September 27, 2022
Meatball
There is a game, which I think is called meatball, in which you have to choose between 2 horrid alternatives; like Biden vs. Trump, for example. No sex for 10 years, or being beaten with a rubber hose for 30 consecutive hours? You get the idea. The meatball I'm going to propose is: Gisele Bundchen secretly directing our foreign policy, or Kamala Harris? Wafers, you tell me.
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Smartphones have become near-universal among children, with up to 91% of 11-year-olds owning one. But do children miss out without a phone – or experience surprising benefits?
ReplyDeleteHow will these children without phones have social lives when everyone else is demanding you text them or send them TikTok videos? What happens when you're the only one not communicating through Instagram? Who will your friends be? This is already happening, so how much worse will this be in 10 years?
I heard a student tell me that all the teachers now stream music during exams. I'd never heard of something like that in school, how can you focus when they're playing music?
As more and more idiots run the world, what kind of decisions will they make? When everyone is getting information from Netflix, TikTok, and YouTube, how will they deal with an even more complicated world? How will they handle any kind of nuanced thinking?
MB-
ReplyDeleteOh, shit, so sorry about that. Here it is:
https://bigthink.com/the-present/twilight-of-america/
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteMany thanks. This is more public attention than I've received in 2 decades. Never thought I'd be compared to Niebuhr. Maybe Spinoza, next. :-)
mb
I vote for Schmamala.
ReplyDeleteHere's a recent cultural crime being committed in America: The bastardization of Eastern philosophy and religion to further corporate interests. The leader in this 'field' is this woman, Cy Wakeman. I had to sit through her mind-numbing presentation about 'ego' a few years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5YuACRkZxA
After her talk, I mentioned the 'Dancing Shiva' symbol to her. She literally said to me "I'm not familiar with that". Even AFTER I drew a picture of it for her, she still had NO CLUE what I was referencing.
It's the Hindu equivalent of the crucifixion symbol, yet this turkey looked at me like I was talking about pyramids on Pluto.
https://youtu.be/n1kmKpjk_8E
Xen-
ReplyDeleteGd choice, altho I'm still a Bundchen kinda guy. Are there no pyramids on Pluto?
The coopting of Eastern philosophy by US corporate interests has been going on for a long time now. I believe I wrote abt it in some of my work, tho I can't remember where.
mb
The Pathologies of the Attention Economy
ReplyDelete“1 We inhabit a techno-social environment manufactured to fracture our attention
2 The interests served by this environment in turn pathologize the resultant inattention
3 These same interests devise & enforce new techniques to discipline the inattentive subject”
https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-pathologies-of-the-attention
NOTHING TO SEE HERE! EVERYTHING IS FINE!
Sergei-
ReplyDeleteDo you realize the amt of slapping that wd be necessary to render Americans even half-normal?
mb
Kamala Harris, all the way. Why? Because she will do a worse job. Worse = better. The fast this hits a reef and is holed below the water line the better.
ReplyDeleteDear Sergei -
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. I can now shut up, get off my hobby-horse, and start referring everyone I know to the article you posted, which nails the issue as it stands and puts it in it's historical/sociological/political contexts as well. For the benefit of any WAFERS who don't already know this stuff, here's a link to the appalling DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) list of ADHD "symptoms" (my quotes), simplified for us attention deficient ignoramuses.
https://www.vyvanse.com/adhd-definition?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=TAK%7CVyvanse%7CADHD%7CDTC%7C%7C%7CVyvanse+-+Adult+-+Condition&utm_term=dsm+5+adhd_exact&utm_content=diagnose&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIupqk1t-3-gIViLzICh2BGAucEAAYASAAEgLqBPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
I haven't posted in quite some time but do visit the blog and couldn't help laughing about Heidi’s post on WASPS. Over 50 years ago I worked for Col. John T. Tyler, Ret., who constantly referred to me as that little Eye-talian girl and bragged that he was a Yankee and a WASP and told it like it was. Finally, one day I had had enough, and looked at him and said, you know Col. Tyler, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant is redundant. If you're Anglo-Saxon you're obviously white, therefore you’re not a WASP but an ASP, with a long, drawn-out A. He never referred to me is that little Eye-talian girl again.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I think the term Elites for those pulling the strings implies that they are superior; Predators is much more like it. P.S. No contest, I vote for Kamala Harris because she's already proven herself to be a perfect representative of the U.S.
What’s this? First responders responding to where first responders work helping out some fellow first responders? Where? At a hospital because of a shooting on its fourth floor. Only here in the great U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thv11.com/article/news/crime/active-shooter-arkansas-hospital/91-6b4eb3d2-eeda-44cd-8970-85ca571bfdfd
And be rest assured that school shootings will continue here in different forms.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/high-school-football-players-shot-dead-philly-drive/story?id=90602219
What a great country!
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteThank u all 4 yr comments. I'm enjoying this discussion very much. All I can say is
KAMALA SCHMAMALA
SCHMAMALA KAMALA
mb
"Some dangers [like terrorist attacks] are exaggerated – the fear is often wildly out of proportion with the actual risk. But when it comes to nuclear weapons I believe the opposite is true."
ReplyDeletehttps://ourworldindata.org/nuclear-weapons-risk
Meanwhile the USA very well might've been the one to blow up the pipeline... We'll continue poking the bear til it is too late...
The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World (Hardback)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.waterstones.com/book/the-new-puritans/andrew-doyle/9780349135328
Religious participation in the traditional sense might be in decline, but America innovates new fundamentalisms every year... The neo-puritans are probably worse than their forebears..
Ted-
ReplyDeleteIt's always gotta be something, to fill the Void. Look, here's the bottom line: on some level, Americans hate themselves, and this includes our politicians. They believe themselves to be not-OK; to be empty people (an assessment w/wh/I agree). This opens a fork in the rd: inward analysis/discovery, exploring your soul; vs. staying unconscious, and projecting that self-hatred outward, onto other people or nations--rt up to the edge of nuclear war. Just look at Kamala (Schmamala), for example: she hasn't had a moment of self-transparency in her entire life. What chance is there for this nothing, this non-person, to do any soul searching? Much easier to go to Taiwan and spout Cold War rhetoric, no? There you have it in a nutshell.
mb
ps: Most of our lives consists of illusions, beating off. Joyce: "History is a nightmare from wh/I am trying to awaken."
ReplyDeleteWafers-
ReplyDeleteIt seems that England's new PM is a self-destructive buffoonette. I hafta admit, I love a gd buffoonette. She may even be dumber than Kamala, if that's possible.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
Indeed! Liz Truss is an imbecile. In this clip, she seems totally stoned or absolutely mental. I tell ya, if I could bottle the palooka of both Liz and Kamala, I could conquer the Crimea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0fSl5xxyUM
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteEncouraging to think that a small cabal of powerful women, cutting-edge intellects, are running the Anglo world. I suspect Liz has a truss around her brain. Anyway, let us salute:
Liz Truss
Kamala Schmamala
Sarah Palin
Gisele Bundchen
Lauren Boebert
and a few other douche baguettes I've forgotten...
Check this out. Schmiden is sending another $1.1 billion to Ukraine in…get this....”security assistance”. Ha!Ha!Ha! Did he seek advice from Madison Avenue on this one to market it to the dumb USAin public? The article also mentions a “security package”. A rose by any other name, eh? Or maybe one should say “a ‘bomb’ by any other name.” Yes. He definitely went to the ad agencies and public relations gurus on this one to foist it off on dumb John Q. Taxpayer. It’s akin to how used cars here now are referred to as “preowned” cars. LOL!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/09/28/Biden-administration-approves-11-billion-security-assistance-ukraine/2751664403181/
Speaking of cars, there’s nothing better than a road rage incident taking place during, of all things, the hurricane in Florida. Ya just gotta love DeSantisland!
https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/st-johns-county-deputy-shottropical-storm-ian/77-7749ddb5-0c9e-4cbf-8cf3-a615125aa401
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Cel-Ray-
ReplyDeleteWe try to be more of a discussion forum than a bulletin board. Perhaps re-send the link, but this time add a para of yr own commentary. Thank you.
mb
Dr. B-
ReplyDeleteI read this because my daughter and her friend recently saw Lizzo live in concert-
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/09/doug-mastrianos-senior-advisor-calls-lizzo-playing-historic-flute-a-desecration-of-history.html
A quote in the article stood out-
“I could cry over how nasty and ugly and cruel people are to Lizzo. Not like she cares but because it means we are irredeemable. Just horrible people who made a horrible culture,” Tressie McMillan Cottom, a professor at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and New York Times columnist, [responding to a Tweet.]
You can't fix right-wing hate...but- you can't fix left-wing cancel-culture, either; i.e., Russophobia, for the latest glaring example.
What to do? Well, I listen to Schlager music and have my Friday night cocktail. However- I can certainly understand how some people (like my late cousin, who OD’d this week) just flit into the candle flame.
birn-
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear abt yr cousin; that's awful news. As for our culture, and the American people: I'll try to be polite. I do think we're not very nice. (Actually, I think we are grotesque.)
mb
Wafers,
ReplyDeleteThought you all might find the following of interest:
https://chironpublications.com/breaking-the-spell-of-disenchantment-mystery-meaning-and-metaphysics-in-the-work-of-c-g-jung/
The above website states: "The vision that emerges is of a particularly rich and distinctive form of holism, valuable not only for psychotherapy but also as a critical perspective on some of our current social, political, and environmental crises, insofar as these have roots in the still prevalent story of disenchantment."
I'm curious to read this in light of your Reenchantment book, MB.
DTE
A while back on the blog, Dr Berman quoted Proudhon: "Charity is the bourgeois form of justice.” I remembered that again when I saw where Adorno writes:
ReplyDelete“…charity, administered well-being, which papers over the visible wounds of society in coordinated fashion. In its organized bustle, the human impulse no longer has any room, indeed even donations to the needy are necessarily connected with the humiliation of delivery, the correct measure, in short through the treatment of the recipient as an object. Even private gift-giving has degenerated into a social function, which one carries out with a reluctant will, with tight control over the pocketbook, a skeptical evaluation of the other and with the most minimal effort. Real gift-giving had its happiness in imagining the happiness of the receiver. It meant choosing, spending time, going out of one’s way, thinking of the other as a subject: the opposite of forgetfulness.”
https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/2019/09/13/minima-moralia-reflections-on-a-damaged-life-adorno-1951/
Proudhon is pithy and so easier to remember, and that’s important. But Adorno invites deeper consideration, I think. His writing turns out to be a real gift, too. Speaking of “pithy,”: as Americans descend further into degradation—existing in their permanent state of forgetfulness—while still acting like they can shit higher than their own asses, Bill Maher sums up American character and politics in less than 1 minute, 26 seconds:
https://youtu.be/IH7ELsrzxy4
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteAre you familiar with Lawrence Lessig? He has a similar holistic understanding of the states (which means including history, laughably). I include a CBC article and a youtube link (of him speaking about his failed 2015 presidential nomination hack - something I respect).
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/american-democracy-in-crisis-ideas-1.6599061
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM0G4xta-qo
Thanks
Fox-
ReplyDeleteNot familiar. Thanks for ref.
Ro-
Gd clip from Bill. I like the bit at the end abt the anal probe.
mb
Speaking of meatballs:
ReplyDeleteElon Musk’s Texts Shatter the Myth of the Tech Genius - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/09/elon-musk-texts-twitter-trial-jack-dorsey/671619/
We Wafers have always said it but the text msgs are extremely clear evidence that we are surrounded by insecure narcissistic would-be gurus. Fawning interpersonal networks and obtuse schemes reign supreme.
Greggo-
ReplyDeleteMusk strikes me as a complete douche bag. For an extended discussion of technology as the hidden religion of America, see WAF ch. 3.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI'd like to share something with you. As I don't live in the US and don't hafta interact with Americans on a daily basis, it's only once in a while that I run across something that reminds me of how alienated I am from the mainstream American experience; how far away from it I am. For some reason, I bought a novel recently by someone named Sloane Crosley called 'The Clasp'. It's about the lives of middle-class Americans in their late 20s...which are completely empty. These kids are shallow as a dime. They have no purpose in their lives, and are more or less drifting. Their conversation has no real content; it's basically just witty put-downs. They are boring, and the novel is boring. It's also a national best-seller, with the NYT (on the back cover) calling it 'highly affecting'. Jesus, what planet am I--or they--on?
At one pt, I had the thought that Ms. Crosley was trying to expose, or illustrate, just that: that young Americans are empty, jerks, nothings. In which case, boring or not, it would be a sophisticated bk. But as I read on, I had the feeling that she thought these characters she created were interesting, worth reading about. And if so, she is backed up by a whole bunch of newspapers and literary big shots singing her praise, at the front of the book. These are people and outlets I wd expect to rate the book an F, and encourage the public to avoid at all costs. But no: to them, and her readership, she is hip.
This is what I mean by being majorly distanced from mainstream America. I read the praise and thought: Are you fucking kidding me? You seriously think these empty buffoons are hip? No getting around it: I no more belong in the US than I do living among penguins in the Antarctic. And thank god, I don't have to.
mb
3 days ago Kamala hailed 'our alliance with North Korea'.
ReplyDeleteKAMALA SCHMAMALA
Greggo -
ReplyDeleteI'd recommend avoiding The Atlantic, it's a worthless tabloid opinion site. They often post contradictory opinion articles just to get clicks, they don't care about the material. The article you posted really doesn't say anything. Business deals have been done in similar ways for a long time, people getting together for drinks and dinner and throwing money around. Text messages are just a new form of this. I'm not a fan of Salon, but here's a good piece criticizing The Atlantic.
Is the Atlantic making us stupid?
Dear Dr. Berman:
ReplyDeleteRe your post about the novel you read, "The Clasp", it's unfortunate that you wasted $ on this shallow, empty shite -- too bad you didn't borrow it from the library instead!
Anyhow, I hear you. I really hate it when I purchase an e-book from Amazon that seems to read intelligently and with substance (in the "Look Inside" tab), and then I buy it and it turns out, after a few pages, to be shallow shit written in a juvenile manner, but it's also is on the bestsellers, highly recommended lists!
