https://arcdigital.media/how-contemporary-capitalism-drives-hysterical-wokeness-9fb206158aad?sk=25eb4808adf7de3be27c9eda9397e232
ReplyDeleteSuperb essay on monetising outrage. "It's an inconvenient truth for the super-woke and their detractors that the trend towards identity quotas and speech puritanism is driven by marketing models ever more reliant on social media.
Matthew 19/14 (King James Version):
ReplyDelete“But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
The word of the Lord.
HARRISBURG — Top Roman Catholic leaders in Pennsylvania covered up decades of child sex abuse involving more than 1,000 victims and hundreds of priests, according to a long-awaited grand jury report released Tuesday.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/catholic-church-sex-abuse-clergy-pennsylvania-grand-jury-report-released-names-20180814.html
Just one state.
And what would a day be without a shooting at Walmart:
http://www.phillytrib.com/content/tncms/live/
Depressing but revealing article about the large number of children left behind by the opioid crisis.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wsj.com/articles/the-children-of-the-opioid-crisis-1481816178?mod=djmc_pkt_inb
Los Angeles to install subway body scanners.
https://apnews.com/0277303b776445c5948a2be33de5af8e/LA-to-become-first-in-US-to-install-subway-body-scanners
I know that I have written this before but the United States is transforming into a cyberpunk dystopia. American society is a strange mix of high technology and extreme social and personal dysfunction.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteIn terms of documenting The Disaster, I think if we look at popular films, say from about 9/11 to Trumpo's election (summer block-buster movies in particular), we see two overwhelming themes: apocalyptic destruction of the US, and civic chaos w/in the US. It's as if there's an anticipation of disaster, or a *desire* for destruction -- to see what happens next. I think it tells us something significant about the psychological climate of the country, as films have a way, sometimes uncannily, of anticipating what's going to happen before it happens; an unconscious knowing or dream on celluloid, so to speak. I mean how many times has the Golden Gate Bridge been blown up in a movie, or New York City completely vaporized and destroyed? At some point, you hafta start to wonder about the sanity of the people making these films and the folks who watch them. Imagine if every summer movie in France was about the Eiffel Tower being blown to bits. Or every Italian film was about the Coliseum blowing up. We'd begin to think there's something wrong w/these people, no? We'd start thinking that the French and the Italians must be mentally ill. I dunno, but the perpetual depiction of an American dystopian future tells us something about a desire for an ending to something, a forecast of something that's coming.
Miles
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteYes, we will never run out of material for documenting the decline! Don't you ever get depressed, though? You always seem so sanguine. Of course, you are out of the U.S. so I guess that explains it. But just out of curiosity, were you able to keep upbeat while you were still here (as an NMI), or did American life get the best of you?
Tim Lukeman,
Good to see you here posting again! I always start at the bottom of the new posts and I can usually recognize you by the final few lines of your post (i.e. before I see you name). Anyhow, I always enjoy your take on things. Speaking of the "drug model" of mental disorders (continuing from your post on the last thread), check out Robert Whitaker's "Anatomy of an Epidemic"--or at least a talk by him on Youtube. He really highlights what you are talking about. Once when I was in an adventurous mood I popped a friend's Adderall just to see what it was, and, oh my God, the stuff is stronger than cocaine! It kept me up for 60 hours. It's so laughable that they call stuff like that "medicine" and give it to 5 year-olds. Such drugs are just the 21st century version of the lobotomy.
Anon-
ReplyDeleteI don't post Anons.
Megan-
I felt like killing myself most of the time, in the US. Down here, I'm as happy as a puerco en caca.
Jeff-
The Death Instinct hovers over the US like a toxic cloud (see White Noise, by DeLillo).
mb
Hi Wafers, and thanks for the information
ReplyDeletere: the debate about psychotics.In the past year there have been two posts of a youtube clip from the film of Bradbury's classic novel "The Martian Chronicles". The scene sorta resembles the actual script; par for hollyweird. Over the past weekend I read the book. It is chock full of good stuff. In chapter four, "The Earthmen", captain Williams is asked by an underling "Where are we sir?" The cap replies "In an insane asylum." A bit later the psychologist says to the cap: '"Your insanity is beautifully complete!" "My insanity." The captain was pale. "Yes, yes, what a lovely insanity." says the shrink.
BH: - yes, it has not been possible for me to love this country for a long time.
I spoke with a man from Frankfurt Germany this morning and I asked him: "Is he making Amerika great again?" His reply: "When was it ever great?" Ha ha ha. Sadly, the same 52- year old man seemed to have no working knowledge of most of modern European history.Is that an example of dual process in action? He also spoke of "paying taxes to the church in the EU, though he was not a "practicing Roman Catholic". Big kids do say the darndest things.
CTD.
Dr. B,
ReplyDeleteWell, sir, they are finally going to do something about all those school shootings in the US. No, the plan is NOT to confiscate guns or curtail gun sales or address the issues that drive people to kill other people with guns. Here's the plan: the DHS [Dept of Homeland Security] has set up a grant to create a program to teach “life-saving trauma training” to high school students so they can save each others' lives in case of a “mass casualty event”.
"The ‘School-Age Trauma Training’ program aims to provide 'the knowledge necessary to stabilize the injured and control severe bleeding until first responders arrive on the scene'."
https://www.rt.com/usa/435947-highschool-trauma-training-dhs/
DHS likens it to gym class and driver's ed. Y'know, just one more reasonable skill the average kid should learn before being let loose into the wilds of cutthroat American adulthood.
Reading Tom Servo's link to the body scanners in LA subways reminded me I wanted to pass on this other article.
I keep thinking of a phrase I read on the internet a couple of years ago that describes all this so well: shit's fucked up and shit.
- Teri
usa-er's lives were filled with joy, authentic happiness, purpose, & substance; it was exceptional, it was G-d's empire.
ReplyDeleteA place where hard work, grit, playing by the rules, know-how, and teamwork meant something.....
https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-make-arrest-40-people-overdose-connecticut-park/story?id=57195273
I'm beginning to cultivate the NMI, to take it seriously as a matter of conscience and even (some) forgiveness of turkeys - forgive them father for they know what they do and do it anyway...haveta say willful ignorance is pretty hard to look at - then on the other hand how many jerks get to meet an actual monk of the Wafer Way? Seriously though I'm trying on the vestament of a good example.
ReplyDeleteCatholic abuse of children - God really is dead, no?
Lawdy goddamn fucking hell (ty for letting me vent) whoever told these women it is attractive to stuff cotton balls in their cheeks? European women are so much more attractive to me but the botox gals are nearly enuf for me to go trans!
Miles, In conspiracy circles this is known as predictive programming:
ReplyDelete“Predictive programming is a subtle form of psychological conditioning provided by the media to acquaint the public with planned societal changes….
“If and when these changes are put through, the public will already be familiarized with them and will accept them as 'natural progressions’…thus lessening any possible public resistance and commotion.
“Predictive programming therefore may be considered as a veiled form of preemptive mass manipulation or mind control….”
I’ve come to the conclusion that he only ticket out of here is a spiritual one.
@MB--challenge accepted:
ReplyDeleteTwo Alabamians lost their jobs with large companies not because of a failure to perform but because of the cost of treating their multiple sclerosis.
Man accused of stealing soda from Arby's shocked with stun gun by police.
School Closed After Parents Declare ‘Hunting Season’ on 12-Year-Old Transgender Student: ‘A Good Sharp Knife Will Do the Job.'
The family of a child with disabilities is suing Oregon Senate Republican Leader Jackie Winters and the Salem homeowners board on which she serves after it voted to bar the girl's school from providing her with door-to-door bus service.
Parents funded cancer patient's $95,000 lifesaving treatment when insurance wouldn't pay.
Face of America: Mesa homeowner yelling at hiker to get off his property goes viral.
The Age of Ignorance
ReplyDeletehttps://eand.co/the-age-of-ignorance-f2dca7fd894d
"When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog! "
ReplyDelete"Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart."
----This is Trumpi lashing out at Omarosa on twitter. Sheer class from the greatest President ever.
Here’s Trumpi in September 2016 at a rally in Detroit: "Omarosa, who’s actually a very nice person, but I don’t want to say that because I’ll destroy her image by saying that. But she’s actually a very, very fine person and a pastor.”
He hires the best people who apparently all are carrying tapes to secretly record conversations in order to save their own ass from the actual scum lowlife Trumpi. Sometimes I feel like the sheer hypocrisy and stupidity of this administration is what might prevent them going full fascist.
Regarding banning Alex Jones from some social media sites, its fucking amazing that only in Amrika can people actually not agree about an obvious thing like not allowing this trash person to spew his hatred. What exactly does free speech mean ? That you can peddle any conspiracy theory you like and not back it up with facts ? That you can get to harass the families of victims of school shootings by calling them fake actors ? That you can get innocent people almost killed by falsely accusing them of running pedo rings ?
Please read Why Alex Jones is more dangerous than you think before trying to argue why banning him is an assault on free speech.
Nice reading this essay that grapples seriously with the good and bad of Jacques Derrida, rather than just bashing a caricature of postmodernism. Would like to see some of this centrist position taken on Freud
ReplyDeletehttps://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n22/adam-shatz/not-in-the-mood
Fifi, Blase -- Meanwhile, the entire Skeptic magazine/eSkeptic: a special issue devoted to jordan b peterson
Wudu-
ReplyDeleteHalf page limit, thanks.
mb
Hi Miles,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your last post about movies.I have always wondered something about movies: are movies made to influence public sentiments, or are movies made because of public sentiments? Maybe movies about dystopia are made to get people to think that dystopia is normal and natural. Maybe movies about dystopia are made because the public really wants to see more dystopia. What do you think Miles? I really don't know and would value your opinion. I guess a third answer would be that movies do both: influence people a certain way and also confirm what people already know.
Dr. B,
I really don't have any examples of decline this week from my neck of the woods, but I do find it humorous that they put Alex Jones in Twitter time-out. He's been a bad little boy and needs to be punished. That in itself says a lot about America and our obsession with technology.
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting (and sad) to know that American life put you into a depressed state. But I'm heartened that you were able to get out of it and find your way back to the sunny uplands. You kind of remind me of a character out of Rabelais. "Mad Belman", who burned all of his scholarly books with their hundreds of pages of footnotes, and dedicated himself instead to peeing in as many peoples' shoes as possible before death! All while seducing younger women and keeping senility at bay with Homeric laughter. At any rate, I'm sure that you will meet the Reaper with a merry jest, a full erection, and a large tankard of margarita!
Should we title your biography "Puerco En Caca"? (I don't know how to say "happy" in Spanish but it should be in the title as well. Otherwise it might be misconstrued as insulting.)
I don't want kids so I don't care, but you gotta feel for those kids:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41912754
Kanye
Megan-
ReplyDeleteFeliz. Soy un puerco feliz. As for the US, I was depressed half the time; other half, I wanted to toss my cookies. But where are all of these younger women you speak of?
mb
Mauricio Belman- indeed "un feliz puerco" y feliz cumpleanos (belatedly)
ReplyDeletejjarden-thanks for the post and link to Umair's essay on predatory capitalism and the loss of self worth. I have seen that 24 years ago, and recently, up close, in confession. It is tragic to behold. Some humans are very fragile and self destruction seems to be increasing. But this has always been the case, que non?
Sarasvati- yes, I agree that a spiritual ticket is needed.
And from "The Martian Chronicles", history noted: "Do you remember what happened to Mexico when Cortez and his very fine friends arrived from Spain? A whole civilization destroyed by greedy, righteous bigots. History will never forgive Cortez." Cortez the Killer" - Neil Young. (No comment on modern Mexico implied here.)
