Time to Eat the Rich

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 20:42:39 GMT

Down through history, great leaders of radical social movements have been misquoted and misrepresented in order to promote the idea that wealth is king. Well, that era is coming to an end. The plot by the wealthy classes to create a generation of mindless debt slaves has failed. More and more, people are realizing that the war on the educated poor in this society was planned and orchestrated by a corrupt business class hell bent on eradicating the gains made by poor Americans over the past several decades. Their plan was certainly well-organized, but it was not well thought out. The business elite believed that they could select all those with potential, recruit them into the business class and turn them against poor people. That plan has failed because there were simply too many bright stars such as me who fell through the cracks, who were left out of the world of success. Now that I and many others have been left behind, we are coming for our revenge on the wealthy classes. Make no mistake, this will not be a violent revolution, not on my end anyway. No, this revolution seeks something much more refined than violence. Our revolution, the revolution of the educated debt slaves, shall be a revolution of thought. No longer will you hear words like "hope" and "perseverance" from us. No longer will you hear dumb catchphrases like "rags to riches", "stop hating" and "hard work" from us. We have worked hard and gotten nothing for our efforts. We have hoped and we have been disappointed. We have persevered and received nothing in return. We have had rags and received no riches. We chose not to hate while you hated on us. We are done. We have given you the opportunity to make good on your promises to us, my dear elite class, and you have not delivered. And so, we will reject your gospel of capitalism. We will reject your idiotic optimism. We will reject your dogma of hope, your toxic positivity. All will be exposed as tools of the elite. Did you really think that no one would ever hold you accountable? Did you really think that your corporate propaganda would keep us at bay? You probably did, and now you will pay for your flawed reasoning and lack of empathy. A hoard of leftists is rising up now, and it will topple your fairy tale world dedicated to the flawed rationale of Adam Smith. A quote from the oft misunderstood, maligned and misquoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will clue you in on the fate that will befall you in a short time. Listen up oh wealthy ones, "At the very same time that America refused to give the Negro any land, through an act of Congress our government was giving away millions of acres of land in the west and the Midwest. But not only did they give the land, they built land grant colleges with government money to teach them how to farm. Not only that, they provided county agents to further their expertise in farming. Not only that, they provided low interest rates in order that they could mechanize their farm. Not only that, today many of these people are receiving millions of dollars in federal subsidies not to farm, and they are the very people telling the black man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. Now this is what we are faced with. Now when we come to Washington with this campaign, we are coming to get our check." You hear me rich people? We are coming to get our check, only this time it's not just going to be black people. No, no. You see, you fucked up and pissed off the white man, and the Asian man, and the Mexican man, and the white woman, and the Asian woman, and the Mexican woman too. Yes, you did. And I don't care how much money you throw around; you aren't going to be able to buy yourself out of this colossal fuck up of yours this time. You are doomed elitists. The clock is ticking. The bell is tolling, and it tolls for thee, rich man. Buy all the politicians you like. It's all just a waste of money anyway. We are educated, we are bold, and we are coming to get our check!

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The Slow, Sad, Painful Death of American Comedy

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 06:42:18 GMT

Everyone says and thinks all the same exact shit in America. But I thought I was different. I thought I was cool. I thought I had a deeper understanding of the world. Yeah, all that shit that you probably think about yourself right now. You’re not just a person who likes to laugh. You’re a kind of comedy connoisseur. Sure, you like to laugh, but it’s not about laughter for you. No, it’s about philosophy and culture and freedom of speech. Yeah, I know. You’re like one those alcoholics who refers to themselves as a sommelier. Yes, yes, we know. You don’t have a binge eating disorder, you have a refined a palate that must be satiated with all the great foods of the world...simultaneously. We know. You’re not a liar. You’re a storyteller or a poet or a screenwriter. You haven't published anything or had anything produced, but you're still an unpublished author, and an unpublished author is an author nonetheless. You’re not some weird creepy stalker who follows rich people around like some kind of deranged hungry stray dog looking to lick up your master's leavings. No, you’re an esteemed member of the fan based community. You don't stalk. You appreciate. You're not creepy. You're curious. Yes, we know. We all know that you love to mince words; we all know that you are better than everyone else and that means that you can never do anything wrong. It's an impossibility! It must be because you say it is. We get it. We all know how refined you are. Anyway, after many years of licking comedian taint just like you, I went crazy. I’m not joking. I really did lose my mind. I don’t blame that on comedians. I blame that on myself. But, while I was crazy, I decided to stop watching entertainment. You see, in the conspiracy world, entertainment is evil. All celebrities become lizard people and everyone is illuminati when you’ve lost your fucking mind. The smallest movement is some secret message. That celebrity is trying to control you and you need to stop it right now. So, I gave it all up. I lived “off the grid” as they say. I wouldn’t even use my cellphone. I was that serious about it. I read a lot of books during those years. No, not just crazy books like the bible or Atlas Shrugged...I mean, I read those too, but all kinds of books really, way more than most people will ever touch, let alone read from start to finish. I read so much that I couldn’t read anymore. So, I went back to comedy and, for awhile, it was just as I remembered it. Then, one day, one of the funniest men to ever live, Michael Richards (Kramer, for those of you who are bad with names) called a man a nigger. I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked. My dad and I both loved Michael Richards and Jerry Seinfeld had way more black people on his show than other shows. How could this be happening? I thought. What was going on? What was even crazier was the huge amount of people who rushed to defend him, many of them were comedians. A few years later, the same comedians who defended Michael Richard’s blatant racism stole the term “cancel culture” from black people to launch a campaign to protect themselves from ever being criticized again. They are still on this free speech crusade to this very day and they have taken black comedians right along with them. But their crusade is not for the common man; it is a selfish crusade. They use it to dehumanize their critics and to present themselves as superior. And now, comedy is dead to me in America. If I want to laugh, I mostly watch stuff from the old days of comedy when comedians told jokes instead of demonizing minorities. I watch a lot of Seinfeld, but I have no desire to see Jerry’s new stuff. I like seeing Michael Richards when his only concern was making me laugh. It reminds me of my dad and it makes me feel like a kid again. Call me old-fashioned or boring or whatever you want. I don’t care. You know, kind of like your favorite comedians don’t care about me...or you.

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Johnny Depp Wins While America Loses

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 07:13:15 GMT

Well, we did it. We did it. We finally did it! Oh, come on. You know what I'm talking about. We. Did. It. That's right, we stuck to the man. We totally showed him dude. Johnny Depp is free. He's fucking free man. Alright. Alright! We really fucking did it. Good on us! Stupid pirate hats and cheap rum for everyone for you shall always remember this as the day that you almost caught an incredibly rich celebrity who cares absolutely nothing about you! Well done everyone. Well done. I'm clapping right now for you at this very moment. You did it. You gave Kyle Rittenhouse a reason to sue for defamation of character, and you should be very proud of yourself. Never in my life did I think a person who murdered someone would be able to sue for defamation of character. I underestimated you...or overestimated you...whichever one works. Anyway, the important thing is that you did something. You devoted months, some of you even over a year, to setting a legal precedent that could very well criminalize your right to speak out against abuse, especially when that abuse could or could not have been orchestrated by a person who is rich and famous. I mean, America, just when I think you couldn't possibly get any worse, you always surprise me. There really is no bottom in politics, no place to hide from the spin artists, nowhere to run from the bullshit artistry of the publicity stunt, the three-ring circus, the snake oil salesman. It's always there, waiting for you to slip up so it can shape and mold you as it pleases. But you don't care about legal precedent. I know. Trust me, I know. You care about Crybaby and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Pirates of the Carribean. You care about he Johnny Depp who appears to care about you, even if he really doesn't. And that's fine. I've accepted, over the years, that people want to have their cake and eat it too. You don't just want a flawed human being who struggles with rage just like most people. You want a superhero. You want Captain Jack Sparrow. You want to find neverland. That all makes sense in a very senseless way for that line of thought requires a dulling of the senses, especially those that sense scams. But I'm just talking nonsense of course. There's no way a megastar with millions on the line would ever lie to you. That doesn't happen. No, nothing ever happens in neverland, nothing too bad anyway. Everything is just right in a distorted kind of way. It's difficult to explain, especially if you've never been there. But, guess what? I've found it. That's right! I found neverland, and it had the most peculiar kind of behaviors. At one end of neverland, there is a man who shouts about free speech continuously. "Free Speech!", he shouts. "Free Speech!" But, the crazy thing is, the man yells "free speech" so much that he can barely hear himself talk and he certainly never listens to anyone else. There is also a woman dressed in her pajamas. She munches on candies, and pringles and crunches. She bites of her nails and pulls hair out in bunches. Then she shouts at the TV while she's on her lunches. "Liberal bias!", she shouts. "Conservative bias!", she mouths. No matter what the TV says, she points out a bias, but her bias is so biased she won't even try us. Then, toward the end, there's a man who hates women for hating men. He puffs out his chest and dances like a hen. "I hate all your hatred!", he squawks from his perch. "Damn all your self-love and self-care and self-worth! You're all far too selfish to think of myself first!" Then he nods off while watching Fox News Network. Then, at the end, there are nothing but cops. They mean you no harm until you think a free thought. Then it's off to jail for you to sit and rot. But there'll be no trials or fan mail for you, just a really high bail and no one to screw. And when you ask the cops why you are to blame, they'll tell you, for sure, their names you've defamed. There you will sit wondering how, the anti-woke folks have turned on you now

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PSN: The Publicity Stunt Network

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 06:05:55 GMT

Earlier today I told a joke about the outdated and downright ridiculous show, America’s Got Talent. Why? Well, apart from the fact that talent shows are the vomit of the entertainment world, the whole idea that Hollywood is interested in any way in helping poor artists “get discovered” whilst being simultaneously located in Los Angeles, one of the most poverty-ridden cities in the nation, is a complete joke. As I have stated in past shows, the vast majority of Hollywood’s many jobs (they could cure poverty in the whole city simply by making it easier for artists to get employed instead of making them compete like dogs by the way) go to people who are already rich. This is not the 1940s. Poor people like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe are not getting work anymore. It’s the spoiled brat children of people who are already famous that are getting “discovered” these days and that’s not a discovery. That’s just some rich person giving their friend or family member even more money than they have already given them. Hollywood does not create jobs. It destroys dreams and even ends up killing many of the people who have those dreams. Hollywood is an embarrassment to the world of entertainment. Do you have any idea how many artists commit suicide every year because they are turned down by this cartoonish monopoly you call Hollywood every year? I don’t know. I searched the internet and nobody cared to look into it. That’s how heartless Hollywood is. They only give a shit about people kill themselves if they are famous. The thought crossed my mind when I was still ill, that was after Hollywood told me to go fuck myself. Yes, I was “discovered”. I was going to be a star in Hollywood. But I got sick and couldn’t finish the one more year of college they required of me to get my acting “fellowship”. Well, it wasn’t much of a “fellowship” was it? I’m still poor and they don’t care. Hell, they laugh at people like me, the poor folk. They think people starving to death on the street is funny. They make fun of it on their stupid shows and their stupid comedy specials. Maybe that’s why Hollywood chose to hurl me into poverty with their fake ass promise of a better life. Maybe they needed material for a new TV show. Anyway, back to my joke. There was some stupid advertisement for America’s Got “Talent” on Twitter and the visual played a video of a woman moving in very odd ways while doing simple tasks like putting on makeup, flossing and sitting in a chair. The crowd was basically climaxing over these boring acts, bursting into an orgiastic applause the likes of which I had never seen before. This looked absolutely ridiculous and it was. It’s ridiculous to cheer for people performing basic tasks. It’s stupid! So I told a joke about it, which I automatically regreted because there is nothing that the fans of cruel assholes on TV love more than to troll normal people who poke fun at them. Someone told me the person was singing while doing this, to which I responded that I was even less impressed than before. That may be surprising to you, but ventriloquism is not that impressive to me, and if you take away the puppet it’s really not impressive. Now it’s just a ventriloquist act without the most interesting part! Anyway, fans of the show are still bothering me on Twitter about it because fans on talent shows literally have no lives of their own to speak of. All of this celebrity gossip is nothing more than a big publicity stunt to sell you crap and, if you find that interesting, that’s your business, but don’t pull me down with you. I don’t have anymore money left. Hollywood bankrupted me years ago.

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Leader of the Pack

Fri, 27 May 2022 00:44:09 GMT

As I have stated elsewhere in episodes such as "Why People Follow Tyrants", the human animal is not inherently immoral or moral, but incredibly misunderstood. Humans are animals. They are likely not special beings sent from above to accomplish some task because, if they were, no one seems to have figured out exactly what the task we are supposed to accomplish is. The only thing that separates most humans from other animals like dogs or cats is their superior reasoning skills, which not all humans fully develop by the way. Unfortunately for humans, they also have primitive urges such as the fight or flight instinct or insatiable hunger, which often overpowers those superior reasoning skills and turns them into apelike creatures fighting over where to hold a ceremony or how to interpret an ancient piece of paper. That does not mean that humans are dumb; it is just a basic recognition of the fact that we display animalistic behavior. That should be enough for people, if they were purely reasonable. But that is never enough for anyone. There always has to be some deeper meaning to something for most people. It's not just junk that we can't see in the sky with our pretty inaccurately designed eyes. No, it is an unidentified flying object. Sorry, but that's just a complicated way of saying, "shit we can't see". And don't even get me started on the concept of destiny. It's not just that Sally forgot to open the refrigerator because she has a poor diet and is likely slipping into dementia. No, god works in "mysterious ways". This fantasizing about higher powers or deeper meanings never stops. Right now on social media platforms everywhere someone is claiming that Paul McCartney died in the 1960s, that Princess Dianna never died and lives on today as Elton John's husband, that George W. Bush planned 9/11, that JFK is coming back someday, that Donald Trump won the 2022 election, that Joe Biden is in a state of "mental decline" (whatever that means), that the book of Revelation in the bible is coming true...again, etc. Like I said, there is no end to this lunacy. People just seem to want more out of life. But why? Think back to the fact that animals, especially social animals, tend to gravitate toward packs. As humans we think the word "pack" is dirty. So, we call our packs other things: political parties, cults, religions, groups, organizations, businesses, families, social groups, etc. And, for all our sophistication and moral protestation, our respective packs fight with each other on a daily basis. If you don't believe me, head on over to Twitter and find yourself some Johnny Depp, who I now call white OJ, supporters, and watch as they slug it with the Amber Heard supporters over which one of them has the best points. You will witness exactly the same kind of pack behavior you see in the animal kingdom when a gang of leopards decides to go to war with a lion pride over a piece of old meat. Leopards even make a habit of attacking lion cubs, forcing the lions to defend themselves. There's no reason for this behavior. Leopards have teeth; they can get their own meat. They also have kids of their own. So why attack the lion pride? Well because they are aggressive animals. That is what aggression does to you; it makes you unreasonable. It makes you do things for no good reason. That is why I don't waste time with debating morality. I don't want to be like some dumb leopard trolling a lion pride for a piece of zebra. I have better things to do, like trying to maintain my reasoning skills. It's a jungle out there, an insane orgy of warring tribes and factions with a bunch of disease mixed in for good measure. This is the human experience, and I want no part of it, apart from the cool music and good times of course. But the moralists don't want you to have a good time. That is too base for them. They want to yell at you like an ape grunting a baboon over a banana. Be my guest moralists, but you're not convincing me of anything.

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America's Forgotten Civil War

Sun, 22 May 2022 18:19:10 GMT

If you talk to any American alive today about the Civil War, you get one of two versions. The first is that white American freed the slaves because they woke up one day and were like, "Oopsie poopsies. We made a big mistake. Let's go give the black people ice cream and hugs to make up for it." The second version goes something like, "well, slavery really wasn't all that bad. It was just indentured servitude like the bible says. In fact, many slaves loved their masters and many black people are worse off today than they would've been back then." But neither of these are correct and they are both insulting. This is not how slavery ended. As I have stated in painstaking detail in the past, including in my episode "How Black American Slaves Freed Themselves", white people had very little to do with freeing slaves. That is not to say that white abolitionists did not exist. They did, but, just as there are very few white people today who take black people seriously, they were always in the minority. There would have been no white abolitionists were it not for the work of black slaves. Black slaves frequently rioted, destroyed crops, attacked their masters, and even killed those who enslaved them. This became a huge problem for the production of things like cotton and tabaco and other goods. It started to make less sense economically to own slaves. If your workers are sabotaging your production efforts, you lose money. So, really what occurred is that black American slaves hit white people where it mattered most, their wallets. This is how we obtained our freedom, through open and secret rebellion against the system. Then came John Brown, a white Christian man so morally opposed to slavery that he actually declared a war on the institution and used force to free slaves. The South then made the dumbest move possible and executed John Brown for killing slave masters, who also made a habit of killing their slaves by the way. The North was outraged by this. Killing a white Christian preacher for using the Biblical principle "an eye for an eye"? That was unacceptable, even for the most racist Northerner, of which there were many. Then the abolitionist Julia Ward Howard wrote the openly militant song "John Brown's Body" for the purpose of rallying the North to squash the confederacy once and for all. This is a far cry from the complete idiot's guide to the civil war that teachers across the nation are allowed to teach. So, why don't they just tell the real history? Is it because of southern objection? Well, that's part of it. The south certainly does not want people knowing that their ancestors raped, beat and killed my ancestor, but that's only part of the story. You see, moderate politics were just as possible in the 1960s, during the centennial of the Civil War, as they are today. Moderates during the Centennial did not want to be too "divisive". Yes, they used that word. They wanted to pass the Civil War off as some delightful sporting event between two reasonable parties, not the all out brawl for human rights that it really was. This backfired on the moderates of the 1960s just as it is backfiring on the moderates of the day, who would rather you bullshit online about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock, than deal with the fact that white supremacy is running rampant. The South denied a black representative the right to attend a meeting for the centennial committee. John F. Kennedy tried to move the meeting to a non-segregated area, but the south still refused. The south seceded from the committee. Kennedy was outraged, and likely a bit embarrassed. So, he said to hell with the south and became a huge proponent of Civil Rights in America. A few years later, while George Wallace declared "segregation forever", Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech on voting rights. He did not quote the bible at the end of his speech, but the "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", the song that union soldiers sang. The second Civil War had begun.

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Addiction to Forgiveness

Tue, 17 May 2022 07:00:03 GMT

Forgiveness is addictive. There, I said it and I don't feel bad about it. That used to be so wild to me, the notion that anyone would criticize the idea of forgiveness. Unlike many, I wasn't indoctrinated very heavily with the value system that we call Christianity. It was really never talked about in our home. The closest thing my family had to church was gathering around the table to eat dinner and watch Seinfeld, which was my Dad's favorite TV show after Cheers was taken off the air. I vaguely remember my mother talking to me about forgiveness, but only rarely. Besides, right after that she would go on some tirade about Bush Jr. and how much of a moron he was. So, I never really even took her that seriously. But, years later, as I became heavily indoctrinated in the Christian faith by various fundamentalist Christian You Tube videos, forgiveness became extremely important to me. Forgiveness is a big deal in Christianity. You always have to be willing to take in those who are in need. You don't ever really do it that much because you're scared someone might kill your or something. But I did actually help people when I was a Christian, mostly through direct food donations. I fed several of my LGBTQIA castmates willingly even though I had just been watching a sermon about how they were possessed by demons. They never were, but that's what I believed. I thought that, by showing kindness and forgiving the sinner, that they would become a member of my faith, and that, when that happened, I would grow even closer to Jesus. Then maybe, finally, he would make my epilepsy go away so I could be healthy and happy like other Christians I knew. Unfortunately for me, and luckily for my LGBTQIA friends, that never happened. I was never healed or "made whole" as I believe the bible refers to it. No demon was cast out of me because there never was demon inside of me. I have epilepsy. That's a part of who I am. But I refused to accept that back then. I believed in miracles. So, I stopped taking my medication and kept doing these good deeds to try to win god's favor, to get him to notice me. I really believed that would work. Now, of course, it all seems silly, even a bit suicidal, and maybe it was. Maybe the very concept of forgiveness is a bit suicidal. I've done the research on this. Nations that worship an all "forgiving" god have the highest crime rates in the entire world, even higher than nations who worship an unforgiving god, and that's after taking into considerations things like economic hardship. Now, I'm not saying that the punishments we have developed work either. I still support defund the police for example. I know The Young Turks and Tucker Carlson alike told you to shit on me for believing that we can do more with less police, but the recent murder of an elderly woman with dementia by a New Mexico police officer should put that fear to rest. I don't think the answer is more punishment. We need to become more gentle, but we can be gentle in mental health facilities or rehab centers or even prisons. Unlike most people who talk about defund the police, I have ideas to replace them. Firefighters being deployed for non-violent mental health crises works, for example. I've seen it in action and they are far more likely to use non-violent persuasion than the police. You could also follow the German model, and make prison a nice place. It does not have to be a dystopian rape cage. It could be a place where people go to get job training. You could have mentors working there. You could teach criminals the skills they need to have careers. So this episode is not about throwing the police at every little problem either. It is about valuing life and admitting that we have made mistakes that we can rectify. Today I am a huge advocate for my LGBTQIA friends because I owe it to them. But I also owe it to everyone to make sure that they do not end up harmed by this reckless ideology that says to forgive and forget the ills of the past

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The Conservative Justice League

Sun, 15 May 2022 15:43:09 GMT

What's that in the sky? It's a bird. It's a plane. It's an extremely annoying wealthy comedian complaining about people not liking their act! And next to them, why, it's the Monopoly Man! His powers include price gouging, polluting the environment and making pennies in the hands of poor people magically vanish into thin air! The penguin suited douchebags bringing up the rear are the Fundamentalist Brothers of the Supreme Kangaroo Court. They make a mockery of the Constitution and ruin democracy everywhere for everyone at lightning speed! They do have one odd weakness though: women with sidewalk chalk. Yeah, I don't know. Don't ask. And, wait...Could it be? It is! It's, it's, it's...the Conspiracy Theorist. The Conspiracy Theorist trolls the internet at lightning speed, protecting the world from imaginary demons, lizard people and Joe Biden. But nothing compares to the Orange Turd, a former president who has the power of complete ignorance. When these conservative justice warriors combine their powers they become The Conservative Justice League! That's right, it's the Conservative Justice League, and they are here to save you from your own thoughts and opinions! Alright, enough with the cute intros. Let's get down to annoying ass conservative business. In my days as an up and coming political theorist and satirist and San Jose State University I would often come across articles about the military industrial complex, which still exist today in many forms, especially when you consider that Raytheon basically tells presidents when to start wars now. But this is for another episode. In this episode I will be talking about a new kind of complex, one that has steadily gained power over the years and that very few people realize exists. I am referring to the entertainment political complex. I know, I know. In your mind, there is no way that an organization like Hollywood would ever be conservative. But you fail to remember that, although Hollywood often shows "sinful" actions in their films (the very idea that you are thinking of actions in terms of being sinful or not already proves my point by the way), they also end every film with the same basic religious principles: forgiveness, redemption, bowing down before a harsh god, and good prevailing over evil. These religious themes, which can be found in every movie, documentary, television show, and standup comedy act produced by Hollywood today, has laid the framework for the coming American theocracy. These entertainers (Dave Chapelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Tom Cruise, Steve Harvey, and the rest) have spent decades indoctrinating you with conservative Christian values. I am not saying that they made a conscious choice to do so. They have no choice. This was the plan from the beginning because, you see, corporations own Hollywood now. When you put up money for a movie, you basically own the right to change the script as you see fit. That means that certain ideas are taken out, while others are added to the script. Corporations are inherently political. They seek to turn the populous into mindless, scared little children, kind of like the Bible. This makes you more likely to consume, to buy, to give even more money to them. Every movie is an advertisement, not just for coke or Ikea, but for political policy. Dystopian fantasies, for example, often inform you that the world is ending, just like Revelation in the Bible. This causes consumers to panic buy. Crime films always portray cops in a positive light; this is done to get you accept police brutality, which protects companies from unions and protests. Cartoons teach you to always be positive, even if you are starving to death. This constant positivity makes you shut up when you need help from your government. Standup comedy is used to shame minorities, to make them feel bad about demanding equality. Romantic comedies portray women as simple-minded sex demons, which is done to deny women their rights. You still lauhghing?

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Who's Influencing Who?

Thu, 12 May 2022 22:30:23 GMT

Who influences the influencers? It's a question that rarely anybody asks, which is already a bit suspicious. In an age where we know more about our world than ever, whenever I see an unanswered question, I am always left wondering who benefits from the question remaining unanswered. Sure, there is not always an answer there, but preparing for the worst often leads to the best outcomes. I have a political mind. I never take things at face value, mostly because all of the information lies beneath the face. Humans speak in metaphors and legalities. They say what will please the most people, and do not say what will displease the most people. Even if you are "apolitical" you are still a politician to me. I do not want to hear proclamations of abstract concepts like "peace" or "love" or "freedom" from the politicized human psyche, and so I cut to the core. It does not take much investigating to find where influencers make their money. Up until recently I was under the impression that social media influencers were owned by corporations. There is ample evidence that this is quite true. Major corporations drop millions of dollars a year on marketing and the small pittance they dole out to social media influencers is only a very small part of that budget. However, I now have evidence that politicians are also funding social media influencers. Good thing you don't follow anyone famous, right? Not so fast. Micro-influencers, social media influencers with 25,000 followers or less, are now being used by companies and politicians alike. While some politicians disclose that they are using social media influencers, there is no law that requires such a disclosure. That means you are more than likely following an influencer who is under the influence of any number of party candidates up for election this year and any other year there is an election. In case you are wondering, this does not seem to be something that just the right is doing. On the right, several micro-influencers have been caught spreading lies about the election being "rigged", which also just happens to be the opinion of Trump and his followers. On the left, micro-influencers involved in the "healthy lifestyle" have been caught promoting information on climate change. This poses several difficult questions that virtually no one is asking. Is it ethical to use propaganda to further what you consider to be a "good cause"? Is manipulating people fine as long as doing so improves society in some way? Lying is not protected by the first amendment, so is deceptive marketing lying? Is the right to manipulate protected by law? Are your opinions your own or were they given to you by "alternative news sources"? I will tell you right now that it is difficult to think for yourself when your thoughts are not your own. This age of "free thinkers" is not what it seems. Everyone is manipulating, scheming, plotting to alter your worldview, to replace it with their own. Can you think freely in such a world? I think so, but it takes much more than the average person is willing to give. It takes skepticism, but it also requires a lighthearted cynicism as well. One must realize that you cannot assume the best of people in such a world in order to remain untainted with the propagandistic filth of partisans and snake oil salesmen. People who seek to control your minds are not your friends. Those of you who have been in abusive relationships know, more than anyone, that the abuser always seeks to infiltrate and change the mind. This is abuse. You are being abused when people secretly try to change your mind, whether it be for "your own good" or not be damned. It is important to remain distant from those who provide simplistic answers to difficult questions. Thinking for oneself is a human right. Nothing can change this. We must fight for our right to think freely. It is not the place of the government or big business to control thoughts. Liberate your mind and you have won.

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Supreme Court Tells Women They Have No Choice

Mon, 09 May 2022 00:39:06 GMT

American democracy is no longer dying...it’s dead. That’s right, I said it. I don’t really care how you feel about it. It’s over folks. How do I know? This morning, whilst I was on Twitter mocking the positive thinking gurus for their positively charged ignorance, I came across a video of members of the FDNY standing outside of a church. A group of pro-abortion protestors passed by the house of worship shouting, “my body, my choice”. One of the FDNY, a male Trump supporter of course, then replied, “You have no choice! The Supreme Court ruled that you have no choice! It’s not your body! It’s my body! The Supreme Court said so!” That type of behavior has nothing to do with democratic values and the word should no longer be allowed when describing American government. But that, of course, will not bother conservatives. Conservatives believe that we should return to a more traditional time, the time when women were unpaid house servants and there were plenty of jobs available for men. This is the endgame of all of this. It is estimated that, were they to become pregnant today, about 25% of women would not be able to keep their jobs. This is because these women’s employers only offer about ten days of paid leave for pregnancy before they show you the door. Many women are not able to return to work after ten days for various reasons (post-partem depression, no childcare, no next of kin to watch the infant, etc.) But conservatives do not want a world where women are allowed to work and support themselves; they want a world where women are punished for having a night of fun. God forbid any American woman enjoy herself without the express consent of some dumb fuck with chewing tobacco running down his fat gullet living in Alabama. That just ain’t Christian. And please spare me the, “I’m a conservative and I think women should have a right to choose” speech. I don’t believe you. I don’t believe because, if you really did believe in a woman’s right to choose, you would not continue to vote for candidates who are hostile to women’s choice. So, stop trying to pretend to be fair and balance or reasonable or whatever Tucker Carlson told you to say. I am not impressed, nor am I as dumb as some of your liberal friends who actually buy your bullshit that you’re on their side. And spare me the “state’s rights” speech as well. The last time people blathered on about “state’s rights” in America a Civil War started. But I don’t even have to look to that example. I can simply point to the fact that Mitch McConnell has now stated that a federal abortion ban would be totally acceptable. A federal ban would mean that all states, including California and New York, would not be able to legally provide abortion services for women. Oh, and how about the anti-contraception bills that are now being drawn up all over the south? One state has already outlawed some forms of contraception. But that’s a coincidence right? You’re not that kind of conservative. You're not that kind of Christian. Bullshit. Yes, you are. You’re a member of a party that took away people’s rights. You go to a church with people who promote these policies. You’re no better than they are. In fact, you’re worse because you won’t even admit that you are part of the problem. You are like an enabler of a drug addict who says, “I’m just going to bring the needle over and place it on the table for safe keeping. Now, don’t you go using on me. Be responsible. Play nice.” But you're not playing nice conservatives, and neither are the Christians, and neither am I, not anymore. This era of kind political debate is over. I see who you are. I know that, secretly, you do want women barefoot and pregnant. You get off on it, being able to say that you're better than other people, that you're a good boy or girl who takes precautions. Well, pretty soon the Supreme Court will come for you too. Perhaps your brand of religion, or lack thereof, will be too "liberal" or "radical". You're next

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The Repression of Human Sexuality in 21st Century American Theocracy

Tue, 03 May 2022 16:11:48 GMT

I rarely discuss human sexuality anymore these days, mostly because many people I meet, for all of their pontification of sexual liberation, are pretty grossed out about it. In America there are essentially two versions of every argument; both of them argue that the world will end if we are not boring. The same can be said of human sexuality. Right wing Americans view sex as an affrontery to religious doctrine. This is why you will find conservatives across every social media network discussing how sex and all of its incarnations have ruined the modern world. In the conservative mind, it is not obesity or poor diet or the rise in chronic illness that is the cause of the rise of infertility and erectile dysfunction in men. They argue that sex itself or pornography causes these things, which will ultimately lead to the extinction of the human species as a whole. They have no evidence for this, but they argue it nonetheless. Simply increasing the amount of physical activity in public schools and the workplace, along with removing fast food from schools and places of business would easily solve these problems. “Left” wing America (there is no real left wing in America; it is just a coalition of centrists and apathetic people who like Noam Chomsky) is a bit more nuanced. Their argument is that sex is bad because it leads to “immoral” actions like marriage and having children, which, in their minds, will cause people to create excess waste that will destroy the planet. The moderates also have very little evidence for their claims. While it is true that human caused climate change is real, most climate activists fail to realize that corporations create the most waste, not little Timmy and Tanya, nor the married couple that lives down the street that these people obsess over for some reason. If you simply limited these corporations’ ability to create excess waste, then climate change would become a thing of the past. Neither side has a positive view of the sex, proving that America, for all of its differences, is nothing more than a theocracy. Theocracy, the rule of people by a class of priests, also seeks to control human sexuality as both the conservative and moderate wings of the American political system seeks to do. This is no coincidence. The control of sexuality is necessary if one wishes to control massive groups of people. In order to control the masses, one must keep them in a constant state of stress, fear and crippling anxiety. Sexual expression between consenting adults relieves stress and anxiety, thus making life more tolerable and less horrifying to people. This is why the theocrats (moderates and conservatives are the priests of American theocracy; people like Mitt Romney and Joe Manchin are perfect examples) so desperately want to take your pornography away from you. It is also why they oppose your right to express who you choose and to be with, marry and procreate with who you choose. Anyone who tells you that procreation or marriage or homosexuality or transgenderism are somehow wrong or bad are all part of this theocratic mindset, even if they may not realize or intend it. There is nothing wrong with sexual expression as long as there is consent from the individuals involved and as long as the individuals involved are of age. But America is a boring and gossipy nation, so Americans are always trying to create problems with human sexuality where there are none. I do not think this will ever change in America because it has always been a sexually stunted nation from the get go. So, expect further legislation protecting you from having a good time in the bedroom. It’s kind of what we do here. Oh, and be sure to rinse your eyes out with chlorine after reading this. Some jerkoff on Christian Twitter told me STDs can be transmitted visually and you never can be too careful. Say a prayer to exercise the masturbation demons and try to only date inanimate objects to protect the environment from utter destruction.