I often wonder whether "books" like this are lauded so highly because it's a systematic, deliberate dumbing down method by the powers that be(?) Or, maybe it started out that way years ago (like a "prime mover" kind of thing), and the reading public just on their own have taken it the rest of the way and devolved into retards who think this is literature - i.e. a conspiracy. Do you ever wonder that too?
I'm reading a lot of great (intelligently written; socially conscious) old novels on archive.org anywhere from the 1930s to 1970s, which is free, and the crap today can in no way compare!
Sheila
Sheila-
ReplyDeleteThe German expression is "da schmeckt's". As for popular, stupid bks lauded by 'the experts': do you realize how much slapping is necessary, how much urine?
atlantic-
See my reply to Sheila. I get so dizzy, I hafta lie down.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteDue to recent events regarding my rising visibility as a star, I decided I needed to prepare a slate of responses, in the event that Important People start contacting me. Here's what I've got so far; if any of you guys can add to this list, I'd be v. grateful.
1. Schmiden: Mr. President, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but yr a turkey and a warmonger. If I shd ever run into you on Pennsylvania Avenue, I will barf on yr head.
2. Kamala: So now we have a long-standing alliance with North Korea? Do you realize how stupid you are? How wd you like some hot yellow fluid on yr shoes?
3. Sarah Palin: Time for sex on an ice floe, chica. Pls contact Ed Meese.
4. Gisele Bundchen: Who gives a crap abt yr love life? Yr the quintessential douche baguette.
5. Liz Truss: What a fuckup you are. I'd like to bang your head against Hillary's for 20 uninterrupted minutes on nationwide TV.
6. MT Greene? How abt a Jewish space laser up yr ass?
Etc. Pls send in your ideas, also additional candidates for slapping, urine, and serious beatings.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
7. David Brooks: Do you have any idea how thin and shallow you are? I call on Jesus to slap you six ways to Sunday.
8. Kanye West: You do know that you have fruit compote packed inside your cranium, right?
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteThose are gd. I'll also need to tell Kanye that his face resembles a horse's ass, and that I'd like to bang his head against that of David Brooks for 20 mins. on nationwide TV. In the case of Kamala, an alternative response might be to keep saying KAMALA SCHMAMALA into the fone until she hangs up.
I tell ya, this national collapse has some interesting aspects to it.
mb
Newsflash-
ReplyDeleteWe now have conclusive proof that Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens sapiens (i.e., modern humans). It turns out that their progeny settled in America. This explains *a lot*, my friends.
mb
Dr B, I was curious what your opinion is in regards to the war in Ukraine going nuclear. I get the distinct impression that the Americans don't believe Putin when he says this war is existential for Russia. I don't think Putin is lying and I don't think he will back down. Having integrated captured Ukrainian territory into Russia, he can't now not defend it and maintain his position. This fight isn't just existential for Russia, it is now existential for Putin. I believe he will go all the way on this one. What are your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteChris-
ReplyDeleteThis is obviously *the* question now. And whether the US wd respond in kind. Honestly, I dunno. He'll try every other option 1st, I wd guess.
mb
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-10-04/uc-j-bradford-delong-economist-reaganomics-neoliberalism
ReplyDeleteGd article. I corresponded w/Brad many yrs ago; a gd guy. But the conclusion--that we need a new grand narrative--is disappointing, because such a thing already exists, and is staring us in the face. It really is a no-choice narrative, and it is called de-growth. This option has been w/us since 1972; it's just that Americans are still enraptured by a failed American Dream. How many times can I say it? In the US, even the very smart are not very smart. They may have intellectual knowing, but they lack ontological knowing. Wh/is what we desperately need rt now.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteScroll back. I talk abt a novel by Sloane Crosley that depicts (unwittingly, I'm guessing) the shallow, empty lives of 20-something Americans. Beyond hustling, they don't do much else. Do they strive to help others? Do they work at something creative? Of course not, and this describes virtually all of the culture. Outside of science and technology, wh/are heavily funded, we aren't leaders in anything. I've written a bk abt Italian culture, and one abt the Brits (1st half 20C), and am now starting one on the Russians. Can Americans compare w/any of these, in music, art, literature, poetry, etc.? How cd they, when the entire way of life is organized around business, and making money? The lit on the Russians is so vast, this 3rd 'cameo' bk might take me 2-3 yrs to complete. We have no Moussorgsky or Tchaikovsky or Stravinsky; we have no Pushkin or Lermontov or Dostoevsky; we have no Diaghilev; we have no Kandinsky or Chagall; basically, we don't have shit. Our focus has been wrong, our values are wrong, and the resulting "culture" is pretty shabby. It's basically a turkey culture, and inasmuch as the population consists of turkeys, they couldn't care less. They try to make money; "reading" consists of staring into cell fones. Trumpi is no accident: he is a perfect representative of who we are.
mb
MB -
ReplyDeleteOn the whole, the Russian, Italian, and British empires have done more harm than good. They provided the foundation for what we have today. You often call for a nuanced approach, but it seems like you're talking black & white on this one. Just how much death & misery has Russia caused in the last 100 years. How much misery has the Roman Catholic Church caused, of which Francis of Assisi was a huge champion of (he should've tossed aside the whole thing). In a healthy world, someone like a Francis of Assisi wouldn't be possible, which is a good thing. To pretend that America has produced no geniuses in a sea of morons is highly dishonest. To put science & math (more theoretical than applied) below importance of literature isn't logical.
Russian-
ReplyDelete1st let me say that this blog is big on evidence, and what you have given us is pure opinion; bloviation, to be more precise. Big, sweeping assertions with nothing to back them up--not a single ref or link. Check out my bks on Italians and the Brits: tons of ftnotes, and my bk on Russians will have them as well. Anyone can have an opinion, after all; that's no big deal. Yours are not only unsubstantiated, they are also wrong.
A major cause of this is lots of faulty logic on your part; your 'reasoning' is a joke. The individuals profiled in my bks were hardly the same thing as their governments or empires, and often (esp. the Brits) were deep-set against them. There is no B and W thinking here (except, really, by you); Dostoevsky et al. were hardly causing misery on behalf of Russia, nor was Fellini of Italy. If America had listened to Graham Greene, the debacle in Vietnam could have been avoided. What in the world were you thinking? St. Francis was not a 'huge champion' of the Church; he was a huge reformer, and did what was possible in that context. To say he wdn't be possible in a healthy world is not merely wrong; it's nuts. As for America, what dishonesty are you talking about? What geniuses has it produced on the level of the folks I cite? And sci and tech are about HOW things are done, not why. Cauchy's theorem is quite elegant, but for deep understanding of human beings, it tells us 0. For that, you need lit, art, film, music, and so on. To put science below the humanities may not be logical, but it is certainly psycho-logical, to quote Goethe. (Who was hardly fomenting German imperial goals.)
I have frequently made the distinction here between intellectual knowing, and ontological knowing. Your own intellectual knowing is frankly abysmal, but your ontological knowing is nonexistent. You speak like a true American, which is to say, ignorant and off-base. If it's any comfort, there are 335 million of you, and very few of me. Not to hurt your feelings, but you are stupid beyond belief.
mb
"And sci and tech are about HOW things are done, not why."
ReplyDeleteYou're talking about engineering. Computer science has zilcho to do with the how (check out the Dijkstra Archive), everything to do with why. Modern math isn't possible without computer science, and this math has no practical application. I'd say it's you who is full of opinion. Of course all of this was hijacked by corporations, so I see why you're confused. Have you taken graduate level science classes? To take the "novels good, science bad" opinion is so wrong, most people just ignore your level of ignorance.
Francis of Assisi was a champion of the church, despite your opinions. The ones opposed to the Roman machine (so-called "heretics" or "Cathars") were killed by Assisi's Rome by the thousands throughout the centuries. Assisi is an enemy of humanity (you can't reform a blood thirsty empire from the inside). Who knows what the opponents said, because Rome destroyed the evidence.
francis-
ReplyDeleteSorry, pal, it's you who are ignorant; and besides Dijkstra, where are your sources, your references? You are as feeble as "russian"; you have none. As for how and why, here was Galileo before the Inquisition: "Astronomy tells us how the heavens go; it doesn't tell us how to go to heaven." This is known in the philosophy of science as the fact-value distinction, of wh/intelligent people are fully apprised. (BTW, I majored in physics and math, and as a graduate took courses in the philosophy of science, with teachers like Maurice Mandelbaum and Peter Achinstein, at Johns Hopkins). Also read my chapter on Alan Turing in "Eminent Post-Victorians," if you want to clear up your own confusion, wh/is pretty extensive. Finally, I never said "novels good, science bad"; what I said was, they have different domains, different areas of truth. Thus I said Cauchy's theorem was elegant, wh/it was; and when I said I would put science below the humanities, I meant that only in a spiritual sense. Of course, the humanities are inferior in terms of objective knowledge of the physical world. Anyone w/half a brain wd have understood that that is what I meant.
Your take on St. Francis is utter foolishness, but I can't get into that here. For this, check out chapter on him in "Genio," altho it's pretty clear that yr mind is closed on the subject.
Jesus, what a dunce you are, a real horse's ass. Not only pathetic, but arrogant to boot. Yr what I call a peacock: stupid, yet you show up here to strut yr stuff. And what stuff! You cd have shown up here with a polite and reasoned argument; instead, you chose to be an asshole and a buffoon. I guess in yr case, it's not really a choice, is it?
mb
Greetings Wafers everywhere, from Cascadia I have nothing but a crappy grab bag for you today.
ReplyDeleteFirst, a candidate for the urine treatment: Ray Dalio, billionaire hedgie investor, for his book on the changing world order and how to make money in this situation. Dalio gives many interviews, as for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K7N4HV8gwQ
Second, perhaps the most significant event during the VP term of the Kamaleon occurred this week:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/harris-involved-motorcade-accident-week-055851235.html
And lastly, from the slop at the bottom of the “news” bucket, Evergreen College here in Olympia WA announced receipt of a $2.1 U.S. Department of Education grant for its 5-year project “to increase college capacity in student access and success for historically underserved students through holistic advising and coordinated wrap-around services…” This sounds like a successful hunting expedition to secure boodle for bulking up the college administration:
https://www.evergreen.edu/news/post/2022/evergreen-receives-21-million-title-iii-grant-improve-student-successaccess
Jack-
ReplyDeleteIt's possible that the car didn't want to be carrying Kamala. She also, as well as Evergreen, cd use a strong urine treatment. (Talk abt a waste of gov't $)
ps: francis: I can't imagine you rdg my chs. on Turing or St. Francis, but if you do, you'll see a hefty list of references in each case. This is known as evidence. Unlike you, I'm not blowing smoke.
mb
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/asia/thailand-mass-shooting-intl-hnk/index.html
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63032790
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62829432
Doctor, I’m going to do a different take today. So I have a question for you: Is the human race itself actually doomed? In your talks and lectures you often say that, although you have no hope for the United States, you do have hope for the human race.
I cited recent above instances of deadly violence in Thailand, Russia, and Canada. Norway a few years ago had a deadly mass shooting. There even was one in Guanajuato two weeks ago.
Yes, Doctor. The United States is the world template for violence and anger. This country definitely is toast. We have mass shootings daily. We have violent, out of control road rages every single day. Daily muggings. A high amount of angry people. Our infamous Karens. High divorce rates. Broken families. Opioid addiction. Etc. But with our powerful media that span the globe, are other countries and cultures now emulating our violence and way of life? Do some of them also not think on their own? Have they been brainwashed? Are they sheepish/converted violent followers too?
MB, Christian:
ReplyDeleteThe War in Ukraine Could Lead to Nuclear War
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/ukraine-russia-us-nuclear-war-putin
^Now that's a SPICY a'meatball'a !
MB, is nuclear proliferation & fallout in your list of imperial collapse predictions?
Hi Wafers,
ReplyDeleteResponding to MB and Sheila about shallow American "literature" that somehow gets fawned over by literary reviews. I hadn't heard of Sloane Crosley, but your comments on it reminded me of a book I reviewed last year called The Appointment (subtitled Jewish C*ck). It is actually by a German author, but she chose to write it in English. It is about a young German woman who wants to become a Jewish man, by way of sex reassignment surgery. It is basically a Holocaust fetish novel. It masquerades as incredibly deep and meaningful, and was reviewed as such by major platforms. This drivel is what passes for "thought-provoking literature" these days in the Western world.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/03/katharina-volckmer-the-appointment-interview-germany
Also, I just wanted to share a fun fact with Wafers. I worked for a year in a New York City public school, and they quite literally do not teach history. Because there is no standardized test on history, they just bundle history into English class so they can say they taught it. The kids got about 1 single history class for their entire 7th grade year. Granted this is not the case in richer schools, still thought it was pretty shocking.
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteAll the signs of terminal decline are here. The US is tearing down its own pillars of power due to the stupidity of its leaders. The rise of China and Russia is allowing the Middle East to push back against America.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/opec-decision-to-cut-oil-output-prompts-u-s-to-weigh-options-11665057275
The Leadership of the US is so stupid that they now want to "break up the cartel" that is OPEC+. Literally, the organization that ensures the US Dollar's global reserve status.
How long will the US go? I don't know but I love what I am seeing! :D
PS: I wonder how long till MBS gets pissed and declare the end of the Petrodollar?
Folks are taking to sending "voice notes" thru their fones more than texting & calling. So this link contains tips for them. The last one is a real winner:
ReplyDelete"Don't send voice notes anywhere you’d be uncomfortable making a phone call"
"Text your recipient beforehand"
https://www.wsj.com/articles/voice-messages-phone-etiquette-guide-11664388240
What's the point of sending voice notes if you're going to text beforehand? Why not just send a text or call & leave it @ that?
"What geniuses has it produced on the level of the folks I cite?"
ReplyDeleteAlfred North Whitehead. Mathematician and metaphysician, created process philosophy. Whitehead is far beyond the characters you mention in terms of novel ideas, brilliance, output, and impact on humanity.
You praise Mussorgsky? Stasov wrote Balakirev, in an 1863 letter, "I have no use for Mussorgsky. His views may tally with mine, but I have never heard him express an intelligent idea. All in him is flabby, dull. He is, it seems to me, a thorough idiot", and Balakirev agreed: "Yes, Mussorgsky is little short of an idiot."