Oh how the tables have turned:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/nyregion/sexual-harassment-nyu-female-professor.html
Mike-
ReplyDeleteWell, I suppose there's an array of theories as to why disaster movies get made and why audiences want/continue to see them. I think, however, one of the reasons is because of America's increasing political polarization over the past 15-20 yrs. Both the left and right really want to slaughter and destroy each other, and they go to the cinema to watch their fantasies of destruction play out on screen. I tend to stay away from these kinds of films, as I get easily sickened by the wall-to-wall violence that's depicted. I also think that movies and filmmakers are good at predicting things. There's a social intuition at work there. Take the new Spike Lee film that I mentioned earlier, "BlacKKKlansman." Though it's set in 1970s, it's very much about the times we are living in today; it's about racism in America and the shocking resiliency of hate. Then recall that Lee made "Do the Right Thing" two years before the LA riots! So, I guess, certain movies have a sort of predictive power, and can get us into a state of readiness.
Miles
ps: RIP, Aretha Franklin. I saw Aretha live in the 1980s, and it was magisterial. Here's one of my all-time favorite Aretha songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4rMZCDQukQ
Our police dept has a block party every year when they bring out their military grade hardware. People pay to see this stuff and the kids crawl all over the hummers and essentially tanks. Done in the name of 'community engagement' it feels like predictive programming.
ReplyDeleteOur first openly gay candidate for gov is calling for universal preschool. 'OK cool the state can just keep my kids from ages 2-18.' Wonder what could go wrong with that plan? The best, I guess, liberals have to offer.
Anything uglier than an obese woman in stretch pants, or more grotesque than an abandoned grocery/big box store?
@George Carlin--Omarosa is an all time champion hustling douchebaguette. During the campaign, she allowed herself to be used as a symbol to show that Trump wasn't really "racist," and now she's trying to cash in on her fame and notoriety. In that, she's just like her former boss. They deserve each other.
ReplyDeleteAs for Alex Jones, sorry but I cannot condone any form of censorship, ESPECIALLY censorship by private tech companies on behalf of the same government they collaborate with to spy on American citizens. Peter Van Buren just got permanently banned from Twitter and had all of his information there permanently deleted because he engaged in "hate speech" by calling out several journalists who were huge cheerleaders for the Iraq War. From there, it's just a matter of time before they starting shutting down sites like this one by claiming Wafers are all Russian agents or something.
The problem isn't Jones, who is just another cynical hustler whose idiot followers made him a multimillionaire, and who will now be able to play the victim card to increase his popularity as conservatives are always so quick to do. The problem is with a citizenry who worship people like him (and Trump and Omarosa) in the first place.
Dr B-
ReplyDeleteDrug overdose deaths in the USA rise to record levels-
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/16/us-drug-overdose-deaths-opioids-fentanyl-cdc
Quote from the article- "Drug overdoses killed more than 72,000 people in the United States last year – a new record driven by the deadly opioid epidemic, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control."
American drug overdose deaths rose to a record 72,000 in 2017.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/16/us-drug-overdose-deaths-opioids-fentanyl-cdc
More than 70 people overdose on tainted synthetic marijuana in a Connecticut park near the Yale University campus.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/639133355/dozens-overdose-in-connecticut-park-on-tainted-synthetic-marijuana
Are Trumpi supporters really this dumb : Shut Down Govt for The Wall
ReplyDeleteGuess all Americans have shit for brains but some Trumpi supporters, like Botoxface said, are really deplorable. From "Mexico will pay for the wall" to shut down govt for wall funding. This is a cult that will jump off the cliff if Trumpi says so. From a declinist POV I am hoping majority Trumpi supporters are like these morons. #MAGA USA USA....
Some of the intellectual thoughts of these supporters :
"Trumpi cannot be racist because he has married 3 immigrants"
"Islam wants to come and kill us, they are liberals"
"For the first time in decades, we have a president who cares for our country"
"You go to work to get money, that's how you get it"
Had lunch with a friend and his daughter a few days ago. She just graduated from a well-known 4 year liberal arts college. The conversation turned to Phillip Roth and I said he lost interest in the Nobel Prize for Literature after Bob Dylan won it. Not only did his daughter not know who Roth was but tried to argue that Dylan was better. When she realized she could no longer argue the point she simply raised her hands and said, "Whatever!" What a shuck for a friend! He spent easily $50,000/year for her education and she still graduated a moron.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, anyone notice all the virtue signaling on the evening news last night? Almost 1/2 the time was devoted to the death of Aretha Franklin. Carl Bernstein wrote that the CIA is deeply ingrained in CBS news so I was particularly interested in their coverage. Not only did they spend the first 10 minutes on her death but did a segment at the end with regard to the song, Respect. My guess is that the deep state knows how fractured the country has become so wanted to present a Kumbaya story-one we could all rally around. What was especialy nauseating was watching Obama cry while she sang. Amazing how someone can cry while at the same time turning the entire planet into a battlefield. I think that's a special form of derangement.
Bill-
ReplyDeleteNeat that you figured out that Wafers are Russian agents:
Óchi chórnyje, óchi zhgúchije
Óchi strásnyje i prikrásnyje
Kak ljubljú ja vas Kak bajúsj ya vas
Znatj uvÃdjil vas ja vdrobryi chas!
Did I mention that I personally planned and funded 9/11?
Pastrami-
What's that strange thing she has on her head?
mb
MB & Wafers - thanks to whoever recommended the Thomas Frank book "Oblivion." Just started it, really interesting so far.
ReplyDeleteBill Hicks - I'm with you on the censorship front. To have a handful of nega corporations dictate what is fake news, hate speech, divisive, or whatever they come up with to silence anyone who might disagree oratory conventional opinion or not be 'polite' is chilling. Alex Jones is not the issue at all. He is a vile person, but the first amendment doesn't say freedom of speech only for nice, agreeable, polite people. This isn't just a slippery slope, it's a cliff we're about to jump off of. Who will be next?
I'm feeling the need to change my email provider, get off Facebook (where I almost never post anything anyway), and find a new browser. It's a pain to do that, but in the long run I think I'll feel better - and less vulnerable! Doesn't this make you feel like someone somewhere is monitoring everything we say here?
Creepy!
Taoism: An Antidote To Popular Hubris
ReplyDelete"The book of tragic death has been written many times, while the book of life is still obscure and unknown."
Bill: I couldn't agree with you more about Alex Jones, censorship, and why people like him have legs. I contacted our senator, Chris Murphy (who called on other tech companies to ban more sites like InfoWars, and says the survival of American democracy (sic) depends on it) to protest, for all the good it’s going to do. Duh, democracy cannot survive censorship. It doesn’t seem possible that people like Chris Murphy are that stupid, but I guess they are. Either that, or there’s something going on that we don’t know about.
ReplyDeleteAs often as I allude to the fact that keeping people divided is a modus operandi of the PTB, I'm told that all the problems are caused by whatever it is they don’t support (pointing fingers in all directions except for themselves).
Na Zdorovie.
One of the best aspects of this blog is the interesting reading material you guys dig up. Allow me to try and return the favor.
ReplyDeletePatrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed is an exception book. Liberalism, which Deneen defines as encompassing both liberalism and conservatism, is producing a backlash not because of any failure, but because it is successful. Liberals and conservatives argue over a large expansive state and a homogenous free market, but this feud masks the fact that in the Liberal order, both the state and the market will grow inexorably, and symbiotically over time. A liberated individual is the product of both. Individuality, requires statism, and statism requires individuality and it’s other offspring, the free market. The result of Liberalism is increased fragmentation, loss of social networks, atomization, loss of culture, and a feeling of powerlessness that causes the liberated individual to be resentful towards the very Liberal structures that undergird his existence. Where the individuals anger is directed depends on his political outlook. If you are a conservative, you will blame an intrusive, over reaching state. If you are a Liberal, you will blame an unbridled, rapacious market. However, it is silly to blame either, because under Liberalism both will continue to grow over time. It’s baked into the cake, and there really isn’t anything to be done about it, regardless of what politicians claim.
No one seriously debates alternatives to Liberalism. What political philosophers call the question of Regime, has been settled. Liberalism is viewed as the evolutionary end result of having tried all other systems and found them wanting. Our entire political discourse, liberal vs conservative solutions, is bound within the framework of Liberalism. Thus the answer to any problems caused by Liberalism, is inevitably going to be….more Liberalism. No other measure is possible without ditching Liberalism as a concept (something Viktor Orban in Hungary is actively pursuing). The result is roughly like trying to put out a fire by dousing it in gasoline.
Liberal elites, what Deneen calls the Liberalocracy, don’t really see any of this. They think Liberalism is under attack from proto fascist forces external to Liberalism for reasons that have nothing to do with Liberalism. The idea that the system that treats them so well could be producing discontent is borderline unfathomable.
There is a lot more to it, he develops his thesis meticulously and the book is chock full of information that really makes you think. It’s not a large book by any means, but there isn’t an ounce of fat on it.
Thanks Miles. I like your theory that moviemakers can predict the future. That is something to keep an eye on going forward. I agree with you that violent movies are not good to watch, but in this hyperviolent society of ours, it's impossible. to avoid violence. Just this week I read about systematic violence played on children by the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. I read about the violence of dozens of people overdosing in New Haven. And then there's the garden variety shootings, police violence, domestic abuse and random craziness that is woven into the fabric of our society. O&D Bro, O&D.
ReplyDeleteGood little piece on Prez Carter:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/08/17/feature/the-un-celebrity-president-jimmy-carter-shuns-riches-lives-modestly-in-his-georgia-hometown/
Morris-
ReplyDeleteYour confession reminded me of a recent tweet by Saudi Arabia's state-owned twitter account. I believe I speak for all Wafers when I say that I am crossing my fingers in hopes that Alex Jones doesn't hone in on your Jewish/Bolshevist/Post-Modern Neo-Marxist plot to eat all of Mexico's menudo. Truly, our plan must continue without interruption, as sleeper agents storm the restaurants and kitchens of Mexico City!
https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-appeared-to-threaten-canada-with-a-911-style-attack-2018-8
https://www.amazon.com/Hiking-Nietzsche-Becoming-Who-You/dp/0374170010
ReplyDeleteA revelatory Alpine journey in the spirit of the great Romantic thinker Friedrich Nietzsche
Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are
I'm hiking a quadrant of the Appalachian Trail the next few weeks and will have this in tow.
MB/Wafers,
ReplyDeleteLiving in this toilet bowl of a nation has sadly driven me to drink and I've had to put the bottle down for my own health and sanity.
At any rate, I too have noticed an uptick in the amount disaster/dystopia lately, however this tradition goes all the way back to the 1960's/70's. George Romero's zombie flicks, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, Red Dawn, etc. all pre-date the current batch of films and show that the American death wish goes back a long ways.
Also, I'm retiring my handle and will now be known as "Happy Hour Hero" from here on in.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/U-of-Akron-Will-Phase-Out-80/244293
ReplyDelete'The University of Akron will phase out 80 degree programs, about 20 percent of what it now offers, in part, to save money for the future, the university announced on Wednesday........On Thursday, Akron announced that it would open three facilities to accommodate varsity, club, and recreational gamers. The university said the centers would represent “the largest amount of dedicated esports space of any university in the world to date.” Five inaugural varsity teams will compete this fall in the video games Overwatch, League of Legends, Hearthstone, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Rocket League. The games explore themes of fantasy and horror; thwarting insidious terrorist plots; and soccer with rocket-powered cars...'
"The games explore themes of fantasy and horror; thwarting insidious terrorist plots; and soccer with rocket-powered cars.....
"The games explore themes of fantasy and horror; thwarting insidious terrorist plots; and soccer with rocket-powered cars.....
"The games explore themes of fantasy and horror; thwarting insidious terrorist plots; and soccer with rocket-powered cars.....
Excuse my sputt... uh, stuttering there.
