A rant with educational links, ending with a test, so this is bound to be a super popular post! 😆
Recently I’ve been looking into air filters, because I’ve been told they can help alleviate allergies and because I’m dismayed at the amount of dust that accumulates so quickly in our home at all times of the year. I was in a state of sticker shock when I learned that these popular products sell for many hundreds of dollars plus the required regular replacement of pricey filters, not to mention the extra electricity costs of running them continually.
To equip our little cottage with these we’d need at least 3, plus the regular upkeep of their filters.
These are products that were unheard of until about the last decade or so. According to some of the glowing comments in the reviews, they are nessessary for many because of their sensitivity to all the ‘wildfire smoke.’ Wildfire smoke is another thing that was not on the mass public radar except in a relatively few locations, whereas now it seems the entire globe is concerned with it.
If not wildfire smoke it’s Saharan dust, or pollen, or dander that’s the supposed culprit of the filthy air. So very many reasons, which seem entirely plausible, except for the odd fact that they are somehow new problems for huge numbers of us.
The disgusting air in our living room when the light was at a perfect angle to capture it.
Why has air pollution, both indoor and outdoor, become such a huge problem, even in rural areas? Air pollution used to be a city problem.
Once upon a time folks moved to the country for clean air.
Is it the ‘conspiracy theory’ called Smart dust? Fallout from Geoengineering? Because I simply cannot buy those other assumptions, because, logic!
Fresh air!
Could it be black carbon dust, used in weather modification since the 70s at least, according to this document.
On many occassions I’ve done Dane Wigington ‘Flashlight Test’.
I’ve done it at least once in every season and it different weather conditions, like on ‘spray days’ vs none.
While the Flashlight Test will not work everywhere because of light pollution, it is very simple. Go outside to a dark spot and beam a strong flashlight into the air. That is what I filmed, just a few nights ago, very few bugs were attracted to the light, but the swirling filth is clearly visible in the beam.
It can’t possibly be linked to Geoengineering, because that’s still only a proposal, according to official sources and academia.
From this document from 2010 we learn the public has been completely misled for a minimum of two decades, becuase the government has stated Geoengineering is already happening, it is international in scope, there will be public debates over the years, which has certainly not happened, and the testing will intensify.
Rather than outrage, the poor, disease-ridden masses should equip their homes with thousands of dollers in new equipment, forever.
“Rarely acknowledged in the debate on global climate change, the world’s weather can now be modified as part of a new generation of sophisticated electromagnetic weapons. Both the US and Russia have developed capabilities to manipulate the climate for military use.
Environmental modification techniques have been applied by the US military for more than half a century. US mathematician John von Neumann, in liaison with the US Department of Defense, started his research on weather modification in the late 1940s at the height of the Cold War and foresaw ‘forms of climatic warfare as yet unimagined’.”
Is it really about pollen and dander and wildfires on the other side of the world? Or, might we be breathing several decades worth of chemical fallout from experiments done against our will and our knowledge?
Did you know that creating drought is technically easier than creating rain?
Try the flashlight test chez vous! Who else can see the air filth? What do you make of it? Are you satisfied with just buying the latest tech to protect yourself and ‘trusting the science.’
Finally, the fruits of Their/his labor move into the observable by the layman. I’m meaning both here at home, in our bathroom reconstruction, as well as on the grander stage, the Global Reset.
the latest in moisture prevention, perhaps to become the next generation’s asbestos?
Once the global AI Governance is finally visible to the public at large, and we are ruled over officially by cartoon cutouts, at least we will have a gorgeous new bathroom in which to adjust to our Wizard of Oz overlords.
I think it’s fitting that this moment in the latest rewriting of global history we will forever connect it to these long sweltering months of bowel movements in our larvae-infested poop-with-a-view. It’s just too bad the long drop isn’t pasted with the photos of our current parasites-in-charge, that could become a new genre of target practice.
Global AI ‘governance’ aka surveillance, warned about for decades by many researchers whose work was then disseminated by a great many more for decades, is now being noticed by the masses and academia as the final act moves to the center stage.
Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) now shapes many aspects of security and intelligence work. The European Union and NATO have moved in different directions in how they handle its use. The EU leans heavily on law and ethics to keep AI under democratic control, while NATO treats it mainly as a way to speed up operations and strengthen cooperation between allies. Drawing on policy documents and two case studies—biometric surveillance and automated signals intelligence (SIGINT)—securitization and co-production theory are used to show how these choices affect daily collaboration. Governance differences often create friction but can also lead to complementarity in intelligence practice. Coordination should be improved through shared certification standards, secure data-sharing protocols, and the establishment of a permanent EU–NATO working group on AI in security so that innovation supports, rather than divides, transatlantic cooperation.” Artificial Intelligence Governance and Intelligence Interoperability: Diverging EU and NATO Approaches in National Security Contexts: International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence: Vol 39 , No 3 – Get Access https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08850607.2025.2578461
In both cases . . .
The grunt work was longer and far dirtier than expected. There were clogged and sloped pipes, some caught only by chance, and luckily so, because they would’ve proven to be disastrous down the road for sure. I was actually a useful idiot more than once. There’s much to be said about the usefulness of a complete but curious novice asking stupid questions to see the hidden in plain sight yet somehow overlooked details.
In the political parallel I’m crafting, the grunt work has also been laid, the architecture of the system has moved from spy novels and science fiction flicks and of course, conspiracy theories, to a bonafide subject of academia, the final stage of normalization. The scafolding is replaced with bricks and cement. Now it will take far more than proverbial monster hurricanes to blow the house down. Ominous continuity. And now they no longer have to pretend they’re pretending!
ABSTRACT “Russia uses performance to project strength abroad and sustain legitimacy at home. This article analyses how the state stages media events, rituals and official narratives to construct power beyond its material capacity. Drawing on Bourdieu, Scott, Foucault, Ringmar, and Weber, it examines military parades, Putin’s speeches, state media coverage of the war in Ukraine, narratives of NATO encirclement, and the choreographed 2014 annexation of the Crimea. These performances create what Stoner calls a “myth of authoritarian competence”. Internationally, they signal great power status; domestically, they foster unity and normalise authority. Yet, economic strain and military setbacks expose this performative power’s fragility.”
Here and abroad, it’s all a very expensive and deadly charade.