But sure, continue to praise Russia and ignore the genius that America has produced.
Russian-
ReplyDeleteAlfred North Whitehead was English. You do know the meaning of "produced," yes?
Miles
Russian-
ReplyDeleteYou continue to be a moron. Let's look at it more closely. In your mind, Whitehead is actually superior to folks like Marx, Hegel, Spinoza, Dostoevsky, Goethe, Voltaire, Tolstoy, Schilling...Are you fucking nuts? Fucking pathetic, imo. As for Mussorgsky: in music, he was a dramatic radical, so of course Stasov and Balakirev wd say all that. Do you realize what the truly great musicians said abt him, and his legacy for the evolution of music? No, because you are not well read, and (obviously) poorly educated. You might start with Caryl Emerson's biography, or the discussion I have of "Pictures at an Exhibition" in my essay, "My Russia," wh/you can find in my bk "Are We There Yet?" Also Orlando Figes' praise of his work, in "Natasha's Dance." (You won't read any of this; that's 100% certain.) Have you even bothered to listen to "Night on Bald Mountain," you provincial little turkey?
(BTW, I seem to remember rdg, in Ray Monk's bio of Bertrand Russell, that most of the work on "Principia Mathematica" was done by Russell, not Whitehead.)
This is your counter-argument, boychik? Whitehead and Stasov? Vey iz mir. You call to mind that line from Schiller, "Against stupidity even the gods struggle in vain." Next you'll be telling us that Hemingway and John Cheever are superior to Proust, or James Joyce, or Andrei Bely. Amigo, I don't mean to hurt yr feelings, but you truly have shit for brains. And note that being snide (yr last comment) only reveals the poverty of your position, as your empirical evidence is pretty much nonexistent. Doesn't your arrogance, your hollow sarcasm, and the wrongness of your arguments, ever bother you? Are you going to go to yr grave w/yr head up yr ass? Is yr fragile ego and indefensible narrative really more impt to you than learning something, becoming a mature, educated person? (Rhetorical; all of us here know the answer to that. My pt is that it's not engraved in stone, that you remain a douchebag all yr life. Jesus, man, shake it off!)
While we're waiting for you to have a divine visitation, pls go find another blog. My time is valuable, and I simply can't waste it on this sort of crap. I'm sure another blog will be enchanted by your cutting-edge insights.
Flying-
We're talking abt Americans, rt?
Nesim-
We are certainly dying by our own hand, wh/is the rule for last-stage empires. I have repeatedly predicted a cut-off date of 2030. We don't have that long to wait!
Sasha-
Check out some of the old "Jaywalking" tapes on YouTube, where Leno goes out into the sts. of Burbank and asks history questions of random passersby. These are hysterically funny.
-What was the War between the States? Answer: Oh, you mean the kids in college in the 60s?
-From what country did America separate in 1776? Answer: China.
-(Using a map and an easel): Can you locate the US on this world map? Answer: No.
-Etc. It's a long list, stupidity on parade. One woman was not able to say what the letters Y-E-S spelled. Seriously.
-Another interviewer (not Leno) stood outside the Women's Study Center at UC Santa Barbara, and asked girls coming out of classes (e.g., on the American suffragette movement) if they wd sign a petition "Against Women's Suffrage." These chicks were so stupid, they thought suffrage meant suffering, so they signed the petition. What were they doing in class? Updating their Facebk profiles?
Single-
It's certainly one way to go, and wd certainly speed things up. But it wd be a horror show. Let's hope sanity prevails, tho it's in short supply these days.
Joe-
Fair question. I guess one can say that the US has globalized violence (along w/stupidity). Mexico, for example, has tons of it. And yet, in quiet side streets, even in Mexico city, there are many people leading quiet, decent, traditional, meaningful lives. Probably true of much of the Third World, I suspect.
mb
Miles-
ReplyDeleteWish I'd said that! Thanks. I tell ya, I've been running this blog for 16.5 yrs, and in all that time I can't remember 2 more stupid, and arrogant, people than russian and francis. Yeah, I know: they are American products; but these jokers really take the cake. To think yr superior when you actually are the dregs of society--honestly, these clowns leave me breathless. These guys were born douchebags, are living the lives of douchebags, and will die douchebags, w/o a single moment of realization of what their 'lives' consisted of. All I can do is throw up my hands and cry KAMALA SCHMAMALA!
BTW, Bill Maher has called for Schmiden to drop her from the ticket in 2024. I'm going to suggest he take up russian or francis as her replacement. I mean really, why the fuck not? They are the perfect representatives of buffoons claiming to be intellectuals. Perhaps they will migrate to different blogs (god willing) and talk abt our long-standing alliance w/North Korea.
mb
For another point against MB's opinions, Google developed AlphaZero and AlphaGo, making both chess and Go irrelevant and boring. Lee Sedol retired right after he was beaten (why chess players haven't done the same shows how idiotic the chess world is).
ReplyDeleteBut this is all irrelevant to MB who is more interested in 19th cent. novels, none of this has any value in his mind. I remember a while back, MB was convinced no computer could win at Go. Like many things (e.g. Lost Cause Myth), MB was dead wrong on that point.
Wait until AI starts to become "creative" in ways thought to be only available to the Russians, Japanese, Italians, or whoever else he idolizes. And please tell me a computer can't compose a symphony or novel, I can't wait to see how poorly that prediction will age.
MB, for your responses list -
ReplyDeleteZelensky: Get a grip, freak, or Ima slap you around with your own dick.
https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/zelensky-calls-for-preemptive-strike-against-russia-in-speech-to-lowy-institute/news-story/80b4cd30b1ac06298d995ce96950d744
Alpha-
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess you join francis and russian in the category of what the Russians call 'poshlost'. Where are your references, amigo? Like them, you have none, so it's all beside the pt. For example: I *never* said no computer cd win against Go. Prove it! Find the reference, and show it to us. (Gd luck) And I certainly never was into the Lost Cause Myth. (Again, prove it; ch. 4 of WAF is hardly based on their arguments.) Finally, yr last para is pure speculation; it proves 0 against me, nor do I claim any idea of what the future will bring w/AI, altho I doubt it can tell us the Why of life, wh/is the strength of the humanities.
Do you realize, really realize, how stupid you are? It amazes me how you clowns bloviate, provide not a shred of evidence, and then strut around, claiming to be superior. Amigo, do us all a favor: find another blog. This one is not designed for self-flattering peacocks like yrself.
mb
comrade-
ReplyDeleteYikes? This is seriously the guy we're backing, sending huge amts of $ to? Might be gd if we woke up b4 triggering a nuclear disaster. (Historically, the US never wakes up, even after the fact of gigantic mistakes.)
mb
Justin-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post other blogs on this one. If you want to participate in this discussion, yr most welcome; just leave out refs to other blogs.
Meanwhile, allow me to tell u and other Wafers that Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen have hired divorce lawyers. This is extremely newsworthy, and I'm so excited! America waits w/bated breath. (I'm still convinced she is secretly directing US foreign policy, and that Schmiden is her puppet. It seems obvious.)
mb
Not sure I understand the significance of the Brady- Bundchen thing.
ReplyDeleteThe trivia that commands people's attention never ceases to amaze
But if I missed something, I'm all ears
BTW I never intended that Substack address to be posted here.
That was just for you.
jw
Justin-
ReplyDeleteYou missed earlier discussion of Bundchen. She's a turkette. I was just having fun. In future, pls note that we have a rule here: post no more frequently than once every 24 hrs. We also recommend a daily intake of chopped liver. Thanks.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteTry this on for a scenario. Schmiden is reelected in 2024; one month past his 2nd inauguration, he dies of a heart attack. Schmamala takes the helm, but as everyone knows she's a rancid bag of douche fluid, and a total incompetent, a massive uprising breaks out. Civil war. Someone cuts off her head, and puts it on a pike in front of the W.H. Millions line up to urinate on it.
Of course, while the wokes were beating off, the bubbas were collecting guns. They contemplate killing off all the wokes, but it seems like too much work. Instead, they round up everyone who is non-white and non-Christian, and put them in detention camps in Idaho. All inmates hafta wear a yellow star, in particular Jews and Muslims. There is only 1 meal a day, and it's--you guessed it--chopped liver.
Of course turf wars break out among the bubbas; as in the case w/the Mafia in "The Sopranos," they begin bumping each other off. Soon the country looks like this: a few hundred bubbas roam the streets, and a few million 'undesirables' fill the detention camps in Idaho. Finally one of the bubbas seizes the leadership; he is now a warlord, and takes the name Celestial Dogfood. But since he is shtupping all of the women, he finally contracts syphilis and goes insane. He is buried w/a Reagan death mask.
As for Trumpi, he decides to ignore politics and opens a chain of bowling alleys. The Chinese invade America; sorting thru the NY Public Libe, they come across my work. "This guy Belman," they cry; "he had it all figured out. Why did no one listen to him?"
As for Tulsi, she distributes workout tapes to the masses, while Gisele Bundchen starts taking courses in Political Correctness at Evergreen, where Jack L. is now president. He rejects the recent gov't grant, and has the students go out into the street w/begging bowls. The citizens of Olympia throw rocks at them.
As for Prince Andrew, he is extradited back to the US, where rabid women chop off his organ and feed it to rabid dogs.
The nation as a whole goes down the drain. Imperialism is a thing of the past. I get to bang Hilary's and Obama's heads together, uninterrupted, for 20 mins., on nationwide TV. Sarah Palin becomes ambassador to Nigeria.
mb
Dr. Berman and Wafers-
ReplyDeleteOn chopped liver, we have a saying in Armenian, too delicious not to share: “jigarud oodem,” a term of endearment which literally means “Let me eat your liver”! Here, Conan O'brien learns the phrase.
To these recent naysayers I say a wholesome “jigarud oodem” but literally.
On solutions like de-growth and so on… what is so interesting is how we basically all know what the problems are (ecology, wars, inequality, hunger) and even talk about what has to be done. But this very act of talking renders us inactive and we do nothing.
I recall Slavoj Zizek’s pessimist trope that we will need larger catastrophes to awaken us. Here is a recent blurb where he mentions our collective inactivity, a weird mix of melancholia and depression while we just talk and “enjoy” listening to doomsday fantasies.
Of course, I must add that I do not agree with your diagnosis that Putin’s Russia may offer a viable alternative. As a case in point, just look at the double-game they play in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, and how they turned a blind eye to their ally Armenia in the recent invasion. The West is also guilty here. Azerbaijan is run by a far more ruthless dictator and madman, yet everyone continues to buy its oil.
https://time.com/6219263/armenia-azerbaijan-us-involvement/
Ara
Ara-
ReplyDeleteThat was my diagnosis? News to me, and I surely don't believe that. What I said was, the US is the true source of his invasion of the Ukraine. *We* are the real aggressor here, as has been pointed out by Ritter, Mearsheimer, and a # of other politically savvy folks. But it doesn't mean I admire Putin's authoritarianism. Not at all.
As for the naysayers: I'm guessing their livers are disgusting, chopped or whole. I mean, just look at who they are, as people. Eww.
I fear Zizek is rt, and have said and written much the same thing. Hence the Chinese finding my work in the NY Public Libe, and wondering why no one paid any attn to it. Around 1985 Doris Lessing did a series of talks on CBC radio called "Prisons We Choose to Live Inside," wh/made this very pt. (Later published as a small paperback) It's my distinction between intellectual and ontological knowing. Even w/ontological knowing, it doesn't nec. mean you'll act. Acting means you are willing to change your entire narrative, and that raises threatening existential questions. So instead, we just beat off. Change happens when the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing. I wd think we are already at that pt, but maybe not. We are just cosmetically fiddling w/the old narrative.
mb
Well, here's clueless Joe Biden talking about the prospect of Armageddon, apparently oblivious to the fact that his policies have something to do with this mess:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/06/biden-cuban-missile-crisis-russia-nuclear-00060877
He invokes the Cuban missile crisis, but, of course, fails to notice that the rolls of Russia and the US are more or less reversed at this point. The fact that he's in a position to do something about this, like, oh....maybe trying diplomacy, doesn't seem to occur to him. But that won't occur to many Americans either, especially the legions of Russiagaters that are out there.These are folks whose world view consists of: Putin Bad! Trump Bad! Biden Good! Sad to say, I have many academic colleagues who think that way. I'm sure they'd find nothing wrong with Biden's remarks.
"I doubt it can tell us the Why of life, wh/is the strength of the humanities"
ReplyDeleteA 5 year old with a cheap cell phone in their hand running stockfish can beat any chess grandmaster today. Obviously you don't understand why Se-dol resigned, people in the west just don't get it. And you think this kind of thing won't happen to the humanities? My guess is the Chinese won't even give your works enough attention to dismiss them.
Computers and AI aren't something magical, they're taking all of human knowledge, and expanding on it beyond what any one person could ever do. Eventually, a computer will be trained on everything humanity has ever written, and it will gain insights at exponential speed, beyond the capacity of all of humanity combined. My guess is that in 30 years time, people will simply be studying the output of computers, no longer relying on fallible human intuition or inspiration in order to guide us. Computers will create the greatest works of fiction, religion, and music.
Doctor & Wafers,
ReplyDeleteA few years ago there was movie called “Crazy Rich Asians”. Well, we have our very own “crazy dumb conservatives”! Get this. We have another Bible-thumping Christian ( from where else? Texas) complaining about a PG movie that in her words “will open up the gates of hell into peoples’ homes.” Is this idiot a member of the same group that claimed the teletubby Tinky Winky was gay? LOL!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11284181/TX-mom-urges-parents-not-let-children-watch-Hocus-Pocus-2-fears-cast-spells.html
On a different topic, Doctor. Don’t consider coming out of retirement and teaching again at a university here. You may get blown away.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/10/06/university-of-arizona-professor-shot/2141665053158/
And if you gamble, stay away from a popular USAin tourist destination—the famous Las Vegas strip. You may get knifed to death.
https://apnews.com/article/las-vegas-strip-stabbings-7b2019b8c3d2577c701c844af85a9b31?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_08
All part and and parcel of this shithole and its populous manure citizenry decomposing.
