Similar situation: I'm in one of the bluest neighborhoods in the very blue borough of Brooklyn in NYC. I'm surrounded by cult members, with whom there seems to be little to no shared language or experience of the world. They live in a weird, inaccessible alternate reality.
Fortunately I've managed to meet and connect with New Yorkers who were already awake or woke up quickly in 2020. I honestly don't know how I would have managed without them, especially since most of my close family is also in the cult to one degree or another.
My closest friend lived in Brooklyn. We were friends since the 90’s. The mind virus took over and she finally cut me loose. Probably for my own good. I’m so glad you found a community connection!
I've written about the lack of a shared body of facts with which to have a discussion, specifically about Trump, with a leftist. I've tried it with friends and family and there's no starting point. It's exactly like trying to communicate with an alien.
This is a big part of what I was talking about when I wrote about why Popper's paradox no longer applies. We do not agree enough on tolerance and intolerance as concepts.
I think some of these people have to continue the “charade”, otherwise they’ll be forced to admit how far off base and out in left field they truly are, and the full extent of their lies and manipulation will be revealed for all to see. But some of these people have been drinking the Kool-Aid for so long and are so far off the deep end that they’ll never make their way back to dry land. They are gone and we’re wasting our breath, energy and time trying to break through to them, complete denial of reality.
Heavy social stigma and social sanctions. Peer pressure works well to curtail bad behavior. There is none of that these days. Live and let live and being “ non judgmental” has wreaked havoc on our society.
I like what Trump is trying to do, but I'm skeptical it's anything more than a slight speed bump to wokeness that will be over in four years. Half the country is like the smug a-holes who threw an infantile tantrum in front of Trump as he gave his speech to Congress last week. Their deranged cult seems indestructible.
The death cult as I see it, runs contrary to universal law, and is inherently doomed, so the question I arrive at is: are we going to allow them to take us with them?
My answer, is of course: NO, and I'm really glad and relieved to have Trump back in office, but we still have to save ourselves, starting way down here on the individual level, and for me that means 0 tolerance for the woke or their misanthropic, suicidal madness.
A few musings from a bystander. Number one we think of "woke" as a bunch of morbidly obese, nose ring, unbathed mostly women but some men that think for example men need tampons. But the problem goes well beyond this. For example, Tucker Carlson (and I believe him) said there are several congressmen compromised by the Mexican cartels. The "clean up" is so widespread, deep, systemic, interwind it will take decades to unravel and destroy. It's just not a bunch of silly imbeciles.
Second, the left/woke movement is based upon a continuous mental illness feedback loop. The "movement" preys on vulnerable individuals, addled by drugs, bad parenting, the Hollywood culture and our failed education system. The mental illness is reinforced time after time to we get to the point that we an overly hairy man in a dress and very bad makeup on Tik Tok claiming to be a woman. Or the same type claiming that Trump is going to kill all gay, trans and black people.
Third, the "movement" is buffeted by very powerful and influential groups. Hollywood, education (using that word loosely), government/politics, corporate interests. Not easily defeated when there's literally trillions funding their cause.
Fourth, the "movement" operates on the "get them young" principal. A five year old doesn't have the capacity to understands what's real and what's fake. Start the messaging and indoctrination when the mind is empty and repeat continuously over the next 10-15 years. Unfortunately, often parents are part of the problem or fail to counteract against the problem. At age six if I had told my mother and father that I was a girl let's just say I would have been set straight within a nano second. Today it's off to the therapist for "gender affirming" therapy.
Incredibly well said to describe exactly how I feel and see the behavior to which we are subjected by these…aliens? I can no longer think of them as human. Maybe, in fact, they are demons wearing ugly skin suits.
Really, really hard not to see this in the world! Legends and myths teach how to identify evil in the world - and what to do when you find it! - using many cultural and time-pertinent analogies such as demons, zombies, robots, aliens, faery, for good reason. There is something alien about the way these people think and behave that is creepy, obvious once seen, and inherently dangerous. And it needs to be called out.
