Ain’t gonna lie.
I feel like I’ve been put through the ringer. Drug through a knothole backwards.
It’s been a looooooooong day!
Okay, I’m done feeling sorry for myself.
Let me just open with this outstanding headline over at ZeroHedge today:
Quit Complaining About Inflation!
The article and analysis hits the nail on the head, and treats us to this delicious quote, reminiscent of what I was saying yesterday:
“The New York Times has published a strange article by Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan. The headline is what his economist brain makes him say with regard to inflation: “Don’t worry, be happy.”
The article gives the reader as much reason to trust economists as you do epidemiologists, which is to say none at all.”
Nice allegory. Meanwhile, over at the lefty hangout Axios, we find this:
Behind the Curtain: America’s Reality Distortion Machine
Reality Distortion Machine? What’s this?
Well, for all the trash thinking scattered about their platform, this article actually has some good things to say. This is precisely why I spend a little time each day perusing the news from both the left and the right. In doing so, my intent is to find multiple starting points from which to draw the threads of analysis that can ultimately be woven into my own informed perspective.
FACT: I substantiate my opinions, but they are still opinions.
Refreshingly, the Axios-duo Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen put their heads together and came up with an enticing opening thought:
“Here's a wild thought experiment: What if we've been deceived into thinking we're more divided, more dysfunctional and more defeated than we actually are?
…Why it matters: Well, there's compelling evidence we've been trapped in a reality distortion bubble — social media, cable TV and tribal political wars — long enough to warp our view of the reality around us.
…The big picture: Yes, deep divisions exist on some topics. But on almost every topic of monthly outrage, it's a fringe view — or example — amplified by the loudest voices on social media and politicians driving it.”
Not bad for a couple of guys who have spread more than their fair share of spoon-fed drivel by regurgitating the state’s talking points. And by the way, where have you heard that idea before? I’ve been harping for years on the fact that there is more that unites us than there is that divides us, and that our corrupt two-party establishment is intentionally sowing divisive issues into their party platform in order to keep us divided, so we do not unite and form consensus on the need to reform the system.
I’ve often talked about how, if we are looking at things from just the left and the right, then we are missing the other 358° of perspective. Reality is somewhere in the middle, between my distorted perspective and yours, or our distorted perspective and theirs. There is more depth, complexity, and diversity in humanity than anyone of us can really comprehend.
Suffice it to say, no two people are the same. Duh!
Given that fact, I can learn something from anyone. It seems prudent to me to at least brush up on where other people’s heads are at, especially the people who disagree. When I do, I’m usually (but not always) glad that I did. Sometimes it’s painful.
With that said, here are a few more pertinent points, coming from these two liberal “intellectuals” who pride themselves on being so-called thought leaders:
“No, most Christians aren't white Christian nationalists who see Donald Trump as a God-like figure. Most are ignoring politics and wrestling with their faith.
No, most Republicans don't want to ban all abortions starting at conception. No, most Democrats don't want to allow them until birth.”
Again, not bad.
But let’s back up a step, because there is some innuendo being made that must be addressed. These people hate Donald Trump and MAGA extremists with a putrid passion. Moreover, most of the time they convolute Republicans, Conservatives, and Christians, all as being the “far right” fringe of American Society. Don’t think for a second that their thinking has changed.
These people are thought leaders, remember? Where are they leading people?
Here are a couple of clues:
“No, most college professors aren't trying to silence conservatives or turn kids into liberal activists. Most are teaching math, or physics, or biology.
No, immigrants who are here illegally aren't rushing to vote and commit crimes. Actual data show both rarely happen — even amid a genuine crisis at the border.”
I would argue that academic atrophy and the predominant voting patterns of emotionally fragile liberal snowflakes who have been woke by their so-called “higher education” point to a systemic problem—namely the infectious ideas of socialism that have been intentionally introduced into the institutions of education for over a century. Seductive lies have been intentionally sown, but let’s set that aside.
