"Every man goes mad in his own way" Old Russian Proverb. Another ORP: "You are born in a field and die in a forest". Except cats, of course: you are born in luxury and die in even greater luxury. Surrounded by the skulls of your "staff"
In 10 days we have observed a failed assassination [despite the ineptitude of security apparatus], and a successful [inadequate/partial] coup both attempts arguably benefitting the deep state.
The rest of the coup, 25th amendmenting Biden would not benefit the deep state.
The loyal opposition will push the 25 th Amendment!
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”- Hanlon’s razor appears to apply in this situation. Probably not the attempt on Trump, but certainly the painful but ultimately resolvable Crowdstrike snafu.
Eyewitless news 🤣 love that! spellcheck keeps trying to correct me and I’m like “uh nooo, get with the times dude, you don’t belong in this world today if you think it’s eyewitness…NEXT!”
Great points Ed. You've got to wonder how the deep state playwrights can keep all of the actors sticking to their lines and roles, given the frenzied pace of events. When 90% of all politicians are self-serving, attention seeking psychopaths, somethings going to break.
Recorded voice doesn't mean much to me in the era of AI. I predict that they are going to be forced to announce this before the meeting. Could well be wrong, but I have this suspicion.
That one with dementia was the double. They have had to bring the real one out again. He strode up the aeroplane steps like a teenager couple of hours ago.
Watching the "how is Trump racist" girl reminded me of talking to my liberal friends about my substack. My friend said he didn't agree with some things I'd said so I asked him what they were, and all he (and his wife who hadn't read my blog) could do was shout at me that Putin is a dictator and they don't allow books with gay characters in Russian school libraries, and "what about trans rights in Russia". Fucking scary when you encounter it IRL
I also had the pleasure of encountering this IRL and I’m not trying to be dramatic but it terrified me. Summer of 2022 my friend was blabbing about voter ID being racist, “antivaxxers”, etc. It was so shocking I blurted out “if I lopped off your head and replaced it with CNN I wouldn’t know the difference!” She was perplexed. Her answer was something about “racism” that made no sense. Like she was now a TV character who lost all ability to generate independent thought. Another time she sent me an unhinged email detailing how she “threw someone out of her house” upon learning they were unvaccinated. When I brought this up she actually said she never did that (even though it’s right there in print!) and I “misunderstood “ and (get this- it’s unreal) the real reason she asked her to leave is that she is a “transphobe” and had made “transphobic” comments. It’s surreal. She never questions why these niche topics are now her whole world for some reason. Watching a person seemingly reading from a demented script without knowing it and attacking you if you question it is not fun.
I’ve literally been a self-imposed hermit for the past 6-8 years after too much social abuse from both family and the community, and it is taking a toll on my naturally extroverted, social-butterfly spirit. But … posts like these make me realize God was simply protecting me from further abuse, and still is. It’s much worse out there today than even five years ago!
God Bless Substack showing me there are peeps out there like me. So many of us. Sound minds, firm principals, compassionate yet unwilling to sacrifice truth for selfish gain. I hope I can find people like you in person somewhere around me soon. I need that connection.
The hardest thing for me is being accused of not being compassionate and having “conditional” love whenever I spoke the truth with kindness. There is no way to speak truth in kindness anymore as they have made the actual truth itself the epitome of hate and evil. So to speak it or point it out no matter how lovingly and calm is deserving of being shredded in society, hung openly with a bloody carcass for all to fear in order to silence anyone else brave enough to speak up - of which was many. My own daughter told me I deserve to die alone and it is right that no one will attend my funeral. (I’m not old either…she just wanted to highlight the hate for me knowing how much I care about friends and family.) And she sure did her fair share to align with anyone who agrees with her, including family on both sides. Well, in truth unbeknownst to her they knew the greatest harm to me would be to destroy my relationship with her, (it was,) and they wasted no time taking her under their hateful wings. So all I can do is pray for her eyes to be opened all on her own one day. Or for someone wise to come into her life and guide her back to her own immediate family.
A good line from a church talk I heard in October last year really hits on this.
“Truth taught without love can cause feelings of judgment, discouragement, and loneliness. It often leads to resentment and division—even conflict. On the other hand, love without truth is hollow and lacks the promise of growth.”
I’d take it further though, love without truth isn’t love at all.
oMyGosh I JUST argued this last fall with a therapist we went to for some help coping with all the heartache. She is a Christian counselor and shared with us how she doesn’t give hurting gender dysphoric kids God’s truth about gender issues because she feels they just need to be loved. They are starving for affirmation. I told her there may be no one else in their lives to speak the truth but their parents and these days that’s just not enough. I felt it was her duty to let them know what God says about it all too, so they can hear it from another adult, but of course with compassion and love too. She said it didn’t feel loving at all to do that and shook her head that it wasn’t wise to tell them what God’s word says. Her job was ONLY to love them and affirm them. She said this with prideful virtue signaling.
I told her truth without love is destructive, yes, but you cannot have any love without also having truth present. They go hand in hand in God’s word. Truth IS love and love IS the truth. You cannot have one without the other.
Needless to say we didn’t see her very much longer after that. What truth might she be keeping from me?!
About a month ago I spoke to a pyschiatrist who told me that if they were to tell a gender dysphoric client that they were delusional (i.e. not affirm them), they could lose their license. This was in the Czech Republic, but I think it applies anywhere that complies with the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM-5). Literal lunatics running the asylum stuff.
If she won’t give them the truth, the world will give them lies.
God loves all, but his greater blessings require us to accept truth and growth. Not because he loves those people more, but because greater blessings are dependent on growth, they can’t be given without it.
I recently broke ties with a good friend b/c I couldn't speak the truth in her presence and was speaking to her like an acquaintance. I felt like I was lying or biting my tongue constantly and had to set myself free from the deception I felt part of. Love without truth isn't love. Absolutely thank you for sharing this.
