I was doing some research/crawling about trends of fake social media accounts, specifically because I’m quite interested in what the patterns of psyop fakes might look like (I’ve noticed a few reliably consistent ‘types’ of fake accounts- not always bots)- and did a plain old web search for news stories complaining about the phenomenon, just to see which ones were most commonly being pointed out and reported on/complained about and by whom.
A search for “fake liberal doctors twitter” got me this article, https://www.thedailybeast.com/far-right-twitter-keeps-falling-for-the-same-liberal-troll, a site I don’t normally read because I find it extremely annoying. The article wasn’t super interesting- it was just showcasing some of the latest iterations of the anti-conservative “I love my job, I get to <do this thing that hurts conservatives>” meme and mocking examples of people flipping out in various ways.
For the record, while I don’t find the topic particularly interesting, I don’t necessarily minimize this kind of behavior, and while I love a good troll, I find things like falsely reporting criminal activity to scare and enrage people a) a fucking stupid thing to do in the category of “fuck around and find out” that will eventually justifiably get you in trouble with the Department of Men With Guns and b) legitimately psychological terrorism in a not-funny way: most people, regardless of political inclination, are fairly low-information; things like this actually DO happen, albeit at lower rates than the urban myth machine produces them- people do horrible shit for real and are absolutely dumb enough to brag about it on social media; and c) it’s reasonable under most real-world circumstances to react with caution and maybe even fear to threats that could directly affect you or your kids if you have no idea what the alleged perpetrator is actually capable of and no evidence that it ISN’T real beyond “this is something people sometimes meme about.” It’s like laughing at police for repeatedly responding to calls about fake bombs in schools or churches or something.
Nothing super interesting, nothing new. What did tickle my brain, though, was the last paragraph of the article, after a long screed about how it doesn’t really matter whether “right-wing” people realize the tweet is trolling or not- any reaction whatsoever, even bored disinterest, is a triumphant victory for the progressive left, a perpetual “heads I win tails you lose”- the author goes on to explain that all these super-dumb conservatives keep believing incredibly obvious lies about terroristic activities for one particular reason:
Randy, the meme’s original architect, said it didn’t matter whether those users truly believed the tweets.“Conservatism is an ideology of perceived victimhood and they run everything in this country so they need something and the grifters like Paul Joseph Watson know this too,” Randy said. “He knows the tweets are fake/jokes but it keeps his audience enraged.”
So, a heroic troll of the left describes conservatism as “an ideology of perceived victimhood” that “runs everything in this country.”
Everyone’s convinced the other side is an ideology of perceived victimhood that simultaneously runs everything.
My brief take: the argument that conservatives- whatever that is- are equal or similar to progressive liberals- whatever that is- in "perceived victimhood" is entirely subjective. I'm inclined to say that progressive liberalism is much more arguably an "ideology of victimhood" because this is literally enshrined in their sacred texts.
The argument that one side "runs everything" seems a little easier to objectively demonstrate, and I'd love to see some hard evidence that the conservative right "runs everything" or even remotely close to "everything" in the United States, particularly media, education, public health, civil service...
Nevertheless, I found the perfect mirror image moment that this was to be a little interesting.
What I find funny is that they still want to break this down into sides. To me it is the state versus the people. In truth, we the people, were the victims during the pandemic of the restrictions, of the policies, and what many call "the new normal."
That's really the Rosetta stone on this, isn't it? The enemy isn't who almost anyone thinks it is.
However, even if the "culture wars" are a nonsense distraction wielded gleefully by the elite, they still impact all us little citizens in countless ways. They've made shock troops for the Real Enemy out of millions of our neighbors.
Have they? Idk. The theme was bots. How much of this shit is the bots I really have to wonder. How many shock troops do you know? I thought I heard somewhere that there are known at least ten's of thousands of them run by DOD. I would venture to guess the real # is orders of magnitude of that.
It's a really interesting question. It breaks down into a few separate questions, to me:
1) How much is bots?
2) How much is AI?
3) How much is state actors/intelligence?
4) How much is paid actors?
5) How much is hostile state actors/hostile state paid actors?
The various accounts look and behave differently- most are very low-effort in their creation and are very easily unmasked because of shit like drawing their account pics from stock photos or LinkedIn accounts, etc. Some use stock phrases and keywords mixed into creative text (which could be human or AI), some are just zombie armies repeating the same exact tweet. Some respond directly to engagement, some are obviously unattended.
It's interesting, in its way. If nothing else it's educational as to exactly how vast the assault on our consensual reality is, and how total the war on the public.
I would comment that just because someone has a stock photo as their twitter pic doesn't mean anything, at least to me. You think I'm putting my pic on there?!?
The differences are important, though, and the usage of a stock photo isn't the primary issue- it's just a landmark indicating how much effort (or lack thereof) is put into creating a convincing account.
I would also note that stock photos of real-looking ordinary people are a very different thing than using photos that are obviously avatars (of celebrities/characters).
A bot is generally categorized as an AI entity used to boost activity. For instance, Twitter and Facebook are generally known to be home to hundreds or thousands of false accounts generated to echo the same exact message over and over again to as many other accounts as they can reach. I can't remember now where I read this, but I had seen an article where several hundred accounts would blast out thousands of messages all saying maybe 10 variations of the same message in regular bursts, all attributable to China, as all the messages were in support of Chinese state messages. A live person was not behind each and every one. They were all pre-programmed to do what they did by a live person, but then turned loose to operate on their own. In essence, they became a digital megaphone. This is why AI bots are different from other false "troll" or lurker (OSINT) accounts.
I would wager that the other organizations doing this learned from the Chinese on this tactic, altering it to downsize in scale a bit to make it far less obvious to a casual observer.
It's very simple to obtain an AI generated photo of a person who doesn't really exist. You have to have a paid subscription to the website to obtain more than one image of that same fake person, but if you're only creating rudimentary lurker accounts, you really only need one. I can tell you from personal experience that most USG operated fake accounts fall into this category for OSINT research, hence the term "Research Accounts". Some are used by LE as UC operation accounts investigating criminal activity. They don't require a ton of maintenance to keep them going, but they do occasionally get snuffed out by the platform moderators that catch onto you. The actively posting accounts, however, are dominated by other governmental organizations for information operations. Every government on the planet is involved in this. These accounts take far more active involvement to maintain, and are more likely to be AI bots.
As to the numbers of each? That's hard to say. It's hard to know what's going on behind each compartmented wall within any organization. Just some perspective from someone who's been there.
Within this realm, I'm mainly curious how many of the human-operated accounts are bona fide gov't workers and how many are contractors (albeit perhaps with clearance)- and, for that matter, how many are chaos actors on behalf of domestic NGOs/groups.
A lot of us use "fake accounts" on social media sites like Fedbook & Twatter. We're not trolls or working for anyone, though. We just prefer not to be readily identifiable by the smaller number of people we might one day apply for a job with (who might not like our smart-ass remarks), but primarily by the large numbers of rabid/crazy wokesters who like to swat, gangstalk and do other really annoying things to people they violently disagree with. I'm sure the NSA probably knows who we are, or can find out easily if they want to - so it's still us against the State...
The funny thing about social media and on-line presence, todayit is by far more suspicious to not have one, than to have a some what questionable one.
I have twice been told in job interviews that the employer has tried to "google" me, i.e. check my online presence/profile, and that they've found nothing (which is as it should be).
And that they do not dare employ me for that reason, finding it suspicious.
So having a boilerplate, bland and safe Fakebook-account might actually be a necessary practicality these days.
It is a brilliant ploy, these culture wars. And it has it's own built-in rewards. You can be seen as a morally progressive person.