Sure, not everyone who is clamoring across the border is rushing to vote and commit crimes. I can concede that is a fact, however that fact does not mitigate or marginalize the millions of actual criminals who are perpetrating crimes on American citizens, peddling poisonous drugs, and facilitating the evils of human trafficking. Those crimes are very real, they are horrendous, and they must be stopped.
I suppose that’s the “genuine crisis” the authors have conceded to.
That keeps the conversation fairly centered, doesn’t it?
Then they toss in this little gem:
“The "shards of glass" phenomenon we wrote about two weeks ago — we've shattered into information bubbles based on age, politics, professions and passions — is real. And it makes people fuzzy about what's really happening and what's really true inside and outside of their bubbles.”
This too is a reasonable assessment of reality, what many refer to as the echo chamber phenomenon, or selection bias and other such human proclivities. It is what it is.
It’s human nature, and that’s what makes us Hackable Animals, at least in part. However, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that they’re laying a philosophical foundation for algorithmic censorship, given that people are fuzzy about what’s really happening, and what’s really true.
It implies the need for an arbiter of truth, namely the government via their Big Tech proxies, and the plethora of globalist NGOs who claim to be “fact-checkers” — such as the utterly insidious Trusted News Initiative. In other words, using their words, they are twisting the reader’s thinking, to accept the suggestion that anyone who disagrees with the narrative has somehow succumbed to conspiracy.
And that, of course, is a threat to democracy. Create the problem, provide the solution. It works every time. But let’s set that aside too.
Because now we come to the meat of the matter:
“Between the lines: The acceptance of former President Trump's language and tactics by so many Republicans can be partly explained by this reality distortion phenomenon. His base often feasts off edge-case outrages…
These edge cases rocket through podcasts, social media and on Fox. It seems like the apocalypse — when, in most cases, the numbers show that in reality, things are next to normal.”
In other words, don’t believe your lying eyes — and please oh please, Uncle Sam, please won’t you censor all those nasty “edge cases” and extremist narratives on social media, conservative podcasts, and Fox News!
What these authors have done is exploit the very facets of human nature they’ve just exposed. It’s shameless manipulation of language, which is itself distorting their target audience’s perception of reality. It’s for that very reason that people have lost trust in the liberal media institutions.
But, since most conservatives don’t often wander into the progressive wilderness by reading liberal rags like Axios, they never encounter their rare moments of insight:
“Similar edge cases pulse through liberal channels and the word police.”
What these twits fail to grasp, is the fact that the “word police” are funded almost exclusively by progressive commie activists of the global regime. There is a global ruling class, and we are not in it — but that’s not really the issue.
Truth be told, there will always be a global upper class, and other natural stratification throughout society. This happens naturally, simply because we are not all the same.
Only an idiot would try to deny that reality. Some people are more intelligent, more ambitious, more tenacious, more willing to endure the difficult challenges that come with building something out of nothing in order to achieve the American dream. Our nation was founded by rugged individuals who gathered in this untamed frontier, to carve out their destiny in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
That used to be an inspiring narrative.
But now, thanks to propaganda like the 1619 Project, we’re all just racist descendants of imperialistic white supremacists who came here hellbent on committing genocide and stealing land from indigenous peoples, so that they could ship in African slaves and build an unjust and systemically racist capitalist society.
I’m sure you’ve heard the story.
Hence the need for reparations.
But alas, I digress.
The end is near.
Friends, there is no shortage of things we could choose to focus on and feel alarmed about. And yet somehow, in the midst of it all, at least for myself personally, there is an emerging sense of peace. Perhaps it’s like standing in the eye of the storm, perhaps it’s pollyannaish naivety, the symptom of being an ignorant peasant, or, perhaps it’s the wisdom of the ages gently correcting my justifiable concern.
Regardless, I feel strangely calm given all the chaos and vectors coming to bear.
I’ve made peace with my Maker. I’ve made peace with the best path forward. And I’ve made peace with the myriad ugly contingencies that may interrupt our concerted efforts to resolve things peacefully.
Above all else, I’ve made peace with long term resistance.
RESIST WE MUST!
TR 577 - The "Reality Distortion Machine" and the Left's Free-for-All Hellscape