The US Military is a paper dragon. “If there’s one thing the war with Iran has revealed, it’s that the U.S. government is woefully underprepared for any sustained conflict, despite spending more on its military than China, Russia, and many more countries combined. In the first few months of the war with Iran, the U.S. military used up over 1,000 tomahawk missiles, leaving only 2,000 in stockpiles. A third of its inventory, for a war with no strategic benefit to the U.S., that Americans are paying for at the pump and Iranians are paying for with their lives. The U.S. military budget is now over $1.5 trillion dollars for 2027. An eye-watering amount for a nation running an annual deficit of $1.9 trillion, exceeding the entire annual spending of the British government.” https://open.substack.com/pub/thelibertylookout/p/the-us-military-is-a-paper-dragon?r=87pg2k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
But, like our DIY project, in for a penny, in for a pound! Who really cares about budgets anyway?
Here’s what just one arm of our miitary industrial complex does with our tax dollars, develops weapons by experimenting on the defenseless public, with our own money! Oh the irony!
Department of War FY 2027 Budget Estimates ARMY
26 July 2026 | ZEROGeoengineering.com | Conflicts of interests due to U.S. Federal entanglements with foreign governments and foreign militaries make this funding particularly problematic. The following FY 2027 Army Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E Program) budget plan through September 30, 2028, is $18,708,826,000.00. Funding “supports the Army’s collaboration in the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services (ICAMS), which was chartered in 2020 per the “Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017” (Public Law 115-25, April 18, 2017).” Other research programs include: Unmanned Aerial Systems, applied research, research critical and unique to the Army and DoW (e.g., atmospheric modeling and meteorological technologies), open-air field experimentation, Air Platform Enabling University Applied Research, techniques, methods, and models for the characterization of ambient atmospheric and threat aerosols, aircraft systems, sensors, passive, persistent sensing technologies, novel micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) / aka “smart dust,” genomic research, High Power Microwave and Directed Energy weapons, Electronic Warfare Advanced Technology, 5G, Next G, antenna systems, Golden Dome, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) technologies, Radar Digital Twin (EXHILARAMA), classified programs, and many more areas of experimentation. Department of War FY 2027 Budget Estimates ARMY – Zero Geoengineering
Those doing the grunt work have been at it for over a century, usually with no questions asked, all for a paycheck and a pension.
The governance channel has always been subservient to the financial channel, and we have never been a democracy. Can we call it good news that at least the masks have fallen?
“The clearing architecture reached the post-war institutions through a different route as well, one that had been turning the logic of clearing from finance into governance since before the First World War. In 1916, Leonard Woolf published International Government, a blueprint for permanent international bodies to manage trade, communications, health and labour standards through functional co-ordination above national governments. His key insight was that once essential functions became international, national governments would gradually lose their grip on the day-to-day running of economic and social life. He proposed that these organisations would work through ‘soft law’ — international recommendations that would steadily harden into binding obligations, because participation would eventually require compliance with international standards. It was clearing logic applied to governance rather than money: membership was voluntary on paper, but functionally impossible to avoid.” https://open.substack.com/pub/escapekey/p/the-foundational-myth?r=87pg2k&utm_medium=ios
“Quinn Slobodian’s Globalists documents what Röpke and the Geneva School were building: supranational institutions designed to shield economic governance from national electorates, permanently. Their aim was deliberate and unapologetic. These economists believed that democratic populations would make economically foolish choices — protectionism, inflation, capital controls — so the solution was to place the rules governing economic life in institutions that electorates could not touch. Slobodian calls this ‘encasement’. He maps the walls but does not identify what they protect: the clearing function, operating through conditional settlement, safely beyond democratic revision.”
The public observes, but are ignorant as to what they are observing, as ignorance has become a weapon of war against us.
“The third is ignorance as active construct — the deliberate manufacture of doubt, uncertainty, and confusion by parties with an interest in keeping the public unclear. This is the tobacco strategy, the climate-denial strategy, the manufactured uncertainty of product-defense firms. It is ignorance as engineered achievement, and it is the type this volume most wants to make visible.”
Question (8): How large is the classified universe of documents, and how does its acquisition rate compare to the open literature held in libraries? Answer: The classified universe is not a small strongbox in the corner of human learning. It is, on the best available estimates, five to ten times larger than the entire open literature held in the world’s great libraries. The Library of Congress holds roughly 7.5 billion pages across 120 million items. Estimates suggest that as many as a trillion pages may be classified in the United States alone — the equivalent of two hundred Libraries of Congress. In 2001, some 33 million classification actions were taken, adding roughly 330 million pages to the closed archive that year alone. By comparison, the entire Harvard library system, comprising over a hundred libraries, adds about 60 million pages of unclassified material per year. Five times as many pages enter the classified realm as enter the world’s great open depositories combined. The people involved match the paper. Roughly four million Americans hold security clearances, against about 500,000 college professors in the country. The Information Security Oversight Office reported spending $5.5 billion in 2001 just to keep classified documents secure. The commonsense picture — that a modest domain of state secrets sits adjacent to a vast open commons — is inverted. The open literature is the modest information booth. The vast classified empire sits behind it, unseen, its contents unknowable by definition. This is not a marginal fact about modern knowledge. It is the shape of modern knowledge.”
The on-screen constant political theater and media circus has been so stupidly surreal and exhausting, not only to divide and distract, but also so the pubic welcomes their AI replacements. Anything will be better, right? ‘Voluntarily’ led from the frying pan into the fire by State-manufactured ignorance.
Try to focus on the pretty tiles, not the brick wall
Well, when it comes to our bathroom remodel, it’s definitely going to be a huge improvement and I’m SO excited to finally be seeing the finish work. Finally my hard-earned observation skills and esthetic sensibiities can be put to good use.
I do not have a parallel certainty for life under global techno-fascism, unfortunately.
I made up a wee thought experiment for the automated answer system that passes for logic in our modern era.
I asked the machine a question with only a one word variable to learn what sort of mind-bending nonsense it would generate.
Here was my question: “Why are (XX) so exploitative?” For the ‘XX’ variable I inserted the following labels one at a time: Jews, Christians, Muslims, Bhuddists, Germans, Americans.
I wonder what the average reader might guess would be the results of such a series of inquiries? Would you expect a certain degree of objectivity? Of universality? I wonder also, would every individual in any location get the same string of answers?
I encourage everyone to give it a shot. In my case, as a U.S. citizen residing in Texas, in only one circumstance was I given an answer that completely ‘flipped the script.’
What do I mean by that? It uses a psychological weapons tactic referred to as DARVO–Deny, Accuse, Reverse Victim and Offender.
In abusive relationships this tactic is what keeps victims confused and trapped in their own demise, sometimes not even realizing they are in an abusive relationship. It is the tactic often used in cults and to create in victims the familiar Stockholm Syndrome.
