245 Comments

“it’s truly a terrible sorting hat for future leaders.”

Oh, but el gato, it is a perfect sorting hat for colluders, cowards, and criminals, which are precisely the sort of leaders the cartel needs to survive. Just like the mandates pushed out the people of greatest conscience, talent, and skill, so are these incentives designed to produce future puppets who have proven their willingness to lie to get ahead—just what the puppeteers require for control.

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An old study: On a 1-10 scale, leaders who are rank 7 or above on intelligence, ability, and integrity, want to surround themselves with others who are preferably 9s or 10s, the higher the better. Those below 7 only want to surround themselves with others who are below them in rank. Those who are 7 and above recognize that bringing on the best strengthens the organization. Those below 7 see anyone ranking above them as a threat to their postion, so they recruit those who pose the least threat. The obsessive need for control is an indication of an insecure mind that fears someone smarter and better will come along and take what they have.

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Yes, sounds like the entire Whitehouse is afflicted with Dunning-Kruger. It's also true of Ivy League faculty. I once asked a colleague in academia (during some off the wall discussion) what he would do if he was trapped in a post-apocalyptic world with no technology. He said that he would probably start farming at his vacation home in the countryside. Surprised, I asked if he had been taking some courses over at the Ag department. He told me no. I then asked if he had any farming experience. Another no. I asked him how he expected to successfully raise crops. He replied, "It's farming. Uneducated peasants have been doing it for thousands of years. How hard can it be?" I thought at first that he was joking, but it turned out that he was completely serious. My final response to him was, "Maybe you better just stick to teaching."

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Being of Eastern European peasant stock, I have gardening in my bones.

Even so, it has taken me years of trial and error to learn how to grow various fruits and vegetables without relying on lots of expensive inputs. And I would bore you to tears if I tried to list every gardening faux-pas I have made on the way to figuring out how to economically meet the individual needs of different plants.

I often wonder how my grandmother did it, without grow lights and in a harsher climate.

One of my personal IQ tests for other people has become: could you grow a potato?

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I also have done a little bit of gardening myself, and I love the fresh vegetables that I get. That being said, I can say with confidence that I do not know how to grow large amounts of food without modern fertilizer, insecticide, and farm equipment. If you plan on surviving on the food you grow, remember, you don't get another chance if you screw it up.

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Absolutely. Since I started growing our own produce, I have a whole new respect for farmers.

Farmers are people who can grow surplus food efficiently and economically that can be sold to others at a reasonable price.

Gardeners are people who can grow enough to feed their own household.

I am a gardener, nothing more.

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Grow a potato? I am a potato.

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A Yukon Gold? A Russet Burbank? A German Fingerling? (I'll let your imagination run wild with that last one.)

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In Tasmania, people do not say: ‘we’re having potatoes with dinner’ but say: ‘we’re having Dutch Creams / Pink Eyes / Kipflers (this is what you call German Fingerlings) / etc.’ we’re all potato-mad down here! And Pink Eyes grow all year round and are incredibly delicious! We have a very heavy clay soil and the potatoes seem to love it 😁

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Rooster? Since I am Irish, I would say my variety must be an Irish variety...and not only that, but a far from unique or rare variety...I wouldn't want to think I am a "special spud" in the potato vernacular.

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oh goodness. you're so hard on yourself

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I am. But she says true. I don't know how to grow a potato. I could learn though, but I wouldn't have any false bravado that it would be easy.

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I'm struggling with this now. Fortunately, the next door neighbour is an organic farmer so can make do with fewer industrial chemicals, etc.

Power and fuel will likely be the real challenges- we have lots of wood but the wells use electric pumps.

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Not a problem. You can set up a well so that you can pull up the submersible pump and drop in a hand pump. Check it out. My father did it at his home. Just make sure you do it BEFORE the SHTF.

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Better yet, you can drop in a hand-pump in tandem.

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Yes!

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Interesting. I didn't think there was enough room for both in the well shaft.

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He thinks he’ll just read some Wendell Berry or Joel Salatin and “just get it.” Teaching indeed

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"The obsessive need for control is an indication of an insecure mind that fears someone smarter and better will come along and take what they have."

Geez, Kertch. Sounds like you're saying Hitler wasn't a very good team player or something.

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"Team Hitler" was indeed extremely dysfunctional; failure was not a survivable option. However, "Team Stalin" was worse. On "Team Stalin" you could get liquidated for performing too poorly (threat to the state) or performing too successfully (threat to Stalin). Even the head of the NKVD would be occasionally purged.