Al-
ReplyDeleteOnce again, you join the ranks of the clueless and the incompetent. Again, no refs or links. Without evidence, yr just bloviating; what u say is thus worthless. But yr rt abt the Chinese and me; that needs no refs, I'm guessing.
Yr 2nd para is all speculation. It's just guesswork, no big deal. And it seems to me deeply misguided, just wishful thinking on yr part. Computers and AI fall w/in the realm of science (or tech, or engineering, etc.), and that's the realm of How, not Why. Only the humanities reach into the core of our existence--something you are unable to understand, and probably never will.
This strong reaction to my position of sci/tech being limited is very interesting, and it bears out what I say in ch. 3 of WAF, abt technology being the hidden religion of America. Its your personal narrative; god forbid someone shd point out its limitations. You and your 'colleagues' just can't tolerate this. Your 2nd para is a perfect illustration of this blind techno-worship, and from a human pt of view (something you cannot grasp), rather pathetic. When I read it, I just sighed, and shook my head. Americans refuse to grow up, which is why we have boy emperors like Musk emerging as 'leaders'.
It's also why guys like you offer no references, and are often rude. (Alpha referring to me in the 3rd person is a gd example; his mother sure didn't bring *him* up rt. More poshlost.) Rudeness because I touched a deep nerve: Jesus, what if your silly, naive, and childish view of the world is wrong? What then? In addition to WAF ch. 3, you might check out my cameo of Alan Turing in "Eminent Post-Victorians." Turing lived most of his life w/in your paradigm, and then, unexpectedly, at the end, he matured, became an adult. He realized that his techno-paradigm contained no spiritual values, and he started to move in a new direction. (I never believed he committed suicide.) May you be so lucky, amigo. I just hope you can wake up b4 your final yrs on earth. Your narrative has clay feet, and you are living in an illusion. But I'm guessing you'll hold onto it until the day you die. At least Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy) had 3 days of genuine insight, at the end.
As w/yr 'colleagues', I suggest you seek out a different blog, where they rave and rant abt the wonders of technology. At least at the present time, this blog has very little to offer you.
ccg-
Speaking of people frozen in a misguided narrative, Schmiden is certainly a perfect example. All these dreams will crumble when reality pans out differently--the techno-dream, the American Exceptionalism-dream, and so on. Even then, these poor shmucks will cling to their narratives because they believe loss of them = loss of their lives (wh/is true, in a sense). Again, we need to consult the humanities. Here is W.H. Auden: "We would rather be ruined than changed." Will Schmiden wake up? Will the techno-bozos on this blog? Whadda *you* think? In the end, ontology always wins. To quote Bessel van der Kolk, "The body keeps the score."
mb
Joe-
ReplyDeleteKiller was a former student of that prof. Prof probably gave him a C (when he really deserved an F). At least in this case (below), the students didn't kill their prof--just got him fired:
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/nyu-professor-fired-students-complained-grades-bad-sounds-rcna51126
mb
francis-
ReplyDeleteNot hosting u on this blog any more. You clearly have a lot of dark agendas, and I don't respect you. As mentioned earlier, pls find another blog where your cutting-edge insights will be appropriately appreciated.
Vida-
Cdn't run it; half pg max is one of our rules. Pls compress by a third and re-send, thanks.
As for the subject of AI and tech and all that (boring) stuff: most of u probably saw the movie abt Facebook, "The Social Network." Not entirely historically accurate, I'm told, but some gd insights. E.g., his girlfriend tells Zuckershmuck that no matter how successful he might become, he'll always be an asshole. This prediction came to pass; in public he comes off like a robot, a mechanical person, and "Meta" ain't gonna save him. Speaking of How vs. Why, Zuckershmuck has no inkling of the latter; he has no real understanding of the human condition, or even what it means to be human. He's not only an asshole; he's an ontological disaster, a huge failure in terms of what really matters. To what end, his billions? Meanwhile Facebook is floundering, and it has done this culture incalculable damage. The typical American tech scenario is that something new appears, everyone gets all excited ("this will save us"), and as time goes by, the salvation backfires, turns to shit. Television is also a gd example of this ("Seinfeld" notwithstanding). In ch. 3 of WAF I call this syndrome "the technological sublime," altho "pied piper" might also serve. When, O Lord, will they ever learn? Z's followers and other mesmerized techno-buffoons, who have shown up on this blog, also fit the asshole description, quite clearly. Hopefully by now they have found other blogs more suited to their world view, and will blissfully leave us alone. God, what douchebags America has generated in its dying phase, morons parroting the party line, so to speak; clowns w/cassette tapes in their mouths. Not much anyone can do abt it, unfortunately. Most Americans think the Z is living the right kind of life; I call it turkey worship.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the kind of techno-worship we see coming from our current batch of techno-buffoons misses the bigger picture. They don't realize the hidden costs of tech advancement, and the unexpected dangers of a completely amoral technological society. See "Shades of Loneliness: Pathologies of a Technological Society" by Richard Stivers, and "A Short History of Progress" by Ronald Wright. The consequences could be so horrendous that few people wish to even consider them. Perhaps this is the case w/the our techno-buffoons, but I doubt it. Which is why, as MB has persuasively indicated, that we need the humanities to remember, at least, what the world was like before tech become so ingrained in society. I tell ya, sometimes I just wanna sing:
OH, Oh, oh,
I've got a girl named
KAMALA SCHMALAMA (Ding Dong)
She's fine to me
KAMALA SCHMALAMA (Ding Dong)
You won't believe
That she's mine, oh mine
I love her, love her, love her so
And I never, never let her go
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteVery moving song. Me, I can't sing Kamala's praises highly enuf. Amazing, that Bill Maher suggested she shd be dropped from Schmiden's ticket in 2024, when the truth is that she belongs at the helm, guiding the ship of state, Tulsi and Shaneka at her side. As for the techno-buffoons: Jesus, what a sick bunch of blind robots. Talk abt lack of self-transparency. These clowns can't grasp that techno-fundamentalism is just a new religion. They won't read anything you or I recommend, because it is far too threatening: their religion keeps the Void at bay. These are psychological lives that are hanging by a thread. I wd also recommend Eric Hoffer's "True Believer," but they aren't going to read that either. And the shmucks that have shown up here are no Alan Turings; of that, you can be sure. Alan was a boy who became a man. These boys will remain boys to the bitter end. NOTHING can penetrate the fog in wh/they live. There are no wake-up moments on the horizon w/this crowd; that's for sure. But just as well they showed up here, briefly: we all got to see what endless techno-beating-off looks like. Brr.
mb
ps: What are the chances, do you think, that the techno-buffoons who have posted here wd understand the following poem?:
ReplyDeleteThis Day
I feel foolish,
like those silly robins jumping on the ditch boughs
when I run by them.
Those robins do not have the grand style of the red tailed hawk,
no design, no dream, just robins acting stupid.
They've never smoked cigarettes, drank whiskey, consumed drugs
as I have.
In their mindless
fluttering about
filled with nonsense,
they tell me how they
love the Great Spirit,
scold me not to be self-pitying,
to open my life
and make this day a bough on a tree
leaning over infinity, where eternity flows forward
and with day the river runs
carrying all that falls in it.
Be happy Jimmy, they chirp,
Jimmy, be silly, make this day a tree
leaning over the river eternity
and fuss about in its branches.
--Jimmy Santiago Baca, 1952
Not much chance, I'm guessing. I am amazed at the poison, in human form, that the US is spewing out in its dying days.
Greetings Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI’m enjoying your exchanges with your new trolls (btw, I think it’s likely that russian, francis, alphazero and AI vs MB are the same troll). Your rejoinders hit a little close to home because I admit that at one time I probably wasn’t so different from them in my thinking. The idea that I was brainwashed, or there was something toxic or delusional about putting so much faith in technology never really entered my mind. And I see so many people, educated and high IQ, who are like this.
One of the people who snapped me out of that was Carlos Castaneda, and his idea that there is a “foreign installation” that takes over people’s minds and makes them behave in a machine-like or soulless manner (like your trolls). Native Americans have a similar idea of “wetiko”. See:
https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/seeing-wetiko-on-capitalism-mind-viruses-and-antidotes-for-a-world-in-transition/
Also, I’m curious about your opinion of Castaneda, if you’ve read him. I know that he was a flawed character, but I’ve found a lot of insight in his work that helped to break me of some of this toxic American thinking.
The AI thing is nothing but more techno-hustling. Computers and AI are most certainly not ‘taking all of human knowledge, and expanding on it beyond what any one person could ever do’ - in fact it’s the farthest thing from it. Nor does my thermostat ‘know’ the temperature of the living room or the planets ‘solve’ Kepler’s equations as they trace their orbit.
ReplyDeleteCf. https://www.amazon.com/What-Computers-Cant-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/0060906138/r
And
https://philosophy.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/Is%20the%20Brain%20a%20Digital%20Computer%20-%20John%20R.%20Searle.pdf
One of the motifs that I enjoy on this site is the idea of peeing on undesirable things and people. Of course, I always thought that this was just playful humor, but there seems to be a growing trend that I think might has a WAFER origin--the rapidly growing American fad of relieving your bowels in public places. I wonder if some of these people are secret lurkers here, and have taken the idea and run with it? Did one of the homeless people perhaps have a tattoo that said "Bad is good". My eyesight isn't that great, so I'm not sure. But they are doing God's work, and I think this new development is highly encouraging!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=homeless+man+poops+in+mop+bucket+in+nyc+subway+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvmpXURWlJg
Oh, and in the second video, check out at 3:09, where the dingbat reporter asks the half dead guy lying on the sidewalk, "Are you interested in housing? No? OK." Hahahaha, Oh my god, that had me in hysterics! That is it in a nutshell, "American Empathy".
Also, I add this one in just for fun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Oxp77DBAA
Megan-
ReplyDeleteAfter all is said and done, it may turn out that the answer to all of our problems is urine. But I esp. liked the video of some turkey running around McDonald's w/a hatchet. We can probably all sympathize w/him. There's a pt at wh/you just hafta pick up a hatchet, no?
Vida-
Actually, I think hustling is only part of it. The big part, for the techno-addicts, is that it gives them a (pseudo-) soul; it is spiritual salvation for them.
Treebeard-
It comes w/the territory of running a blog, esp. one that has lasted this long. My cross to bear, I suppose. For a long time all of my trolls were fucked-up anti-Semites; now, of all things, I've attracted fucked-up techno-shmucks. What can ya do?
As for their mechanical and soulless behavior: it's a lot like medieval possession, or perhaps being captured by one of the cults that flourish in the shadow of our national disintegration. The mind is colonized, and that is the end of any real dialogue. One reason these clowns provide no links or refs is that they don't even know what a dialogue is. They've got The Answer, and their goal is merely to proclaim it. This is where Eric Hoffer is relevant ("The True Believer"), because the 'ism' could be anything: try talking to a dedicated feminist, capitalist, Zionist, vegetarian, you name it--yr wasting yr breath. When fact meets myth, myth always wins.
As for Castaneda: I had a colleague who knew him personally, at UCLA. A charlatan, for sure, but he actually said some important things. Anyway, "Don Juan" was not a sorcerer living in Mexico; he was a shaman living on the outskirts of LA, and while Carlos was an anthropology grad student, he wd visit the man every weekend for a year, coming back home in a state of shell shock. The 1st 2 bks in the series are thus real, after a fashion, from direct contact w/someone from an alternate (Native American) tradition. The rest were written in the anthro stacks of the UCLA library. Even so, I enjoyed bk #4, in wh/Don Juan lays out his cards, and gives Carlos the epistemology of his world view.
Carlos makes a gd pt to DJ, in response: that DJ didn't strip away Carlos' set of beliefs, but rather, just gave him a different set of beliefs. That he didn't de-brainwash him; he merely re-brainwashed him. Cd be true; depends on how deeply one needs to believe (the techno crowd is pretty desperate). With a little luck, one can admire a particular narrative, but not worship it. Narratives are just narratives, and they all have 'holes' in them. No single paradigm can map the entire world; the trick is to cultivate some detachment, while being present to the reality around you. Reality doesn't need an ideology, an extra 'layer' added on to it. Hence that poem (above) by Jimmy Santiago Baca, whose advice we all probably need to follow. "Be silly," the birds tell him. It's not an accident that humor is a big part of this blog. We cd all use a large dose of it. Love the Great Spirit, open your life to what's in front of you--etc. 'isms' do just the opposite. Meanwhile, let us be grateful to Kamala Schmamala; she has (I'm being serious now) added much to our lives (talk abt silly! If there's one thing I love, it's a gd buffoon).
mb
Wafers and Dr Berman,
ReplyDeleteI couldn’t make heads or tails out of what russian, francis, alpha, etc were getting at. There’s nothing of consequence to what they’re saying or asking. I’m with you Treebeard on this! I couldn’t even get angry with them, though about 5 years ago I would’ve been deeply flustered by their troll-like shenanigans.
I would suggest they join a group that would appreciate their presence. Might I suggest the Latvian Orthodox Church? They would LOVE the Hats!
Meanwhile, here’s a fascinating article about the latest winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Besides being quite literally soulless half-wits, maybe russian & Company’s behavior can can be partially attributed to “the demise of local realism {which} has made a lot of people very angry…”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-universe-is-not-locally-real-and-the-physics-nobel-prize-winners-proved-it/
Ro-
ReplyDeleteAll it boiled down to was 'tech will save the world.' A bunch of douchebags and their religion. Yawn.
mb
Ara-
ReplyDeletePls edit down by 1/3 and re-send, thank you. In future, aim for *less* than half a page.
mb
Check this out. The women also are forming gangs and getting in on the violent action here in N.Y.C. And look at the Reddit video showing what they did the night before. As usual no one on the train offered a helping hand. The men probably were thinking to themselves that it’s “not my problem.”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/10/07/nypd-releases-pictures-women-dressed-green-morph-suits-suspected-subway-attack/7341665189471/
But the great gun toting/respect law enforcement/respect authority state of Texas fears not and takes no prisoners. Check out this cop firing at a 17 year old who drives off after a traffic stop. The kid’s in the hospital being charged with “an assault on a police officer”. The “assault” was his open car door lightly touching the cop as he tried to, for whatever reason, drive away.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/10/07/McDonalds-San-Antonio-police/4051665176232/
Is this country upside down or what?