Heck, instead of focussing on the fact that masks and vaccines don't work, instead show that the blue states faired better than the red states in terms of Covid. See how brilliant that was, it turned the argument political. Whatever you do though, don't look at the all cause excess deaths in 2022...ignore birthrates...etc. and whatever you do don't bring up the fact that many in the red states also got the vaccine, keep it as simplistic and partisan as possible.
but ... but ... they broke a nail jabbing at us with that cattle prod. In their eyes (whoever 'they' are, and I'm not convinced that they are confined to only the state). So of course they're convinced they're victims. If we hadn't been so belligerent, they wouldn't have HAD to break a nail.
Not saying there aren't true victims on all sides, but I don't believe that I've ever met a dumbocrap that wasn't the biggest victim on the whole damn planet, according to them. It gets old, especially when there is so little self awareness of them creating the problem they're having.
It's frustrating because it represents such a final-seeming impasse. The other side runs everything- not some, not half, but EVERYthing- and any slight to their institutions is false grievance.
I'm honestly starting to think we'd all be genuinely happier if we just got it over with.
I don't mean it gleefully- I honestly think we (the collective "we") have backed ourselves into an "angry chimps with rocks in opposing corners" situation and the cortisol can't just keep endlessly surging without a rock being thrown eventually, and in the meantime all the chimps just feel continuously sick and enraged.
Jan 6, 2023·edited Jan 6, 2023Liked by Guttermouth
I think the "right runs everything" is just more hyperbole from demoralised leftbots. In the same way basically anyone who isn't as leftoid as Mao is "literally worse than Hitler".
Arguably, the Left has achieved total victory at the end of their Gramscian Long March through the institutions. If you don't believe that they run everything, start listing institutions. What institution is run by self-proclaimed Rightists? The education system, the justice system, the state from deep to shallow, the unions and pension funds, the foundations... Even the big mainstream Christian religions. The big banks and private equity funds all contributed to BLM and donate almost exclusively to Democrats. In the recent election, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed Democrat candidates. I could go on, and on and on.
Several commentators I follow have noted how remarkable it is to find the US electorate is broadly 50/50 during most elections (read into that what you will) when leftoids control almost every institution.
Jan 6, 2023·edited Jan 7, 2023Liked by Guttermouth
I live in super liberal, pretty darn wealthy Boulder. While we have a small number of liberal karens here - who do, in fact, push the victimhood thing (social justice, etc.). I'm currently pondering the idea that the majority of the Dem left (that funds the voting machine that gives us Biden, Pelosi, etc.) are not far left but really just self-absorbed people who 1) wish to be part of the hip group, 2) don't really want to be bothered by the consequences of any policy, and 3) purposefully do not engage in self-reflection. I'm sure there is a circle of hell in Dante's inferno that aligns with people of this dispostion - I don't know the book well enough to identify it. But it's important to understand that it is their funds, their guilt, and their self-absorption that keep the Left in power. If the right were the "cool party", their money would go there (as in the days of the moral majority).
I think they carry a lot of guilt about their money (having so much). The victimhood narrative from any group that is less fortunate receives immediate funding from them in "a please make this stop" manner. Put simply, they are the perfect target of any huckster pushing a narrative that knocks on the door of their guilt.
On the conservative side, currently/typically the less monied class - I've noticed the recent addition of the victimhood narrative in the J6 persecutions, the stories of individuals being targeted for MAGA hats, their faith values, their guns, etc. It seems to me that this victimhood narrative is about increasing anger and motivating conservatives, ie its not about money, it's about maximizing voter turn-out in order to gain power.
With this in mind, I look at the victimhood narrative as a tool that hucksters employ for contributions (votes or money).
I am human & possess therefore membership to many groups, some of wh has been in my control, some not. I am a Christian who knows Jesus as Lord/Savior, I belong to the group who are mothers devoting much of our lives to our children, considering that career rewarding and important. I belong to the group who have grad degrees, to the group of artists, dancing classical ballet their entire life. I belong to the group of people who believe in loving their neighbor, in kindness always, and in putting one’s best foot forward, turning the other cheek when necessary. I belong to the group, wherever I am, who tries to lift the level of discourse not only because I enjoy beautiful literary construction, etymology and language but also as I believe my word choice reflects who I am. To my perplexed dismay I find myself in recent years In a new world, excruciatingly, relentlessly stunned by divisive, venomous attacks upon our Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, personal freedom e.g. nightmarish forced compliance to medical procedures. In the weird zeitgeist of this exponentially expanding paradigm and swiftly shifting nightmare, quite definitely related to dynamics of group control by manipulation of moral mentality, a singular percentage of us receive additionally utterly undeserved, blindsided declarations of my most personal group as horrible, despicable, rejectable, unredeemable, and universally hated simply by virtue of innocently bearing the name my parents gave me 64 years ago (when it was popular wh it is not now and has not been for a long time), since they loved me and believed Karen to be beautiful. (Are you really talking to those born in the 1950s? Karen Carpenter, Karen Ann Quinlan, Karen Valentine, Karen Killilea, Karen Black, Karen Allen...though the anachronistic justification for the pseudo-murder of us is beside the point?) This character assassination demeans the user, but the remarkable and profound totality of physical, emotional and psychological wounds and likely permanent damage it causes is considered above reproach in the world in which I lately find myself. I am truly befuddled and despair of such an odd, unwise and ugly turn-of-events/world myopia. Why is character assassination of anyone named Karen, thus the constant endurance of personal assault by us, just fine in 21st century polite American society? I and the rest of the members of this group are suffering exceptional injury. How can generally moral, just people lack empathy for or perception of the human women they are inflicting their massive hatred upon? Is there any awareness of the natural self-identification with one’s own name wh the human mind develops from the first day their mother lovingly speaks to them? Try having someone call your name in an ugly manner, there’s no avoiding the involuntary flinch even if it’s just within your own soul. Or simply read your name as the cursed accused in a volley of angry words…the living breathing millions upon whom this constant absurd attack and unopposed, ubiquitous toxic battery reigns recoil, blameless and confused. Please explain to me, why is a cruel sadism designed to cause suffering understood as remotely funny? I see no comparisons made w/the multitude of other unacceptable biases/smears/smites, demonstrating the unfairness of this slur to other socially illegal slanderous insults. Why are Karens deserving of this open season focused hatred by the self-righteous? Turning the other cheek, overlooking radical personal ambush in common parlance has been difficult. Compartmentalizing an otherness to what has not died out and gone the way of just a fad as Karens had hoped, I bear a million gaping wounds from your unbelievable hatred. How many otherwise intelligent very respected, finely tuned minds heartlessly fire those Karen assaults without introspection as a matter of course daily? I ask you to search your soul, find this offensive on me and my group unnecessary and please cease-fire.
I don't use the term, personally, and it's pretty transparently anti-white (stereotyping white middle-class women as whiny and entitled) on top of anything else.
No, (appreciate!) your distinctly unique acumen for societal/idea dissection & examination requires no such kowtowing and is never reiterative. Btw I thought of the Gutterclan, neighbors rec’vd sightings, on our very rural country roads mostly, for the past 3 days of one of their teenaged Holsteins on the lam, (a 3-town adventure) finally herded home by a blue Heeler : )
That's a fantastic dog and very well trained. Holsteins are not small! I wish dogs #1-3 were capable of that. They are excellent guard dogs- that's enough for this lifetime.
Karen, I'm so sorry you have been smacked around emotionally by the nasty scapegoating of your name. I've known a couple of very good people name Karen, and the entire phenomena makes me cringe.
You sound like an amazing person, and I hope this slanderous use of your name ends very soon.
My interpretation is the name "Karen" is a pun, I am willing to admit I am wrong in this regard. But I always thought a "Karen" (Male form Cieran) as someone who has their nose way too much in other people's business. Call it the name for the moral busybodies who CS Lewis termed those ones behind the "tyranny of caring" or as it could be called "The Tyranny of Karen."
When we hear the term "a karen." We aren't thinking of literal people named "Karen." but rather people (male or female) who will get into your business about why you aren't masking up, what your vaccination status is, want you to speak out against racism (because silence is violence) etc.