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You see this in spades in HS team sports. Mediocre head coaches hire absolute dolts for assistants. In those rare occasions when an assistant coach of competency and merit came along one of two things happened rather quickly. That coach was singled out for opprobrium and ridicule and was soon run out of the program or that smart coach could see the lack of quality that surrounded him and quickly found a job elsewhere.

OTOH, a really top shelf head coach has a constantly rotating influx and outflow of highly sought after assistant coaches who are hired into more responsibility at other programs.

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Excellent points, Kertch. Add in Dunning–Kruger, and you see why we have the race-to-the-bottom effect.

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A players hire A players. B players hire C and D players.

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So depressing...at times.

Sometimes I have to remember that if the normies never "get it" then we've done our "job".

Many are incapable unless they experience it. Many "enjoy" the experience. It is the way of mankind.

Joyless victories are still W's

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The Old System needs to get run into the ground for something better to start sprouting and growing, The smart ones will figure it out. The dumb ones will go the way of the dodo.

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Yup they'll be first to go in The Reaping

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As a friend of mine says while longingly staring at the sky, "Just waiting on the asteroid."

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when the asteroid does come all these clowns will be saying "oh my, it's a double rainbow all the way...whoaaaa...oh my god....oh my god....look at that....oh my god....what does this mean?!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

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I wonder if I can surf that wave???

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Brilliant analysis.

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Yep. Loyalty to "The Party" is the most important quotient for "success."

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Most people only care that their energies and aptitudes have an outlet. Whether their energy is used for good or evil is secondary. The emperor turned Darth Vader by providing only evil outlets for his energies.

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True, unfortunately

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Truth.

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DEI=didn’t earn it!

Oh, and the poison ☠️ is in the “ivy”!

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Scott Adams thinks this one might hurt: https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1770894676939153569

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Give it a little time. Sooner or later the Left will change the term DEI to something else. They are probably working on it right now.

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In some places I have seen the addition of Justice, changing the acronym to "JEDI".

I wish I were joking.

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I heard a liberal commentator say the "we know what you mean when you say DEI hire, you mean black". So sad, We mean unqualified and they hear black. Who's racist?

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They are changing the terms of DEI and ESG because they are becoming known to the public. It doesn't mean they will stop doing it, they will just be more quiet about it.

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PG, I have already casually used "Didn't Earn It" in conversation with a department head at a local college. His head jerked a little, but he had no reply. I was able to hold my mirth in until later, when the explosive, gut wrenching laughter burst forth.

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I think it's going to start showing up in more places.

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I want to buy that bumper sticker! Searched Amazon and the search bar autosuggested the phrase, but no results. Hmm.

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That is great t-shirt material.

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It’s an opportunity for an entrepreneurial person! Also, try Etsy.

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My husband ought to start a business making a bumper sticker + more selling this DEI=didn’t earn it or the Poison ☠️ is in the Ivy Leagues phrases since he just lost his job of over 24 years because of :👇

Bidensbullsh!teconomics.

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The ivies have always selected for toadies and sycophants. It's always been a game, it's just being played by slightly different rules now. And our government hires most of these cretins, after they have gone on to get their PhDs or JDs. That's why the government is filled with craven, me-first liars and cheats. The Clintons and Obama are prime examples, but there are so many others just like them. Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be Ivy Leaguers.

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Who go on to become judges, political leaders, business leaders, doctors and everyone else who are in positions of power to F with the lives of everyone else.

Mistake normies made/make is imagining what happens on campus, especially Ivies, stays on campus. All it generates is eyerolls and a few words about how stupid the smert people really are and then we get back to our lives and pretend they'll run into real life and that experience will fix them.

That's not how it's working out. They're hell bent on "fixing" us. And have risen to positions powerful enough to make life really hard for normies who just want normalcy. Like peak pandemic. But without a pandemic excuse.

Even powerful alumni of these institutions who ought to know better don't push back. How many Ivy League judges have leaned on their alma matters to reclaim sanity on their campuses? Probably can count on one hand. Same with CEO's and the wealthiest donors. Who pony up millions of dollars for university athletics prestige but let the academics, selection through graduation turn to shit.

Even lying university presidents are the norm, but they check a lot of the right boxes. Considering the resident in the White House is a serial plagiarizer and it all starts at the top it makes sense.