Wow, this could be me with my sister. I pray the scales will fall from her eyes. It's hard when you reach out in love and get nothing but cruelty in return. Lamentations 3:19-26 is my go-to in times of great hardship. I pray it strengthens us both today in Jesus name.
A favorite of mine is in genesis. The story of Jacob and Rachel. “And God remembered Rachel”.
Jacob serving Rachel’s father for 14 years. I wonder often if my time single after HS and my church mission are my time serving my father above for one of his daughters.
It’s hard to wait on His timing, especially in our modern world of instant gratification and convenience. But I’ve learned that when I let Him, He can make much more of my life than I can alone.
I too have 'lost a daughter' (and her 3 children) due to some story in her head (all pre-covid). I have a long breath 'to let the right thing do itself' which is more likely to happen if I don't interfere (energetically) with striving for an 'outcome'. All the best to you, Josh.
Yes! It’s better to be patient and not try to force others to love us or understand us. The harder we try the more we play into whatever narrative they have going on in their heads, because it is always connected to some thread of truth about us. For instance: I’m intelligent, thorough with my critical thinking, and I’m brave. I speak up unafraid of the consequences to myself, no matter where I am. I’m just wired that way. Truth matters more to me than anything else and leaving a lie in the air is like having my shoes on the wrong feet. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t that way. Sometimes it’s wiser to let the lie be and just stay quiet, but I’m not good at that. Being wired that way gets me accused of being overly “opinionated”. And a woman to boot so doubly offensive and the narrative is that I am brainwashing my husband and my sons. But truth has a life of its own separate any skills I may have delivering it and that threatens people a d makes them highly uncomfortable. So they have to attack the messenger.
So basically, when my logic is resounding and convincing, and they can’t argue it, it cannot be because it’s the truth, no - it’s only because I’m trying to brainwash them. 🤦🏼♀️ They weaponized being opinionated or being right against me and so when I do speak up it’s more proof to their accusations. I play into their narrative. Or as one SIL likes to say, showboat being better than them because they aren’t as educated as I am. They actually use my higher degrees against me that way. “Ya know I can never argue with you because you’re always right and I wasn’t as educated as much as you were.” As if that’s a negative about me! Shake on me, how dare I. God forbid they embrace and accept what sounds logical, no they’d rather paint me as a know it all. I don’t need the credit either, but their fear of giving that credit to me outweighs doing what’s right. They have no idea that I would never be an “I told you so” person or that I would never lord over them being right. I’m not wired that way either. But they don’t believe about me because THEY would be that way. Projection is a real disease and has been for about 20-30 years now.
I learned very quickly that my silence was the better weapon. It’s hard, it’s taking too long since my logic isn’t allowed into the mix now, but it is the only way to protect myself from additional abuse that I don’t think I can survive.
I'm really sorry to hear all that. You're a few years down the road from me, it's only in the last 3 or so years - and especially since Russia started its SMO in Ukraine - that I've really become isolated from a lot of people for showing them things that they just refuse to believe. Even if those things were in newspapers that they trust! The idea that I'm lying to them is apparently easier to accept than the fact the news will just contradict itself but never acknowledge those contradictions.
Perhaps mercifully, I don't have any children to have alienated. I hope your daughter sees sense soon and comes to understand why you've done what you've done. Peace
Thank you for such a comprehensive reply/comment; your understanding of the dynamic with your family seems pretty insightful to me. By nature, I am one who remains quiet, and walks away. I rarely feel the need to 'have my say', stir up an argument, or confront. This is also partly because I am an "evangelical christianity survivor" and once I left the cult I realised how wrong one can be, and I switched off attempting to actively spread any other of my beliefs. I don't give opinions unless asked. Everyone lives their their own bubble and few are open (or psychologically capable enough) to having it challenged. Having said that, I feel I have lots to say, which you'll find in my fortnightly poetry postings - and in a variety of comments here on substack. (I'm European, not American, so have not been subjected to the extremes of American culture)
You describe exactly what my wife and I have experienced with family and friends over the last 10-15 years. You are most certainly not alone. Thank you for putting it into words. We have found that trying to be understood or, God forbid, trying to help a family member is fraught with personal peril and more often than not backfires and makes a situation worse. Like you say, quiet patience seems like the only way.
After watching the girl shout at her boyfriend in the airport I feel better staying at home! I'm pretty happy on my own, always have been, but this solidifies my choices as sane.
The collapse of the West is saving me a lot of money. There were so many places I hoped to see some day that I now have no desire to ever visit. I'm down to Russia and Antarctica.
Yes it's happened to me more than once... quite a few times now in fact. There are certain topics that, if you try to discuss them, you reach a certain point and then you get a response along the lines of "look, I believe that XYZ, and my belief is just as valid as your belief". After that, if you try to tell, or even SHOW them, that actually their belief is unfounded and there is evidence for the opposite, they get very angry. 'News-ism' could genuinely be described as a religion or cult, and believing that your priests might be lying to you is a traumatic thing to accept.
It seems often to be the case that this slavish worship of the 'News-ism' that you describe is in fact a religion for the atheists in the room. Rachel Maddow has become the Mary Baker Eddy of our time.
Hard to do as most of my relatives are liberal and many of my friends (I’m from a blue state). Hard to make small talk and once my BIL said I was crazy for my beliefs, said he couldn’t talk to me and left the room. I have forgiven him and thought he never apologized. He lives in a bubble on his property and only listens to NPR and believes slavery still exists. Now when I see him we make small talk. It sucks.
I’ve been watching a lot of Russian tv programs lately. One of the first things I noticed was they refused to rewrite historical facts, by adding in homesexual theme’s. They leave that up to the English, Americans and French. Your neighbor would be horrified.😉
Not my neighbour, friend of 25 years! But I feel that he and his wife are just the sort that might take the "Joan of Arc was trans" narrative seriously
Regarding the lack of general knowledge about the world and how the world works -- i blame the internet. The very structure of "ask the question, get the answer" inhibits learning -- when a GPS tells you exactly how to walk to your own house ("turn left 15 feet") or throws opinions at you as if they were facts ("Trump is lying when he says things are worse now") then basic thinking about things is a lost skill. Especially thinking about the next step, the next move, the repercussions of things. ("The govt should just force Elon Musk to give everyone his money so they don't have to work.") Searching for information, finding things out, using the imperfect information you have found, learning things by accident, making mistakes and overcoming them -- these skills are not developed in the online world.