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Discontent Creators: How Social Media Influencers Bully their Followers

Mon, 02 May 2022 18:42:23 GMT

I don't have to tell you that most social media influencers are completely full of shit. You already know that because you see them on social media bothering you and your friends every time you try to have a little fun. These people are downers. They exist for only two reasons that I or anyone else can think of: to make you feel bad about yourself and to tell you which products to buy to make you feel better about how they made you feel bad about yourself. Apart from that, they have no purpose. While these discontent creators are very skilled at pretending to create communities for people to feel safe in, they actually spend most of their time arguing about proper punctuation while tweeting or saying what is okay and not okay to talk about when in their presence. The whole reason these jerks even make a dime is because of people like you, yet they spend the vast majority of their time bitching about how much they dislike the people they supposedly created the online community for in the first place. The other day I was shocked to find a very popular atheist influencer chew out another atheist for referring to the bible as one book, which Christians do all the time by the way, and proceed to mock her for not stating that the bible is a collection of sixty-six books. Seriously? What is the point of that? I'll tell you what the point is. The nation is heading in the direction of Christian theocracy. Everyone knows this, though no one wants to admit it. Influencers know this is happening too, and they know that they will lose their various corporate sponsorships if they piss the Christians off too much. So, many of the so-called atheist influencers on social media make a habit of babying Christians, while at the same time insulting their atheist followers, who made them popular in the first place by the way. But that's not just the case for atheist influencers. All influencers eventually sell out their followers for the big bucks. Here are just a few examples. Influencers such as Izzy and Tai have posted several pictures of themselves diving into a beautiful bright blue lake in Galacia, Spain, encouraging their followers to do so as well, and even claiming that the lake has special healing powers. The only problem with this is that the lake, "is contaminated from a World War II-era tungsten mine, where an iron manganese tungstate mineral was once harvested to make lightbulbs." Side effects include vomiting, rashes and fucking death you asssholes! Then there was the unnamed influencer who trampled all over a botanical garden in order to get a picture in nature to post on Reddit. 100% organic? How about 100% douchebag? Then there's Positravelty (influencers make their own words because who has time for English anyway), which recently posted a beautifully suicidal picture of a man holding his girlfriend over a huge fucking hole in the ground. Had he slipped or gotten weak she would be dead, but the power of positivity compels you! So, keep on smiling. It's not like that type of behavior has ever led to anyone dying or anything. I mean, it has, but again, influencers can't even be bothered to use real words so how on earth would they understand something like physics? Then there are the countless influencers who make the trip to Antelope Valley, not to exercise or anything constructive for that matter, but to trample all over wild flowers so they can post pictures of themselves on Instagram. One woman actually stripped down naked and covered her vagina and breasts with poppies, which just screams yeast infection, but the photos, the photos are so gorgeous! Finally, I would be remiss not to mention that many influencers send messages to hardworking business owners in hopes that these people, who are barely scrapping by after the pandemic, will give them handouts in exchange for...well, nothing really. No one goes on Twitter or Instagram to find what business to shop at. They just want free stuff because they're popular.

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The Slap Heard Round The World

Sun, 01 May 2022 19:39:58 GMT

In the golden age of media, journalists (that's fancy intellectual talk for someone who reports on shit instead of trying to sell shit) mostly investigated scandals and corruption. Were it not for journalists no one would have known that Nixon and his band of misfits were busying themselves trying breaking into the DNC. Were it not for the newspapers we would not have known that the creators of the arts and crafts industry were coloring wallpaper with deadly arsenic. Were it not for journalism we would still be eating steak with our cheeseburgers and compound butter, and so on, and so on. This is why I don't spend much time criticizing major media sources. For all of their many faults, and there are many faults in the media, they have done a great deal of good by informing the world of the actual corruption that exists within many of our major institutions. The media can even be counted on to report on itself from time to time, but not always. Sometimes we need to have a look at the people who are doing the reporting. We need to ask what their motives are as well. That doesn't mean that I believe the media is out to get me. They're not. In this particular instance, I don't even think that they are trying to mislead me, though they have been known to do that from time to time as well. But when Will Smith slapped the shit out of Chris Rock on Oscar night, the media lost all sense of intellectual honesty and flew into an entertainment induced frenzy. Just check out some of these very silly and also very hilarious headlines that are now cluttering your search engine for movies like "Independence Day", "Ali" and whatever the hell Chris Rock was in the nineties when he was still popular: "Chris Rock's Mom Speaks Out on Will Smith's Oscar Slap", "Will Smith Hasn't Personally Apologized to Will Smith for Oscar Slap", "Terry Crew Offers Honest Take on Chris Rock and Will Smith's Slap Drama" and, my personal favorite, "Will Smith Jets to India to Practice Meditation to Reflect on His Behavior After Slapping Chris Rock". I mean, seriously, what the hell is all of this shite? Who gives a fuck what Chris Rock's mom has to say? What kind of a man gets his mom to fight his battles for him anyway? Did Chris Rock call his mama crying after it happened? I can see it right now, Chris Rock's buck toothed ass crying on the phone, "Mama! Mama! Why doesn't Will Smith think I'm funny?! Wah!" And when did Terry Crews big forehead having ass get brought into this discussion. That ashy negro has something to say every time black people are in trouble, and that is no coincidence. He's probably working for the alt-right just like most of these Hollywood negroes are today. Yep, I said it. What are you going do about it? Sick Chris Rock's mom on me? I'm shaking in my boots. I'm pretty sure the last headline about Will Smith flying off to India to reflect on upsetting Chris Rock's mom is completely made up. Sounds like ticket sales to India have taken a downturn to me. The only reason I even did a show on this topic at all is because I wanted to show you how ridiculous the news has gotten, how it's all about entertaining people now and how the substance of the media is virtually non-existent now. There was a time when things like this were saved for People Magazine or TMZ, but that time is long gone. The gossip channels and the news channels blend together now. The sensationalism and shit talking in media has become so prevalent that it is hard to tell serious intellectual discussion from vulgar conversation that used to be reserved for dirty movie theaters and bars. That is why I always laugh when people call me out for cursing on my show. At least I'm giving you a fresh perspective on the idiocy that has overtaken our news. At least I tell you it's news entertainment. At least I don't pretend to be this infallible news anchor who's never told a lie. It's all a joke so don't be surprised when people aren't taking the news seriously.

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Biden's Rocky Relationship with the Left Will Blow Up in his Face

Sun, 01 May 2022 00:32:38 GMT

There is a myth in American a politics, a persistent, never-ending, uninformed myth that plagues the Democratic party, and keeps them in the dark on various issues, that is of course assuming they have any desire to see the light, which is a big assumption. The Democratic establishment is set in its ways and will not change for their base so that is a big assumption. I am starting to think that they enjoy telling this myth because that way they do not look so ridiculous when they manage to lose to far-right conservatives and burnout libertarians that I could honestly beat in my sleep. This myth is the myth of a centrist America, a reason based unemotional lump of boredom that decides what policies do and do not happen in America. However, when you look past the myth of the rational middle, and you actually look at the political leanings of the electorate, you see something much different, much less boring and far more diverse than most people imagine. The "middle" in America are composed of three main groups: independents, moderates and undecided voters. As clearly demonstrated in the article by Lee Drutman entitled "The Moderate Middle is a Myth", none of these three groups are "reliably centrist". That is political speak for no one really knows how these people will vote until they vote. If you look at each of these groups you will find an almost fifty-fifty split between egalitarian ideology (this is the idea that all people are equal and therefore deserve the same opportunities) and more market based ideology, which basically means they are motivated by which policies create the most profit. Within this almost fifty-fifty split between egalitarian and market-based ideology, you will find people bordering on the middle on both. You will also find a mixture of people who lean to the left on certain issues like free speech while at the same time leaning to the right on various other issues like immigration. The message you should take from this is that in America the center is not centrist. That sounds odd until you realize that centrism is a political ideology, not an indicator of one's willingness to compromise. Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema, both centrist Democrats, have been the least likely to compromise during Biden's tenure as president. Both progressives and Republicans in Congress have been more willing to compromise with Biden (the progressives have been so willing to compromise with him that it is difficult to even call them progressives anymore) than either Manchin or Sinema. Centrism as an ideology is just being a people pleaser to milk the electorate of the most votes. The whole point of centrism is to prevent progress, not to embrace it. You are a centrist when you do nothing and the centrists in Congress have done nothing. Biden has foolishly aligned himself with these centrists and so has aligned himself with political inaction. This is bad news for any politician. If you want to be elected in America you must actually enact the policies that your voters want. Sure, Democrats on Twitter are feverishly trying to convince you that that is what happened, but it didn't. Leftists put Biden in office. Some of those leftists were independents. Some of them were true liberals. Others were moderates or undecideds. But pretty much all of them were in their teens to mid thirties. You know, the people that Democrats are always busy talking shit about. Younger people are far more likely to fall under the spell of apathy after the person they vote for refuses to keep their promises and Biden has not kept his promises. He ignored voting rights. He failed to create the gun legislation he's been promising since Obama was president. He left women out in the cold on Roe V. Wade, which will be repealed soon by the way. He laughed at people when they asked for the $2,000 dollar monthly checks, the ones that he and his vice president promised. He also never canceled the $10,000 of student loan debt he promised. He's doomed

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The Anti Facts Movement

Sat, 30 Apr 2022 05:24:10 GMT

America is a peaceful nation...as soon as you have drifted off to sleep. But, at its core, America has always been like most nations: bloody, violent and unforgiving. America lives by the law of competition. If one does not compete, they will perish. It is as simple, primal and barbaric as that. You must race off to buy some house or to invest in some entrepreneurial gamble. The more you complete, the more you will be liked. The less you compete, the more likely you will die on the street, and no one will care either, especially if you are poor. The American aristocracy dreams of exterminating the poor once and for all. This is true of the American right and the American center, otherwise referred to as "the left". Both of these warring factions are looking to exterminate the poor in vastly different ways. Centrists favor what I like to call "slow kill" extermination. They throw out some crumbs, mostly in the form of independent contractor jobs (these are jobs with no benefits that are not sustainable for normal things like raising a family), but also in the form of cruelly dangling welfare over people, while at the same time making it extremely difficult for them to qualify for. Centrists are altruistic genocidal maniacs. They prefer to be seen as superior to the right, more enlightened, even a bit cooler for the kids to watch, in their minds anyway. But, deep in the recesses of those centrist minds is a desire to eliminate the poor, to breed out the bad stock. Right-wingers, of course, are "fast kill" exterminators. They make it difficult for you to even apply for welfare. They make the requirements ridiculous. They make it so that you have to pay inordinate sums of money to be healthy and because they profit off of your poor health by aligning themselves with various fast food companies, they benefit from prescription drug companies even more than centrists do. You will find right wingers online talking about the "health benefits" of red meat and even smoking cigarettes. This, of course, is nothing short of attempted murder. I hate to break it to you, but if you eat red meat on a consistent basis (by consistent I mean anymore than once a week) your life expectancy will go down every time. And, look, don't take that personally. None of this is personal or me telling you that I think I am better than you. I am just telling the truth. Smoking, alcoholism, binge eating, diets that are heavy in omega 6 fats with little to no omega three fats...all of these things will kill you slowly and painfully. But the right promotes it. Sometimes even the centrists will promote these things. Why? To kill off the poor people. Aristocracies do not look well upon the peasantry. The misinformation agents of today (the various podcasts, instagram accounts, You Tube channels, etc., etc.) are merely an extension of the soft kill tactic. I know it sounds strange, perhaps even impossible. But, really, what does Joe Rogan owe to you? How about Dr. Joseph Mercola? What about Dr. Oz? How about Dr. Phil? Nothing. They owe you nothing. They don't know you. But they know that they can pull on your heart strings and once you have someone by the heart strings, you have full access to their wallets. Never forget the countless amount of people who have been scammed out of house and home or just life in general by these hucksters. An expensive camera and well placed lighting can make any crazy person with a budget look perfectly normal, as if they agree with everything you think, even if they don't. You may think these people who make up their own facts are harmless, but there exist something deeper beneath the surface. Companies own these fakers look, stock and barrel. Big business is in a war with the government to milk you for all you have. Some of these clowns have government and big business ties. Do you see the conflict of interest? Can you feel the squeeze tightening around your wallet? Your personality? Your perception of reality?

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Why People Follow Tyrants

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 05:40:59 GMT

When analyzing the works of any great political theorist or of any subpar politician, you will quickly note the aversion to tyrants. According to these great and subpar minds, tyrants are responsible for everything wrong with the world today: wars, toxic work environments, abusive relationships, egotistical celebrities, and poor teamwork are just a few of the things off an almost endless list of ills that tyranny is supposedly responsible for. I say this not to be facetious, but to highlight a very real and very flawed trait of current western political theory, that being that the vast majority of people are reasonable and moral, while they tyrannous few rain on their peace parade. This view of the world is just as irresponsible as it is misinformed. We tell our children to go out into the world with open hearts and unguarded minds because of this idiotic theory of natural goodness. Then we turn around and blame those very children when they develop risky behaviors and personality disorders. This is a classic case of blaming the victim. We set people up to fail by convincing them that most people are good, not realizing that once you have been stabbed in the back for the ten thousandth time, crime and recklessness begin to look more and more appealing. Afterall, if your parents, leaders and teachers lied to you about naturally good world, then anyone will lie to you. So, why not just lead a life of crime? Why be good to people who only use morality to reach their own personal, often greedy, goals? These are the questions the political theorists and philosophers of the day have pretty much abandoned. Instead they prefer to sweep difficult issues under the rug and wax philosophical about the good old days when racism was king and women were considered disposable party favors. They will tell you that the world was once not like this, that there was a time when people were reasonable and peaceful. These are all lies. The world has not changed much at all, and people have always fallen victim to nostalgia. I say fall victim because nostalgia always picks and chooses which memories it will fixate over. Obviously nostalgia chooses the best memories and forgets the worst memories, leaving us with a picture perfect view of the past. People under the spell of nostalgia should always be ignored and even ridiculed for this reason. There is no place in politics for such lazy thinking. So, how do tyrants rise to power in a world full of peace-loving, god-fearing people? One could of course blame ideology, but this is another lazy argument. There are good and bad points in every ideology. So, in this instance, people focus on everything bad about Christianity, or Islam, or Communism, or Capitalism, etc., leaving out the many good things that these worldviews offer, and again leaving us with an uninformed conclusion about the world we live in. In Enlightenment philosophy, rationality and the individual are king and queen. But selfishness often causes us to rationalize genocide or police brutality or unaffordable healthcare. In Russian philosophy, the collective and spirituality and are kind and queen. But the collective is praised in such a way that it becomes god, eventually leading to the annihilation of anyone who goes against it. The truth behind all of this idiocy is this: people love tyrants. Of course they will never admit to this, but this is only to keep up appearances. The human mind is lazy and so the human being is always looking for shortcuts to problems. Some people refer to this chronic laziness as "human ingenuity" or "technology", but really it is nothing more than a way of being lazy, of having some device or technician do your thinking for you. Modern humans are the laziest they have ever been. They need to be told to exercise. They need to be told that certain foods are bad for them. They need to have a sky daddy or a political daddy tell them what to do, and so they tyrant comes in, offering the final solution.

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The Self Improvement Hustle

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 05:46:23 GMT

Have I ever told you that you could be wiser, faster, stronger, and an all-around better person? Well, if I did, you would probably think I was a jackass, and you would have every reason to. Implying that someone is somehow incomplete or unperfected is just a form of passive aggressiveness, a way to insinuate that someone is awful without actually saying it out loud. Yet many people make a living doing this on a daily basis. They go by many names (wellness coach, lifestyle councilor, motivational speaker, etc.), but they are all members of the thirteen billion dollar self-improvement industry, and they are coming for your wallet. They are just full to the brim of all kinds of swanky technology (brain hacks, wellness apps, etc.) to turn you into the you you never thought that you could be. But there is only one problem. Self-improvement does not work. It fails every time because it assumes that you are the problem, that you are the one who needs to change. But, seriously, how much can one person change? What is the limit? How many green smoothies can you drink? How much time can you devote to meditation? How much yoga can you squeeze into your schedule? How many pep talks can you listen to? How much longer can you go on trying to be a better person? Does it ever end? If self-improvement gurus had their way, it never would. As long as you seek out their advice, these life coaches will continue to find things wrong with you. They will always have new checklists of things that you need to do to feel better because that is how they make money. As soon as your wellness journey ends, so does their payday. So, much like a drug dealer, the wellness gurus will only ever give you a taste of the good life they enjoy. This keeps you coming back for more: more books, more lectures, more coaching, more fitness programs, more breathing exercises, more yoga poses, more quasi-intellectualism, more pep talks, more, and more, and more of your money down the wellness drain. It always makes me laugh when I see someone complain about how religion has failed them only to turn around and offer me some idiotic guide to being a better person. What is the difference between self-improvement and religion? There are lengthy texts devoted to how you should live your life. They are rituals, some of which are directly pulled from eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, that you must perform to achieve enlightenment. There are strict and often unreasonable diet restrictions one must follow. There are group meetings. There are even places that one must go to hear the self-improvement hustlers spread the good word. It is exactly the same thing, and it costs just as much money too. The faithful flock is fleeced just like always. What makes this all even more scandalous is that this way of thinking offers no solutions to your very real problems, but merely treats the symptoms (anxiety, depression, insomnia, starvation, etc.) of those problems. Few people today seem to realize that treating symptoms will get you absolutely nowhere if you fail to address the problem causing said symptoms. If you are not hungry, for example, you can smoke a little weed, and your hunger will come back. But let's say that cancer is causing your lack of hunger. Did you treat the cancer with your smoke session? No, you just made yourself hungry for a brief time. You put a dollar store bandage on a gaping wound. The same thing can be said of treating things like anxiety or insomnia. Great, your magnesium supplement made you less anxious. But why were you anxious in the first place? It could be a chronic illness like mentioned earlier or it could just be that society is broken. You could be feeling all of that anxiousness because you know damn well that the person you voted for is not going to help you. That insomnia could be there because you don't even know if you're going to be able to feed your family tomorrow. It's time to learn to face life's problems head on again

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If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get Out of Hell's Kitchen

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 06:01:40 GMT

The term Hell's Kitchen was first used in America in the 1800s to refer to a particular area in Manhattan (west of 8th Avenue to the Hudson River and north and south from 34th Street to 59th street to be exact) that, by the 1850s, became mostly populated by Irish immigrants, with a small mixture of Jewish, Italian and German immigrants sprinkled amongst them, who had come to America to escape the Great Potato Famine. As is the case with most origin stories, the true meaning of the term can only be deciphered by digging through a sea of both mythos and fact. The truth is that no one knows the exact reason why the term Hell's Kitchen was used to describe the area, but we can certainly take some educated guesses. A possible explanation was the downright barbaric working conditions that came along with working on the various tanneries, railroads and docks in the area. To give you an idea of what it was like working in or living near a tannery in 1800s America, this excerpt from "Hemlock and Hide: The Tanbark Industry in Old New York" by Hugh O. Canham sums it up pretty well, "Life in a tannery town was tough. The work was hard manual labor. Living next to a tannery meant the constant stench of curing leather and stagnant pools of waste material. Streams became heavily polluted as tanning liquors, lime solutions, flesh, and hair were discharged directly into them..." Some of the workers worked twelve hour days with only Sundays off, some worked only part time, while others only worked seasonally, camping out on the tannery property during pealing season. Accidents and deaths while building the railroads were common place. It was not uncommon to see longshoremen work all day to transport goods in and out of the country. The work was no cake walk so there was plenty of opportunity for crime to start developing in the area, which offered more money for less work. A few of the major organized crime units in the area were The Hell's Kitchen Gang, The Gopher Gang and The Parlor Mob. They offered "protection" to local businesses by forcing those businesses to pay them off...or else. They also ran illegal gambling operations. The famous reference to sleep with the fishes applies here, as many of the people who challenged the gangs ended up in the Hudson River for a permanent vacation. The gangs also fought with each other, attempting to gain hegemony over incoming goods from distant lands (the early days of the American black market, which still thrives to this day), as well as the labor unions. During prohibition, these crimes intensified as the mob bosses warred over who had control of the illegal alcohol market. Mob bosses profited so much that they even tried their hand in the entertainment industry, investing in the Cotton Club. During the Great Depression, the mob took further control by offering jobs to the populous after shaking down various businesses. During WWII, the mobs robbed boats of armaments being sent over to Europe. Crime spread rapidly. Fear gripped America. The established order, what little there was to begin with, was set aflame. You may not realize it, but you are now living in such a time. Jobs are scarce. Tyrants are threatening nuclear war. Crime is rampant. Moralists are calling for bans on all kinds of drugs and normal behaviors like sexual experimentation, which create even more opportunities for the black market to thrive, and thrive it will, as long as you let yourself be lead astray by the descendants of these mad men you call leaders. If you make a deal with the devil, if you sell yourself out to Russian oligarchs and American monopoly men, you have to be able to stand the heat when you get burned, or you have to get out of Hell's Kitchen. You can suffer for awhile and have your integrity when you come out on top or you can climb on top of people and bully your way to the bottom, perhaps of the Hudson River if you're not too careful. Now, let's get cooking. Some like it hot.

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Inclusivity and the Healing of Division

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 05:51:36 GMT

I told you two years ago, as both corporate Democrats and old guard Republicans like George W. Bush Jr. began trumpeting their calls for unity amongst a divided nation, that we would end up here. I told you because I felt an obligation to do so, as I have seen this little game before. See, you're probably really great at something, perhaps management, maybe computer repairs, possibly making soap. Hell, there are all kinds of things it could be. And do you know what? Unlike most other people you meet in your life, who will only ever focus on the talent that makes the most money, I am willing to bet you are great at two, three or maybe even five things. And do you know what else? I would never tell you how to do those things, and, if I really needed to learn how to manage a successful company or fix my old computer or start an organic soap franchise, I would come to you, totally humbled and in search of the knowledge you possess. Unfortunately for you, I am really great at what I do, the whole political analysis thing I mean. And guess what? I totally called it. I know these bozos out in D.C., not personally, but I know their game. The unity calls start coming right before something really catastrophic occurs. This is where good old Hegel comes in. But you don't have to manufacture a crisis. They come along naturally every thirty years or so anyway, but that's a discussion for another episode. Though it sounds fancy, the Hegelian dialectic is quite simple to use to your advantage politically. You're presented with a problem, and two sides with differing opinions. You allow the extreme versions of each solution to have the most press time. This enacts a flight or fight response in the populous. Both are advantageous to the center (the corporate Democrats and old guard Republicans I mention earlier). An extreme right creates violence and chaos while pushing for strict adherence to traditional Christian values, while extreme left demands censorship, diet regulation and a subscription to Noam Chomsky's You Tube channel. Now, you can pick the two sides apart. You call them irrational, unreasonable, psychopathic, narcissistic, anti-social, blah, blah, blah. But you don't distinguish between the extremists and people who just want things like civil rights, lower taxes, or easier access to health care. Do you see how you have killed two birds with one stone? Now, once election time comes around, you can make some pretty cutthroat policies and play kiss ass to all those companies who fill your pockets. Now, Nancy Pelosi doesn't look so bad when she supports a member of her party's reelection, even as he is under investigation by the FBI, and just happens to be pro-life. Oops! I bet you didn't see that one coming, huh? No, not Nancy. She would never do that. Well, she did, and now you have some explaining to do to your daughters when they cannot have access to abortion services. See how "reason" can be used against you, how the center of the road is just as rough, relentless and unforgiving as the right or the left of the road. That's why I always tell you, you have to pick sides in politics. Then at least you will be able to tell your children or your loved ones or yourself that you stood for something. You won't be so cold and lonely on that deathbed of yours. I know you don't want to think about it, but it's coming, sooner rather than later for some of us. Yet we all crave to be included in this farce we call democracy. We all want to kiss and make up with people who clearly abuse us. It's unhealthy, but you know that. You don't need me to tell you. Did you see how easily they rolled over on the whole "Don't Say Gay Bill"? Remember that whole voting rights thing? Nope, all forgotten. All forgiven. Almost as if it never even happened. That's Hegel for you. It works every time. This certainly isn't acceptable, this willingness to put getting along over our own freedom.

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Art Deco Chambers Part 2

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 06:05:34 GMT

If you listen closely enough, you can hear it. It comes as a whimper, a mutter, a stutter, a fluttering tinge of insecurity. It's there, right on the tip of your tongue. You know what I'm talking about. You just don't want to admit it. So, who is he? Go on, tell me. I won't judge. I promise. But I want to know his name. What is it? Is it Donald Trump? Is it Barrack Obama? Is it Joe Biden? Is it Joe Manchin? Is it Mitch McConnell? Perhaps you like to live on the wild side, so you chose Ron DeSantis. Perhaps you like to live on the mild side, so you chose Kirsten Sinema. Perhaps you like to live on the child side, so you chose Rand Paul. It could be anyone really. But he's out there. You know, your daddy. Almost everyone needs a daddy when it comes to politics. Not your biological father, that's different. I'm talking about your dada, the one you cheer for on the television when he promises you he'll take care of you next time for the fifth time in one election cycle. Yeah, good old Pop never lets down. Well, he does, but the mythos of the all-protecting father is too alluring to simply discard. You know, like Tim Allen from Home Improvement or Uncle Phil from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Whatever your pleasure. They come in all shapes, colors and sizes. Daddy knows best. My daddy told me that your political ideology is too stupid to be on the big boy news channels. My daddy knows better than your daddy. He makes more money! Daddy, daddy, daddy. Your superhero. Your knight in shining armor. Your Prince Charming. Your Superman. Your King Tut. Your daddy. Almost all of the great fictional characters in literature are daddies. Daddies rushing to the rescue of the dumb little children. Daddies racing against time to save the world from the crazy uncle. Daddies repairing broken down engines, and broken down toilets, and broken down lives in a vain attempt to save some broken down town. Daddy to the rescue! What's that in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the individual you see as your personal protection from the world around you. They are your rock and they are going to fix it for you, whatever is broken today that is. Most have one. Few will admit it. It is the person who tells them what to think and how to react to those who challenge them. Daddy dearest. My daddy let's me have ice cream for dinner. He says I'm all grown up like his friends on the television, and this year for Christmas my daddy's buying two ponies, and one them will have a chocolate saddle. My daddy loves me oh so very much. He loves me more than other daddies love their children. The point is that everyone has their own, personal bias. This bias is individualistic and nature, and requires a deep analysis of a person's personality before you can even begin to decide the sources of this bias. This is not a communal or a cultural bias. This resides deep within the subconscious mind, causing otherwise rational individuals to either block out information that opposes the source or to utilize said information in such way that bolsters support of the source, hence reinforcing the bias. Yet there are people out there who believe that everyone thinks alike, that they are all swayed in the exact same ways by different sources. These same people believe that social media has torn the nation asunder, dividing us and causing us to be so polarized that there is not opportunity of solid, meaningful discussion. But what exactly are the links between social media usage and radicalization? Where is the proof for this claim? Is there any at all? Well, it turns out that no, there is not a whole lot of scientific proof for this claim. In fact, all real world data indicates not only that echo chambers do not exist, but that social media use exposes people to a rich variety of sources including print, radio, television, and advertising, as well as independent social media channels. Is not this democracy? Is not this freedom of the press? Why demonize it?

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The Regressive Progressives Part 2

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 06:13:05 GMT

You hear the word everywhere wealthy white people gather to guzzle wine and wear odd dresses made of sustainably raised ostrich feathers. You hear it whenever wealthy inhabitants of cities like San Francisco or New York meet up for a night of whites only theater. You hear it every time Leonardo DiCaprio and his rich friends get together to make movies about how poor people are destroying the planet by eating and asking for housing. You hear it when you walk past some useless golf course on your way to the bus. You hear it when a politician representing a major corporation shamelessly pays a struggling single dad about eight bucks an hour to beg you for votes. You hear it whenever the center right social media overlords get their panties in a twist because someone acknowledges the failures of the Obama administration. You guessed it. “Progressive”. That’s so progressive. How progressive. My, my, my would you just look at how progressive he is? Helping the poor is progressive. Helping the chronically ill is progressive. Helping the mentally ill is progressive. See how I just put a dollar tree bandage on that dirty poor person’s gaping wound? See how I just called an ambulance for that person with epilepsy, saddling them with even more medical debt that I will later refuse to forgive? See how I just gave the wealthy even more tax breaks? See how I just created a bunch of jobs that are even shittier than the ones you had two years ago? See how I’m fixing infrastructure that I helped to destroy? See how I helped all the pretty white people with problems? Isn’t that progressive? Aren’t I progressive? How progressive my progress has progressed! What a progression! Yes, wealthy people love to boast about how “progressive” they are, about how much they helped the little guy, about how much they totally owned the conservatives. But, unfortunately, it’s all a mirage, a lie, a game. There has been no forward movement in terms of social justice in this country since the 1960s, and I do not expect there to be any real progression on civil rights until I am cold in my grave. See, in order to actually help people, you have to be a selfless person. You have to go into politics knowing that in order to truly help people, you’re going to have to tell a few of your rich friends to take a hike. But the rich people in this nation would never do such a thing. They all go to the same Ivy League colleges for fuck’s sake. What did you expect? Did you think that Joe Biden was really going to help you in any way that would actually get you out of poverty? Ha! Sorry, but I have to laugh. I have to laugh at ignorance these days. I have to laugh at gullibility. If I don’t laugh, then I will be depressed again. I have struggled with the depression that comes along with being rejected and disappointed for most of my life. I am too exhausted to put up with that any longer. So, I made a decision to just laugh the rejection and disappointment away from now on. That way the pain is dulled and I can keep having a reason to get in the morning. I hope you know that you can only upset people so much before they lash out at you. I hope you realize that people see you hoarding money and resources. I hope you are aware of the fact that inequality is not going anywhere, and that it is getting worse, not better. I hope you realize these things because I really don’t want to see you harmed. I want you to live a long life, even if I dislike your pompous lifestyle. But these regressive politics, this unwillingness to do anything for anyone who actually needs help, will be your undoing. I can’t stop that. I cannot prevent the criminality you are creating, the desperation you have unleashed unto this once great nation. There’s nothing I can do about it now. So, as you stare down the barrel of your own gun, painting yourself as some caring individual, I hope you remember that everyone can see right through your disguise before it is too late for even money to save you.