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
I have checked at your website several times in the past. Is there no Wisdom you might share with those of us confined within the walls of the ussa? You have left. That is not a viable option for many of the rest of us. The u.s. is loosing coherence -- but I 'live' here, and moving countries is not in my cards -- I have close kin I love here in the ussa. I am not a Wafer or an easy fit into any similar category. I am an old man with children and some hopes for the future here -- in the ussa and I am held here by old custom, love for my family, and simple reluctance to move without good cause.
ReplyDeleteJeremy-
ReplyDeleteI dunno if I have any wisdom to offer, but you might take a look at the section on the "New Monastic Option" in the Twilight bk. Any of the works by Thich Nhat Hanh wd also help, I'm guessing. Also, for models of living authentically, check out my "Eminent Post-Victorians"; and for a laugh, "The Heart of the Matter."
Gd luck 2u, amigo-
mb
ReplyDeleteHere's video about the current darling of the western world, Volodymyr Zelensky, calling for pre-emptive nuclear strikes on Russia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqouWrGu7tY
This is the guy we've turned into a hero. Oh yeah, he almost got the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Well, why not?
Here's what Michael Tracy had to say about this:
https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1578341428345782273?cxt=HBwWgoCqrdXKsucrAAAA&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email
Naturally he gets called a Putin shill in the comments. Morons!
ccg-
ReplyDeleteWell, Kissinger and Obama got the Peace Prize, and they are war criminals, so why not Zelensky? We wd rather back a nuclear attack advocate than question our narrative. It's our narrative or die, apparently. Abs nothing, no facts or analysis, can puncture it. And to that end, every critique of what we're doing is propaganda, whereas every statement we make is Truth. And you know what? When the dust settles, we will have learned nothing--part of our charm, as Gore Vidal once quipped. Foment wars, blame the other party, get the imbecilic American populace all worked up, then lose; then rinse and repeat.
mb
Hi Dr. B,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Treebeard that we are under the influence of trolls (or perhaps just one troll). I should have said something about this several posts ago but I was afraid of wandering off into meta-blog land. Your troll uses a one-word handle in all of his or her posts. If you look back over several of your recent posts, you'll start to see the problem. I am sorry that the buffoons and techno-buffoons have found this place where human thought and evidence are cherished.
This definition of troll pretty much sums up our troll:
"The term 'troll' usually refers to someone who maliciously harasses, attacks, or cyberbullies others. They might take your words out of context, spam you with offensive content or even engage in racist, homophobic, misogynistic, or otherwise hateful rhetoric."
Here are some links about controlling trolls. Again, I hate that the troll(s) have invaded. Best just to ignore them I guess.
https://wordpress.com/go/digital-marketing/how-to-deal-with-trolls-on-your-blog/
https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-deal-with-trolls-on-social-media/#:~:text=The%20term%20%E2%80%9Ctroll%E2%80%9D%20usually%20refers,misogynistic%2C%20or%20otherwise%20hateful%20rhetoric.
That last link is about making money on social media but it still offers some useful tips.
I wonder if America losing a nuclear war would help it learn something? Reminds me of a joke: guy is climbing a mountain trail with a donkey, but suddenly the donkey won't take another step. Guy is yelling at it and whipping it fiercely, but the donkey won't budge. Another guy comes up and asks, "hey you want some help with that?" "Sure!" The new guy heads off and comes back with a long 2x4 block of wood. He winds up and brutally smashes the donkey over the head with it. The donkey collapses, knocked out cold. Guy with the 2x4 explains, "first, you get his attention."
ReplyDeleteNoted your fave guy Kanye West is threatening to go "Death Con 3 on Jewish People" tomorrow: https://www.yahoo.com/news/kanye-west-tweet-going-death-162716427.html
Mike-
ReplyDeleteIf you wanna know what a gd slice of America is abt, start a blog. These trolls are so stupid: I tell them to find a different blog. Do they do it? Of course not. So I'm just deleting these clowns w/o rdg their posts. When an empire dies, it spews forth garbage; wh/is what these trolls are. On the other hand, I love a gd troll. When you consider them as a whole, they're kinda silly. But I tell ya, if I ever met them face to face, their shoes wd not be dry for very long.
Pol-
What is this crap with 'Jewish people'? The word is JEWS, for fuck sake. If anyone refers to me as a 'Jewish person', his shoes won't be dry for very long. I'm a Jew. I enjoy being a Jew. OK, so we're not great at sports. But otherwise: we're the best. Everyone knows this, wh/is why they hate us. If Kanye had half a brain, he'd try to get Jews to invest in his various enterprises. But no: he's so stupid, he alienates the very people who cd bankroll him. Of course, the fact that his face resembles the rump of a horse doesn't help.
mb
IF, and that's a mighty big 'If', you can stomach the turgidity of this interview, you'll get an outstanding window into the soul of an American.
ReplyDeleteWords are said. Sentences are formed. Nothing of substance or value is communicated.
It never once occurs to this doofus (or Americans, in general) that droning on and on without getting to the point is undignified.
It's remarkable how inefficient this interview is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTCJHxv4jMA
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/nury-martinez-issues-apology-following-leaked-audio-alleged-to-contain-racially-charged-comments/
ReplyDeleteHas there ever been a country w/a higher Bozo Index (BI)? A recent cross-country study turned up the fact that in Denmark, the # of bozos per hectare was 0.6, whereas in the US it's 188.5.
We are wallowing in stupidity. All I can say is KAMALA SCHMAMALA.
mb
It doesn’t matter where you are or how old you are. Here’s more idiocy and violence from both the sky and the high school football field. So above, so below. And only here in the land of “exceptionalism”.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRMLGAKYr_8
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/10/08/toledo-shooting-outside-high-school-football-game/5001665251495/
p.s. I have to disagree with you a little, Doctor, concerning Jews not being great at sports. There have been pretty good Jewish prizefighters from decades past, especially the great Max Baer. And especially so in the Depression Era. Some came from the very tough Lower East Side.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Jewish_boxers
One of the greatest baseball players was Hank Greenberg. And of course, without the slightest doubt, in a class all by himself, THE GREATEST PITCHER OF ALL TIME is Jewish. :)
Joe-
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know, Sandy Koufax. But I keep thinking of that scene in a Seinfeld episode where Tim Whatley converts to Judaism, perhaps so he can tell Jewish jokes w/impunity, and runs into Jerry on his way from the gym. "Working out?" asks Jerry. "Well, I had a sauna. Sort of a Jewish workout."--!! I love it.
mb
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteI just had a troll attack from someone using 'Miles Deli' as a handle--I guess so I wd read his sad comment rather than delete it unread. It's interesting how fixated they are on this blog, like a moth to a flame. They hate the blog; wh/is actually a form of love (the flip side; it's all energy, after all, not apathy). Of course, moths die pretty quickly; I think the trolls will be w/us for a long time. I guess damaged people have a lot of time on their hands.
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
Jesus, what a pathetic waste of time. I wonder if this particular troll's mother realizes her mistake, and regrets giving birth to such an empty-headed absurd person? So sorry, MB, that these trolls are going to such lengths to spew their black bile.
Miles Deli
Note to troll who is impersonating me:
1. You need help
2. Solicit a good therapist
3. Try and transform your stress into joy via yoga or the Alexander Technique
4. Make luv when and where you can, amigo
Doctor,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply, my apologies for misconstruing your position. My reply would just be to insist that, while the West is guilty of such horrors as the Iraq invasion, what if Russia also can be an aggressor in this sense?
Yes, the West may have laid the foundations for this conflict; Ukraine is also making many mistakes (i.e. Zelensky compares Ukraine to Israel, when in fact it is closer to Palestine as a smaller country being colonized); yes, this war heightens the risk of corruption & provides opportunities for the military-industrial complex to grab extra profits, but Russia is still a much larger country unlawfully invading smaller Ukraine, and instead of fiddling as the West does apropos Palestine, here they are actually delivering on their promises.
I respect your views and do not intend to offend. Slavoj Zizek provides a key point in this debate: "It would be tragic if Ukraine defeated Russian neo-imperialism only to yoke itself to Western neoliberalism. While being a Western economic colony is certainly better than being absorbed into a new Russian empire, neither outcome is worthy of the suffering Ukrainians are now enduring."
I think the idea here is that Ukraine is potentially fighting not just for itself but also for the future of even the West.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ukraine-russian-occupation-or-western-neoliberal-colonization-by-slavoj-zizek-2022-08
More on Kanye and tech-feudalism to come,
Ara
Ara-
ReplyDeleteYr still over the half-pg limit, amigo. In the future, aim to go *under* half a page; I think that might help. Thank you.
Jeff-
Problem is, he won't take yr advice. To a dummy of this scale, the problem is always "out there"; it's never *him* that's the issue. You recall Tolstoy's story of Ivan Ilyich, and how the poor shmuck realized, during the last 3 days of his life, how his entire life had been a waste, up to that pt. This piece of dreck won't even have 3 days of reflective awareness; of that, I'm absolutely sure. Amazing, the garbage that's out there. Now he'll respond to *this*. What a moron.
As far as making love, what woman wd want such a piece of crap? (A female piece of crap, I suppose; trying not to toss my cookies here)
mb
Hello wafers, this discussion from 2015 titled "The US Is Antagonizing Russia In Ukraine" is quite revealing, especially Michael Hudson's commentary. "Let's back the crazies." So as to provoke a conflict with Russia.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E-EoOkLF_g
James
Wafers,
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2022/10/08/blm-founder-patrisse-cullors-spends-thousands-renovating-backyard-of-1-4m-la-home/
Is there anything in this country that isn't about money and power? It wasn't enough that the founder of BLM spent millions on multiple homes, she also needs to renovate the backyard. Americans are so fucked up they won't say anything about this, but they'll get in a fight over a chicken sandwich. What a people.
Xair-
ReplyDeleteI'm confused; isn't she a Marxist who wants to help poor black people? I guess for her, BLM = Billionaires' Lives Matter. I'm also wondering at her stupidity. After all, the Post is major exposure; an article like this does much to discredit BLM. Ain't she concerned abt that?
James-
This war in the Ukraine is such a pile of b.s. Now we're talking nuclear. Hey, why not?
mb
John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy
ReplyDeleteLuke Mayville
Why American founding father John Adams feared the political power of the rich—and how his ideas illuminate today's debates about inequality and its consequences
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691171531/john-adams-and-the-fear-of-american-oligarchy
It seems that our American World hasn't changed since the beginning, as MB has always focused on.. This book is pretty good, too!
Cluster-
ReplyDeleteAt one pt, Adams regretted the Revolution and wrote (in his diary, I think) that America wd be better off being governed by a monarchy. This, when he saw what the country was turning into.
On another note, it seems to me that the trollfoons that have infested this blog, along w/Kamala, reveal the depths of the nation's degradation.
mb
Christian-
ReplyDeleteNot able to run it. Come on, man; yr not new to this blog.
1. This is not a 'hit and run' bulletin board. It's a discussion forum. 1 sentence won't cut it.
2. Where were the links or refs, defending your argument? We shd just agree with you, in the absence of evidence?
mb
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for the trollfoon who used yr ID to strike again, but so far, nada. Maybe he found a female trollfoon who does anger management, who knows. It reminds me of yrs ago, when you had a personal trollfoon whom we named Schmendrick, the clown who panned my Japan bk, which he had never read, on the basis of the fact that you liked it. Perhaps we shd call this new trollfoon Schmendrick2. To quote Gore Vidal, 'Stupidity excites me'.
mb
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteBelow is a good discussion on American Wokism and its impact on Indians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us0lb03NXqc
Prof. Bharat Gupt (he spent a year in the US around the end of the counter culture days and did not think much abt the quality of humanities education even back then in the US. More about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Gupt) in this discussion says that Wokism (critical race theory now expanded into critical social justice theory) will likely die out in about 5 years because its a fad that Americans(one half) are currently into.It is also interesting to note that CRT which is really neo-Marxism is being championed and promoted by capitalists (Kamala Harris is a prime example). CRT seems to have infiltrated many US institutions (Harvard being the chief knowledge producer and trainer as demonstrated in the just released book "Snakes in the Ganga")and corporate board rooms. Do you see Wokism dying away this decade or do you see it lingering on and contributing greatly to the US collapse?
Thanks,
Himanshu
Himan-
ReplyDeleteIn US politics, everything seems to be a fad, or theater. Americans are not sophisticated, and confuse shit with Shinola. Occupy Wall St. is a classic example of this. Where is it now? It was little more than a mirage. As for identity politics, it makes its woke participants feel gd (virtue-signaling), but it doesn't change the relations of power, which is the real issue. In fact, the Power Elite, which today is largely white male, could suddenly turn into black female, and 0 wd have changed. (Scroll back to the post by Xair; perfect example of what I'm talking abt.) So wokism might linger on for a while, perhaps until these folks find another non-issue to pursue. In the meantime, they're just a nuisance to the rest of us.
mb
KVC-
ReplyDeleteThis is more of a discussion forum than a bulletin board. Perhaps you could resend that link, while providing a few sentences of explanation/elaboration. Thank you.
mb
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI have read your blog and the comments off-and-on for several years. I have considered leaving the United States for some time and have lived outside the country before. However, as of today I am absolutely certain I must get out of here for my own sanity. The reasons are obvious and have been much discussed here but I'd like to submit two pieces of recent evidence that have affected me.
The first is the following article, detailing how tens of thousands of people attend quasi-religious/political events awash in grotesque imagery and nonfactual, hateful rhetoric (I find the pictures of these people to be bone-chilling):
https://apnews.com/article/reawaken-america-tour-michael-flynn-910e83b515185751be82868b227ca22e
The second was this story about the insane measures that are now seemingly needed to prevent Americans from murdering their own fellow citizens who serve as election officials:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bullet-proof-glass-guards-us-election-offices-tighten-security-nov-8-midterms-2022-10-09/
I look forward to contributing to this blog from now on. Thank you for your work.