A lot of them are beyond saving. They have pledged fealty to Woke Ideology. Woke demands they be miserable and dissatisfied with every aspect of life. Their misery is self flagellation. They need to be seen as pious to their Woke god, who rewards them with more endless demands. I have been in meetings where it's a pissing contest to see who is most religious.
In other news, we are giving far too much airtime to Tim McBride. And, to the extent it matters, he fug.
Two examples from sci fi that deal with the theme of mutual incomprehensibility:
- Star Trek: TNG episode "Darmok"
- "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem. The novel, not the movie. See if you can find a written description of the properties of the planet Solaris that they are studying. The planet is so alien that humans don't even know where to start with their assumptions.
For anyone that didn't catch it, when Chairman Self called on him to speak, referring to him as Mr. McBride, McBride responded "Thank you, Madam Chair." Smiling broadly in what I'm sure he thought was a clever gotcha moment. I'm interested to see what Rep. Self will do at the next hearing. I hope he will continue to call him Mr. McBride. I don't think closing the hearing is the answer the next time. McBride did the "wounded bird" routine afterward " No matter how I am treated I will continue to work for the people of Delaware blah blah blah..." Wounded but "noble." Keating pleading with Self "Have you no decency?" was particularly galling since I'm sure he's been a big supporter of Drag Queen Story Hours which are an abomination.
Regarding shutting down the hearing- it was probably the best decision. Self removed Keating's stage. For a time, it might be best to shut down the stage when a chairman sees someone is ginning up for a performance. It won't work long-term but I was glad to see someone with some wherewithal to take charge in the moment.
Regarding the woke cult- it runs deeper than what we have seen the past few years. Nothing I have seen from the woke left is anything different than what private, leftist individuals have been saying all my adult life- beginning in college. What we have now are the products of those long-held beliefs amongst the majority of Democrats. We are living through what they have always wanted. They have always been quietly bloodthirsty. They have always longed for a revolution. They have always defined their moral stances on being in opposition to anything they viewed as conservative, Republican, or traditional. They have taken to the themselves as a hard nugget of their identity the belief that late-stage capitalism is a real thing, it defines our times, and it is their manifest destiny to end it and anything they associate as being part of it.
They suffered during COVID but they believed the pain was worth it. It was a type of religious martyrdom on their part. To answer your question- no, they don't experience pain the way you do. The pain they experienced from having their lives overhauled due to COVID held meaning and ecstasy for them. They still believe this is THEIR moment in history and are not going to surrender it as a result of any rational argument or appeal to any objective discussion of right and wrong.
I feel like we are living through the howl in "The Night of the Hunter". That moment when Powell sees the kids slip just out of his reach in the boat. I think, like in the movie, they will finish howling but they are not going to stop. We have to keep moving further and further out of their reach. They have no reason to stop and they are going to keep coming. We can't keep looking back and trying to include them or listen to them, etc. We need to keep moving ourselves, our institutions, and our country further and further out of their reach.
Religious zealots - I'd like to see them parading the streets whipping themselves bloody, orgasming from their purity to their god Woke. They are dangerous.
Josh, I am somewhat more optimistic than you are, because a large majority of Americans - and how hard is it to get a large majority to agree on anything? - agree that there are 2 sexes, they are immutable, and transgender is nonsense. Since what passes for high culture is dominated by captives of the woke cult, its members are disproportionately noisy in the public square. But the public isn't buying it, Trump's administration isn't allowing it to go on, and he is using Federal funding to end DEI in any institution that takes money. Yes, they will try to rebrand, bury, and hide DEI but I think its days are numbered. Recall how many big corporations announced that they were pulling back and/or eliminating DEI, now that they can without being blackmailed by activists. It's clear that DEI is a colossal waste of money, upsets employees, and turns them against each other instead of working together on the goals of the company. I think companies are relieved that they can get back to their real business and stop wasting time and money on extraneous social engineering that is only a distraction. They are tired of being blackmailed by activists who only want the money (BLM for example).
That outburst by Congressman Keating was probably meant as a form of performance art. McBride himself has been accommodating to the majority opinion and hasn't made a fuss about it. I don't think Chairman Self has any intention of giving in to the nonsense but possibly shut down the hearing rather than give Keating any more of a forum than he already had.