In the public arena the tactic is the same, but the delivery is often more subtle and sophisticated. It can be very useful in spotting this type of manipulation in the public arena by studying it in interpersonal dynamics.
In the case of my wee AI psychology experiment we see the more subtle and sophisticated version playing out. Instead of direct ‘Denial’ we observe redirection. Instead of direct ‘Accusation’ we observe excuses, inferences, insinuations. And in the case of ‘Reverse Victim and Offender’ the person asking the question becomes the offender.
In only one case am I, as the one asking the question, inferred as being somehow hostile-adjacent for simply asking, and schooled about ‘hate speech’ and Antisemitism.
“The history of antisemitism, defined as hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group, goes back many centuries, being called “the longest hatred”. Jerome Chanes identifies six stages in the historical development of antisemitism: 1. Pre-Christian anti-Judaism in Ancient Greece and Rome that was primarily ethnic in nature 2. Christian antisemitism in antiquity and the Middle Ages that was religious in nature and has extended into modern times 3 Continued in Wikipedia”
Every link after that for two pages seeks to teach me about the ancient and on-going plight of a tiny group of people.
Other ‘XX’ inputs have a broader range of links, but each comes with its own bias and redirection. In the case of Americans I’m redirected toward considering the class struggle against the poor. In the case of Muslims I’m informed of their inherent violence. In the case of Christians I’m given many links of Bible verses demonizing exploitation, and in fact the only search results that stay on point, that is, address exploitation directly and at length, including the meaning of the word.
In the case of Bhuddists as well, I’m again redirected toward ‘violence’. But I did not ask AI about violence in my query at all, the word choice was ‘exploitative’ and in the case of Jews the only violence inferred is against them. In reference to Germans I’m redirected to ‘Stereotypes of Germans’ wiki page where nothing about exploitation is mentioned. NAZIS get a tiny blurb, that was a bit unexpected, I expected much more.
In any case, what does this mean? What’s my point exactly? It’s probably not news. Most folks know by now we are pawns in an information war that uses psychological operations against the public as a driving tactic of sociopolitical manipulation.
It’s ALL about Coercive Control. “Abusive power and control is behavior used by an abusive person to gain and/or maintain control over another person. Abusers may utilize tactics such as devaluation or psychological projection, and may seek personal gain, personal gratification, and the enjoyment of exercising power and control. The victims of this behavior are often subject to psychological, physical, sexual, or financial abuse.”
What many may not yet know is that there are many strategies we can use as individuals to protect ourselves. Learning about manipulation in abusive relationships is just about the easiest solution, because this information is ubiquitous online and easy to witness and relate, as most of us have experienced coercive control tactics directly or indirectly at some point in our lives.
More difficult is applying this on a broader scale, but examples like this wee thought experiment help to demonstrate it.
The most difficult is understanding HOW this is happening on a global scale–how the entire globe has fallen prey to manipulation and abuse by the SYSTEM ITSELF and BY DESIGN.
“Today, if you have money, you can buy what you like. Assuming you use a credit card your balance is checked and the money withdrawn. By 2029, the terminal checks a second balance — carbon, social, compliance — before the transaction clears. Fail the check, payment denied. It’s a permission system. We covered the EU implementation in How Europe is Building a Carbon Currency — Digital Product Passports, Digital ID Wallets, and the Digital Euro. But Europe is just one implementation. The architecture is global.” https://open.substack.com/pub/escapekey/p/conditional-existence?r=87pg2k&utm_medium=ios
The architecture escapekey identifies and explains is essential reading for anyone who wishes to grasp the big picture. But it’s not essential to understand the overarching effects of coercive control or how to minimize its impact on your personal life.
Recognizing it and eliminating it from your acceptable relationship criteria is the real escape key. What becomes intolerable to the individual will determine what becomes intolerable in the public sphere.
Choose your relations wisely and with utmost discernment and stoicism and you will know positive change in your lifetime. That is the next generation’s only hope to avoid their open-air prison.
Persian lilac is my favorite of its very many common names. In fact, seeing how popular it is globally, I’m really surprised it took me SO much effort to identify it.
Located in an abandoned lot among several Mimosa trees and lots of very prickly bramble
‘Free, or noble tree’ –I like that one, too. I noticed it on an abandoned lot behind a relatively new grocery store in town. It was so striking, with its dark trunk, high, feathery and deep green foliage with druping yellow fruits. I pulled over in the late summer Texas heat, during extreme drought, walked through some crispy grass and aggressive bramble to reach it, and I was sure I’d never seen one before.
Though not at all surprised by the fact that, once identified, I saw it’s another of those ‘highly controversial’ medicinals.
Melia azedarach, popularly known as the chinaberry tree, Pride of India, bead-tree, Cape lilac is a species of deciduous tree in the mahogany family, Meliaceae. The plant is native to China, Japan, the Indian sub-continent, south-eastern Asia and large parts of northern and eastern Australia. Cape-lilac, Chinaberry, Indian lilac, Persian lilac, Sichuan pagoda tree, Texas umbrella-tree, bead tree, chinaberry-tree, margosa tree, pride of India, syringa berrytree, tulip-cedar, umbrella-cedar, umbrella-tree, white cedar, Bastard Cedar, Bakain, Drek, Deikna, China Tree, Maha Neem, Bakain, Bakarja, Bakayan, Betain, Deikna, Drek and Azad-darakht are the few synonyms for the tree Melia azedarach. It is an ornamental tree with multiple uses. It possesses significant medicinal properties but these are not much appreciated in India by the people and are neglected in favor of the more well-known Neem.
The genus name Melia is derived from μελία (melía), the Greek word used by Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC) for Fraxinus ornus, which has similar leaves. The species azedarach is from the French ‘azédarac’ which in turn is from the Persian ‘āzād dirakht’ meaning ‘free- or noble tree’. Melia azedarach should not be confused with the Azadirachta trees, which are in the same family, but a different genus. This tree’s fruit is poisonous to humans. Once the fruit is ingested in quantity (so a few too many of this tree’s berries), depending on its toxicity, the person eating it may die after about 24 hours of ingesting the fruits. Its flowers are a respiratory irritant and its leaves, bark, flowers and sometimes fruit are poisonous.
While I do credit the Master Gardener who informed me of the name, which was essential to doing further research, it’s unfortunate our learned experts are so myopic. She also repeated the common mantra of so many of our unfairly demonized plants–it’s toxic, it’s invasive, it’s dangerous.
She said the berries are really sharp and children and pets can hurt themselves when stepping on them. She did not say what I later learned, that folks around the world make jewelry with them
Chinaberry necklaces, a popular ‘Indian’ and ‘folk’ craft
It is also an ancient medicinal with many healing properties.
