ok with sanctioning Russia and starving Russians....saying they deserve it. I knew there were ignorant Americans out there but am beginning to realize it really does go beyond ignorant to actual stupidity. And pushing for war? Are all these keyboard warriors gonna enlist? And yes it is tragic that innocent Ukrainians, that like many Americans, are clueless to their governments actions that are getting them killed.
Americans are notoriously uneducated about anything outside of their own shallow lives, the Twitter sewer, and Fakebook lies they skim over. They can’t be bothered to invest the time to independently research any topic other than where they can get the best deal on whatever new material goods they covet.
Are you kidding? Why would I spend time on educating myself on the history of Ukraine, the Maidan color revolution or the Donbas. The Donbas is that a new trendy restaurant? Do I need a reservation?
Russia bad. Ukraine good. What about 14,000 people that were killed by Ukrainian nationalists since 2014? Minsk agreements? I thought we decided killing animals for fur coats was bad.. The Donbas area, of 3.6 million people is ethnically, spiritually, nationally and culturally Russian, has been under attack by Ukraine’s army and the Moscow-backed separatists since 2014. Ukrainian nationals have offensively bombed killing more than 14,000 people. That’s just Russian propaganda.
Let’s have internment camps for everyone of Russian descent. There is precedent for such a policy, after all.
Perhaps someone could start a social media campaign advocating this. I’m sure the big tech companies will make a “spirit-of-the-policy allowance” here too.
Also in the memo to FB and IG moderators is the temporary allowance for praise of Ukrainian neo-nazi group Azov Regiment... but only in the context of them killing Russians.
I am going to stop with my daily question to the ether "Have we gone mad?"
If you are on FB or IG - seriously what the heck is wrong with you? Do you have Stockholm Syndrome? Get help.
Are we also allowed to support other "freedom fighters" elsewhere, like Canada? Or are guns and bombs and financial donations only allowed to support CIA-created regimes?
The political machinery in the US has so thoroughly divided the public into teamthinking “us’s and “thems” that even egregious examples of wrongdoing will be excused and actually cheered on by the group in power. Murderous hatred is what Facebook and instagram are encouraging and cultivating. Like that won’t become a thing within our own borders? Citizens excusing and cheering on the murderous persecution of fellow citizens? We’ve had a taste of it already with the more violent of the BLM riots.
And the result of houses being divided against themselves is just what Jesus said…
Thought experiment... what happens when this insane mob decides they need to find God? But instead of worshipping a loving Jesus, they go Catholic Boosted and get ultra pious about rituals. Ultimately they need: a group for belonging, stringent rules and a way to feel morally superior and cancel others.
The increasingly illiberal humanities professoriate has had a negative effect on several generations already light on critical thinking skills and history. The post modern nihilism that hollows out morality while fostering the dehumanization of races, classes, ethnicities, and political enemies - has marched through the institutions while leaving too many of the general populace in ovine conformance and compliance. In blunt terms, the only difference between Putin's methods and the US State Department is that he has used conscripts and warfare to likely accomplish what the US did with 9 billion dollars of graft and corruption (Ukrainian regime change). That has nothing to do with the average Russian. If driving Russia into the arms of Xi Jinping was the goal, we couldn't be more correct in our strategy.
The bizarre stuff that these Tech companies are doing makes me wonder: is this crazy stuff (rampant censorship, encouraging violence on a national foe, etc.) being directed by US government? Is it possible these guys are being “held hostage” by the Feds? Because I really don’t see how they thought encouraging violence on their platform isn’t going to present big legal trouble.
And don’t get me started on how/why anyone would take down an Oliver Stone documentary from Youtube.
Obviously they are doing this at the behest of the government. There's no world in which it makes financial sense for FB to ban a gold star mother, it only makes political sense because she embarrassed Biden. Ditto Defiant Ls on Twitter or any number of other people who have been banned recently.
Putin is the crazy megalomaniac, Russians are people just like you and I. Their government is feeding them a bunch of propaganda and half truths and some twisted stuff just like our governments are doing about the safety and efficacy of 'vaccines'.
And I would add like our government is doing right now about Russia. How quickly people forgot about Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, weapons of mass destruction that were never found….
Putin will be so upset. He would NEVER allow for violence against his citizenry. I'm sure he's not rubbing his hands together right now and saying, "Ah, so now we don't even have to invent our propaganda; let us be sure every Russian has access to the most anti-Russian sentiments on social media."
Is this for real.... The place really has gone stark raving mad.. I'm starting to think it would be best if we all stop using the standard social platforms (fb, IG, SC, TT etc). Personally, I deleted TT and only use fb messenger for messages, but very soon I'm deleting all of them and trasitioning to other platforms...
Maybe we should start a "Hatebook" where everybody can call for anything against anyone as long as it is nasty. I fully expect the largest target on there to be politicians, followed by experts, followed by bosses. :D And nobody would need to pretend to be a "nice person" when getting rid of their frustrations.
I'm not sure this is constructive in the grand scheme of things though.
You know what? I have a horrible feeling that this mind-fuckery is intentional... an attempt (mostly successful) to make us commit cognitive atrocities, the same way that torturers make their victims watch, and sometimes connive at, the torture of people they care about, just to destroy their souls.
If not intentional and conscious, then certainly an instinctive knowledge of how to fuck people over and destroy any semblance of sovereignty, self-respect, dignity...
Holy shit! Reality as I've known it my entire life seems to have just been theatrical production. Since about 2015 at least. And now the director is flipping the script, almost daily. This is madness! I thought that the corporations and world governments moved quickly in lockstep during covid. But the speed at which they've completely isolated Russia, and built their narrative on the Ukraine is astounding. And so many people are just eating it up, with the attention span of.......something with a really short attention span! I wake up everyday wondering what new crazy shit I'll see or hear. It would be amusing if it wasn't so frightening. Just kidding, it's pretty amusing. Stay gold.
I worked with a guy who could look at a printed, very complex chemical and rotate the thing in his head. He would just look at it and point out the incorrect stereochemistry of xyz center on the backside of the print, immediately. Never met anyone else who could do that.