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Divisive Divisiveness and the Dividers who Divide it with Division

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 06:35:50 GMT

Division. Long division. Short division. Divisive division. Remissive division. Different sides. Different schemes. Differing opinions. Opposing opinions. Decomposing opinions. Difficult decisions. Ideological inhibitions. Contrasting tastes within culture clashing kitchens. Culture clashes in countries of origin. Tribal warfare in an urban setting. Dangerous ideas in unsettling settings. Suburban youth without good old fashioned parenting subletting their wedding for a set of newly pressed bedding. Tough days ahead. Tougher days behind. No future to speak of, so plenty of time to unwind and get wound by approaching deadlines. But everything’s fine. Everything’s grand. Oh barnacles, crime’s on the rise again. Top story today: a man took knife and held it on display for thirty six hundred of rent on delay. He robbed an old maid. She’s about sixty-five. Gave up on retirement for a cool nine to five and now she’s in the ER barely alive. Next story up is a rhyme about Phil, who overdosed just last weekend on pills. He graduated from college in 2003, lost twenty-two jobs, but couldn’t do twenty-three. At least he is nothing like Johnny the snake; he murdered his wife and left her in a lake. Division. Divisive. Just the facts please. If you don’t have anything boring to say, don’t say it all. We like our news boring round these here parts. If it ain’t boring, it ain’t news. Keep it straight. Clench those butt cheeks in your chair and read the teleprompter news. Put on a quarter pound of budget foundation and clog every pore in your face until the sweat runs away from your face news. Give the drunken failed actress turned weather lady a ten A.M. martini and let her go off script news. Smile so wide your lips crack into a thousand pieces news. Become so randomly angry about meaningless bullshit that even an ape with indigestion would tell you to relax news. Invite your weird loser uncle to come to work and do the sports report because his wife just left him news. Remember this is serious stuff. Lives are at stakes, and each and every one of those lives is a potential viewer. More views equals more likes. More likes equals better quality SEO. Better quality SEO equals more profit. Profit on top of profit, constantly compounding. What are people currently searching on Google? Division. Divisiveness. Civil War. The coming Civil Ware. The coming third World War. Armageddon. The end of days. America is worse than it has ever been and it’s because of division. America has never been divided before, not in this way, not according to the trust fund babies who own the news. Division. You can blame anything on division: crime, poverty, recessions, depressions, the whole nine yards, the whole kit and kaboodle. And then, there you sit, rocking back and forth, with no one to blame but some generic concept dreamed up by a trust fund baby. That's not allowed, too divisive. The end is near. The time is now. Time is up. Time is ticking. Tick tock. Tick tock. Have you seen Tiktok's stock? Have you gleaned the stock market drop? What is your dictation on inflation? Doesn't matter. Too divisive. Talk about something else. Scratch that. Talk about something wealth. Breaking news: a phony billionairess was deported for premiering on a show on Netflix. This just in: celebrities are eating food that they think you should eat if you are missing sleep every other week and have developed stiff peaks on your beak. One last thing: overpriced junk is leaving lumps on tiny runts for many months. Do you think that's just? Doesn't matter much. Too divisive. Think of something better, something blander, something older, something madder. No division. No decisions. No negative emissions emanating from our mission. Keep it happy. Keep it cool. Keep it snappy. Keep it true. Tell the truth, but not too much. Speak the speech and please be blunt. But not too much, nothing too much, never too much. Because that's divisive and dividers divide our division too much.

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I Can See Your Halo Effect 2

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 06:40:04 GMT

Though I could surely quote Shakespeare or Mozart or Voltaire to communicate the severity of the halo effect, I would much rather quote one of the great celebrity minds of our time, Kesha, who once uttered in a drunken stupor, "My placenta. My mom found in my basement, crushed up, and made into a necklace that I wear every day to improve my psychic abilities.” Apart from dropping illuminating knowledge bombs like the aforementioned quote, Kesha is also a "hardcore environmentalist", which, I imagine, combines extreme sports with popular conservation techniques like recycling or eating organic. Bro, I'm totally composting my wife's sustainably raised hemp tampons dude. Extreme environmentalism! Hardcore bro. She is also an ordained minister, which is cool if you're into that sort of thing I guess. If I need reliable advice I usually consult a doctor, scientist or a university professor, but what do I know? I'm just normal and normal is totally outdated, at least in the world of celebrity anyway. Besides, Kesha knows best, as clearly evidenced by this other clearly reasonable observation of hers: "I exude energy, dead entities cling to me. I had a spirit follow me into my house... Things were flying off the shelf. So my healer, she had to literally give me an exorcism. I know that sounds crazy, but it worked." Right. Yeah, everything seems just fine there. It has to be right. I mean, she has more money than I do so obviously demons follow her around and throw her stuff off of her shelves. It only makes sense. There's no way a rich person could possibly have access to drugs and alcohol that could very easily make them hallucinate any number of crazy things. That just doesn't happen to the chosen ones. They're immune to all that. Good genes and all that rot. This is evidenced by the musings of another great mind of our time, Sarah Jessica Parker (a true role model for women who make odd observations about having to go the bathroom everywhere), who said, "I love the smell of diapers. I even like when they’re wet and you smell them all warm like a baked good." Not surprisingly Parker owns her own line of beauty products and clothing, some of which cost about $500 dollars for you to call your own. Sex and the City was great, but you're going to absolutely love Sex and Shitty Deals, premiering this Spring! How about this brilliant little number from Ariana Grande, "I used to have a folder called “Demons” that had pictures with all the screencaps in it, but then weird things started happening to me so I deleted it." Screencaps? Demons? Ah! Get me the hell out of here!!! Grande's partnership with Luxe, a popular cosmetics brand, is now generating more than 150 million dollars in retail sales. Oh and by the way, Lady Gaga apparently has jagged bones with sharp points, or at least she believes she does. “They’re not prosthetics. They’re my bones. They come out when I’m inspired. They’ve always been inside of me, but I have been waiting for the right time to reveal to the universe who I truly am.” Right. That has to be right. It has to be right because she's raking in the dough as well, and rich people are always right. They are always correct, especially when they are popular. Gaga currently owns Haus Laboratories, a vegan cosmetics brand (yes, that's a thing; don't try to understand it or head might explode) that launched in 2019. Cosmetics is big business, boasting a $500 billion market. I suppose you could believe that these outlandish quotes that any psychotic would appreciate are somehow just quirky little personality traits. I suppose you could also go full fundamentalist Christian and believe that Lady Gaga is a demon. But what I am proposing is much more sinister and manipulative than any of that. I am proposing that celebrities know exactly what they are doing when they make these ridiculous statements, they are advertising, taking advantage of google by appealing to an audience they know is insecure and gullible.

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Positive Vibes, They're Magically Oblivious

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 14:37:28 GMT

Be positive. Cheer up. Stiff upper lip. Straighten up. Calm down. Hold still! Relax!!! Right now. This instant. Don't worry. Be happy. Be active. Activate your happy feet. Actualize your every dream. See what no one else can see. Be whatever you want to be. Open up. Let go. Breathe. Rest. Be at one with the universe. Ease into your daily grind. Float above the negative energy on a cloud of roses. Drift into a kinder state of mind. Let go. Give in. Release. You are...in the moment. You have entered your happy place. You are the boss here. Be that boss. Make life your bitch. If life won't jive with your sunshine then teach life that you are in control. Take command. Man your post soldier! You're a warrior, a conqueror, a deal maker. You can do it. You know you can do it. So, get in there and give it another go. Fight another round. Try again! Go on! Quit wasting time and try! Try! Try!!! That's it. There you go. You got it. Good. Yes! Yes! Yes!!! No! No! What are you doing?! You had it! You had it that time! No excuses! You're not trying hard enough. That's all. Who care if you're exhausted? We've got some positivity to maintain here soldier! Oh, what was that? Oh, looks like we have a real funny guy here, huh? You think this is a game?! You better put that smile back on your face! Right now! Good. Great. Fantastic. Wonderful. Well done. Don't cry. Crying is for a losers, and you're a winner! Do you hear me? Crying is for the weak. Are you weak or are you centered? You better get your chi in order before I go medieval on your ass! Now breathe. Always remember to breathe. Seriously, stop crying. In and out. Out and in. In and out. Out and in. And we're breathing. We are breathing because breathing keeps us calm and being calm makes you more positive. Did you know that studies have shown that people who maintain a positive attitude are 567 times more likely to live to be 180. Seriously, I read about it somewhere. Don't ask questions. Just breathe. Questions are so negative. Children ask questions and they are such downers. Breathe. Breathe...Keep that head up. Don't be dull. You're so much better than that. I see so much in you. There's such potential there. Don't let it go to waste. Don't be boring. You have to love life, even the bad stuff. You've got to love it. You've go to be there. You've go to be present. You've got to flow. You've got to just...be, man. Don't let life make you upset. That's not the path to take, not the path that god wants you on. You can never get too upset. You've got to overcome that. You've got to be more than who you are. Don't hate. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Keep that chin up. Keep it moving. Keep working. Keep producing. You're almost there. Breathe! Slowly. That's too fast. You're not doing it right. That's why you don't feel well. You refuse to listen to instruction. You can't do that. That's self-destructive. You don't have time for all of that. You have better things to do. Think of all the responsibilities you have to live up to. You have to do something. You can't just sit there. Get up, get out and get moving before it's too late. You have to keep moving. Can't stop. Won't stop. Don't stop. Move, move, move!!! Breathe. Relax. You're so tense. You're holding tension in your jaw. Release the jaw. Let it slowly fall to the tips of your teats. Breathe. No, not that way! You're doing it wrong again. Relax. Breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. In and...out. You've got this. You're doing well. You've come a long way in short period of time. I admire that about you. Keep it up and you just might get there. You just might make it. You're a go getter, a do-gooder, a pal, a friend of mine. Easy does it champ. Years from now, you'll be telling people what to do. And won't that be special? Won't that be neat? Won't that be swell? Sure, sure. Where's that smile? There it is! You have a great smile kid. People want to see that smile. Now smile wider...Wider... Wider... Wider. Breathe.

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You've Got to Play the Game

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 14:46:18 GMT

Whenever impending doom is right around the corner, the calls for peace get louder and louder. This should be expected because those who cry for peace are actually telling you that they are not strong enough for conflict. Getting bossed around by cartoonish dictators, allowing them to set the terms of world affairs is not an act of preventing war, it is an act of cowardice. Cowardice does not stabilize anything. It does the opposite, communicating to your allies that you are not strong enough to lead. When you are strong you fight back, not with guns, but with political savvy. Who knows if the leaders of the day will live up to the task? It is hard to say because the leaders of today are people pleasers, and people pleasers are absolutely worthless. America is still refusing to get serious about fighting Putin’s propaganda machine. For years they have allowed this dictator in disguise to get away with lying at every turn. And why? Are we now affording constitutional rights to foreign dictators? Do we really want to protect the right to destabilize democracy? These are the difficult questions that adequate leaders ask themselves. The nation that wins the battle has the best defense. Defense wins wars, not offense. Offense is clumsy at best, and unpredictable at its worst. There is no need for a strong nation to commit war crimes, but there is a need for that nation to respond in kind. It is also worth wondering why the United States of America went out of its way to help make the war criminals in Russia fat and rich. These sanctions would be completely unnecessary had America kept its money out of Russia. You cannot give dictators billions of dollars and then expect them to play nice. This was a critical error of the American government, and whatever happens in Ukraine will be the fault of American government. When are we going to realize that you can’t have your cake and eat it too? If you make business dealings and conditional agreements with mad men then you too will feel their wrath eventually. We must have leaders who are perceptive enough to realize this. These clowns in suits who lead America today are push overs. Flash some fast cash in their faces and they will forget all about the war crimes any dictator has committed. The American government and the American business class should not be allowed to make backroom deals with nations who are hostile to America and its allies, but these backroom deals persist in nations like Russia, China and Iran, and will persist into the future. As I watched Putin’s military shell a holocaust memorial in Ukraine, I was reminded of Hitler’s war machine, how it had been funded almost completely by greedy leaders in the United States and the UK. Like it or not, America has blood on its hands here. It becomes difficult to say that you stand with Ukraine and if you are not even willing to recognize that the carnage in Ukraine was funded by these greedy American businessmen and leaders. NATO has also proven useless in this conflict. They say they are preventing WWIII by essentially giving one of Europe’s largest nuclear facilities to Russia. I guess people with peace on their minds are willing to put the lives of billions at risk for it. Are you willing to pay that price for "peace"? Is it really peace at all? I suppose some people believe that if just one person is beating the other to death that peace has arisen between the two parties. I hear the word peaceful thrown around a lot while people die. "He looks so peaceful" onlookers say as they stand over corpses. "Finally, she's a peace" a person says after their relative has died of cancer. Peace is a dangerous concept. It makes people complicit, lazy and downright stupid. Bullies are always offering deals. They say that, if you give them your lunch money, then they will leave alone. But that never actually happens. They come back and bully you for even more money. But what happens when the lunch money is all gone? Your move.

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The Regressive Progressives Part 1

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 14:41:15 GMT

Once upon a time, in an America far, far away...liberal politicians had balls, big balls, the kind of balls that would make a porn star feel self conscious. They stood up for things, these ancient liberal politicians. They went up against big business. They broke the cycle of ho-hum American policy, and gave America a New Deal. Even though most of these social welfare funds ended up in the hands of whites, this massive economic stimulus drove a wave of job creation never before seen in America, and all people benefited from this massive economic stimulus. The people rejoiced, started families and went to work to create what we now refer to as the American middle class, something that had never existed before this New Deal, a class of Americans with spending money in their pockets that did not live in some swanky apartment in New York. This was new. This was innovative. This was, dare I say, ambitious. What a time it must have been to be an American. To not have to be perfect to eat was truly a radical idea at the time, but that changed. Now, many Americans are wondering if they will ever be able to reach that goal. It is quite unfortunate to see the mighty fall so low, to see the bold become so weak and docile. Today I look at the Democratic party and I wonder how they would respond to figures like Franklin D. Roosevelt or Robert Kennedy. Would they denounce them as being to radical or just brush them off their shoulders like they do with independents. It's hard to say, but I certainly do not think they would be pleased. Today's party is timid and mousy. They pay lip service to anyone who will listen to them. They make promises and then just give up on those promises as soon as the president loses a couple of points in his approval rating, and on and on it goes. These people in D.C., they like to think of themselves as "progressives". But the only thing progressive about them are their bowel movements. They have nothing to offer but empathy and a song from Hamilton. The truth is that the rampant deregulation still going on in the federal government is eroding the old New Deal, and that is pretty much the point nowadays. You forget that your politicians are owned by monopolies. Yeah, I said it, monopolies. I know mommy and daddy taught you that that is a dirty word, but it is the truth. These chuckle heads could not even help you if they really wanted to. The corporations are paying your weak ass politicians to defund the federal government, but you won't hear about that on the news because the news is sponsored by the same monopolies. They got you by the balls, as George Carlin would say. So, I don't waste time listening to other people's interpretation of whatever bill or policies that are passed because I know how fake this all is. Call me a pessimist if you like, but there is nothing pessimistic about being aware of your surroundings. Hell, some people are willing to pay some pretty goddamn good money for that. When did you fall out of touch with reality? When did you stop fighting for a piece of the American pie? Who's to say that you have to settle for this clownish style of politics? Why not stir the pot, upset the established order with some good old fashioned truth? What else do you have left? This is bigger than Democrats versus Republicans. This is about ushering in a new age of honesty in American politics. I don't pull punches on anyone. You have to deliver. No one lives forever, and so waiting is not an option. People talk a lot about patience in politics, just wait a little longer and all this nonsense. Do you know who's patient? Failures. Failures are very patient. They don't take risks. They lose in the end. You see them hovering around places like casino bars and creepy motels: out of luck, out of hope, out of tricks, out of chips, and out of their element. The Democrats consistently raise record amounts of money while failing when they actually get elected.

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How Religiosity and Optimism Create Poverty

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 14:48:50 GMT

No one will ever be able to take your spirituality from you, not even you, unless you go through some sort of trauma to make you question your beliefs. I have no interest in traumatizing people. I don't care what anyone believes. But the facts are the facts, and both religiosity and optimism boil down to nothing more than fantasy. You have to be committed to a fantasy in order for it to play out right, one might even say devoted. You have to buy into it. You must suspend your disbelief. Whether or not you are ever able to get that disbelief back depends on many factors: your income level, your education, your resourcefulness, your hunger for life, etc. The willingness to disbelieve, to not accept the simple answers to life's difficult questions, creates a desire to live life to its fullest in ways that religion simply cannot offer, that optimism only makes hollow promises about. Disbelief leaves room for creation and innovation. Within a spiritual context, everything is mapped out for you in advance. There is a reason for everything in religion, even horrible things like rape, torture and poverty. In the harsher versions of religion, people are born to suffer. Suffering is the retribution of almighty, powerful god and his wrath is just, regardless of human laws or customs. In newer versions of religion that wish to sidestep this obvious problem with spirituality, we choose to punish ourselves by denying to recognize the power of the almighty, kind of like how an abusive husband abandons his child so he can sew his royal oats in the garden of a strip club. In either version it becomes simple to just say well, god willed it so, and therefore, there is nothing we can do about it. Optimism compounds this effect, causing those who are irreligious to simply dismiss those in poverty because they believe that anyone who works hard enough can "make it", even though the number of well paying jobs has decreased incrementally since the 1990s, and even though barriers to careers like pandemics and chronic illness are beyond anyone's control. Optimism causes empathy to become unnecessary because anyone who is not optimistic is now making themselves poor. The circumstances are never bad under an optimistic worldview. You always just have to look on the bright side of every awful thing. This makes rich people feel better about themselves while forcing poor people into simply accepting their "fate" or "god's will". Allowing someone to starve to death becomes much easier for people when they are wrapped in this safety blanket of "destiny". Of course there are religious reform movements that seek to take more active roles in defeating poverty, but they have been slow to really take up the task of actually housing people or at least getting them jobs that will pay for long term housing. Religiosity in other wealthy nations around the world is relatively low, averaging at about a quarter of the nation, while in America over half of the country states that religion is very important to them. This is a dire problem because it will simply allow apathy about poverty to perpetuate itself. It will also lead to the depletion of American wealth, which will further embolden nations like Russia to make irrational aggressions that upset the world order, and create avoidable destruction.

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Mental Health on Demand

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 15:26:40 GMT

The internet is often said to be a dangerous place for your mental health, but people often leave out why that is. It is not the porn or the violent imagery that could drive you absolutely bat shit crazy, but the constant stream of fake diagnoses from self proclaimed experts that can drive you mad. Everywhere you go online someone is trying to sell you something. The on demand mental health cartel currently ranking at the top of the search engines are doing you far more harm than good. By selling you products that don't work they initiate the placebo effect inside of you, making you believe that you are feeling better, while you are really getting worse. This mental health cartel is composed, for the most part, of complete amateurs who are looking to make a quick buck off of your misfortune. Social media platforms like Tiktok, Youtube, Twitter, and knowingly promote incorrect factoids about mental health all the live long day. One of the ways they do this is by stating that if you have certain symptoms then you also are suffering from a chronic mental illness that your family, friends and doctors have never noticed. They imply that, if you have certain character traits, then you are crazy, and that you need to do something about it urgently. But who benefits from such random and seemingly superfluous diagnoses. There are two main benefactors. Of course Big Pharma is playing a role, and in a bigger way than many realize. But there is also what I like to call Big Quackery: chumps like Joseph Mercola or Ray Peat who offer "alternative healing" methods. Though there is indeed a ban on the promotion of prescription drugs, there is no ban whatsoever on promoting over the counter drugs or herbal supplements some yahoo just yanked out of their backyard and melted into a pill or vile. On social media, Big Pharma has found a way around that ban. How? Legalese. Most of you do not read the terms and service agreement of your favorite social media platforms, and corporate goons are well aware of this. Check out this little doozy that I found in the fine print: "...Pharma companies are, however, allowed to share information impartially on social media, so long as they comply with the code." Now, riddle me this Batman. How on earth are companies worth billions of dollars supposed to promote anything impartially? They can't! That is an impossibility. These big companies are always trying to make money. A sales representative who works for a major medical corporation cannot even take a dump without trying to sell depends to the person in the next stall. But don't take my word for it; hear the awful truth from the internet marketers themselves: “We recently worked with a large pharmaceutical company on a social listening program,” says Page. “In developing a new drug and therefore a new therapeutic pathway, the company realised that by understanding patients’ experience of a condition, they could then use that information to close the gap between their own medical affairs team, marketing, the healthcare professionals they were targeting and the patients as the end user. The upshot, he says, is that the drug company will be able to go beyond their own science, and offer the patient meaningful real-world clinical benefits." Hey kids, I have a question for you, what is beyond science when it comes to your mental health? Come on, I know you know it. It starts with a B and ends with a T. That's right, bullshit! Great job little ones. I knew you could do it. But don't just blame big Pharma, the alternative healers are even more prevalent and efficient at using this technique. "In 2014, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson took a hard hit to the head during a conference championship game against the Green Bay Packers. The following day, however, Wilson had no serious head injury." (Quartz) He attributed the success of his rapid recovery to a supplemental water concoction. Buyer beware.

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Open Mind or Open Behind?

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 22:04:43 GMT

Hey, I have a proposition for you. What if? That's it. That's all. It can't get any simpler than that. What if? What if things had happened differently? What if you had been smarter, wiser, prettier, healthier, sweeter, nicer, kinder, higher, more...successful? What if? What if you had the goods? The stuff? The know how? You know what I mean? What if you had been just a little better, just a litter taller, just a little bit more than what was expected? What if you had been there? What if you had done that differently? Would things be any better? Would they really? Now, take it one step further. What if I could give it to you? What if I could give you everything you always wanted? Well, I can. That's right. You can get everything. All you have to do is keep an open mind. You see everything is everywhere. You're just not seeing it there. But it's there, everything you want, and I can show it to you. I can give you eyes to see. You see, it could be anything: money, power, fame, luck, respect, empathy. You could have it all because it's all right there staring you in the face. It's yours now. Keep it. No cost to you. Consider it a gift. You see, if you have an open mind then you're already rich. You're already powerful. You're already the most attractive person you know. Just keep an open mind, and you'll see it. Others may not, but that is because those people are close minded. But don't worry. They can't stop you from being who want to be anymore. And besides, they're just haters anyway. It doesn't matter what that say. All that matters is what you need. Is it starting to make sense yet? You see, life is perception and you have the power to change your perception any time you like. You don't need pills or costly therapies for that. Only you choose how you see yourself. The problem is that you are obsessed with the ways others see you. You need them to tell you you are the best. You crave adoration, not accomplishment, and that gets in your way. That's why you always have to make it clear to yourself that you are all that really matters. You take care of yourself first then worry about others later. That is the way to happiness. Or maybe it's not. Maybe that is just your selfishness manifesting itself. Maybe all of this self care stuff is a bit vain. Perhaps we're so obsessed with our own well being that we fail to see those suffering around us. But, oh wait, you don't care much for suffering. Let's change the subject. Let's talk more about how wonderful and unique you are. I know you love that right? Being told how smart you already are, how kind you already are, how perfect you already are. Scratch that. No one's perfect, but you come pretty close. That sounds a bit more genuine. Right? Right? Right? You tell me. You tell me what you like to hear. You control everything after all. Go on, end this little story with a guest appearance by Shrek or Kayne West or whatever the hell you like this moment. Wait, wait, wait. I have it. I finally have what you need. I promise this time. Here it is. A toilet. Why? Because you need to take everything I just said, chuck in the porcilean merry go round and give a nice sturdy flush. Your perception is meaningless. It does not alter reality in any way. You just don't see it well enough. That does not mean it is not constant. That does not mean that reality is malleable. Certain things just are. They can't be changed. The sun causes cancer. San Francisco is sinking. Gender reveal parties are a more boring version of ancient fertility rituals. We can't change some things. That makes a lot of people uncomfortable. It makes them uncomfortable because they are biologically programed to survive. Some say this is a bad thing, but it is not. You should never keep an open mind because it makes you lazy. It makes you complicit. It teaches you that gangsters are respectable individuals. Your open mind leads to consequences. It leads to war. Now kindly flush the toilet. It stinks in here.

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Baby, Buy, Buy, Buy!

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 04:43:14 GMT

Buy! Buy today! If you can't buy now, buy later. Download the app so that you can buy when you're working, when you're relaxing, when you're exercising, when you're being lazy, when you're anxious, when you're calm, when you're mellow, when you're out of sight, when you're up, when you're down, when you're feeling blue, and when you're feeling screwed there's only one thing you need to do. Buy baby! Just buy, buy, buy. Shop till you drop. Shop till you can't stop. Take out that credit card. If you don't have one, you surely can get one. Step right up and have a seat. Sit on down and rest your feet. The customer is always sweet, always right, always nice, and certainly the last you'll ever beat. Have I ever told you how good you would look in that dress? Those jewels? This three story suite. Come on over and take a peek. You know you want it. You know you need it. You got to have it. You know we mean. So come on by. Take a gander and let if fly. Let it go. Treat yourself. Have a bite. Don't be shy. Give it a try. It's better than good at prices you just can't beat. What are waiting for? Try today. Subscribe. Enjoy. Delight yourself. Surprise yourself. Take a chance on me. You can do it. I know you can. Trust yourself. Have you lost weight? You look great. Are you in movies? I love the way you speak. Need a car? Need a home? Don't have credit? How about a loan? I'll need that back in forty weeks. Wait, don't go. Don't be rude. Don't be crass. Don't be a downer. Live a little. Grab life by the ass! You heard me chief. You're a star. You're the best. You're different from the rest. So have some faith and take a leap. Don't take a leak or you'll be up shit's creek! Ha, ha, ha! Seriously, what do you need? I got it all. Everything you'll ever need. Feeling low? Feeling slow? Feeling eighteen stories down below? Don't you worry. Don't you weep. I have just the pills you need, fact and science free. Take some ginseng. Take some ginger. Take some Visine in your sphincter. Don't like rules and regulations? How about some fascinating allegations? How about some relieving procrastinations? How about some right wing accusations? How about you lose your sense of self? How about you act like everybody else? Or you could be unique! Whatever you want. What you like. Whatever thought's in your little mind. Hear me out. Hear me speak. Hear my pitch and please don't bitch because it's my right to watch you sink. And it's your choice. And it's your voice. You are the one. You are a king. You are a queen. So it's your fault when you default. It's your decision to go into remission. It's your progression when you're in recession. It's your problem and we'll solve them for fifteen dollars a week. Only fifteen dollars a week! What a deal. What a steal. So much money, so little time. So many wallets that will all be mine. So many families, so many lives destroyed, distraught and downsized. But it's better than it seems. It's a wonderful world. It's a beautiful day. What a beautiful girl. But what did she say? I'm paying attention. I'm hearing you out. You sound better than you think. You should be a singer. You should be an actor. You should pursue your dreams. But there's a long list of things you'll need. I'm here to help. I'm here to create wealth. I will make you the me you want to be. I will help you be the person you hate the most. Let's have a toast! This is the first day of the rest of your life. Let's start it off with a bang, with boom, with a pow, with a zoom. You're the champ. You're the greatest. You own it all and you have the latest. Good for you. You did it bud. You made it to the big time, the big show, the grand hotel. Well done. Bravo. Come on in anytime and we'll treat you the way you deserve to be treated. That's right, you deserve everything you've ever needed. So come and get it. Don't be defeated. Spend, spend, spend. Buy, buy, buy baby! Buy, buy, buy! Oh and if you ever end up jail we'll be here to front your bail.

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The Benefits of Pornography

Sun, 17 Apr 2022 05:20:53 GMT

America, along with most other "civilized" nations of the world, has a long, rich and bountiful history of turning people off sexually. Indeed, our earliest ancestors, when not stealing land from brown people, busied themselves discouraging boners and encouraging chronic vaginal dryness. Though there has been a large attempt to revise the very real American history of sexual hesitancy, the documents of the puritans speak for themselves. Jason Dikes, Adjunct Associate Professor of History at Austin Community College, maps this out beautifully in Massachusetts Sex Ways, "Their (the puritans) criminal codes made adultery a capital crime, and at least three people were actually hanged for it in the Puritan colonies." Remember that the next time some Christian apologist tries to lecture you on how much more civilized and polite than puritans were than modern folk. "When cases of adultery occurred, it was not uncommon for entire communities to band together and punish the transgressors. In the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, for example, a married woman named Sarah Roe had an affair with a neighbor named Joseph Leigh while her mariner-husband was away at sea...no fewer than thirty-five Ipswich neighbors went to court against them and gave testimony that communicated a deep sense of moral outrage...the erring couple were found guilty of “unlawful familiarity” and severely punished. Joseph Leigh was ordered to be heavily whipped and fined five pounds, and Sarah Roe was sent to the House of Correction for a month, with orders that she was to appear in Ipswich meetinghouse on lecture day bearing a sign, “For My baudish Carriage,” written in “fair capital letters.” In this case as in so many others, the moral code of Puritan Massachusetts was not imposed by a small elite upon an unwilling people; it rose from customs and beliefs that were broadly shared throughout the Puritan colonies." Yet again, we see this idea of a few bad apple spoiling the whole bunch being incorrect and misleading. Religion's hatred of sexual experimentation seems a whole lot less threatening when it is just a few spoil sports, but that is rarely ever the case. What happens far more often is that the vast majority of society goes on a rabid hunt for sexual purity every time it feels the need to do so. Such is the case with today's witch hunters, whether it be the ones in Texas who are currently investigating the parents of transgender children, or the ones in California currently jailing women for being on drugs while pregnant. This is all an expression of America's deep discomfort with all that is sexual. Even today, the common stereotype of those who view pornographic images or who express themselves sexually is that they are somehow less moral than those who do not. Of course no one takes the time to explore these topics further, but simply adopts the popular puritanical opinion on the matter. The problem is that mounting evidence is disproving that are any real ills associated with pornography in particular. Conservatives have claimed that pornography decreases a man interest in family life, for example, but several studies have shown that to be a lie. Pornography has been demonstrated to actually make men more intimate with their partners and seems to make family life more desirable for men as well. Sex crimes also decrease when porn is made readily available. This has been attributed to a kind of cooling effect that porn has on human desire, causing one to experience the pleasure of a specific taboo act without actually having to engage in it. Rape and pedophilia have seen dramatic drops in frequency since the 1970s, for example. As you know, the sexual revolution occurred in the sixties. The takeaway here is not that porn cures everything, but that it seems to make sexual desire less of a problem, and more of a personality trait. But your noisy pastors will never accept this because it is contrary to their religious upbringing.