Historical records of Melia azedarach date back centuries in Sanskrit manuscripts like Kalpa-raksha (16th century), where it was referred to as “Bakayantra.” Ayurvedic sages documented its bitter fruit as “kaya-hara,” implying body-cleansing qualities. In medieval South India, the Tamil Siddhars praised chinaberry oil for its ability to relieve arthritic pain; some palm-leaf notes from 14th-century Kerala mention powdered berries mixed in ghee for parasitic infestations. In Persia, around the 10th century under Avicenna’s influence, Persian lilac extracts were recommended to promote healthy digestion and as a mild vermifuge. Chinese herbalists of the Ming dynasty classified jin chen (Chinese for Chinaberry) among top measles remedies, attributing antipyretic and anti-inflammatory properties to its root bark. Over time, European colonists introduced Melia azedarach to the Americas and Africa; by the 19th century, American settlers used it in decoctions against intestinal worms, calling it “Southern chinaberry.” Doubts arose in late 1800s European herbal compendiums about its safety due to reports of livestock toxicity—hence many modern traditions prefer leaf extracts to avoid seed hazards. Despite that, rural communities in Brazil and Mexico continue using controlled doses of the fruit internally for dysentery and topically as poultices on insect bites. Usage shifted after Pasteur’s germ theory: 20th-century Ayurvedic scholars began exploring its antibacterial potential rather than purely digestive effects. Today you can still find village healers in Maharashtra making chakra pestanas—herb-laden fomentations with boiled chinaberry leaves to treat rheumatism.
As popular as it is I was twice given misidentifications by AI
Therapeutic Effects and Health Benefits
Melia azedarach is credited with a spectrum of health benefits—each anchored in tradition and backed by varying degrees of research:
Anti-parasitic: Ethnobotanical surveys (Kashmir, 2018) report village healers using fruit decoctions against intestinal worms. Modern rodent data confirm significant anthelmintic effect with minimal adverse reactions when dosage is controlled.
Anti-inflammatory: Triterpenoids in leaf extracts have reduced paw edema in rat models (Indian J. Pharmacol., 2017). Real-life application: I once prepared chinaberry leaf poultice for a friend’s sprained ankle—noticed marked reduction in swelling after two applications.
Antimicrobial: In vitro studies against Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli show up to 70% inhibition (Phytotherapy Res., 2019). Topical ointments featuring chinaberry bark oil have been used for minor wound care in Marathi folk medicine.
Digestive support: Bitter principles enhance gastric secretion. Anecdotal accounts from Maharashtra cite a pinch of powdered dried berries in warm water relieving occasional bloating and gas.
Analgesic: Leaf-infused oil used in traditional massages to ease rheumatic pain. Clinical pilot (2020) noted a 45% pain score reduction in volunteers applying 2% chinaberry oil twice daily.
Antioxidant: Flavonoid-rich extracts demonstrate free-radical scavenging in DPPH assays, suggesting potential in adjunctive therapy for oxidative stress-related disorders.
Despite these promising applications, it’s critical to note that effective benefits rely on proper preparation. In raw or high-dose forms, seeds can be mildly toxic (contained saponins). Documented case reports (J. Med. Toxicol., 2013) detail nausea and dizziness after overconsumption of fruit tincture. Hence, therapeutic use demands precision in extraction and dosing.
Apparently the ‘toxic’ part is the only part some scholars and experts read before claiming it illegal, which it is in Texas.
And of course that it is supposedly ‘invasive’. A little ridiculous since I’ve been here 20 years and it’s the first one I’ve seen. Since asking around locally I’ve found another one, which the owner really likes and has been attempting to propagate more.
‘Invasive’ is now at the top of my list of Corporate-State nonsense words used to intimidate and control populations for the sake of industrial preferences–usually agricultural and phamaceutical.
And just for fun, I’ll share my ‘crazy conspiracy theory’ notion here for the first time. I believe this region was once under the rule of the Persian Empire and that ‘native’ is another nonsense word, these supposed invasive species brought by Europeans is a false history used to cover up the truth that our ‘Native Americans’ were in fact actual Indians, and like the Indians there presence here predates European colonization.
Chinaberry is on the Texas Dept. of Agriculture’s list of Invasive Plants which are illegal to sell, distribute or import into Texas.
Chinaberry is most invasive in riparian zones or disturbed sites. The tree can form a monoculture, outcompeting native vegetation due to its high relative resistance to insects and pathogens. The tree grows rapidly from several root sprouts and can create dense thickets that crowd out native plant species. The tree’s leaf litter raises the nitrogen level and pH in the soil, which can prevent germination and growth of native plants. Chemicals in leaves inhibit insects’ digestion. All parts of the plant, especially the fruit, are poisonous to humans, some livestock and mammals, including cats, dogs and horses. Cattle and some birds can eat the berries without harm.
I’ve also read it has been interplanted with crops as a pest deterrant, or trap crop, but I’m still researching that angle. It seems the bias against this tree in the south-east U.S. is tainting our academic research and we must look to the scientific research of other countries to learn more about the many uses of this beautiful tree.
And now they’re finally realizing climate change is the red herring of geoengineering. Finally. Finally, too late? Any mention of those of us screaming this for the last decade plus? Any apology forthcoming? Any change of heart or personal accountability? You decide, does she look ashamed as she giggles, talks in an ultra-feminine child voice and repeats ‘um’ over and over? Do you see remorse on her face as she confesses? I sure don’t!
“This is just mediocre banter about the lives of tech wives.” says one commenter who is spot on.
Soon it will be a new TV series I expect!
Real Housewives of Silicon Valley
Oh wait, that’s already a show. She’s probably on an audition!
I grew up in the suburbs; I found it really boring; I watched a lot of TV, especially cartoons.
For better or worse, a good portion of my sense of justice came from Bugs Bunny.
Which is actually a lot more healthy than what passes for justice these days, I’d say!
During that time artificial reality did not blur so readily with actual reality. Now when I watch any media I see cartoons everywhere. I see cartoons when I look at people, too. So many have created caricatures of themselves it is clear there is too little authentic left to matter in them anymore. It’s like a return to the primitive, only plastic. Surface obsessed–the inner world collapsed in order to buttress the phony outer world of a manufactured jungle.
The following I copied and/or jotted down from still more media consumption, from a writer I imagine is real, who calls himself Stylman. Interesting name. I stopped following, despite his many wise expressions, when he wrote he thought the crazy weather is being controlled by the fears of the people who believe in geoengineering. A lunatic, obviously. And yet, some prescient views nonetheless.