Varsity computer gaming. I already knew about the professional gamers. For every player there are hundreds or thousands of spectators. Watching someone play a computer game, what could be more exciting? Since I know some of you will want to reconsider your life direction, a nice intro for you:
https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/professional-gaming-career/
Not much else to say here. No sense beating a dead horse.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteWell, it looks like the Trumpo's new target is now DOJ prosecutor Bruce Ohr. This looks like the onset of a possible slow- moving Saturday Night Massacre. It could include pardoning Manafort and even starting to lift security clearances of all Mueller's team. In any case, it seems to be a public self immolation, setting everyone on fire including himself as Mueller closes in:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/17/politics/trump-ohr-doj-security-clearance/index.html
Also, isn't it against the law for a person (Trumpo, in this case) to retaliate against someone who provides information to authorities in an open criminal investigation that that person doesn't like?
Miles
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of the torrid, whirlwind romance that you mentioned awhile back. I think it was in Mexico, and she was a good-looking, passionate and younger woman, but after about six weeks you said she just "flaked out" and disappeared. (I was also wondering if she was the BPD--because BPDs tend to be mercurial like that.)
On a more serious note, your time in Washington DC illustrates what is perhaps the biggest hurdle to NMI as a viable lifestyle. That is to say, the lack of community and meaningful human interaction. Indeed, it is arguably impossible to live a healthy and spiritually fulfilling life without SOME kind of human warmth and interchange. I struggle with this myself, though I do find some sustenance in the poetry group (I'm a writer) that I attend twice a month. I have some casual acquaintances there that I go and hang out with once in awhile. Still, it is a far cry from being surrounded with people who care about me. In a sense, NMI only works if you are fortunate enough to have some kind of community, even if that just amounts to your own family. Short of that, what you are left with is a kind of dangerous and unhealthy isolation.
Just to re-emphasize why no Wafer should support Internet censorship, Caitlin Johnstone has now been banned from Twitter for telling an uncomfortable truth about a major war criminal: “John McCain devoted his entire political career to slaughtering as many human beings as possible at every opportunity. The world will be improved when he finally dies.”
ReplyDeleteHere is an excellent essay as on what a cesspool online liberalism has become: "But that does not matter to today’s internet liberals: politics is not a matter of the policies you support or the things you believe. Politics is matter of hidden mindsets and ambient toxicities. Politics is about loudly signaling your own goodness by ostracizing others who have been labeled malignant, regardless of the content of those labels or the context in which they were given. Nothing matters but those labels, in all their immediate and superficial glory–and you best react to them with appropriate fervor, lest you find yourself likewise labeled malignant.
"This is a not a social movement. This is a suicide cult. This is a worldview that cannot envision politics extending beyond one’s inner self. This is a political program that eschews any and all suggestions toward solidarity, that would much sooner continue murdering itself than pursuing any actual goals. This is the liberalism we’ve been taught to accept. This is the world we’ve chosen to build."
Carter is the only president in the modern era to return full-time to the house he lived in before he entered politics — a two-bedroom rancher assessed at $167,000, less than the value of the armored Secret Service vehicles parked outside.
ReplyDeleteThe un-celebrity president
Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly in his Georgia hometown
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/08/17/feature/the-un-celebrity-president-jimmy-carter-shuns-riches-lives-modestly-in-his-georgia-hometown/
“You’re lucky to be alive.”
ReplyDeleteOn interacting with people who are different from you. Great work, heroic.
Go Greater Good
Change the World (For 1 Person)
https://www.gogreatergood.com/kindness/for-1-person/
Since it's the weekend, here something funny (and true!): When you tell folks you are moving to a place like Malaysia, they will have no idea where it is! Not at all. Some folks will honestly say they never heard of it. Others will ask you why you are moving to Africa. (!)
ReplyDeleteYou will get asked what do people do there? What language do they speak? (English, official) A few will say they would worry about the medical care there? What if you get sick there? What will you do then?
It's pretty clear that no matter how bad things get in the USA, 99.999999% of American would never even think of leaving. As a lot, Americans are terrified of the wider world and, generally, like the consumerist, competitive mindset. As a friend once told me: But what else is there?
And so, as water gushes into the hull, the turkeys will never look for a lifeboat memorised by the reality show Circus Maximus on the poop deck, down with the ship USS USA they will go. As they place their trust in the wisdom and integrity of Captain Trump...
Bon Voyage Turkeys.
BrotherMaynard
Bill Hicks -- Spot on and agree with you. Omarosa is a scumbag that deserves sympathy from no one. In fact, Black Americans aren't buying Omarosa's turn against Trump. She is indeed a lowlife and as you said they deserve each other. I was just pointing out the stupidity and hypocrisy of Trumpi and his gang.
ReplyDeleteI get what you are saying about not letting tech companies to have so much power to decide who they get to ban. We need to perform a full urine treatment on Twitter hq. Maybe smacking a few top execs and getting them back to their senses. What happened with Peter Van Buren was definitely wrong. When it comes to Alex Jones though, it just hurts me so much that parents cant even peacefully mourn the loss of their loved ones. This asshole has harassed the families of victims for years by claiming the shootings are a hoax by govt to take away guns. You are right, that part of the problem is the millions of morons who follow him; one among them Trumpi. Trumpi called him on his show and thanked him for his service, imagine that, what a country of Turkeys !!
A bit of humour : Kim Kardashian affecting cloud formations and weather
Re: disaster movies …
ReplyDeleteI firmly believe that such movies are popular because, on some level, people not only expect this to happen, but they actually WANT it to happen. Remember all the "invasion USA" movies in the 1980s, the growth of militias, etc.? It was obvious even then that such people weren't afraid of America falling into chaos due to invasion, they longed for it to happen. Chaos = no laws to obey, do whatever you want, indulge your every desire. In short, the demands of a civilization are too much for such people; they're stuck in frightened little child mode, doing their best to hide it by strutting about & proclaiming, "That's right, we bad, we bad!" like Richard Pryor & Gene Wilder in Stir Crazy.
Megan, yes, its clear that the med approach to mental "health" is all about managing the symptoms, not addressing the causes. Perhaps even about creating the symptoms to be managed by those increasingly expensive meds, too, not unlike in Philip K. Dick's Scanners, where the drug rehab program sustains itself by using burned-out addicts to "recover" by cultivating more plant-derived addictive drugs. That the reigning social paradigm might itself be crazy-making & insane is The Question That Must Not Be Raised.
Re: Pres. Carter living in a 2BR, $167K home--could one imagine Obshitforbrains authentically living in such a place?
ReplyDeleteRe: usa censorship/propaganda. It's everywhere. It's why Dr. Berman has anemic bk sales (in small part to Kakatuni "reviews", crickets from MSM, us "universities" etc...). His narrative does not fit the usa fictional script.
Try saying on a blog site or "social" media forum that the "usa was a hu$tling ,huckstering, and imperialistic war mongoring empire with no future. It was a huge mistake, a fraud masquerading as a "democracy," and that the 400yrs of fucking people momentum won't stop the runaway freight train." "The only thing that "binds" usa-ers together is getting money--a fool's gold rush of immigrants (sans those freeing pogroms) who all want their piece of the (rotten) pie."
See what happens. 99.999%---Banned, warned, censored, deleted, trolled, stalking, physical threats, who are yous?, etc...
Wafer Brother Maynard--T-2yrs until we're outta this septic tank. Surprised if usa-ers could even spell Malaysia.
I've made a mistake in terms of Wafer conspiracies. An outing to eat menudo by the enlightened, Wafer expat brigade would not cause a menudo shortage. (It would merely be lunch.)
ReplyDeleteA true Wafer conspiracy would be to fill the shoes of as many (non-Wafer) Americans with piss as is possible, by submerging the lower 48 in a deluge of urine. An event so cathartic and well-orchestrated that the whole country would hit rock bottom overnight.
As everyday Americans continue to go insane, your favorite pundits would talk about the opportunities of "liquid gold." Celebrities would start appearing in commercials to hock rain boots. Companies would begin selling it by the bottle. The news would call it rain!
Ronald Reagan's ghost would rise from the depths to declare that America's "golden future" had arrived, as the government holds hearings on the "piss surplus."
As levels begin to rise, you may envision your favorite politician, public intellectual, or pundit being washed away in the torrent. Think of Steven Pinker wading through the streets, giving his optimism speech as NMI Wafers in lifeboats flog him with the bladder of a pig, before retiring behind the walls of their healthy, Wafer communities. Finally, having carried out the most profound plot, we will have changed the course of history. Future historians in China (or wherever) will be able to summarize America's exceptional history - different from previous empires and civilizations - with a new proverb: "Where there is no dark age, there is piss."
Dan Daniel,
ReplyDelete"For every player there are hundreds or thousands of spectators. Watching someone play a computer game, what could be more exciting?" I guess the ones who want to grow up to be game watchers (hey, an art in and of itself) can sign up to audit the "classes".
The US is fucking toast. No wonder we have to cadge rides to the International Space Station from the Russians.
- Teri
No shit dpt:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.usnews.com/news/health-care-news/articles/2018-08-16/poll-stress-about-money-relationships-keeps-americans-up-at-night
I've noticed heavy censorship since May on major stories - see Popper on a closing society. That these major companies that privatized decades of research are able to monopolize radical left incendiary sentiment for celebrities etc., is fueling the walkaway trend. Rose-anne was correct I think, it's tolerance for the left and all the MSM seems onboard. Though Orlov seems correct, very few are really practicing conservatism in North America. When were humans by in large ever conservative about anything, particularly post agriculture? Most are treacherously self-interested. Increasing division and polarity seems very dangerous and by design.
ReplyDeleteOften everything seems like a psyop, controlled opposition, that's been history, playing for keeps, controlling everything so you can just up the threats to complainers. It's definitely class warfare corp fiefdoms everywhere, only cesspool extractive empty business opps. If you complain about a lack of opportunity you quickly get an f you, often a manipulation that someone has been offended. What a great control mechanism, a cultural polit-bureau lack of identity, political flattening with no traditional boundaries, criticism, gender fluid, parenting, e.g. divide and conquer identity crisis of hyper-competitive normalized "progress". Since most have zero power one can only hope that there is good fighting evil between establishment factions that have always gone too far and that maybe some of these political leadership crimes well known now for the first time will somehow see some justice though everyone seems compromised. I'm not dismissive of Q as well and glad to be so old because the future environments look so grim. Volunteerism could have helped but now the scale of the problems and corruption are way too vast. Most drank in all this "free" poison, these "faux" communication platforms since disagreement can just be deleted, that are collusioning against ideas about reality. Nothing ever wasn't taxed heavily.
Telling the 100% TRUTH is now considered a “Gaffe,” and a “Career ending statement.”
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/18/top-2020-democrats-under-fire-for-collective-bashing-america-after-cuomo-gaffe.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XirnEfkdQJM
ReplyDeleteMB et al.
ReplyDeleteA while back you were discussing the death of Philip Roth and why he never received the Nobel Prize. Although Roth never moved me much, nevertheless, you can see in the article below what goes on behind the scenes, and wonder if it is such a great honour to be chosen by the Swedish Academy (no doubt it sells books).
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/17/the-ugly-scandal-that-cancelled-the-nobel-prize-in-literature
Look at the photo at the opening of the article – the members of the Swedish Academy (“The Eighteen”), elected for life - what a bunch of pompous stuffed shirts.
There is a long list of great authors who died without winning the award. Here are some: Leo Tolstoy, Jorge Luis Borges, Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, Primo Levi, Graham Greene, Marcel Proust, Robert Musil (the first Man Without Qualities), James Joyce, Simone de Beauvoir, James Baldwin, Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco and Milan Kundera among others (my main man Anton Chekov died a bit too early to be considered).
