Pages

Saturday, July 10, 2021

Briefly Noted: Where America Is

Today we have kind of a mish-mash of impressionistic type links with brief excerpts, expressing existential angst at the state of modern life:

I think Tucker was the first to point out this long Twitter thread, which I'm not including--just the intro to one of several repubs of it:


Darryl Cooper: Why Trump Supporters Are Pissed Off And Don't Trust Anything

As the ruling class went to absurd lengths to try and dismantle Donald Trump, pissed off supporters watched in horror as a captured media peddled lie after lie - typically based on anonymous leaks from deep state bureaucrats, and as  powerful agents within America's intelligence apparatus falsified evidence and collaborated with foreign operatives paid by Trump's political opponents.

In doing so, they exposed themselves to anyone not already paying attention.


Next, Andrew Sullivan captures how the philosophical and moral bankruptcy of the Classical Liberalism on which America was founded has caught up with us as a nation. Ideas have consequences, and even lack of ideas has consequences. Bad ideas? It just keeps getting worse until/unless people have a deep conversion--because nothing less can change the momentum. That means that liberals like Sullivan are, of course, very much part of the problem. But so are libertarians, to take just one example, whether of the Left or Right:


What Happened To You?

The radicalization of the American elite against liberalism

...

... the sudden, rapid, stunning shift in the belief system of the American elites ... has sent the whole society into a profound cultural dislocation. ..., an ongoing moral panic against the specter of “white supremacy,” which is now bizarrely regarded as an accurate description of the largest, freest, most successful multiracial democracy in human history.

We all know it’s happened. The elites, increasingly sequestered within one political party and one media monoculture, educated by colleges and private schools that have become hermetically sealed against any non-left dissent, have had a “social justice reckoning” these past few years. And they have been ideologically transformed, with countless cascading consequences. 

...

... the term “successor ideology” works because it centers the fact that this ideology wishes, first and foremost, to repeal and succeed a liberal society and democracy.

In the successor ideology, there is no escape, no refuge, from the ongoing nightmare of oppression and violence — and you are either fighting this and “on the right side of history,” or you are against it and abetting evil. There is no neutrality. No space for skepticism. No room for debate. No space even for staying silent. (Silence, remember, is violence — perhaps the most profoundly anti-liberal slogan ever invented.)

And that tells you about the will to power behind it. Liberalism leaves you alone. The successor ideology will never let go of you. Liberalism is only concerned with your actions. The successor ideology is concerned with your mind, your psyche, and the deepest recesses of your soul. Liberalism will let you do your job, and let you keep your politics private. S.I. will force you into a struggle session as a condition for employment.


While this listing is something of a mish-mash, I am placing this item next for a reason. Please note how little publicity this story is getting in the MSM. That tells you a lot about where the ruling class believes the FBI lines up with the "successor ideology." Just as the Clintons and so many liberal others get a pass for their evil behavior, so now do FBI managers, it seems:


FBI "Domestic Terrorism" Unit Is Composed of Reckless Sexual Predators Who Keep Rainbow Dildos In Their Office and Show Up to Work Drunk, Explosive New Lawsuit Alleges

Yet because America’s elite use the FBI as a tool to use against their political critics, Veltri’s heavily substantiated and accusations are being blacked out everywhere outside of the New York Post and the relatively small conservative site, The Blaze.


Moving along to education ...

The rumbling I hear is the teachers unions gearing up to try to shut down the government schools again come September. Liberal government will support them, unless the nation rises up. In the meantime:


Read this one folks....

Recent film program graduates of Columbia University who took out federal student loans had a median debt of $181,000.

Yet two years after earning their master’s degrees, half of the borrowers were making less than $30,000 a year.

The Columbia program offers the most extreme example of how elite universities in recent years have awarded thousands of master’s degrees that don’t provide graduates enough early career earnings to begin paying down their federal student loans, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Education Department data.

Behind virtually every single one of these students is one or two parents that filed a FASFA with both the college and the government suborning an outrageous scam that has ruined countless young people's lives, along with their gullible or stupid parents who deserve to find themselves in the street with nothing other than their underwear.

Not one of these programs is a reasonable investment with a rational rate of return or odds of success.  None.

...

 


My view, which I've acted on in my life, is that higher education is not for everyone, is not supposed to be a job factory. It should very importantly be an institution for passing on the philosophical principles on which our society is based--at a very high intellectual level. It's getting ever more difficult to find schools that are committed to such a function.

But there's good news, too, as Don Surber passes along:


The Epoch Times reported, "Homeschool Applications Double In California."