I’m from Boulder. I got the hell out as soon as I could. Unfortunately, my son still lives in Boulder county, so I am forced to have to hold my nose and return more often than I would like. My son is,no doubt, in the minority in the Peoples Republic of Boulder. It’s 5 sq. miles surrounded by reality.
You say true. We know that a lot of these "social justice" organizations get a lot of funding. They live in mansions. I would feel huge amount of shame living in a mansion while people of color were rotting in jail somewhere or living in a slum because they were subjects of "systemic racism." Or, at the very least, my mansion would be populated by those I deemed marginalized individuals.
You are exactly right. An awakening moment for me came after Hurricane Katrina. I was so impressed by the many compassionate families across the country who opened their modest homes to Katrina refuges. Meanwhile Oprah whose is supposed to be the most compassionate celebrity in modern times had many large homes throughout the US. These homes - estates really - have been featured in architectural magazines for years and could have housed several families with ease. Yet she could not be bothered to open any of them up for these homeless refuges.
Like you, I do not think I have the character to be wealthy. I would be too inclined to share my wealth so it would never accumulate.
Somewhat, except it might be important to note that people are occasionally targeted for physical attack by those who disagree with exhibited conservative slogans.
But I find projection rarely as crystal-clear a reflection as statements like this.
And, if one if being objective, it leads into the unfalsifiable "alcoholics are in denial of their alcoholism ergo anyone who denies being an alcoholic is an alcoholic in denial" thing that it would be difficult to demonstrate that EVERYONE isn't, in fact, projecting endlessly.
I should have used an infinitely-recursing funhouse mirror for my image instead. Lemme go do that.
They believe it because, for those at the bottom it is objectively true. The people who run everything use a victimhood narrative.
Their court eunuch are encouraged (maybe, maybe self-generating) to point out when "the other side" does it to "their side".
Hence the unitary memes.
If there really is an enemy, especially if he lacks the power of a Caesar to rule unobstructed (cat herding, not so much raw force), what better device than to keep everyone busy with fake fight, fake sins, ... FnG everything, and away from what is still real.
See also climate change vs. pollution, particularly of the water supply.
The first friend I lost during the COVID lockdowns when we still lived in NY- part of a gradual avalanche- was actually one who ended up living with us through most of the lockdowns because his then-girlfriend banned and locked him out of HIS OWN HOUSE for breaking quarantine to hang out with us and, submissive guy he generally was, accepted this moral punishment. We moved him in because he was a friend and that's what you do and honestly I don't know where the fuck he'd have gone for the roughly 1 year this lasted.
Despite being hypocritical about going out and seeing people, he was otherwise a very good Covidian and we quite frequently clashed about masks and closures and, towards the end of his stay, vaccines. (We moved away not long after vaccine mandates rolled out.) Like most people who were in locked-down major cities early on, there was very little to do outside the home besides those endless, interminable, miserable walks around the block, during which we would invariably get into politics.
On one of the last of these, my friend gently reminded me that, in fact, "right wing conservatives" controlled 95% or more of the American media and were in full control of the entire media narrative. Playing neutral, I mugged surprise, replying, "really? I had no idea. Based on what I see on TV and mainstream news sites, I would have guessed it was almost precisely the opposite." Well, my friend informed me, "that's because you've been gradually brainwashed."
Yeah, the end of that friendship was actually really painful. It turned out he had been shadowing me on various forums for months and had decided I had become a terrorist, which he called me in our last conversation.
I have to say it - You ARE a terrorist! By definition. You constantly question the holy narrative. You fail abysmally, in your displays of appropriate reverence. And you encourage others of the great unwashed, your "gutterballs", to apostasy too. Anyone that evil must be a terrorist. An we love you for it.
Believe it or not, I'm not used to that kind of thing. I was on exactly ZERO social media my whole life up to that point, substack wasn't on my radar yet, and I generally don't have relationships that involve that kind of drama. It legitimately unnerved me for a little while.
I've kind of developed a defense mechanism that when I see online drama emerging with someone that seems like they might behave vindictively IRL, I just fucking run. Or just avoid getting too close to anyone online period, because it's such a low-information environment as to who you're dealing with.
One assignment was to suggest a book (in english) suitable for ages 13-16, write up how and why it was suitable, what exercises could be done based on the book and so on, you know the drill.
So I picked "A Clockwork Orange", arguing that I was going to use it as the basis for assignments done in english, discussing some of the topics in the book (free will, the nature of evil, et cetera), and tying this together with my class in political/social science.
Upon which I was called a fascist, since the book apparently was unsuitable due to it not teaching a clear and positive message of right and wrong, and moral ambiguity is (according to that constantly hysterical tutor) the gateway to fascism: only the moral code laid out in the national document re: on ethical, civic and political virtues and mores for public schools is right.
Were you a teacher? If so, you have my deepest sympathy. My Mother was an elementary school teacher. There ain't enough money on the planet to make me want to deal with kids, of any age, all day long. You also have my deepest respect, because you have the patience of Job.
The lack of self-awareness is often a socially (or actual) fatal flaw. And as we (as a society) keep shielding people from reality by the myriad of sensory, chemical and psychological inputs, the pandemic of the unrealistic is what is the real threat to humanity.
We are "conspiracy theorists" after all. Ask them to specifically define what "conspiracy theories" we follow and they will not reply.
In a recent twitter debate, I was called a Trump supporter...because anyone against vaccines is a Trump supporter, at which point I reminded him of my disappointment of Trump from when he allowed the lockdowns and also pushed through the vaccine. I was then called a "moderate" or "seemingly neutral" conspiracy theorist. I was told this because I had "conspiracy theorist" beliefs. So then I asked what those beliefs were...and then went down the line...not about beliefs, but facts about the vaccine.
This isn't new for the left though. On the left, disagreement is hate, and facts that are inconvenient are conspiracy theories.
Jimmy Dore got into this on Glenn Greenwald the other night: "People are hungry for the truth. They feel the pain of their life, right? They look to their leadership and they look to the corporate media and they're being gaslit all the time. And if they're not being gaslit, the corporate media is talking about how bad it is that workers have power and are in the market now or have savings. I just watched a clip on CNBC that said just those two very things that it's bad for business: that workers have power and that they have savings. It's the craziest thing. So, the reason why the people, I think, come to my show is that I was an unabashedly ultra-lefty. I'm a peacenik, anti-war, for Medicare for All. I'm all this stuff. Anti-Wall Street. So, the people on all sides of the spectrum, people on the right, they see that I'm honest. And they say this because I can honestly critique people who used to be my heroes, like Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Party, the people who are supposed to line up with my political point of view.
"I critique them the hardest because they're the ones who have been lying to me. People on the left appreciate that because they've been lied to and people on the right appreciate that because they appreciate my honesty. So then when I say something about Trump or Russiagate or whatever it is, they can trust that I'm saying it honestly, and I'm not trying to gaslight them. I'm not bought by anyone. I travel the country, right, all the time as a standup comedian, I meet people of all stripes and all colors and you go to my shows. Hippies. There are right-wingers, there are libertarians, and there are lefty socialist communists. There are all kinds of people there. And what they're really, really desperate for is authenticity and for someone to speak against the people who are crushing them. And that's what they find at my show. And you can't find that anymore on the left, it's the craziest thing. All the YouTubers just go along now with Joe Biden. They go along with the COVID narrative. "
The Baltic Herring (sill/strömming) farts. Continously. The farts of a school can fool hydrophones, giving an image close to that of a small submarine.
Great suggestion! We could form the "Atavistic Throwback Club". "ATC" flows trippingly from the tongue. Much easier to say than "WEF". Maybe we should form a new club. Or perhaps just use a club to get the attention of the poor deluded souls who so eagerly leap to the aid of the narcissistic sociopaths working so diligently to destroy the world we grew up in.