But they don’t ask questions - that’s the problem. Questioning is a process of self-teaching and critical analysis., where answers are questioned too. This has not been taught since the 1970s. They are used to being spoon fed pap - no need to chew, just swallow.
So when they ‘Google’ because that’s the only search engine they know, they don’t frame questions, they type in a name… Trump, or slogans… climate deniers.
Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning across/other side of as opposed to cis- meaning this side.
Out of curiosity I entered ‘Trans’ in a search engine, and nowhere was the Latin definition listed, just dozens of ‘Transgender’ links.
If I typed what does Latin prefix trans mean, then I got right links. I’ll guarantee those gibberish idiots who use the word ‘trans’ don’t know it is a Latin prefix and doesn’t just lean someone who can’t decide whether they are Arthur or Martha.
I completelyi agree! We get to thank the school system for refusing to teach actual grammar,spelling or anything that resembles real knowledge. Science is no longer. History has become delusion dujour. Math... don't get me started... pandering to the mentally ill and ripping away every bedrock of stability has thoroughly screwed society. The Cult of compassion is NOT the way. As Gato said, it's time to "rip off the bandaid, and go cold turkey". I have a feeling we need to build some bigger mental institutions....
" I have a feeling we need to build some bigger mental institutions...." I think they have been quietly built over the last 20 years. They are call FEMA camps, and they are in every state. And who will end up in them, I wonder?
That’s right, nobody can formulate a question, much less evaluate the answer. Life is so easy now you can just drift about, like flotsam. That’s why people are still wearing cloth face masks that they take down to talk to you — what the h!ll do they think that mask is supposed to do?!?
I am a questioner by nature — the kid who always asked “why?” but nowadays with my younger co-workers I just come off as grumpy and argumentative with my all my “difficult'“ questions. They are the most passive bunch of people I’ve ever seen.
My new supervisor, maybe 30 yrs old, keeps every email she’s ever gotten in her inbox, yes, 1000s and 1000s of emails, and when she wants to find something she types a keyword and does a “search.” Yeah, that works about as well as you’d think it does. So, she can’t evaluate what’s junk or not, or what’s worth keeping or not, or even make folders or anything, or figure out anyway to “organize” the content based on topic….(organize? what’s that? why would you bother?) I read somewhere that the whole “file folders” idea is foreign to the youngsters, since they’ve never seen one in real life….
I concur that there is most definitely a correlation, but not necessarily an actual causation, with the advent of the internet and so many of our current woes.
But far more responsibility can be directly attributed to the abject failure of all of our educational institutions, which have been transformed into nothing more than indoctrination centers over the course of the last several decades. No one is taught to think for themselves, or even how to do so. The so-called educational entities we have in this country today have got to be utterly razed to the ground, and built back up to strictly adhere to the very basic elements of learning and imbue critical thinking which is essential in the forming a rational and civilized mind.
Unfortunately as Gatto argues in Dumbing Us Down it is possible that the education system isn’t a failure but is doing exactly what it is meant to do. Unfortunately it isn’t meant to do something we the people would like.
Suzie, I'm afraid that you are correct. Public schools and their parent districts have become bloated madrassa-like monstrosities - huge HR admin mazes of individuals that are not teachers but rather "program" administrators. Check in with your local school district and find out how many people are collecting salaries and how many are actually teachers. Since the end of WWII, the real 'pandemic' we have been through in the United States is the takeover of our educational institutions by post modernism.
With GPS being so common, most people today cannot read a map or find directions themselves. Most people don't remember phone numbers anymore, including their own. We have allowed machines to take over those functions for us. I think that has happened with critical thinking skills and curiosity as well.
absolutely. Peoples brains have atrophied. People can barely go for a hike in the woods, on a path, anymore without getting lost and needing to be rescued. I love maps because they show you where you are in relation to other places. I love looking around me and knowing what the name of the mountain is, and how far it is to Canada or the ocean. Crazy and unnecessary, right? lol. I knew a lady once who flew to Ireland and couldn’t find it on a map. I guess it doesn’t matter to her “where” she is. She’s just a piece of baggage, a package, an air-mail letter, adrift in the air, lol. She could have gotten off the plane in Budapest and not known the difference.
The JIR (Journal of Irreproducible Results) had some great Perpetual Motion articles... a long, long time ago.....they also created an American Pi song!
University students used to be la crème de la crème, now any dross with a pulse gets through high school and into university because… equality, fair, etc. Being institutionalised in the State education farm since the age of two or thereabouts for the following 20 years, they are intellectually and emotionally stranded in infancy.
Hi John, Agree about the dross/pulse but differ on why they attempt University. Once the government supported student loan firehose opened the youth were encouraged to sidle up to the debt trough ASAP. Get them young for a lifelong bankers’ income stream.
Since you appreciate irony, (and who doesn't?) here's another: How about the ethnic "minority" who rails - often eloquently, about "cultural appropriation" whilst doing so in English?
Excerpt from a dystopian imaginative piece about the prospect of ‘Permanent Education in 1984’ eerily prescient of our 21st c. Therapeutic Culture:
“A child is born in the United States in 1984. He can never look forward to getting out of school. From the ‘infant school’ he starts attending at the age of six months to the ‘geriatric learning centre’ he dies in, he finds himself going to school all his life ‘for the good of society’......and so we bid goodbye to this lucky man, the minister chants, ‘firm in the conviction that he will go to heaven where he will attend a ‘school for angels.’”(John Ohliger) https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/teach-your-children-well
I can't put my finger right on it but I saw a quote something to the effect of, "If children went to public school at birth, parents would think they didn't know how to teach their own children to walk."