...

The numbers are minuscule in a state of 40 million or so people.

However, the rest of the nation is in rebellion against public schools.

The story said, "Between spring and fall of 2020, the percentage of homeschoolers nationwide more than doubled, jumping from 5.4% to 11.1% in less than four months."

The parents of 1 in 9 students believe public schools are so terrible that they would rather keep the kids home and teach them themselves.

...

The story also said, "The largest increase in homeschoolers was especially notable among minority groups, including black and Hispanic learners.

"In African American households, the proportion of homeschooling quintupled from 3.3% in spring 2020, to 16.1% in fall 2020.

"In Hispanic households, the number of homeschooling households doubled in the same time, from 6.2% to 12.1%."

You can be darned sure parents aren't teaching their kids CRT. Why, some may even be reading The Bible.

Liberals are alarmed. 

1 in 6 black kids stay at home to learn instead of going to school to be indoctrinated.

...


Look for increasingly unhinged calls from liberals and teachers to rein this trend in. We're already seeing actions at the legislative level in states like IL. Liberals want the kids.

Still, the culture around us is circling the drain:


In Many Cities In America, The Criminals Are Starting To Gain Firm Control Of The Streets

Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

Every week the horrendous crime wave that is sweeping across America seems to get even worse. In some of our largest cities, looting, murder and violence are becoming a way of life, and authorities seem powerless to do anything about it.  Is this what we can expect life in the United States to look like moving forward?  All over the globe, people are watching us, and they are stunned by what they have been witnessing.  Criminals are wildly out of control, and many of our largest cities are being transformed into extremely violent war zones.

...

Embattled Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told reporters that the level of violence and gunfire overwhelmed his officers.

Next door, the shoplifting epidemic in San Francisco has evolved into systematic looting.

Sadly, no retailer is immune.  Even though Neiman Marcus has enthusiastically embraced a whole host of “woke” causes, criminals ruthlessly looted one of their stores in San Francisco on Monday…

At this point, the looting has gotten so bad that some major retailers are taking drastic actions …

Walgreens shuttered 17 of its stores in the San Francisco area in the past five years, ...

Target executives in the city also decided to limit business hours ...

In Chicago, this holiday weekend was the most violent weekend that we have seen in 2021 so far, and that is really saying something …

There are certain areas of Chicago that are essentially “no go zones” at this point, but of course the same thing could be said about the worst parts of many other major U.S. cities.


On the Covid Panic front, we continue to be overwhelmed with disinformation. But ...


Just 25 'Under 18s' Died From COVID In England, 100s Died From Suicide And Trauma

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

New figures released by researchers in the UK show that just 25 under-18’s died from COVID from March 2020 to February 2021, two-thirds of whom had “chronic” health conditions, and that lockdown measures aimed at children “may prove a greater risk than that of SARS-CoV-2 itself.”


People Who Recover From COVID-19 At "Very Low Risk" Of Re-Infection: Study

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

People who have contracted COVID-19 and recovered should know that the risk for re-infection is very low, a doctor said after a study he worked on was published.

Researchers analyzed records from Curative, a clinical laboratory based in San Dimas that specializes in COVID-19 testing and has during the pandemic been conducting routine workforce screening. None of the 254 employees who had COVID-19 and recovered became re-infected, while four of the 739 who were fully vaccinated contracted the disease.




14 comments:

  1. when it came time for my kid to go to college, I attended a number of seminars about the process at his high school and elsewhere to learn about the differences between applying for college in the 1960s and in 2009. In each of these "classes", the importance of filling out a FAFSA was always stressed to the point where I began to think that my kid couldn't go to college without going thru that process. Since I had saved up sufficient funds to send him to any school in the country without having to borrow money, I tried to ignore this "requirement", but eventually succumbed just to see if my family "qualified" for "free" government handouts. Turns out we didn't since we've been too "thrifty" over the years, so I simply skipped this process going forward, wrote tuition checks regularly to an "esteemed" institution, watched him graduate in 4 years with no debt whatsoever, and never looked back. He's now almost 30, has saved over 200k, and has no debt...I keep telling him not to let the young ladies know that since digging for gold is still a national pastime amongst some of the fairer sex.