Same old same old. Everyone is convinced that the other side is [insert boogeyman here]. And any attempt to understand the perspective of the other side, why they might think what they do, and (gasp) even if there's any merit to it, automatically triggers an attack from one's alleged comrades. It's been getting progressively harder to tell what angle a social media rant is coming from if it doesn't explicitly identify who the Good Guys and Bad Guys are. Who's a fascist extremist science-denying victimized crybaby?? THE OTHER GUYS, natch.
For accuracy, I support replacing the red/blue political symbols with the Spidermans (each half red, half blue, conveniently) pointing at each other. That would be a nice visual cue to show that both sides broadly cancel out. Yes, there are real differences, but they get lost in the noise of "I know you are, but what am I?" that every political discussion seems degenerate into.
Generally speaking, the Democrats' base in the olden days was concerned about the fortunes of the poor and middle class. Team R was troubled by cultural degeneracy. Both sides are hugely disappointed at what America's become. Divisions are stoked to keep them at each others' throats, lest they get together, storm the Capitol (for real, this time) and give every last "public servant" a tumbril ride to whatever the American version of the Place de la Concorde would be.
Victimization is one of those things that is difficult to sort fact from fiction. Truth from reality. There are whole portions of society which claim to be victims yet cannot point out a single act committed against themselves. And other sections which don't claim to be victims but get labeled as claiming victimhood strangely by the same sort of folks who are claiming victimhood for themselves and who can show actual acts against themselves and not some long ago actions against others that come before.
It is no mistake that the left promotes victimhood of those who support them, it is a tactic, but it only takes a little critical thought to recognize the real perpetrators of the acts that victimize their supporters are those they elect who run on the victimhood status they created.
It is a vicious cycle which will repeat until everyone is a victim and only those elected are above it.
You can apply it to any supposed victim status without fail. It is always the left creating the victims and then using that victimhood to create voters and then the actions they take create more victims and more voters.
The question of how much of the internet is bots and spooks interests me greatly.
I also know there are real live people who say this kind of thing in real life, and some of these are folks I care about and know personally.
And if I ask myself, how could a basically intelligent person, who is not entirely asleep to life, actually sustain a belief that the red team is the party of perceived victimhood, and proclaim it with fervor, when we know that it is the blue team who are the snowflakes and the professors of grievance studies, this is what I come up with, convincing if it be or no:
Take LGBTQ issues. Imagine you are a human being who, among other hats you wear, are a drag queen who sometimes dresses up and reads books to young children. Because this is a fad that's happening right now.
You aren't a pedo, and your friends aren't either. Drag is a creative outlet for you, and you've developed a panoply of worthwhile skills and relationships while making your way in that world.
You've always known you were gay, and you're happy living a gay life. You're not forcing kids out of Bible camp or T-ball practice to attend your readings: their own parents bring them in willingly, and look to you with wide-eyed admiration. The kids seem to enjoy the light-hearted fun of it too.
You recall how alone you felt while growing up, not having any sense that an openly gay life of acceptance and community might be possible. You explain what you're doing at story time as expanding the scope of awareness, while working to ensure that queer kids know that a queer life is possible. You sincerely believe that some people are born gay, born trans.
Now The Conservatives are up in arms about what you're Doing to Our Children. They protest your readings and try to get them cancelled. They call you names online.
The narrative advanced by Those People is that doctors and the pharmaceutical industry are preying on young people, turning them trans. You support a local gender clinic, because you know that a small number of people are going to be trans no matter what, and reaching these people and their families early, offering understanding, while directing them to resources, medical or otherwise, seems like the kind and Christian thing to do.
But now these clinics are being sued into the ground. The Conservatives in their tinfoil hats keep prattling on about an "LGBTQ(XYZ123) agenda" that is coming after us all--evidently a very sinister one, which does not accord with your own experience of the queer community.
You've dealt with being marginalized for much of your life, whether overtly, or by the unquestioned hidebound assumptions that people carried implicitly. Now, Those People, with their cisgender, heteronormative, soccer mom, joe sixpack privilege, are bitingly sarcastic over every instance of pronouns in the bio. They act as though they're the ones being put upon and misused. They evidently just can't deal.
Are they so fragile that they can't bear any of this burden of life with you? When they have all the world in which to ply their heterosexual ways, why are they so defensive and belligerent when people like you start to take up more space, and to make it known to young people that doing so is a valid option, should one be so inclined?
Basically, conservative = reactionary = big easily-triggered over-privileged bully who can't deal with things that make him uncomfortable and require him to adjust his framework of thought in order to be more accommodating of others' lived experience.
QED
Probably similar tales could be told regarding white people's refusal to acknowledge their complicity in racism, while lashing out against the bogeyman of CRT instead; of Christians' persecutory delusions; or even of purebloods having the temerity to complain about social consequences when they refuse to get their shots or wear their masks.
Basically blue team is trying to be expansive and expressive and to make room for all, but red team apparently takes this as a personal affront because it upsets the well-ordered way that things are meant to be, and blue thus perceives red as adopting a beleaguered victim stance because, after all, "How does my gay marriage hurt your straight marriage?" The implication is that my being me doesn't immediately impinge on you being you, so you're just being a sour-faced whiner when you raise objections.
Blue don't have a sense of a coherent conservative worldview, where things are the way they are because God has so ordained, or else because of deep, almost pre-verbal humane reasons that it would take a poet to adequately express (whether this comes through honest ignorance on blue's part, or because they haven't allowed themselves to try to grok it), so the pushback they get from red on individual culture war issues, where it's not immediately clear how what blue is doing in a particular instance harms anyone else who doesn't themselves want to participate, just seems like red is throwing a fit, blowing things out of proportion, making it all about them, on the way to writing a think piece about how once again mentally unbalanced liberals are overturning muh traditional values.
Jan 7, 2023·edited Jan 7, 2023Liked by Guttermouth
It's not "their shots" or "their masks".
It's shots and masks the ruling caste is trying to force people to take against their own free will and judgement.
And speaking as someone who has seen the LGBT+ community from the inside over 25 years ago as a volunteer support member of an official and tax-sponsored group - the tolerance for grooming is normal, grown or old man having relations with a teenaged boy is seen as natural, and the homosexuals of both sexes just wanting a normal quiet "Norman Rockwell"-style life in Suburbia aren't welcome: the most extreme, radical and unbalanced control the groups, the outlets and the associated media.
Which is what drove off the the otherwise normal people from the year 2000 onwards.
Which is exactly the same that happened to various marxist schools throughout the entire last century.
Which is exactly what happened to Women's Lib when feminism infilitrated it in the 1970s and therefore became the norm in the 1990s.
Which is exactly what happened in the moslem world from the 1970s to present day: the fundamentalists drove off the normal people and (re)took control of islam, of culture and of the state.
And that's why it is so important to say "No!" and to refuse things such as drag-whatevers around children or schools indoctrinating children into going on puberty blockers (Libs of Tiktok's latest piece is about that, check that stack for more). Because progressives never stop trying to progress.
Equal rights before the law and one law for all, is the last thing groups such as the above want. They are all to their core supremacists.
>> where it's not immediately clear how what blue is doing in a particular instance harms anyone else who doesn't themselves want to participate,
Undermining parental authority and sexualizing children isn't victimless and it doesn't require Christian doctrine or hide bound conservatism to see that. 5 minutes ago liberals had the sense to look at child grooming and say "no fucking way" and still manage somehow to be accepting of LGBT populations.
My brief take: the argument that conservatives- whatever that is- are equal or similar to progressive liberals- whatever that is- in "perceived victimhood" is entirely subjective. I'm inclined to say that progressive liberalism is much more arguably an "ideology of victimhood" because this is literally enshrined in their sacred texts.