But until the normies begin to understand that what happens on campus doesn't stay there, especially alumni who see their schools turn to shit but won't miss a ballgame and still buy and wear their school's colors and mascots, the college's products will become their/our oppressors and tormentors.

It's a zero-sum game. It's Highlander rules. There can only be one. Which set of values do you want to live under? Then fight for it everywhere your values are under attack. Peaceful coexistence isn't an option anymore. No matter how many "Coexist" bumper stickers you see on cars. Our executioners will no doubt drive away in a car with one on the back.

Play time is over. Sh!t's gettin' real. Act like it. And grow a set. Use your words, microagress like a mofo. Or else the stakes become much graver than offenses taken and fewer dinner party invitations.

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I worked in global tax for about 15 years before cutting back to spend time with my kiddos. This was all taking off at the woke company at worked at before leaving in 2018. They sent out one of those stupid new surveys a couple months before I left. I answered as follows:

1 - gender nonconforming

2 - “questioning” on my sexuality

3 - unsure/ mixed on race

Not in looks, but in personality I am certainly gender non conforming. My boss laughed hysterically when he got the report. Mind you I have blonde hair and blue eyes and no one mistakes me for a man (though as I kid I got called fella a lot since I was a huge Tom boy with a bowl cut).

Anywho, my boss called me in laughing and asked if I bothered to tell my husband I answered that way. I said we both knew my husband would expect nothing else. I plainly pointed out I am gender non conforming by any definition and I was seriously questioning why my company is asking about my sexual preferences. I also haven’t had a DNA test. The best part is we both had other jobs lined up and both knew it. When i left a few months later it happened at the same time as another co-worker who is actually a lesbian. We tanked the DEI numbers for the department and the VP got knocked. He was a jerk anyway. 😂😂😂

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The Road to Serfdom, chapter 10, "Why the Worst Get on Top". It's a feature, not a bug.

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There's only one way to tell for sure: make 'em throw a baseball.

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Fauci failed that one

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The predictable reply: "what's a baseball?"

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Truly the universal litmus test

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Have you EVER seen a politician get a ball over the plate at the start of a baseball game? That's why I'm supporting Steve Garvey for senate.

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I now loathe him as a globalist operative, but W did throw that post-911 strike at Yankee stadium.

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No. They grew up eating milk and cookies on precious little doilies

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Instead of eating sand when we played sandlot football. It was how we determined boys social rank. Needless to say, I did eat a lot of sand.

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Bush after 9/11 is the only one I can remember.

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I never learned how to throw!

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But you're not in charge of Public Health Policy so it's all good.

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Admitting it is the first step to healing.

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This sounds like a great career opportunity for the right person - manliness training.

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lolol

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One of the first things Ibdo when I hire a junior Civil Engineer is get them a construction helmet and see if they can figure out how to put in the head webbing. It let's me know how much handholding I'll be doing on the job.

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Then you, like everyone else, will swear I'm straight and lying. :D

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Dangit John Henry. You broke it down like a shotgun.

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My son will graduate from college this spring. This all started for him in middle school, and especially at Church. The liberal leaning youth leader kept emphasizing the point that everyone was a special snowflake and God loved everyone because they were different. The regular kids, like my son, who did not go out of their way to be special and different snowflakes got left behind. Unfortunately, many, like you mention, could not resist the desire to transform themselves to stay "in the group". I as Gen X knew it was wrong, but for the Millennial parents, it was just a bit of a stretch from the "everyone gets trophies" thing in their day, so they let it happen.

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This goes deeper than college admissions. You see the trend in high schools now as well. Bullying sucks, not matter the vintage. Arguably, it is way worse now with 24/7 contact through social media. 20 years ago, when you left school, you could relax. Not today. The kids who 10-20 years ago were bullied in some fashion are the same kids now that claim LBGTQ+ status so the school will protect them. If you aren't part of the club, you being bullied is a nothing burger to the administration *yawn*. A "protected" class getting bullied? The full might of school boards and administrations will descend upon them to the point of school-level hate crime punishments. Bully gets punished because you joined the club. Again, selecting issues...

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that's a very interesting insight.

it's sort of a bullet proof vest for the kids who would otherwise be getting stuffed in lockers.