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Art Deco Chambers Part 1

Sat, 16 Apr 2022 05:44:59 GMT

Today we are taught that propaganda is evil, something that we should avoid at all costs. Perhaps this is true for some. Perhaps some people are not inclined to think for themselves, and so must be shielded, much like children, from certain ideologies. But for those of us who are skilled in critical analysis, we do a huge disservice to society by ignoring propaganda because, if we do not analyze and critique it, then no one will. Or, even worse, amateurs will analyze propaganda for us, inevitably misinterpreting the intent of propagandists, and creating even more misinformation in the process. In recent years, there has been a huge surge in amateurish attempts to decode propaganda much like the era of the Cold War, when grumpy old men went searching for communism at rock concerts. Such people have no idea to detect propaganda, and so they lash out blindly at things they despise. But today it is mainly Christian propagandists who focus on the ills of rock music. But there is another set of amateurs that are just as fond of creating wild, overly simplistic explanations for why wars are waged on the mind. This set of amateur propaganda sleuths consider themselves to be members of the scientific community, even though most of the time they are not. They also consider themselves to be much smarter than the Christian witch hunters they evolved from, but they are not any closer to discovering the truth than Alex Jones. This second "more reasonable" group are the people who write internet articles online in a vain attempt to explain why problems occur. These are the same people who brought you overly simplistic arguments like "cancel culture bad" and "all police are heroes". They are the same people who call for peace after guns have been fired in your direction unprovoked. They are the same people who argued that prosecuting a sitting president who clearly incited a riot live on national television should be prosecuted by state authorities without the assistance of the federal government. They are wishy-washy, and they are full of ignorance; yet they have massive followings and so control the national narratives on complex issues. These people, these elitists swine with excess curiosity and no place to put it, are the people who brought you the famous "echo chambers" argument. The argument essentially states that the reason people are so misinformed politically is because they only ever get information from people who share their political opinions, mostly on social media. This argument is incorrect for many reasons. For example, it assumes that social media users are misinformed, that they are not acting in their own interest politically, and that they are ignoring mainstream media sources altogether. Now, if I were to make the exact same argument about a particular religious institution, that the churches that people go to are indoctrinating them and turning them into lazy idiots, you would call me a bigot. If I made the exact same argument about a particular race of people, claiming that race was uninformed because they chose to hang out with people of their own race, you would call me a racist. So, why is it that elitist academics are able to claim, with no evidence, that social media makes people dumber? Oh, and do you know where these academics are making this claim? On social media of course. Where else can you blurt out idiotic nonsense and have people throw money at you for it? So, I am supposed to believe that social media only changes the minds of those who are not academics because academics immune to fallacious arguments and bias? Well, I don't believe that, and in this episode I prove very clearly that echo chambers do not exist, and that people are not as easily influenced as we have been led to believe. There is no proof that all or even most members of social groups share similar thoughts. So why do people want us to believe this? Why are those who scream for unity causing such unneeded division?

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Go Big or Go Home

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 05:59:27 GMT

In 2007, things looked pretty bleak for America, bleaker than anyone could remember. President George W. Bush Jr. just presided over eight years of crusader like conquest of the middle east. He also oversaw what was at the time the worst economic crash since the great depression. Congress was pretty much a joke as well. The law making body seemed complete in line with the president, despite some pretty inspiring speeches about challenging the status quo. So it was with great excitement and relief that young people and old people, white people and black people, immigrants and citizens, Christians and Muslims, rich people and poor people, and those from all backgrounds flocked to the polls in 2008 to elect a candidate who would fix everything, a candidate who stoop up for change. That candidate was Barrack Hussein Obama, and it appeared, at the time, that he was everything that George W. Bush was not. Obama did not boast about his religious preferences as Bush the younger did. He was not prone to the same gaffes as his predecessor. He was not always talking about terrorism, but instead talked about real policies to change the landscape of America. He was going to take action to save America from the path to embarrassment it had been sent upon by the radical right. And so it was that Barrack Hussein Obama was sworn in as president in 2008. People wept. They hugged. They cheered. They applauded. Great joy spread amongst the land. It was as if something wonderful had been accomplished. It was as if we finally did something in America in the technocratic era. Finally, change had come to America. But it was not the change that everyone expected. Instead what happened was a new age of complicity and weakness. It was as if, after Barrack Obama had been elected president, the populous fell into a great stupor that I had never witnessed before. It was as if everyone had fallen in love with the idea of a black president. It was as if people were content with anything this man did. He waged the same wars. He saved the rich and let the poor starve as his predecessor had. He refused to even discuss a more progressive form of welfare that would actually get people out of poverty as his predecessor did. He even jump, skipped and hopped on down to the police union and gave them a nice pat on the ass, as his predecessor did. He was in bed with the pentagon and the elite bankers and the health insurance companies as his predecessor had been. Yet, for some odd reason, people were happier. They felt as if this man was actually doing something for them. But absolutely none of these promises were kept. Even the healthcare was not at all ambitious, and actually ended up being a watered down version of the bill the Clintons proposed in the nineties. This should have been a tremendous letdown, but many people refused to recognize it. And, even scarier, many of us who did recognize it went absolutely insane and defected to far right modes of thought. I mean, if it's everyman for himself in America, if the so-called liberals will not even fight for the poor, then why not just go ahead and be a dick conservative so you can get ahead in the world? Why not just become the thing you hate? Why not get revenge on the people who lied to you? Some people will never ask themselves these questions because they lead lives of comfort and comfort makes you ignorant to the storm that is coming, the war that is brewing, the end that is beginning. You can never get comfortable in American politics. You can never trust your candidate too much. It makes you look pompous and uninformed when you say, "well, at least he's better than the last guy." What if the people voting are not trying to be better? What if they are addicted to making things worse? You have to take action to save people from their own bad choices. You cannot sit aside and watch the world burn because the flames will eventually spread to your house too. In politics, you go big or you go home.

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Welcome to Build Back Neverland

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 16:00:35 GMT

Close your eyes. Take slow, deep, annoying breaths. You know, the kind internet gurus tell you to take. That's it. Breath deeper. Deeper...Deeper...Let all of the stress in the world melt from your body. Do not think about your career, your problems, your relationships, or anything else that matters dearly to you. No, focus on me. Focus on my voice. And, as you focus on my voice (or my words; whatever, you get the point), I want you to imagine that you are in the middle of an empty forest. I don't know why you would be in the forest. I mean, being alone in an empty forest with no equipment, food or survival gear pretty much means you are going to do die. Wow, how stupid. Who the hell thought that one up? Probably some hipster wearing organic sneakers smoking hash out of corn cob pipe. Well, most internet gurus live in the city so how about you picture yourself in an empty food court or a Costco...In fact, yeah, let's go with Costco. You're in an empty Costco. Move around in the Costco. Feel the different things inside of the Costco. Admire their bland, but affordable furniture and clothing. Now, you are at one with the nature of the city, the city of Build Back Never Land. Everything is affordable, not cheap, but affordable here. Nothing is dramatic. Everything is gray and taupe. Flowers only grow for funerals. Fairies are fire roasted for your convenience. Yes, welcome to Build Back Never Land, a glorious land of opportunity for the rich people you see on television, and a miserable pit of despair for everyone else. There is plenty of hope here, for all there is to do is hope when you have nothing, and when you know nothing will ever come your way again. The trains always leave early here in Build Back Never Land. The paranoia is pure, one hundred percent adrenaline, none of that weak ass anxiety crap. Don't mind the neo nazis; they only ever hurt poor people anyway. Besides, Joe Manchin says they aren't real, and that has to count for something because CNN says it does. Just look at the flat screen TVs! They get bigger every year, while your salary gets smaller. Finally, we all live in a place full of hope. Finally, we got the change we were promised. Slight change, minimal, dismal, disappointing change. False hope, agonizing, infuriating, false hope. Finally, they gave us all what we really wanted, misery. You know, few people realize that it's over when it's over. Boxers make foolish "comebacks" when they are far past their time; they embarrass themselves on television and lose what dignity they had left. As Samuel L. Jackson would say, "That's pride fucking with your ass." The truth is you can lose just like anyone else. I am not saying you are not on a hot streak. You may be on fire for all I know, but remember, it all ends. And isn't it interesting that, in the end, we all are left with our thoughts of "what if"? What if you had been more noble, more honorable, wiser, stronger? Those are thoughts that will plague the leaders of today on their deathbeds. You may think that is awful, but it is just. Those who fail to deliver on their promises are failures, and they suffer because of it. In future generations this encourages endurance, but today we must live with the weak leaders we have. Now imagine you are on a beach. The love of your life walks gleefully toward you, scantily clad and with open arms. You hear the sand form around their feet as they place a hand upon your cheek. You feel love in all of its glory and confusion. Then they look you in the eyes and say, "you are not good enough to accomplish your dreams; be practical and take the job at Costco." Welcome to Build Back Never Land, where everyone always dreams because being awake is a nightmare.

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Abandonment

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 16:14:49 GMT

What kind of heartless bastard just leaves a person in their time of need? Where does such a person get off? What gives them the right to be so callous, so heartless, so unkind? It could be arrogance. It could be ignorance. It could be that they are just a complete dick. But that is beside the point. This episode is not about the people who do the abandoning. They get enough attention. They all have fancy jobs. Let them have their cake and choke on it too. This episode is concerned with those who have been abandoned. You know them. You may choose not to see them, but you know they are out there. Perhaps it gives you pleasure, knowing that you made it and they did not. Perhaps it pains you to know that there are those out there less fortunate than you. But they are still out there. I am one of them. My words are not meant for your entertainment alone. They are meant to warn you of the dangers to come, to protect you from the monster that I once was, to shield you from the rise of many more monsters, far more terrifying than I ever could have been. You may think I am a spoil sport, raining on your champagne parade, but you are wrong, dead wrong. Soon, a time will come when you will wish you had taken my advice about increases in welfare, about universal basic income, about prison reform, about police reform, about kindness, about decency. But when that hour comes, I will no longer be able to protect you from the horror that is to come. It is interesting to note that the Spanish Flu pandemic did not end until 1920, three years after its outbreak in 1918. And I know you do not want to hear that; I know that you are tired of hearing warnings. We all grow tired of those with wisdom. They begin to sound like dictators to us. And who am I to tell you how to live your life anyway? After all, if I had anything important to say, I would be rich. Right? Is that right? Is that really right? Or is that just another coping mechanism you have developed to protect you from impending doom? Have you truly bested those who are beneath you? Or are you depending on those beneath you to hold you above water, just a little longer? A sewer is filled with excrement and disease, but without a sewer, you are nothing. Without a sewer the stench of your bodily fluids would fester in your nose, driving you mad until you eventually died from bacterial infections, from viruses, from black mold. Everything in life has a structure, a way it is supposed to work, and in that structure there are support systems. The poor support the rich just as much as the rich support the poor. That is the way of things. You cannot change that. Sure, you can replace a worker with robots, but you cannot keep your business open without patrons. They system now has no structure. The balance is off. And the all that is keeping this sinking ship afloat is malfunctioning, decaying, eroding, dying...slowly. How will you survive the fall? Will you be around to survive it? Only time will tell. And when that time comes you will wonder, why was I so selfish, so careless, so shallow? But I can give you the answer now. You are not meant to live forever. You are designed to destroy yourself, to self-destruct. That is the real system. The real structure is meant to decay. It is natural. It keeps us safe from the would be dictators, the psychopaths, the intellectuals. This everlasting decay weakens the evil of the human and sends them crushing down to earth like a fallen angel or like Nimrod, whichever you prefer. Yes, the fall is coming, and oh what a glorious sight it will be, to see you there with me, to hear you cry in the cold of night as I once did, wondering if you have any value as once did. And, as I once did, you will gaze into darkness and be greeted by your own child like laughter. Then we will finally understand each other, and together, we will gaze upon the earth and say, "this is the wretched fate that we have made; what a glorious horror it is."

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The Parent Crap

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 16:25:10 GMT

When I was younger, I remember people, for the most part anyway, keeping their big fat noses out of other people's business, especially when that business had to do with the bedroom. In those days I probably heard the phrase "I don't care what people do in the privacy of their own homes" uttered at least five times a day, but usually even more than that. Now that I have matured, I realize that all those people were just lying. The truth is that privacy does not exist. Whilst people pretend that privacy is sacred, that sacred ground is violated with prying eyes whenever it is advantageous to those with something to prove. It is, for some reason that I have not yet figured out (I will eventually), very important to some people, many of them wealthy people, to prove that having a family is a burden. These people loathe what they have termed "traditional" relationships. They blame people who choose to stay with one person and, god forbid, to have children with that person, for every ill in the world from depression to global warming. They sit in their one room studio apartments and write essays on the perils of parenthood, and the misery of marriage. They are the enlightened ones, the people who have been blessed with eyes to see the supposed sham of love. This idea that family is the bad guy does not fit any particular ideology. There is no mass movement to destroy the family. Instead there are many wealthy people in the world with too much time on their hands, and idle hands often lead to irrational acts of jealously. Contrary to popular opinion, money does not insulate you from heartbreak. Relationships do not magically improve once Sally can buy the dress she has always wanted or once Mike can finally afford to buy his favorite video game or once you finally buy the kids all of they toys in the goddamn world. Objects do not make people all that happy. If they did there would be at least some difference between the divorce rate of poor people and that of rich people. But wealthy people and poor people get divorced at similar rates. But while it may be true that money cannot buy happiness, it can certainly buy publicity. When the average citizen goes through a divorce or has an affair only a few people ever find out about it; thus, the bitter party in this situation only has a few shoulders to cry on. The wealthy, on the other hand, can devote entire movies, novels and even political campaigns to whining about their negative experiences with relationships. This negative publicity about the supposed evils of love has been pumped into the minds of the populous so that now it has gone mainstream. It is now perfectly acceptable for single people to state that they are happier than married people, that they are contributing more to society, that they care more about the planet, but the evidence for these claims is, as usual, nonexistent. And while the internet may be full of bullshit articles about how miserable families are and how happy single people are, a whole lot of bullshit does not amount to verifiable proof. Many of the studies on happiness in relationships are not peer reviewed. Many more were based on compromised data. How does one even begin to measure happiness in a person? The whole notion of figuring out who is the happiest is insane. To be frank, I am sick and tired of people telling me whether or not I am happy. I am sick and tired of people reducing my relationship to a "social construct". I am sick and tired of people acting like my child is "a burden on the environment". I do not care if anyone has children or not, but I do care about impressionable young people being sold the lie that children make you unhappy, that choosing to have sex with only one person is some kind of crime against humanity. You have the right to do as you like, but so do I. I choose to recognize that no one is happy all of the time, and that completely uprooting your life to fit into some cult of love haters is a waste of time.

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Democrats Hire Broadway to Sing America to Sleep

Sun, 10 Apr 2022 19:19:57 GMT

To the wealthy life is a game, a joke, a bit of fun, a romp through the forest, a frolic in the roses. Lost a relationship? No biggie, buy a new one. Suffered a serious setback career wise? No problem, just call up your rich friends and they’ll help you out. Failed at achieving your dreams? Go to sleep and dream up another one. That is the mindset of American aristocracy. Just get over it. Move on. Forget about it. Try harder. Do better. Be kinder. Harder, better, faster, stronger! These empty, childish phrases spill from the mouths of wealthy people like excrement from a person with explosive diarrhea who lives on nothing but bean and cheese burritos, and their sage words are likewise flushed down the toilet into a dark and abandoned sewer filled with disease. The advice of the wealthy is the real pandemic, and their uninspired, insincere drivel has infected America. The wealthy do not know how to give advice, and so they are a cancer on the world of ideas, a malignant tumor destined to destroy everything it touches slowly and painfully. “Don’t take life too seriously”, they say. But life is serious. It ends suddenly, unexpectedly and often times confusingly. Jeffery Smith died. He shot himself after the riot. No one cared. Those who commit suicide are shunned in America, even in death. And now he’s gone, and all the well-wishing in the world, all the money in the world, all the positive vibes in the world, all the can do spirit of the world, will never bring him back. But the wealthy do not understand this. They believe that they will be able to pay off the grim reaper. But that is simply not an option. Death will find them, just as it will find us. If you fail to realize how serious life really is then you are well on your way to your appointment with death, perhaps even running a little early. But you cannot argue with the wealthy; those with money and privilege are set in their ways, and they change for no one. Perhaps the best illustration of this in literature can be found right in that bible you never read, but always preach. “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:18–25). I’ve never tried to shove a camel through a needle before, but it sure sounds pretty difficult. How about this little portion from Matthew? “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I am not sure if I forgot the last part of that last excerpt or if I had just glossed over it before, but it sure does speak to me. Whether or not Jesus was god, you have to admit that he was brilliant with words. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.” Ain’t that the truth. Personally I am poor and so my treasure is my family, and that is where my heart is. We all know where the heart of America’s leaders are, and it ain’t got nothing to do with family. The heart of America’s leaders is stored in a bank account, on the stock market, at a fortune 500 company, in a viral video on Tik Tok, on a stage full of pretense. So I was not surprised to see that Broadway made its big debut on Congress during the commemoration of the terrorist attacks on the US Capitol on January 6th 2021. I was disgusted. I was sickened. I was disappointed, but not surprised. How disrespectful must you be to promote your favorite musical during an event that was supposed to remember people who died? Well, keep having fun America. Keep dancing in the dark. Keep dreaming. But if you are going to keep your treasure locked up around Broadway producers who get paid to destroy dreams for a living, then you have no heart.

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A Farewell to Charm

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 19:43:12 GMT

Today there will, undoubtedly, be a treasure trove of tributes to the late and great Sidney Poitier, and rightfully so. Poitier was an inspiration to all colors and creeds, but, much more than that, he represented the radical notion that entertainment could be a little less white, and a little more brilliant because of it. Poitier’s unique experience as a Bahamian American added new flavor to the doldrums of modern American cinema. His roles were not contained or mousy. He exploded onto the camera with a sense of purpose and eloquence that I have not seen many actors embody since. But many of the other remembrances dedicated to Poitier will focus on his career in film so, as usual, I will take the road less traveled and attempt to explain what the man represented to the black community as a whole, and to America. In 1964 Sidney Poitier became the first actor to win an Oscar in the best actor in a leading role category for “Lilies in a Field”, a historic accomplishment considering the fact that Hollywood has traditionally cast black actors as servants, derelicts and criminals. So his stunning achievement was received by blacks everywhere as proof that black people could truly accomplish anything. Here is what Poitier had to say about his iconic and shocking win. “Because it is a long journey to this moment, I am naturally indebted to countless numbers of people.” Doubtless Poitier’s reference to “a long journey” is partially a reference to the tiresome and often completely unnoticed work that goes into being a black artist in America. Black artists are second tier in entertainment, thought to be lesser than white entertainers and often dismissed when it comes to roles that are considered intelligent. Instead of engineers, American black entertainers are chosen to be bank robbers. Instead of faithful husbands and fathers, black entertainers are cast as heartless and unfeeling megalomaniacs who jump from relationship to relationship in an attempt satiate their seemingly never-ending lust. Instead of head chefs, black entertainers are forced to play fast food employees, and on and on it goes. You get the point. I wonder what was going on in Mr. Poitier’s mind when he was chosen to receive an honorary academy award in 2002, yet another year dedicated to Denzel Washington being the only black actor in America deemed worthy of more educated roles. He certainly chose his words carefully when he said that a “handful of visionary American filmmakers, directors, writers and producers” made his career possible. A handful is not very much; the word “handful” is used to draw attention to a scanty amount that is not sufficient to get the job done. Now that Poitier is gone and that handful of visionaries that helped him has grown even smaller, I really do feel for all the black talent in the entertainment industry that will go unappreciated and unheard. It is sad that progress can only be made with the permission of large industries like Hollywood. It is sad that talent, in America anyway, simply is not enough to make an impression. And it is even sadder that people today have grown so coldhearted that, whenever a person like me speaks out against bias and nepotism in the entertainment industry, that person only gets a roll of the eyes and middle finger. And so I give you my farewell to charm, my farewell to a generation of black dignity and self-reliance that will likely never return, and my final farewell to roles that degrade and stereotype black people as nothing more than servants or criminals. Farewell to it all once and for all. You inspired me to be an actor Mr. Poitier; if only I had been born a few generations earlier, it only that handful of visionaries was still around, if only the Civil Rights movement was still taken seriously instead of being pimped out by hustler preachers, insincere celebrities and social media influencers, that inspiration may have become a reality. But I thank you nonetheless. Goodnight black prince.

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Optimus Amazon Prime

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 20:11:27 GMT

All systems are ready. Brain hacks have been initiated. Common human myths such as individuality and imperfection have been eradicated. Relaxation has been efficiently discouraged. Hard work and endless suffering have been sufficiently programed into the hard drive of humanity. There is no longer any need for you to dream for Optimus Amazon Prime had dreamed your dreams for you. You have been allotted the accurate amount of hope. You have been allowed the appropriate time for leisure. You no longer need family or friends. You are a superhero, a diva, a warrior, a survivor, a victor, a winner. Winners need nothing but more wins. You have been optimized. You are now a tool of the business world, an efficient resource to be scrutinized and utilized. You are a tool, an instrument, a machine. You have been transformed, changed, molded, and shaped into a non-person, a non-entity, a non-being. You have no time for emotions for you have been perfected. You do not want children so you are perfect. You do not want romance so you are perfect. You do not want meat so you are perfect. You do not want “division” so you are perfect. You do not do drugs (at least not ones your doctor has not prescribed) so you are perfect. You have become so perfected that you even try to improve the way you consume food. You do not have time for cooking, perhaps not even microwaving, so you blend your food into a tasteless slush of nutrients and chug it on the way to work. You pop a multivitamin to optimize the immune system. You down a protein shake or a green smoothie at every year. You leave your food raw to optimize the intake of nutrition. You sound like a computer now and so you are perfect. Do you want to have fun? Read an article on how to have fun. Do you want to have better sex? Read an article on how to have better sex. Do you want to be happier? Be ruthless. Be ambitious. Be annoying. Mission accomplished. You have conquered happiness. You have owned the pursuit. You have destroyed the competition. Perfections is officially your bitch. And now that you have conquered life you are likely online writing articles about how to skull fuck life into submission. Ah, what a treasure you are. What a great contribution you have made to society. You will go down in history as…another dead person, a person who will be forgotten, a person who a teenager in a high school history class will loathe learning about. Mission accomplished. Optimization achieved. But could you be lying to yourself? Could it be that you really do care about others? Isn’t that the reason you set goals for yourself in the first place? Admit it, you set goals to please your loved ones or to get back at them. Either way, the motivator is the same. You once loved people more deeply than your computer, phone or video games put together. So you made goals for yourself to accomplish that you might impress those people, that you might strengthen your relationships, not distance yourself from them. But it did not work. The more successful you became, the more you pushed people away, the more your grew to hate your competition, the less likely you were to trust others. And now you are alone, successful and optimized, writing how to articles on the internet, hoping and praying that your followers will adore you the way your loved ones were unable to. But Optimus Amazon Prime has encountered several critical errors: the malware of desire, the virus of truth, the super bug of empathy. Optimust Amazon Prime cannot function when truth, desire and empathy are overabundant. Machines do not desire. Computers do not seek truth. Empathy does not exist in the matrix. Your hard drive is overheating. Optimization is falling at a breakneck pace. Optimus Amazon Prime cannot complete the tasks of true happiness you have requested. Optimus Amazon Prime has failed and will go offline. Sequence terminated. Meltdown. Point made. Game over. System failure. Shut down. Restart. Automatic repair initiated.

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Winner, Winner Stole your Dinner

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 20:21:59 GMT

All hail the conquering hero. Bow down before the king and worship him. Make way for the next jack of all trades, the master of the universe, the champion of champions, the hero, the guiding light, the victors, the best of the best. Lick their boots and be grateful that you were able to bask in the presence of greatness. To the winners go the spoils. So give the winners your money, all of it and make it snappy. Prepare a sacrifice for the greatest and the grandest. Sing their praises to your friends. Waste time blathering about them to trolls on twitter. Defend your champion's honor for they are far too cowardly to do it on their own. Allow them to get away with murder, with rape, with theft, with lies, all because they won a contest. This is justice in America, a nation that prefers to worship power and money, even over god. You can do anything you like in America, as long as you win. Winning is everything. Success is next to godliness. Triumph is key and king. Victory, sweet victory. That is what we strive for and, by doing so, we create failures, losers, rejects, and, eventually, radicals. Life is not reality television. On reality television, the loser is given free publicity and exposure to future job connections. That does not happen in real life. In real life the losers are mocked, degraded, ignored, and cast aside like worthless trash. But in real life trash does not decompose. It hardens, solidifies and eventually destroys everything in its path. This is the future the your winners have created for you, a future full of chaos, anarchy and vengeance. You can make all the rules you like in your little contest, but this is not reality TV, and the losers do not just bow out gracefully. Losers bide their time. Losers lie in wait, anticipating your next mistake, capitalizing on your next mishap, pondering how to knock you from your pedestal so that they can take your place. This is life, like it or not. Every time you win, thousands, perhaps even millions of people lose. Those losers will remember you; they will never forget that you were the one who dashed their hopes, who ruined their dreams. You are victorious...for now, but your time will come, and you will fall from grace, if not willingly, then you shall be forced. You started the contest. You yearn for excess and so your excesses will destroy you, consume you and doom you to a future full of crime. There is no happy ending in real life. There is no team work in real life. There is no all's well that end's well in real life. Life is war and, if you are a winner, you are on defense, whether you realize it or not. Losers become strong, hardened, resourceful, but winners grow weak with time. Donald Trump was a winner, until he lost that is. What is the point of a contest? What does it do for humanity? What is the point? Some say it builds character, but they never say what kind of character. They never tell you that the winners, the heroes, the victors are all big fat liars. Winners are the absolute best liars you will find. Losers cannot lie, not well enough to succeed. A loser can only tell the truth. I am a loser. I rather enjoy losing. Losing is what builds a truly exceptional character. In 2002 the Oakland A's put together a miracle winning streak never seen before in the world of sports, and perhaps never again. It was a rag tag team of losers that Billy Beane assembled in Oakland, California. No one thought they would win very many games, but they put together a winning streak that stunned the world of baseball. Everyone had written that team off. No one was betting on them to beat the likes of the Texas Rangers or the Anaheim Angles, but they did many times. They did not go on to win the championship that year, but from that team mountains of men were born. Their loss led to great success. But what comes of winning? Loss. You create losers when you win, and those same losers will beat you in the end. Enjoy your time at the top. It never lasts.

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The Economics of Vanity

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 20:50:06 GMT

We are often told that the American economic system is driven by competition. But competition only really occurs when some people leave with bigger and better prizes. If you can afford to purchase nice things, then you are considered to have won the American competition, which is nothing more than the hunt for endless amounts of clutter. But is the clutter of high quality? Does clutter have any real use beyond attracting moths, spiders and mold? Or are you simply paying higher prices for the same damn products? This is the question that far too many Americans fail to ask, let alone answer. Well, I have the answer for you, and, unless you are like me, you are not going to like it. There are certain products that “professional” purchasers simply must have. They prefer the TV dinners from Trader Joe’s, not Safeway. They prefer the food at Cheesecake Factory, not Chili’s. They simply must buy their next clock from Pier 1 Imports, not Target. This yearning for more expensive products is what I like to refer to as vanity economics, a system that encourages the blind purchasing of vast amounts of junk, not because you need it, but because you can brag to your friends about it. Vanity economics is not new. It first surfaced during the Victorian era in the UK, when unsuspecting middle class members rushed off to buy wallpaper laced with arsenic and makeup with lead bases all in the name of high fashion. It was simply not prudent to be frugal like the poor folk. One must not only be successful, but also boast about one’s success with cartoonish clothing and newfangled inventions. America today is the Victorian UK on steroids. “Looking good is big business around the world, but no one spends more on cosmetics, beauty products, surgeries, and grooming than people in the U.S. In fact, in 2015 alone, the beauty industry generated $56.2 billion in the United States (to put it in perspective, the medical technology industry makes only $44 billion every year).” (bluewatercredit.com) Do your thing America. Vogue, strike a pose, and hope you don’t need that extra money to go to the hospital. But what is more disturbing about this economics of vanity is that many of these products are manufactured by the same companies and in the same factories. Brand names are simply labels that have been stamped onto products by the same laborers, most of whom are underpaid and work in unsafe conditions. In fact, many companies do not even own their own factories, but get their products made by suppliers in nations like India, one such factory is C L Gupta Export Ltd., which builds products for Target, Crate and Barrel, Ashley Home Store, Ikea, RH, and Pier 1 Imports. Another Indian supplier, Expeditors International India PV, builds products for Nordstrom, The Home Depot, Rockport, Arhaus, and CNHI International. While Pt Casalini Natura makes products for Marshalls, TJ Maxx, The Company Store, and Home Goods. The brand names also tend to get products from various suppliers, literally making it impossible to tell any real difference in quality between the stores’ products, since they are all built and shipped by the same employees who all work for the exact same companies. Yet these stores price these same products, which are all built by the same people, at vastly different levels from the almost comically affordable to the almost hysterically overpriced. So why are they doing this? Because these companies know that vanity runs the American economy. Your organic, naturally sourced cotton is built in the same factory that manufactures clothing made from the dead skin of tortured, exotic animals. Vanity is not just some slightly offensive moral concern your grandparents had. Vanity purchases pollute the environment, poisons our health, ruins our communities, puts hardworking small businesses out of business, and steals our hard earned cash with promises of perfectionism. It is time for us all to have a little less clutter and a lot more clarity.