There are arguably many more, but check the list of authors who were chosen - many truly of great worth, but a large percentage have disappeared with hardly a trace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Literature
ReplyDeleteI am starting to wonder if there is any connection between Evangelicals and movies showing apocalyptic catastrophes and the destruction of the US. The Evangelicals constantly talk about end-time prophecies and they always describe scenarios in which the US collapses and loses its status as the superpower and they believe that means the end of the World. I would imagine that most Americans believe the same since they think they are so special. I believe and I imagine most if not all of us on this blog believe that when the US is finished, the rest of the world would go on. Other empires fell and look what happened, the rest of the world continued on their paths. However we all know that the land of the ignorant, home of the buffoons does have the most powerful military force and the if I am not mistaken the 2nd largest nuclear arsenal in the world. I wonder what will happen with all that when the US finally falls.
@ Tim Lukeman. Tim here is a quote from Benjamin Franklin taliking about white settlers who had lived amongst the natives, “Tho ransomed by their friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail them to stay among the English, yet in short time they become disgusted with our manner of life... and take the first good opportunity of escaping again into the woods.” I think America has always been as Philip Slater said a psychological slum. In Ben’s time some went to live with the natives. In more recent times some escape through entertainment. I don’t think these people are stuck in little child mode. I think they long to feel productive. I got that Ben Franklin quote from the book Tribe by Sebastian Junger.
ReplyDeleteSo, how inept are the Dumbocrats? So inept that black Americans' support for Trump has risen to 36%--double what it was a year ago and the highest it has been for any recent Republican president. One of the biggest factors in the increase was apparently Kanye West's public support for Trump--and the way Internet liberals fell all over themselves to demonize him. It seems black Americans don't much appreciate a lynch mob, even a viral one. Who could have known?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of black Americans, Teodrose Fikre has an excellent new essay about the deplorable state of the mainstream media, in which he correctly assess the primary blame as belonging not necessarily to the outlets but to those who refuse to stop watching it: "However, irrespective of our collective revulsion for the establishment press, too many keep tuning in and ingesting the very toxins that gives us agita—we just can’t quit MSM."
Fikre also condemns the latest round of Internet censorship, including that of Caitlin Johnstone. Johnstone's Twitter account, incidentally, was restored when her legion of fans protested, forcing the company to relent. Not having a large following, however, Peter Van Buren remains in Twitter purgatory.
Miles, Tim, Mike,
ReplyDeleteHere is a pretty good explanation for American's fascination with apocalyptic destruction movies. The relevant part starts at about 22:10, but the whole lecture is worth listening to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AILpwUTPRGQ&list=PLxPmwaGMOAvsZp9vavFkyxYFZDDgKy807&index=7
you might be interested to know that the most recent essay on john steppling's blog begins with a quote from you:
ReplyDeletehttp://john-steppling.com/2018/08/your-call-is-important-to-us/
“…this situation is highly volatile, because those in the periphery are increasingly aware that the prosperity of the core is purchased at their expense. ”
Morris Berman (Twilight of American Culture)
R.I.P. The Internet (at least as it was envisioned by some of its early advocates). Check out Google's definition of fake news:
ReplyDeleteThe most high profile of these issues is the phenomenon of “fake news,” where content on the web has contributed to the spread of blatantly misleading, low quality, offensive or downright false information.
Note how the only valid attribute ("downright false information") is last. "Blatantly misleading" is necessarily subjective and, for Pete's sake, "low quality" or "offensive" makes something "fake news"? If this is not Orwellian I don't know what is. And all the brain-damaged, idiot progs celebrating the censorship of Alex Jones are just cheering the corporate state for shutting down their higher-level brain functions and enjoying it.
P.S. Got that link from Taibbi: Censorship Does Not End Well; How America learned to stop worrying and put Mark Zuckerberg in charge of everything.
Dan D-
ReplyDeleteJust a bit too long.
mb
Wafers, check out the video in the article:
ReplyDeletehttps://techcrunch.com/2018/08/19/a-university-is-outfitting-living-spaces-with-thousands-of-echo-dots/
It doesn't get any more brave-new-world than this.
Kanye
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteAlternative communities dept.:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/anarchism-intentional-communities-trump/513086/
Quote from article:
"Their answers are different, but they share one thing. They've seen what modern American life looks like, And they want out."
Comic caricature of Goebbels dept.:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/19/giuliani-truth-todd-trump-788161
Over & out,
Miles
I know the issue of whether or not the US South is pure evil has come up b4 on the blog so (hopefully) without picking at a scab I have to recommend the documentary on Showtime, 'If I Leave Here Tomorrow - a film about Lynrd Skynrd.' For my money is there an any more righteous rock-n-roller than a southern hippie? They flew the confederate flag at their concerts attempting to b divorced from the hateful connotations of slavery and the war. They celebrated the southern life, Jeffersonian and agrarian, even honing their craft outdoors in the sun and heat. As hippies, unlike SF, they had to live their creed in the face of strong opposition. Ronnie Van Sant's voice was a true loss to the world of music.
ReplyDeleteUtterly repugnant as McConnell and southern politicians are, I still find myself wanting to love the south.
This company embeds microchips in its employees, and they love it
ReplyDeletehttps://www.technologyreview.com/s/611884/this-company-embeds-microchips-in-its-employees-and-they-love-it/
Soaring bankruptcy rates among elderly Americans.
ReplyDeletehttps://abcnews.go.com/US/soaring-bankruptcy-rates-signal-coming-storm-broke-elderly/story?id=57150897
American workers have less holiday time than medieval peasants.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7017447/average-american-holiday-medieval-economist/
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind, I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in hearing you're version of the "ideal state". Not a whole essay, but I'm just curious what your take is. I know you are not a socialist, and that you emphasize "dual process". However, dual process, as I understand it at least, is more of a transitional thing, i.e. a particular response to a collapsing society.
For myself, I actually grew up a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. This is probably because I was surrounded by smart people (my father and uncle are PHDs) who filled me with Milton Friedman and Hayek from a young age. However, like John Gray, I gradually came to see that unfettered capitalism and Neo-liberalism were destroying precisely the values (community, family, tradition, etc.) that conservatives pretend to hold dear. So while I still maintain some conservative beliefs (I think Edmund Burke is a force to be reckoned with, and Friedman and Hayek make some good points about there being no such thing as an entirely "selfless" or benevolent government, etc.), I've definitely moved more leftward. In particular, I think F.D.R.'s point about retirement pensions, health insurance, a decent wage, etc. being integral to any healthy and functioning society is well-founded. That said, I'd like to know what you think!
Identity Politics going mental in the UK:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/women-dont-have-penises/21722
"It is now genuinely risky to say that someone who has a penis is not a woman – that is, it is genuinely risky to engage in reasoned, rational discussion about sexual difference and biological reality."
Kanye
Alex-
ReplyDeleteCdn't run it. Half-page limit. Thanks.
Dan D-
Sorry, can't do it from this end.
Megan-
Wish I had time to do it, but I don't. I'd say I'm 10 or 20% socialist, BTW. Then there's a large part that's decentralist/green/sustainable.
dg-
I've been thinking of having one installed deep in my rectum. It wd be controlled via my sphincter. There will be a special type squeeze for ordering pastrami sandwiches.
Gunnar-
Time to let the South, and WAF ch. 4, rest in peace (on this blog).
mb
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall a long interview with Lawrence Ferlinghetti back in 1971 or so, where he defined his preferred form of government as Buddhist Socialism. He said it lightly, but seriously. It was just in passing, no details, but the phrase itself suggests something Waferish, with the socialism part being more than just nuts-&-bolts economics, more along the lines of a spiritually-infused way of living & being. Not unlike the world envisioned by William Morris in his socialist lectures & books, in fact. In short, more than just necessary economic equity - that alone wouldn't be enough. It had to have a soul, a positive, harmonious & unifying way of existence: a philosophy of Enough rather than More. To Morris, Art & Beauty for all were absolutely vital to such a life, rather than being a luxury for just a few.
I'd go for that.
This quote from Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture (Zizek 1992) seems relevant.
ReplyDelete« if there is a phenomenon that fully deserves to be called the “fundamental fantasy of contemporary mass culture,” it is this fantasy of the return of the living dead: the fantasy of a person who does not want to stay dead but returns again and again to pose a threat to the living. The unattained archetype of a long series—from the psychotic killer in Halloween to Jason in Friday the Thirteenth—is still George Romero’s The Night of the Living Dead, where the “undead" are not portrayed as embodiments of pure evil, of a simple drive to kill or revenge, but as sufferers, pursuing their victims with an awkward persistence, colored by a kind of infinite sadness (as in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu, in which the vampire is not a simple machinery of evil with a cynical smile on his lips, but a melancholic sufferer longing for salvation). Apropos of this phenomenon, let us then ask a naive and elementary question: why do the dead return? The answer offered by Lacan is the same as that found in popular culture: because they were not properly buried, i.e., because something went wrong with their obsequies. The return of the dead is a sign of a disturbance in the symbolic rite, in the process of symbolization; the dead return as collectors of some unpaid symbolic debt. This is the basic lesson drawn by Lacan from Antigone and Hamlet. The plots of both plays involve improper funeral rites, and the “living dead”—Antigone and the ghost of Hamlet's father—return to settle symbolic accounts. The return of the living dead, then, materializes a certain symbolic debt persisting beyond physical expiration. »
Dr. B:
ReplyDeleteNow here's a great BS degree program-
https://www.kutztown.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/social-media-theory-and-strategy.htm
@Gunnar--back in 2001, Drive By Truckers recorded a double album called Southern Rock Opera that is all about the life and "death" of Lynyrd Skynyrd, focusing on the band's attempt to show that not all southerners are inbred racists, and also their war of words with Neil Young in the song "Sweet Home Alabama" (Skynyrd and Young actually had enormous respect for each other). It's an outstanding album by a group of southerners who, like you, struggled with WANTING to take pride in the place where they were born. Incidentally, I finally got the chance to see DBT in Charlottesville earlier this year, and they put on one of the two best shows of the 60-70 rock concerts I've seen in my life. The other was Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
ReplyDeleteHere's a modern American headline of note: Why is San Francisco covered in human feces? It seems when you throw tens of thousands of people out onto the streets with nowhere to go and get rid of public toilets, the streets become covered in shit. Who knew? Incidentally, I read the other day that India, a country notorious for poor people pooping everywhere, wants to implement national health care for its most vulnerable citizens. I'm sure most Americans consider India to be a third world shit hole, when the shit hole is actually right outside their windows.
Bomb in Yemen school bus strike was US-supplied - CNN
ReplyDeletehttps://www-m.cnn.com/2018/08/17/middleeast/us-saudi-yemen-bus-strike-intl/index.html
this graphic from CNN on those bombings @ Yemen happens to ID the bomb makers to each civilian massacre - Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics ... that should really be standard by now in war reporting, no?
Birn-
ReplyDeleteAm very excited abt this. I believe they will also be offering a B.S. in "How to Be a Turkey in a Nation of Turkeys."
mb
Stop the press! Our delivery is at hand: Chelsea Clinton says she has not ruled out running for office.
ReplyDelete“Of course it’s not the way I wish she would be doing that because I think she would’ve been a uniquely extraordinary president, but I’m not remotely surprised that she hasn’t pulled the covers over her head because that’s just not who my mom is.”
Oh my gosh, this story of overcoming adversity is so inspirational that I started farting uncontrollably and almost fainted from lack of oxygen...
Hola Wafers,
ReplyDeleteKanye - the road signs pointing to Brave New World/1984 dytopic arrival have been everywhere around us for many years now. Scary.
Italiana - I looked at a fecesbook thing for the first time in my life late last winter. Two different friends showed it to me. It was another friend's thing which promoted a retail business hustle. That hustle has since been sold off by said friend. Things change fast these days! Quit social media soon- you'll feel a whole lot better immediately. Shakuhachi is more rewarding. "I feel a whole lot better since I gave up hope!"
