Dear Gato… you are officially my Spirit Animal. Thank you, thank you, for your anger, your outrage, and your articulate rhetoric. You cannot know how valuable you have been as a touchstone of sanity for me and my family. If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know, because I am deeply in your debt.
The real virus is narcissism. The plague started with the smartphone. The only way to achieve herd immunity is to delete fakebook, Twitter, & Instagram.
Have you seen this gem? I despise these people...and the list of people I despise grows longer every day.
===========================
AOC, Pelosi, Nadler, Hochul and dozens of other democrats seen in New York City around hundreds WITHOUT MASKS ON before news media and cameras showed up. Their hypocrisy is disgusting and must be exposed!! Rules for thee but not for me!!
Yes. The "elites" are exposed and mocked on social media.
Yes. They are clueless or indifferent or both to the outrage of the "proles"
BUT...in the end, there are no consequences for them.
They've use their media hatchet men (and women) to cancel people with the wrong opinions, but they engage in viral theater while ordinary Americans lose everything...
I love this essay, but today it appears that California voters, dead and alive, knowing and unknowing, will defeat the recall of Governor Gruesome. I do think the moment of nemesis is coming, but at 55, I may not live to see it.
Supposedly, Marie Antoinette never actually said "Let them eat cake." But I usually think of her on the rare occasions that I eat it, and it's a good saying to be misremembered for.
They do it because they know there are no consequences for their behavior. Even something as simple as a performance review (recalls) or firings (vote them out) from who are supposed to be the actual bosses: the voting public. Much less something like the French or Russian revolutions. We're on so civilized these days...which is why these elites act with impunity. Add to that the American stupidity in thinking that because our aristos aren't called Viscount, Duke, Baron, etc., then we must not have any when ours are more obnoxious and elitist than the vast majority of modern-day European aristocrats.
Why worry about what they do when they rarely have to pay a price for their hypocrisy? Most of the major cultural "leaders" will cover for them, ignore the transgression, or bury down the memory hole. Pelosi, for example, is still a major voice of the Dems despite her multiple gaffs.
Gato - spot on as always. That Met gala might be the equivalent of the Time mag covers that rang the bell for previous market tops, just as the whole house of cards was shifting on the foundational sands.
How do you square this against the human desire to be recognized, lauded and respected when it comes to say, your substack page or your twitter handle before it was vaporized? Those of us that read your work are undoubtedly better informed people because of it (thank you BTW for the vast amount of knowledge you have shared) but I do not think that I am wrong to presume that you are pleased when you receive positive feedback from your posts. It is human nature to welcome compliments. I am not implying that you share your thoughts for the sole reason of getting compliments (I suspect this is simply a pleasant secondary benefit) but I am asking for your driving motivation to share your wisdom.
Is the difference between the depraved attention seekers that you wrote about in this article and people that are motivated to share their thoughts and ideas simply the focus on the idea vs the individual? "Debate my ideas, not me"?
i mean, everyone likes bit of an "attaboy" and a little attention, but like so many things, it turns out to be a sort of goldilocks equation where you need "enough but not too much" focus thereon to be healthy.
the positive feedback is nice, but i don't really crave the personal notoriety (at least not for this) and prefer to be anonymous that, as you say, the debate is about the ideas themselves, not the credentials or the individual.
cats are not, by nature, red carpet animals.
(that said, having generated some profile has gotten me into many far more interesting conversations with many more august and interesting folks and the ability to get the attention of top scientists and thinkers because they know your name is a very useful thing in furthering one's own education)
that said, honestly, it's the negative feedback that's the most useful part. making ideas and data public invites the scrutiny and hostile peer review that is so missing in so many of todays "refereed journals" as they sink into groupthink and "peer review" becomes more of an ideological purity test than a measure of soundness in methods and analysis.
this is the one regard in which i find substack more limiting than twitter. twitter is the truly hostile peer review mecca.
take ideas out for a spin there and you will get serious feedback, especially once you start to get a following. at 40k followers, it's shockingly instant. it's like turning on a cold shower. you can spend all day sifting data and drawing inference, push "post" and 30 seconds later get gutted by someone you never heard of in a sub-field you did not even know was a thing as they point out the glaring foundational error you made.
this makes you cautious (as one should be) when making claims. it also makes you smarter if you have the sense to let it. strong thinkers get stronger by being contested and ideas get sharpened, refined, expanded or discarded by being debated.
so, more of this than one might suspect is for me. i want to get smarter and want my ideas to be better, more accurate, more expansive, and better founded.
taking this out for a public spin is really the only way to do that.
gaining some measure of profile is not so much an end to itself as a road to getting smarter.