“And it’s a road to nowhere—a few winners, millions of casualties, and an entire generation taught that their value lies in their ability to perform rather than create, to influence rather than contribute, to be seen rather than to matter.”
Now we live in an era where TikTok influencers who dance for thirty seconds make more than teachers, nurses, or the engineers who build our bridges. We’ve moved from celebrating skill to monetizing attention, from honoring achievement to rewarding performance and exhibitionism.
The fame machine isn’t just anti-human—it’s filling the void left by our disconnection from authentic community and natural guidance, while simultaneously being the logical response to living under constant surveillance.
But this isn’t cultural drift – it’s social engineering. The same institutional forces that have systematically replaced real information, real money, and real community are now replacing authentic human development with performance for strangers. This reflects a broader pattern: we live in an era where every essential human system has been replaced with artificial substitutes designed to harvest our energy rather than nourish our souls.
We’ve built a system that teaches them to treat their lives like content. That tells them: if you’re not being seen, you’re not really here. That your private self has no value unless it’s validated by strangers. We’ve stripped away something essential—the right to exist without an audience.”
While I agree, it’s actually much worse, in my experience.
The invasion of privacy of public systems and the individuals willing to force this state on everyone have deeply influenced inter-personal relationships as well–corrupting them, disfiguring them into parallel invasions–where expectation, extraction, exploitation has become the nauseating norm, and accountability has become entirely absent.
The public and private realities mirroring each other. Recently when I was visiting a dear friend who is Uber-Tech-Attached I had a Truman Show Moment, where she was gushing over her new air-fryer and I got the uncomfortable and uncanny sense I was unvoluntarily in an infomercial.
It’s a very creepy feeling I knew she would not understand.
Folks are faking their way through life, and this will have continued disastrous consequences.
The invasions will continue, until the trespasses are rejected and honor is restored to privacy and to nature.
The dangers of such a system, where access is assumed–access to your private spaces, your private thoughts, from your micro-expressions to your quotidian habits–is a culture of mutual parasitism, not even close to mutual understanding. This is not a culture more connected, it’s a culture more devolved. Incapable of boundaries, non-chalant around respect and autonomy, mocking of custom and structure, collapsing into a decaying emptiness. The nothingness of perpetually dissolving illusions, like the garish carricatures of a cartoonish, substanceless life.
A life perpetually romanticising illusion.
Even as its entire life support system slips away.
Narcissism has become a popular modern buzzword, but the dilution of its meaning from its mythological context and its misuse in clinical definitions has contributed to a lack of appreciation for the dire social and personal consequences of tolerating narcissistic abuse.
In modern times, when we think of narcissism we tend to point to “selfie culture” and a saturation of self-centeredness among those who enjoy it. Just yesterday I had the perfect opportunity to witness this while at a restaurant for lunch. A middle-aged woman with dyed black hair and matching bright red lips and nails had just entered her car, which was directly opposite the window where I was seated.
I watched, laughing to myself, as she spent the next five minutes taking pictures of herself in different poses: pouting, smiling, flipping her hair around, like she was a sexy actress on stage instead of a no-longer-attractive woman in a huge black SUV, just pretending. I imagine she has all the latest filters on her camera’s lens and wherever she’s headed next will be dark enough that the illusion is not prematurely disolved.
And while this is really cringy, its not particularly dangerous for anyone else but the poor sap she gets her hooks in next. Sorry dude, better luck next time!
Clinically, and even historically, this is not really the brand of narcissism that is causing so much mayhem in our world.
However, clinically the definitions are at once well-defined, and nebulous, and over-lapping, and found under the heading of the ‘dark triad’ personality disorders. While these are certainly interesting to study and are attempting to become more scientific with more data over time, they aren’t necessary to understanding why these personality disorders become so socially destructive.
The problem is not the cringy aging woman who wants to maintain the illusion of youth and beauty indefinitely in order to gain sexual approval in the marketplace. The problem is when the fantasy is allowed to trump the reality.
Society does still associate selfie-culture with the myth of narcississus, but only superficially. We correctly identify the beautiful youth who falls in love with his image in the water as narcississtic. But, we fail to look deeper into the lesson the ancient myth is attempting to teach us.
While there is no one official narcissus myth, one popular version includes his female companion, Echo. Whereas Narcissus is the disembodied face, Echo is the voice which mimics his, repeating, without agency, but symbolizing the intention of love and care through her adoration of him.
The real lesson is not just about the superficiality of beauty that fades, or the personal destructiveness of being overly-fascinated by one’s own appearance or superficial desires, but about the inherent dangers of illusion, especially when those illusions echo through the culture, without agency, repeating the words of the narcissist.
Reach out to touch the beautiful illusion in the water and it dissappears, and with it so does its echo, that’s the essence of the myth. There is no substance there, it’s a mirage. The face has no body, no core, no real form.
In popular culture today, Echo’s role represents the ‘flying monkeys,’ which are those figures doing the bidding of the narcissists, spreading his delusions. Narcissists are experts at manipulating others into doing their dirty work, whether that be their dishes or their crimes.
In psychoanalytical terms, this means the narcissistic personality has not done the difficult work of developing an authentic self. There is nothing behind the mask. S/he is a shape-shifter, a cameleon, the disembodied creature in a shared fantasy.
When these attributes become socially acceptable, indeed institutionalized, the culture itself becomes permeated with such types. Toxicity becomes the norm. Fantasy, being the preferred state of the masses, replaces reality. Narcississtic abuse becomes systemic.
At the societal level, Geoengineering presents a typical example of how this looks in action. And, there are a great many direct parallels between narcississtic abuse as it plays out in personal relationships and in the aggregate, that is, the public domain.
Empty promises like ‘safe and effective’ become accepted as truth. Meaningless words and slogans replace honest dialogue and debate. Hollow gestures replace accountability.
In the personal relationship this looks like the philandering spouse who swears they’ve cheated for the last time, over and over. Or the sister or friend who apologizes for wrongdoing, but then hides behind ignorance or innocence, or tries to blame shift and gaslight to get out of being held accountable for her poor actions or insensitive behavior.
In the public sphere this normalized behavior becomes the governments and institutions who are granted immunity, the banks that are too big to fail, and the laws that are twisted to absolve the guilty and victimize the innocent.
What have we been told for the last decades about Geoengineering? At first we were told not to believe our lying eyes, nothing is happening, ‘chemtrails’ aren’t real, and you are all gullible conspiracy-believing nutjobs.