-- Torreblanca
Torre-
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog. It's impt to live, not just lurk. Be sure to keep yr posts within the half-pg guideline, thanks.
Your links reveal a nation of violent bozos. I left because I had no one to talk to; I was wallowing in buffoons. Save yrself, get out asap.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteTulsi Gabbard 🌺 on Twitter: "I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are… https://t.co/oAuTnxZldf" / Twitter
That's it; I'm ready to give her babies.
mb
Well, at least the Democrats can't now trigger a nuclear war without people being able to say, "just like Tulsi warned us!"
ReplyDeleteOf course, moments later those people will be ash as a warhead from a Russian Satan II vaporizes their city, so the Democratic probably isn't too worried and this shouldn't effect any of their plans to rid the world of 50 million white Christians in Russia.
You can't have a conversation with substance with people who have no substance.
ReplyDeleteWafers, feel free to quote me.
Dr., Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI would like to apologize on behalf of the Armenian nation for being partially to blame for the Kardashians. Of course, they also engender weird Armenian witchcraft theories, which try to explain the subsequent dispossession of the men they’ve encountered.
Now with Kanye generating Jewish theories, is it time yet to speak of an Armeno-Jewish plot? i.e. “Armenians were jealous of the whole ‘chosen people’ thing and one day said, ‘why not us also?’ Thus, Christendom was first born.”
One of the cultural tragedies of the breakup of the Soviet Union (Adam Curtis’ new doc “Russia: Traumazone” covering 1985-1999 comes out soon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI_KpeTgrvo) was the loss of good political jokes:
There is an old joke from Radio Erevan, which I love. The listeners asked us, “When Communism will be built, will there still be Jews and Armenians?"
We replied, “In principle no, but don’t worry, Jews and Armenians will find a way to fink out.”
Blabbard-
ReplyDeleteThis is a discussion forum, not a hit-and-run bulletin board. Please post accordingly. Thank you.
mb
https://wreg.com/hill-politics/in-unaired-portions-of-tucker-carlson-interview-ye-made-antisemitic-remarks-spoke-of-fake-children-infiltrating-his-home/
ReplyDeleteMan, just look at that horse's ass face! And talk abt mental illness! He's a hero to millions.
As for Tulsi:
Tulsi Gabbard announces she's leaving the Democratic Party (nbcnews.com)
Tulsi! Have my babies! I'm over Sarah, I swear.
mb
This piece talks about war in Ukraine. I was not terribly surprised to find the CIA has been providing assistance to Ukraine's police in their war effort-The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU or sometimes SSU). A bunch of Western backed and CIA assisted Ukranians have been torturing political prisoners.
ReplyDeletehttps://kurtnimmo.substack.com/p/russia-damages-eu-mission-in-kyiv
From this article, "United Nations Office of the High Commission (UN OHCR) and Human Rights Watch have accused the SBU of systematically torturing political opponents and Ukrainian dissidents with near-total impunity"
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/17/traitor-zelensky-assassination-kidnapping-arrest-political-opposition/
Why do stories like this get so little attention? Oh right, instead we have Kanye. Save us Tulsi!
Krak-
ReplyDeleteThere is constant 'news' about what Russia is doing to the Ukrainians, and virtually 0 abt the reverse. It's amazing how full of shit the US is, and how the media--including the New Yorker, WashPost, NYT, you name it--get on the bandwagon. The truth that leaks out, such as interviews with Mearsheimer or Ritter, or the 2019 Army plans to turn up the heat on Russia, don't need to be censored because they are marginalized. If Tulsi tells it like it is, the response is, 'Oh, she's parroting the Kremlin line.' But our statements are never parroting the White House line, or the State Dept line, etc.; oh no, they are ipso facto true. And how many, other than Chomsky, have nailed the SOP of US foreign policy: put the enemy you are creating in an untenable position, and then when they refuse to become economic colonies of the US, or political subsidiaries, we react with righteous indignation and go off to war; which is our subtext agenda all along. What a charade, and there's no stopping it. The avg American citizen is unaware of all this, and wdn't be interested in it in any case.
mb
Morris -
ReplyDeleteI'm following up to your comments of a couple days ago when you responded to Pol and stated (and I'm paraphrasing): 'Jews are the best at everything and that's why they (the world) hate us.'
As a fellow secular Jew and a son of a Holocaust survivor, I was brought up being told things like that and it's wonderful to be able to acknowledge and take pride the qualities and gifts of your tribe.
But I'm also beginning to learn to acknowledge the dark side of tribes including my own.
Having read books about Israel, Zionism, etc. by people such as Ilan Pappe, Norman Finkelstein, Miko Peled, and others, my bubble got burst about Palestine and I'm in the process in rethinking what it means to be Jewish in a deeper way: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
You're a scholar and author who emphasizes critical thinking, ethics, and morality.
I like that orientation and I've learned from your insights over the years.
So my question to you is how do you integrate all the various sides of being Jewish?
Is it really just a simple matter of being hated because Jews are the best at everything except sports?
Or is there more to it?
Thanks!
Richard-
ReplyDeleteObviously a simplification on my part, to be sure. However, I do make a distinction between Judaism and Zionism. This wd be a very long discussion, and inasmuch as we have flogged the topic of Zionism to death on this blog (in the past), I am not eager to repeat that. But yes, I have read Pappe and Nur Masalha et al., and it's clear that "ethnic transfer" was in the pipeline as far as Zionists were concerned from a very early date. The Palestinians never really had a chance, and what is going on in Gaza and the West Bank is shameful. Which is something that Israelis who oppose Israeli policy--Yesh Gvul and other peace groups--continue to articulate. In my view, those Israelis who celebrate the murder of Palestinian children are not true Jews. True Jews speak truth to power, imo; they don't celebrate oppression. And Netanyahu is little more than a war criminal (again, imo). True Jews have a heart for the underdog; that's practically in our DNA.
Antisemitism, however, has multiple causes, and there are many bks you can read that can document Jew-hatred going back thousands of yrs. So it's not just that we tend to stand out in any country we're in, any population--a more recent phenomenon. But that particular cause has also been heavily documented, and the stats are there for all to see. It's hardly an accident that European countries had quotas for what % of Jews were allowed to go to law school, med school, enter universities, and so on; it was typically on the order of 2%. A lot more we cd say, of course, but this is a blog abt the collapse of America, not abt Jews.
Anyway, thanks for asking.
Note to Torre-
While yr waiting to escape, put these 2 post-its on yr bathrm mirror; I believe these will help you:
KAMALA SCHMAMALA
DEGRADED BUFFOONS
mb
A gathering wave of enthusiasm for Tulsism is about to sweep Biden Our Time ™ away, in the form of a DeSantis-Gabbard US presidential ticket as an international economic depression threatens the West. Tom Luongo’s latest post makes the case for a new combo of Florida Man and Tulsi to overcome Trumpi’s limitations. Let Freedom Fries ring! Meatballs for all! Take that, Kamaleon! It’s exciting to contemplate what role the GSWH would have in this new administration, and the new sales potential as the 5-volume boxed set on Tulsism becomes a bestseller and is translated into a Chinese edition. And I think that Evergreen College here in Olympia WA should get on the bandwagon early and start offering Tulsi workout videos for credit and a seminar in Buffonian Roleplaying if they are really serious in turning around their enrollment trend.
ReplyDeletehttps://tomluongo.me/2022/10/11/whos-afraid-of-tulsi-gabbard-everyone/
The other night, I ran into a kid wearing a T-shirt that read, “Trump 2024 – Fuck Your Feelings.” My immediate reaction was to ponder just how far the standards of common decency have fallen in America. This only helped to confirm something I have known for a long time – there is nothing genuinely conservative about either Trump or his supporters. Most Americans automatically assume that Republican=conservative and Democrat=liberal. However, the reality in 2022 is that there is very little about the Republican party that remains conservative (and very little about the Democratic party that remains liberal). The core idea of conservatism is respect for tradition, including traditional standards of morality and social propriety. Thus, basic manners like saying “please” and “thank you,” opening the door for people, and not being loud, rude, or obnoxious in public. Wearing an article of clothing with profanity scrawled across the front is a violation of traditional norms of social conduct. It is therefore the opposite of conservative. Everything about Trump and his followers is the opposite of conservative. These people do not fall within the tradition of Edmund Burke, or Irving Babbitt, or Michael Oakeshott. They are simply crude, ignorant, childish, selfish people. Reading The Communist Manifesto is more of a conservative act than voting for an illiterate, boorish buffoon.
ReplyDeleteps: Richard: Of course, some Jews are apparently brain damaged. E.g., Kamala's husband. What in the world convinced him that this complete dummy was a catch?
ReplyDeleteRuskin-
1st, let me say that the Communist Manifesto is a gd read, still relevant today. 2nd, re: boorish behavior: all in all, the US is just a large pile of garbage. The process began in the 60s, when Sen. Moynihan came up w/the concept "defining deviancy down." Well, we're down all rt.
mb
Hey MB, I know you admire and have written about Fellini in "The Heart of the Matter":
ReplyDeleteThis month and the next Emory University is showing a film of his every weds, this week is "8 & 1/2", and next week is "Juliet of the Spirits"... Which one is more your fav? I have seen "8 1/2" but not "Juliet.." so just trying to decide if I should see a know favorite of mine or try a new one.. What film of his is your personal fav? THX!!
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
Thats gd news about Schmendrick2! Perhaps Schmendrick1 and Schmendrick2 could go bowling together.
MB, Wafers-
I tell ya, I'm tickled pink reading about the implosion of the buffoonish LA City Council over taped racist comments:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/10/12/los-angeles-city-council-racist-audio-meeting-tensions/10476195002/
This is a textbook case of identity politics run amok, as all of these clowns captured on tape are Democrats! It's exactly as Tulsi explained when she told the phony race-based Democrats to go to Hell (God love her)! With the Democrats running everything in LA, they are now attacking each other. Go Nury, Gil, and Kevin!
Miles
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteI actually feel bad that Schmendrick2 disappeared. God, he was so stupid. Of course, all he wd do is double down, but I can't help it: I love a gd buffoon. Speaking of buffoons, Douglas MacArthur's assistant, around the middle of the Occupation of Japan, called the admin of the Occupation 'buffonic'. Which it was. But why not extend this to all of America? The LA City Council is a gd example of this. Not only are they racist and ugly, but oh how stupid: Don't they realize that literally everything in the US is now recorded and exposed? It behooves anyone in public office to keep their mouth shut. But Nury et al., besides being awful human beings, are dumb as a bag of oranges. If yr gonna be an asshole, at least whisper it, fer chrissakes. Tulsi is, in fact, the only hope we have.
Torn-
Did I? All I remember is the cameo I did of Fellini in "Genio". Perhaps that's what yr referring to. My fave is "La strada".
mb
Man oh man, the Tulsi Shmulsi Show.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/H4Z1x8Ou8VU
If she really wants to go all the way to the white house she should get a boob job and a Wonder Woman outfit a la Idiocracy.
Let's hope MB gets an offer to overnight in The Lincoln Bedroom.
comrade-
ReplyDeleteThere is a foto of Tulsi somewhere on the Internet, of her in a bikini. As far as I cd make out, no boob job will be necessary. As for my spending the nite with President Tulsi, we Wafers can only hope. My goal is actually many nites, and many babies with this fabulous woman. Tuls I luv you! Together you, I, and our children will hose down the shoes of all the Dems (for starters).
mb
My retired teacher magazine (NEA Today – October 2022) had a brief paragraph about the benefits of reading paper books. The results of the 2018 Program for International Student Assesment reading tests for 15 year olds from 30 countries showed a 49 point advantage for those who read paper books. There was a 15 point advantage for those who read digitally compared to those who rarely read. The tests are done every three years. I wonder what impact Covid digital at home instruction will have on scores?
ReplyDeleteIf you go to the report itself there is a correlation between the number of books in the home and the wealth of the students. The more books in the home, the higher the scores. But since 2000, as poorer students have gotten more access to digital media, the number of books in their homes has fallen.
Here is a synopsis and the complete PDF for the report titled “Does the digital world open up an increasing divide in access to print books?”
America has a way of generating wonderful people:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/12/media/alex-jones-sandy-hook-damages/index.html
My guess is that he won't wind up paying all that much. Why not jail time? Not clear. Perhaps put him in a cage with Nury Martinez for a few months. Ay, Papi!
On any given day, you read the US news, and you wanna toss yr cookies.
mb
ps: Some of you may remember, a few yrs ago, when the news media deluged us with Brexit on a daily basis, that I argued that it was all theater, and that the best way to understand the issue was by means of two words: "Brexit, Schmexit". And this proved to be correct; it was just a pile of poop.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's time to take an overview of the US. How shd we understand it, understand what is going on? Is there a shortcut we can employ, as in the case of Brexit, that might save us all a lot of time? I solicit your entries in this contest, but meanwhile, let me submit my own for your consideration:
"America: Rivers of Shit"
It really is what we consist of, no? It also makes a gd post-it for yr bathrm mirror.
Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post-it-note suggestion. I am a PhD student in the U.S. so I'm waiting until graduation to leave. One hard thing is that often when I mention the issues of the U.S. that my links described, even some family members say things like "those problems exist in other countries too" so it can feel very isolating. I'm trying to make some changes in my mindset in order to feel "okay" here, while looking forward to moving to a country with fewer degraded, violent buffoons.
-- Torreblanca
Torre-
ReplyDeleteIt won't be productive to discuss these issues w/other Americans, including family members. Check out the essays in QOV: America *is* the religion of Americans, regardless of their professed religion, and thus there is no way they can agree w/u w/o triggering major depression. Furthermore, if you start to feel OK here, it wd suggest that there is something wrong w/u. Just adopt the viewpt of an anthropologist, observing some sad, stupid tribe. You might even make notes, for a future article.
mb
Richard-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I wasn't able to run it. We have a guideline of half-page-max per post. So either compress your message down to half a page, or send it in 2 separate posts, spaced 24 hrs apart. Also--I shd have caught this earlier--I ask that bloggers address me either as Mr. Berman, or as the GSWH (Great Seer of the Western Hemisphere). Thanks for your cooperation.
mb
Excellent British journalist Jonathan Cook takes the Guardian's George Monbiot to task for being a "corporate stooge" and "fraud":
ReplyDeletehttps://consortiumnews.com/2022/10/13/crippling-the-left/
Monbiot is certainly a slippery weasel who plays the role of truth-telling liberal outsider extremely well while actually doing yeoman's work for the US/UK imperial establishment.