Another good Wafer passage from -"The Martian Chronicles": "The men of Earth came to Mars. They came because they were afraid. . .for most men felt the great illness in them even before the rocket fired into space. And this disease was called The Loneliness..."
"I cannot live without books." - Thom Jefferson
CTD!
Hola MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB, Birn-
Required books for Turkey-101:
1. "The Power of Positive Turkey," by Norman Vincent Poultry
2. "Awaken the Turkey Within," by Anturky Robbins.
3. "You are a Turkey: How to Stop Doubting You Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life," by Jenny Turkling
Miles
Clearly the staff at the new Social Media Universities should consist entirely of trolls who have leveraged social media to further destroy social fabric. Some early meme warriors from Trump 2016, a few Twitter users who have successfully used the platform to harass celebrities, and finally some successful SWATers as admins. We want an all-star team, guys.
ReplyDeleteNot sure anybody really understands what social media is all about except them.
Dear Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteBelow is an excellent Waferesque article titled "Life at the top" that I encourage all Wafers to read:
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2018/08/life-at-the-top/
Best Wishes,
Himanshu
I read recently that it could soon be illegal in the United Kingdom to suggest than a woman does not have a penis. Bridges are crumbling around the United States and the streets of San Francisco are covered in poop. I realize the French are not perfect, but what the fuck is wrong with the English speaking world?
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect MB, there will be no Chinese historians to document this 5o years from now. Most likely, if anyone will be alive 50 years from now, they will have better things to do.
ReplyDeleteFlorin-
ReplyDeleteReally, what cd be better?
Jeff-
I like the idea of Awaken Your Inner Turkey. Except most Americans seem to have done it already.
Zar-
A turkette!
I watched "Bridge of Spies" (Tom Hanks) for the 2nd time yesterday. 2 things stood out:
1. Corruption of the court system. What the govt wanted was the appearance, that the accused spy, Rudolf Abel, got due process. They cdn't care less abt the reality. Abel didn't get due process at all, and this fact was suppressed by the court. On appeal, Supreme Court affirmed this kangaroo court decision 5-4.
2. Stupidity and hysteria of the American public, enraged at Abel as a "traitor." His defense atty, Jas Donovan, was unable to get the pt across that Abel was not a US citizen and therefore cdn't be a traitor--only an enemy soldier doing what his own govt had enlisted him to do. We also had spies operating in the USSR, Donovan pointed out, who cd hardly be called traitors to the USSR. But the American public was too stupid to understand the difference between traitor and enemy.
Good portrait of US govt and American people.
mb
ps: This is kinda neat:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/20/entertainment/asia-argento-alleged-assault-settlement/index.html
I just ran across this short, informative video and remembered that botox was sometimes mentioned here in the context of its possible use by Hillary Clinton:
ReplyDelete"Using One of the Deadliest Neurotoxins for Beauty... and Medicine?" :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaqpoNi5dog
It's hard to say what anyone will be reading or watching not just in 50 years but in 10. Here's an interview with Glenn Greenwald that perfectly summarizes my concerns about banning Alex Jones and the rest:
ReplyDeletehttps://theintercept.com/2018/08/15/alex-jones-twitter-infowars-ban-free-speech/
A quote from another article on censoring conspiracy theories:
"Whatever happened to “Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?” When I was a kid, Milton’s quote was a sacred tenet of the free press. Now it’s blasphemy. Now it represents the opposite of what the press believes. How the hell did that happen?"
Hi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteInteresting development from the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA has noticed that opiate deaths declined significantly in states where marijuana has been legalized (no explanation as to why this is) so they are proposing to increase the production per grower for research of marijuana from 1,000 pounds to 5,400 pounds annually and decrease the production of opioid drugs which I would think won't make Big Pharma happy (unless they are in on it somehow). Of course no questioning as to why opioid deaths have risen. I assume that the relief of depression and anxiety are why people self-medicate with marijuana or opioids - certainly marijuana is the safer of the two. Anybody got some insight on this?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomangell/2018/08/16/dea-wants-more-marijuana-grown-and-fewer-opioids-produced-in-2019-really/#2a617d4d14cb
New book on the perils of the digital literature life by Maryanne Wolf, a professor and also the Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research
ReplyDeleteReader, Come Home: The Fate of the Reading Brain in a Digital World
I've seen MB cite her a few times
Prof. Berman,
ReplyDeleteThere are videos where it is said that Anthony Bourdain committed suicide b/c of Argento.
If that is true, then what a damn shame! Here is the link to one of the videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awxPBUuG_rs
I found 2 articles about secession in the US and how and why it will disintegrate. The writer of the first article asks if the break up of the US will be peaceful or will it be violent. The writer of the second article seems to advocate a peaceful break up of the Union and believes that the break up is inevitable.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/05/what_the_united_states_can_learn_from_yugoslavias_breakup.html
ericsammons.com/united-states-america-big-succeed/
At the risk of revealing partiality (I know the author quite well) this book may have interesting connections to your blog's subject.
ReplyDeleteSolitary Action - Ira J. Cohen - Oxford University Press
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/solitary-action-9780190258573?cc=us&lang=en&
It contains discussions of certain solitary activities that often seem to be "idle" activities but have a rich undiscovered role in our social lives.
I’ve been trying to post for days, but Google has been an absolute booger to me. I was all set to post the poop scoop on SFO, but somebody beat me to it. Argh!
ReplyDeleteThe important thing is I’m ready to research expat related matters, having just gotten decent web access for a while. Getting out of this pit is priority número uno.
Best wishes to Wafers, and don’t catch cold like I did.
Kevin
Latest headlines from the sinking ship:
ReplyDeleteWoman caught on a Jacksonville restaurant’s surveillance video taking a donation jar intended for the family of a slain 7-year-old girl told police she did so to support her drug habit.
Three men charged with having sex with 9 female horses, a cow, a goat, and several dogs.
18-year-old who pushed friend off bridge: 'I didn't think about the consequences.' But of course she's young, white and pretty so gets to go on teevee and explain herself.
Internet 'fire challenge' leaves 12-year-old Detroit girl severely burned. Seems all the cool kiddies are setting themselves on fire these days...and getting burned over 50% of their bodies.
Utah man flies plane into his own house after argument with wife.
The decline continues in this "Shithole!"
ReplyDelete"Texas man yelling ‘Jesus is coming’ while stabbing toddler is shot by neighbor trying to stop attack, cops say"
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/20/texas-man-yelling-jesus-is-coming-while-stabbing-toddler-is-shot-by-neighbor-trying-to-stop-attack-cops-say.amp.html
Sen. Tom Cotton from Arkansas believes that the U.S. has an "under-incarceration" problem. So I guess having the highest incarceration rate in the world isn't enough?
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22786853/tom-cotton-criminal-justice-reform-republican-party/
Reporting from the front lines: decline of 'Merica is accelerating rapidly, while the rest of the "Flat Earth" isn't much further behind. Regretfully, the monastic option remains the only reasonable alternative.
ReplyDeleteThe slippery-slope argument as it relates to free speech doesn’t hold water. If you want a civil society, you do not allow people like Alex Jones and Jordan Peterson to inculcate large swaths of disaffected males with conspiracy theories and hate propaganda. The effects of this are being seen all over the country as these young men, brainwashed by internet sophists, are taking out their manufactured aggression on innocent people, both overtly (e.g., the losers who drive cars into crowds) as well as more subtle incivilities that make daily life altogether unpleasant. When the speech leads to violence, it must be squelched. These people, and Trump as well, have blood on their hands. Hate crimes soared right after the buffoon was elected. It's easy to sit back and pontificate on the ramifications of silencing these creeps when it isn't you or your loved ones bearing the brunt of their 'speech.'
ReplyDeleteBill-
ReplyDeleteDogs? Jesus, we really are going downhill.
mb
ps: This is what life is all abt:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/style/article/bijan-boutique-paul-manafort-lavish-wardrobe/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/congressman-duncan-hunter-wife-charged-with-spending-campaign-money-on-personal-expenses/2018/08/21/4dba040a-a591-11e8-a656-943eefab5daf_story.html?utm_term=.6c5ee29c18d4
Barrel-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/08/22/lets-kill-these-cops-jailing-of-rapper-for-song-threatening-officers-upheld-by-pa-supreme-court/?utm_term=.b0dec92a5c7d
Quote of the day: "When a woman takes heroin, she's challenging our society's notion of femininity."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.marieclaire.com/health-fitness/a19685213/heroin-addicts-female-opioid-epidemic/
Kanye
That wardrobe....Jesus...Who the fuck dresses like that? Why would you want to look like an effete dandy, regardless of how much money you have?
ReplyDeleteHi Dr. Berman and Wafers:
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether this article has been posted here but here a clinical psychologist reports that millenials' fear of the negative effects of social media on their lives makes meaningful protests and actions against injustice a lot less likely - makes me glad I never bothered with social media.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/14/another-reason-young-americans-dont-revolt-against-being-screwed/
@Dr. Berman
ReplyDeleteDo you have any particular thoughts on Hegel? He seems to have been given a really lame, superficial reception in the English speaking world.
PS: I would enroll at Akron University and pick the professors' brains there, but they may be busy playing video games.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/U-of-Akron-Will-Phase-Out-80/244293
Bill- You are right about that sick 18 y.o. that pushed her friend. The American public is so stupid that their reaction might be to ask for a lenient punishment since they believe "oh she is young and didn't know what she was doing and just wanted to have fun." If the girl were Black, Latina, Asian, etc. the American reaction would be "give her the maximum punishment." Also b/c the Americrap world is gripped with a weird and twisted type of feminism, I wonder what would happen if it were a male who did that.
ReplyDeleteThis is a little late of an update but I just wanted to give you all a report on the Chicago Wafer Summit we held two weeks ago. I can say with the utmost sincerity that Wafers truly are the highest form of u.s. american you can find, and if you think they are great online, get together with them in person, you won't regret it! The blog is just the iceberg's tip.
ReplyDeleteQuite an erudite crowd, not even a flat or accidentally ordered non-alcoholic beer could stop our momentum as we explored nearly every problem of this twilit, dark aged, failed america.
I'm in week 4 of 6 visiting u.s.a and I can't believe how many of these black and white american flags with the single blue line (in support of police) I am seeing in Chicago. Is this nationwide or am I in a hub here? Anyway, it's clear that the folks around here want the cops to know whose side they are on when things get uglier, which we know is guaranteed at this point.
O&D!!!!
Patrick-
ReplyDeleteWonderful news. Waferdom is as close to heaven as one can get. Hopefully there will be more CWS's in the future. Meanwhile, things are shaping up for the 6th NY Summit in April. People not on the blog are going insane, in their misguided attempts to attend. One guy offered me a yacht; another, a villa in Tuscany. I just keep saying No.
Dio-
I have many thoughts on Hegel, but don't have 6 hrs rt now to relate them to you. In brief, one of the greatest minds the West ever produced. Remember, it's only at dusk that the Owl of Minerva takes flight...
mb
ps: What a grotesque face:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/22/politics/sanders-trump-nothing-wrong/index.html
Things we need to focus our attn on, as a nation:
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/08/20/apology-after-texas-high-school-dress-code-video-features-girls-only-orig-tc.cnn
Dr. MB and all fellow Wafers:
ReplyDeleteI submit another Waferish voice for consideration : Dr. Peter Turchin is a Professor at the University of Connecticut and an Associate at the University of Oxford. At his website he's just posted an article, "Population Immiseration in America". His summary : "In short: a variety of indicators show that well-being of common American has been declining in the last four decades. The technical term for this in the structural-demographic theory is immiseration".