It would be great if Substack had a debate format where readers could also weigh in. Let the debaters earn some dough, like intellectual fighters in the ring.
If the bad cat was interested in recognition, why would he use an avatar/nom de plume?
Everyone likes positive feedback. No one like negative feedback. I agree with the bad cat...we learn more from negative feedback and mistakes. Either we adjust our thinking in light of some new information or insight or we hone our position.
There is a world of difference between the normal, human desire for connection...to be heard and understood...and these fame/power whores. There is no confusing one for the other. Even children can tell the difference.
I joined Fakebook in 2015 to advocate for the MenB vaccines...ironically.
I joined Twitter in May to respond to some stupidity spewed by Leana Wen as the news of the vaxx failure in Israel and the UK started to break. (She's dangerous, btw.)
I spent hours each day over the summer trying to provide data and information to people in the comments sections of Fakebook posts (CDC, Pa DOH, and the county health department, TheHill, Reuters)...usually playing a game of cat and mouse with the Fakebook censors.
cmpalmer is my actual name, but no one here knows who I am...and I'm okay with that. In fact, I prefer it.
I engage here and on Fakebook and Twitter...I send emails to my siblings who don't want the information...out of a sense of moral obligation. I have information that others don't have. I have links and data and maybe some insight that may help others form their own opinion or make their own decisions. This isn't fun. Im sure most of us would rather have our old lives back. I wish I could walk away...and let them eat cat...but I cannot.
I don't know the bad cat personally, but I believe he is doing this to help others...not to seek attention.
well but soc media's a double edged sword. Because of the hyper short attention span, the elites can keep acting like clueless idiots and being shown up and tomorrow everyone will be fawning over them again. Until some critical mass of idiocy is reached, it'll continue to be Debord's society of the spectacle.
That was funny and terrifying both. The powers of darkness oops I mean the E-lites could flip it around on us. Both movements are terrifying and not good.
On the climate front. Illinois just passed a law that gives a private company eminent domain to put power lines through farmers land without paying. We don’t get the energy. I hope those farmers hire a good lawyer.
It is like the story of the Tar Baby. There is a human impulse to share what has been found to be true, for the benefit of everyone. And there is an active element seeking to hide truth and obstruct its discovery for “selfish” reasons. There is a narrative that it is possible to hide the truth successfully because people can be tricked indefinitely because they don’t/can’t/won’t pay enough attention. The powers that shouldn’t be are betting that is is true, and love it when people are discouraged by this story. Oh, it just goes down the “memory hole” so it’s useless to struggle. On the other hand, Cliff High talks about the “Self Organizing Collective” gaining strength as people wake up and finally start taking action locally, as they did, for example, in the case of that dictator in Romania. I watched a video in which he is delivering a speech and people start roaring. At first he thinks he has control of the situation and they are cheering on cue. Then he becomes horrified as he realizes they are not cheering, they are revolting. Not long after that, he and his wife were seized and executed.
Dear Gato… you are officially my Spirit Animal. Thank you, thank you, for your anger, your outrage, and your articulate rhetoric. You cannot know how valuable you have been as a touchstone of sanity for me and my family. If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know, because I am deeply in your debt.
Hear hear, couldn't agree more. Gato I couldn't have got through the horror of the last 18 months without you.
Hilarious. That -tine meme? c'est magnifique
The real virus is narcissism. The plague started with the smartphone. The only way to achieve herd immunity is to delete fakebook, Twitter, & Instagram.
Have you seen this gem? I despise these people...and the list of people I despise grows longer every day.
===========================
AOC, Pelosi, Nadler, Hochul and dozens of other democrats seen in New York City around hundreds WITHOUT MASKS ON before news media and cameras showed up. Their hypocrisy is disgusting and must be exposed!! Rules for thee but not for me!!
https://twitter.com/AnthonyDeWitt7/status/1437035462871457796?fbclid=IwAR078h3nG8Zh3utBRPI0hI7e70mrSBfAYO7I7dQ9MyIcuAGkW-aStbxSrEc
====================================
Yes. The "elites" are exposed and mocked on social media.