Beautifully expressed about the state of things, Deborah - and about Keating and McBride’s roles and perspectives. Thanks for weighing in with a note of optimism regarding shared reality!
An interesting thought experiment for you to do: consider that they don’t share your premise about what is and isn’t at the “base level.” Your examples (steam engines, internal combustion engines, etc) all refer to concepts that can ultimately be validated through connection to observed reality. But I don’t think that’s how they validate ideas. In their minds, validation comes from whether or not something conforms to an “ideal,” in their case, a NeoMarxist worldview. So, in someone like Keating’s mind, his positions are properly validated because they resonant with the oppression narrative that he may literally believe is more fundamental than a little thing like the reality of sexual reproduction and the fact that there are two and only two sexes required for it.
Profound questions to ask. It can be a challenge to get our minds around the depth of their allegiance to evil which they will never see as evil. Often spiritually based terms seem to fit. I rage at the milquetoast Republicans in Congress. Not because they can fix everything but some of the purging of the degenerate rot will require backbones and the backup of law. While joining in some despairing I also wonder if their tripling down and the laying bare of the lengths they have gone and will go to need to be even more fully exposed. Maybe there are some souls we need for the fight who will finally be convinced by it. Maybe those who are just opening that door as we were...
I no longer believe things will recover. Too many people are too far gone and it is clear that they are no longer care about reality.
We have no longer shared values and thanks to rewriting no longer a shared past either. This means there is no longer a foundation from which to start any conversation from.
I am just wondering how long it will take for an assassination, an impeachment or some other form of dispowerment will happen to Trump and Vance. And when that is the case I am quite sure there will be retaliation from the left.
I live in a blue city in a purple state. Wilmington, NC. I live a very isolated life these days because of the very things you bring up here.
I hear you.
Similar situation: I'm in one of the bluest neighborhoods in the very blue borough of Brooklyn in NYC. I'm surrounded by cult members, with whom there seems to be little to no shared language or experience of the world. They live in a weird, inaccessible alternate reality.
Fortunately I've managed to meet and connect with New Yorkers who were already awake or woke up quickly in 2020. I honestly don't know how I would have managed without them, especially since most of my close family is also in the cult to one degree or another.
My closest friend lived in Brooklyn. We were friends since the 90’s. The mind virus took over and she finally cut me loose. Probably for my own good. I’m so glad you found a community connection!
I've written about the lack of a shared body of facts with which to have a discussion, specifically about Trump, with a leftist. I've tried it with friends and family and there's no starting point. It's exactly like trying to communicate with an alien.
https://jcbourque.substack.com/p/how-to-argue-with-a-lefty-about-trump
Well said sir.
This is a big part of what I was talking about when I wrote about why Popper's paradox no longer applies. We do not agree enough on tolerance and intolerance as concepts.
I think some of these people have to continue the “charade”, otherwise they’ll be forced to admit how far off base and out in left field they truly are, and the full extent of their lies and manipulation will be revealed for all to see. But some of these people have been drinking the Kool-Aid for so long and are so far off the deep end that they’ll never make their way back to dry land. They are gone and we’re wasting our breath, energy and time trying to break through to them, complete denial of reality.
Yes, they're gone. So, the issue becomes how do we stop them from voting, raising children in their own warped image, and teaching in public schools?
Constant vigilance, harsh measures to deal with the harsh realities, we can never allow these people to be anywhere near the levers of power again.
Heavy social stigma and social sanctions. Peer pressure works well to curtail bad behavior. There is none of that these days. Live and let live and being “ non judgmental” has wreaked havoc on our society.
Literally like mass psychosis on a societal scale.
I like what Trump is trying to do, but I'm skeptical it's anything more than a slight speed bump to wokeness that will be over in four years. Half the country is like the smug a-holes who threw an infantile tantrum in front of Trump as he gave his speech to Congress last week. Their deranged cult seems indestructible.