Dr Berman,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to add that I wasn’t trying to badmouth The Communist Manifesto in my last post; I agree that it is still relevant. I was just pointing out that a person who truly values tradition takes the time to read important works of the past; he doesn’t derive his worldview from Fox News or Breitbart or talk radio like so many imbeciles who continually brag about how “conservative” they are. Theodor Adorno correctly identified such people as “pseudo-conservatives” back in 1950, and since then they have only become more oblivious of the very Western tradition they claim to be protecting.
Ruskin-
ReplyDeleteNot to worry. Just keep in mind that 'imbeciles' is the operative word here.
mb
Doctor,
ReplyDeleteYou often talk about how dumb and stupid USAins are. It seems like one major publication agrees with you. Newsweek in big bold letters describes our road rage drivers as “DUMB and DUMBER”. Two underage girls hit with bullets while the respective childish adult drivers engage in a deadly argument while driving.
https://www.newsweek.com/girls-allegedly-shot-each-others-dads-road-rage-dumb-dumber-1750851
For more adult imbecilic immaturity and making outright dumb fools of themselves at a recent school board meeting, check out the arguing and screaming in Virginia. LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fjMEAXWmkA
Yes. The future looks great here!
U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!
Unknown-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post Unknowns.
Joe-
This is progress, but who will describe the editors at Newsweek?
mb
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
The previous post by 'Miles Deli' was not sent by me. It looks as if Schmendrick2 is back. Hmm, I believe I will need a new handle at some point in the future. I'm thinking Nury Martinez or Shimmel B. Gittel would work.
Jeff
Note to Schmendrick2-
ReplyDeleteStop posting as Miles Deli; it's very sick behavior, and yr a very sick person. In fact, stop rdg this blog. A bigger shmuck than you I haven't seen in a long time. Do you really not have anything better to do than be a professional douche bag?
mb
Jeff-
ReplyDeleteHe wd just copy yr new handle. Best thing is probably when Miles Deli comes in, I post it, then you email me, tell me if it's you, and if not I'll just delete the post. I guess this clown never heard the phrase, "Get a life."
mb
Apropos of choosing equally horrible alternatives, the New York Times reports that the kids today aren't alright. (No-paywall archived link).
ReplyDeleteTeenagers Are Telling Us That Something Is Wrong With America
"We’ve long known that suicide can be contagious without quite understanding how or why. In my practice as a psychoanalyst in New York, I recently worked with a 13-year-old girl whose friend had committed suicide during the pandemic and who had begun to feel suicidal herself. Teenagers are notoriously suggestible to peers, who buffer their nascent sense of self, so the 54 percent increase in suicides in the 10-to-24 age group between 2007 and 2020 is a serious cause for alarm...
"...While she took on the sweet air of a much younger child, it didn’t take much to hear the depression. Many adolescents I see immediately want to exit the world stage, as if all options are already on the table, played-out, disenchanted, and the only choice is to disappear, or take medicine, get famous, detach — other versions of disappearing, suicide being the most extreme."
pill-
ReplyDeleteBut how cd this be? We are such a wonderful country, after all.
mb
Unknown-
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't post Unknowns.
mb
ps: Jeff: I'm wondering if we shd encourage the return of Schmendrick1. I've written several bks since the one on Japan, wh/he panned w/o rdg because you liked it. Maybe he cd do the same w/all the other bks (assuming you liked them), again w/o rdg them. Honestly, I'm amazed at the sheer # of goofballs the US is spewing forth in its dying phase.
ReplyDeleteEx-USian military (imperialistic goon squad), now USer copper, shoots teen eating a hamburger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWUIpbcroK8
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ex-texas-cop-charged-for-shooting-teen-eating-hamburger/ar-AA12QxKt
Professor Berman -
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughtful response.
An example of acknowledging our dark side:
It's been US policy for decades to support Israel with billions of dollars with no end in sight. What's disappointing is there hasn't been more an outcry from US Jews with a demand for the US to stop enabling Israel on such a massive scale especially as Israel becomes more brazen in its attacks (echoes of So. Africa before its Apartheid regime collapsed).
Professor Chalmers Johnson who was an expert on how empires fall apart calls this funding 'imperial overstretch' and it's how empires eventually collapse by going bankrupt:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalmers_Johnson
Why aren't more American Jews demanding that the US government stop this subsidy especially as you stated, "True Jews have a heart for the underdog"?
When a group becomes preoccupied with its own victimhood they turn a blind eye to the victimization of the other.
This is all part of the human condition, not strictly a Jewish phenomenon.
Your thoughts?
Richard-
ReplyDeleteAs I think I mentioned, we had the whole Zionist argument out on this blog many yrs ago, and of course convinced no one. Personally, I'm anti-Zionist. But I just don't have the kishkas to resurrect and repeat that whole dialogue, as in the case of the Civil War dialogue. Short answer, however, as to why American Jews (or Jews in general) don't oppose the apartheid/slow genocide of the Palestinians: they are traumatized by the Holocaust, and so see the defense of Israel (no matter how disgusting its behavior) as abs. necessary. I've tried to have discussions w/Zionists, and it's a waste of time, because their psychological lives are on the line, and so they abs. hafta win the argument. Anyway, enuf abt Zionism and Israel. This blog is abt the collapse of America, and I prefer to stick to that.
Dr. Shit-
In terms of "getting it over with," I suppose the best thing is for cops to go out into the streets and shoot everyone they see. Really, why not?
mb
Remember my post about the Camp Lejeune debacle? Well here's a vid about one veteran who was never given treated for his ailments (along with others). His skin began to have adverse reactions due to the chemicals in the water. The cherry on top was a loaded headline called "Fighting for our vets". Hah! Reality is amerikkka treats its vets like shit; they're just expendable cannon fodder to be chewed & spat out. This is what being a war machine pawn gets u.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtube.com/watch?v=zxIIT6IrbCM
Sven-
ReplyDeleteIt cd be that the express purpose of American institutions, including libraries and hospitals, is to hurt American citizens. Something to think abt.
mb
My, what times, what times we live in, when an abrasive weenie from Fox News, and an air-headed fitness chick from Hawaii are actually the two people in America who are actually speaking more sense than anyone else. Your projected Five Volume work on the occult roots of Tusli-ism is looking more prescient by the day, Dr. Berman. Imagine if she ran as VP with someone like Desantis, and then went on to become a transformative, two term president. Yes, that would be some swan song, with Dr. Berman as "First-Man" in the White House for 8 years (Possibly 16 if you count her time as VP) Anyhow, here is a clip of her looking remarkably good without makeup, and dropping several pearls of Tulsi brilliance:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAfwpfUBw1M
On the NMI cultural front, I have three exceptional books to recommend, all by Noble Prize winners. For people like me who live to read, it is wonderful to find great books that have slipped a bit below the radar. Anyhow, they are "Independent People" (Sublime) by Haldor Laxness , "Feast of the Goat" (exceptional, absolutely riveting), by Mario Vargas LLosa, and "The Cairo Trilogy" (I'm on page 800 right now and I'm totally love with it. It is sort of the "Egyptian Brothers Karamazov".), by Naguib Mahfouz. Anyhow, it is imperative to have a great book to curl up to while Rome is burning! At any rate I'm more excited about these three masterpieces than I have been about any books for decades.
GSWH (Great Seer of the Western Hemisphere) -
ReplyDeleteGreat response!
Richard-
ReplyDeleteThank you, but in future keep in mind that we're not a bulletin board.
Megan-
Honestly, if Tulsi doesn't have my babies, it will break my heart. And if Tulsism doesn't sweep America, it will break America. The US is 100% full of shit, and very few people are calling it out regarding the Ukraine or anything else. A nation of sheep, including op-ed clowns at the NYT. "No facts, please; we're Americans." It's amazing, how Americans will buy the MSM line that whatever comes outta the Kremlin is propaganda, and whatever comes outta the W.H. is Truth--by definition.
Now I need to get back to my 5-vol. study, "Cornerstones of the Tulsaic World View."
mb
So what else is new dept.:
ReplyDeletehttps://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/13/us/raleigh-north-carolina-shooting/index.html
As for the kid who got blown away by a cop in San Antonio, for sitting in his car in a McDonald's parking lot, eating a hamburger: the nerve, eating a hamburger in public. Why was the police officer not equipped with a nuclear device? And we wonder why the country is going to the dogs.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteLook at this face: tell me it doesn't look like the rear end of a horse:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/14/kanye-west-keeps-moving-further-and-further-to-the-right-why
Meanwhile, I woke up, shouted KAMALA SCHMAMALA, and feel terrific.
mb
As terminal nuclear war bears down on planet earth, Tulsi gets a callout by two anti-war protesters attending an AOC town hall. Turns out dying in a nuclear holocaust to determine who rules a portion of a weird Eastern European backwater is not as popular with Americans as the Democratic Party supposes:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/hodgetwins/status/1580509075829272576?s=20&t=0KA--vmtddHnGOH45WDeHQ
Conservatives don't much want to go out that way either:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/zelensky-taking-us-to-the-nuclear-brink/
Kim Dotcom explains (for dummies) why the US government is acting so k-razy: https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1580757812296445952?s=20&t=DWmGS_u_3oBId0F7VPRshg
Pol-
ReplyDeleteAOC needs a ton of urine. That much is clear. Zelenskomu definitely taking us to the brink. In the past, I said it mockingly, that our only hope was Tulsi. Now, I believe it.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteA new movement that might be effective, besides the Bowel Movement: Slap-a-Woke. Here's the idea: you run out into the street, find a Woke, and slap them. After, you receive a badge saying I SLAPTA WOKE FOR AMERICA; or, TULSISM IS THE ANSWER. What do you hafta lose? The US is going to hell in a basket as we speak. (Could we *have* a dumber administration?)
mb
ps: We also have a few badges that say I SLAPTA WOKE FOR CHRIST.
MB, for your contest, I'd say America, Shmerica is dull and lifeless enough to suit the nation's future.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the us devolves into an irrelevant agrarian backwater, much like whatever is probably in store for whatever's left of a rump ukraine. If "Ukraine" means "borderland", what's the word for idiotland?
Greetings MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteMB-
re: Schmendrick1
I hafta admit that Schmendrick1 was one of my favorite trollfoons. And, yes, I kinda miss the little bugger. Come back, Schmendrick1!
The good news is that your recent book, "Eminent Post-Victorians," is next up in my queue. I will post a review of it on Amazon, and this will, hopefully, coax Schmendrick1 outta the shadows and into the light.
Meanwhile, here are a couple of recent bks I've read that you and other Wafers might enjoy:
Robert Rosen, "Bobby in Naziland: A Tale of Flatbush"
Pierre Schlag, "American Absurd: A Work of Fiction"
Miles
MB and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteTwo days ago, I made the mistake of trying talk to one of my physics department colleagues, a woman from Greece with a doctorate from Yale, about the war in Ukraine. She's long been a US citizen, so it probably won't be a surprise that she totally supports what Biden is doing in fueling the war, which is all Putin's fault in her mind, which is just what the New York Times is saying. I tried to tell her about the RAND Corporation report that I posted here a couple of weeks ago, this being a document that outlines a scheme to goad Russia into a war in Ukraine or some other country in the region. Of course, she was dismissive of the whole thing. She wasn't even curious about it. Well, what could I have expected from someone who thought Hillary Clinton an ideal presidential candidate?
Oh yeah, she seemed unfazed by the prospect of annihilation by a nuclear war stoked by what Biden is doing to escalate the war in Ukraine.
Well, this woman has long oozed a sense of superiority that I always thought was based on her having a Yale Ph.D. in physics. Ph.D. from Yale, but still a moron! Hardly unique in academia.
ccg-
ReplyDeleteYou keep talking to buffoons and expecting a different response. Suggestion: stop talking to them.
Jeff-
Glad it's u, and not Schmendrick2, aka giant piece of dreck. As for Schmendrick1: I too wd like to have him back, panning bks he's never read. So much dreck around, eh?
comrade-
Go out into the street. The 1st person u.c., ask him/her: "Are you a buffoon?" If they say no, you say, "You might wanna think abt it." If they say yes, you say, "So why haven't you killed yrself already?"
mb
Wafer CCG,
ReplyDeleteAnecdotally, the worst experiences in the US empire were "chatting" with USer immigrants. They ARE as american as obesity and war.
Most truly 'want' what the US is offering and gleefully/willfully bought into it (e.g., they went through immigration hoops and hassles voluntarily+ consuming propaganda)--they 'have' to believe in it. Starry-eyed and blind, most walk lock-step with the debased and degenerate USian "culture."
Do not engage, no eye contact, stick to 'boring' topics, and leave them be. Perhaps, use the 'grey rock' technique for dealing with toxic and/or personality disordered individuals (USers).
https://www.blunt-therapy.com/how-to-gray-rock-method-a-narcissist/
Glans-
ReplyDeleteReading thru online newspaper headlines on a daily basis, with stories abt Alex Jones and Nury Martinez and embezzlement and corruption scandals etc etc, you hafta ask yrself: What % of Americans are not disgusting pieces of trash? I put it in the neighborhood of 10%, but it cd be less. Meanwhile, the incoming immigrants are excited abt the opportunity to hustle. The fact is that we are a large collection of scumbags, and the nation is putrid to the core. The president is a clueless warmonger, and his VP is a dope. If Trumpi gets indicted for anything, you can be sure he'll never get convicted or serve time. Etc.
mb
If anyone wants some background on the crazy school board meeting (cries of “Mr. Twigg, Mr. Twigg…” remind me of Barney Fife’s cries of “Citizen’s arrest, citizen’s arrest…” in the Andy Griffith show….) it can be found here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/17/spotsylvania-schools-superintendent-offer/
ReplyDeleteCrazy. Gotta get out of this craziness.