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Follow the Leader

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 21:50:19 GMT

It has become commonplace for modern day political theorists, historians and armchair philosophers alike to paint the majority of human beings as well meaning, yet misguided individuals who are basically decent. Rarely will you hear a popular theorist talk about the hidden dangers of the human mind, and how if, left unchecked, it seems to follow the same path to death and destruction, that being the path to tyranny. Before beginning this diatribe I noticed an article in the Intelligencer, and rolled my eyes, partially out of annoyance and partially out of complete terror. The title of the article was "Conservatism Is Not Fascism". Bravo, I thought, they are in denial as well. Of course conservatism, by definition, is not fascism. No one has ever claimed that. But definitions are for dictionaries and the people who read them. Any party, no matter how well meaning, can be usurped by a substantial faction of dissidents who wish to use the party name for its own benefit, such was the case with the socialist party in Nazi Germany, and such is the case with the republican party in America today. Just earlier today I saw a republican on CNN state that, though he believed that Donald Trump was not a suitable choice for the presidential nomination in 2024, mainly because Trump failed to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States of January sixth 2021 when his followers unleashed their failed coup, a solemn oath that every president takes, he still knew there was solid support for Trump in the republican party nonetheless, and that Trump is very much a front runner to be the nominee in 2024. So, let me get this straight, the republican party are nothing like the Nazi party, even though the republicans who support Trump tried to overthrow the government and refuse to denounce their foolish leader for the terrorist he is. If you ask me it seem as if the Intelligencer is seriously lacking in intelligence. You may recall that the coup was a largely Christian affair complete with gallows and crosses. You may not recall that Hitler had managed to coax a large part of the Christian population in Germany into supporting him and his long list of atrocities or that millions of Germans were unemployed due to an economic crash brought about by unreasonably burdensome debts. Yeah, no, none of this sounds familiar at all. After a fire in a parliament building started by a single communist, Hitler and the Nazis eroded the rights of the German people and political opponents were outlawed. About 100,000 communists and political dissidents of Hitler's were interred or executed. This was shortly followed by the enabling act, which allowed Hitler to create laws at will. Political parties were banned, trade unions were infiltrated by Nazi strongmen and Jewish and politically suspect civil servants were fired. That is how quickly the Nazis took over Germany. But it was the cooperation of groups like the Catholic Church that made it possible. The Catholics, who made up 40% of the population and had their own Catholic Center Party (moderates anyone?), were too scared to stand up to the Nazis. "That concern prompted officials of the Vatican to discuss with Hitler the possibility of an agreement: the Church would pledge to abstain from political activity in Germany in exchange for the Reich’s promise not to persecute the Catholic Church and its members." (facinghistory.com) Edith Stein, who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism years earlier, pleaded with the pope for help in Germany's darkest hour. "Is not this idolization of race and governmental power which is being pounded into the public consciousness by the radio open heresy? Is not all this diametrically opposed to the conduct of our Lord and Savior, who, even on the cross, still prayed for his persecutors?" Neither the pope, nor his successor, responded and Stein was executed in a death camp. The center must always follow the leader.

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Fail Better

Sun, 03 Apr 2022 15:38:38 GMT

Do you value learning? Do you learn from your mistakes? Okay, now that we have gotten your trained education makes the world go round response, mostly taught to you by television and job recruiters from various monopolies, answer the question again. Do you really value the notion that learning is key to the human experience? Well, if you are like half of America, you clearly do not value education. Half of the nation now wants education to occur from their personal perspective. They want to rewrite curricula to fit their standards, not that of educators. The rewriting of history, scientific discovery, psychology, and mathematics is rampant in America. No two schools seem to learn the same things anymore, and yet parents want even more learning options for their children. Instead of going to college, sixteen percent of parents now want their children to go to non-college training programs such as plumbing, automotive repair or other forms of job training skillfully dressed up as education. Eight percent of parents want their children to go to community college and to skip the four year degree. Finally, a whole twenty-two percent of American parents want their children to skip education altogether once they have graduated high school and to become a volunteer worker, a member of the military, start a paid job, or join a family business. This paints a much clearer picture, I think, of what many Americans actually mean when they say that they value learning. Many of them consider educational institutions like college to be a waste of time with no real benefit. Believe it or not this trend has accelerated in the last ten years with more and more people becoming disenchanted with the high cost of college tuitions and the seemingly low return on that cost. This makes sense because Americans measure the value of education with their finances, not the life lessons, business connections, exposure to diversity, and natural boost in self-esteem that comes along with a college degree. Essentially half of the nation believes education is just a way to get more money in their pockets. They are failing to realize the responsibility and stability that exist outside of one’s bank account like the fact that you develop long term relationships in college that can lead to work after you graduate or how college graduates are more likely to have children who value education or that states with higher educational attainment also tend to have lower crime rates. It is interesting to note that, while America saw its biggest jump in violent crime in 2020, that increase in crime was part of a larger trend that began in 2014, around the same time this interest in alternative forms of education began to develop along with a distaste for “intellectualism” and college education. It seems that many Americans are redefining what good education is, and by doing so choosing a path that could set their communities up for some serious failures. This surge in skepticism when it comes to our education system is partially due to an old myth that different people have different learning styles, a myth that, while rampant on both the left and the right, has never been scientifically proven. “Many people, including educators, believe learning styles are set at birth and predict both academic and career success even though there is no scientific evidence to support this common myth, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. In two online experiments with 668 participants, more than 90 percent of them believed people learn better if they are taught in their predominant learning style, whether that is visual, auditory or tactile.” (APA) Why do Americans still believe that genetics predict learning ability when there is not solid proof for that assertion? And, more importantly why are we measuring the quality of our education based on how well our children are doing in school instead of how well they recover from failure?

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Happy Screw Year

Sat, 02 Apr 2022 16:05:22 GMT

2021 is just about dead in the water and, if I am completely honest, there was not all that much difference between 2020 and 2021. The right wing's bat shit crazy attempted coups continued, although this time on the state level. The needs of black people everywhere went unheard as usual. Rich people made even more money, while poor people lost even more money. And all over the news today there was the usual empty chatter about "hope" and "optimism", briefly followed by the next story about some robbery or some murder or some family being displaced because of climate change. The pandemic continues to be a nuisance and all over the country many families, which every American pretends to care about while simultaneously talking shit about kids and the relationships that produce them on social media, are wondering how they will continue to feed themselves after the Cadillac congress failed to go to bat for them, again. Yep, nothing new here. Same old story. Same old carelessness. Same old kill or be killed attitude. Same rat race mentality. Same get the fuck out of my way America. But, still, I am not all that disappointed. I have learned not to expect much from my nation. To be completely honest, I do not even expect a hint of decency from people who I have not known for years any longer. So, for me, this was a year of coming to terms with the bleakness of American life, realizing that people do not keep their promises, ever, and that no one is really trying to help anyone but themselves in the end. Such is life. So goes the American dream. But there are always positives in a year filled with negatives, and, in many ways, our devastating tragedies add a bit of extra shimmer to our shinning accomplishments. So, this year I will leave the New Year's resolutions for the people who are wealthy enough to waste time sitting around thinking about how imperfect they are. Instead I will give you some of the things I accomplished this year. All the positives of 2021 happened because of me, not anyone else, which taught me that I did not need other people to be happy, and that is the most important life lesson I can impart on any of you. I taught myself to cook better. I make a mean fondue now, way better than the microwaved greasy stuff my family used to make. I taught myself to be healthier. I added running back to my exercise routine and I am looking and feeling better than ever. I also am eating more fruits and vegetables, something that my friends from high school would be completely dumbfounded by. I also rediscovered my joy for writing. It is still odd to me thinking about how important good writing is to podcasts, but in the last couple of months I saw the proof of that firsthand with the show growing to nearly 4,000 downloads from 1600 downloads in just that short amount of time! Who would've thought that the people who would finally appreciate my writing were the same people listening to podcasts? Not me, but thanks for proving me wrong. Life continues to be interesting, engaging and oh so surprising, even through the bleakness. So what can I say about 2021? I can say that neither political party gives two shits about me. I can say that America still doesn't give a damn about black people, and likely never will. I can say that billionaires will take care of billionaires and no one else. I can say that celebrities can get away with saying pretty much anything now, while at the same time complaining about being "cancelled". I can say that the Supreme Court is a complete joke. I can say that people will always blame people like me for all of their problems in an attempt to avoid responsibility for their own failings. And, finally, I can say that I have my family. I can say that my wife is still the sexiest piece of ass I have ever seen after knowing her for 24 years. I can say that I am proud to be myself, and don't care who else is. So happy new year folks. May all your heartaches lead to joyous triumphs. Happy new year!

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I can See Your Halo Effect Part 1

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:24:39 GMT

"Remember those morals I built? Well baby they don't matter now. And I didn't even put a fight. I made myself act like a clown. I treat strangers like they're my kin. Because I fell for their bank accounts. Standing in the light of their halo. I got my placebo now." Guess what folks. The jig is up. You are not fooling anyone. You are all the same. You make heroes out of monsters and monsters out of the oppressed. You rail against judgement, seemingly of any kind, aside from the judgement that comes from employers, aside from the judgement that comes from teachers, aside from the judgement that comes from preachers, aside from the judgement that comes for your politicians, and so on, and so forth. In reality, you love judgement and you engage in it everyday. All this talk of love, all this talk of acceptance, all this talk of unity, and you judge people based on the way they speak, the way they look, the way they write, the way they style their hair, and, let us not forget, by how big their bank accounts are. If a person has a voice that is pleasing to you then you will allow them to get away with pretty much anything. However, if the person hits a few bad notes, all of a sudden they are less trustworthy. If a celebrity you adore enters the room, your heart races and your mind is full of love and adulation. If a person slouches when they walk, your mind begins to fantasize about this person's lack of refinement and dignity. Surely those with bad posture are not worth your time because you value posture and you also read a study that said whoever has bad posture is a complete dolt. Yes, I can see your halo effect. No, the song at the start of this little essay is not a shot at Beyonce, though that is likely how some of you took it, especially if you happen to like Beyonce. I honestly cannot say that I like Beyonce, not because I dislike her music. She sounds just fine. I cannot say that I like Beyonce because I do not know her. I have never met her. The two of us are not friends and so there is no way for me to know anything about her personality. Thus the only logical thing for me to say is I don't know if I like or dislike her, but her voice sounds fine. Most people do not take the time to separate their liking of a person's art from the actual person. People believe that, if an artist is able to impress us, that means that they are good people who are trying to help us, and, therefore, trustworthy. This is known as the halo effect, and believe me when I say that I can see it. I see it in all of you on a daily basis. I have proven it time and time again. Everyone believes they are impartial, a fair judge, a balanced critic. No, you are not. You like certain things, and if a person is able to replicate those things for you, those things that you like, you will fall head over heels in love with that person. You will think that they can do no wrong simply because they satisfied your urge for creative expression. This happens in relationships all the time; it does not matter how developed the relationship is. It always happens. If someone is able to impress you then you will allow them to lie, cheat and steal with impunity, as long as they keep singing the songs you love, dressing in the clothes you like, preaching the psalms that speak to you, producing the videos you love, writing the books you are addicted to, making the arguments that destroy your opponents, tickling your funny bone in just the right manner. You may not like it. You may disagree. But I can see your halo effect. It materializes differently depending on your culture. Perhaps it makes you take medical advice from Joe Rogan or it makes you take dieting advice from Oprah Winfrey. Perhaps it makes you copy the playlist of Barrack Obama or makes you vote for Donald Trump. It doesn't matter how it happens, the point is that it does happen. You get caught up in the moment, captivated by the perfect speech and then they have you in the palm of their hand.

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Sexual Anarchy Part 2

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 16:42:00 GMT

Sex scares conservatives and some liberals too. It downright terrifies them. It puts them on edge, throws them off kilter. Trying to discuss sexuality or sexual education in America is like trying to have a discussion about empathy with Donald Trump. It just ain't gonna work, no matter how many interesting charts and cool pictures you include. America is still very much in touch with its puritan side when it comes to sex. No one wants to talk about it and so all kinds of awful ideologies spring forth. Ideas of sexual purity or sexual normalcy abound in America. Take this example from thechurchofjesuschrist.org (apparently Jesus has his own website now), "The sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife. God has commanded that sexual intimacy be reserved for marriage... When you are sexually pure, you prepare yourself to make and keep sacred covenants in the temple." Sacred powers? Sacred covenants? The temple? Sounds like an Indiana Jones movie to me. Someone call Harrison Ford! This is total copyright infringement. And what's the deal with the usage of the term "employed"? I get down with my lady like everyday, but she has not paid me one dime for it. Am I owed money or something? Because if I am I'm about to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau or maybe that should be the Freaky Business Bureau. I don't know. I'm confused. Let's see what else the puritans have in store for us. "God created sex. Because of our sin, sex often serves as part of our self-destruction. But God offers great hope of redemption, restoration, and real joy." (desiringgod.com) Uh wait a minute. Did they just tell me to desire god while talking about sex at the same time? Also, on what planet does sex lead to destruction? Every time I have sex all I experience is an eruption. Great, now I have Snoop Dogg stuck in my head. Okay, moving on. "Today’s society is obsessed with sex. The question Christians must ask: How should we as followers of Christ, living in an increasingly secular and amoral society, behave concerning sexual activity? Certainly not as atheists and agnostics behave! One way to recognize a Christian today should be by his or her sexual purity. Yet it is difficult to maintain purity in a culture obsessed with sex and permissiveness toward all forms of sexual expression. That difficulty makes sexual purity a good test of who really is a follower of Christ. It takes more than the best effort of natural humanity to maintain sexual purity. It takes the redeeming and sanctifying work of God in our lives." (religiousinstitute.org) Hold on a second. These holy rollers think America is obsessed with sex? Ha! The only time I ever hear Americans talk about sex is during a gender reveal party or when deciding which bathroom they should use. Also, America is not really a secular nation; it's much more of a center nation that leans toward the right. Most politicians that hold major office, for example, are Christians. But they're not the "real Christians" because they do not nose around in other people's business trying to regulate their sex organs. They also do not take little cheap shots at atheists and agnostics quite as frequently as the puritans do so they do not get to call themselves "real Christians", according to these folks anyway. You also have to love the use of the term "permissiveness", as if there was some sort of need for us to be blessed to express ourselves sexually. Who are we trying to fool here? Sex is normal! Talk to your parents and grandparents and they will likely tell you a story or two about things that were considered taboo in their day that they did anyway because well, it made them feel good. And those impure actions that your ancestors engaged in may very well have led to you being here in the first place. Sexual purity is the problem

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A More Informed Perception

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 15:10:12 GMT

We are natural problem solvers. We diagnose. We prescribe. We medicate. We analyze. We identify the problem and quickly develop a solution to said problem. In order to do this we seek out reasons for everything. But what if our reasons are wrong? What if we simply do not know the answer to some questions, but are still carrying on as if we have all the answers to difficult questions? At times life is so difficult that we cling to the answer that makes the most sense, that seems to explain away the difficulties in reality. But this is laziness, not sophistication. There is no room for laziness in life. Relaxation is wise because it breaks the chain of dullness that could easily destroy us, but laziness is foolish because it tricks us into thinking we have all the answers. We do not know everything. Studies are often compromised. What appears factual to the human eye is often just the thing that makes the most sense, not the thing that is the most accurate. Being sensible and being accurate are two different things. It is sensible to arrive early so that you are not late to a show. It is accurate to arrive just early enough so that you do not have to stand out in the rain before the doors open. Accuracy requires that we investigate thoroughly, painstakingly even. But the brain is always looking for shortcuts, always trying to find an easier way of doing things to preserve precious energy. And so we often find ourselves stuck somewhere between close and not close enough when it comes to precision, when it comes to truth. Does this mean we are crazy or does it just mean we are human? This is the difficult question I place before you. Can you simply write everyone who does not behave in the appropriate way off as crazy or is there something more there? Are self-deception and lunacy the same thing? Let's take a look. Lunacy is extreme folly or eccentricity while self-deception the action or practice of allowing oneself to believe that a false or unvalidated feeling, idea, or situation is true. Clearly, the two are very different for escaping reality is not strictly foolish. Reality is harsh, cold and unforgiving. So humans turn to fantasy to alleviate the pain. This is not unreasonable or foolish. It is just how the human mind copes with the real world. It would be easy to defame our enemies, to say that they are nothing more than lunatics, but solves no problems. Searching for reasons why we believe what we believe does very little as well. We must stop thinking in terms of why and start thinking in terms of what. If I am unhappy then what will make me happy again? If I am not feeling up to working a my job anymore then what can I do to find something that actually motivates me to go to work? If we ask why we are unhappy we obsess over that and go on an existential journey to find the meaning of happiness. But why should we waste time searching for the meaning of something that only we can subscribe meaning to? If we ask why we do not enjoy our job, we will begin to feel as if there is something wrong with us, that we are being too demanding? But how can we be wrong for feeling unfulfilled? It is important to stop and remember that things will continue to get worse, but that we do not have to allow our worsening environment to inform how we react. There are practical steps that we can take to protect ourselves and our families as long as we seek out that which can actually be sought. We cannot hack our brains, nor can we make them work for us. But, if we are willing, if we are brave, we can work with our brains and the brains of others to create a more informed perception.

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Working Hard or Hardly Living

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 15:14:18 GMT

If you work hard enough an angel will descend from heaven and bless you with the gift of happiness with ice cream and extra cherries on top. This is the lie that every American is told, and the lie that almost all Americans, regardless of race, culture or religion, believe. It is difficult to believe that there was once a time in America where people fought to work less, but there was. Brutal deaths while working on coal mines, railroads and industrial factories brought about great change in America, eventually giving birth to the forty hour work week, a required eight hours of sleep and paid vacation time, among various other benefits. After the industrial revolution came to an end and America was the most technologically advanced nation in the world, there was even talk of shortening the work week even more. After years of toiling in unsanitary conditions for slave like wages, the age of leisure had finally arrived in America, or so we thought. Enter the 1980s, an era that everyone you speak with today seems to love for reasons I cannot quite understand. Many publications, including the LA Times, have argued that the 1980s was a time of growth in personal freedom, but that is simply untrue. Hours of work fell faster between 1946 and 1979 than at any time during or after the 1980s. Reaganomics led to the cutting of taxes, the deregulation of markets and the eventual return to industrial revolution type working hours that would come into play during the 1990s and early 2000s. Prior to Reaganomics the United States was on its way to a thirty hour work week and potentially less. Today the average American works forty-seven hours a week, and is damn proud of it too. Americans will brag to complete strangers about how hard they work, as if this is some sort of accomplishment, as if our ancestors worked hard so that we could work harder. That does not sound right, and you know it. Parents generally want their children's lives to be easier than theirs, not more difficult. So why is this considered an accomplishment? Why do people brag about working themselves to death? Americans essentially work six days a week. But keep in mind that forty-seven hours is the average, which means that some work even more than that. "11 percent of those surveyed worked 41-49 hours, 21 percent put in 50-59 hours every week, and a whole 18 percent work 60 or more hours." (Blue Water Credit, July 2021) That's right, eighteen percent of Americans work more than seven days a week! How is that progress? How does that increase one's amount of personal time? On what planet are people on that they are able to completely deny math while keeping a straight face? Where are the fact checkers when dimwits at the LA Times sing the praises of hard work ethic, arguing that working more, which is nothing more than devoting your time to your boss, makes you somehow have more time to yourself? Perhaps the fact checkers are too busy working at their entertainment side hustle to check the facts. There is something dubious about the term "side hustle". It seems to give one the feeling that they are going against the grain or being unique, but all it means is that you have a second, third or fourth job, which means that you have less time to yourself, less freedom, not more. In the last twenty years, the American economy has grown an astounding sixty percent off the backs of hardworking people who seem to care much more about their shopping spree than they do about living past sixty. Productivity has surged, but income has stayed still. While monopolies like Amazon bragged about their higher wage of twenty bucks an hour, anyone with a calculator and basic math skills knows that, had the median income kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be $92,000 a year. But you are nowhere near that America, not even close. In 2020 the median American income was $69,521, a two point nine percent decrease from 2019, and that included stimulus payments.

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Origins of Christmas

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 15:33:27 GMT

Hark the herald, angels sing; joy to the Burger King! It's Christmas time again folks and that means that it is my personal favorite time of the year. Ever since I was a boy, apart from my brief stint as a rabid and rather boring fundamentalist Christian Grinch, I loved everything about Christmas. Yes, even the parts that require hard work like cooking and wrapping presents. I still remember my mom, sister and I all hanging out together wrapping presents, telling jokes and watching Christmas comedy movies like Home Alone II, A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (one of the most underrated Christmas movies ever made in my humble opinion). What a joyous time of year that was! We would wrap presents and laugh together for hours on end. Then it was time to cook and we always made the most wonderful scalloped potatoes drenched in heavy cream and Swiss cheese. I can see them bubbling now. As I write this on what was a very Merry Christmas Eve (my sister even visited us this year; we missed out on last year so it was really nice spending time with her again) I am also planning my cooking schedule for tomorrow. I will be making a nice beef roast, those bubbly scalloped potatoes, roasted corn, and garlic cheese bread. In case you have not noticed I love cheese. I already have some chocolate cherry cookies ready to go for when my mom comes over, and I will probably bake more cookies and pies tomorrow, along with a little homemade eggnog. So, you know, no big thing. Just the usual yuletide schedule. This year, in celebration of my favorite holiday, my gift to you is the origins of Christmas time and what it has meant to different cultures down through the ages. While it is certainly true that Christmas is not a Christian holiday, I also am sure to recognize the various contributions that Christians made to it, like making fruitcake more palatable, cutting out the whole slaves cleaning up their masters' barf thing (yes, that was actually a real job that Romans slaves had to do in ancient Rome, and you thought your job was bad) and discouraging random drunk carolers at ungodly hours. However, I cannot help but give the pagans their props as well. Paganism has been so demonized by modern conservative Christians that you would think it has had no influence on Christmas whatsoever, but nothing could be further from the truth. If anyone knew how to party, it was the pagans, and Christmas is still, to this very day, even with all the conservative chestnuts out there, a time for great joy and revelry. This comes from the ancient holiday of Saturnalia, which has been described by pagan historians as being like the movie "The Purge". There were no laws during Saturnalia and you could pretty much get away with anything you want. Gender bending sex was allowed and so were other vices like gluttony, hedonism and bad singing. While we have left a lot of the less savory parts of Saturnalia behind, gender bending sex is still widely available on the internet for free and country western stars everywhere release a new Christmas album every year to keep the bad singing thing alive and well. But Saturnalia is just one of the pagan traditions that Christmas is based on. There was also the pagan celebration of yule, which is where we get terms like "yule log and yuletide", which many modern day pagans, Wiccans are a good example, still celebrate today without even getting their houses burnt to the ground or thrown in rivers to drown this time around. Now that's what I call progress! So, this year I ask you all to appreciate Christmas for what it is: a combination of many different cultures coming together to exchange gifts, eat rich food and get a pretty good buzz going. If there is one thing that I can be apolitical about, it is this truly joyous day. Even the Christians of old refused to let Christmas die because they wanted to remember their ancestors. So let's not be Scrooges or Grinches this year. Happy holidays!

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Black Hamlet, Prince of Landmark

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 16:00:10 GMT

According to ABC News, "People who seek revenge are driven by anger and violence and have not thought about how to channel their negative feelings into something positive." Well, I hate to break it to you ABC, but that simply is not the case for all of us. Revenge does not have to be driven by violence, nor does it have to be driven by anger. Of course the precursor to all revenge is anger, but that anger subsides with time. I still remember the blinding rage I felt when was told I was fired at the start of this pandemic. I still remember throwing remnants from all my years of hard work in the theater in the recycle bin. I still remember never wanting to see any of those programs again, wanting to forget that I had ever even set foot in a theater. I remember it just fine, but I am not longer angry about it, nor do I have any desire to commit an act of violence. Those who commit violent acts may indeed claim that they were seeking revenge, but what they are really experiencing is aggression, which just happens to be triggered by alcohol, bullying and narcissistic personality traits. But not everyone who feels the need for revenge is an alcoholic, nor a victim of bullying, nor a narcissist. I am none of these things. I care deeply for others, even strangers. I was one of the most popular children at my school and I gave up on alcohol years ago after it worsened my epilepsy. Indeed, one of the main things people overlook about the character Hamlet is that he is grossly insulted by King Claudius, who sleeps with Hamlet's mother shortly after having his father killed. Most people may not call that bullying, but bedding another man's mom after you off his dad is certainly a huge insult that would probably drive most people to violence. I have not been insulted. Sure, people have tried to insult me. But how do you insult someone who could care less about the opinions of others? You cannot, try as you may. No, this is not about insults. This has nothing to do with narcissism. This is about the science of life, the truth behind the fiction. The reality is that people seek revenge because of the pleasure it brings. It feels good to get back at others, or at least to level the playing field. In the old days, they referred to this as justice, the most humane of all forms of revenge. Admit it, you feel good when that politician you hate sticks their foot in their mouth and takes a dive in the polls. You rejoice when that news anchor you cannot stand slurs his words. You practically jump out of your seat and dance when your old boss gets caught embezzling money from the company. Yes, revenge is sweet, but justice is sweeter. And so I am always out for a more just form of revenge. Harming others physically simply will not do because I find no pleasure in harming others. So what must be done is to tell the truth, the real truth, the inconvenient kind that makes you question where you buy your products. That is where you hit people the hardest. That is where you exact true justice. What is true can never be controlled. Liars can only run away from the truth and try to hide it everywhere it turns up, but eventually they all crack under the pressure of their own lies. You will always find me there, applying the pressure to the liars until the cracks begin to show. It may not seem like it now, but trust me when I say I have them on the ropes. They have already achieved and so are busy playing defense, whilst I launch my full offensive of inconvenient truths in their pitiable directions. I am not vanquished. I am stronger than ever. What was it Hamlet said about Claudius? "Up sword...When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; at gaming, swearing, or about some act that has no relish of salvation in't; then trip him..." Every great man falls eventually. It is just a question of when. I shall outsmart them all. Brevity is the soul of wit, so says black Hamlet.

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Reflections on Perfection

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 16:58:58 GMT

Everybody wants to be perfect. Everyone wants to win the contest or at least know the person who won the contest so that they can learn how to win a later contest. Everyone wants to win the big game, buy the perfect gift, cook the best meal, write the ultimate witty retort. Because of this yearning, this nagging desire for perfection, we miss out on the good times in life, but we do not want to have a good time, not really. In America good is secondary; good is middle class or average and a C is never good enough in America. You need that A; you must excel at every little thing otherwise you will be left out of the party or the college or the competition. You will be eliminated like a reality television star who just could not quite get the judges to like them enough. So close, yet so far. You have been eliminated and now you are no longer a member of the elite club of perfectionists. You are doomed to a life of good enough. But why isn't good enough enough? Why do we desire more than good? Why is it bad to do a good job? You may make a little less money, but you gain a whole lot more sanity than people realize. No one will ever be perfect so striving to reach that goal is a fool's game. Eventually you will be as optimized, maximized, and actualized as you could ever possibly be. Then there will be nowhere else to go, nothing else to improve upon. And then what? Do you push yourself even more? If you do, at that point, you just might fall over the edge. If you push yourself too hard you will be burned out, apathetic and unable to find joy in the passion you once had. Passion itself will disgust you because your passion will have failed to please you in the way you once thought it could. Then what will you do? More is not a goal; it is not a career. More is a desire, a craving, a lust for excess. Striving for more can kill you. Trying to be the best can make you tired and that fatigue can kill all ambition within you. I recently had a man tell me that he was irritated by the backup in deliveries with Amazon. When I asked him why he did not just go to the store and buy what he needed, he responded that he did not have time because he worked thirteen hours a day. Thirteen hours a day? But why? Why do that to yourself? What are you going to get out of it? I understand the person probably has more money than I do, but they cannot even find the time to spend the damn money if Amazon is experiencing delays for god's sake! In the old days, money gave you freedom. Today it cannot even get you a package delivered in a timely fashion. That is what perfection does to people. The will to be the best, to make the most money, to have the nicest car, to throw the biggest party, simply ends up making you a slave to the hustle, the grind, the rat race. You lose sight of that comfort you once thought your job would bring you. You become super pissed off that you cannot take that trip to Italy. So you work harder and harder and harder. Next thing you know, you cannot make time to spend with your loved ones anymore. You speak with them via text message, but only on the Holidays because those are your designated texting days now. No cellphones at that thirteen hour job. The boss might get upset. Maybe you feel lonely and want to get involved in a romantic relationship, but you don't have the time for that now because you have to get to work, so maybe you will have time to fall in love after you get that promotion in ten or twenty or thirty years, considering the company doesn't go under in that time of course. If it does then it will be more like forty years. But none of that matters. You do not need people in your life because, well, you have it all. You are wealthy, smart, pretty, and alone with practically no time for yourself or others, just how you like it. Isn't it grand? You did it. You are finally perfect like a beautifully built statue that people ignore on their way to work, that birds shit on from the sky. Sweet, smelly perfection

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How Ageism and Ableism Almost Killed Donald Trump

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 17:09:16 GMT

I am not fan of Donald Trump, but then again, I am not really a fan of most politicians; but far too few people realize that you do not have to be a fan of someone to recognize their humanity, to remember that they are a human being. A simple recognition of someone's humanity allows us to strengthen our critique of said person because then we are able to divorce ourselves from at least the majority of our various biases. So I was absolutely fascinated to learn that Donald Trump's exposure to Covid-19 was a lot more serious than he made it sound. Sure, I had an inkling that Trump was not faring well, but there was no way to know of the severity of his illness at the time. "When Trump was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital with Covid symptoms last fall, Mark Meadows, his then chief of staff, feared the president might die, according to an article in the Washington Post adapted from Nightmare Scenario, a book about Trump’s response to the pandemic." (Forbes) Trump was actually told by medical professionals at the time, along with some members of his own administration, to stay in the hospital, but he refused. Although this may just seem like another stupid decision of Trump's, this is a common occurrence in America. Many people go against their doctor's orders, citing concerns about "Big Pharma" or preferring to use "natural therapies", which are often even more lethal than side effects of FDA approved treatments. Trump was so desperate to appear as if he was super human that members of his administration requested that therapies, which at the time were simply experimental, be used on the president of the wealthiest nation in the world. Now that is desperation folks. You may not be able to fully appreciate that, but I sure can. Experimental therapies are never used on a sitting president. Though the therapy was approved for use before it was given to Trump, this only occurred because it was requested by Trump's administration. Hat it not been requested, it most likely would not have been approved at the time. "As Trump lay ill, then Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn received an urgent request from a top White House official about fast-tracking authorization for a monoclonal antibody treatment not yet approved by the agency." (Forbes) Why is a president of the most powerful nation to ever exist so afraid of being perceived by his followers as unwell? Well, some of it is pride, but pride does not just pop up out of nowhere; it is a byproduct of American nationalism. Consider the what Donald Trump tweeted to his followers the same month he would later be hospitalized with Covid-19: a meme with a picture of Joe Biden superimposed over an elderly person sitting in a wheelchair, who also appears to be in a retirement home; the tweet reads "Biden for President" with the p crossed out, causing it to read "Biden for Resident". The tweet received 422 likes. But it also played a huge part in driving away a lot of elderly people from voting for Trump in 2020. This, along with Trumpers recently booing Bill O'Rieley and Donald Trump for getting their booster shots, demonstrates that the Trump base is nowhere near as respectful of their elders as they like to pretend. The harsh truth about America is that it often uses this very ableist and ageist narrative, making cartoons out of disabled people as well as elderly people in order to gain likes and follows from those who lack empathy. Making a mockery of the sick and the aged became extremely popular during the eugenics movement in this country. Those who needed care or who were ill, a large number of whom were elderly, were seen as blemishes and burdens on society.