Not that my story has anything to do with your post.
Anyone else remember when the Left was anti-war? 🤔
I do. The speed at which my countrymen can do a volte face and forget about Covid to demonize Russia, leaves me astonished and half crazy. Yesterday in the car I was remembering going to the best hypnotist known to see if I could stop smoking. I got out of the session and lit one up. I really wonder if there is something WRONG with me...I apparently cannot get hypnotized. Does that mean I cannot be brainwashed? And how many people out there are like me? I heard once it is 30%, but I am starting to doubt that,...I think it is more around 10%. One person I know at work was an anti war...Iraq, etc.but was wearing the Ukrainian flag on her sweatshirt.....I am convinced today's "liberalism" in a mental disorder...and that they have collected all the data since the inception of browsers and are using AI to do this....
I guess it's about 30% who didn't take the jab so that is the % who were not brainwashed by the last psyop, but only 1-2% didn't wear a mask so it takes a lot more gusto to resist publicly. I know because I only saw one or two others per shopping trip who showed their faces. As for mental disorder - that's spot on. We now have an inflamed mob wielding torches and the AI bullhorn just tells them where to run.
It took me until the last 6 months or so to work up the balls to not mask when required (which is everywhere, until tomorrow). People around here still walk their dogs on a quiet suburban street in an N95. 🙄
The mask thing has been a real issue for me. I know this sounds ridiculous but the masks are such an insult to my intelligence!
Doing that in Australia too - no one is sight, Omicron not affecting anyone, but still strange people walking in the middle of nowhere with a mask on....the mind does boggle...
According to CDC, most of that 30% are children. They show upwards of 90% of adults are vaccinated (tho this drops when they redefined what vaccinated means to include "boosters").
Don't lump all the vaccinated together. My husband and I got two jabs apiece, I didn't want either, but we can clearly see what's going on and are not following anyone or anything but what we feels is the truth. O did buy in to DuckDuckGo but I'm outta there, too.
I switched just recently to Brave. It seems to be working fine so far.
I switched today
DDG became suspect the minute they started advertising on National Propaganda Radio.
Fair 'nuff. I wasn't clear or complete. The CDC and others quote low rates to justify mandates and such when it suits them by including kids and redefining what "fully" means when it suits them. Just happened when people were challenging mandates given the high compliance rate already..just observing....
I did buy into DuckDuckGo.
What’s wrong with duck duck go?
You believe numbers from the CDC?
A lot of that 90% were coerced. I think 30% is probably closer to the number who never wanted to take the shots. There was at least one poll indicating that around late summer of 2020.
No argument from me. There are levels of coercion. To some level we could say most everyone was coerced by fear created by the extreme response. Others are more obviously coerced such as those told it was vaccine or the could not do what they need to do to make a living (like me).
My point actually was that the CDC was reporting over 90% as "fully vaccinated" but then redefined "fully" so as to drop that number. No claiming that this was purely political (but it was) but when there was political need for mandates to be prolonged, the need for "boosters" happened to become clear shortly...and the "rate" dropped...
Curious how many will take the booster that is coming in the Fall. Seems like they will bring the big guns out for that. Not much time to get out the Vax Fraud information.
This depends on how much science is allowed to creep into the policy demands. Speaking for myself, the last 2+ years have been devastating as my soul was created to be on the road, traveling around, meeting people for real. Right now all three shots are required for us to get back out, which is only now becoming possible even with the shots and masks. In balancing my own priorities, if it's mandated for traveling, I'll take the risk...because if I don't get back out there soon my head will explode!
My hope is that the political usefulness of vaccine mandates is fading, and so the real science may be allowed to creep back in eventually. And then it will be a choice based on actual medical factors. Hey - I said "hope"!!!
What? What country you in? I’m in the States and been on 2 international trips in the last 6 months totaling 5 weeks of travel- unvaxxed!
Why the f would you vaccinate now?
No more jabs, please
Better do it soon - most of us will see such price increases....
Nah, no need for them to back down now. Everyone will eventually want to go an a trip badly enough to finally comply.
If I feel the need to take a trip, I think I'll be fine with doing it on foot.
Yeah! I hope other nations follow their lead. My first stop is Montreal in 3 weeks and the Canadian requirements seem to be changing daily.
In New Zealand the booster is already being pushed and has been since January. They reduced the time from your second shot to third down to 3 months.
The booster is mandated for health, education, corrections officers, border and aviation staff and hospitality. Also anybody deemed close contact such as hairdressers.
Quite a strange little place NZ. Arden is of course a communist, so not entirely surprising the place is now run the way it is...
We will not.
**One person I know at work was an anti war...Iraq, etc.but was wearing the Ukrainian flag on her sweatshirt**
Virtue signalling idiots. War is little more than a big oppurtunity for woke soyboys and Karens to let everyone know just how fabulously virtuous they are.
It is also an opportunity for a great many good people to lose their lives. That part seems to be left out of the woke consciousness. Seems a high cost to sell a few tee shirts.
The woke would never enlist. A select few may be smart/athletic enough to get into a service academy but when it comes to having "skin in the game" they'll make loud noises and possibly frame their Linkedin or Facebook profile with something pro-Ukraine/Zelenskyy.
I know too many people who fell for the neocon line following 9/11. They returned from Iraq and/or Afghanistan feeling misled if not also dealing with some form of PTSD and medical issues related to 'burn pits' and the other things that go along with "Thank You for Your Service."
“You can fool some of the people…”
Funny how the old adages stay true, no matter the times.
i had nearly the same experience with a hypnotist years ago - for me it was for help with a blood/injury fainting issue (i still can't get a blood test without fainting). anyway, i was completely aware of the hypnotist throughout, and quietly rejected every suggestion she made. i was in a trance of sorts and very relaxed, but i found her voice annoying and ignored her while i meditated and explored a little dream world i was creating myself (that had nothing to do with my phobia). i remember clearly wishing she'd just shut up. when i got home i took a nap and had a very vivid dream i was a young girl in some french city in what must have been around the 16th century.
i agree with you that people who resist hypnotic suggestions are also likely to resist brainwashing of any kind, and sadly we are a minority. it must be something innate in us- not learned.
most people have completely surrendered to the mighty wurlitzer- they have no thoughts of their own, and probably never have. i've seen the same thing as you- there is no underlying sense of values, only switches activated by the latest agitprop.