The argument that one side "runs everything" seems a little easier to objectively demonstrate, and I'd love to see some hard evidence that the conservative right "runs everything" or even remotely close to "everything" in the United States, particularly media, education, public health, civil service...
Nevertheless, I found the perfect mirror image moment that this was to be a little interesting.
What I find funny is that they still want to break this down into sides. To me it is the state versus the people. In truth, we the people, were the victims during the pandemic of the restrictions, of the policies, and what many call "the new normal."
That's really the Rosetta stone on this, isn't it? The enemy isn't who almost anyone thinks it is.
However, even if the "culture wars" are a nonsense distraction wielded gleefully by the elite, they still impact all us little citizens in countless ways. They've made shock troops for the Real Enemy out of millions of our neighbors.
Have they? Idk. The theme was bots. How much of this shit is the bots I really have to wonder. How many shock troops do you know? I thought I heard somewhere that there are known at least ten's of thousands of them run by DOD. I would venture to guess the real # is orders of magnitude of that.
It's a really interesting question. It breaks down into a few separate questions, to me:
1) How much is bots?
2) How much is AI?
3) How much is state actors/intelligence?
4) How much is paid actors?
5) How much is hostile state actors/hostile state paid actors?
The various accounts look and behave differently- most are very low-effort in their creation and are very easily unmasked because of shit like drawing their account pics from stock photos or LinkedIn accounts, etc. Some use stock phrases and keywords mixed into creative text (which could be human or AI), some are just zombie armies repeating the same exact tweet. Some respond directly to engagement, some are obviously unattended.
It's interesting, in its way. If nothing else it's educational as to exactly how vast the assault on our consensual reality is, and how total the war on the public.
To me, bot encompasses all of the above.
I would comment that just because someone has a stock photo as their twitter pic doesn't mean anything, at least to me. You think I'm putting my pic on there?!?
The differences are important, though, and the usage of a stock photo isn't the primary issue- it's just a landmark indicating how much effort (or lack thereof) is put into creating a convincing account.
I would also note that stock photos of real-looking ordinary people are a very different thing than using photos that are obviously avatars (of celebrities/characters).
A bot is generally categorized as an AI entity used to boost activity. For instance, Twitter and Facebook are generally known to be home to hundreds or thousands of false accounts generated to echo the same exact message over and over again to as many other accounts as they can reach. I can't remember now where I read this, but I had seen an article where several hundred accounts would blast out thousands of messages all saying maybe 10 variations of the same message in regular bursts, all attributable to China, as all the messages were in support of Chinese state messages. A live person was not behind each and every one. They were all pre-programmed to do what they did by a live person, but then turned loose to operate on their own. In essence, they became a digital megaphone. This is why AI bots are different from other false "troll" or lurker (OSINT) accounts.
I would wager that the other organizations doing this learned from the Chinese on this tactic, altering it to downsize in scale a bit to make it far less obvious to a casual observer.
It's very simple to obtain an AI generated photo of a person who doesn't really exist. You have to have a paid subscription to the website to obtain more than one image of that same fake person, but if you're only creating rudimentary lurker accounts, you really only need one. I can tell you from personal experience that most USG operated fake accounts fall into this category for OSINT research, hence the term "Research Accounts". Some are used by LE as UC operation accounts investigating criminal activity. They don't require a ton of maintenance to keep them going, but they do occasionally get snuffed out by the platform moderators that catch onto you. The actively posting accounts, however, are dominated by other governmental organizations for information operations. Every government on the planet is involved in this. These accounts take far more active involvement to maintain, and are more likely to be AI bots.
As to the numbers of each? That's hard to say. It's hard to know what's going on behind each compartmented wall within any organization. Just some perspective from someone who's been there.
Within this realm, I'm mainly curious how many of the human-operated accounts are bona fide gov't workers and how many are contractors (albeit perhaps with clearance)- and, for that matter, how many are chaos actors on behalf of domestic NGOs/groups.
Thanks for the insight!
A lot of us use "fake accounts" on social media sites like Fedbook & Twatter. We're not trolls or working for anyone, though. We just prefer not to be readily identifiable by the smaller number of people we might one day apply for a job with (who might not like our smart-ass remarks), but primarily by the large numbers of rabid/crazy wokesters who like to swat, gangstalk and do other really annoying things to people they violently disagree with. I'm sure the NSA probably knows who we are, or can find out easily if they want to - so it's still us against the State...
The funny thing about social media and on-line presence, todayit is by far more suspicious to not have one, than to have a some what questionable one.
I have twice been told in job interviews that the employer has tried to "google" me, i.e. check my online presence/profile, and that they've found nothing (which is as it should be).
And that they do not dare employ me for that reason, finding it suspicious.
So having a boilerplate, bland and safe Fakebook-account might actually be a necessary practicality these days.
It is a brilliant ploy, these culture wars. And it has it's own built-in rewards. You can be seen as a morally progressive person.
Heck, instead of focussing on the fact that masks and vaccines don't work, instead show that the blue states faired better than the red states in terms of Covid. See how brilliant that was, it turned the argument political. Whatever you do though, don't look at the all cause excess deaths in 2022...ignore birthrates...etc. and whatever you do don't bring up the fact that many in the red states also got the vaccine, keep it as simplistic and partisan as possible.
Divide and conquer is a strategy. A particularly shitty one when traitors use it against their own neighbors/citizens/constituents.
but ... but ... they broke a nail jabbing at us with that cattle prod. In their eyes (whoever 'they' are, and I'm not convinced that they are confined to only the state). So of course they're convinced they're victims. If we hadn't been so belligerent, they wouldn't have HAD to break a nail.
Not saying there aren't true victims on all sides, but I don't believe that I've ever met a dumbocrap that wasn't the biggest victim on the whole damn planet, according to them. It gets old, especially when there is so little self awareness of them creating the problem they're having.
It's frustrating because it represents such a final-seeming impasse. The other side runs everything- not some, not half, but EVERYthing- and any slight to their institutions is false grievance.
I'm honestly starting to think we'd all be genuinely happier if we just got it over with.
🙌 You and I seem to be on the same page in that respect.
I don't mean it gleefully- I honestly think we (the collective "we") have backed ourselves into an "angry chimps with rocks in opposing corners" situation and the cortisol can't just keep endlessly surging without a rock being thrown eventually, and in the meantime all the chimps just feel continuously sick and enraged.
The two opposing chimp factions, should be aiming their rocks at the ones who locked them in the room together.
🎯
I didn't think you were gleefull about it. I know I'm not. My body has run on cortisol for so many years, I just want peace.
Holy shit do I hear you on that.
I think the "right runs everything" is just more hyperbole from demoralised leftbots. In the same way basically anyone who isn't as leftoid as Mao is "literally worse than Hitler".
Arguably, the Left has achieved total victory at the end of their Gramscian Long March through the institutions. If you don't believe that they run everything, start listing institutions. What institution is run by self-proclaimed Rightists? The education system, the justice system, the state from deep to shallow, the unions and pension funds, the foundations... Even the big mainstream Christian religions. The big banks and private equity funds all contributed to BLM and donate almost exclusively to Democrats. In the recent election, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed Democrat candidates. I could go on, and on and on.
Several commentators I follow have noted how remarkable it is to find the US electorate is broadly 50/50 during most elections (read into that what you will) when leftoids control almost every institution.
Very astute observation. Makes one wonder how representative our system of government really is these days?
The further left you go politically, the more right is left on your right side.
Want the "conservative right" to own everything? Just keep gong left, left, left.
Want the "marxist left" to control everything? Do it in reverse.
Politics ain't measured with yard-sticks, and any -ism can condemn or sanctify any issue: it's all about the language chosen.
Liberalism is the art of projection.