His work shows great promise, I've just started to look at his books.
http://peterturchin.com/cliodynamica/population-immiseration-in-america/
trout-
ReplyDeleteHopefully he'll bring out a volume documenting the turkification of the American public, which is perhaps even more devastating. Wafers are encouraged to come up with synonyms. E.g.:
Moronization
Buffoonification
Douchebagization
mb
Hola Wafers and Professor Belman
ReplyDeleteI am with you on that Michael Burgess - glad I have never bothered with social media. There are many other NMI things to engage ones interest and time...
Fer Q - great post re: Sotomayor. It was quite moving and I can relate from recent first hand experience.
Dr. Berman - TOAC is like a pleasant walk. I can't resist the urge and never have a regret after re-reading a short passage as I sip my soup. You have never spoken much about your time at Cornell U though I recollect reading your writings about a good friend you made there - a doctor as I recall - now deceased. Any ruminations about the current state of affairs at your alma mater? Just curious.
Thank you. And muchas gracias for getting us up to speed over the years on the decline of empire.
NMI. About all that I embrace.
Vaya con dios.
Worth listening to while having the microchip to activate the office printer sewn into your forearm.
ReplyDeletehttps://player.fm/series/historiansplaining-a-historian-tells-you-why-everything-you-know-is-wrong/myth-of-the-month-capitalism
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteWell, yesterday was my first day back at school and I'm already in trouble. While discussing current events, I flashed a photo of Trumpo's former attorney, Michael Cohen, on the screen. After explaining a bit of the news, I said, "Ya know, the Republic may just be saved by a Jewish attorney. Mazel tov!" A few students laughed, but one said that it was "completely offensive." Then, I flashed a photo of Sarah Huckabee Sanders up on the screen and said, "Can someone please tell me when Meat Loaf joined the Trump admin?" Crickets. It's gonna be a long semester...
Miles
How is Trumps fixers doing now a days? I told everyone Trump was a conman.And because the fools that voted for him, it is only going get worse not only for Trump,but the country as well.Trump has been bought and paid for by Putin. And Trump has always been Putins useful fool.Has the end come yet for the USA? One more thing can you believe what the right wing would be doing to the first black man to be president if he did have the things this conman has done? And yet the right wingers close there eyes to the truth about Trump, very sad.
ReplyDelete@Barrel--technically, peeing on someone's shoes is an act of violence against them. Since Wafers advocate for peeing on the shoes of the millions of American turkeys and turkettes, I guess you believe that Google should shut us down.
ReplyDelete@FerQ--you just raised some excellent points I had not even considered. I was thinking of the media's sick obsession with transgressions by or the victimization of pretty young white girls, but you are absolutely correct that had she been minority or male she would would probably be rotting away in prison right now.
Wafers--the future dystopia that sci-fi writers have been warning about has arrived: Trump considering plan to privatize Afghanistan War. Seems Trump's billionaire buddy, former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, wants to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan and use contractors to fight the war instead. Just think, a post-apocalyptic hellscape with predator drones flying overhead and an unaccountable private corporation killing anyone it wants with the push of a button. Phillip K. Dick would be proud to see that the ultimate fate of mankind he envisioned in his masterful story, "Second Variety" is right around the corner.
MB -- I have watched most of your videos available on YouTube but came across this one recently, its titled Morris Berman discusses living an authentic life ; think its an interview with Ken Rose from 2015.
ReplyDeleteGreat talk as always, Wafers please listen to it if you haven't already. I had a good laugh when you said this regarding Kim Kardashian
"She is famous for being famous ; What does she do, what does she actually do for a living" Lol ....
Bill Hicks -- That "Utah man flying plane into his house" story was hilarious. Like what the hell was he trying to do exactly. We all know the answer to the question but still What the fuck is wrong with Murica ?
Himanshu -- Good article. From the article "So we must conclude that “top of the heap” means “top of the biggest heap in the occupier’s sight”. This point is true of regular people as well. You can see this being played out on Farcebook where everyone tries to outdo each other in trying to be top of the shit , shit as in the imaginary social circle people create on Farcebook.
FerQ-
ReplyDeleteUSA break-up is most likely scenario (I'd say inevitable at this point)- whether this is peaceful or an unfolding crisis is up to the Fickle Finger of Fate.
Breakup will most likely occur along fault lines created at this country's founding. See recent article on 11 nations of North America; how they voted could be predicted from 1776...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/opinion/urban-rural-united-states-regions-midterms.html
BrotherMaynard
Some days when I go through the articles and comments here, I am reminded of Michael Lesy's book, Wisconsin Death Trip. I wouldn't doubt if it's been mentioned here before (any search function for this blog so I can avoid recycling materials old hat to many?).
ReplyDeleteJust one bizarre or tragic event after another... History happens twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. We are definitely in the farce stage. I was thinking that the first stage, the tragedy, was Reagan. But reading over this blog makes me think a bit broader and now see the initial tragedy as the late 1800s when the US was first growing into its imperial future.
And in another step forward for humanity, our friends at DARPA are developing autonomous killer robot swarms.
I always have to chuckle at the NRA types who see their rifles as a bulwark against the government. A couple of months after the first Gulf War started in 1990 and San Francisco had protests that shut down bridges and burned police cars, the Marines started doing helicopter exercises on Sunday mornings in downtown SF until the complaints stopped them. A lot of good rifles and pistols will do against combat helicopters and killer robot swarms...
I did a bit of research on the Erik Prince Afghan War contractor plan. (Prince, you may remember, is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who wants to privatize public education.)
ReplyDeleteThere are currently 15,000 US troops in Afghanistan, plus 5,000 troops from other nations. There are approximately 30,000 private contractors fulfilling various functions, from security to soupmaking.
Prince’s plan would call for the establishment of a special envoy—a viceroy (sound familiar?)—who would report directly to the President on the operations and activities of the contractor force. Prince believes he could mount this effort for less than 10 billion a year, with 6,000 contractor-mercenaries supplemented by CIA and Special Operations forces; current figures for the annual costs of US operations range from a low of $45 billion to a high of $76 billion. (The Pentagon books are a mess—spilt coffee, MRE detritus, and Ramen noodle stains on war diaries and accounting ledgers create a certain ambiguity.)
For those interested, here’s a link to a 2011 Congressional Research Service report on the contractor question, covering both Iraq and Afghanistan: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R40764.pdf
Jeremy Corbyn: 'Zionists' have 'no sense of English irony despite having lived here all their lives'
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyn-british-zionists-have-no-sense-of-english-irony-1.468795
Wait, did he say actually Jews don’t have ... a sense of humour?
Typical, soulless American:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2018/08/17/dpd-sergeant-collected-millions-fallen-officers-fraction-went-families
"After five police officers were gunned down in Dallas on July 7, 2016, tens of thousands from around the world reached out to help the widows and children of the slain men." "Most of that money never made it to fallen officers’ families, a Dallas Morning News investigation has found. Instead the bulk of it went to three telemarketing companies, one of which is owned by Pennie’s friend."
I'm not sure if anyone has followed the Mollie Tibbett's story and how the accused killer is an undocumented immigrant. But what really stands out is the laser focus on the "undocumented" part by both Trump and the media. You see that "negative identity" on full display -- "good" is inside here (the U.S.) and "evil" is from outside (emphasis on the "undocumented" part). Then in typical American media fashion, they rush to judgment before the trial has even started. You're "guilty until proven innocent." Yes, the suspected killer "confessed;" however, false confessions do happen from time to time. Most Wafers would wait and see until all of the evidence has been collected and presented, while most Turkeys have already made up their minds ("Guilty!!! Hang him!!! Build the Wall!!!).
Samson-
ReplyDeleteI remember one yr Jay Leno saying he had no jokes that evening because yesterday was Yom Kippur and the entire joke staff had been in shul.
Dan D-
Evidence for the robot swarms?
mb
ps: Whattaturkey dept. (aka I shd give a shit dept.):
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/aug/23/100-days-a-duchess-what-meghans-style-has-shown-us-about-her-new-royal-life
ps2: profile of a hi-tech asshole:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/books/steve-jobs-lisa-brennan-jobs-small-fry.html
For some reason, the links to articles I referenced all got deleted in the actual post. Go figure...
ReplyDeleteRobot swarms:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/04/the-importance-of-not-having-autonomous-killer-robots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RfzvMnrDGM
https://twitter.com/DARPA/status/979820082879762432
https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2018-03-30
Wisconsin Death Trip-
https://dangerousminds.net/comments/none_more_black_the_grim_american_gothic_horrors_of_wisconsin_death_trip
Hi MB,
ReplyDeleteI just know you're going to love this link.
https://sontlive.com/listen-to-the-announcers-reactions-of-sorority-girls-ignoring-the-baseball-game/
Great post today:
ReplyDeletehttps://kmgarcia2000.blogspot.com/2018/08/isnt-it-rich-trump-madonna-and-chelsea.html?m=1
And Patrick, thank you putting together the Chicago Wafer meet up. It was wonderful to meet you all.
MB was there a comment or two deleted on this post? Ones involving Schopenhauer and him hypothetically writing modern TV or film scripts? Did I dream that?
ReplyDeleteJust thought it was a funny comment, you saying you'd be first in line
In the I'm watching tv so you don't have to dept - hadda check president-in-waiting 'The Rock' on his hbo show Ballers (he even alluded during the show he is still undecided). Fuckin' terrible show with, for a twist, a goofy white guy sidekick. What struck me is watching these guys, the creme de la creme, the ones that made it, the rich and famous (loads of machismo and bravado). I tried to see them from the pov of the billinaire owners. Sad to say but these guys ain't escaped nuttin' if anything in sacrificing their health they are almost worse off. They think they're bad ass talking in millions while their colluding owners talk in hundreds of billions if not trillions. It's ironic they take a knee on sunday but can't see all their hard work in the end just goes to support a system that enslaves their brothers. But damn Dwayne Johnson is split with a nice tat to go along.
ReplyDeleteHow to say Horatia Alger in Spanish - someday they'll b a statue in honor
https://www.chieftain.com/news/pueblo/pcc-student-continues-the-fight-to-make-it-on-her/article_00bec799-e1b9-558a-9a08-3f35970b95bd.html
@Mark S--Trump is certainly a conman of epic proportions, but saying he "has been bought and paid for by Putin" is nothing more than Democratic Party propaganda designed to absolve ol' Botox Face of losing to the least qualified major party nominee in the history of presidential politics. Liberals are just as guilty of closing "there [sic] eyes to the truth" about how "the first black man to be president" was a major war criminal who bailed out Wall Street and fucked the middle and working classes as the Trumpies are about him.
ReplyDeleteIn the "news," it seems a young woman who was so excited to get an internship at NASA that she used the work "fuck" on Twitter immediately lost said internship when she then told a member of the National Space Council "Suck My Dick and Balls" after he cautioned her about her use of language.
Not to be outdone, a security guard lost his job after a recording he made of six months' worth of his own farts went viral on the Internet. Yet people thought the scene in Idiocracy where the number one rated teevee show in the America of the future would be called "Ow, My Balls."
you reap what you sow dept:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/asia-argento-and-the-hypocrisy-of-metoo/21738#.W3_lbX59gWo
Typical brain-dead American....Goin’ BALLZ DEEP on a Dead Lady!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/24/hospital-security-guard-caught-having-sex-with-womans-corpse-authorities-say.html
I particularly walked away from the MSM fake news, the Times and Post, what pro-zio-globalism nonsense. Fried, Brooks are notably full of it, but the self-important self-validating through an authoritative professional class serious style the likes of Habber-man, J. Rubin, Blitzer, Krugman, p-ganda shills proud to call themselves journalists, writers, thinkers, economists, etc. - just walk away folks. Intolerable.