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It depends on where you are. My 14 year old niece is on the spectrum and has been bullied since kindergarten. Now she says she’s a boy and is bullied worse than ever. Kids have physically attacked her. They jeer at her and throw things at her. The school does almost nothing to protect her, despite strong parental involvement. The irony is that she is gorgeous. She also has a boyfriend who’s so crazy about her that he’ll take her any way she says she wants to be. Her situation is a microcosm of the utter craziness of modern life.

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Certainly can be a local environment...where the bullying is being equated to hate crimes is in areas where DEI is being militantly pushed, which aligns to where these anecdotal stories were coming from. I live in Texas...the victim of bullying could be a gender neutral pink dinosaur who identifies as a Restoration Hardware sofa...school admins "On your own kiddo"...unless its in Austin, they're just weird...

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probably so. but I sure miss the days when dad would say punch the biggest bully first and they'll think twice about doing it again....whether they get the best of you or not.

sometimes I think boys need to settle it like that. most times they end up being buds after that.

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Out of my 3 kids one is an Ivy Leaguer. She set goals at a very young age, worked her butt off in school and worked hard outside of school to get there. She’s conservative in her values but not judgmental. Her friend group at school is yes diverse and the boys she has made friends with are definitely gay (not faking it). What does she have to hide…let’s just say it’s not popular being a conservative in a liberal world anywhere you go! . She doesn’t let that affect her relationships though and she will come out the other side unscathed. She gets “the system,” she just plans on working around it!

So don’t despair too much! There are some good eggs out there not cracked up, but solid and awake and on the path to make change.

P. S. When doing the college tours Brown felt like a lesbian military camp!

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Working around it IS NOT the same as working against it. It is in fact still supporting it and keeping it alive so it can still damage everything it touches.

Those actively working AGAINST IT sure could use some help from those “good eggs” but they aren’t going to help tear down an immoral system they’ve spent their lives gaming.

Until they do, we all lose.

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I understand this sentiment, but we need both - those raging from the outside and those who have positioned themselves "inside". When the mob comes for those pounding on the gates, it is the people on the inside that will be able to quietly take the counter rage down a notch, and slowly let clear heads prevail. Both the pounding warriors and the insiders take great risks. Those on the outside know the mob may come for them, but the mob saves its worst torment for anyone suspected of being an enemy sympathizer - they must tread a perilous fence to try to make the difference.

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Being the lone voice of wisdom exacts a heavy toll which very few can bear and sustain. I watched Tulsi Gabbard's interview with Tucker Carlson last night. Her inability to fix the democrat party from within is why she ultimately left.

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Think about "working around it" the same way water wears away soil.

That way, you use the resources of "it" to destroy "it".

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I went to school in the Detroit suburbs so only the truly brilliant kids got a sniff from the Ivies. The other really smart kids went to Michigan or elsewhere within the state.

It's pretty hilarious, actually. Elite kids gaming the system as always and the system bending to make it easier for them. From legacies, standardized test tutors, super-scoring standardized tests, fifteen extracurriculars coupled with advanced placement classes and an eating disorder, to declaring yourself a member of an oppressed group. The end result is that the brand is becoming meaningless which everyone but the brand owner seem to understand. As always, the joke is on the serfs.

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I wonder whether the directors, writers and actors have engaged in their public "self-criticism" tour.

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I remember Bryan Cranston, star of “Breaking Bad”, talking about his deep realization of and repentance for his white privilege.

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LOL! That's funny!

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"...elizabeth “fauxcahantas” warren notwithstanding, you cannot change your race."

You can't change your sex either, even if you've had mutilating sex change surgery. Given a gene test you'd still show up as being the sex you are born with. This is just more proof that transexuals are just as insane as someone who thinks they are an animal of some kind.

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Go woke go broke...

At what point does an Ivy League degree start to confer negative value on the holder?

At what point does a marquee corporate name signal danger instead of opportunity?

I haven't done much new-graduate hiring lately, but I've dealt with some relatively big property transactions, and I can say that nothing brings me greater joy than finding a strong local business to replace one of the slowly-dying national drugstore chains in a good retail location.

In a negotiation last year, the broker representing a big national chain acted all confused and incomprehending when I brought up the need to mitigate bankruptcy risk... Meaning bankruptcy risk of the big chain. Then Rite Aid filed Chapter 11 (to nobody's surprise) which drove home my point. Remember Bed Bath & Beyond?

Lumbering bureaucracies that go out of their way to staff themselves with less bright and less capable people than they could otherwise recruit, because some DEI boxes need checking... That won't end well. A big lumbering bureaucracy is a hindrance enough as it is; hobbling it further with sub-par talent will spell its doom.