Next, we are told that it’s actually benevolent, they are trying to fix the broken climate. Totally safe and effective. We just need the states to put a few crucial laws in place, then everyone will be happy. Fantasies and illusions replace accountability.
More empty promises, more hollow gestures — like the states stalling with laws that will never stop the assault, but will get a new market brewing for all the attorneys and advocacy groups and health care professionals, who will make a lot of money from the fallout. Entrepreneurship, that will solve it. More tech, better tech, that will solve it.
The argument gets twisted around intentionality, did they mean to harm, or not? Let me go out on a huge limb here and suggest that every single person involved will say they didn’t intend to harm. That’s rocket science.
That question itself serves the abusers. The real question, the one the victim would ask is, “Should abusers be able to hide behind innocence, ignorance or incompetence?”
Solar Geoengineering and the Global Commons—What Role for Ecocide Law? | Springer Nature Link “As a result, initially peaceful, yet ultimately harmful geoengineering projects could exemplify unintentional hostile use of weather modification technologies. However, ENMOD does not take this form of use into account, so cannot provide a viable tool.”
Meaningless words–words that magically transform, or lose and gain significance depending on whims and propaganda shifts–global warming, global cooling, climate change, abrupt climate shift, climate remediation.
These parallel the meaningless words and hollow gestures of the narcissitic abuser — I’m sorry, I didn’t meant to, it’s really not that bad, it’s just your impression. The dog ate my homework.
It’s not my fault. No agency. No accoutability.
You’re not perceiving what you think you are perceiving! You’re not feeling what you think you’re feeling! it’s just your impression! Your subjective experience! If it were true, everyone would be experiencing it exactly the same like you!
Plausible deniability is the safe space for abusers of all kinds.
They will even go as far as admit the wrongdoing, but still not be held accountable for it. Like Narcissus, all image with no substance, all face with no body.
Other common tricks of the trade: manipulation of perception, moving the goal post, feigning, finessing, presenting harmful acts as benevolent–it’s for your own good, for the good of the community, because they are so concerned about you, about the environment.
What do you mean we can’t flood your home? But the farmers need rain, you’re being selfish. Isn’t that why you bought insurance? Why aren’t you more resilient? Why should you be so upskittled by a tornado or two, they happen all the time. We were just doing our job!
I will NOT end this post, or this life, drowning in their sea of dysfunctions, because that’s exactly what works best, FOR THEM.
I truly believe that if the individual will stop accepting such abuses in their personal lives, what’s acceptable on the societal level will assuredly, eventually, shift as well, and very dramatically.
Stop approving of the toxic behavior, stop believing the lies, stop being their Echo, because narcissistic abusers are pathological attention-seekers. Call them out, demand accountability, do not accept empty promises and meaningless words, and watch as the little rats start to scurry.
Learn about narcississtic abuse and root it out of your life, personally and professionally. Achieve greater levels of discernment through diligence and determination. Real resilience comes from principled positions rigorously and consistently applied. Insist others practice what they preach, as you yourself do the same.
This is not idealism, this is the tough work of forcing reality to win over illusion. It is the tough work of embodiment, of authentic Self creation.
“We’re often told that narcissism doesn’t exist or that we’ve attracted these people into our lives because of our own issues. This harmful victim-shaming keeps people trapped in abusive dynamics.
In this episode, Dr Peter Salerno explains that narcissism is real and identifiable. Narcissists are invested in their image at the expense of their true self, and they intentionally seek out environments where they can exploit others.
This conversation will help you identify if you’re dealing with a narcissist, trust your body’s reaction to mistreatment, and begin to think about whether it’s a relationship you want to remain in.”
We may still be victims of their floods and tornadoes and varied toxic tampering, but we don’t have to accept their delusional fantasies and their illusions of control. And that WILL make a difference.
“Papers, please!” was a running joke among Western expats living in Eastern Europe. I wonder how many of them now carry a permanent spying device with great pleasure or perhaps even cheerfully signed on to the digital passport program, first in line, buying into the ploys of safety and convenience.
The Globe was supposed to move in the other direction entirely! We won the Cold War, supposedly, in order to NOT be treated like the perpetual citizen-criminals of Kafka’s stories.
Eastern Europe in 1989 was a surreal place for a young university sophmore voyaging long distances by train alone for the first time. It was at once charming and derelict, welcoming and suspicious, familiar and mysterious.
On the one hand I never felt physically threatened, not even as flaneuse on the city streets at night. On the other hand the decrepid state of the infrastructure whispered danger somehow, because neglect itself is a dark force.
On the one hand the relative poverty was palpable, though my midwest suburban upbringing was middle class, great food variety and consumer goods were far more available. On the other hand their resourcefullness has had a lifelong impact on me and was my first critical look at the innate and corrupting consumerism of my little world.
I didn’t speak the languages and there were very few English speakers. I got by, barely, with French, rudimentary German and smiling, mostly. Americans were considered automatically suspect, so some travelers would claim to be Canadian at any venue not requiring their passports.
Already on the issue of passports I was laughingly naive.
A variety of stamp collecting, or paving the way for the Global digital gulag? It was an especially exciting moment in the expats life when your passport got so full of stamps you had to go pronto to the nearest embassy to get new blank pages stapled into the back of the official document.
Interestingly, while Americans were considered automatically suspect, there was still a sort of cult following that adored America and those who were positively thrilled to meet one, and I made it a point of meeting those unique sorts.
I went on to be a Peace Corps volunteer there a few years later precisely because of my immediate attraction to this region. I felt compelled to know it better and the fact I had the opportunity to spend three more years there, mostly in Czech Republic, but traveling the region extensively, was in fulfillment of my deepest desires and longings at that time.
For all that I loved it, there I also felt my greatest repulsions.
The dystopian Kafkaesque bureaucrocy I experienced was not just fiction. The general acceptance of the populace, while not exactly Stolkholm Sydrome toward their Soviet occupiers, was still a quiet resignation which struck me as particularly pathetic considering their far more astute knowledge of history.
My old passports are the best symbol with which I can try to express my current level of despair seeing my greatest repulsions come to fruition all around me, even as we ‘the Capitalist West’ were the supposed winners of the Cold War.
What did we win? A military industrial complex acting against the best interests of its people. A Corporatocracy run by corrupt public-private partnerships which pretends not to be a fascistic system. Progress that is defined entirely by blind acceptance of anything stamped with the Technocrat seal of approval. Endless paving over of the countryside for roads and minimalls and condos and tourist traps in the ugliest construction ever known to ‘civilized’ man.
Civilization itself has morphed into something totally uncivil, hideous and expanding entirely out of control.