(PS: No one teaches a kitten or puppy or calf or foal to walk)
Currently watching my 9 month old crawl around and pull himself up to standing on everything within a foot or two, having seen my 3 and 5 year old do the same... this is an amazing quote. Grateful that my wife is willing to home school them so I don't have to send them to the crap hole that is public (or even private) school these days.
I have noticed that this insanity is not limited to college students. It afflicts even formerly sober adults. I have a friend from college who has TDS so bad he just descends into gibberish when discussing Trump or anything he’s done. The Brits used to transport people like this to Australia. All in all, not a bad solution. We need to find an island we can maroon them on so they won’t interfere with society.
... as was Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World, and a fair smattering of WW1 poets like Wilfrid Owen - and later reading "All Quiet on the Western Front". It made one not only appreciate hard-won freedoms, but also the twisting of language that accompanies the rise of dictatorships and wars.
My (maybe former) Friend From Fifth Grade told me a few months ago that Trump--well women were terrified when he won the first time because of that pussy-grabbing tape etc. etc.etc. and that's why they had the Million Women March .
But she herself had voted for him after that tape came out. This is a gal with three degrees who has prided herself her entire life on her rationality and logic.
She was screaming this at me a few months ago. As to why he is an existential danger. She was telling me last week that the attempted assassination was a fake.
I have felt that we've been in a mass psychosis for a while now. About 20 years ago I felt my sanity slipping away--fed by an amoral, sensationalist media and a 24 hour news cycle. It was making me mentally and physically sick. I cut myself off from it, and became very selective about where I got my news and entertainment. Now I can only shake my head at these sick little snowflakes, and in my darkest thoughts wonder if Stalin might have been right about certain things....
(On a lighter note, since I saw Blazing Saddles I holler: "Where the white women at?" when looking for my wife. It's fascinating watching the reaction of anyone who happens to overhear. They crew we hired to move us from the Northeast to the South 4 years ago all thought it was hilarious. I dug those guys!)
Gato, you could just as easily inserted clips of recent speeches by the heads of our two largest teachers unions, the AFT (Randi W) and the NEA (can't remember her name). These two are political class power players, nomenklatura of the highest standing with the money, power and access to political actors to get things done (aka fuck shit up). The public school system is their handiwork. And they are raging lunatics by the standards of traditional rational discourse. The regime is sustained by this hysteria, it gives life to the narrative of oppression which must be remediated by the elite. All perfect cover for the endless looting.
Retired teacher. So true. I bet even you to believe some of the things I’ve seen. I would never put my kid in public school school these days. Never. Especially not in daycare. Ever.
Let's pretend they make it out of Portland during a societal collapse, I just wish I could watch them yelling at a flock of roosters in the forest, "WHY WON'T YOU GUYS LAY EGGS FOR OUR SURVIVAL!?!?!?"
Whom the gods would destroy, first they make mad.
"the gift of a bad man can bring no good."
"Every man goes mad in his own way" Old Russian Proverb. Another ORP: "You are born in a field and die in a forest". Except cats, of course: you are born in luxury and die in even greater luxury. Surrounded by the skulls of your "staff"
That sounds like the Tolstoy line in the beginning of Anna Karenina, re: families
I wonder if he pinched it and modified it? It would then have particular resonance fir Russian readers - nice observation.
Perhaps! Trying to find the exact quote, I stumbled upon this: the Anna Karenina Principle
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina_principle
Cool! Though maybe a bit dry...
As private parts to the gods are we: they play with us for their sport!
—Melchett (played by Peter Fry in Blackadder; paraphrasing Gloucester in King Lear)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JdVQDV3wKE
I think God has an itch.
🤭
👍
Like!
In 10 days we have observed a failed assassination [despite the ineptitude of security apparatus], and a successful [inadequate/partial] coup both attempts arguably benefitting the deep state.
The rest of the coup, 25th amendmenting Biden would not benefit the deep state.
The loyal opposition will push the 25 th Amendment!
cui bono? The deep state.
This election is deep state vs America.
Add in the worldwide Crowd Strike outage as an attempt to destabilize and demoralize for pollical purposes.
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”- Hanlon’s razor appears to apply in this situation. Probably not the attempt on Trump, but certainly the painful but ultimately resolvable Crowdstrike snafu.
Hanlon’s Razor has been found awfully rusty of late. This recent outage has more than a whiff of Event 201 to it.
Of course WEF predicts a major cyber-attack in the coming year. I’m sure those in the know were taking copious & detailed notes last week.
AGREE, practise for November
True, but the residents of Duckville don't see it because it's not in Eyewitless news.
Eyewitless news 🤣 love that! spellcheck keeps trying to correct me and I’m like “uh nooo, get with the times dude, you don’t belong in this world today if you think it’s eyewitness…NEXT!”
Great points Ed. You've got to wonder how the deep state playwrights can keep all of the actors sticking to their lines and roles, given the frenzied pace of events. When 90% of all politicians are self-serving, attention seeking psychopaths, somethings going to break.
So true
We now have the most incompetent and unqualified DEI candidate ever at the top of the ticket representing the Democrats.
I have a suspicion that the 25th Amendment is a moot point now. My very strong suspicion is that Biden is no longer breathing.
https://substack.com/inbox/post/146901013
I heard his recorded voice on radio this AM.
Maybe he will have a pix with Bibi.
Recorded voice doesn't mean much to me in the era of AI. I predict that they are going to be forced to announce this before the meeting. Could well be wrong, but I have this suspicion.
Bet he has a double though.
That one with dementia was the double. They have had to bring the real one out again. He strode up the aeroplane steps like a teenager couple of hours ago.
What a tangled web we weave!
Exactly. deep state vs America. So everyone should stay home and not cast a vote.
Deep state has kitty claws in both parties causing Cat Scratch Fever.