The death cult as I see it, runs contrary to universal law, and is inherently doomed, so the question I arrive at is: are we going to allow them to take us with them?
My answer, is of course: NO, and I'm really glad and relieved to have Trump back in office, but we still have to save ourselves, starting way down here on the individual level, and for me that means 0 tolerance for the woke or their misanthropic, suicidal madness.
Me too.
A few musings from a bystander. Number one we think of "woke" as a bunch of morbidly obese, nose ring, unbathed mostly women but some men that think for example men need tampons. But the problem goes well beyond this. For example, Tucker Carlson (and I believe him) said there are several congressmen compromised by the Mexican cartels. The "clean up" is so widespread, deep, systemic, interwind it will take decades to unravel and destroy. It's just not a bunch of silly imbeciles.
Second, the left/woke movement is based upon a continuous mental illness feedback loop. The "movement" preys on vulnerable individuals, addled by drugs, bad parenting, the Hollywood culture and our failed education system. The mental illness is reinforced time after time to we get to the point that we an overly hairy man in a dress and very bad makeup on Tik Tok claiming to be a woman. Or the same type claiming that Trump is going to kill all gay, trans and black people.
Third, the "movement" is buffeted by very powerful and influential groups. Hollywood, education (using that word loosely), government/politics, corporate interests. Not easily defeated when there's literally trillions funding their cause.
Fourth, the "movement" operates on the "get them young" principal. A five year old doesn't have the capacity to understands what's real and what's fake. Start the messaging and indoctrination when the mind is empty and repeat continuously over the next 10-15 years. Unfortunately, often parents are part of the problem or fail to counteract against the problem. At age six if I had told my mother and father that I was a girl let's just say I would have been set straight within a nano second. Today it's off to the therapist for "gender affirming" therapy.
Incredibly well said to describe exactly how I feel and see the behavior to which we are subjected by these…aliens? I can no longer think of them as human. Maybe, in fact, they are demons wearing ugly skin suits.
Really, really hard not to see this in the world! Legends and myths teach how to identify evil in the world - and what to do when you find it! - using many cultural and time-pertinent analogies such as demons, zombies, robots, aliens, faery, for good reason. There is something alien about the way these people think and behave that is creepy, obvious once seen, and inherently dangerous. And it needs to be called out.
A lot of them are beyond saving. They have pledged fealty to Woke Ideology. Woke demands they be miserable and dissatisfied with every aspect of life. Their misery is self flagellation. They need to be seen as pious to their Woke god, who rewards them with more endless demands. I have been in meetings where it's a pissing contest to see who is most religious.
In other news, we are giving far too much airtime to Tim McBride. And, to the extent it matters, he fug.
Two examples from sci fi that deal with the theme of mutual incomprehensibility:
- Star Trek: TNG episode "Darmok"
- "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem. The novel, not the movie. See if you can find a written description of the properties of the planet Solaris that they are studying. The planet is so alien that humans don't even know where to start with their assumptions.
For anyone that didn't catch it, when Chairman Self called on him to speak, referring to him as Mr. McBride, McBride responded "Thank you, Madam Chair." Smiling broadly in what I'm sure he thought was a clever gotcha moment. I'm interested to see what Rep. Self will do at the next hearing. I hope he will continue to call him Mr. McBride. I don't think closing the hearing is the answer the next time. McBride did the "wounded bird" routine afterward " No matter how I am treated I will continue to work for the people of Delaware blah blah blah..." Wounded but "noble." Keating pleading with Self "Have you no decency?" was particularly galling since I'm sure he's been a big supporter of Drag Queen Story Hours which are an abomination.
Regarding shutting down the hearing- it was probably the best decision. Self removed Keating's stage. For a time, it might be best to shut down the stage when a chairman sees someone is ginning up for a performance. It won't work long-term but I was glad to see someone with some wherewithal to take charge in the moment.