Yes. They are clueless or indifferent or both to the outrage of the "proles"
BUT...in the end, there are no consequences for them.
They've use their media hatchet men (and women) to cancel people with the wrong opinions, but they engage in viral theater while ordinary Americans lose everything...
And there are no consequences for them.
The only thing I would have added is the photo of AOC flaunting her "Tax The Rich" dress and winking at the cameras.
the kitten did that one last night.
it's not nice to steal from kittens.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/kitten-corner-iconic-irony/comments
I love this essay, but today it appears that California voters, dead and alive, knowing and unknowing, will defeat the recall of Governor Gruesome. I do think the moment of nemesis is coming, but at 55, I may not live to see it.
oh no. I had such hopes that Cali would wake up.
I'm sure they did, but the machine knows how to cheat.
That sounds like some dangerous misinformation there, you conspiracy theorist, you.
Supposedly, Marie Antoinette never actually said "Let them eat cake." But I usually think of her on the rare occasions that I eat it, and it's a good saying to be misremembered for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake
They do it because they know there are no consequences for their behavior. Even something as simple as a performance review (recalls) or firings (vote them out) from who are supposed to be the actual bosses: the voting public. Much less something like the French or Russian revolutions. We're on so civilized these days...which is why these elites act with impunity. Add to that the American stupidity in thinking that because our aristos aren't called Viscount, Duke, Baron, etc., then we must not have any when ours are more obnoxious and elitist than the vast majority of modern-day European aristocrats.
Why worry about what they do when they rarely have to pay a price for their hypocrisy? Most of the major cultural "leaders" will cover for them, ignore the transgression, or bury down the memory hole. Pelosi, for example, is still a major voice of the Dems despite her multiple gaffs.
Gato - spot on as always. That Met gala might be the equivalent of the Time mag covers that rang the bell for previous market tops, just as the whole house of cards was shifting on the foundational sands.
How do you square this against the human desire to be recognized, lauded and respected when it comes to say, your substack page or your twitter handle before it was vaporized? Those of us that read your work are undoubtedly better informed people because of it (thank you BTW for the vast amount of knowledge you have shared) but I do not think that I am wrong to presume that you are pleased when you receive positive feedback from your posts. It is human nature to welcome compliments. I am not implying that you share your thoughts for the sole reason of getting compliments (I suspect this is simply a pleasant secondary benefit) but I am asking for your driving motivation to share your wisdom.
Is the difference between the depraved attention seekers that you wrote about in this article and people that are motivated to share their thoughts and ideas simply the focus on the idea vs the individual? "Debate my ideas, not me"?
i mean, everyone likes bit of an "attaboy" and a little attention, but like so many things, it turns out to be a sort of goldilocks equation where you need "enough but not too much" focus thereon to be healthy.
the positive feedback is nice, but i don't really crave the personal notoriety (at least not for this) and prefer to be anonymous that, as you say, the debate is about the ideas themselves, not the credentials or the individual.
cats are not, by nature, red carpet animals.
(that said, having generated some profile has gotten me into many far more interesting conversations with many more august and interesting folks and the ability to get the attention of top scientists and thinkers because they know your name is a very useful thing in furthering one's own education)
that said, honestly, it's the negative feedback that's the most useful part. making ideas and data public invites the scrutiny and hostile peer review that is so missing in so many of todays "refereed journals" as they sink into groupthink and "peer review" becomes more of an ideological purity test than a measure of soundness in methods and analysis.
this is the one regard in which i find substack more limiting than twitter. twitter is the truly hostile peer review mecca.
take ideas out for a spin there and you will get serious feedback, especially once you start to get a following. at 40k followers, it's shockingly instant. it's like turning on a cold shower. you can spend all day sifting data and drawing inference, push "post" and 30 seconds later get gutted by someone you never heard of in a sub-field you did not even know was a thing as they point out the glaring foundational error you made.
this makes you cautious (as one should be) when making claims. it also makes you smarter if you have the sense to let it. strong thinkers get stronger by being contested and ideas get sharpened, refined, expanded or discarded by being debated.
so, more of this than one might suspect is for me. i want to get smarter and want my ideas to be better, more accurate, more expansive, and better founded.
taking this out for a public spin is really the only way to do that.
gaining some measure of profile is not so much an end to itself as a road to getting smarter.