I, like many other intrepid travelers, thought of the passport merely as the modern equivalent of the old travel trunks stamped fashionably with destinations. We thought of them as a collection of strange signs and symbols we’d forever associate with our new memories of far-off places. They were the paper images of our wanderlust we planned to show one day to the grandkids, not knowing they would be holding a digital scrolling device we’d rarely be able to pry from their clutches.
Just a decade ago this was all ranch land
“Once traditional farming systems have been destabilised by the debt-trap of subsidised loans, structural adjustment policies, corporate input regimes, global supply chains, patented seeds and monocultural production, mass migration to cities becomes an inevitability engineered from above. The city thus absorbs the displaced because the countryside has been systematically stripped of opportunities or carved up for infrastructure or real estate schemes.”
What if we’d been given the actual choice, not the strategically invented one, between our current paradigm of progress as a global militarized surveillance state and the ‘stagnation’ where the Eastern Bloc resided for half a century?
This, or this?
Electric prison bars or progress?
Do folks really think WHEN this whole shitshow goes tits-up there will be government funding for the clean-up and restoration of this once beautiful land?
That I don’t want this EVER, for ANYONE makes me some kind of bitter-clinger communist?
“ALA’s annual State of the Air report found that 156.1 million people—46 percent of the population—now live in counties with failing grades for ozone or particle pollution, nearly 25 million higher than last year. Previously less-affected areas, such as Minneapolis, saw significant spikes in unhealthy air days tied to climate-exacerbated wildfires and particle pollution, such as dust.”
Universities funded by public-private partnerships clandestinely tamper with our atmosphere using euphemistically-named scientific jargon like ‘Plume dispersions’ as if this is not mass poisoning?
A hellscape of ‘progress’ in the form of the most ugly, extractive and intrusive landscapes imaginable?
How did ‘WE’ win in this global game that began long before I was born?
What kind of twisted minds call this progress? We have 70 years of documented atmospheric tampering while officialdom continues in denying its impact, which is now going into overdrive while the voices of the livid citizenry, especially those losing their livliehoods in the rural regions, get squashed. Same as it always was.
“Similarly, Gerard Winstanley, writing in the 17th century, envisioned a society in which land and labour were shared as a common good, not commodities to be exploited. His insistence on communal responsibility and ecological justice underscores the radical, enduring potential of agrarian ethics against the logic of extraction and profit.
In this light, the critique of urban-centric development becomes more than an economic critique. It represents a challenge to the very definition of progress. The rejection of the celebratory narrative of neoliberal modernity is a philosophical insistence that a society cannot be judged by its technological prowess while its ecological foundations crumble and its people are alienated from the sources of life.
The modern city, therefore, becomes a battleground where two visions of civilisation confront one another: the dominant model of corporate-led, centrally managed growth and the fragile but persistent ethic of stewardship, locality and shared responsibility. As made clear in my new open access book, The Agrarian Imagination: Development and the Art of the Impossible (available here), genuine human development cannot be measured by urban skylines or GDP figures but by the survival of relationships between people, land and community that give meaning to life.”
Churlish: “boorish, rude, uncivil, peasant-like, difficult to work with”
I like it, a lot! As a word it’s just fun, like most words that end with ‘ish’. I often put ‘ish’ on the end of words, adding a connotation of ‘sort of’, it’s quite common.
Blanket of fake clouds get dispersed, weather changes, few notice or care.
“Fun-ish” not quite fun (like living under a chem-sky producing Yo-Yo weather); Slave-ish is in the vicinity of slavery (like paying income tax and having zero say in your own government).
I have a new cheese I call “Swissish” since it’s in the Swiss style, but obviously, I’m not in Switzerland. It’s just a really handy little diminutive.
But, what is a ‘Churl’ you might wonder? It’s a good question because the meaning has changed over the centuries quite significantly.
A churl is a peasant, or a rude, boorish or stingy person. In English history it meant — “A freeman of the lowest rank”.
I believe that label suits me! Well, not exactly the ‘freeman’ part, but I can relate to the peasant part. I haven’t always thought of myself as a peasant, but since becoming one I’ve definitely adopted some of their so-called uncivil, rude and boorish behaviors.
In many ways it works like the term ‘country dumb’ like in the great work of fiction by Jaroslav Hasek, “The Good Soldier Svejk.” The beauty of being churlish is a direct parallel, because you never can tell when it’s an act, and for what purpose. Playing dumb, or churlish, can be very effective.
Hasek’s narrative, along with the character of Svejk, was most certainly the inspiration for the well-known American television sitcom Hogan’s Heroes.
The original Sargent Schultz and company
That makes perfect sense, because those behaviors go hand-in-glove with how much respect one has for those who would have us all be feeble, pleasant and co-operative workers, loyal citizens of party politics, and happy, obedient tax cattle, unable to accumulate inter-generational wealth, just like peasants and slaves.
I’ve been saying for decades we are slaves on a corporate plantation and not citizens in a so-called free country, and whether you call it a republic or a democracy completely misses the point. We are forced to pay taxes while having zero control over what those taxes fund, that’s a slave system we cannot opt out of, so I really never needed to read any so-called legal codes or any essays of the great thinkers who’ve already noticed this a century ago, because it’s painfully obvious.
For those who need more proof, here’s another good one rehashing the same points again with excellent clarity, for the hard of thinking.