I watch a tv commercial and want to have a coke. But I don't have a coke because I know it's empty calories, highly inflammatory and the caffeine gets me wired in a bad way.
So where does that leave me?
Like most, I'm susceptible to the programming. I have my own internal set of values and principles that override the programming - that's where I/we differ from the masses.
Coke is Woke. I stopped drinking that swill.
Good cause it would kill you painfully
Plus on track to be 9 lbs lighter....
Amen! For me, it's RC Cola all the way!
J/k...I don't drink soda unless I'm using it in a pinch as a chaser.
Water or iced tea for me.
that reminds me of a song "i'm so anxious" by southside johnny and the asbury jukes about tv advertising:
"...they've got me so conditioned now that when they talk i just react..."
https://youtu.be/obX5Olw9x1c
that's an excellent album by the way- one of my faves from my reckless youth
Thanks for that.
i got on to the jukes around 1979, when i was in high school and had a boyfriend (a bit older than me...) who was from nyc, where they were popular.
👏🏻
Very cool story. Sorry about the fainting. A friend of mine had the same experience. I was told that some people have a defense mechanism that collapses veins when they are pierced and that can understandably cause fainting if enough veins respond?
You're supposed to be aware of the hypnosis; it's just a deeply relaxed state, not sleep
I had a series of hypnotist sessions for the exact same reason - a blood phobia, annoying tendency to faint during blood tests - and a similar response. The sessions were very relaxing, and may have done me some good, but I did not believe a word of the spiel.
you probably got the same spiel i did- the hypnotist assumed i was a victim of abuse or something. she really annoyed me. another commenter here said there might be a physiological cause- the veins collapsing when punctured. a friend of mine once suggested it might be a sensitivity to a blood pressure drop.
or maybe it's a past life thing. the strange dream i had after the session has stayed with me for years. it wasn't a violent dream at all, but extremely vivid, and historically accurate in fine detail. and it wasn't a memory of any movie i'd seen either.
but it is tricky to keep a phobia from expanding. i'm uncomfortable around docs and hospitals of course, but i have fainted just listening to someone going into graphic detail about medical stuff. i tolerate it well most of the time, but sometimes i have to get away. educating myself on the damage the covid shots cause has been a challenge for me.
I feel for you. Not trusting of doctors since a child.
But now, there are a lot of us who are afraid for what drs will do to us
exactly. since i'm an incurable optimist, i believe the future of the medical profession won't be as creepy as it has been. it simply has to change now.
We have had wave after wave of hysteria ("Me Too," trans rights, and earlier, though I can't put names on them), culminating, so far, in covid. I have the horrible suspicion a fair percentage of folks are now addicted to hysteria and need it to feel "normal." So when they're offered a fresh fix, they jump for it.
That dopamine hit tho...
A stop smoking tip—because I always try to be helpful even if the topic is some other important thing—get a book, “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking”, by Allan Carr. I read it in ‘09 and haven’t craved a smoke since. I mean, not counting 3-5 seconds of contemplating lighting one up and then thinking “nope, no way.” Very effective.
Will it work for ice cream? I need it for ice cream.
LOL! I agree. Hard to pass up that delicious treat.
And punching?
Actually I think Carr has written one on “The Easy Way to Stop Sugar” or something like.
I read that too in August of last year! Haven’t had a cigarette since!
I was certain it wouldn’t work—13 years ago.
It was very effective for me too - no-nonsense, concise, in-yer-face instructions. But you have to be ready to stop. I read it twice, and it only worked the second time, because I wasn’t ready to stop the first time.
It's shocking to see how suggestible the vast majority of people are. You, like me, are one of the lucky ones. I recall a time at Penn State that a magician/hypnotist was doing a show in one of the auditoriums where he asked the crowd what they thought the next card he "pulled at random" out of the deck was going to be. I can no longer remember what the actual card was, but almost the entire crowd shouted the same card, which he then showed was the one he had picked.
He had been planting subliminal suggestions for the 10 minutes leading up to it. I had chosen an entirely different card (J of diamonds - funny that I still remember that lol) and there was maybe 5-10% of the audience that raised their hands when asked if they had picked something else. All this was long before my political awakening. It's amazing how much public information smells like BS once you realize what it is you've been smelling for so long...
Darren Brown did some excellent programs showing him "telepathically predicting" what people would choose or say or draw, and then ended with 10 mins of behind the scenes footage on how he filled his act with suggestions and prompts leading the mark towards that final "I predicted you would do that" outcome.
Professional stage hypnotists get a lot of people on the stage and quickly work out which are susceptible and which aren't through a rapid selection process.
They should take lessons from politicians, who do the same thing an a larger scale ;-).
You can be hypnotized if you want to be. Regarding smoking, the best method, as it's a real, physical addiction, is to get all nicotine out of your system. It drastically reduces in 3 really, the first 3 days are tough but doable, after that it's much easier, after 3 weeks really easy, and by 3 months there is zero desire even if you try to want one. I learned the 3-3-3 thing 10 years ago and have never smoked since, don't even want to. And that's after smoking from the age of 12 to 44... You can do it, and hypnosis can do amazing things, but cold turkey is best for smoking cessation. Good luck
I smoked in Nursing School 😂😂😂😂😂😂
The pathologist at the local hospital used to bring in some ugly organs every
day. Every day you are not smoking is a day you are healing from destruction.
I dunno, Bigs. I was hooked on the moist snuff years. Even now, it's all I can do to not buy a can when I stop at a convenience store. A friend of my brother told me he had been a heroine addict for several years and found it easier to get clean from that than the nicotine he was also using. You are a better man than I am.