I live in super liberal, pretty darn wealthy Boulder. While we have a small number of liberal karens here - who do, in fact, push the victimhood thing (social justice, etc.). I'm currently pondering the idea that the majority of the Dem left (that funds the voting machine that gives us Biden, Pelosi, etc.) are not far left but really just self-absorbed people who 1) wish to be part of the hip group, 2) don't really want to be bothered by the consequences of any policy, and 3) purposefully do not engage in self-reflection. I'm sure there is a circle of hell in Dante's inferno that aligns with people of this dispostion - I don't know the book well enough to identify it. But it's important to understand that it is their funds, their guilt, and their self-absorption that keep the Left in power. If the right were the "cool party", their money would go there (as in the days of the moral majority).
I think they carry a lot of guilt about their money (having so much). The victimhood narrative from any group that is less fortunate receives immediate funding from them in "a please make this stop" manner. Put simply, they are the perfect target of any huckster pushing a narrative that knocks on the door of their guilt.
On the conservative side, currently/typically the less monied class - I've noticed the recent addition of the victimhood narrative in the J6 persecutions, the stories of individuals being targeted for MAGA hats, their faith values, their guns, etc. It seems to me that this victimhood narrative is about increasing anger and motivating conservatives, ie its not about money, it's about maximizing voter turn-out in order to gain power.
With this in mind, I look at the victimhood narrative as a tool that hucksters employ for contributions (votes or money).
Ouch.
I am human & possess therefore membership to many groups, some of wh has been in my control, some not. I am a Christian who knows Jesus as Lord/Savior, I belong to the group who are mothers devoting much of our lives to our children, considering that career rewarding and important. I belong to the group who have grad degrees, to the group of artists, dancing classical ballet their entire life. I belong to the group of people who believe in loving their neighbor, in kindness always, and in putting one’s best foot forward, turning the other cheek when necessary. I belong to the group, wherever I am, who tries to lift the level of discourse not only because I enjoy beautiful literary construction, etymology and language but also as I believe my word choice reflects who I am. To my perplexed dismay I find myself in recent years In a new world, excruciatingly, relentlessly stunned by divisive, venomous attacks upon our Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, personal freedom e.g. nightmarish forced compliance to medical procedures. In the weird zeitgeist of this exponentially expanding paradigm and swiftly shifting nightmare, quite definitely related to dynamics of group control by manipulation of moral mentality, a singular percentage of us receive additionally utterly undeserved, blindsided declarations of my most personal group as horrible, despicable, rejectable, unredeemable, and universally hated simply by virtue of innocently bearing the name my parents gave me 64 years ago (when it was popular wh it is not now and has not been for a long time), since they loved me and believed Karen to be beautiful. (Are you really talking to those born in the 1950s? Karen Carpenter, Karen Ann Quinlan, Karen Valentine, Karen Killilea, Karen Black, Karen Allen...though the anachronistic justification for the pseudo-murder of us is beside the point?) This character assassination demeans the user, but the remarkable and profound totality of physical, emotional and psychological wounds and likely permanent damage it causes is considered above reproach in the world in which I lately find myself. I am truly befuddled and despair of such an odd, unwise and ugly turn-of-events/world myopia. Why is character assassination of anyone named Karen, thus the constant endurance of personal assault by us, just fine in 21st century polite American society? I and the rest of the members of this group are suffering exceptional injury. How can generally moral, just people lack empathy for or perception of the human women they are inflicting their massive hatred upon? Is there any awareness of the natural self-identification with one’s own name wh the human mind develops from the first day their mother lovingly speaks to them? Try having someone call your name in an ugly manner, there’s no avoiding the involuntary flinch even if it’s just within your own soul. Or simply read your name as the cursed accused in a volley of angry words…the living breathing millions upon whom this constant absurd attack and unopposed, ubiquitous toxic battery reigns recoil, blameless and confused. Please explain to me, why is a cruel sadism designed to cause suffering understood as remotely funny? I see no comparisons made w/the multitude of other unacceptable biases/smears/smites, demonstrating the unfairness of this slur to other socially illegal slanderous insults. Why are Karens deserving of this open season focused hatred by the self-righteous? Turning the other cheek, overlooking radical personal ambush in common parlance has been difficult. Compartmentalizing an otherness to what has not died out and gone the way of just a fad as Karens had hoped, I bear a million gaping wounds from your unbelievable hatred. How many otherwise intelligent very respected, finely tuned minds heartlessly fire those Karen assaults without introspection as a matter of course daily? I ask you to search your soul, find this offensive on me and my group unnecessary and please cease-fire.
I don't use the term, personally, and it's pretty transparently anti-white (stereotyping white middle-class women as whiny and entitled) on top of anything else.
No, (appreciate!) your distinctly unique acumen for societal/idea dissection & examination requires no such kowtowing and is never reiterative. Btw I thought of the Gutterclan, neighbors rec’vd sightings, on our very rural country roads mostly, for the past 3 days of one of their teenaged Holsteins on the lam, (a 3-town adventure) finally herded home by a blue Heeler : )
That's a fantastic dog and very well trained. Holsteins are not small! I wish dogs #1-3 were capable of that. They are excellent guard dogs- that's enough for this lifetime.
Great dogs!
Karen, I'm so sorry you have been smacked around emotionally by the nasty scapegoating of your name. I've known a couple of very good people name Karen, and the entire phenomena makes me cringe.
You sound like an amazing person, and I hope this slanderous use of your name ends very soon.
My interpretation is the name "Karen" is a pun, I am willing to admit I am wrong in this regard. But I always thought a "Karen" (Male form Cieran) as someone who has their nose way too much in other people's business. Call it the name for the moral busybodies who CS Lewis termed those ones behind the "tyranny of caring" or as it could be called "The Tyranny of Karen."
When we hear the term "a karen." We aren't thinking of literal people named "Karen." but rather people (male or female) who will get into your business about why you aren't masking up, what your vaccination status is, want you to speak out against racism (because silence is violence) etc.
I’m from Boulder. I got the hell out as soon as I could. Unfortunately, my son still lives in Boulder county, so I am forced to have to hold my nose and return more often than I would like. My son is,no doubt, in the minority in the Peoples Republic of Boulder. It’s 5 sq. miles surrounded by reality.
You say true. We know that a lot of these "social justice" organizations get a lot of funding. They live in mansions. I would feel huge amount of shame living in a mansion while people of color were rotting in jail somewhere or living in a slum because they were subjects of "systemic racism." Or, at the very least, my mansion would be populated by those I deemed marginalized individuals.
You are exactly right. An awakening moment for me came after Hurricane Katrina. I was so impressed by the many compassionate families across the country who opened their modest homes to Katrina refuges. Meanwhile Oprah whose is supposed to be the most compassionate celebrity in modern times had many large homes throughout the US. These homes - estates really - have been featured in architectural magazines for years and could have housed several families with ease. Yet she could not be bothered to open any of them up for these homeless refuges.
Like you, I do not think I have the character to be wealthy. I would be too inclined to share my wealth so it would never accumulate.
Somewhat, except it might be important to note that people are occasionally targeted for physical attack by those who disagree with exhibited conservative slogans.
1) Projection. Always. Without fail.
2) The left can't meme.
Did I miss anything?
Yeah, like I said, it's nothing groundbreaking.
But I find projection rarely as crystal-clear a reflection as statements like this.
And, if one if being objective, it leads into the unfalsifiable "alcoholics are in denial of their alcoholism ergo anyone who denies being an alcoholic is an alcoholic in denial" thing that it would be difficult to demonstrate that EVERYONE isn't, in fact, projecting endlessly.
I should have used an infinitely-recursing funhouse mirror for my image instead. Lemme go do that.
They believe it because, for those at the bottom it is objectively true. The people who run everything use a victimhood narrative.
Their court eunuch are encouraged (maybe, maybe self-generating) to point out when "the other side" does it to "their side".
Hence the unitary memes.
If there really is an enemy, especially if he lacks the power of a Caesar to rule unobstructed (cat herding, not so much raw force), what better device than to keep everyone busy with fake fight, fake sins, ... FnG everything, and away from what is still real.