Watching the "how is Trump racist" girl reminded me of talking to my liberal friends about my substack. My friend said he didn't agree with some things I'd said so I asked him what they were, and all he (and his wife who hadn't read my blog) could do was shout at me that Putin is a dictator and they don't allow books with gay characters in Russian school libraries, and "what about trans rights in Russia". Fucking scary when you encounter it IRL
I also had the pleasure of encountering this IRL and I’m not trying to be dramatic but it terrified me. Summer of 2022 my friend was blabbing about voter ID being racist, “antivaxxers”, etc. It was so shocking I blurted out “if I lopped off your head and replaced it with CNN I wouldn’t know the difference!” She was perplexed. Her answer was something about “racism” that made no sense. Like she was now a TV character who lost all ability to generate independent thought. Another time she sent me an unhinged email detailing how she “threw someone out of her house” upon learning they were unvaccinated. When I brought this up she actually said she never did that (even though it’s right there in print!) and I “misunderstood “ and (get this- it’s unreal) the real reason she asked her to leave is that she is a “transphobe” and had made “transphobic” comments. It’s surreal. She never questions why these niche topics are now her whole world for some reason. Watching a person seemingly reading from a demented script without knowing it and attacking you if you question it is not fun.
I’ve literally been a self-imposed hermit for the past 6-8 years after too much social abuse from both family and the community, and it is taking a toll on my naturally extroverted, social-butterfly spirit. But … posts like these make me realize God was simply protecting me from further abuse, and still is. It’s much worse out there today than even five years ago!
God Bless Substack showing me there are peeps out there like me. So many of us. Sound minds, firm principals, compassionate yet unwilling to sacrifice truth for selfish gain. I hope I can find people like you in person somewhere around me soon. I need that connection.
The hardest thing for me is being accused of not being compassionate and having “conditional” love whenever I spoke the truth with kindness. There is no way to speak truth in kindness anymore as they have made the actual truth itself the epitome of hate and evil. So to speak it or point it out no matter how lovingly and calm is deserving of being shredded in society, hung openly with a bloody carcass for all to fear in order to silence anyone else brave enough to speak up - of which was many. My own daughter told me I deserve to die alone and it is right that no one will attend my funeral. (I’m not old either…she just wanted to highlight the hate for me knowing how much I care about friends and family.) And she sure did her fair share to align with anyone who agrees with her, including family on both sides. Well, in truth unbeknownst to her they knew the greatest harm to me would be to destroy my relationship with her, (it was,) and they wasted no time taking her under their hateful wings. So all I can do is pray for her eyes to be opened all on her own one day. Or for someone wise to come into her life and guide her back to her own immediate family.
A good line from a church talk I heard in October last year really hits on this.
“Truth taught without love can cause feelings of judgment, discouragement, and loneliness. It often leads to resentment and division—even conflict. On the other hand, love without truth is hollow and lacks the promise of growth.”
I’d take it further though, love without truth isn’t love at all.
oMyGosh I JUST argued this last fall with a therapist we went to for some help coping with all the heartache. She is a Christian counselor and shared with us how she doesn’t give hurting gender dysphoric kids God’s truth about gender issues because she feels they just need to be loved. They are starving for affirmation. I told her there may be no one else in their lives to speak the truth but their parents and these days that’s just not enough. I felt it was her duty to let them know what God says about it all too, so they can hear it from another adult, but of course with compassion and love too. She said it didn’t feel loving at all to do that and shook her head that it wasn’t wise to tell them what God’s word says. Her job was ONLY to love them and affirm them. She said this with prideful virtue signaling.
I told her truth without love is destructive, yes, but you cannot have any love without also having truth present. They go hand in hand in God’s word. Truth IS love and love IS the truth. You cannot have one without the other.
Needless to say we didn’t see her very much longer after that. What truth might she be keeping from me?!
About a month ago I spoke to a pyschiatrist who told me that if they were to tell a gender dysphoric client that they were delusional (i.e. not affirm them), they could lose their license. This was in the Czech Republic, but I think it applies anywhere that complies with the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM-5). Literal lunatics running the asylum stuff.
https://alipmcg.substack.com/p/zeme-se-fakt-zblazni
And this is why I won't see a therapist. They'll try to indoctrinate anyone they can get their hands on.
I got lucky and saw one of the good ones. Had a few visits, he helped me see some blind spots, and I moved on.
It’s definitely a mine field though.
Who wants to see the rapist? :)
If she won’t give them the truth, the world will give them lies.
God loves all, but his greater blessings require us to accept truth and growth. Not because he loves those people more, but because greater blessings are dependent on growth, they can’t be given without it.
I recently broke ties with a good friend b/c I couldn't speak the truth in her presence and was speaking to her like an acquaintance. I felt like I was lying or biting my tongue constantly and had to set myself free from the deception I felt part of. Love without truth isn't love. Absolutely thank you for sharing this.
Wow, this could be me with my sister. I pray the scales will fall from her eyes. It's hard when you reach out in love and get nothing but cruelty in return. Lamentations 3:19-26 is my go-to in times of great hardship. I pray it strengthens us both today in Jesus name.
Thanks for sharing. Those are some good verses.
A favorite of mine is in genesis. The story of Jacob and Rachel. “And God remembered Rachel”.
Jacob serving Rachel’s father for 14 years. I wonder often if my time single after HS and my church mission are my time serving my father above for one of his daughters.
It’s hard to wait on His timing, especially in our modern world of instant gratification and convenience. But I’ve learned that when I let Him, He can make much more of my life than I can alone.
Beautiful. Thank you.
I too have 'lost a daughter' (and her 3 children) due to some story in her head (all pre-covid). I have a long breath 'to let the right thing do itself' which is more likely to happen if I don't interfere (energetically) with striving for an 'outcome'. All the best to you, Josh.