Vaping is a good alternative if you don't want to quit altogether.
I quit cold turkey several times in my life and you're right, I found it the best way. But after a few years, I'd want it again and started vain instead. I don't like traditional cigarettes anymore- the smoke is unpleasant to me now. I'd never quit coffee, either.
I can live without them but I choose not to. So far my health remains very good.
I smoke a pipe sometimes. I find that it makes me better at solving mysteries
hahaha
I tried being hypnotised at a college show and only enjoyed the relaxing trance-y bit but could not pretend to go along with his commands and was sent to my seat; I tried again ten years later with a practicing friend and again enjoyed the relaxation and gave myself images of ocean flowing back and forth but did not follow commands. I get the impression that neurodivergent people with demand avoidance cannot be hypnotised even though I thought it would be fun and wanted to be. . . . I can self-hypnotise though; my dad taught me that I could tell myself I wasn't ticklish as kid, to avoid being vulnerable to tickle attacks I didn't want, and it worked.
I quit when I was pregnant. Very good motivation but difficult with no patches or anything.
My wife did the same. She was a little hard to live with for a few weeks, but I have always admired her for quitting.
❤️😃
I sadly can be hypnotized in an instant, but very very early on became skeptical of the narrative, so there may be other things at play. I early on also became skeptical of the liberal progressive agenda asvI myself became reformed. It seems to me that there is quite a division of world views that have become firmly set and were established (in cases of shifts) at different junctures over the last 2 years. I am astounded by the lack of knowledge by so many well educated friends (e.g., a professor and a lawyer) of such things as vaccine injuries and VAERS (another even said she does not read such conspiratorial things!). These are NPR or MSN loyalists. The hope is that giving them more exposure(where they are willing), may move them to a new juncture and shake their assumptions.
10% is a good guess. The left is populated by a good portion of the other 90%.
I'm also wondering about liberalism (and some others) as mental disorders. Some people seem to have lost all bearing and seem to be drowning in total relativity in a world that changes it's opinion every other minute.
I think the trap of binary thinking has trapped a lot of people, imho, mainly because they want to simplify the world, not to have to judge each person by their character.
I've wondered the same thing about hypnosis. I've seen and heard some amazing things: a classmate called up on stage and told to freeze, who couldn't even blink his eyes until the hypnotist's assistant noticed his distress and gave him permission; college students made to delete the number 5, and the looks on their faces when asked to figure out how many fingers they had by counting or multiplying; the males told that they were the world's first pregnant man, and half the guys in the audience around me eventually going into labor. But I can't seem to get there at all, even trying.
In my case, I think it may be a native disengagement with language. For me, words are a tool I can use with effort, but if I'm not trying they just spin around loose without doing much. A lot of other people though seem to do their entire thinking through them. The result is that they are much better at speaking and interacting socially, but they are rather at the mercy of verbal manipulation. Does that ring a bell with your experience?
Duchess, you may (Not) be surprised that the research and "evidence" for smoking causing the issues it is claimed to cause is as flimsy as the evidence for all the nonsense we've been put through for the last two years. I mention this if you're concerned about your health. You may be wanting to quit for other reasons. Just thought I'd mention it.
have you been in a morgue? Have you seen an autopsy?
Lungs of smokers look like old shoe leather.
I won't even share with you the appearance of the other organs.
disgusting habit.
Lung transplants are done with the lungs of smokers and non-smokers alike. The only people who have lungs damaged enough to see are those who have worked in coal mines or people who live in heavily polluted cities.
whaaaa? Would you want some smokers lungs? I do not think lungs of a smoker are suitable for transplant unless the "smoker" is 25 and exceptionally healthy, Still. I do not know how to interpret your information. It sounds dodgy
Well, never having been in a position of needing a transplant of any organ, I could not speak directly to it. However, I would assume that if I needed a transplant and the organ is considered useful, I'm pretty sure I'd opt for that organ no matter who it was. Right?
My mother was a pack a day smoker for more than 50 years. A lung x-ray in her later years showed perfectly clear lungs.
Since we've been snookered about so many things (and especially the last two years) I was curious about the claims that have been made about cigarettes and lung cancer and heart disease, particularly since there has been a significant drop in smoking over the last several decades and yet heart disease and lung cancers have increased. So I decided to look into those claims a little more. I was quite surprised at what I found because I had assumed the same things you did.
Hi Duchess. As a hypnotist who has hypnotized thousands of people myself, I just wanted to weigh in.
My success rate for single session stop smoking clients over the last twenty years is 100%. Every time a client has come to see me for smoking, they have left the session as a true non-smoker. It sounds impressive, but the reason it is that number is simple - I have a potential client fill out a two page questionnaire to determine if they are ready to be a non-smoker. after which I have a pre-talk explaining what I need to see from them. If a client is not ready to be a non-smoker, I will not waste their time and money by hypnotizing them anyway. Sometimes they are ready, but before we can even set an appointment to do the session, the pre-talk has helped them to stop smoking already.
So just so you know, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you - you just weren't ready. As a result, you were not ready to suspend certain critical thought patterns, which you would when you were ready. Barring brain disfunction, anyone can be hypnotized, in fact we slip into a hypnotic state several times a day naturally.
Btw, those are the same thought patterns that sniff out the BS the left is pitching, so please keep them strong. Remember to be the master of your own thoughts.
ooh. I wish you were in New York State. My husband has to quit smoking. I don't want him to go early.
Same person in your office was wishing death on the unvaccinated. I’d mention to her that Ukrainians are only 35% vaccinated. She might whip that ridiculous virtue signaling flag, right off of her clothes.
Not really. Barry O’Bama, that bastion of progressive ideals and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, is in the highly rarified club of presidents who were at war every day of their two terms.
He personally ordered drone strikes and got off watching the videos of the carnage and destruction.
The whole “anti-war” schtick of the left was as much a ruse as their claims to support free speech and be “for the working man”. They were always slogans behind which to hide their singular lust for power at any cost.