See also climate change vs. pollution, particularly of the water supply.
I'm too victimized and busy controlling shit to comment.
At the same time! Busy indeed.
😂🤣 It takes all day to control my butt out of bed! 🙄😂🤣😂🤣
The mirror image, the *projection* of one's outer self, back at them can be unrecognizable to so many.
My little tidbit of flotsam for the gutter today.
The first friend I lost during the COVID lockdowns when we still lived in NY- part of a gradual avalanche- was actually one who ended up living with us through most of the lockdowns because his then-girlfriend banned and locked him out of HIS OWN HOUSE for breaking quarantine to hang out with us and, submissive guy he generally was, accepted this moral punishment. We moved him in because he was a friend and that's what you do and honestly I don't know where the fuck he'd have gone for the roughly 1 year this lasted.
Despite being hypocritical about going out and seeing people, he was otherwise a very good Covidian and we quite frequently clashed about masks and closures and, towards the end of his stay, vaccines. (We moved away not long after vaccine mandates rolled out.) Like most people who were in locked-down major cities early on, there was very little to do outside the home besides those endless, interminable, miserable walks around the block, during which we would invariably get into politics.
On one of the last of these, my friend gently reminded me that, in fact, "right wing conservatives" controlled 95% or more of the American media and were in full control of the entire media narrative. Playing neutral, I mugged surprise, replying, "really? I had no idea. Based on what I see on TV and mainstream news sites, I would have guessed it was almost precisely the opposite." Well, my friend informed me, "that's because you've been gradually brainwashed."
I marvel every time my boosted mom tells me I’m brainwashed.
Like "racism" and several others, "brainwashed" has really ceased to have any meaning for me.
🙄 OMG! 🤢🤮
Yeah, the end of that friendship was actually really painful. It turned out he had been shadowing me on various forums for months and had decided I had become a terrorist, which he called me in our last conversation.
I have to say it - You ARE a terrorist! By definition. You constantly question the holy narrative. You fail abysmally, in your displays of appropriate reverence. And you encourage others of the great unwashed, your "gutterballs", to apostasy too. Anyone that evil must be a terrorist. An we love you for it.
Aw shucks, Mister Andy, I's just a mediocre hog farmer.
Nothing mediocre at the Mouth homestead.
😲 Wow! Creepy! Sounds like some of the friends I had in high school. You can kinda expect that weirdness in high school!
Believe it or not, I'm not used to that kind of thing. I was on exactly ZERO social media my whole life up to that point, substack wasn't on my radar yet, and I generally don't have relationships that involve that kind of drama. It legitimately unnerved me for a little while.
I've kind of developed a defense mechanism that when I see online drama emerging with someone that seems like they might behave vindictively IRL, I just fucking run. Or just avoid getting too close to anyone online period, because it's such a low-information environment as to who you're dealing with.
I can agree with that.
My high school weirdness was IRL. There was no social media then. Substack is my only social media NOW.
You'd have "loved" teacher's college here:
One assignment was to suggest a book (in english) suitable for ages 13-16, write up how and why it was suitable, what exercises could be done based on the book and so on, you know the drill.
So I picked "A Clockwork Orange", arguing that I was going to use it as the basis for assignments done in english, discussing some of the topics in the book (free will, the nature of evil, et cetera), and tying this together with my class in political/social science.
Upon which I was called a fascist, since the book apparently was unsuitable due to it not teaching a clear and positive message of right and wrong, and moral ambiguity is (according to that constantly hysterical tutor) the gateway to fascism: only the moral code laid out in the national document re: on ethical, civic and political virtues and mores for public schools is right.
Oh irony.
Were you a teacher? If so, you have my deepest sympathy. My Mother was an elementary school teacher. There ain't enough money on the planet to make me want to deal with kids, of any age, all day long. You also have my deepest respect, because you have the patience of Job.
Unfortunate, sad and relatable.
The lack of self-awareness is often a socially (or actual) fatal flaw. And as we (as a society) keep shielding people from reality by the myriad of sensory, chemical and psychological inputs, the pandemic of the unrealistic is what is the real threat to humanity.
We are "conspiracy theorists" after all. Ask them to specifically define what "conspiracy theories" we follow and they will not reply.
In a recent twitter debate, I was called a Trump supporter...because anyone against vaccines is a Trump supporter, at which point I reminded him of my disappointment of Trump from when he allowed the lockdowns and also pushed through the vaccine. I was then called a "moderate" or "seemingly neutral" conspiracy theorist. I was told this because I had "conspiracy theorist" beliefs. So then I asked what those beliefs were...and then went down the line...not about beliefs, but facts about the vaccine.
This isn't new for the left though. On the left, disagreement is hate, and facts that are inconvenient are conspiracy theories.
Stupidity is a birthright...apparently.
It is, though. :)
Reality points strongly against Randys claims.
Democrats = get out of jail free for any reason.
Conservative = arrested for having the audacity to exist during January 2021, thereby terrorising AOC and Nancy.
Yeah, it's really hard for me to make the case even standing back a few hundred yards.
Jimmy Dore got into this on Glenn Greenwald the other night: "People are hungry for the truth. They feel the pain of their life, right? They look to their leadership and they look to the corporate media and they're being gaslit all the time. And if they're not being gaslit, the corporate media is talking about how bad it is that workers have power and are in the market now or have savings. I just watched a clip on CNBC that said just those two very things that it's bad for business: that workers have power and that they have savings. It's the craziest thing. So, the reason why the people, I think, come to my show is that I was an unabashedly ultra-lefty. I'm a peacenik, anti-war, for Medicare for All. I'm all this stuff. Anti-Wall Street. So, the people on all sides of the spectrum, people on the right, they see that I'm honest. And they say this because I can honestly critique people who used to be my heroes, like Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Party, the people who are supposed to line up with my political point of view.
"I critique them the hardest because they're the ones who have been lying to me. People on the left appreciate that because they've been lied to and people on the right appreciate that because they appreciate my honesty. So then when I say something about Trump or Russiagate or whatever it is, they can trust that I'm saying it honestly, and I'm not trying to gaslight them. I'm not bought by anyone. I travel the country, right, all the time as a standup comedian, I meet people of all stripes and all colors and you go to my shows. Hippies. There are right-wingers, there are libertarians, and there are lefty socialist communists. There are all kinds of people there. And what they're really, really desperate for is authenticity and for someone to speak against the people who are crushing them. And that's what they find at my show. And you can't find that anymore on the left, it's the craziest thing. All the YouTubers just go along now with Joe Biden. They go along with the COVID narrative. "
I aggressively deny being a conservative, since a conservative today is just a progressive liberal still in the closet.
Atavistic throwback has a nice ring to it, and is a tautology to boot.
A throwback to what? And how far back?
Better times and all the way!
I'm talking pre-christian Nordic Iron Age here.
Getting on that ship.
Suck herring, Klaus.
Trivia:
The Baltic Herring (sill/strömming) farts. Continously. The farts of a school can fool hydrophones, giving an image close to that of a small submarine.
Why do you think I made the lovely joke?
Got me good, then! :)
Only six months to go until it's time for crawfish & fermented herring-parties!
As some radio comedian said, back when the insidious evil of wokeism was beginning to ooze into our lives,
"The times of yore, the times before,
When men were men and - women were damn glad of it."
Great suggestion! We could form the "Atavistic Throwback Club". "ATC" flows trippingly from the tongue. Much easier to say than "WEF". Maybe we should form a new club. Or perhaps just use a club to get the attention of the poor deluded souls who so eagerly leap to the aid of the narcissistic sociopaths working so diligently to destroy the world we grew up in.
I like clubs. A good club has metal bands and some stout nails - think railroad spikes - and is made from the gnarly knotted main root of an old tree.
Think the irish call them shillelagh.
"Walk softly and carry a big club", isn't that an american proverb?