Yes! It’s better to be patient and not try to force others to love us or understand us. The harder we try the more we play into whatever narrative they have going on in their heads, because it is always connected to some thread of truth about us. For instance: I’m intelligent, thorough with my critical thinking, and I’m brave. I speak up unafraid of the consequences to myself, no matter where I am. I’m just wired that way. Truth matters more to me than anything else and leaving a lie in the air is like having my shoes on the wrong feet. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t that way. Sometimes it’s wiser to let the lie be and just stay quiet, but I’m not good at that. Being wired that way gets me accused of being overly “opinionated”. And a woman to boot so doubly offensive and the narrative is that I am brainwashing my husband and my sons. But truth has a life of its own separate any skills I may have delivering it and that threatens people a d makes them highly uncomfortable. So they have to attack the messenger.
So basically, when my logic is resounding and convincing, and they can’t argue it, it cannot be because it’s the truth, no - it’s only because I’m trying to brainwash them. 🤦🏼♀️ They weaponized being opinionated or being right against me and so when I do speak up it’s more proof to their accusations. I play into their narrative. Or as one SIL likes to say, showboat being better than them because they aren’t as educated as I am. They actually use my higher degrees against me that way. “Ya know I can never argue with you because you’re always right and I wasn’t as educated as much as you were.” As if that’s a negative about me! Shake on me, how dare I. God forbid they embrace and accept what sounds logical, no they’d rather paint me as a know it all. I don’t need the credit either, but their fear of giving that credit to me outweighs doing what’s right. They have no idea that I would never be an “I told you so” person or that I would never lord over them being right. I’m not wired that way either. But they don’t believe about me because THEY would be that way. Projection is a real disease and has been for about 20-30 years now.
I learned very quickly that my silence was the better weapon. It’s hard, it’s taking too long since my logic isn’t allowed into the mix now, but it is the only way to protect myself from additional abuse that I don’t think I can survive.
I'm really sorry to hear all that. You're a few years down the road from me, it's only in the last 3 or so years - and especially since Russia started its SMO in Ukraine - that I've really become isolated from a lot of people for showing them things that they just refuse to believe. Even if those things were in newspapers that they trust! The idea that I'm lying to them is apparently easier to accept than the fact the news will just contradict itself but never acknowledge those contradictions.
Perhaps mercifully, I don't have any children to have alienated. I hope your daughter sees sense soon and comes to understand why you've done what you've done. Peace
Thank you for such a comprehensive reply/comment; your understanding of the dynamic with your family seems pretty insightful to me. By nature, I am one who remains quiet, and walks away. I rarely feel the need to 'have my say', stir up an argument, or confront. This is also partly because I am an "evangelical christianity survivor" and once I left the cult I realised how wrong one can be, and I switched off attempting to actively spread any other of my beliefs. I don't give opinions unless asked. Everyone lives their their own bubble and few are open (or psychologically capable enough) to having it challenged. Having said that, I feel I have lots to say, which you'll find in my fortnightly poetry postings - and in a variety of comments here on substack. (I'm European, not American, so have not been subjected to the extremes of American culture)
You describe exactly what my wife and I have experienced with family and friends over the last 10-15 years. You are most certainly not alone. Thank you for putting it into words. We have found that trying to be understood or, God forbid, trying to help a family member is fraught with personal peril and more often than not backfires and makes a situation worse. Like you say, quiet patience seems like the only way.
Get a dog! Or cat, horses are wonderful. People… not so much
After watching the girl shout at her boyfriend in the airport I feel better staying at home! I'm pretty happy on my own, always have been, but this solidifies my choices as sane.
The collapse of the West is saving me a lot of money. There were so many places I hoped to see some day that I now have no desire to ever visit. I'm down to Russia and Antarctica.
Perfect strategy. Quit giving mentally ill people the audience they need. And carry on as an adult.
Wow. I’m so sorry your daughter has been so badly brainwashed. I have many relatives that are as well. Very hard to be around them :(
Yes it's happened to me more than once... quite a few times now in fact. There are certain topics that, if you try to discuss them, you reach a certain point and then you get a response along the lines of "look, I believe that XYZ, and my belief is just as valid as your belief". After that, if you try to tell, or even SHOW them, that actually their belief is unfounded and there is evidence for the opposite, they get very angry. 'News-ism' could genuinely be described as a religion or cult, and believing that your priests might be lying to you is a traumatic thing to accept.
It seems often to be the case that this slavish worship of the 'News-ism' that you describe is in fact a religion for the atheists in the room. Rachel Maddow has become the Mary Baker Eddy of our time.
And I thought I was my friend's only friend.
We all had a 5th Grade friend
This is why I don't have any liberal friends.
Most liberals don't have any friends. Certainly not any true friends.
Not true. My liberal in-laws have liberal friends even more liberal than them lol!
Hard to do as most of my relatives are liberal and many of my friends (I’m from a blue state). Hard to make small talk and once my BIL said I was crazy for my beliefs, said he couldn’t talk to me and left the room. I have forgiven him and thought he never apologized. He lives in a bubble on his property and only listens to NPR and believes slavery still exists. Now when I see him we make small talk. It sucks.
yes. I have encountered the same. It is tragic
Me too.
I too, have witnessed this 'phenomenon'!
How can you have "friends" like that? Hell be scary right back.
I’ve been watching a lot of Russian tv programs lately. One of the first things I noticed was they refused to rewrite historical facts, by adding in homesexual theme’s. They leave that up to the English, Americans and French. Your neighbor would be horrified.😉
Not my neighbour, friend of 25 years! But I feel that he and his wife are just the sort that might take the "Joan of Arc was trans" narrative seriously
Regarding the lack of general knowledge about the world and how the world works -- i blame the internet. The very structure of "ask the question, get the answer" inhibits learning -- when a GPS tells you exactly how to walk to your own house ("turn left 15 feet") or throws opinions at you as if they were facts ("Trump is lying when he says things are worse now") then basic thinking about things is a lost skill. Especially thinking about the next step, the next move, the repercussions of things. ("The govt should just force Elon Musk to give everyone his money so they don't have to work.") Searching for information, finding things out, using the imperfect information you have found, learning things by accident, making mistakes and overcoming them -- these skills are not developed in the online world.