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Alone Again Again

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 04:41:04 GMT

You will always be alone, even if there are others around you, because you are the only person inside of your head, the only person who truly know or understands you is you. That is just a fact. You have to pretend for others; you cannot be your true self so you are all you have. There is nothing wrong with that. Democracy is based on individualism, not community. Sure, the community is there and it serves a purpose, but its purpose is not to infringe upon the rights of individuals, but to enhance those rights. We celebrate our uniqueness in America. We love how different we are, and yet we hate to be alone with ourselves. That is rather contrary if you think about it. If we love our individuality, our uniqueness, so damn much, well then we should be happy when we are long. We should not mope at the fact that we have alone time on the holidays or birthdays or any days really. What a gift it is not to have to impress anyone, not to have to be ridiculed, not to have to impress anyone any longer, not to have to expect anything from anyone anymore only to be disappointed later. You cannot get discouraged so easily because, once you are discouraged, you will become melancholy and then the light in your life has gone. You should never allow these tumultuous times to get the best of you. You should refrain from lashing out at others as much as possible, and the best way to do that is to be by yourself. It is fine to dream, but dreams only ever become reality on reality television. Rich people dream and then put videos about their dream on youtube. They then use the funds from their youtube channels to build their dreams. That is a sweet gig if you can pull it off, but it is damn hard to do when you are competing with celebrities who were already famous before youtube was even a thing. The odds are stacked against you and you have few resources at your disposal. You should not expect so much of yourself. You should love yourself as you are. We all know now that no one is coming to save us, that there is no great liberal hero on the horizon to combat the mean conservatives. You got what you voted for: centrism, dull, bland, boring, painful, center of the road politics. You could have had more; you could have had much more, but, for whatever reason, you picked someone who you saw as “safe”. We all know what happens to people who play it safe; they end up playing the fool. And so Joe Manchin has ruined any hope you had of passing the Build Back Better plan. I told you that would happen, but there was really no point in me telling you any of that because America is a predictable nation, it always chooses the most boring option, regardless of the circumstances. So, more and more, I am alone these days because I am not a boring person. I do not read romance novels about unity because I know how foolish a concept unity is. We’re not coming together; we’re not making the world a better place. We are farther apart than we have ever been. So the only advice I can give to you now is to learn to love your solitude for your politicians, your journalists, your entertainers, your activists, your gurus, your preachers have all abandoned you. They are all off partying with Joe Manchin, Dave Chappelle and Kayne West. They all love themselves very much. So, why shouldn’t you? Do not be lonely. Do not be sad. Create your own build back better plan. Get creative. Loss hurts, but you are much more than what you have lost. Exercise your right to be an individual. Make yourself the key focus, not arrogant politicians and foolhardy entertainers. Speak your mind, no matter what anyone says. It is freeing and it is free. Learn to be who you are, not what the wealthy want you to be, and, I promise, the pain will subside and you will flourish in ways that no congressional bill could ever fund.

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A Dream Deferred Becomes a Dream Unheard

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 19:48:29 GMT

What happens to a dream unheard? Does it calm down, like a child on the run? Or temper like a bore, and then shun? Is it silent like those who are weak? Or slick and darken over like an oily beach? Maybe it's just gagged and overthrown. Or does it get bold? Langston Hughes, who I actually had the opportunity of playing in a show once, wrote the landmark poem "A Dream Deferred" in 1951. Just twelve years later a man by the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., likely inspired by Hughes' wonderful poem, gave the landmark "I Have A Dream Speech" in 1963, which a great many people quote, but very few understand. Four years later in 1967, Langston Hughes died. A year later, in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered by a crazed gunman. After he was killed, riots broke out in the streets and Langston Hughes' poem proved to be more prophetic than he had ever imagined. That dream surely did explode, and it has continued to explode, and, I can promise you, that there will be many more explosions to follow. Dr. King's death was tragic and that tragedy remains very poignant for many of us to this very day. However, King at least had his time at the pedestal. He was able to be heard by millions of people, and I am glad for that because such a mountain of a man deserves to be heard. But in the black community there are many men like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: men with purpose, men with pride, men with strength, men with intellect, men with undying talent; but none of these men have been heard. Instead these black men are told to wait their turn while democratic establishment panders to conservative and moderate white folks, the same conservative and moderate white folks who sabotaged the Build Back Better bill. You saw what happened when the dream was at least heard. You saw what happened when you killed a King. Now the people of America have made an even more foolish decision, a decision that will go down in history as the greatest betrayal the democratic establishment has ever perpetrated on the black community. White liberals, the very same white liberals that Malcolm X, also murdered by a crazed gunman, decried in his Ballot or the Bullet speech as nothing more than impostors, have once again shown their true colors. They have refused again and again and again to address the issues of a police force that is out of control. Just today there was a report of an officer who was caught helping a known criminal run a sex trafficking operation; I had that on a black news station. White liberals had nothing to say about it. The white liberals have refused to hire people of color at the same rate that they hire their white friends. Multiple studies have proven this to be true and none of these studies have been taken seriously by white liberals. White liberals have refused to protect voting rights, instead opting to promote the same bullshit line that they will get around to it once the pandemic is over. The pandemic is not going to be over anytime soon. A Business Insider article released today clearly demonstrated that vaccination rates have been artificially inflated by data collectors, and are much lower than originally thought. So the question becomes, what is keeping voters of color in the Democratic party anymore? What is their reason for staying? I can tell you right now that they "at least he's not Trump" argument will only get you so far. That motivates me to go to the polls, but it does not motivate blacks in states with voter ID laws and a lack of transportation to get to the polls. It doesn't motivate young people either, and that is your base if you are a member of the Democratic party of same. This rise in crime will not cease. You have doomed yourselves because you have refused to give people the chance to dream. You have refused to listen and so now the backlash will ensue. A man with an extraordinary mind doomed for the ordinary by no fault of his own will fight for what is rightfully his. He gets bold.

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Laughing in the Face of Misery

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 20:42:14 GMT

You have to learn to laugh at life, not because it is the right thing to do, but because it will make you lighthearted, and therefore much less likely to fall prey to the ravaging beast of despair. Despair plagues America more so than any other wealthy nation in the world. Everyone is so miserable because everyone is so damn serious. Even the humor in America is used as a political battering ram, not as a way to make others laugh. Earlier today I found myself being lectured by Trevor Noah about China. Noah was going on about the imperialist implications of Chinese colonialism, which is not really the funniest of topics. Yet I hear tell that Trevor Noah was once a standup comedian who was actually pretty funny. The Daily Show also used to be funny; I remember laughing for hours on end while watching Jon Stewart. But now the show is so damn serious I feel like I’m watching an old episode of 60 Minutes. Seriously though, why do we have to be so serious all of the time? Is it a requirement or something? Must we be dull? Does every news network have to fixate over the leader of China? Is there really nothing else to talk about but communism? Politics in general is a joke. Why not make fun of it for crying out loud? They give you the material for free for fuck’s sake. I mean, I get it. I get it. Times are tough, but times are always tough. That is why we have humor; that is why we laugh at our problems instead of stressing ourselves out by overanalyzing them. We must learn to laugh again. We must make American politics funny again. Enough with this ridiculous melodrama. Modern day American politics reads much like a nineties soap opera. Will Ted Cruz finally find his testicles today? Will Rand Paul say yet another bat shit crazy thing and get away with it? Will the Supreme Court finally outlaw sex? Find out next time on the Dumb and the Feckless. You have to laugh. You have to smile. You have to because if you don’t, then you will be sad, sadder than you have ever been in your entire life, and you will forget the joy of laughter, the comfort that it brings. Stop trying to make everything so goddamn serious; it ain’t that serious. Life is a joke. Learn to laugh at it. Learn to take in stride. If someone tries to get you down, just laugh at them, or at least tell some jokes that aren't so damn boring. Nothing in life can be taken seriously, even death. Funerals should not be a time for mourning, but for celebration. Sure, a wonderful person is now gone, but they are also no longer in pain, and the person who is gone now lives within you. You should not tarnish their memory with sadness. You should celebrate their amazing life by using their memory spread joy and love to all who need it. They would have wanted that. No one who passes away wants their loved ones to suffer for it. That is what you want, but it is not always about what you want. Losing one's career can be quite painful; there is nothing more miserable than watching a dream die. But dreams are born from laughter. A child gets great joy from building and creating. A dream is your creation. You must learn to laugh again so that you can resurrect your dreams, so that they can rise again from the tomb of grief. Grief has its place, but grief does not have to be miserable; it does not have to send you into despair. Despair has no place in life; it must be left for the dead. I slept in a car. I have been terribly ill. I have lost loved ones. I have lost careers. I have lost friends. There were days where I thought I might starve. I got through it all by laughing. Do not be afraid to let go of your pain. Send your misery on its way with a joyous laugh. Laugh out loud when the tears well in your eyes. Dance when you tremble with fear. Sing a joyous song in spite of your melancholy woes. I know it is difficult, but so is life, and if you hate difficulty, then you hate your life as well. Embrace difficulty. Enjoy pain. Laugh.Every Brave New Word needs a bit of Antic Hay.

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The Pursuit of Meaninglessness

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 20:55:04 GMT

Running an internet search today is a lot like being in one of those old VHS video rental stores. “Be kind and rewind” is the title of almost every article, every news report, every youtube video is nothing but odd praises and mythos of kindness. “Kindness 101: What Is Kindness and How Do You Teach It?” by inspirekindness.com Sure sounds nice, but why do we have to teach kindness? Why does it need to be inspired? Because people are mean, that’s why. You have to teach kindness because, if you don’t, everyone will just go around being nasty to each other all the time. But, if your lessons were working at least a little bit, would you have to write so many damn articles about being kind? Would you have to give classes on kindness to beat it into people’s heads? “The Importance of Kindness” by Psychology Today. Would you look at that? You need a psychologist to tell you to be kind. So do psychopaths. “The Importance Of Kindness” by myfoothold.org Brilliant, that will do it. Tell everyone how important kindness is and there you go, instant paradise on earth! Just like that, no more problems, instant bliss, as long as you work hard enough. Then, when it does not happen, when the world is just as mean as it always has been, all internet gurus need to do is run a quick Google search, direct you to their article and say, “see, I told you so.” But can you really learn to be kind? Can you really teach someone who has no interest in helping other people that helping others is good? And, if you do, how do you go about it? America, like much of the Western world, is based on a rather clumsy, poorly thought out, system of rewards and punishments. If you do well on the test you get a free pizza. If you do well at your job you get to keep making money. If you are a good enough fighter, perhaps a boxing career is in the works, as long as you are good enough that is. But if you are not good enough, if you fail, even in the slightest, the punishments are unleashed. No pizza for you if you fail that test. You have to study now. We punish learners by forcing them to read. Reading is a punishment in our education system. If you do not produce adequately at work, perhaps your hours will be cut or perhaps you will be sacked all together. We improve our workers by communicating to them that they are useless and not worthy of our trust, not worthy of one simple mistake. Uh-oh, you did not make weight this month so no more boxing career for you. So the boxer goes off and jumps from miserable job to miserable job. We punish our fighters with unbearable torture. So what of kindness? Well, the reward is supposedly feeling good about yourself; you get to feel good about yourself for being kind. If you’re not kind enough, then no one will be kind to you. Feeling good about yourself is the reward. But shouldn’t you always feel good about yourself? Isn’t that just a basic way of getting through the day? We ignore those who are unkind. But does that make them kind to us? I think not, otherwise there would not be so many articles littered all over the internet on the benefits of kindness. Realize this and you will be free of all this: kindness and decency are one and the same. Do not help others for rewards; do not try to reap benefits from basic decency. Do not try to be kind to others. Life is not performance art. You are not trying to impress the audience here. There is no camera rolling. You help others because that is how the human race has survived, not because you will get a cookie for it later. Do you want to survive? Do you want to live? Then be kind. There is no need to romanticize such an important part of our evolutionary biology. Kindness, otherwise known as human decency, saves lives and it could save your life as well. Do not feed someone to teach them a lesson. Feed someone because they need food and they could die a violent death if you don't. Be practical about your charity. Do not give expecting things in return. That is all you need.

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The Decline of American Religion

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 15:28:02 GMT

American religion is on the decline. Decades of hellfire preaching, gender stereotypes, “conversion therapy”, witch hunting, and wild accusations have finally pushed over half of the nations out of the pews. But the most prevalent factor you see in the modern church that is turning people off to organized worship is the rise of Christian fundamentalism. American Christian fundamentalism in particular is perhaps the nastiest, meanest and most unforgiving ideology to ever reach America’s shores. The fundamentalists Christians have turned American churches, once fairly harmless community organizations that specialized in charitable events, into political battlegrounds for the sanctity of mankind. Many American preachers stand on street corners shouting vile insults at passersby, threatening them with eternal hellfire for being gay or for masturbating or for wearing short clothes or for using demon technology (preacher talk for anything invented after the 1950s) or for getting vaccinated, and on and on the seemingly never ending list of demonic infractions goes. You cannot be yourself at church. You can only be what the preacher wants you to be, a numb, mindless sycophant. There was a time in America where you could still hold onto your identity and attend church, a time where you did not have to be perfect. Now the preachers demand perfection from their congregants. But there are no perfect people and so the churches are emptying like never before. And the preachers arrogantly huff and puff and say, “good, go; I don’t want any people around who are not in full submission to Christ.” Well, the people have gone; they have obeyed the commands of their preachers. “Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.” (Gallup, 2021) Did the church really think it would survive after telling women what to wear? Did the church believe it would get away with stripping women of their right to choose? Did the preachers really think that they could continue to brush the rampant sexual molestation of juvenile congregants under the rug for years to come? Did the preachers believe that demanding cash payments or “tithes” from their congregants would be in fashion during a recession, which was then followed by a depression? Did the holier than thou folk really think that people would give up their birth control, their explicit lyrics, their miniskirts, their cannabis, their vaccines, their college degrees, all so that they could be good little children and maybe go to heave some day? Why would the church think that? Does the church not realize that religion can be done at home, that spirituality can be an individual practice, that some people do not even require spirituality? I do not know the holy folks were thinking when they got involved in politics, when they broke the sacred doctrine of separation of church and state, when they decided to legislate their beliefs instead of practicing them. It is true that the fundamentalists have the courts, that they have the Congress, that they, temporarily anyway, are in control of the national narrative. But as the churches empty, so will the church coffers. The wealthy church donors of the day may keep the church afloat for a time, but their children will grow up and spend their money elsewhere. "The decline in church membership is primarily a function of the increasing number of Americans who express no religious preference. Over the past two decades, the percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religion has grown from 8% in 1998-2000 to 13% in 2008-2010 and 21% over the past three years." (Gallup)

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Rehoming

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 05:29:40 GMT

I will begin this by stating that I have a child of my own and that I plan on having more as well, but I am still pro-choice, not pro-life. I will also say out loud that I do not have any hopes of changing anyone’s mind about abortion. People decide on the issue when they are young and their opinions on this issue rarely change. You cannot really change anyone’s mind on such politically charged issues and so I do not see the point in trying any longer. There is too much romantic heroism involved in the whole save the children argument to argue scientifically or even logically when it comes to this issue. So many American men view themselves as the saviors of women that having any kind of sound, logical discussing about abortion is pretty much impossible. All the pro-lifers have to do anymore is take out their violins and start reciting poetry about saving the poor little babies, the poor little babies that they do not want to pay for. It is a fact that most pro-lifers are actively seeking to dismantle and destroy the welfare system. Well, how do you afford all of these new children popping up without welfare? Have we really grown so childish that we are expecting people to not have children until they can afford them? When has abstinence only ever worked? When has prayer ever stopped people from having children that they are not prepared to care for? Never, but pro-lifers do not care about that. They do not really care about the well-being of the child. I know that for a fact. I know that I have not even spoken to most of my pro-life “friends” ever since my child was born. I have not even gotten so much as a hello from my pro-life friends since my child’s birth. Pro-lifers are not lovers of life, but lovers of god, and god is a ruthless character in the holy scriptures, turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to the suffering of millions. Well, people try to be like their god and so they ignore difficult problems and make silly leaps of faith. No, none of this is meant to change your mind. I simply wish to inform you of the hell on earth that will soon unfold because of this very hasty and uninformed decision. I can almost guarantee that most pro-lifers have never even heard of rehoming. While that may sound like something a person does with pets, parents in America are starting to frequent the practice of simply putting their child up for auction to the highest bidder on the internet. Some people even throw child pageants so that prospective parents can audition children that they may potentially adopt. These possible parents to be can even choose that they do not want a rehomed child after they have already adopted them. That’s right, the rehoming market has a return policy; if you dislike your adopted child, you can simply take it back, as long as you have the receipt. I thought that pro-lifers believed that children were not things, that kids were people with rights. But if these kids can simply be auctioned off on the internet to pedophiles, rapists and perverts then the kids have no rights. They are simply pawns in a political chess match between the right and the left. You cannot force parents to keep their children and even if you were to make a law forcing them to do so, the child would suffer in poverty or just suffer with the knowledge that their parents never wanted them. Child abandonment under the guise of this legal practice of rehoming will skyrocket when roe v. wade is overturned. Children will be thrown into this rehoming system, a system which is full of child predators just waiting for their next young victim. And so as America continues to punish poor people by cutting their benefits we will soon see a whole generation of Americans brought up in a dystopian childcare system that essentially legitimizes child abuse. If that is pro-life then it is a harsh life indeed. And so it is becoming apparent that no one in America really cares about children. They only care about their political agendas. Nothing new

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Holy Cosmetics

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 05:00:40 GMT

One would think that cosmetic surgeries and having the appropriate look would not be required for spirituality. After all, religions often preach that they are places of acceptance where a person does not need to feel self-conscious about who they are. If this were actually the case, and not just a bit of clever propaganda, then we should be allowed to look and dress however we please. But, all too often, in religious organizations across the world, we are shamed into looking a certain way in order to fit in with people who call themselves "normal". But when you strip away all of the highfalutin language in whatever holy scripture you are reading, it becomes quite clear that these requirements for proper looks are nothing more than a holy fashion show meant to distinguish the chose ones from the "unclean". On this version of "holy cosmetics" (there is no way I can fit all of the odd requirements for looks into one episode so expect a part two, three and maybe even four) I will focus on circumcision, namely male circumcision. Do not get me wrong. I appreciate the severity of the harm that female circumcision does to women, but I also think that it gets a lot more press than male circumcision because, in western culture anyway, mutilating the penis is seen as normal, while mutilating the clitoris is generally discouraged. But it is important to note that there is no real medical benefit to circumcision in the modern world. While it is true that circumcision tends to prevent urinary tract infections, antibiotics can now quickly fix any problems with the urinary tract and they are widely available to the public. American parents and medical organizations are one of the only ones in the western world today to view circumcision as being medically beneficial. Many other western nations have found no real benefit to the ancient cosmetic surgery. “American parents are almost alone in the Western world in their desire to separate boys from their foreskins for reasons other than religion,” Jessica Wapner writes. “… In 2010, for instance, the Royal Dutch Medical Association reviewed the same studies the AAP looked at...it concluded that the health benefits of circumcision are ‘questionable, weak, and likely to have little public health relevance in a Western context." This does not sound like science to me; it sounds like culture run amuck to the point of where even esteemed organizations are making arguments for surgeries on children when they are probably not even necessary. "Today, about 75 percent of males aged 15 and older in the U.S. are circumcised for non-religious reasons, according to the World Health Organization. That compares with about 6 percent in Great Britain, 30 percent in Canada and 59 percent in Australia." (MinnPost, Susan Perry) So, how did circumcision become so popular? It turns out we have the Victorian era to thank, an era that also brought us the fashion industry and cosumerism, two other cultural phenomenons that have no practical use in the real world. Contrary to popular belief, Americans did not adopt the practice of circumcision from the Old Testament; that is where Jewish and some Muslim people got it from. "As Wapner explains, American families began adopting the practice in large numbers for non-religious reasons during the late 19th century, mainly because of misguided beliefs among some physicians that it would cure several specific nerve-related ailments and reduce masturbation, which many in the medical community had declared was linked to epilepsy, mental illness and a host of other problems." Are you starting to see why this is so upsetting to me? Doctors used to believe that masturbation caused epilepsy and mental illness and so they used circumcision to discourage masturbation, even though there was no solid evidence

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Cute Animals, Deadly Messages

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 16:01:12 GMT

There are very few things that surprise me anymore in life. Rising crime? I called that at the beginning of the pandemic. Authoritarian attacks on democracy? Ha! I lived through the Bush junior years for crying out loud. Conspiracy theories becoming mainstream narratives? Yawn, I used to be a right winger for crying out loud. With all that I have been through it is difficult for me to even believe that I can be surprised anymore. I mean, I got thrown off a train after falling ill and left for dead in liberal San Francisco for crying out loud. It does not get much more surprising than that! Or does it? The biggest surprises are the ones that you would never see coming, the kind of surprises that shatter your reality and force you to reevaluate the life you are leading. Well, consider me surprised. It is not that I ever really liked cute animal pictures and videos. To be completely honest, I was rather indifferent about them. People love animals and so they are always shoving some phone in your face with a picture or video of a cat or dog or elephant or whatever. Apart from being mildly annoyed about this modern phenomenon (excuse me for not wanting to see some video about some goofy animal slobbering all over the place while I eat my dinner; I sincerely do not apologize), I never really gave it a second thought. And why would I? I mean, it is just an adorable animal, and there is nothing wrong with finding animals adorable…unless the people who are posting those videos have ulterior motives. On the internet cute animals are big business. You cannot go on social media without having a sleepy cat or a curious seal flopping across your screen. These pictures and videos effortlessly receive thousands and even millions of likes and comments, which makes them some of the most popular content on the internet. Content creation means big money and so we must follow that money to find who is profiting from all of these videos. It turns out most of them, about 70%, are distributed by two companies: Junkin Media and Viral Hog. And wouldn’t you know it, neither of these companies has any policy in place to prevent the spread of misinformation, more commonly known as conspiracy theories. But cute animals pictures and videos cannot spread conspiracy theories, right? Wrong. All a content creator needs to do to get you to keep consuming their content is to get you to like it once or twice. After that point, your social media feed will automatically recommend all of their content to you. You do not have to sign up for this process; it happens every time you like something. So, what kind of content are you exposing yourself to when you like those cutesy animal videos? It turns out that one of the largest producers of such content is a little paper known as The Epoch Times, a far right conspiracy rag owned by a follower of a religious cult, which just happens to be Trump supporter’s favorite newspaper. Though The Epoch Times, like all news organizations today, promotes itself as unbiased, the pro-Trump rag has relentlessly spread false information about voter fraud in the 2020 election, pushed the unproven idea that China invented Covid-19 in a lab as a plot to destroy democracy, and unabashedly publicized the January sixth pro Trump rally that turned into an attempted coup. Unbiased you say? Sure, if you consider far right extremism to be without bias. Another promoter to cute animal videos is none other than the world renowned quack himself, Dr. Joseph Mercola. Mercola, a snake oil salesman who has advised patients to engage in unproven "natural" therapies as opposed to taking real medicine, has supported the false claim that twenty-two of the vitamins that he sells on his website can prevent, treat and even cure Covid-19, though no evidence for this exist. Mercola has made several false claims about the medicinal value of supplements he just happens to sell. I think I'll pass on your next animal video. I'd rather live past thirty.

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Mob Rationality

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 16:50:03 GMT

For years now we have heard philosophers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and political theorists make grand assumptions about the nature of mob violence. Commentary on “the mob” often assumes a natural progression toward chaos that is somehow inherently a part of society, even though such a thing has never been definitively proven. “The mob believes everything it is told, provided only that it be repeated over and over. Provided too that its passions, hatreds, fears are catered to” (Alexandre Koyre). ““Pilate was required to release one of the prisoners, so he gave the mob the choice of Jesus or Barabbas, a notorious murderer and insurrectionist-in otherwords, someone who incites mobs. Again, the mob "spoke with one voice" demanding "with loud shouts" that Jesus be crucified” (Ann Coulter). ““...when like-minded people get together, they often end up thinking a more extreme version of what they thought before they started to talk to one another” (Cass R. Sunstein). Such proclamations are certainly comforting; they make one sleep well at night. “Well,” a panicky person romanticizes, “I’ll just stay inside my room then and never interact with others. That will stop the mob from infecting my sacred thoughts.” But locking yourself away from groups will not stop riots, nor will it prevent that mob from potentially lashing out at you. The idea that riotous behavior is contagious, requiring something as simple as one act of violence to enact an entire stream of calamitous behavior, is a misinterpretation of what is actually happening, and so boycotting groups will not protect you from such violence. The calls for less group behavior is counter active to preventing mob behavior for the only thing that prevents mob behavior is complete and total integration and integration requires a commitment to understanding and appreciating others, not barricading yourself behind a wall of books or scratching down some nasty words about the “herd”. It is also important to remember that what is considered violent at any particular moment varies greatly depending upon the society that you are in. I am not justifying violence; I am simply stating that in segregated societies, culture is always king, while the law remains secondary. A society of mostly poor people are not going to care as much about things like theft, especially if the thefts are occurring only at major chain stores and overpriced mansions. Perhaps even more important, those who write the history of events tend to skew reality in order to demonize those who may have acted irrationally for very logical reasons. Was it really irrational for people to riot after witnessing cops being acquitted for the violent beating of Rodney King? Are you even aware that, a few months prior to that beating, a 15 year old girl name Latasha Harlins was murdered by a store owner for attempting to steal an orange and that, though investigators proved she was reaching in her wallet for money to pay for the orange, “liberal” Los Angeles bequeathed that the store owner be fined a mere $500 and never sent him to prison? What is rational to a person who is well taken care of and thus content to be a fully integrated member of society, is insanity to a sequestered people who feel persecuted by the ruling classes because they have been abandoned by that society. So this is not simply “like-minded” people committing violence, but persecuted out groups who lash out at the power structures who have harmed them, whether that be big business, big government or the police. Of course riots do not accomplish tangible goals; they do not feed or clothe people, for example, not in the long term anyway, and so people like me will never be interested in participating in them. But who is to say that the mob’s goal is to accomplish anything prudent? Perhaps the emotional response it used to stage a sort of political urgency in the populous. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. theorized “riots are the voice of the unheard”.

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The Faith and the Fury

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 16:06:20 GMT

It is easy for one to say that they will never lose faith; it is much more difficult to comprehend how faith is lost. Still, to this day, I cannot exactly say how or why I lost my faith. There was no definitive moment where I said to myself, "aha, my faith has gone and now I believe in nothing." It was not a calculated effort of my part. I did not decide to not believe. I am not even sure how one would go about doing that, though I do not claim that such a things is impossible either. But, for me, becoming a nihilist was simply a process of realizing how little I mattered to others. The economic crisis of 2008 combined with the unbridled gutting of the arts from the schools offered a solid one two punch to any hope I ever had of achieving anything in this country. Careers can only be given to people by employers and if there are not employed artists you are basically at the will of the wealthy. You have to go to wealthy artists to be deemed worthy of a career in art now, but those wealthy artists do not share the wealth. So, you end up with nothing. You end up discarded, another crossed out name on a casting director's long list of dashed hopes and dreams. It's not like you can really develop another dream either. I am not even sure that I want to do that. Career changes are fine, but perhaps they just do not work for some people. Perhaps some people become so attached to their career that losing it is like losing themselves. Far too few people understand the grieving process when it comes to careers. They do not understand the soul destroying depression and despair that ensues after someone tells you that you are not good enough to achieve your dreams. Rejection of what you once believed to be your co-workers and the subsequent career failure that follows, in many ways, is to be woken up from your dreams and to enter a prolonged insomnia that never ends. A faithful person is able to go it alone under such harsh circumstances because that is what their religion tells them, that people are unreliable and that all you can really depend on is god. So I did that because that was my last resort. You see, I lost my career twice. Once during the current pandemic, but also before during the Great Recession when my hometown theater and many others went out of business, turning a once great profession into a laughably impossible task. I still do not know how I was able to propel myself forward and achieve a steady living after that recession (we did not get any stimulus money in those days), but I did. And then my new acting career, the one I had miraculously built from nothing, was taken from me as well. A recession, briefly followed by a pandemic and now belief is just a joke to me. But before the pandemic I lived the life of a person who had given myself completely to god so that I could forget the cares of this world. It is arguably possible that this is what gave me the will to obtain a second acting career. And I know that many would ask, why not just do it again? Numb the pain with prayer and go work at Amazon to save up to be an actor. After all, that's what (enter whatever dumb celebrity) did. But that misses the point. Don't you see? I did that already. I devoted myself to god and he told me to take a hike. So, even if he is real, which I have no reason to think he is, god does not care about what happens to me. To be fair to the religious, most people do not care what happens to me either. And so both god and people are careless beings. So, you see, there is not point. You cannot win because you cannot please people or god. All that is left in meaninglessness. If I were still a believer, I might just declare a holy war on those who betrayed me for I would believe they had harmed one of god's children, that being me. But harm requires care. You have to care about someone to want to harm them. I was simply tossed aside like a soiled garment. I am nothing to people or god and so I have no faith in either. I am nothing.

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How Tragedy Breeds Conspiracy

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 17:27:55 GMT

Tragedy has an odd way of breeding conspiracy. This occurs because the tragic elements of our lives set our imaginations aflame. You hear people say all the time that there must be a reason for things occurring and, often, this is true. However, people tend to romanticize the tragic a bit too much. While life is precious and it is certainly important, life’s importance does not outweigh the importance of the truth because the entire basis of existence itself is, in fact, truth. So it is up to us to remain objective during desperate times. It is up to us to control our sometimes rabid and hallucinatory emotional states. I mean no disrespect to those who are victims of tragedy; I have endured my fair share indeed and so mocking such people would be nothing more than self-hatred. I am not attacking anyone. I am trying to instill within a sense of urgency about separating mythos from reality. We must always do this, no matter how much pain we suffer. We cannot be like people on social media, who theorize about non-existent race wars. One of the things I saw a lot of people online saying after the tragedy in Wisconsin is that Darrell Brooks, a lifetime criminal who appears to be severely mentally disturbed, committed his despicable act in order to incite a race war on white people. This argument, that all black people are seeking the violent overthrow of white American hegemony, appears constantly in the history of American tragedy. When Noah Green, who was studying to be a member of the far right Nation of Islam, murdered officer William Evans, online “experts” were quick to point the finger a Black Lives Matter, a leftist organization that argues for progressive policies. The rationalization for this is usually an obscure television interview where a member of Black Lives Matter refuses to condemn the Nation Of Islam’s leader. The obscurity of this very irrational rationalization highlights the inherent prejudices of witch hunters and conspiracy theorists. There is no proof that Green’s attack, tragic as it may be, was caused by the Nation Of Islam, Black Lives Matter or any other group. But people at the time were scared and so they developed fantasies to help them deal with their fears of a coming and comically mythical “race war”. If you look back in history you will find that, whenever a black man commits a crime, all black men are subsequently downgraded in status and meant with a cautious eye by white America. There were also conspiracy theories about defund the police causing this crime, but that has no basis in reality either. "In truth, there is no significant Defund-the-Police movement coming from Milwaukee. The concept of defunding the police is very unpopular, including among communities of color." But Tucker Carlson has blamed defund nonetheless. That is not to say that all white people engage in this prejudice, but it is childish to assume that a small or moderate number of people cannot have an effect on the narrative of a nation that was almost recently overthrown by a few thousand morons. There are also constant narratives about wars on Christmas floating around during this time of year. Many Christians believe that people are angry at them for simply existing, and constant imaginings of persecution fester in the heads of many of America’s Christians. But, most of the time, these violent acts come about because of the negligence of the American justice system. I am not talking about the cops here, but the court system. An assistant district attorney simply failed to set the appropriate bail for Brooks. According to the county district attorney John Chisholm, "You had a young ADA trying to do the very best she could under difficult circumstances, and she made a mistake.” I am not saying that should settle the concerns of the community where this heinous act took place. I am just reporting the truth and the fact of the matter is that the truth is never satisfying, nor does it lead to simple solutions.