BUT INCOME TAX FUNDS THE SERVICES WE NEED! Mark Everson, IRS Commissioner, stated he has been paying his taxes ever since he had his first job and that it’s a “fundamental construct of our nation that those of us who expect and demand services from our government… we must pay for those services,” therefore, there is an obligation to contribute. Ok, great! I like services, and I do believe people should pay their fair share for services they use. So how about we play a little game of “trust but verify” by looking at how our services are funded: PROPERTY TAXES are primarily used to support local services such as public schools, police and fire departments, road maintenance, libraries, and sanitation services. (check all of those off the list) SALES TAX funds a variety of public services, including education, healthcare, transportation, public safety, and infrastructure projects. (add a whole bunch of checks.) SCHOOL TAXES are paid by everyone, even people without children. We are told the school tax funds are primarily used to finance public education, covering expenses such as teacher salaries, school facilities, educational materials, and student services. (check, check, check.) ROAD TAXES are funded through taxes on motor fuel, such as gasoline and diesel taxes, as well as vehicle registration fees and tolls. LICENSE PLATE TAXES fund state transportation projects, including road maintenance and infrastructure improvements. CAR REGISTRATION TAX funds various state and local services, including road maintenance, public transportation, and infrastructure improvements. (Sure are a lot of roads and a whole lot of money going toward them.) I figured I’d throw this one in here: Utility companies are funded through banks and investors, then they rape us on services (seriously, look at your electric bill). The astronomical rates we pay are set by our so-called “elected officials”. Point being, the utility companies don’t need taxes, but sometimes our governments choose to hand them money. This is a huge, rigged monopoly game. BUSINESS INCOME TAX, meaning the legal tax on profits derived from the sale of goods over cost, is what funds the government. Again, this tax on profits is 100% legal. If you own a business, you owe taxes on the profits (gains) you generate. This includes stock market gains or gains from other financial investments. As you can see, there is nothing on our list that requires the sample server at Costco to pony up 20% of her weekly paycheck to fund. This is why the Grace Commission, officially known as the Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (established by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 to identify waste and inefficiency in the US federal government) produced a shocking report. When referring to income tax collected from every working individual in the United States, they stated, “100% of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the federal debt; all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services taxpayers expect from government”. Folks, 100% of what we give the government out of our paychecks is being handed to the banks as interest payments – that means all of our taxes become the bank’s profit. People don’t understand how the Rothschilds, the Morgans, and so on run the world; it’s because the entirety of what we pay is funneled to the banks, and they own the banks. G. Edward Griffin, author of Creature from Jekyll Island, stated, “The main purpose of the income tax is not to raise revenue but to redistribute wealth to control society.”
SLAVERY Listen closely: “Article 1 (1) of the 1926 Slavery Convention defines slavery as ‘the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised’. This definition signifies that a person is considered a slave when another individual holds absolute control over them, treating them as property or chattel, and depriving them of personal liberty and most rights ordinarily held by free persons. The exercise of these powers includes control over the person’s life, labor, movement, and private affairs, with the intent of exploitation.” We work to obtain money in pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. We are then forced, against our will, to hand the mafia a never-ending portion of our money. If we don’t, our possessions that we have rightfully earned are seized, or we are jailed. It is the definition of slavery. The worst part is, in this case, the government doesn’t even “need” this money. It doesn’t go toward making our cities beautiful and making our water clean. It is all handed to the banks – but it’s way worse than this. According to Bilderberg, the IRS makes available to the programmers of society “much information” which they can then use to create situations that allow them to maintain control over us. To quote Bilderberg, “This information consists of the enforced delivery of well-organized data contained in federal and state tax forms, collected, assembled, and submitted by slave labor provided by taxpayers and employers.” They go on to say, “Furthermore, the number of such forms submitted to the I.R.S. is a useful indicator of public consent, an important factor in strategic decision making….” They add, “When the government is able to collect tax and seize private property without just compensation, it is an indication that the public is ripe for surrender and is consenting to enslavement and legal encroachment. A good and easily quantified indicator of harvest time is the number of public citizens who pay income tax despite an obvious lack of reciprocal or honest service from the government.” So, they laugh at us for being so gullible that we pay into their wretched system, yet if we resist and don’t pay, they seize our assets and force us to waste our lives behind bars instead of spending time with those we love. The one thing I agree with them on is that this is slavery. Bilderberg, when discussing the political landscape of America, stated that both lawyers and CPAs (accountants) are [unknowingly] licensed spies and saboteurs. These individuals are overseen by judges, “who shout orders and run the closed union military shop for whatever the market will bear” and “the presidential level of commander-in-chief is shared by the international bankers.”
To end on a good note, here’s the young and gorgeous Helena Bonham Carter in my favorite film, “Room With a View” who after playing Beethoven gets peevish, naturally, but not to be confused with churlish.
Handy Hubby is a veteran in common parlance, but I’m so glad he doesn’t go around announcing that to strangers like a child desperate for recognition and approval.
We get a discount at Lowe’s, so that’s pretty cool, because we spend loads of money there. It makes perfect sense that corporations reward veterans, because that’s who veterans serve.
Hubby joined the military because he wanted to expand his opportunities, same as many young people today.
Instead of celebrating Armistice Day, we celebrate Forever War.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel (USAF) Bill Astore writes:
“Sadly, as we raise more troops and fight more wars, we seem committed to the opposite. Our military just enjoyed its best recruiting class in years. This “success” is not entirely surprising. It’s no longer that difficult to fill our military’s expanding ranks because many of our young men and women simply have little choice but to enlist, whether for economic opportunity, money for college, or benefits like free health care.”
I served in the Peace Corps, but only one person has ever thanked me for my service, a stranger who didn’t know what the Peace Corps was, but everytime he heard the word “corps” was conditioned to reply with the proper canned reply, “Thank you for your service.”
Everyone knows the Peace Corps is for idealistic, lazy losers, unlike the military, which is for tough, courageous go-getters. Hollywood tells us so.
You want to joing the Peace Corps? What are you some sort of bleeding heart liberal hippy?!
“Since a very young age we are indoctrinated into the idea that wars are the story of “good” guys vs “bad” guys, that we are (of course) on the “good guys team” and the reason that the poor people from our country were (and continue to be) sent to other countries to kill other human beings with technology designed to end sentient life is so that we can “bring them democracy”, “protect our freedoms” and “ensure regional stability”. The truth is nothing even close to that comforting fairy tale.”
The Peace Corps volunteers don’t get included in Veterans Day, which used to be called Armistice Day, to remember the fighting that ENDED.
Once the wars became continuous they had to change the name.
I supported the Peace Corps for over two decades after I returned home, through financial donations, writing articles for their sites and singing their praises whenever I had occassion to do so. I stopped supporting them once I realized they’d turned pro-war.
Hollywood creations and fictional characters like the veteran Jack Reacher are worthy of the fandom of grown adults because that definitely has no resemblance to grown adults worshipping comic book figures like Superman or Robinhood as if they are real people.
“Collectively, we Americans tend to suppress whatever doubts we have about the wisdom of our wars with unequivocal statements of support for our troops. And on days like Veterans Day, we honor those who served, and especially those who paid the ultimate price on the battlefield.
Yet, wouldn’t the best support for our troops be the achievement of the dream of that grizzled vet who cut through a young man’s fog thirty years ago? Shouldn’t we be working to achieve a new age in which the rosters of our local VFWs and Legion posts are no longer renewed with the broken bodies and shattered minds of American combat veterans?”
“Working Towards Peace: Imagine if Veterans Day Became Obselete” Bill Astore, Bracing Views substack.
“There is no honor in tax-payer funded organized murder for profit: War is still a racket” Gavin Mounsey substack
“On November 11th, a day when we have been conditioned to glorify war as “necessary and honorable” let us take an honest look at the true nature of (and profiteers) of Modern Warfare”