But they don’t ask questions - that’s the problem. Questioning is a process of self-teaching and critical analysis., where answers are questioned too. This has not been taught since the 1970s. They are used to being spoon fed pap - no need to chew, just swallow.
So when they ‘Google’ because that’s the only search engine they know, they don’t frame questions, they type in a name… Trump, or slogans… climate deniers.
Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning across/other side of as opposed to cis- meaning this side.
Out of curiosity I entered ‘Trans’ in a search engine, and nowhere was the Latin definition listed, just dozens of ‘Transgender’ links.
If I typed what does Latin prefix trans mean, then I got right links. I’ll guarantee those gibberish idiots who use the word ‘trans’ don’t know it is a Latin prefix and doesn’t just lean someone who can’t decide whether they are Arthur or Martha.
I completelyi agree! We get to thank the school system for refusing to teach actual grammar,spelling or anything that resembles real knowledge. Science is no longer. History has become delusion dujour. Math... don't get me started... pandering to the mentally ill and ripping away every bedrock of stability has thoroughly screwed society. The Cult of compassion is NOT the way. As Gato said, it's time to "rip off the bandaid, and go cold turkey". I have a feeling we need to build some bigger mental institutions....
" I have a feeling we need to build some bigger mental institutions...." I think they have been quietly built over the last 20 years. They are call FEMA camps, and they are in every state. And who will end up in them, I wonder?
When I was in college cis and trans were descriptions given to the same organic molecules with different asymetric structures.
That’s right, nobody can formulate a question, much less evaluate the answer. Life is so easy now you can just drift about, like flotsam. That’s why people are still wearing cloth face masks that they take down to talk to you — what the h!ll do they think that mask is supposed to do?!?
I am a questioner by nature — the kid who always asked “why?” but nowadays with my younger co-workers I just come off as grumpy and argumentative with my all my “difficult'“ questions. They are the most passive bunch of people I’ve ever seen.
My new supervisor, maybe 30 yrs old, keeps every email she’s ever gotten in her inbox, yes, 1000s and 1000s of emails, and when she wants to find something she types a keyword and does a “search.” Yeah, that works about as well as you’d think it does. So, she can’t evaluate what’s junk or not, or what’s worth keeping or not, or even make folders or anything, or figure out anyway to “organize” the content based on topic….(organize? what’s that? why would you bother?) I read somewhere that the whole “file folders” idea is foreign to the youngsters, since they’ve never seen one in real life….
Indeed...
I concur that there is most definitely a correlation, but not necessarily an actual causation, with the advent of the internet and so many of our current woes.
But far more responsibility can be directly attributed to the abject failure of all of our educational institutions, which have been transformed into nothing more than indoctrination centers over the course of the last several decades. No one is taught to think for themselves, or even how to do so. The so-called educational entities we have in this country today have got to be utterly razed to the ground, and built back up to strictly adhere to the very basic elements of learning and imbue critical thinking which is essential in the forming a rational and civilized mind.
Unfortunately as Gatto argues in Dumbing Us Down it is possible that the education system isn’t a failure but is doing exactly what it is meant to do. Unfortunately it isn’t meant to do something we the people would like.
And that has been the case for a very long time.
Suzie, I'm afraid that you are correct. Public schools and their parent districts have become bloated madrassa-like monstrosities - huge HR admin mazes of individuals that are not teachers but rather "program" administrators. Check in with your local school district and find out how many people are collecting salaries and how many are actually teachers. Since the end of WWII, the real 'pandemic' we have been through in the United States is the takeover of our educational institutions by post modernism.
absolutely.
With GPS being so common, most people today cannot read a map or find directions themselves. Most people don't remember phone numbers anymore, including their own. We have allowed machines to take over those functions for us. I think that has happened with critical thinking skills and curiosity as well.
absolutely. Peoples brains have atrophied. People can barely go for a hike in the woods, on a path, anymore without getting lost and needing to be rescued. I love maps because they show you where you are in relation to other places. I love looking around me and knowing what the name of the mountain is, and how far it is to Canada or the ocean. Crazy and unnecessary, right? lol. I knew a lady once who flew to Ireland and couldn’t find it on a map. I guess it doesn’t matter to her “where” she is. She’s just a piece of baggage, a package, an air-mail letter, adrift in the air, lol. She could have gotten off the plane in Budapest and not known the difference.
This. Great comment. Well said!
"Can't today. Watching the season finale of the United States."
Nailed it. I have been binge watching.
Great summary, Gato. Maybe someone can make a meme about Our Lady of Perpetual Anxiety.
Just a thought.
Back to work.
Any relation to Our Lady of Perpetual Acceleration?
Or her aunt, Lady of Perpetual Motion?
Or the redundant, repetitive neighbor, Our Lady of Perpetual Perpetuity
Dag, I guess we're going to be here a while. *leans back, sips covfefe*
Our Lady of Irreproducible Results?
https://web.archive.org/web/20190926055757/http://www.jir.com/
The JIR (Journal of Irreproducible Results) had some great Perpetual Motion articles... a long, long time ago.....they also created an American Pi song!
"Our Lady of Irreproducible Results?"
😂🤣
Definitely checking this out. Thank you! *tips fedora in ML's general direction*
You're welcome, Pi Guy!:)
“… these are university students.”
University students used to be la crème de la crème, now any dross with a pulse gets through high school and into university because… equality, fair, etc. Being institutionalised in the State education farm since the age of two or thereabouts for the following 20 years, they are intellectually and emotionally stranded in infancy.
Hi John, Agree about the dross/pulse but differ on why they attempt University. Once the government supported student loan firehose opened the youth were encouraged to sidle up to the debt trough ASAP. Get them young for a lifelong bankers’ income stream.
I always follow the money.
These same think slavery was a uniquely American occurrence.
There is nothing so funny as a black guy named, say, Michael who changes it to Jamal to protest slavemastery.
Since you appreciate irony, (and who doesn't?) here's another: How about the ethnic "minority" who rails - often eloquently, about "cultural appropriation" whilst doing so in English?