Regarding the woke cult- it runs deeper than what we have seen the past few years. Nothing I have seen from the woke left is anything different than what private, leftist individuals have been saying all my adult life- beginning in college. What we have now are the products of those long-held beliefs amongst the majority of Democrats. We are living through what they have always wanted. They have always been quietly bloodthirsty. They have always longed for a revolution. They have always defined their moral stances on being in opposition to anything they viewed as conservative, Republican, or traditional. They have taken to the themselves as a hard nugget of their identity the belief that late-stage capitalism is a real thing, it defines our times, and it is their manifest destiny to end it and anything they associate as being part of it.
They suffered during COVID but they believed the pain was worth it. It was a type of religious martyrdom on their part. To answer your question- no, they don't experience pain the way you do. The pain they experienced from having their lives overhauled due to COVID held meaning and ecstasy for them. They still believe this is THEIR moment in history and are not going to surrender it as a result of any rational argument or appeal to any objective discussion of right and wrong.
I feel like we are living through the howl in "The Night of the Hunter". That moment when Powell sees the kids slip just out of his reach in the boat. I think, like in the movie, they will finish howling but they are not going to stop. We have to keep moving further and further out of their reach. They have no reason to stop and they are going to keep coming. We can't keep looking back and trying to include them or listen to them, etc. We need to keep moving ourselves, our institutions, and our country further and further out of their reach.
Religious zealots - I'd like to see them parading the streets whipping themselves bloody, orgasming from their purity to their god Woke. They are dangerous.
Josh, I am somewhat more optimistic than you are, because a large majority of Americans - and how hard is it to get a large majority to agree on anything? - agree that there are 2 sexes, they are immutable, and transgender is nonsense. Since what passes for high culture is dominated by captives of the woke cult, its members are disproportionately noisy in the public square. But the public isn't buying it, Trump's administration isn't allowing it to go on, and he is using Federal funding to end DEI in any institution that takes money. Yes, they will try to rebrand, bury, and hide DEI but I think its days are numbered. Recall how many big corporations announced that they were pulling back and/or eliminating DEI, now that they can without being blackmailed by activists. It's clear that DEI is a colossal waste of money, upsets employees, and turns them against each other instead of working together on the goals of the company. I think companies are relieved that they can get back to their real business and stop wasting time and money on extraneous social engineering that is only a distraction. They are tired of being blackmailed by activists who only want the money (BLM for example).
That outburst by Congressman Keating was probably meant as a form of performance art. McBride himself has been accommodating to the majority opinion and hasn't made a fuss about it. I don't think Chairman Self has any intention of giving in to the nonsense but possibly shut down the hearing rather than give Keating any more of a forum than he already had.
Beautifully expressed about the state of things, Deborah - and about Keating and McBride’s roles and perspectives. Thanks for weighing in with a note of optimism regarding shared reality!
An interesting thought experiment for you to do: consider that they don’t share your premise about what is and isn’t at the “base level.” Your examples (steam engines, internal combustion engines, etc) all refer to concepts that can ultimately be validated through connection to observed reality. But I don’t think that’s how they validate ideas. In their minds, validation comes from whether or not something conforms to an “ideal,” in their case, a NeoMarxist worldview. So, in someone like Keating’s mind, his positions are properly validated because they resonant with the oppression narrative that he may literally believe is more fundamental than a little thing like the reality of sexual reproduction and the fact that there are two and only two sexes required for it.
Profound questions to ask. It can be a challenge to get our minds around the depth of their allegiance to evil which they will never see as evil. Often spiritually based terms seem to fit. I rage at the milquetoast Republicans in Congress. Not because they can fix everything but some of the purging of the degenerate rot will require backbones and the backup of law. While joining in some despairing I also wonder if their tripling down and the laying bare of the lengths they have gone and will go to need to be even more fully exposed. Maybe there are some souls we need for the fight who will finally be convinced by it. Maybe those who are just opening that door as we were...
I no longer believe things will recover. Too many people are too far gone and it is clear that they are no longer care about reality.
We have no longer shared values and thanks to rewriting no longer a shared past either. This means there is no longer a foundation from which to start any conversation from.
I am just wondering how long it will take for an assassination, an impeachment or some other form of dispowerment will happen to Trump and Vance. And when that is the case I am quite sure there will be retaliation from the left.