Agreed, but I was thinking way before Obama. The neolibs and the neocons are the same side of the coin—both pro-war and paid lucratively to be so.
And have been for a century or more. Many businesses play both sides. Or egg-on the war, get rich selling arms then get even richer “rebuilding” in the aftermath. It’s obscene.
Well, we are financing both sides now in Ukraine
I know! Tell me with a straight face that this whole thing isn’t as contrived as “Covid”.
And people die and “they” don’t care.
I don't know if they ever really were. OG progressives in the US straight up lusted after it (thinking of TR here but he aint the only one).
I'm being a little obtuse because I know that in the 60s - 00s it was a different story, but one could argue that they're getting back to their roots. The "old right" (people like Albert J Nock et al.) always had more principled and intellectual opposition to the warfare state than hippie dippie leftists in the 60s did IMO.
I mean they think government coercion is the answer to everything, right? As long as "the right, moral, progressive" people are the ones calling the shots.
TBH though these days leftism seems to just be blind obedience and faith in whatever the state/corpo-complex/intellectual class feeds them. Whether that's covid containment, climate change, war, "social justice" or whatever the next swindle is.
I'm old enough to have been drafted. Survived.
The were some principled leftists in the 60s (Moynihan, IMO).
Most of the so-called hippie generation just wanted to stay out of the army and get them some sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. Same attitudes still.
I don't know. Many went on to become university professors and their moronic graduates are now trying to destroy America.
My parents' generation, but that was my impression. Anti-war was self-preservation rather than a principled stance.
Excellent and thought provoking points!
No. They were never for free speech and they were never antiwar.
I recall leftists talking about freedom of speech as being sacrosanct while they revered Castro and admired the Soviets, hardly defenders of free speech. The left was only for free speech in so far as it was a tool to subvert societal norms by allowing pornography.
As for their being anti-war, the left was behind WWI (and also vigorously suppressed free speech during that time) and WWII. Vietnam was more complicated because the CIA-right of Buckley / Burnham / National Review was successful in subverting Conservatism into an establishment cause [for example, Russell Kirk was against Vietnam but could not speak out if he wanted The University Bookman published] while the draft-age generation was opposed. And during the 80s many on the left sided with the Soviets over the Americans, thus fooling many on the right into thinking that they were pacifists.
Maybe I should have said when they “professed to be” anti-war as opposed to *actually* being anti-war ;-)
Yes, I was a little surprised when I noticed that it was you, who sees quite clearly through the looking glass, wrote that!
😆
No political group is anti-war, at least not in large enough numbers to affect the whole. You may be against the other guy's war, sure, because *his* war is an unnecessary act of aggression that will cost blood and treasure, while *your* war is an existential struggle for freedom and everything that is high and noble in the human breast. It's a cliche to use this quote, but:
“The specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemy.”
There are plenty of people on the left and the right who are pacifist (I'm a hard right isolationist myself), just like there are plenty of people on the far ends of the spectrum who were vehemently anti-COVID measures. I have more productive discussions of issues with tankies and anarchists than with acceptable Ds and Rs. Alas, it seems we are doomed to smothering effeminate rule by the most hysteric among us; and so we stumble from one conflict to the next.
Nice post. On isolationism, I have moved significantly in that direction after a lifetime of working in foreign policy and defense, supporting NATO, etc. We in the west have shown that we really don't value liberty anymore, so what is the point of any of this stuff? And how do we pass ourselves off as the good guys?
The continental US has been given a great gift by Providence that we have utterly squandered: a bi-coastal empire with relatively benign neighbors. We are uniquely capable of autarky, or some form of commercial rule imperialism on the North American continent, and yet our leaders have decided our interests lie in the deserts of the Middle East or the frozen plains of the Pale of Settlement.
Isolationism is a very old political idea in the US, and it is high time we start taking it seriously.
Our government's interests lie with whatever lines Permanent Washington's pockets best and that ain't isolationism.
You're the only other "isolationist" I've ever "met." Hi!
Yeah, we tend to stick to ourselves.
Isolationist to the core. 😉
It’s all the same these days. I am (involuntarily) exposed to Fox “News” at the moment and the propaganda is hot and heavy. Sounds just like CNN. I guess there have been a few billion more of our tax money paid to pimp this atrocity.
They’re trying to draw us into a war.
At least Fox has Tucker, the sole voice of reason regarding--it's surreal to even type this out--the prospect of global nuclear war
Yes, they tolerate him because he is wildly popular and brings in mucho dinero.
But make no mistake, that’s the only reason.
Just like the Left is "liberal". The Left is collectivist. Everything else is just crafty marketing. War is a collectivist endeavor.
I remember many things. I remember when I could say what I believed, attend church, visit my elderly mother in her care home, or get together with my friends for a few beers at the Legion Friday evenings. I remember when I had a choice in regard to what drugs I would, or would not take. I remember when supporting a political cause was legal. I can remember when having English ancestors did not prove definitively that I am a racist. I can remember when the fact that I am unabashedly male did not mean that I am a misogynist. I remember.
I'm there remembering with you. 😢
Poignantly put, Andy. Those sound like great additions to "Do You Remember?" (a vignette I shared at the end of this post: https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/get-the-book-the-vapor-the-hot-hat)
I do, but I always saw it as just another weapon in their arsenal for their war against America and Western Civ.
They were always hypocrites. There's a reason why Malcolm X said, "[a] White American who identifies as a liberal is the most dangerous and deceitful thing in the Western Hemisphere.”
I also remember not that long ago when the US president stood next to Vladimir Putin shaking hands and smiling, heralding the cooperation between our nations. As I recall our current president stood in the background in that picture (as he was VP at the time).
We should have taken this as a warning I guess.
I think it's pretty clear that now, they don't believe a single word of what they are saying.
🎯
Yes, that was way back when, over the course of ten years, the Viet Nam war killed fewer millennials (58,000) than were killed in the last half of 2021 by mandates for millennials to get jabbed (61,000). Democide - death by government decree.