    ReplyDelete
  2. For my daughters major and school we looked at employment % and salaries upon graduation (under graduate). For some schools, UCSB comes to mind, this information was very hard to find.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think the Martyr’s Twitter thread will be the “Flight 93” essay of this new generation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. For more on this long Twitter thread, see
    https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/07/09/heres-a-pretty-good-summary-of-the-last-few-years-of-political-and-intelligence-and-media-developments-and-the-reaction-of-the-right/ , incl.
    Comments by huxley, Geoffrey Britain, and one by Zaphod (on July 9, 2021 at 11:12 pm).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And for still more, see
      https://www.bookwormroom.com/2021/07/09/a-must-read-thread-about-the-real-conspiracy/ , esp. the comments by lyn5.

      Delete
  5. Thanks for the heads-up, but I would have titled it "Where America is not." You will find fault with my unfounded assumption, but I am convinced that 70-80% of Americans are not buying the koolaid, and that would not only include sizable numbers of minorities, but even some illegals who might have middle-class values and have come here for a better life.

    ReplyDelete
  6. "You will find fault with my unfounded assumption"

    Not necessarily. I think you're over simplifying complex matters of human psychology. People just don't think as consistently or logically as you seem to be assuming. They often don't vote for the party that best represents their expressed interests and views, for various not entirely logical reasons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suspect "over generalizing" is the expression I was looking for.

      Delete
    2. My reply to your reply. Agreed. I don't assume people think consistently or logically and they often don't vote their own best interests. However I am fond of quoting from an article by V.D. Hanson in JWR (4/21/21):
      "The cultural currents are often contradictory. They defy easy political analysis and seem at times counterintuitive.
      But there is one historical constant.
      When institutions and politicians cannot accommodate radically changed circumstances, people will no longer value institutions and politicians. In their place, citizens will seek to ensure their own livelihoods, leisure and safety in ways that are more reliable and affordable — with their circumstances in their own hands rather than in those of distant others.
      And their adjustments won't always be calm or polite."

      Delete
    3. @anon

      Don't be so hesitant. There is support for your gut instinct. Historically, revolutions are carried by a very small percentage of the population. So it is more likely than not that the real drivers of our present chaos are a relatively small number who have seized control of Big Tech, Big Media, Big Corp, and the Intelligence Community. Look at the huge pushback in even supposedly blue Loudoun county VA against CRT in the schools. If Loudoun was full of true blue believers, there would be masses of people supporting CRT. Instead it's the opposite.

      2020 gave us all the evidence we need to conclude that elections in so called Blue Cities are a sham and manufactured outcomes. We have every reason now to believe that there is very little real support for Democrat policies even in places like Baltimore or New York. Voting in these cities simply doesn't matter any more and hasn't for decades.

      On the other hand, while the real marxist believers are relatively small there are larger numbers who benefit from the criminal enterprise run by the gangsters. Their interest is mostly mercenary and they have no deep loyalty to the system if an alternative is provided. They are the tractable middle with no convictions beyond a paycheck.

      Our difficulty is that our system is squarely based upon the assumption that voting is fair and legitimate. Further it assumes that those elected will fairly/ honestly represent their constituents. I'm not sure this system is adequate now to the task at hand. Afterall, even Saddam Hussein had elections. Elections are not a magic panacea alone. I am with devilman and others who doubt we can vote our way out of this.

      Regardless, We can be sure that the oligarchs have something big planned before 2022 midterms to ensure they keep the House and Senate. Likely it will be tied into the white supremacy theme which is being played up consistently in all the media. My SWAG is that it will be gun confiscation or forced vaccinations in the hope that they can provoke a violent response from patriots which will justify draconian laws a la 9.11, perhaps even a suspension of 2022 elections. They are calculating very carefully whether they can cheat their way into majorities in 2022. If not, they will ensure 2022 never comes.

      Pray

      Delete
    4. "in the hope that they can *provoke a violent* response from patriots which will justify draconian laws...."
      Quite so, and this may be the point of Biden's speech in Philly in a few days.

      Delete
    5. These Wokesters all-but live for their ability to manipulate Optics.
      Whenever you are w/ in their range, be prepared to encounter an effort to set you up, for them to be able to end up styling themselves, or their pals, as the Victims.
      See Jas. Lindsay on "wound collecting", at https://newdiscourses.com/2021/06/onlysubs-wound-collecting-a-manipulative-woke-tactic/ .

      Delete
    6. @anon (my reply) and @anon (don't be hesitant) - both of your posts are IMO great and true. There are some things about human nature that are uniformly true and enable good analysis and prognostication, which you both evidence here. I would just add that they are going to push the vaccination, surveillance, and social credit score efforts to the limit. That is a wise (if evil) political play while they have power - and they know their time is short.

      Delete