It would be great if Substack had a debate format where readers could also weigh in. Let the debaters earn some dough, like intellectual fighters in the ring.
If the bad cat was interested in recognition, why would he use an avatar/nom de plume?
Everyone likes positive feedback. No one like negative feedback. I agree with the bad cat...we learn more from negative feedback and mistakes. Either we adjust our thinking in light of some new information or insight or we hone our position.
There is a world of difference between the normal, human desire for connection...to be heard and understood...and these fame/power whores. There is no confusing one for the other. Even children can tell the difference.
I joined Fakebook in 2015 to advocate for the MenB vaccines...ironically.
I joined Twitter in May to respond to some stupidity spewed by Leana Wen as the news of the vaxx failure in Israel and the UK started to break. (She's dangerous, btw.)
I spent hours each day over the summer trying to provide data and information to people in the comments sections of Fakebook posts (CDC, Pa DOH, and the county health department, TheHill, Reuters)...usually playing a game of cat and mouse with the Fakebook censors.
cmpalmer is my actual name, but no one here knows who I am...and I'm okay with that. In fact, I prefer it.
I engage here and on Fakebook and Twitter...I send emails to my siblings who don't want the information...out of a sense of moral obligation. I have information that others don't have. I have links and data and maybe some insight that may help others form their own opinion or make their own decisions. This isn't fun. Im sure most of us would rather have our old lives back. I wish I could walk away...and let them eat cat...but I cannot.
I don't know the bad cat personally, but I believe he is doing this to help others...not to seek attention.
That Leana Wen lady scares me. You are very right about her being dangerous.
She definitely strikes me as a plant.
She's was born in China and her parents were granted political asylum.
Maybe she's a deep plant for the CCP? Either that or she's bat guano crazy.
Every time I see her on tv I want to throw something.
Six of one, half dozen of the other...
from my long experience in the tech industry, companies seem immeasurably powerful ... right before the crash
here's hoping🥂❗
Gato has to be somebody. Too good a writer, too perspicacious, too smart. He's like The Lone Ranger or Superman. Who is that masked man?
well but soc media's a double edged sword. Because of the hyper short attention span, the elites can keep acting like clueless idiots and being shown up and tomorrow everyone will be fawning over them again. Until some critical mass of idiocy is reached, it'll continue to be Debord's society of the spectacle.
The accompanying video is purely for entertainment and/or educational purposes >
https://youtu.be/TMHCw3RqulY
That was funny and terrifying both. The powers of darkness oops I mean the E-lites could flip it around on us. Both movements are terrifying and not good.
On the climate front. Illinois just passed a law that gives a private company eminent domain to put power lines through farmers land without paying. We don’t get the energy. I hope those farmers hire a good lawyer.
😂😂
I'm in awe, Gato. Bravo.
How many lives do you have left mr gato? I hope you are around for a long long time. Did you ever see this?
The age of cant
https://www.city-journal.org/the-age-of-cant
I think the trap we all tend to fall into is trying to make sense out of nonsense. Then assuming the nonsensical will heed to words of wisdom.
It is like the story of the Tar Baby. There is a human impulse to share what has been found to be true, for the benefit of everyone. And there is an active element seeking to hide truth and obstruct its discovery for “selfish” reasons. There is a narrative that it is possible to hide the truth successfully because people can be tricked indefinitely because they don’t/can’t/won’t pay enough attention. The powers that shouldn’t be are betting that is is true, and love it when people are discouraged by this story. Oh, it just goes down the “memory hole” so it’s useless to struggle. On the other hand, Cliff High talks about the “Self Organizing Collective” gaining strength as people wake up and finally start taking action locally, as they did, for example, in the case of that dictator in Romania. I watched a video in which he is delivering a speech and people start roaring. At first he thinks he has control of the situation and they are cheering on cue. Then he becomes horrified as he realizes they are not cheering, they are revolting. Not long after that, he and his wife were seized and executed.