ReplyDeleteJob's ex (a philanthropist of course) is alphabet agency approved. It's a ruthless club. That's why the discontinuity, war, disease, famine, Ice Capades, corp NGO greenwashing, philanthropy, a thick fake corp veneer of ruthless faux-everything. Is Trump being coup'd on purpose to incite civil war and for further dissolution and harvesting. All roads lead back to Rome and before, old systems of control, what to care about, what to believe.
Anon-
ReplyDeleteI don't post Anons.
jj-
There's something charming abt Americans, n'est-ce pas?
Kanye-
Also the case of Avital Ronell. These women react differently when they are the guilty parties. Meanwhile, consider how much damage that movement has done, in particular to our ideal of Innocent until proven guilty. Woody never had a chance.
Bill-
Re: young woman and NASA: I continue to be impressed by the intelligence, nay, the wisdom, of young Americans.
Zeke-
I don't remember it, but then I'm completely senile.
Cassie-
Cdn't run it. We have a half-page-max rule on this blog.
Kiki-
Take a look at these girls' faces. American youth, future of our nation!
mb
robot swarms
ReplyDeleteI have heard people, some on the Right as well, make similar claims that modern military technology obviates the 2nd Amend in terms of it being a check on the Government. There is a certain amount of logic to this, but I don't think it is the whole story. The US Military enjoys the most high tech toys of any military in the world and they still can't defeat cavemen in Afghanistan after 16 years of trying. There are lots of low intensity conflicts involving irregular forces going on around the world, and, as often as not, they are winning.
Hello Wafers:
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding accurate and mirthless, I must point out, Samson (cute handle, by the way), that Corbyn didn't say "Jews," he said "British Zionists." You know British Zionists, guys like Arthur BALFOUR?
In any case, your article supports the case made here:
"Corbyn’s repeated denunciations of anti-Semitism haven’t been sufficient because this is not really about anti-Semitism and its repugnance. The beef that British Zionists (and other Zionists especially in Israel) have with Corbyn is with his views on Palestine. He was asked to accept—without hesitation or equivocation—an Israeli definition of anti-Semitism, which was provided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
Insistence on accepting this definition is an attempt to force Corbyn to tailor his statements and beliefs on the Arab-Israeli question to the Israeli position. The Israeli establishment wants to prevent grass-roots views on Palestine among British progressives from being reflected in the stances of party leaders."
Being Pro-Palestinian Doesn’t Make Jeremy Corbyn an Anti-Semite
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/22/being-pro-palestinian-doesnt-make-jeremy-corbyn-an-anti-semite/
It's interesting that people who otherwise never comment here nevertheless see fit to post on Corbyn.
Wafer Bill Hicks---boy, you're right abt that Paul Flart--usa-er hospital security guard who got fired for recording his flatulence job while "in uniform."
ReplyDeleteAlmost every usa and uk "news" outlet is covering this "story." Very exciting times in the us! Let's see: Kim's psoriasis, porn stars, footballers taking a knee, and excessive flatulence.
Nice break from the daily us massacre news.
Samson -
ReplyDeleteha I think we should give Corbyn credit. Zionists and Israelis are probably the least funny Jews to ever exist. Morris' use of Louis Hartz's Fragment Societies to frame the US should apply to Israel. Darryl Cooper noted on his Martyr Made podcast that there were quite a few Jewish soldiers from Eastern Europe who went to Israel to help found the Jewish state. This militant, far-right Zionist fragment created a settler-colonial nation throughout Palestine during the 20th century.
Even today, around 20% of Israelis were born in Russia/USSR, & part of me wonders if Israel will pivot to Russia once the US is unable to give the country support. Putin has already been to the country earlier this year, though that doesn't mean he can keep peace between Israel and its neighbors. To move forward, the genocide will have to end, and the Zionist vision will have to be completely suppressed. It looks like Israel will have its own identity crisis as the US declines.
"A great man" - the Marquis de Sade on Caligula.
ReplyDelete"They reveal a cruelty, a perfidy, a repudiation of every virtue which I find most endearing" - the Marquis de Sade (or - to be fair - one of his characters) on Nero's plans for murdering his mother
PS
Film review, Tarkovsky’s 15thC medieval-set masterpiece
https://www.filmlinc.org/films/andrei-rublev/
The best film of all time. There, I fixed that for you, Guardian...
Man arrested for attacking robot:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/man-arrested-knocking-over-21-stone-security-robot-k5-drunk-mountain-view-california-a7703126.html
In some articles, the robot is referred to as a “victim” of “assault.”
Beautiful piece on sisterhood and sexual empowerment in Kenya
ReplyDeletehttps://www.positive.news/2018/lifestyle/34241/birth-rights-sisterhood-and-sexual-empowerment-in-kenya-2/
Interesting article on the militarization of American sporting events.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/08/militarization-sports-redefinition-patriotism.html
Ian Welsh pushes back on the narrative that the world is getting better and better. Welsh’s main focus is on the developing world but he does mention that things have also gotten worse for most people in the developed world too.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/no-the-world-isnt-getting-better-for-everyone/
WTF indeed! Procter & Gamble bids to trademark LOL, WTF and other acronyms. Also:
ReplyDeleteDisney applied to trademark the name DÃa de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), but a petition that attracted more than 21,000 signatures in less than 24 hours forced the company to withdraw the application.
This is a pet hate of mine. I find "intellectual property" so morally repugnant, so evil, I can't only scream when I see things like this. I understand musicians and writers need to make a living, but there must be better ways than this cultural prostitution...
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteBill-
See Craig Unger's new book, "House of Trump, House of Putin," for well-researched and documented source material and data regarding Trumpo's long involvement w/Russia. Here's a review of Unger's book, and an interview w/Unger:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/is-there-a-case-for-trump-putin-collaboration-years-before-the-
campaign/2018/08/16/00578f1e-9440-11e8-80e1-00e80e1fdf43_story.html?utm_term=.3f20c571f566
https://www.newsweek.com/manafort-trump-putin-russia-mafia-strzok-fbi-1076582
Miles
So, working at a temp Management Job, hopefully, it can hold me over until I find fulltime work. Anyway, I would like to say that I find it interesting everyone is shocked by the #MeToo movement. Honestly, I would say it is a natural course of a society whose public social life is resembling more and more the corporate life in almost every way.
ReplyDeletePeople spend most of their most productive times of their lives living under a regime where an accusation alone is enough to destroy your work life. Where perception trumps reality. Where offending someone is a major crime to met with punishment that can ruin one's life. Western Life looks more and more like corporate life. It is really interesting.
"Oedipus Rex and the Mighty Darkness of Knowledge"
ReplyDelete"When we promote automatic mass awareness as the means for promoting even the most worthy doctrines, we are leading our fellow human beings into a new kind of Oedipus tragedy — the tragedy of never testing the limits of knowledge and feeling their mighty burn, like children who have grown up with flamethrowers but never touched fire."
More news from the land of suck:
ReplyDelete"The federal government markets prison labor to businesses as the “best-kept secret”"
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2018/8/24/17768438/national-prison-strike-factory-labor
"Robin Leach, 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' host, dies at 76"
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/24/entertainment/robin-leach-dead/index.html
^^I've been crying all afternoon over this. I think we need to start a Wafer grief support group to cope with such tragic losses.
"$675 billion Pentagon spending bill approved by the Senate"
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/675-billion-pentagon-spending-bill-approved-by-the-senate
"Posting Instagram Sponsored Content Is the New Summer Job"
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/08/posting-instagram-sponsored-content-is-the-new-summer-job/568108/
Ciao MB & Wafers!
ReplyDeleteBeen silent for a while - had my annual koto concert in our little village last Sunday, went very well. Then busy all week. Finally a little time.....
@Barrel - I'm with Bill Hicks on the censorship front. The problem is, who decides what speech is verboten? If you look at who they're shutting down, along with Alex Jones there are a lot of folks (e.g. Peter Van Buren kicked off of twitter?) who are just espousing contrary views to the mainstream. After a while, all of us will feel constrained in what we can say without suffering grave consequences. On your point about those folks being brainwashed by various demagogues, I think you also have to remember that the 'Murican system has been systematically depriving many of these people of good jobs (globalization - offshoring), any sense of community, and monetization of everything - excluding all those things (the arts, human compassion, etc) that actually make life worth living. They are susceptible to demagogues demonizing 'the other' very specifically because of the hustling culture that Dr Berman has so eloquently documented. It's unfortunate that they are so unaware that they can't think any of this through.
Meanwhile - I just can't wait to see how privatizing war via Erik Prince is going to turn out - sigh - you think it's bad, and then it gets worse.
@MB - is anything sacred? Looks like the Starbucksification of the last remnant of refuge.
ReplyDeletehttps://theknow.denverpost.com/2018/08/21/new-denver-jewish-delis/192851/
Since adopting Waferdom I really can't stand listening to people talk about 'American grit and determination' and how we 'never, ever give up.' They would do well to listen to their alcoholic siblings who teach 'surrender to win.' I mean really man when ur beat ur beat and this beast is bust. The other is the word business. When aliens arrive and survey our dead planet they'll prob find a plaque that says 'Don't Take It Personally, It's Just Business'
Dr. Berman--
ReplyDeleteWhat I always found particularly hypocritical of the so-called progressives was their mantra that the right ignored facts. Yet when it came time for them to be fact-based, this was completely dismissed and hysterical accusations were treated as "evidence." The #MeToo movement always had a whiff of witch-hunt to me. I'm not minimizing that sexual crimes have been committed and should be prosecuted and the victims protected. I saw a segment on PBS at the height of this where an accomplished artist had his exhibition cancelled b/c a couple of young women said "he made inappropriate remarks and they felt uncomfortable." The man was in no way a threat to them -- he was in a wheelchair. All they had to do was walk away but chose instead to make a public spectacle of themselves and him.
Zeke -
ReplyDeleteThat Schopenhauer ref is in AWTY, in the Barcelona interview.
I also REALLY WISH someone would clone 1,000 Schopenhauers and have them write for EVERYTHING
Barrel-
ReplyDeletePls restrict yr posts to the subject of the American empire. We aren't interested in discussions of the blog itself, as I've said many many times.
Wafers-
Thank you all for yr contributions. This blog is sure a hopping place. I don' have any particular comments today, am just enjoying the dialogue.
mb
Went to a comedy club last night with a group of guys and the comic spent almost his entire set calling us gay and planning a gay orgy after the show. Maybe the first time it was funny, but for 45 minutes? One of us briefly stuttered when he asked a question and, as a result, he was referred to as retarded and thus the object of our gay orgy-lovely evening.
ReplyDeleteFollowing events in Israel? As I had predicted there has been an increase of violence against Israeli Arabs since the passing of the nation-state law. Also, yesterday, 4 left-wing
Jewish Israelis were attacked by 10 settlers. Needless to say, Saturn Devouring its Young.
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteWhy does this always happen?:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/from-rebel-to-strongman-how-daniel-ortega-became-the-thing-he-fought-against/2018/08/24/117d000a-97fe-11e8-818b-e9b7348cd87d_story.html?utm_term=.dddd0e3e7785
We flee Nicaragua 3 months ago to Spain. It was US sponsored coup. I will write later about it. It is very sad. But I am not returning to US just for my and my daughter sake and mental health.
Delete"Michael Cohen Truth Fund".. hmm smtg is not right here.. has the meaning of word Truth changed recently ... working for Trumpi might confuse you about what Truth is ...as Rudy Giuliani said "Truth isnt Truth" ..whatever the fuck that means.. So the former lawyer of a con man is now broke and begging on GoFundme to raise $$$ for legal fees to fight against the douchebag Trumpi. Michael Cohen had once said he "would take bullet" for Trumpi, well now is a good time I guess. It would make Trumpi happy and he would pay for the funeral expenses.