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Besides the societal and psychological components, it would be wise to also consider possible physical components. Gen Z has been repeatedly injected with far more contaminated and toxic substances via vaccines, especially HPV vaccines. Since these products are cultured in cell lines containing fetal DNA fragments from both male and female aborted babies, and since they contain massive doses of aluminum, which is known to cause anxiety as well as neurological damage, there seems to be ample evidence that many more people in this generation have lasting damage that could contribute to sexual confusion, or even just more susceptibility to the pressure to join the rainbow ranks.

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There's something to this. It's a feedback loop.

I think the nexus of all these ancillary issues is the drop off in testosterone levels.

Which is probably a direct result of exogenous factors.

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There is an environmental toxin/hormone/biology process at work for sure. When the amphibians in our waterways become hermaphrodites, there is something going on. And that was 30 years ago.

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That's some pretty good circumstantial evidence

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"I think the nexus of all these ancillary issues is the drop off in testosterone levels."

*head bounces off shoulder, head bounces off shoulder ,head bounces off shoulder*

I don't know what you're *head bounces off shoulder* talking about. I've been *head bounces off shoulder* Ear Skating since I was in my *head bounces off shoulder* teens.

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Oh my...you got me

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Learn trade, preferably one that involves nasty stuff that really isn’t nasty, just takes some getting used to. Plumbing (especially fixing problems in the homes of the ivies), welding (underwater is the best gig), electrician, heating and air conditioning, automotive repair. Learn the trade, get really good at it, strike out in your own and make them pay you. Then hire like minded people and build your little empire that “serves” (they’ll need you far more than you need them) the wealthy locals. Do not discount your services, and charge premium prices for off hour or specialty work. You’ll be in six digits before you are halfway through your twenties and you will have zero college debt. Yeah, it’ll be like real work, but you’ll sleep at night and you don’t have to steal and lie.

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Yup. I'm a regular DIY-er, but I gladly paid a guy over $600 yesterday to cut down a couple massive maples hanging over the house. Worth every penny and saves me from having to buy a bucket truck.

Insisted both my kids watch for the couple hours, and my gladly handing over the cash. I'll drive them by his house over the next few days.

Pretty sure the spark caught.

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100%. Well said!

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For this reason the University of Austin is being created. Not to be confused with Univ. Texas at Austin.

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"Our children are our future." Yup and we screwed that up. Now what?

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And our kids don’t even want to have children due to the state of the world. Ugghhh

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There's a biblical annecdote about this ... or a Midrash anyway.

Moses's father didn't want to have children. His wife had to convince him. That's why his name is not plainly given in the text and he is introduced only as "A Certain Man from the Tribe of Levi."

Of course, in those days they tossed baby boys into the river to drown, so what are we complaining about?

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That and it seems a death wish via abortion, contraceptives, (intentional?) destruction of the nuclear and extended family structures, gender reassignment surgery, liberalizing drugs, etc., has taken over a significant percentage of the population.

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Oddly from early in life, I always behaved in a biblical way, despite being a non believer. Now that my eyes are opened I can easily see that all of the mistakes and regrets in my life happened when I strayed from those principles. Better late than never I suppose. And without the Scamdemic, I probably still wouldn’t be convinced- always a silver lining

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He has set eternity in your heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). And He knocks on the door of your heart (Revelation 3:20).

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You were raised well.

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Thanks but I doubt that. Mom and Dad are hardcore heathens. More like it was at my core naturally. And it took me forever to realize why.

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We'll find out what they're made of when The Dark Harvest comes to town.

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The real country boys can still handle Sawtooth Jack ;-)

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Lolol. Or sawzall them at the kneecaps!...:)

We're going to have to prepare for The Children Of The Quarantine.

This good ole boy just got a new gun that our gracious host recommended.

I'm gonna go blow some shit up today on my property.

Practice makes perfect...

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Don't get carried away and blow up your truck, Ryan. That's why they sell targets.

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Yippee-I-Ay!

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Look for the latest "Florida Man" story in 3...2...1.

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Enjoy. I still have to clear additional range to accommodate my Savage scout .308. A late spring project that'll also provide good firewood for next season.

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"Dark Harvests don't develop character. They reveal it. Or something."

- Wooden or Broun, not quite verbatim; don't quote me on that.

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I've been saying this for years. Victimhood became currency. Everyone wants to be rich.

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