How were millennials in the Vietnam War? Did the Army have a Chronos Division?
Right. Should have said young men of equivalent age group. Millennials is much shorter. I think everyone else got it.
No because almost all military operations are initiated by the left- it's part of the sabbatan Franks inversion principle.
"Initiated" is a rather imprecise word when it comes to war. Who initiated the war on terror in 2001? That debate can get deep...
On a pragmatic (first level of obviousness) major US military actions since WWII have been driven by international obligations in the UN. The US became the "police force" of the UN following WWII. It was UN directives that sucked us into Korea and South East Asia, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan (the media wants you to forget this but it remains the actual truth).
So we can trace US boots on the ground to specific UN directives. Not always happy political fodder but there if you care to look (Gulf I, Gulf II, etc). We can go back to when the UN was formed and the treaties ratified that put the US in that role if we want to fix blame (a process that seldom fixes problems by the way).
Of course we can look at escalation, also. Our first troops sent to Vietnam officially began when Eisenhower held the chair (tho you can find reports that we had troops there under Truman). The force level was minimal, just enough to meet UN obligations but very, very limited in number of troops and roles until LBJ took the big chair, with major escalation after 1963. But was it Johnson who initiated? Some will argue it was the massive influx of troops from China and corresponding aggression by the USSR that drove the US response. If we look at historical context, Korea and Vietnam were "initiated" by expansion by China.
Geo politics is messy. The constant is politicians will capitalize on war for personal and party gain. Both dominant parties blame the other for starting it and promise to be the ones to end it and usually they are all trying to get the most out of it. Back in the 60s and 70s, a lot of people identifying as democrats were out in droves blaming the war on Nixon and his party (forgetting LBJ's role). now many of those same kids are old folks now wearing the tee shirts and jumping head long into the "stop Putin" movement, despite remaining loyal to the party who's policies put Putin in the strong position he's in back around 2012 when the same folks were applauding "their guy" Obama for creating a peaceful and cooperative relationship with Russia.
Yes, I ordered my "Make Orwell Fiction Again" tee-shirt and hat last night....
Very well! I had so many left friends at anti-war protests right up until Obama got into office and American realized it was political posturing against Bush.
war is peace. violence against Russians is kindness
In fairness to Fascistbook this has always been their policy toward deplorables. It’s really just a matter of who gets that label.
Yep, If you are on the 'wrong side of history' you can be told to DIAF, because people who remind them of reality are 'literally killing' them with those words.
🎯
Probably. Kanekoa has a great substack on the topic:
https://kanekoa.substack.com/p/how-obama-and-biden-installed-neo?s=r
🎯
I do realise Facebook is for dummies. Something is seriously wrong with Facebook. I would urge anyone on it to get the hell off it and stay well away from this dangerous mind game. It serves no purpose. Go help an elderly neighbour, go donate time to counting birds in your back yard. Go find your life, Facebook is not it.
Best thing I did in 2011: Got rid of FB and any social media. Told my family if they wanted me to see pictures of kids etc... send them to me personally. I truly believe Social Media has played a huge roll in the destruction of liberty over the last several years. Heck, we have a whole generation now that doesn't value privacy because of it. Parents put their kid's pictures out for the world to see from day they are born, immediately stealing their privacy and beginning the "no privacy" training. Many young people wouldn't think twice of snapping a picture of their naked bodies to send to a prospective girl/boy friend. Yes, social media has been a really bad thing for society. And, in my humble opinion, you cannot have liberty without valuing privacy.
Agreed. My wife clings to FB for pics of the grandchildren, or I would drop it immediately. I have lately been posting right-wing cartoons in the hope that they will shitcan me. I don't do twitter or any of the others and never will.
LOL! Passive-aggressiveness has its place sometimes. 😁
I call it "The Beast"
Totally agree. Worst thing that ever happened to humanity. My wife and I never joined FB or any thing else. However, with a 14 year old daughter it is a challenge explaining how things used to be without Instagram etc
Been on the "Nextdoor" site.
There are middle-aged women in my English village, who are openly calling for the murder of Vladimir Putin, and for a brutal end to be made of him.
They would not normally dare to say these things. They'd fear the Policeman's knock on their doors.
Somehow, they've 'sensed' the climate of hysteria, and they know that they're safe to express their desires.
Their 'inner ugly' is being exposed. That person inside, the one that they are usually so careful to keep hidden.
It's amazing to observe this. Scary, tho.
It is the same hatred we've seen of the 'unvaccinated' last year and the 'anti-maskers' the year before. There must always be some "other" group for the ignorant masses to hate so their anger is directed at someone else and not the elites in power.
Good point. Growing up in the deep South in the forties and fifties, I can recall real racism. The ones with the most hate were the white trash people at the bottom of society. They had to hate someone, so they didn't feel that they were the ones on the true bottom.
They are using the same propaganda techniques the Nazis employed:
“…never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”
I had to quit “Next Door”…too many sanctimonious ass hats
I try to stay away from my neighbors in real life. I can't imagine choosing to deal with them in the virtual world.
I deleted my Nextdoor account over a year ago when I posted actual facts from the NIH regarding ADE and got banned. I was glad to delete it, though. The site gave me an uneasy feeling, the people were strange, and I had very good suspicions that it was being used by "someone" else to push the face diapering and general Covid fearmongering.
Perhaps any keyboard warriors who utter such threats should be issued an engraved invitation to the frontlines along with the Facebook and Instagram employees who decided to sanction them.
🎯
I got spanked by twitter when posted I wanted to slap a guy in the face. He was spouting off and promoting full term abortions. They said I was promoting violence. 🤦🏼♀️
Oh the irony...
Yet anyone who called corona the "Wuhan flu" was inciting violence against Chinese people. But it's okay to incite violence against all Russians now. Oooookay.
I preferred Kung-flu
Mao's revenge?
Yes, that's a good one.
WuFlu
I’d read it started on some US military base 🤷🏼♀️
That is because soldiers got it overseas and brought it back. Scientists say China—actual scientists
I thought that was pretty much confirmed?
russians are white. get with the program!