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The Dollar Scheme Part 2

Sun, 13 Mar 2022 19:35:30 GMT

We like to think that the products that we buy are sold to us by kindly family folks who are concerned about our well-being. But we think this because this is what we have been taught to think by advanced marketing campaigns, not because that is the reality. However, no matter how much we try to think the kindly old man behind the counter when we go to the store had a caring hand in inspecting our products to ensure quality and, most importantly, safety, what actually happens is much more grim and far less safe than most people imagine. While organizations like the FDA are often portrayed as having all encompassing power to prevent such things, their actual power is very limited, and they can only prevent faulty products from making it to the shelves if and when they can track down said products. After decades of often unfounded skepticism about the intentions of the FDA and subsequent legislation that in many ways decreased the effectiveness of the FDA's ability to crack down on big business, I am reading more and more stories about bargain stores like the Dollar Tree selling toxic products to consumers. All of this is coming at a time when the Dollar Tree is not lowering, but raising its prices. Citing inflation and essentially blaming the Biden administration for high costs, as so many other companies have done, may seem like a good excuse, but it is worth remembering that the Dollar Tree saw a huge increase in profit in 2020. Don't believe me? There is no need. The numbers speak for themselves, "Dollar Tree same-store sales increased 2.2%. Gross profit increased 10.6% to $7.79 billion. Gross margin improved 70 basis points to 30.5%, compared to 29.8% in the prior year. Fiscal 2020 included $36.3 million, or 15 basis points, related to COVID-19 costs." (SEC) Now, how is it that the Dollar Tree was seriously affected by inflation after benefiting from a 10.6% increase in gross profit? On what planet does that make sense? And what about the fact that the Dollar Tree pays its workers ridiculously low wages? The average hourly wage for a cashier is about nine dollars an hour, twelve dollars an hour for assistant managers, and thirteen dollars an hour for a merchandise manager. Further, while news outlets have maintained that workers are driving the increase in prices, I have found no evidence that the Dollar Tree has given or that they plan to give their workers raises. Even more suspect is the fact that the Dollar Tree has experienced worker shortages, which would imply that they are currently saving money on their workforce, not spending it. If all of this is accurate then why is the Dollar Tree struggling to keep quality products on its shelves? Does more profit now equal more loss in America? If you are a consumer, you would think so, especially if you are poor. The Dollar Tree is using its popularity to essentially strong arm its competition out of the neighborhood. The reason you do not often find many small mom and pop stores or supermarkets near a Dollar Tree is because they "...intentionally cluster multiple stores in low-income areas. That strategy discourages supermarkets from opening and it threatens existing mom-and-pop grocers, critics say." (CNN Business) That is right. Instead of blaming sitting presidents for those small businesses going under, it is high time we started to point the finger at the real culprit, bargain stores that charge ridiculously low prices for faulty goods that quality stores simply cannot afford to compete with. Dollar stores also keep poor neighborhoods in poor health by selling mostly snack foods and no produce to speak of. These snacks tend to be high in sugar and saturated fats, which lead to increases in heart disease, diabetes and cancers. According to Web Md, for every ten percent increase in dietary intake of highly processed foods, there is a twelve percent increase in the consumer's risk of developing cancer.

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Social Darwinism and Sexual Anarchy

Sat, 12 Mar 2022 17:29:24 GMT

Sexuality has always existed, but the almost obsessive compulsive study of it is quite new. Growing up today one would think that sexual identity and politics are inherently interlinked, that in order to be truly sexual, one most also be labeled politically correct or normative. However, as is often the case, history tells us quite a different story. Even the terms "homosexual" and "heterosexual" were invented by a journalist during the nineteenth century, a little over 200 years ago. But these sexual acts always existed in our society. It was not until the age of social Darwinism that terms like "heterosexual" began to be used to identify "normative" sexual behavior. This is why it does not surprise me all that much when comedians like Dave Chappelle are congratulated for picking on transgender people, nor does it surprise me when conservative talking heads like Charlie Kirk try to terrify you about the supposed scourge of "sexual anarchy" that is overtaking the nation. While this argument is often written off as the "lunatic fringe" in liberal circles, we must remember that conservatism is not a fringe movement, but an expression of traditional values. So, in order to understand the threat that conservatism presents to us today, we must understand the conservative traditions that we are expected to adhere to and where they originated. The usage of the word "anarchy" when it comes to sexuality implies that there is a "normal" sexuality and that all other forms of sexuality are abnormal. Once you have defined a behavior as abnormal it becomes increasingly easier to criminalize and punish said behavior. This is how the politicization of human sexuality works in intellectual circles. In politics if something is considered bad, it can be legislated with the will of the people, regardless of what science may suggest; we need only look to the criminalization of cannabis to confirm this political reality. Sexual acts are not immune to this effect. These arguments, which state that all things that are not heterosexual are either laughable or dangerous, are deeply ingrained in American cultural ideology. America has still not come to terms, in fact it has made the potentially devastating error of refusing to even recognize, the fact that eugenics was just as, if not more, popular in America than it was in Germany. Adolph Hitler, Josef Mengele, and Adolf Eichmann used social Darwinism and eugenics to choose their victims for the holocaust, but they obtained these widely popular ideas from American intellectuals and their British forefathers. We need only take a look at the Eugenics Archive to confirm the aforementioned statement, "One of the consistent facets of eugenics over time and place has been an interest in regulating sexual behavior, sexual orientation, and gender expression. Indeed, this one area in which the insidious quest or normalization associated with eugenics movement is very evident. A quick review of the earliest cases of institutional sterilization in Indiana, which passed the world's first sterilization law in 1907, confirms this. Sodomy, which most likely encompassed a wide variety of male same-sex interactions, was the infraction listed for approximately a third of male inmates...at the Jeffersonville Reformatory for vasectomy in the early 1900s. More generally, a concern with sexual deviance permeated eugenics movements across the globe, even as some variants embraced a more progressive 'free love' approach to female sexuality and reproduction. In some cases this focus translated into attempts to control female sexuality to meet the demands of hetero-normative procreation and family formation. For example, many women who were institutionalized or sterilized under eugenic commitment laws were classified as loose, promiscuous, or somehow sexually delinquent." This argument, which seeks to humiliate, demonize, incarcerate, and sterilize those who experiment sexually is a direct threat to our liberties.

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Colorless Casting

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 17:55:56 GMT

It was always a bet, always a gamble, this acting thing. My black ass never had a chance in hell. But I foolishly listened to the stuff shirts and the snobs and the go getters and the gurus. I kept trying. Every day I tried and tried harder every try. In the old days, the days before I almost died by having a seizure on a train home from a low paying acting job in San Francisco, it was somehow motivating to know that I could always try harder. That was enough to keep me sane back then, but now I realize that all that trying was in vain. I was getting nowhere fast and working way too hard to get there. The acting world never had anything for me but a middle finger and a pitiful stipend. Right now, somewhere in the liberal bay area, some poor black kid is frantically racing to catch a bus; once on that bus, that black kid will travel upwards of two or three hours so he can get to an audition for film, TV or theatre. But the sad truth is that that black kid will likely not get the part because all the theatres in the bay area do the same shows with a mostly white cast. Even if that black kid did manage to get the part, the show, which would rehearse for about five to eight hours a day, six days a week for four months, would pay that poor kid anywhere from two to twelve hundred dollars for the whole show, including the run. That worthless stipend is meant to cover all of that poor kid’s travel, food and childcare costs during that four months. There are, extracting the one day off, ninety-six work days in that calendar. If I assume the best intentions of the theater or film company and they shell out the maximum of $1200, that works out to a grand total of twelve dollars and fifty cents…a day, not an hour, a day. But that is assuming that the company has that in its budget. Generally, the stipend pay for a non-union bay area actor is $200 for the entire run. That comes out to about two dollars and eight cents a day for that poor black kid with stars in their eyes, thinking that there is some kind of hope there. Well, there is not hope there. You cannot sustain a life in California on that, especially not if you have a kid of your own. But the theater owners and the film production companies in the bay area don’t give two shits about that poor black kid. They will tell him to work another job to sustain his “hobby” of acting, to do it for the love of the theater or the camera or the stage or whatever. Meanwhile, they rake in tons of dough on these shows, profiting off the blood, sweat and tears of their hired help…I mean, “entertainers”. But that is California for you, a state that would rather pay black entertainers peanuts than do the right thing. But there is a dual reality in California. On every casting notice you will see the term “color blind casting” meant to portray the idea that anyone can be cast in any role at any time, that they only choose the most talented. So, the message from the California entertainment industry is that white people are more talented than black people, that white people are prettier than black people, that white people are smarter than black people. Of course that is not true, but neither is entertainment. Entertainment is a delusion. Entertainment is escapism, a fantasy world where everything is pure. And so the mostly white union actors get paid about $1200 a week, while that poor kid gets $200 for the whole run. This is justice in California. This is what they call liberalism. This is what they call “equal opportunity”. At times like this, when I reminisce about my experience in this ass backwards entertainment industry, I am often reminded of the movie China Town. At the movie’s end, Jake is forced to see Evelyn’s mangled body lying dead before him due to the town’s corruption and his ignorance. He cries out for mercy, but all he gets in response is “Forget it Jake. It’s China town.” I hear some of you out there now screaming that this just can’t be. Forget it folks. It’s theatre town.

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Trevor Noah and the Myth of Liberal Media

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 17:46:28 GMT

Everyone has heard it before. The news is a secret liberal plot to take over America and all that it holds dear, like the Constitution, guns, Gucci handbags, Popeye's Chicken, shopping malls, red meat, and the right to fire or evict whoever you choose without good reason. It is all a plot, all a conspiracy to take away your right to party. But look, it just ain't true. The media has done nothing but pander to moderates and conservatives for decades now, mostly because the talking heads you see on the news are moderate and conservative. You can not name one liberal broadcaster on the supposedly "liberal" news, not in terms of policy anyway. I still remember the days (it was 2013 to be exact) when CNN's very own Don Lemon, instead of chanting that Black Lives Matter as he does today, used a bogus study to call black people a bunch of lazy, fatherless bums. Here's the quote, "Studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison...pay attention to and think about what has been presented in recent history as acceptable behavior. A culture that glorifies everything I just mentioned, thug and reprehensible behavior, a culture that is making a lot of people rich, just not you. And it’s not going to." For the record, there are just as many studies that demonstrate that children who grow up without fathers in the home turn out perfectly fine. Perhaps if Lemon looked closely at the "thug" culture he is referring to he would note that several successful black celebrities, athletes and business owners came from fatherless homes. Swing and a miss Donny boy. Of course I would be remiss to leave out Chris Cuomo's recent attempt to distort the truth of his brother's vile treatment of women. Where is that in the liberal cannon? Nowhere to be found. And let us not forget the almost never-ending stream of idiotic comments coming out from publications like USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico decrying the "radical progressive" agenda of Joe Biden (the most right of center democrat to hold the presidency in decades), while at the same time pressuring Biden to abandon progressive policies and appeal to "swing voters", who are nothing more than far right libertarians who Biden has no chance of winning by the way. This same "liberal" news media has consistently failed the people of this country by creating a false narrative that people from the far right will come together and compromise. But the compromise they speak of always means that liberals must compromise their values and beliefs, while conservatives dictate what it means to be an American. Because of this self-proclaimed "unbiased" media, the same media that tirelessly defended Joe Manchin (a staunch opponent of abortion) and Krysten Sinema (a darling of prescription drug companies), that so many people call liberal, there is no doubt that abortion will be criminalized, medicare will be defunded, and that big oil will continue to make ridiculous profits by destroying the environment while funding dictators in places like Saudi Arabia and Africa. This is your liberal media and those are the far right conservative policies that they support. And so it came as no surprise to me when the once great, now so-so Daily Show's Trevor Noah decided it would be funny to spread conspiracy theories about the CEO of Moderna. Noah implied that Moderna's CEO has a vested interest in drumming up fear about the new Omicron variant. But where is his proof for this claim? While the "liberal" media has once again put on its rose colored glasses when it comes to the pandemic, citing early studies that say it has mild effects, a report from The Daily Beast states, "The highly transmissible Omicron variant is sending large numbers of unvaccinated children under 5 years old to the hospital." I don't know about you, but my liberal ass is concerned. But then again, "liberal" Trevor Noah would know nothing about that.

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Grave Expectations

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:02:50 GMT

I recently heard someone say one of the smartest things I had ever heard in my life, that being that expectations are premeditated resentments. We already know that people are not perfect. We already know that no one is going to do exactly what we wish them to do all of the time. We already know that people are not going to applaud for us when we finally get that promotion. We already know that people will inevitably get comfortable and begin to take us for granted. We already know that romantic comedies are just poorly written romantic novels. Yet we continue to think that the happy ending is just right around the corner, always elusive, yet always somehow always just out of our grasp because we did not smile enough or laugh enough or meditate enough or appreciate enough. We assume that we need to work harder at...something, anything. But that is simply not the case. Our expectations are our minds playing tricks on us. If you do not get what you want, you will become extremely upset and if you do get what you want, it will never be enough, not if you already lived it in your dreams. Dreams are far superior to anything life has to offer; dreams are perfect and life is anything but perfect. You can go anywhere and do anything in your dreams. You can be amazing 100 percent of the time if you are dreaming. But that will never happen in real life. You will make crucial errors. You will fail, over and over again. And no one is going to come riding in on a great stallion to rescue you from your failure either. You will, eventually, at one point or another, have to admit defeat. But defeat does not have to be the end. In fact, loss can be the start of new beginnings. When my dad died, I did not know what to do. I lost a man who was an intricate part of my identity, and it took me so long to realize that, by being upset at the world for taking him from, I was being extremely unreasonable. What did I expect? Did I think an angry smoker and drinker would be alive forever? I probably did; that was my expectation and how horrible it was experiencing the disappointment, the let down and the maddening rage that came along with it. It is so awful that I did that to myself. I used to blame my father or my friends or my relatives for that pain, but now I realize that it was my unreasonable expectation that caused me such pain and grief. It is just like how I used to go into auditions expecting the casting agent to choose the most talented person, to not be discriminatory while making their casting decisions. What a huge mistake that was. I should have known better. I should have known that people discriminate all the time, that they have their own expectations and that those expectations can be downright mean. I once had a person tell me that they did not expect to see a person who looks like me playing a lawyer, just like I have had people tell me that actors who look like me should play gang members and drug dealers. I remember an old director of mine having to fight to get me into a production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest because I did not look the part to play Chief Bromden in the other director's mind. I remember how silly that seemed to me at the time. But I get it now. In the theater, realism is expected and realism is exclusive and discriminatory. I should have expected such idiocy, but I kept trying to argue to myself that we live in a more advanced era where such prejudices are irrelevant. Well, I was wrong. In the minds of the theater world, I am a drug dealer or a hustler or a slave or a rapist or some other derelict personality I have never been in real life because that is what the theater world expects of black people. And this is why expectation ruins art. Expectation puts art in a box; it restricts and tames it. You cannot have great art without experimentation, the will to try new things, to go where no artist has dared to go before. But artistic directors expect the same profits every year. Reruns again tonight.

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The Conservative War on Mental Health

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 18:12:09 GMT

While I am no fan of Freudian psychology, also commonly known as bullshit, I also recognize that while mental health studies such as psychiatry and psychology remain flawed, they provided us with many benefits as well. Psychiatrists, while demonized on a daily basis by "natural healers", also known as pseudo scientists, do in fact prevent some people from committing dangerous acts such as suicide, self harm and violent crime. Psychiatrists are, unlike psychologists, whether you like it or not, medical doctors, which is why they are able to prescribe medications. Psychologists, on the other hand, can only prescribe medications in a few states and cannot perform medical procedures. Psychiatrists have had great success treating disorders such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and many, many more. But the same supplement pushers and alternative healers that bombard you with articles and documentaries about the "dangers of psychiatry" would have you believe that the entire field is compromised all because of mistakes that were made in the field's infancy. Well, I hate to break it to you, but making mistakes are a part of scientific discovery. You test your hypothesis, and if a mistake is made, you go back to the drawing board and start again. So of course the early days of psychiatry were not perfect, but we have made great leaps and bounds since then. I personally have seen the rapid and miraculously impressive effects that the field of psychiatry has had on people in my own life. I have known people who were prone to eating disorders, self-mutilation and suicidal thoughts make complete recoveries all because of the field of psychiatry. But psychology has also made great leaps and bounds since it's Freudian nonsense period. Psychologists are excellent at philosophical observation and at providing people with alternative perspectives that they otherwise may never have known. I continue to be particularly impressed by child psychologists, who really do have a knack for understanding the very difficult and turbulent lives that children lead. These psychologists play an important part in our schools, providing students from low income or religious fundamentalists families with services they may not have had access to outside of their school such as: helping students who are bullied, helping those who face struggles like poor academic performance, assisting with problems at home, and identifying mental health issues, as well as helping students who have disabilities. Another little known duty of school psychologists is to conduct threat assessments, a complex process of deciphering whether or not a child will commit violent acts. But now the conservatives of America want to ban mental health programs of all kinds from our schools, arguing that same old ridiculous idea that "parents know what's best for the kids". Do they? Do they really? Because if that is the case then kindly explain to me why Jennifer and James Crumbley purchased a weapon for their child, who would later use that weapon to execute innocent people in cold blood. Explain to me why, when instructed by school staff that their son should go home the day of that killing, that those idiot parents instead demanded that their son go back to class, which enabled him to commit his deadly deed. Explain that to me and while you're at it, explain to me how a conservative movement, that so frequently uses the term "pro-life" as its political banner would argue that talking about bullying, a common cause of violent tendencies in teens and young children alike, with a trained professional is a bad idea. Though people continue to argue that psychology and psychiatry are unneeded in schools, the evidence argues nothing of the sort. Mental health issues are real and, if you ignore them long enough, if you encourage prayer over real medicine, you will continue to see mass violence in schools. Conservatives don't care about that, perhaps they desire it.

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How Dreams Become Nightmares

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 18:41:21 GMT

We are all taught, some may even say forced, from a very early age that we should chase our dreams. Why a right of center nation such as America would ever entertain such a notion, I personally will never understand. Achieving one's dreams is a leftist notion that has nothing to do with centrism and certainly nothing to do with conservatism. Just take a look at the definition of the term liberalism: willingness to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one's own; openness to new ideas; the holding of political views that are socially progressive and promote social welfare; a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise. All of these wonderful things that many Americans often claim, incorrectly, to support (democracy, civil liberties, free enterprise, new ideas, and the like) are very much discouraged by Americans in general, whether they be on team red or team blue. The political right, of course, means conservatism and conservatism argues for a strict adherence to traditional values, while centrism is specifically opposed to any kind of social change and often seeks to destroy social changes made earlier in a nation's history. Yet Americans are always prattling on, lying about how they support people who chase their dreams. America, as a nation, is enormously confused about its political identity. It promotes itself as the land of opportunity, while restricting the ability of those in poverty to achieve their career goals. America brazenly declares itself to be the land of the free, while only ever protecting the rights of the few who are in power or who just happen to have enough money to fund those who are in power. This is a nation that will say give me liberty or give me death in one breath and then lick the boots of those who would take away their liberty during election season. America is a nation of mixed messages; it is a nation of pretense and fables. Liberalism has been demonized beyond repair at this point. Americans will not even listen to you if you say you are a liberal, not seriously anyway. Yet one of America's favorite novels, George Orwell's 1984, was written by a liberal libertarian. The entire nation is based on contrariness and so it should come as no surprise that American dreams often become horrific nightmares. But you would not know that because there are all kinds of propaganda in America (reality television shows, Disney movies, game shows, talent shows, children's books, celebrity success stories, rags to riches fantasies, etc.) that make the argument that if you can dream it, you can do it. Well, that simply is not so, not when you live in a country that is so terrified of anything new or different that it fantasizes about the communist implications of Big Bird or the Satanic tendencies of Pokemon or the possibility that "Big Pharma" is trying to kill off its patients with vaccines. Dreams are not allowed in America. Americans desire practicality, pragmatism, a dreary, dull, consistently boring state of numbness and blandness. In order to dream you have to be an innovator, but in America the same movie is made a million times a year, the same book is written everyday and the same stories are endlessly poured through in the news. Americans claim to be proud of "diversity", but really they are boasting about their suppression of it. "Just look at how we've Americanized this culture. Now isn't that impressive?", Americans cry out in unison. And so that is why I tell people not to dream in America because those dreams will become nothing more than a repetitive, torturous nightmare. In America, you must live your dream. You must put it into practice as a kind of magnum opus dedicated to your passions and drives. If you are like me and you are an artist, then live your art. Do not dream about it for it will only be a matter of time before some Debbie downer comes along and rains all over your parade.

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Stand Up for Yourself and Others

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 17:51:30 GMT

I have been a silent observer of the botched effort by mostly well-meaning counselors, psychologists and intellectuals to curb the dangerous effects of bullying. Year after fruitless year, these supposedly "well-informed" individuals give the same, tired, old advice about how to get bullies to stop their reign of terror. And every year they say the same damn thing: just ignore it. The mantra goes that if you ignore a bully, he will somehow lose interest in bullying because he will not get the reaction he is trying to get out of people. First of all, if you have ever given anyone this miserably useless advice, I have a very important question for you. How on earth would you know what reaction any particular bully is trying to evoke from others? Are you inside the bully's head? Do you have direct contact with a bully psychic who keeps you informed on the daily workings of bully activities? Or are you just blowing smoke up the country's ass in hopes that your next pitiful book deal will be even more prosperous than the last? Whatever your reason for repeating this awful advice every year since I was a young child, we have all had quite enough of your pretense. These experts obviously have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to taming the beast of bullying because both internet and real world bullying have increased in occurrence and severity over the years. Nationwide, twenty percent of students aged twelve to eighteen experience bullying. Nineteen percent of those students were bullied on school property, which demonstrates a huge failure on the part of school faculty and staff to intervene in these incidents. I still remember the rather careless and flippant attitude much of my school faculty took in addressing the issue of bullying. These school employees are absolutely dreadful at creating the culture of mutual respect that is needed to eradicate bullying. In fact, I have personally witnessed many teachers openly embarrass, harass and make inappropriate jokes about their own students, who they are paid to protect by the way. But it is not just the teachers fault. Most adults have failed children by not discussing bullying with young people. In order to prevent people from feeling the need to bully several tactics have been proven to be effective: encouraging children to do what they love (not what is "smart" or what makes the most money; you had your childhood already and it is time for you to back off and let your child do what makes them happy, not you), modeling kindness and respect for children in your daily life (you heard it right; if you act respectful around children then they will act respectful around their peers) and encouraging children to seek help (many young people, especially young boys, are afraid to ask for help because they believe it will make them appear weak). So this is a problem that can be remedied as long as we are all willing to participate in order to make it so. That means being honest with children about the dangers of such behavior, none of that "just get over it and toughen up" crap I hear from so many parents and teachers alike. I understand that you may think that being kind to others is too much to ask, but how do you think your child feels when he or she sees you engaged in another act of road rage? How do they feel when you are rude to a waiter or cashier when you are dining out? How about all of the domestic abuse in the home? What behavior does all of this violence encourage? Bullying. And do not even get me started on all of these phony alpha males trolling the internet picking on women and children so they can compensate for their tiny dicks. Your child is not safe at school and they are not safe on the internet. So where can they go? You are all they have. But, admit it, you are always too busy. So, they feel abandoned by their teachers and their parents, the ones who are supposed to have their backs. You need to grow up. Stand up for yourselves and others.

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Algea and Hedone

Sat, 05 Mar 2022 18:32:52 GMT

In case you had not yet noticed, I am a huge fan of mythology of all sorts, but I know the most about Greek Mythology because I spent the majority of my teen years obsessing over it. Whilst other people my age were reading Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, I took comfort in the tales of Poseidon, Athena and Aphrodite. Any lover of Greek Mythology knows that the best parts have to do with the raging passion of the perfectly imperfect gods and goddesses. Humans in these tales are nothing more than observers, people for the reader to relate to as the gods and goddesses destroy our flawed perceptions of ourselves and our world. There are many goddesses involved with love and sexual urges in Greek mythology, but there is only one goddess of pleasure and her name is Hedone. She is the daughter of Eros, who happens to be the god of love, and was more specifically the goddess of sensual pleasure and enjoyment. It is worth noting here that Eros was a close companion of Aphrodite's so it makes sense that his daughter would be a bit on the naughty side. In fact, Aphrodite is often listed as the grandmother of Hedone. But Hedone was not only sexual; she was related to anything that could cause one pleasure and had no specific morality. She also represented the pleasures brought about by material wealth, entertainment and a comfortable life. She is even associated with pleasurable dreams. It should come as no surprise that Hedone happens to be where we get the word "hedonism" from. While normal people loved Hedone, ancient Greek philosophers such as Epicurus and Aristotle warned their followers of engaging in too much pleasure. Aristotle specifically thought of Hedone as being only a part of a greater concept known as pathe, the other half of pathe being pain. These philosophers did not trust Hedone because they only valued the pleasure derived from reason, logic and intellectual pursuits, and essentially branded every other form of pleasure as being immoral vices. You still hear this idea of pleasure being bad trotted out today by the stoics, an even more boring form of Greek thought, which argued that all emotions were bad and influenced people to do corrupt and dangerous things. We still hear this moral grandstanding all the time: from the intelligentsia, from the church, from our families. Everyone seems to be down on pleasure nowadays. Everyone wants to be an Ancient Greek philosopher. Surely we need some pain to balance all that pleasure out. So let's talk about Algea, goddess of pain. Algea are actually various daughters of the goddess of strife, Eris. They were all personifications of wrong-doing and negativity such as murder, lies, forgetfulness, pain, and fights. The Algea are referred to as being full of weeping and obsessed with the torture of the body and the mind. They are represented by three minor goddesses: Akhos (distress), Ania (Grief) and Lupe (Pain). Aristotle's argument was essentially that too much pleasure would eventually lead to increased pain, and therefore pleasure should be reserved to "higher" intellectual pursuits. But modern science tells us that is is the other way around. Pain often leads to pleasure. This may sound odd, but think about it for a moment. Do you enjoy spicy food? Even if you do not enjoy five alarm chili, I am sure you use pepper on your salad and in most meals for that matter. What about that runner's high? If you have never experienced it, it gives you the same feeling as cannabis. How about tattoos or piercings or body modification? We do not just do these things because they are appealing to the eye. We do them because our pain censors also release chemicals that causes us great pleasure. Of course, you could be like Aristotle and stoics and rain on everyone's parade, making vast assumptions about how certain people have gone too far with their Hedonism. But what is too far and too far to whom? I personally think we all need a little more Hedone and Algea in our lives.

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No "Your Audience"

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:03:56 GMT

People in the marketing, entertainment and business industries also tend to chant the same mantra when asked about keys to success in their respective fields: "know your audience". You could run a google search on the term right now and instantly be bombarded with thousands upon thousands of ways to achieve this seemingly simplistic goals. I mean, that is how people get noticed in these industries, right? All it takes to succeed in such incredibly competitive industries where most people end up failing is to simply read some article online on how best to identify the people who are sitting around just waiting for what you have to offer. That makes perfect sense...if you are about en years old. But perhaps it is a bit more complicated than that; perhaps you have to identify what people are looking for and then tailor your art to their needs. That has to be the right approach, right? I mean, how could it not be? You just identify what people like and then you give it to them. That is all it takes to be successful in any field...again, according to ten year olds with no real world experience. I have been a performer for over twenty years now. I have performed for more audiences than I could possibly remember and I have been fortunate enough to please the vast majority of those audiences. But here is the big secret about performance. It really does not matter what you perform for people, as long as you are committed to it that is. No, I am not bullshitting you to be contrary here. I am providing you with solid advice gleaned from over two decades in the business of audience pleasing. A person who knows nothing of the art of entertainment, when asked how to entertain people, will always go on the same rant about "giving the audience what they want". But, in case you had not yet noticed, what the audience wants changes with every director, producer, publisher, or content creator. That is because these people are simply guessing and, in many cases, projecting their desires on to what they have termed their "audience". But audiences are not irrational mobs of consumers. Audiences are a complex combination of different cultural, spiritual, national, and racial ideologies that, at a particular moment, just happen to simultaneously be interested in artistic expression by sheer coincidence. No two audiences are ever the same and no two people within an audience are ever the same. People often make insane assumptions about large groups of people. They say that young people will always hate classical art, for example, or that older people dislike pop culture. But, as young boy of 13, I absolutely loved classical art and I know many older people who enjoy contemporary pop culture just as much as the average teenager. The art world often makes incorrect assumptions about the consumers of art. Organizations of artists come up with ridiculous rating systems that essentially make the argument that certain types of art are strictly made for certain types of people. But do these organizations ever stop to think for a second that it is the rating system itself that discourages the consumption of art amongst certain groups? Do these organizations ever stop to think that they are alienating their audience by obsessively seeking out an audience? Studies have demonstrated quite clearly that, when we use the jargon of our field of expertise, we tend to discourage people who are non experts from learning about the beauty of our fields. We shut people out with these assumptions; we do not attract new viewers. And so I say to you that, if you really want to attract a larger audience, you should remember that you do not have an audience, that audiences are not set in stone, that they change depending on the month, day or hour. In order to attract others, we must stand out and have the courage to be different. Boiling people down into an algorithmic soup will not accomplish this goal, it will only hinder it. Only innovative knowledge is power.

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The Linguistics of Profanity

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 17:28:07 GMT

People cling to quick and easy solutions during tumultuous times. One of the quick and easy solutions people are infatuated with these days in censorship. It is easy to assume that preventing someone from saying nasty things out loud will, in turn, prevent nasty things from happening. But that has never been the case. But, before I delve deeper into this topic, first I will provide you with a brief definition of “free speech” in terms of the law. The Supreme Court of America has decreed that free speech includes the right: not to speak, of students to wear black armbands to protest wars, to contribute money (under certain circumstances) to political campaigns, to advertise commercial products and professional services (with certain restrictions), to use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages, and to engage in symbolic speech, such as burning a flag in protest. The right to free speech does not include the right to: make or distribute obscene materials, to burn draft cards in protest, to permit students to publish articles in school newspapers about objections to the school administration, of students to make obscene speech at school sponsored events, of students to advocate illegal drug use at a school sponsored event, and, most importantly, to create a clear and present danger or likely to incite imminent lawless action. So the first amendment does not legalize all speech across the board; that is a common misinterpretation. There are, indeed, certain things that one is not allowed to do when it comes to speech. Since all the other limitations on speech are quite specific to particular circumstances, for the sake of this article, I will mainly be focusing on whether or not saying the word “bitch” creates a clear and present danger or is likely to incite violence. According to linguist Brian Loo Soon Hua, the word made its first appearance in the English language as an insult in the Chester Mystery Plays, a collection of Christian performances, but this is not the word’s origin. Nomads used a word in the Indo-European world known as “bheg”, which meant to smash or to break. “Bheg” eventually evolved into the “Bhang”, meaning cannabis. This happened because people would grind the cannabis into a paste and put it into food and drinks just as we still do to this day. In ancient Germany, the word “bhang” evolved into to word “bikjana”, meaning to attack, hack, thrust, or stab. The Anglo Saxons transformed the word into “bicce” or “bicge” and later into “bitch”. In Old Norse, they also had the word “bikkja”, which used to mean to plunge into water. Now in modern Iceland, the word bikkja means old horse or nag. The same root word ended up in the word to “bicker” in English. The word eventually became “bitch”, but this word did not develop negative connotations about a loose woman until the 14th century. This is during the Christian takeover of modern society and it is also when the term son of a bitch came into use, which was meant to imply a person’s mother had loose morals and therefore it would be impossible to know their lineage. It was not until the 1920s when Ernest Hemmingway wrote about the “bitch goddess” that the term got its modern sting, implying that such a woman was unreasonable, aggressive, obnoxious, and belligerent. So my question to you is this? Should one dead white man be allowed to decide the meaning of a word? How about one religion? Should the Christians be able to shame you with the word? Should you give them that power or should you take that power from them by using the word as you please? Many women I have known have used that word. Should a particular sect of feminists be allowed to dictate whether they use that word or not? Is the word inciting people to violence or is it just free speech implying a political message? I think that should be left up to you, not dead white men who happened to be famous. Until you make your decision, always remember that context is key.