Kev-
ReplyDeleteWhat if it turned out that 90% of Americans were awful human beings?
mb
ps: Kev: In other words, what if being hustlers, narcissists, rivals, competitors, people w/o hearts, and all-round low-lifes, was only partly cultural, and the major part was in our DNA? I'm not sure is this all that outlandish.
ReplyDeletemb
MB and Glans,
ReplyDeleteRegarding my last post: I have to confess that talking to my colleague about the war in Ukraine was kind of an experiment. I was pretty sure how it would go, but maybe I was hoping to be surprised. Well, I wasn't surprised. It was a just another data point on the road to see what douche bags my colleagues really are.
This is a person who hated George W. Bush, cried when Kerry lost to him, but suddenly embraced him upon the election of Trump. Why? Because W. was sooo polite compared to to Trump! I'm not making that up. How can one talk to somebody who is this superficial yet thinks she all knowing and comes across as nothing but imperious, just because, I suspect, she has a Yale degree? The answer is obvious: you can't. And people wonder why I hate academics as a class even though I am one. I hasten to add that there are a few who don't have their heads up their asses, but they are few and far between.
I have to wonder: Does she think a degree from Yale will protect her in the event of a nuclear war?
ccg-
ReplyDeleteClearly, she needs a vigorous beating, but perhaps a bit down the line. Here's the deal: recall the distinction between intellectual knowing and ontological knowing. During my career, I taught at a whole # of universities, and what I observed was people who had a lot of the 1st and almost none of the 2nd. But w/o the 2nd, yr not really fully human, and what you understand abt reality and the human condition is zippo. As a result, you are unhappy, and what I observed was that most academics were. The truth is that even a vigorous beating won't get yr colleague to snap out of it; altho it might make *you* feel gd, and perhaps you shd do it for that reason alone. Just after you finish up, tell her she's a douche baguette, and that there is no hope for her in this lifetime. (Which is true) Tell her she's just Ivan Ilyich revisited, sans the 3 days of enlightenment at the end, and yr not going to pee on her shoes because it wd be a waste of perfectly gd urine.
mb
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteRecall our list of famous douche baguettes: Sarah, Bundchen, Kamala Schmamala, and so on (Tulsi long since removed). Two new additions: Nury Martinez, and Liz Truss. We must hunt them down, and vomit upon them.
mb
I have Magic Morris Glasses that swaps the head of any buffoon I meet on the street with a pile of dogshit. No need to ask them at all. (Actually the neck tattoos are a sure giveaway)
ReplyDeleteHere's a presser Putin gives at the conclusion of a working visit to Astana, Kazakhstan where he met with leaders of Central Asia yesterday. No prepared questions, no teleprompter, clear concise, and far reaching answers to whatever was tossed at him. I wish I knew Russian - his words have to be even better than the captioning. Our pal joe, on the other hand, is like a chicken on valium.
It will be sad to watch Tulsi be assimilated by The Borg. We seem to get the president we deserve.
comrade-
ReplyDeleteI gave a lecture 2 days ago at an annual bk fair that is held in Mexico City down at the Zocalo, or central square. I told them that the war in the Ukraine was caused by the US, not Russia, and that Biden was not an idiot; he was just a man with no imagination. The best he is able to do is resurrect the Cold War, which will be a disaster for all concerned. Got very strong applause.
Yes, Russian is an outstanding language. I was fluent in it 60 yrs ago; today, only abt 10% is left. I love the sound. You know I even read Lermontov's 'Hero of Our Times' in the original? And other fabulous stuff: 'Queen of Spades' by Pushkin, 'The Siren' by Chekhov, etc.
What now? It's Tulsi or death. Meanwhile, the Buffoon Index (BI) rises every day. Yr rt: as utter buffoons, we do deserve Biden, and maybe even (god forbid) nuclear war. We are SO stupid! ccg's example of his brain-damaged colleague is hardly exceptional.
mb
ps: I also need 2c a show of hands: How many of us regard Elon Musk as an utter turkey, a douche bag, a horse's ass, and a total buffoon?
ReplyDeleteDr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteTulsi was interviewed by Chris Cuomo (what a moron!). Tulsi offers logical evidence based responses but Cuomo keeps asking pre-cooked/biased questions (based on the WH narrative) and disagreeing with her without logic or evidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvxTPwV4xeg
Himanshu
I’m happy to hear that Dr. Berman will be continuing his cameo series with a book on Russia. But I’m wondering, why stop at just a trilogy? Why not keep going indefinitely? Maybe a book on France, a book on Spain, a book on Latin America…You could explore the works of Paz, Neruda, Marquez, Borges…
ReplyDeleteRus-
ReplyDeleteI did have one in mind called "Some of My Best Friends Are Jews," but I lost interest. It was going to be sold with a cup of chopped liver.
Himan-
Most Americans are puppets. She isn't.
mb
I'm starting to understand one of the things you've mentioned here @Dr. Berman. Specifically, how you ran out of people to talk to in America. Does this sound like what you experienced?
ReplyDelete1. You start talking to someone about a particular issue.
2. You gently propose a perspective based on your interest/reading in the subject.
3. The other person stops talking and gives you a look like you just pissed on their shoes.
It's a pretty awful feeling in general. I believe I GET what you meant by this sense of loneliness.
Xen-
ReplyDeleteIt was also a case of coming up against massive ignorance. The # of people I met who could say what an aorta was, or a sonnet, was minuscule. If you made an extremely well-known literary or historical or mythological reference, they just stared at you. E.g., 'well, it's just The Wasteland all over again'; 'this takes us back to John Adams, I suppose'; 'she's like the ogre in Grimm's Fairy Tales';--you get the idea. Most can't name the 3 branches of gov't, or know what the initials FDR stand for. Any single word in a foreign language also left them staring. To all this add the fact that Americans are puppets; they just repeat the gov't line on something, or what they read in the newspaper that morning (most don't read anything but their fones). Bottom line: it's a dramatically stupid country, and trying to find true comrades is a waste of time. Plus, they lack the elementary kindness and courtesy that one finds in most other countries, as a given.
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America is where basic humanity goes to die. Even the most fundamental of intimate acts is up for grabs to the highest bidder. When the obituary of America is read, pornography will likely be listed as our great artistic contribution to the world.
ReplyDeleteCandidate has her pornographic pictures released by an overseas tabloid:
https://jezebel.com/alexandra-hunt-congress-candidate-onlyfans-published-1849656810
New York Congressional Candidate Releases Porn Video Featuring Himself:
https://jezebel.com/new-york-congressional-candidate-releases-porn-video-fe-1849659623
Girl who streams herself playing videogames in a hot-tub and licking microphones for her 'fans' claims her monthly income of 1.5 million dollars is being manipulated by her husband:
https://kotaku.com/amouranth-says-she-is-being-abused-by-her-husband-1849664778
Xen-
ReplyDeleteThe US is chock full of self-destructive buffoons. This much is clear. Meanwhile, Liz Truss is one of the greatest turkeys in British history.
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Here’s more disintegration—daily mass shooting style—of the Dysfunctional States of America. Go Pitysburgh! Go Virginia!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/10/16/pittsburgh-shooting-leaves-3-dead-1-injured-multiple-scenes/8491665941311/
https://www.whsv.com/2022/10/16/shooting-investigation-eight-suffer-non-life-threatening-injuries-harrisonburg/
And of course a huge factor in this wasteland’s disintegration is the continuing fascist imbuing by the far right of christian nationalism.
https://apnews.com/article/michael-flynn-sarasota-christian-nationalism-578e9142bc41b46e90048a01f317bd96?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_06
Wafers-
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed by the # of politicians who have abs. no idea of what they are doing. Schmiden *thinks* he knows what he's doing, but he's just a marionette on strings, being pulled along by America's history of what I called 'negative identity' in QOV. As Walter Lippmann famously remarked, 'Our imperialism is mostly unconscious'.
But consider folks such as Liz Truss, or Kamala Schmamala. They are becoming politically obsolete because they literally have no idea of what they are doing, so they come across (accurately) as confused dopes. Herschel Walker might also fall into this category, and possibly Sarah Palin, along with Rudy Giuliani. Tulsi did fall into it, at one pt; now, she seems to have found her voice.
Wafers are invited to add to this list.
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I nominate Jon Stewart.
ReplyDeleteYeah he's not a politician but he's one of their court jesters. Unfortunately a very status quo one, kind of like a feel-good tranquilizer.
This article I read 10 years ago articulated what I was thinking about him:
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-jokes-on-you
Dr. Berman and Wafers,
ReplyDeleteBreaking America and Breaking India | Peter Boghossian & Rajiv Malhotra | Snakes in the Ganga: In this in-depth discussion between Prof. Peter Gregory Boghossian, American philosopher and pedagogist & Rajiv Malhotra discuss if the new wave of politically adept woke and cancel culture propped up and propagated by American ivy leagues a common obstacle for the two democracies? I encourage Wafers to give this very enriching discussion a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWLZg2A1eEU
Thanks,
Himanshu
Nominate Rom Mittney-sheer US-er 'exceptionalism' 'brilliance.'--a good sock puppet for jingoism while playing the "independent" role to the 335 million used car salesmen.
ReplyDeleteHis self-image is America; e.g., delusional, has no substance to back it up. So the self-image is extremely fragile.
Like calling the winner of a national game- the "World" champion.
Imagine masturbating and calling yourself the World Sex Champion…that's Rom Mittney.
Wafers and Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI came across a rather apt description of the USA in a most unlikely place (a blog run by an ex CIA [I think?] analyst, by a commenter on a recent article about M.A.D.).
The comment is about the USA’s corruption and arrogance, and describes the country thus:
“USA resembles a small aquarium full of competing piranhas – with the only goal of short term satiety. Everything in USA is geared towards feeding the piranhas and it doesn’t matter if global south or our own people domestically are being fed into the profit machine.”
The post and comments are here:
https://sonar21.com/forget-m-a-d-russia-can-defeat-the-united-states-in-a-nuclear-war/
Wafer hopes for Tulsism redeeming U-S-A! U-S-A! through a too-good-to-be-true workout program have been dashed by Tulsi’s recent endorsement of warmonger candidate Don Bolduc, running in New Hampshire for U.S. Senate. Bolduc has called for NATO intervention in Ukraine – listen to his interview on FOX News and see for yourself, along with Tulsi’s campaign appearances with Bolduc this week. All of us should urge our GSWH not to succumb to the temptation to date Tulsi and have her babies, and to consider a last-chapter reappraisal of Tulsism in his upcoming 5-volume publication. If it walks with a Bolduc and talks like a Bolduc, then Tulsism must be a Bolduc. And saddest of all, I can no longer recommend an invitation for Tulsi to speak at the local Evergreen State College in Olympia WA.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1581605174136606720
https://donbolduc.com/events/
https://BenjaminNorton/status/158214165082115072?cxt=HHwWgMCo9dLa8vQrAAAA
Jack-
ReplyDeleteClearly, no babies. She's also become a candidate for pols who have no idea what they're doing. The 5-vol. work will be printed on toilet paper. Another candidate might be Kanye, altho he has been diagnosed as being mentally ill, so perhaps we shd cut him some slack. However, there's no excuse for running around w/a face that resembles a horse's ass, and not signing up for serious plastic surgery.
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Dr. Berman,
ReplyDeleteI recently checked Google news, here are the top two articles I am seeing when I went to Google News today:
1) American Culture is Trash Culture from the New York Times , even the New York Times is posting something like this.
2) We Are on a Path to Nuclear War
Hmmmmmm.....
This is kinda heartwarming:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/oct/18/iranian-schoolgirl-beaten-to-death-for-refusing-to-sing-pro-regime-anthem
Arthur Koestler called "devotion" (fanaticism) the greatest danger to the human race.
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Tim-
ReplyDeleteVery impt to provide links to articles like this. That American culture is a pile of shit is something I've been saying for 22 yrs now. But you want to make this sort of observation easily accessible to our readers. Thank you.
mb
Hello Dr. Berman and WAFers,
ReplyDeleteAllow me to preface this by saying that the individual in this video is a rabid anti-Semite, a white supremacist, and several other none-too kosher things. More about him here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varg_Vikernes
Still…going by the “even a stopped clock is right twice a day proverb, I’d say he has some very “interesting” things to say about America & Americans in this video. Things that are also true in all likelihood or at least true to a reasonable extent:
https://youtu.be/6D6I3c57ADs
Land-
ReplyDeleteBuffoonery reaches new heights! Poor guy needs a daily bowl of matzoh ball soup.
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Doctor & Wafers,
ReplyDeleteFor a good hearty laugh, check out what our conservative poster boy for vigilantism is up to.
https://www.cbs58.com/news/kenosha-shooter-kyle-rittenhouse-offering-advice-on-new-youtube-channel
And for an even bigger laugh, check out how much money these fools in this pathetic wasteland have sent him. As of now it’s over $630,000.
So all you have to do here to make some good money is to be a high school dropout; buy an AR15 with your Covid stimulus money; blow a couple of people away; be glamorously introduced under neon lights on the stage at CPAC; and then form your own YouTube channel about guns and the 2nd Amendment. LOL!
https://www.givesendgo.com/GUCZ
And don’t forget that this country has Jesus on our side. Michael Flynn is making sure of that.
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/10/lancasters-spooky-nook-center-next-stop-for-michael-flynn-and-his-cast-of-right-wing-warriors.html
More depressing developments in the most depressing country to live in-
ReplyDeleteWorried that your child’s body will be rendered unrecognizable by a hail of gunfire during school? Fear no longer, as the sanest contingency plan one can think of is to order dna kits for easy identification.
Wafers- Are there any other symptoms of national hemorrhaging that will simply become ‘part of life’ now, as unavoidable as a hurricane or tsunami? America’s favorite pastime (mass shootings) doesn’t seem too have an end in sight.
https://www.today.com/parents/family/texas-parents-schools-dna-kits-identify-kids-bodies-rcna52769?cid=sm_npd_td_tw_ma
Thomas-
ReplyDeleteImpt to send messages to most recent post. No one reads the old stuff.
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