Except when it's really cold. Then they're kind of pink and splotchy.
LOL - Thank you!
Just got 30 days off FB for calling Saudis “Barbarians”. Meanwhile I cannot fathom what I’m reading on VK about what’s really going on in Ukraine. It’s really really bad even if only half true. The people behind all of this are purposefully trying to destroy America and no it’s not Putin either. God help us.
What is VK?
A social media alternative to Facebook. I’m on it but rarely use it. It’s based in Russia, I think.
So utterly reprehensible. The worst kind of humans run these tech platforms.
And Duck Duck Go just joined them.
What did they do? I need to change search engines?
There’s an article in blacklistednews.com about it. For some reason it won’t allow me to copy the address here 🤔
So is there any decent search engines that we can use?
Good question. I am checking out Tor however I don’t know enough about it to recommend it yet. 😉
A friend just suggested this one - metager.org - but have not further information either!
I use Brave. I tried Qwant but it was really slow. Will try the native one now 😊
I already use these browser but hadn't realised this. Thanks
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/82096/duckduckgo-ceo-announces-googlestyle-censorship-scheme-of-content-deemed-russian.html
Thanks!😂
It's okay to express the currently approved narrative, just pay attention so you know when to switch.
Ethnic Russian, here, US citizen since 2001. They want to do violence against me? Okay, then. May not work out well in real life as opposed to social media. Real humans (and cats, of course), tend to defend themselves when attacked.
My wife is also an ethnic Russian and a citizen for twenty years. Several of her acquaintances have called upon her to somehow explain Putin's rationale for Ukraine as if she is the Russian version of Jen Psaki. Let's just say that I'm looking forward to someone saying the wrong thing to her.
As an American learning Russian, all I have to say is очень приятно.
Two minutes hate, sponsored by Zuckerberg
Everyone (with a free thought) has become Goldstein.
By now If you have not quit these state propaganda platforms for good then you’re part of the problem.
So disillusioned at this point. Over the past two years I have come to question the last sixty.
Fuckerberg is calling for genocide. Should be a class action lawsuit by Russians to take down fakebook. Fuckerberg should be charged with criminal liability for any harm to them.
️They're on it - Russian Prosecutor General's Office requests Meta be recognized as 'extremist organization'. And I stand with Russia on this one. All of this anti-Russian hate is just a dog whistle.
Wow, its the "2 minutes hate" of the online era. Ridiculous. What's next, will they ban Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky on Spotify? Wait... don't tell me...
They've been doing this to women for the last 5 years at least. And anybody else that they label a 'TERF' a word that has an interesting etymology I must say.
Yep, it is perfectly fine to threaten to rape, kill or otherwise immolate a woman for pointing out simple human biology. The threatened woman is then kicked off the platform for 'violence' and the threat stands.
...First they came for the feminists, but I did nothing because eff those hairy legged bees anyways...
We've been soaking in this for almost a decade now, but because it was begun targeting unpopular victims, it was allowed to grow. Now a bunch of people are waking up, but the laws and algorithims are in place. We are all 'TERFs' now in a manner of speaking.
Is this a bad joke? Is it April Fool's day already?
https://changeandevolve.substack.com/p/special-issue-5
This is a repeat of the George Floyd playbook narrative, where you overlook the sins of the transgressors, elevate him and demonize anyone that disagrees with the ongoing narrative.
Ukraine good, Russia bad. It’s okay to overlook the Ukraine aggressive, militaristic actions and killing of the people in Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014, targeting them because they are ethnically Russian, speak Russian and want to be free of Ukraine, but bad for Russia to support and defend Donetsk and Luhansk, and oppose Ukraine joining NATO, effectively putting military bases and offensive weapon on Russia’s front porch.
I have tried to get people to understand that Russia did not attack Ukraine unprovoked...told them I saw a segment on Vice News in 2018(2019?) on the eastern Ukraines ethnic Russians being shelled pretty much all the time....for years. I was made to feel like I couldn't possibly have seen that here(USA) and if I did it was Russian propaganda.....I said no it wasn't Russian. Unbelievable how so many Americans can not see they are still barbarians themselves. Government officials calling for the death of a foreign leader? Americans ok with sanctioning Russia and starving Russians....saying they deserve it. I knew there were ignorant Americans out there but am beginning to realize it really does go beyond ignorant to actual stupidity. And pushing for war? Are all these keyboard warriors gonna enlist? And yes it is tragic that innocent Ukrainians, that like many Americans, are clueless to their governments actions that are getting them killed.
Here is a story that support my claim about the degree of uneducated, ignorant and intellectually challenged the US population is. https://www.redvoicemedia.com/2022/03/white-house-is-now-briefing-tiktok-stars-on-russia-ukraine-conflict/
Wow...just wow. THAT definitely says quite a bit about our current problems in the USA. TikTok? Seriously? LOL
Americans are notoriously uneducated about anything outside of their own shallow lives, the Twitter sewer, and Fakebook lies they skim over. They can’t be bothered to invest the time to independently research any topic other than where they can get the best deal on whatever new material goods they covet.
Are you kidding? Why would I spend time on educating myself on the history of Ukraine, the Maidan color revolution or the Donbas. The Donbas is that a new trendy restaurant? Do I need a reservation?
Russia bad. Ukraine good. What about 14,000 people that were killed by Ukrainian nationalists since 2014? Minsk agreements? I thought we decided killing animals for fur coats was bad.. The Donbas area, of 3.6 million people is ethnically, spiritually, nationally and culturally Russian, has been under attack by Ukraine’s army and the Moscow-backed separatists since 2014. Ukrainian nationals have offensively bombed killing more than 14,000 people. That’s just Russian propaganda.
I agree with you totally. But then again that must be my propaganda....or conspiracy...or so the uneducated tell me, so I ignore them. Good reply...
Let’s have internment camps for everyone of Russian descent. There is precedent for such a policy, after all.