ReplyDeleteCohen gofundme legal costs
No honor among thieves and now no $$$ as well.
Wow a sudden change of heart from the scamsters... why so much compassion ..
Lehman Brothers staff hosting a secret party
Are the rich starting to feel guilt ? Should we all thank them for keeping this a secret and feeling some shame. I suggest we start a gofundme campaign to raise a few million for the poor bankers who lost everything. They deserve an exttravagant party !!!
YouTube “Star” My Ass....
ReplyDeleteYouTube star dies in a wrong-way crash that also killed a mother and daughter
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/25/us/youtube-trevor-heitmann-deadly-crash/index.html
Well Allende never flipped, etc.
ReplyDeleteWe simply must root out this vile racist ironically accurate anti-semitism:
https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/working-definition-antisemitism
Get me on the horn right away with the ADL.
A Short Introduction of Diverse Trends in United States of America
ReplyDeletedemographic trends
Millennials are projected to be the United States’ largest living adult generation in 2019
Americans’ lives at home are changing.
Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward accuses John McCain of dying to to push 'negative narrative' about her
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/arizona-gop-senate-candidate-kelli-ward-accuses-john-mccain-dying-push-negative-narrative/
not to accept the hagiography of his death in the MSM, but wooooow
@Miles--it's not the "Trump-Putin connection" that I reject, it's the silly notion that Putin "hacked" the election or that Trump is a Manchurian Candidate out to destroy America's glorious democracy. If our great and venerated "intelligence" community, upon whom we bestow a hundred-plus billion dollars every year (more than Russia spends on its military in total), had concrete evidence of either of the above they would never have let him become president. No Russian forced the fairly large number of Obama voters who switched to Trump to change sides--and they were numerous enough in the swing states to throw the election to him. They didn't switch parties because Boris & Natasha ran some silly Facebook ads--they switched because they were desperate. They supported Obama hoping he would represent real change and he stiffed him. They likely knew that Trump would do the same thing--but at that point even he was a better choice than Obama's anointed successor.
ReplyDelete@Christian S--good point about the American military's inability to win irregular wars despite the massive technological superiority it enjoys. On the flip side, most fat-assed, knucklebrain gun nuts would shit their pants and cry to momma if a predator drone exploded on their well fortified hovels. A few of the tougher ones (ex-special forces and the like) would no doubt eventually form an effective resistance, but the weeding out process would be intensive.
Hello Wafers!
ReplyDelete@Diogenes, thank you so much for the article on Taoism. I read it right after the WaPo article on Prez Carter (thank you, @Cel-Ray). These together were a perfect antidote to the end of another week of working hell in these United States. I'm one week closer to retirement.
I'm enjoying TMWQ, Dr. B! Very funny, in a sad way. Highly recommended!
May you all find peace in these contentious times! PS: my family is imploding. It really is a cult of selfishness, a cult of narcissism. Just idly watching the world learn everything "the hard way" ...
Puss
I feel like the world has gone mad. Liberals are mourning John McCain because he opposed Trump. The guy was an enthusiastic participant in a genocidal war against the Vietnamese and never saw a war or a foreign intervention he didn't like. He was a bloodthirsty psychopath.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the Saudis will snap this guy up when he is finished his legal process in the USA...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/texas-man-accused-of-shooting-female-drivers-believing-only-men-should-drive_us_5b81c408e4b07295151372ee
MB, how should we think about the recent events with the Pope (8-25-18 "Ex-Nuncio Accuses Pope Francis of Failing to Act on McCarrick’s Abuse") and Trump (8-21-18 "Catastrophic day for Trump: Former campaign boss Paul Manafort and former lawyer Michael Cohen are now both felons")? I get this sense that both corruption and modernity have deeply buried themselves in core institutions even after years of attempts at reform.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the media/Facebook/Twitter/reddit will work to help undermine these institutions. I could see this causing people to reject all institutions at an even more increased rate, and instead replace it with feel good moral relativism, selfishness, and isolation. This would be replacing corrupt institutions (which at the core are good), with an ideology that is 100% bankrupt.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/using-laptops-in-class-harms-academic-performance-study-warns
ReplyDeleteThe research found that students who used laptops, typically in “laptop required” or “laptop optional” classes, scored between 0.27 and 0.38 grade points lower on a four-point grade point average scale than those who took notes using pen and paper
Ortega--
ReplyDeleteWhy is the path from a leader of the people to a dictator so common?
There's the apparently universal intoxication of power: Castro, Ortega, Evo Morales,
Chavez, Gaddafi-- it's too long a list to name even the obvious players.
The other theme I've entertained is that while rulers may begin with some idealism, they come to believe that citizens are selfish, self absorbed, and not willing to put enough effort into society and government. Dictators evolve to believe that the masses have to be led and controlled. From there, it's a short step to decide than anyone who opposes the state and the interests of its rulers is a traitor.
Not pretty, but that appears to be the nature of the beast.
Best to all
Jeff Sessions is a profoundly evil and malicious human and should be in The Hague.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/opinions/let-us-now-praise-jefferson-beauregard-sessions-iii/2018/08/24/33487cea-a7c7-11e8-8fac-12e98c13528d_story.html
I felt a sigh a relief yesterday knowing that we have one less war monger/criminal in this world -- the passing of John McCain. Hopefully he made amends on his death bed and asked for forgiveness for his part in making our world more dangerous. It's shocking listening to so-called "liberal" friends praising this man. We had 8 years of Barack "Drone Strike" Obama, who expanded our military involvement from 2 countries to 7 and had the largest crackdown of whistleblowers than any other President. Now imagine 8 years of McCain instead, who said in 2008 we should stay in Iraq for "100 years."
ReplyDeleteAnd in other news -- another mass shooting!
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/26/us/jacksonville-madden-shooting/index.html
Not that this surprises me:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/memoir-steve-jobs-apos-daughter-133000491.html
But this is the sort of person who's held up as a genius, an innovator, a benefactor of the world, in large part for simply making so much money & addicting that world to attention- & soul-shriveling tech. The sort of person whos already semi-deified by countless people, no less, a harbinger of the future. The sort of person that countless millions are urged to emulate & become at any cost.
Fer-
ReplyDeletePls observe half-page max rule, thanks.
Liv-
Talk abt a shitty deal. Pls keep us posted.
aneurysm-
Allende: hard to make any evaluation in the case of a presidential term that lasted less than 3 yrs.
mb
I heard that John McCain’s last words were...
ReplyDelete“Trump MUST be STOPPED....take him DOWN any way you can.”
Everything is fine in the US; the checks and balances are working like a charm: How heartening to see a still robust US constitution as the net closes on Trump.
ReplyDeleteBrought to you by a Michael Goldfarb who had this to say about J Street:
J Street is a left-wing group that supports social justice in occupied Palestine and a bunch of other dopey progressive ideas about the Middle East.
Hmmm... is it me being "anti-semitic" or are the most virulent Zionists the most invested in the survival of the US as a empire? Apparently Netanyahoo is sort of courting Putin, just in case, but it will never be the same as the sugar daddy that fulfils your every wish.
Bill, Once again, I agree with everything you say about liberals, Obama, “Russiagate,” etc. FWIW, I do think that Trump is beholden to, if not owned by (as Putin probably is), the Russian Mafia/Oligarchs, but have no idea how this fits into the larger scheme of things.
ReplyDeleteChristian, I always wonder if the goal is not to win wars, but to keep fighting so as to justify the military’s existence and ever-growing budget.
Jamie/Millennial, The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Aaron, The core of corrupt institutions is not good, because if the core were good the institution would be good. Everything flows from the top. I’m sure there are good people at the lower echelons, but they probably don’t have a clue as to what the institution is really all about. And truly good people will never break out of the ranks.
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteJardi-
Is this Fake News? I thought McCain said, "bomb Iran!" on his way out.
Bill-
Thanks for yr response. I don't disagree w/yr assessment, however, given the constellation of events happening on a daily basis, I think I'll refrain from giving what would ultimately be my opinion on the matter. Best 2c what evidence Mueller ultimately comes up with, I suppose. In any case, if Trumpo hadn't ran for president, Manafort and Cohen most likely would have gotten away w/what they were doing. So what looked like a great opportunity for both of them to keep grifting and cheating US taxpayers will now turn into some hard time for both. Gotta luv that, no?
Miles
ps: I've decided that my final words will be:
"Pastrami please, hold the mustard."
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteI believe that's what McCain *did* say, but reporters cdn't believe it, so they substituted more acceptable stuff. The guy was going to add, "and cole slaw on it, with Russian dressing," but he croaked.
mb
As an undergrad I took a course in theater where we read works by Beckett, Ionesco, Ibsen and Tennessee Williams among others though not Neil Simon. When I asked why he didn't assign a Neil Simon play I thought he was going to kill me. "Pure garbage" I recall him saying and those were the kindest words. Well, I think that professor would agree that Neil Simon did a great thing today- his death stole some of the attention away from John "bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran" Mccain. I highly recommend Wafers read "The McCain Cult" by Gary Leupp in Counterpunch before getting too teary eyed.
ReplyDeleteKiki- those girls display the qualities that are typical of Americans, they have brains the size of boogers.
ReplyDeleteTo all on this blog:
I don’t know if this has been talked about on this blog before but I would like to know what are your thoughts about the MGTOW philosophy. There are so many videos on this on youtube.
Here is a video about what a girl in NYC did to 150 guys. NY Mass Tinder Date Scam - MGTOW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGpheOtPn8
Be fair Brooklea Sessions is likely compromised by Spectre with an Orwellian dosier and so a swamp creature regardless of whatever his character might be.
ReplyDeleteWhy not be as critical of Rosenstein or Horowitz or the IG Report redactions and walk-away from MSM: https://aim4truth.org/2017/12/17/doj-inspector-general-michael-horowitz-was-handpicked-by-soros-co/
The IG spouse works for CNN surprise surprise. I thought I read that H-Witz was once pres of the World Jewish Congress now couldn't find that info. Regardless it's a harshly self-dealing club with its own acting actors, show trials, ruthless lie perpetrating propagandizing culture for the globalist party line etc. Additionally, I was trying to point out that Allende wasn't allowed to finish his term. Play nice or get the jackals.
aneurysm-
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest: I can't make heads or tails of what you are talking about. It's extremely convoluted, stream of consciousness, with a private language--as tho you were talking to yourself. Your point about Allende contradicts what you said earlier, it seems to me. Etc. Other Wafers may feel differently, but I'm hoping you can shift to a clear, plain, transparent style, because if not, yr really not of much use to this blog. I can't even figure out the *subject* of your message. What I see in it is not genuine intelligence, but rather display.
Here's what we prefer: stick to a specific subject, and provide evidence for your views. Avoid broad generalizations abt a host of topics delivered in arcane language. Shoot for low-key, clear, basic. If you review other posts, you'll see what I mean. Hope you can do this.
mb
As you've all likely heard by now, one of our fellow citizens pulled a gun and opened fire after losing a video game tournament.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/26/us/jacksonville-landing-mass-shooting-madden-tournament.html
Like I say to my co-workers who get upset whenever I present cases like this as evidence of America's decline, "shit like this doesn't happen in Japan.
Wafers-
ReplyDeletePortrait now accumulating of US daily life suggests a nation that is off its rocker. And the abs. dumbest thing going on is the denial of all this. As it will say on my tombstone: "I told them and told them and told them, but did they listen? No!"
mb
@FerQ,
ReplyDeleteMGTOW is a coherent response IMO to the crazy #metoo times we're living in for men. No wonder men prefer dropping out of the dating game altogether than risk going to jail for making a pass at a woman. The movement has become a sort of a cult though and is certainly not without criticism. I was part of the MGTOW group on Reddit for a while and got banned without reason. I emailed the moderators several times to ask for an explanation, they never replied.
Kanye