Same old same old. Everyone is convinced that the other side is [insert boogeyman here]. And any attempt to understand the perspective of the other side, why they might think what they do, and (gasp) even if there's any merit to it, automatically triggers an attack from one's alleged comrades. It's been getting progressively harder to tell what angle a social media rant is coming from if it doesn't explicitly identify who the Good Guys and Bad Guys are. Who's a fascist extremist science-denying victimized crybaby?? THE OTHER GUYS, natch.
For accuracy, I support replacing the red/blue political symbols with the Spidermans (each half red, half blue, conveniently) pointing at each other. That would be a nice visual cue to show that both sides broadly cancel out. Yes, there are real differences, but they get lost in the noise of "I know you are, but what am I?" that every political discussion seems degenerate into.
Generally speaking, the Democrats' base in the olden days was concerned about the fortunes of the poor and middle class. Team R was troubled by cultural degeneracy. Both sides are hugely disappointed at what America's become. Divisions are stoked to keep them at each others' throats, lest they get together, storm the Capitol (for real, this time) and give every last "public servant" a tumbril ride to whatever the American version of the Place de la Concorde would be.
The Left has lost touch with reality. Completely.
Victimization is one of those things that is difficult to sort fact from fiction. Truth from reality. There are whole portions of society which claim to be victims yet cannot point out a single act committed against themselves. And other sections which don't claim to be victims but get labeled as claiming victimhood strangely by the same sort of folks who are claiming victimhood for themselves and who can show actual acts against themselves and not some long ago actions against others that come before.
It is no mistake that the left promotes victimhood of those who support them, it is a tactic, but it only takes a little critical thought to recognize the real perpetrators of the acts that victimize their supporters are those they elect who run on the victimhood status they created.
It is a vicious cycle which will repeat until everyone is a victim and only those elected are above it.
You can apply it to any supposed victim status without fail. It is always the left creating the victims and then using that victimhood to create voters and then the actions they take create more victims and more voters.
Quick Fact: "Fascism =Corporatism" (per Benito Mussolini)
The question of how much of the internet is bots and spooks interests me greatly.
I also know there are real live people who say this kind of thing in real life, and some of these are folks I care about and know personally.
And if I ask myself, how could a basically intelligent person, who is not entirely asleep to life, actually sustain a belief that the red team is the party of perceived victimhood, and proclaim it with fervor, when we know that it is the blue team who are the snowflakes and the professors of grievance studies, this is what I come up with, convincing if it be or no:
Take LGBTQ issues. Imagine you are a human being who, among other hats you wear, are a drag queen who sometimes dresses up and reads books to young children. Because this is a fad that's happening right now.
You aren't a pedo, and your friends aren't either. Drag is a creative outlet for you, and you've developed a panoply of worthwhile skills and relationships while making your way in that world.
You've always known you were gay, and you're happy living a gay life. You're not forcing kids out of Bible camp or T-ball practice to attend your readings: their own parents bring them in willingly, and look to you with wide-eyed admiration. The kids seem to enjoy the light-hearted fun of it too.
You recall how alone you felt while growing up, not having any sense that an openly gay life of acceptance and community might be possible. You explain what you're doing at story time as expanding the scope of awareness, while working to ensure that queer kids know that a queer life is possible. You sincerely believe that some people are born gay, born trans.
Now The Conservatives are up in arms about what you're Doing to Our Children. They protest your readings and try to get them cancelled. They call you names online.
The narrative advanced by Those People is that doctors and the pharmaceutical industry are preying on young people, turning them trans. You support a local gender clinic, because you know that a small number of people are going to be trans no matter what, and reaching these people and their families early, offering understanding, while directing them to resources, medical or otherwise, seems like the kind and Christian thing to do.
But now these clinics are being sued into the ground. The Conservatives in their tinfoil hats keep prattling on about an "LGBTQ(XYZ123) agenda" that is coming after us all--evidently a very sinister one, which does not accord with your own experience of the queer community.
You've dealt with being marginalized for much of your life, whether overtly, or by the unquestioned hidebound assumptions that people carried implicitly. Now, Those People, with their cisgender, heteronormative, soccer mom, joe sixpack privilege, are bitingly sarcastic over every instance of pronouns in the bio. They act as though they're the ones being put upon and misused. They evidently just can't deal.
Are they so fragile that they can't bear any of this burden of life with you? When they have all the world in which to ply their heterosexual ways, why are they so defensive and belligerent when people like you start to take up more space, and to make it known to young people that doing so is a valid option, should one be so inclined?
Basically, conservative = reactionary = big easily-triggered over-privileged bully who can't deal with things that make him uncomfortable and require him to adjust his framework of thought in order to be more accommodating of others' lived experience.
QED
Probably similar tales could be told regarding white people's refusal to acknowledge their complicity in racism, while lashing out against the bogeyman of CRT instead; of Christians' persecutory delusions; or even of purebloods having the temerity to complain about social consequences when they refuse to get their shots or wear their masks.
Basically blue team is trying to be expansive and expressive and to make room for all, but red team apparently takes this as a personal affront because it upsets the well-ordered way that things are meant to be, and blue thus perceives red as adopting a beleaguered victim stance because, after all, "How does my gay marriage hurt your straight marriage?" The implication is that my being me doesn't immediately impinge on you being you, so you're just being a sour-faced whiner when you raise objections.
Blue don't have a sense of a coherent conservative worldview, where things are the way they are because God has so ordained, or else because of deep, almost pre-verbal humane reasons that it would take a poet to adequately express (whether this comes through honest ignorance on blue's part, or because they haven't allowed themselves to try to grok it), so the pushback they get from red on individual culture war issues, where it's not immediately clear how what blue is doing in a particular instance harms anyone else who doesn't themselves want to participate, just seems like red is throwing a fit, blowing things out of proportion, making it all about them, on the way to writing a think piece about how once again mentally unbalanced liberals are overturning muh traditional values.
It's not "their shots" or "their masks".
It's shots and masks the ruling caste is trying to force people to take against their own free will and judgement.
And speaking as someone who has seen the LGBT+ community from the inside over 25 years ago as a volunteer support member of an official and tax-sponsored group - the tolerance for grooming is normal, grown or old man having relations with a teenaged boy is seen as natural, and the homosexuals of both sexes just wanting a normal quiet "Norman Rockwell"-style life in Suburbia aren't welcome: the most extreme, radical and unbalanced control the groups, the outlets and the associated media.
Which is what drove off the the otherwise normal people from the year 2000 onwards.
Which is exactly the same that happened to various marxist schools throughout the entire last century.
Which is exactly what happened to Women's Lib when feminism infilitrated it in the 1970s and therefore became the norm in the 1990s.
Which is exactly what happened in the moslem world from the 1970s to present day: the fundamentalists drove off the normal people and (re)took control of islam, of culture and of the state.
And that's why it is so important to say "No!" and to refuse things such as drag-whatevers around children or schools indoctrinating children into going on puberty blockers (Libs of Tiktok's latest piece is about that, check that stack for more). Because progressives never stop trying to progress.
Equal rights before the law and one law for all, is the last thing groups such as the above want. They are all to their core supremacists.
Edited for spelling, grammar.
>> where it's not immediately clear how what blue is doing in a particular instance harms anyone else who doesn't themselves want to participate,
Undermining parental authority and sexualizing children isn't victimless and it doesn't require Christian doctrine or hide bound conservatism to see that. 5 minutes ago liberals had the sense to look at child grooming and say "no fucking way" and still manage somehow to be accepting of LGBT populations.
Let them enjoy their gold medals. I hope they had fun at the Special Olympics.
Ahem.
When are conservatives going to take back the definition of conservatism?
I dunno. Anger is a powerful force. I'm gonna go clean my guns. Be right back.
Lordy Mercy!
No worries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania
We're witnessing a plague of digital ergotism.