Perhaps someone could start a social media campaign advocating this. I’m sure the big tech companies will make a “spirit-of-the-policy allowance” here too.
Also in the memo to FB and IG moderators is the temporary allowance for praise of Ukrainian neo-nazi group Azov Regiment... but only in the context of them killing Russians.
I am going to stop with my daily question to the ether "Have we gone mad?"
If you are on FB or IG - seriously what the heck is wrong with you? Do you have Stockholm Syndrome? Get help.
Are we also allowed to support other "freedom fighters" elsewhere, like Canada? Or are guns and bombs and financial donations only allowed to support CIA-created regimes?
The political machinery in the US has so thoroughly divided the public into teamthinking “us’s and “thems” that even egregious examples of wrongdoing will be excused and actually cheered on by the group in power. Murderous hatred is what Facebook and instagram are encouraging and cultivating. Like that won’t become a thing within our own borders? Citizens excusing and cheering on the murderous persecution of fellow citizens? We’ve had a taste of it already with the more violent of the BLM riots.
And the result of houses being divided against themselves is just what Jesus said…
It confirms they are not operating from anything but tribal identity.
seriously? really? Still I shouldn't be surprised, not with the Biden collective in power, psychopaths gotta psychopath.
Did no one watch Princess Bride? SMH you never get involved in a land war in Eurasia!
Wow. Just...wow
Some pigs are more equal than others.
Thought experiment... what happens when this insane mob decides they need to find God? But instead of worshipping a loving Jesus, they go Catholic Boosted and get ultra pious about rituals. Ultimately they need: a group for belonging, stringent rules and a way to feel morally superior and cancel others.
And President Trump is still banned on Facebook until 2023.
But noooo, they’re not propaganda organs.
This is where the virtue-signal arms-race leads.
The increasingly illiberal humanities professoriate has had a negative effect on several generations already light on critical thinking skills and history. The post modern nihilism that hollows out morality while fostering the dehumanization of races, classes, ethnicities, and political enemies - has marched through the institutions while leaving too many of the general populace in ovine conformance and compliance. In blunt terms, the only difference between Putin's methods and the US State Department is that he has used conscripts and warfare to likely accomplish what the US did with 9 billion dollars of graft and corruption (Ukrainian regime change). That has nothing to do with the average Russian. If driving Russia into the arms of Xi Jinping was the goal, we couldn't be more correct in our strategy.
Genuine question for those in the know since I'm not on social media:
Did Facetwittergram censor calls for violence against the unvaccinated?
No. They seemed to encourage them.
That's what I thought.
The bizarre stuff that these Tech companies are doing makes me wonder: is this crazy stuff (rampant censorship, encouraging violence on a national foe, etc.) being directed by US government? Is it possible these guys are being “held hostage” by the Feds? Because I really don’t see how they thought encouraging violence on their platform isn’t going to present big legal trouble.
And don’t get me started on how/why anyone would take down an Oliver Stone documentary from Youtube.
Obviously they are doing this at the behest of the government. There's no world in which it makes financial sense for FB to ban a gold star mother, it only makes political sense because she embarrassed Biden. Ditto Defiant Ls on Twitter or any number of other people who have been banned recently.
Insane!!
Yeah, they're just a platform, not a publisher. Got it.
The order to proles to begin their "two minutes of hate"
What is wrong with you?!!
Putin is the crazy megalomaniac, Russians are people just like you and I. Their government is feeding them a bunch of propaganda and half truths and some twisted stuff just like our governments are doing about the safety and efficacy of 'vaccines'.
Grow up, violence never solves the big problem.
And I would add like our government is doing right now about Russia. How quickly people forgot about Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, weapons of mass destruction that were never found….
"...violence never solves the big problem."
Tell that to the Carthaginians.
Putin will be so upset. He would NEVER allow for violence against his citizenry. I'm sure he's not rubbing his hands together right now and saying, "Ah, so now we don't even have to invent our propaganda; let us be sure every Russian has access to the most anti-Russian sentiments on social media."
As long as it fits their narrative, or should I say Cattitude??
It’s OK because they’re white.
Is this for real.... The place really has gone stark raving mad.. I'm starting to think it would be best if we all stop using the standard social platforms (fb, IG, SC, TT etc). Personally, I deleted TT and only use fb messenger for messages, but very soon I'm deleting all of them and trasitioning to other platforms...
Maybe we should start a "Hatebook" where everybody can call for anything against anyone as long as it is nasty. I fully expect the largest target on there to be politicians, followed by experts, followed by bosses. :D And nobody would need to pretend to be a "nice person" when getting rid of their frustrations.
I'm not sure this is constructive in the grand scheme of things though.
You know what? I have a horrible feeling that this mind-fuckery is intentional... an attempt (mostly successful) to make us commit cognitive atrocities, the same way that torturers make their victims watch, and sometimes connive at, the torture of people they care about, just to destroy their souls.
If not intentional and conscious, then certainly an instinctive knowledge of how to fuck people over and destroy any semblance of sovereignty, self-respect, dignity...
Holy shit! Reality as I've known it my entire life seems to have just been theatrical production. Since about 2015 at least. And now the director is flipping the script, almost daily. This is madness! I thought that the corporations and world governments moved quickly in lockstep during covid. But the speed at which they've completely isolated Russia, and built their narrative on the Ukraine is astounding. And so many people are just eating it up, with the attention span of.......something with a really short attention span! I wake up everyday wondering what new crazy shit I'll see or hear. It would be amusing if it wasn't so frightening. Just kidding, it's pretty amusing. Stay gold.
wtf? Hard to believe this is real, but seems to be.
I can recall when we had but one standard of justice, for all. I'm getting pretty old.
I worked with a guy who could look at a printed, very complex chemical and rotate the thing in his head. He would just look at it and point out the incorrect stereochemistry of xyz center on the backside of the print, immediately. Never met anyone else who could do that.
Not that my story has anything to do with your post.
Are we still living in a cartoon world? Oh ok, I’ll go back under my rock….
Reason has absolutely nothing to do with what's going on...