I enjoy those screaming about authentic food while touting their grandma's recipe, say, for a Subcontinental dish full of New World ingredients.
What's REALLY funny is watching a black person break down after finding out that one of their ancestors owned slaves.
and now they are enjoying being slaves. It makes them feel secure and safe
"Most people want security in this world, not liberty."
- H. L. Mencken
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/h_l_mencken_141542
They have no clue about slavery.
Excerpt from a dystopian imaginative piece about the prospect of ‘Permanent Education in 1984’ eerily prescient of our 21st c. Therapeutic Culture:
“A child is born in the United States in 1984. He can never look forward to getting out of school. From the ‘infant school’ he starts attending at the age of six months to the ‘geriatric learning centre’ he dies in, he finds himself going to school all his life ‘for the good of society’......and so we bid goodbye to this lucky man, the minister chants, ‘firm in the conviction that he will go to heaven where he will attend a ‘school for angels.’”(John Ohliger) https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/teach-your-children-well
I can't put my finger right on it but I saw a quote something to the effect of, "If children went to public school at birth, parents would think they didn't know how to teach their own children to walk."
(PS: No one teaches a kitten or puppy or calf or foal to walk)
Currently watching my 9 month old crawl around and pull himself up to standing on everything within a foot or two, having seen my 3 and 5 year old do the same... this is an amazing quote. Grateful that my wife is willing to home school them so I don't have to send them to the crap hole that is public (or even private) school these days.
Many problems would be solved if these wokesters: ate a steak, got outside in nature for a minute, did a push-up
I have noticed that this insanity is not limited to college students. It afflicts even formerly sober adults. I have a friend from college who has TDS so bad he just descends into gibberish when discussing Trump or anything he’s done. The Brits used to transport people like this to Australia. All in all, not a bad solution. We need to find an island we can maroon them on so they won’t interfere with society.
It's gonna be Lord of the Flies all over again...
...which was required reading back in my high school days!
... as was Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World, and a fair smattering of WW1 poets like Wilfrid Owen - and later reading "All Quiet on the Western Front". It made one not only appreciate hard-won freedoms, but also the twisting of language that accompanies the rise of dictatorships and wars.
My (maybe former) Friend From Fifth Grade told me a few months ago that Trump--well women were terrified when he won the first time because of that pussy-grabbing tape etc. etc.etc. and that's why they had the Million Women March .
But she herself had voted for him after that tape came out. This is a gal with three degrees who has prided herself her entire life on her rationality and logic.
Dont be closed minded. Give her credit for changing her mind.
She was screaming this at me a few months ago. As to why he is an existential danger. She was telling me last week that the attempted assassination was a fake.
Funny - they are busy island shopping for us too 🤣
Would Mars work? Maybe Elon could put them all on the first ship there. If it doesn’t make it … 🤷🏼♀️ ehhh no big loss.
It will be difficult to address this mix of blatant stupidity and religious zeal. It's a spiritual battle as much as anything else.
I have felt that we've been in a mass psychosis for a while now. About 20 years ago I felt my sanity slipping away--fed by an amoral, sensationalist media and a 24 hour news cycle. It was making me mentally and physically sick. I cut myself off from it, and became very selective about where I got my news and entertainment. Now I can only shake my head at these sick little snowflakes, and in my darkest thoughts wonder if Stalin might have been right about certain things....
(On a lighter note, since I saw Blazing Saddles I holler: "Where the white women at?" when looking for my wife. It's fascinating watching the reaction of anyone who happens to overhear. They crew we hired to move us from the Northeast to the South 4 years ago all thought it was hilarious. I dug those guys!)
Mongo just Pawn in Game of Life
Another great article. Thank you — I marvel at how you manage to do it so consistently.
Gato, you could just as easily inserted clips of recent speeches by the heads of our two largest teachers unions, the AFT (Randi W) and the NEA (can't remember her name). These two are political class power players, nomenklatura of the highest standing with the money, power and access to political actors to get things done (aka fuck shit up). The public school system is their handiwork. And they are raging lunatics by the standards of traditional rational discourse. The regime is sustained by this hysteria, it gives life to the narrative of oppression which must be remediated by the elite. All perfect cover for the endless looting.
indeed. it appears to have become a primary selector for all manner of academic and technocratic/political prominence and patronage.
these most useful of idiots are being played like a $3 banjo by the sniggering svengalis using them to drive political ideology.
it's the whole "crony corporatism begets rule by rube" cycle.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/gatos-postulate
Reagan decertified PATCO (after repeated warnings), maybe Trump could follow Reagan's example with the teacher's unions. It'd be a start...
Retired teacher. So true. I bet even you to believe some of the things I’ve seen. I would never put my kid in public school school these days. Never. Especially not in daycare. Ever.
* Even you wouldn’t believe.
Ostentatiously incoherent - my new favorite phrase
Pernicious patronage grabbed me as as an accurate term for all things PC-the slippery slope where critical thinking went to die
I came for the graphs and charts it stay for the absolutely awesome alliteration.
So many juicy terms in this one. 🤣 Just loved it
LOL
I REALLY, REALLY want to meet one of these people Trump's military cum militia has "killed multiple times"!!!
🤣 because once is never effective enough. Lololol
The protestors in the auditorium are so precious.
Let's pretend they make it out of Portland during a societal collapse, I just wish I could watch them yelling at a flock of roosters in the forest, "WHY WON'T YOU GUYS LAY EGGS FOR OUR SURVIVAL!?!?!?"
All the jumbled thoughts in my head expressed beautifully and with humor in one article!
So many people I know need to take this to heart.
people underestimate the therapeutic value of cats.
It's in the name (backwards) - k-CATS-bus
Finally got it 🤣 Substack backwards K Cats Bus. Lol. Took me all day
Like kool cats bus
🤔
Cats are authentic.
Can’t help but wonder what tree these nut jobs fell from.
Mm…academia nut tree? :)