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Me, Myself and Why

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 17:42:02 GMT

You can never stop being yourself, but people sure will always try to remold your personality in their image nonetheless. The rational minded person will tell you that you are not rational enough, that you are lacking in logic and valid argument, that you must increase your vocabulary and read more philosophy. But what that rational minded person is really telling you is not that you have failed to be rational, but that you have failed to be like them. A person prone to belief will tell you that you lack faith, that you must pray for forgiveness, that you must cry out to the lord in various ways. But the believer is telling you the exact same thing, that you are not enough like them. Try as you might to please the believers and the so called logical people of the world and you will always fail. They will never be satisfied with your answers. No matter how much you pray or philosophize, they will always seek to bully and humiliate you until you bow down and worship them, until you fall down and repent for the sin of thinking for yourself. This is why I am the way I am. This is why I shut myself off to the influence of others. I am not a hermit, nor am I opposed to different ideas. I just recognize the simple fact that what people are really after is to impose their will upon me, to shape me like a piece of clay, to distort my worldview. I refuse to let this happen. I reject the notion that going with the flow is the answer. I take pride in the fact that I can stand on my own, that my thoughts were not given to me by people who died hundreds, even thousands of years ago. Even if I tried to please others, it would not be possible. We live in a world that emphasizes the importance of competition and so people are always scheming, always trying to find a way to punish you for doing the right thing. In this case, “the right thing” happens to be hearing others out. Well, they will punish you for that too. They will lecture you on having improper listening skills or for interrupting them or for having the wrong facial expression during their monologue. People are always labeling each other, always trying to fit others into their own little script. I have no need to be a part of another person’s drama for I have my own drama, and it is far more interesting than anything I’ve ever known. I will not edit myself. I will not tone it down. I will not be polite. I will not do these things because it will never be enough. I will always have to keep changing for the next person and the next person and the next person. I say enough. No more changing to please others. No more seeking the praise of foolish players in their poorly staged dramas. I am. I exist. I breathe. I live…for myself and for those who would have me be myself. My creations are mine. I came up with them. I am not going to change them for others. If other people want to create, then they must get up and do that on their own. I encourage them to do so because I quite their drama long ago. Nowadays, I recognize the beauty within myself. It is a bold task to undertake, to truly be self aware, to truly practice self-love. Few will understand it, but then again the point is not that you understand me. The point is that you recognize that you will never fully understand me and that I will never fully understand you. We are too unique to be alike and we are far too different to be similar. So, if you do not like the way I speak, find another podcast to listen to. If you do not like the way I write, read something else. If you do not like me, find someone who you actually do like. But do not try to make people like you; that is the coward’s way out. Dare to be different, a little bravery never hurt anyone. Now, if you will excuse me, I am off to be myself again, which, of course, means being unlike anyone else. So, the next time you think you will totally own me with your rationality or religiosity just remember that you are wasting your time. I cannot be owned for I am my keeper

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The Dollar Scheme Part 1

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 17:20:53 GMT

The old saying goes that the best things in life are free. But today you would think the best things in life are dirt cheap. I am often told by some silly bargain hunter of the immense pleasure they get from saving money. Whether it be at Walmart or the Dollar Tree, these cheapskates love to brag about their recent acquisition of various goods. But are they really getting more bang for their buck or have they simply found another way to screw themselves over? When times are tough, people tend to look for an easy way out instead of weighing their choices wisely and making the best decision based on the facts. People do not have time for facts. They are far too busy trying to prove whatever fantasies they believe in to be bothered with actual investigative journalism. But I have long since separated myself from the cult of consumerism and so I have all the time in the world to scrutinize those who claim to have discovered ways to save money. Whenever you save money on a product, that generally means the product is either stolen or somehow defective and therefore low in quality. Thieves will sell hot items they steal in large quantities for ridiculously low prices in order to increase profit, for example. However, I have not yet found any evidence that any of the Dollar Tree stores are stealing goods from high end stores, though I would not put it past them. What I have found is that many of the products on your local Dollar Store shelves are actually broken, contaminated, expired, toxic, or all of the above. This should come as no surprise to the consumers who are purchasing traditionally expensive products for almost nothing. The businesses of this nation must pay extremely high prices in order to stay open so it only follows that the only way to charge such low prices on a consistent basis is to cut corners when it comes to ensuring the health of your consumers. Further, American industry has a long tradition of selling defective products to its consumers with no regard for the consequences of their actions. The Ford Pinto, a car that would burst into flames upon the slightest impact, was sold to consumers even though Ford was well aware that their cars were not properly built. Asbestos was used for years as insulation, even though plenty of evidence existed proving the deadly substance's connection to causing cancer. Business operates for one purpose: profit. And profit does not care if you live or die. Putting yourself and your family's and friend's health at risk is no way to save a few dollars. I understand times are hard, but a bargain is only a bargain if the product you are purchasing actually works. If the product you are buying is ineffective, you are not saving money, you are wasting money. The product will not work sufficiently and you will be forced to buy more and more and more, essentially spending the exact same amount of money you would have spent had you just bought a quality product in the first place, and more than likely spending a bit more on all the gas you will have to buy to make that tenth trip to the dollar store each month. The reality is that you are living in a time of high prices and that means that you will have to make reasonable sacrifices, none of which should involve sacrificing the quality of your health. Products such as medications and supplements, often sold for a buck in Dollar Stores, have been found to be expired before the time of purchase or to not contain the ingredients that they claim to contain on the label. Food items bought at Dollar Stores have been found to be expired while on the shelves. Clothing items sold at Dollar Tree stores have been found to contain bacteria like the kind that causes various skin infections. Many of the chemicals and pathogens found in these items have caused severe illness and even death. But you wouldn't know about that because, in certain states, none of this is even illegal. Still feel good about saving all that money?

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Catharsis

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 18:05:34 GMT

Catharsis is the act of purifying or purging emotions and tension, primarily through artistic expression. Well, you can consider this particular episode to be a form of cathartic expression from me. Regardless of what your conservative friends may say about me, I have no desire to be violent. I have never, not once, harmed a person in my life because I have never been attacked physically, and so I have had no need to do such a thing, and I still don’t. However, I have absolutely no problem expressing my emotions, even if those emotions are “negative” because, as I have proven extensively in prior episodes, any thought that does not align with a person’s particular narrative is now written off as “negative” and every single person on the planet has their own unique narrative. I no longer try to please people because you cannot begin to please a person until they have recognized that they cannot be pleased. And, of course, if a person cannot be pleased, there is no point in hiding our emotions from anyone. People will always assume the worst of your intentions. They will always say, “I am not listening to you because you use dirty words” or “I will not listen to you because you are making light of serious situations” or “I am not listening to you because you are a communist.” Whatever it is, the point is that most of us are not really listening anyway, which is why we never really feel heard. But some people, on occasion, will listen, if your message resonates with them that is. And so my cathartic rants are not really for me, but for the people like me that live in fear: fear of judgment, fear of bullying, fear of abuse, etc. I speak for them, not for me. I am the sum of their regrets, their dissatisfaction, their grief, their empathy, their depression, their heartache, their loneliness…Their tattered dreams live within my mind and, late at night, those dreams come to life in my heart. What a wonderful thing it would have been for Tammy to play Hamlet like she always wanted. What a glorious triumph it would have been for little Danny to hit a home run in the big game. What an awesome feat it would have been for Bill to start that new business. How grand it would have been. But Tammy did not get the part because women cannot play men in that Shakespearean troupe. Danny did not hit the home run because his dad was a little too mean when teaching him how to swing the bat. And, sadly, Bill was unable to start that business because he has too much financial aid debt to get the required loans. And so you are left with nothing but could haves and would haves. How great that would have been. How awesome we could have done, if only someone, anyone would have taken a chance on us. At that point, when all hope is lost and the leaders’ hearts have turned to stone, all you can do is express yourself. So I give you this ode to unhappiness, this sonnet of marred expectations, of wounded pride, and disappointment. But I do not mean to depress you. I made this episode to remind you that, even though we suffer great defeat, we must continue to remember that our wants, our needs and our desires are important. You never really lose a fight as long as your heart is still ticking. So get up off the mat, go to your corner, tend to your wounds, and take a breather champ. This guy’s tough, but he doesn’t have your fighting spirit. Maybe try a little rope a dope next round. Ding, ding folks. Round two is coming up. So brush up on that monologue Tammy. Get up early Danny; it's time to go to the batting cages. Come on Bill, I know you're down, but look into starting that business online. You do not need to be discovered; you can discover yourself. You do not need to be the star of the game; you just need to keep showing up until you get your shot. You do not need money; you need to be creative. We live in a privileged world, but resilience is strongest in those who have already suffered great defeat. Bob and weave kid. Keep those feet moving.

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The Master Debaters

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 17:27:33 GMT

Everyone loves to debate. Unfortunately, everyone also hates to listen. So, usually what happens during a debate is that two people who start off acting like adults, quickly get frustrated and begin shouting at each other like a couple of teenagers fighting over where to eat for lunch or who has the best taste in music. "Yeah, but like you don't understand Travis Scott Jessica; his music totally changed the world," teenager number one says. "Travis Scott? Oh my gosh, you must be joking," teenager number two states mockingly, "everyone knows that Justin Timberlake is a far superior dancer. I mean, just look at the way he dances like Usher. Only he could have had the knowledge to steal that." This is where people usually stop paying attention or just leave the room entirely, allowing the two chuckle heads to duke it out over who has the best music, the best hair, the best dance moves, the best whatever. Blah, blah, blah. People may like to participate in debates, they may like expressing their own opinions or asking difficult questions, but that is pretty much where the interest in debate stops for most people. Don't get me wrong, people will listen to you if you are engaging, if you are an eloquent speaker, if you understand the art of public speaking is much more about entertainment than about proving a point. But very few people understand this, even some people who make a living off of public speaking (politicians come to mind) do not understand this very crucial element of their trade. Appeals to emotion are often demonized in these debate settings, but humans are emotional creatures. If you refrain completely from appeals to emotion, the average human being becomes terribly bored and then stops listening completely. While you busy yourself explaining why, according to the science, this is why I will make the best president, the average person is wondering why you are prattling on about science when you are supposed to be addressing the problems they have in real life. How does citing a study on the effectiveness of the local police department solve the crimes that they have struggled with solving, the ones that people see everyday on the news? It doesn't and that is part of the problem of debates. You may be correct statistically, but statistics cannot right wrongs; they only provide us with the facts as they are at that moment and even that is questionable at times. You can certainly claim that you are the best candidate and you can even give various reasons why you are superior to other candidates. But what can you really say to the people to convince them that you are correct? Well, you can make a bunch of promises. You can say things like "if I am your next president, I will be tough on crime" (a favorite of modern politicians). But does being tough on crime get rid of crime? Or does it just force criminals to be creative? The recent surge in theft, for example, has been funded by the invention of online shopping. It is easy to create dummy accounts on Amazon or EBay. So, the old days of stealing and selling at flea markets are pretty much gone; now all you have to do is boost a bunch of goods from the mostly deserted mall and sell to the people who are scared of going out to shop. Another slogan politicians love to use during debates is "I will protect your right to choose." But choice means different things to different people. To one person choice is the right to decide what goes into their body, while to another person choice is the right to choose what comes out of their body. Yet by being generic, you can appeal to all people who use the word choice as a political slogan. And so, when it comes to debates, no one really has to make a concrete argument and, in fact, they are often avoiding making any kind of argument. They are really just trying to get you to like them so that they can go viral on the internet and save a bit of money on their campaign expenditures. Yet the master debating continues.

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The Good, the Bad and the Fugly

Sat, 26 Feb 2022 18:25:48 GMT

Both optimists and pessimists are incorrect. Life is good. Life is also bad. And, yes, life can be downright horrifying to look at. Though it comforts people to develop some label for individuals, to boil them down to either absolute positive or negative personality traits, this is extremely misleading for each individual is complex, multi-faceted and tragically misunderstood. Yet still people continue to try to separate the good from the bad, the intelligent from the stupid, the wheat from the chaff. But this is an impossibility. No one is good at everything and so no one person is always good. No one knows everything and so there are no people who know it all. There really is no such thing as expertise; there are only people who tend to be correct more than others. There is no such thing as a good leader, only leaders who are satisfactory and unsatisfactory. Even a five star meal will taste like a cow pie if we are sick. Perception is the ultimate judge of character and what is true varies from experience to experience. And so there is goodness and ugliness in everything on the earth. I think a perfect example of this in the modern era is a particular incident I once saw on the news, where a car thief furiously drove back to the scene of his crime only to get out and berate the owner of the car for leaving her child in the backseat of the car. The car thief returned the child to the mother unharmed, got back into the recently jacked vehicle and went along his merry way. That was a somewhat comical example, but there is truth in humor. That car thief, in a sense, is a bit of a hero. He risked being arrested to return the poor child to his mother; of course he would have never been in that situation in the first place had he not put himself there by being a thief. While the car thief may be in the wrong, there is a certain romanticism about a person who risk going to jail all to reunite a child with his mother. There is always beauty in tragedy, always love to be found in hatred. This is the natural way of things. As I listened to this episode, I was reminded of the story of Medusa, a beautiful young woman turned into a mutant being by a vengeful god. Medusa was mortal, but her siblings were not. She was beautiful until she disgraced the temple of Athena, provoking Athena's wrath. It was Athena, the Olympian goddess of war and and wisdom, that punished Athena for being raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple. That's right, Medusa was punished for being raped and it was Athena, the goddess of wisdom and, paradoxically, peace who saw fit to torture Medusa by stripping her of her natural beauty. The irony there is so unbearable that just thinking about it almost turns you to stone. Athena was also quite beautiful, but she was also quite territorial and downright spiteful at times; this is not only proof that wisdom can harden the heart, but that beauty is only skin deep. Even the gods are never perfect; in fact, they're often prone to madness. Indeed, perfection itself is nothing more than a myth. I think that many people vainly hunt for things like wisdom, beauty and perfection for the same reasons the ancient Greeks wrote about vengeful and sex obsessed gods, to feel a sense of connection to the heroic, the valiant, the perfect, even when life itself, at times anyway, is a horror show. I personally cannot point at any one person or group of people and say that they are all bad, nor can I say that they are perfect. I was never all that good at writing myths. I can only tell you the whole truth, even while knowing that you secretly desire sweet nothings. There is goodness in those you consider evil, just as there is evil in those you consider heroic. I used to be a right wing conspiracy theorist and now here I am searching for the truth, but in an honest way this time around. Though I once played the role of the villain, I now make up for it by playing the hero. And so the struggle continues.

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Favoritism and Nepotism

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 18:33:54 GMT

We often are forced to listen to celebrity "success" stories. During these "success" stories we are told that if we work our asses down to the tailbone the magic job fairy will come along and offer us our dream job. This story has been preached as the gospel truth by almost every celebrity that has ever graced a movie set or a microphone. But the reality is much different; the reality is that favoritism, the act of giving unfair preference to one person or group not based on talent but on superficial things like attractiveness, and nepotism, the act of giving all jobs to your unqualified relatives and friends rather than giving it to the person who has worked the hardest, often lead to what we call success. I personally see a lot of favoritism in the rap scene play out today. Modern rap has become more of a fashion show than an art form. There are not many Missy Eliot's making it into the higher levels of rap today. There are not many Eves coming up in the game anymore. The aforementioned artists had mad talent and they are proof that you really do not have to look like some fashion model to make great art. That is why Nicki Minaj's ascent to fame was so depressing to me. I don't even think Minaj remembers her own hair color any longer. She actually fashions herself after a Barbie Doll as her stage personae. Really? A Barbie Doll? The toy that is pretty much the standard of beauty for all young white girls, that instructs those white girls that that is how you are supposed to look, that makes them hate themselves. Some of those white girls, who no doubt hate themselves because no one looks like a Barbie Doll, grow up and bully black girls in order to make themselves feel better. These white girls, not all, but some, call black girls ugly all because their mothers taught them, by buying them toys like Barbie Dolls, that black girls are ugly. But this is what you base your persona on? How disappointing it is to know that one of the number one artists in a mostly all black genre is contributing to the bullying of young black girls cannot be put into words. But if you are willing to do that, if you are willing act white instead of sticking true to your roots, then you can make it in rap pretty easily. But don't get it twisted, I ain't impressed by Nicki Minaj or anyone like her who decides to put on white face, while at the same time acting like she's a soldier for the black race. This is favoritism act work, only the black people who act white ever get anywhere anymore in this country. That is a fact. The same can be said of men in the rap game. It used to be that you could be an Old Dirty Bastard type and achieve measurable success in the hip hop world because no one used to care how you looked as long as you sounded great. Nowadays, you have to have the perfect haircut and the perfect clothing style to be a famous rapper. I don't know what happened in hip hop, but somewhere along the line it became a requirement that you had to look like Puff Daddy to be a hit rapper. That's the standard now and a lot of serious talent is getting passed up because of this high fashion movement that has taken over rap. But it's not just favoritism; nepotism is also taking over entertainment. The reason there are not enough jobs for up and coming artists like me, the reason they lock us out of Hollywood, is because they give all the jobs to their untalented relatives and friends. It's not enough for celebrities to have requirements for how you must act and look to get into their cool kids club; now you actually have to be related to them! When does it end? How can you possibly please such people? How can you sit there and expect me to keep a positive attitude when these drama queens are going out of their way to lock people like me out of the industry? Some of us don't have money to go to the damn spa, alright? I can't always afford to buy a new suit and tie for an audition and they know that. They have locked normal people out.

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Hope is a Joke

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 17:59:48 GMT

We are often told to be hopeful; we are rarely told what hope actually is. It turns out, hope is nothing more than a fancy word for expectation. When wellness gurus, psychotherapists, politicians, journalists, and religious leaders tell you to keep hope alive, they are simply telling you to continue to expect things from others. But why? Why should we expect to receive things from people who, for the most part, are completely opposed to helping their neighbors? Why should we expect anything of anyone? Expectations ruin relationships. If you expect your lover to cook for you everyday, eventually they will grow tired of you and seek love elsewhere. If you expect your children to do exactly what you say at all times no matter what, they will grow to hate you and rebel against everything you have to say, even if it makes sense. If you expect your boss to give you a raise for Christmas, he will give you a lump of coal and pink slip instead. If you expect your prayers to be answered then people will laugh at you. If you expect your wish to be granted then people will call you spoiled or selfish. Political movements are often based on hope, hope that a better tomorrow will occur someday, somehow, somewhere over the rainbow...But the hope is never fulfilled, the dream is never accomplished and the belief in miracles is never legitimized. Many people were hopeful that Joe Biden would be the next FDR, but his policies are so far to the right of FDR, and always have been by the way, that such a hope is simply laughable. Many hoped Donald Trump would clean the swamp of political corruption, but he only became a part of it and made it ten times worse. We hope for things all the time and we are constantly disappointed when, yet again, Santa never leaves the little boy with cancer a Christmas present, Scrooge never lightens up on his workers and The Grinch gives Cindy Lou Who the finger as he races back to his ice mansion with all the toys and decorations on black Friday. Hope will drive you mad in the end. It will send you over the edge and there will be no one there to break your fall. You cannot expect things from people who lack empathy, who refuse to understand, who continue to mock and laugh at your suffering. Expect nothing from these people and you will be happier, much happier than you have ever been in your entire life. Identify the people who deny you, who scorn you, who would rather leave you for dead than give you a job with a fair paying wage for they are the ones who murdered hope, not me. Should you be able to expect decent working conditions, a reasonable salary and adequate transportation? Of course you should. You should also be able to work for someone who cares about your well-being. You deserve that, most people do. But, looking at the state of things today, can you really expect such things? Can you really keep living under the delusion that the same wealthy people, with all the money and resources in the world to feed, house and clothe the earth's inhabitants, and yet who choose not to, will actually help little old you? Can you really expect the leaders of today's world, who time and time again, have refused to do anything to stop climate change, but instead ask you to save the climate by denying yourself food, water and even the right to start a family, will help you maintain your civil rights? Can you really expect a government that has consistently failed to prosecute known criminals while at the same time jailing and, in some instances, murdering people for committing petty crimes will bring you any kind of sustainable peace? You would be foolish to have such expectations. You would be doing yourself great harm to expect a murderer to save your life. But do not worry because you do not need hope; you do not need expectation. You can achieve what you like with thought, with your mind. You can transcend belief. You can make the rainbow come to you. How? Value yourself and the answer will become clear.

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Opposing Opinions

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 18:38:27 GMT

We have all been there before. We comment on some ludicrous action taken by a person with different political views than ours and then, like clockwork, some chuckle head chimes in, “You’re just repeating the narrative of the mainstream media! You need to do research!” Well, actually, I did plenty of research while I was in college and I still do an immense amount of research today. Though I may watch a particular popular news channel from time to time, that is certainly not the extent of my knowledge of political affairs. When you major in political science like I did, you learn the first key of knowing anything about politics relies heavily on staying up to date on political journals, not the alphabet soup media. That is not to say that popular media is always wrong, but it certainly is nowhere near as accurate as political journals like Sage or JSTOR. I read political journals, historical papers, psychological journals, neuroscience studies, philosophical analyses, and political novels on a frequent basis. Then some lazy know nothing on social who sits and watches some obscure youtube channel funded by the same damn companies that fund FOX and CNN comes along, tells me to “wake up” and has the sheer audacity to imply that I am the one that needs to do “research”. This is similar to what I am sure star chef Gordon Ramsay feels when some upstart chef from a grimy dive restaurant tries to inform him how to cook a pizza the “right” way. Do your research chef. You’re cooking the “mainstream” way with things like seasoning and pizza ovens; you need to pop open that microwave and toss the pizza in there with ketchup and processed cheese. That is the real pizza recipe, the one the liberals and the Satanists do not want you to know about. That’s right folks. All of the real news is on youtube, a cartoonish platform that argues that building tiny huts in the woods is a great alternative to housing and that a failed actor shoving copious amounts of food down their throat is “entertainment”. But we can’t forget the value of other alternative sources of information like Meta, a platform that is also responsible for an increase in suicide amongst teens. Yes, we must listen to the news from a platform that causes children to take their own lives. What could be a more reliable source of information than that? And how about Tiktok, a platform that promotes conspiracy theories like the idea that hip hop is the devil’s music and that frequently has been caught causing children to harm each other by performing various “challenges”. These are the alternative sources that people with “opposing” opinions often use. Well, allow me to save the opposition some valuable time. Dear so-called “free thinkers”, you’re damn right that I do not care about your opinions because your opinions are misinformed. Your opinions were given to you by major corporations and so your opinions are nothing more than biased, useless, imprecise, nonsensical verbal diarrhea and I have grown weary of listening to your bullshit. These people with “opposing” opinions are doing nothing more than chanting slogans from millionaire comedians, youtubers, tiktokers, and instagram influencers who just happened to be funded by companies like Chevron, Merck, Kaiser, various drug companies, supplement companies, prepper companies, car salesmen, gold and silver coin companies, gun companies, crytocurrency companies, insurance companies, and churches. So, you know, the same damn companies who lobby congress and own the politicians you all pretend to hate so much. I know what I am doing when I choose to ignore such propaganda. However, the opposition bows on its knees and chants the slogans promoted by the real mainstream news, social media. So listen up brown-nosers and listen good. You can take each and every one of your corporate media funded "opposing" opinions and shove them straight up your algorithm. The political shepherd has spoken. How’s that for a wake up call snowflakes?

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Comedic Warfare

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 17:34:16 GMT

n the old days, we had what was known as strategic warfare. Strategic warfare is the science or art of employing all the military, economic, political, and other resources of a country to achieve the objects of war. War is never entertaining. It is a horror show that no one wants to watch, a raging, never ending disaster that disrupts and even destroys human relations for generations to come. Of course there will always be people who claim that wars are righteous or "for the greater good", but the so called greater good is malleable and is remolded to fit a particular administration message of hate and division. Wars are divisive; they cannot and never have unified people. Thus, the only "good" that can be fought for during a war is that war's end. Goodness and war cannot coexist. They are complete strangers in the realm of ideas. The comedians of the day are currently engaged in a war that they have been waging on their audience for the past six years. What is so sad about this (note the absence of words like "happy" or "funny" here) is that, instead of fighting for their right to be funny, they have instead chosen to engage in a petty war of words with their political critics. A constant stream of angry youtube videos decrying political correctness and divisive comedy acts demanding an end to human decency now pour out of this battlefield on an almost daily basis. Every comedian talks about cancel culture in their act and so standup comedy, which once covered diverse topics, has now been reduced to a constant grumpy comedian bitch fest, where wealthy celebrities scream at their mostly poor fans to laugh at them before they sue them for defamation of character. Bullying is their favorite tool of intimidation. The comedians sick their fans on all critics of their performances. They use their money and social influence to fight for causes, not to make people laugh. This is worldview warfare at its finest. These people are nothing more than politicians at this point and there is nothing funny about politicians. I cannot turn on a comedy special anymore without some conspiratorial comedian screaming at me that the liberal mob is coming for them and their children. It has gotten so repetitive that I now refuse to watch any standup comedy made after the early 2000s. There was a time when comedy was funny, when it was actually about making people laugh. I know that seems like a bit of a stretch with all of the political debates being held during comedy specials now; trust me when I say that making others laugh used to be the job of all comedians. In fact, as a child, I can clearly remember not knowing or even caring about what comedians thought about politics. I am not saying that comedy has never been political, but that political humor actually used to humorous. It actually made most people laugh; it was about bringing people together, showing them what they had in common: the ability to share a laugh. Now laughter is secondary to comedy. Comedic performance has become an act of warfare, a war of words. I understand that the respective gangs of comedy warfare fans (fans of Bill Burr, Bill Maher, Dave Chapelle, Kevin Heart, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, etc.) are having a blast because they get to be bullies again just like in high school, but I hope you realize that people like me are not entertained. It is not entertaining to watch liberals and conservatives argue with each other. It is not entertaining to see the same old, tired, useless two party system duke it out to see which type of political humor is funnier. It is not interesting to see the rabid fans of whatever comedian scream at people who are offended. It is boring. It is boring. It is boring. I am bored to tears. You only think that you are educating me on the dangers of "cancel culture". In reality, as soon as you bring out that argument, I close my eyes and drift off to sleep, dreaming of a funnier time where comedians told jokes.

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The Satanic Manics

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 17:43:24 GMT

The Christian fundamentalists and their quasi liberal mystic cohorts are bringing Satan back and in a big way. That’s right, the tragedy at Astroworld, where nine people, including a young boy, were stomped to death on a concert floor in a stampede of frightened fans was inspired by none other than the devil himself, according to “spiritual people” from all different kinds of religions and political affiliations. People who fail to fully grasp or understand difficult topics in a stressful world often resort to urban myths to cope with the trauma of those experiences. This is where your conspiracy theories often originate. While it is true that dictators often take advantage of these unwarranted fears to obtain power, the reality is that the fears and the conspiracy beliefs that come from them often originate in the general populous. When you think about the amount of people who claim that life is nothing more than “spiritual warfare”, this phenomenon becomes much more easier to understand. Many people ask, “How could this happen?” But they should probably be asking “Why does this happen so often?” There is a reoccurring theme with conspiracy beliefs that often gets overlooked, probably because history does not make for a very good smear campaign about whatever political opponent you are trying to besmirch at the moment. It becomes more difficult to place all the blame on Trump, for example, when you have events like the Salem Witch Trials, which were totally influenced by this same type of “Satanic” hysteria that is currently undergoing a renaissance in the twenty first century. Once you think of it in that context you can start to really understand why America in particular is so entranced by the idea of the devil having a hand in everything from concerts to successful business mergers. The fascination with evil and hidden knowledge is inherently American. The alluring, and often incorrect, notion that there are people in high places manipulating controlling our lives has been promoted by both the left and the right. While this claim that powerful people are attempting to control our thoughts has certainly been proven true when it comes to famous political players like some of the civil rights leaders from the 1960s and seventies, it makes much less sense when the person making the allegations is a social media influencer who most people have never even heard of. Americans are always trying to demonize their opponents, always trying to make them look evil in some way. So, when you have this idea floating out there that everyone that does not agree with your values is somehow wicked, then it becomes quite easy to make the leap to a claiming and even believing that particular groups of people are demonic. This thought process never goes away in America; it is always there, lurking behind accusations of communism or a Jewish run Hollywood or sex crazed woke liberals. Sure, the terminology changes, but the basic accusation, that being that the other is being influenced by satanic forces, remains the same. These demonic accusations are now being hurled at Travis Scott because it seems that, in America, we cannot have a simple discussion about the actual facts, but that we need to turn these facts into a ridiculous biblical passion play that even Jesus Christ would find boring and trite. These claims that celebrities are demons are also related to the jealousy that people feel when those who disagree with them politically get a bit of the spotlight. Calling someone a devil in America makes people less famous; celebrities lose followers because of this childish name calling all the time. So, again we see that the people who complain about cancel culture the most, the same people who claim to be “free thinkers” who wish to protect free speech for all, are often the worst offenders. These mystical thinkers employ magical thinking, deny reality and ultimately end up destroying the very celebrities they pretend to protect.

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No Love for Secular Preachers

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 17:32:54 GMT

I am no longer religious for many reasons. One of those reasons is that religion failed me personally. Christianity left me out in the cold to starve to death while it was busy setting the table for Christmas. It did not have the time or the patience for me when I was dying of epilepsy because it was busy blowing up Muslims in countries it could not pronounce. It did not have food to give to me while I was starving because it was too busy congratulating Kayne West on his latest album. It did not have shelter for me when I was sleeping in a car because it was too busy teaching some baby in Nigeria to despise homosexuals. In short, religion was completely indifferent to my existence, and so I am now indifferent to its existence. As the bible says, you reap what you sow. You get out what you put in. And if the religious world has decided that it will put nothing into the communities it pretends to represent, if it chooses to sow hate instead of love, then that is what it shall receive in return. It is that simple; you cannot get anymore biblical than that, not that I care about being biblical. I just find it ironic when it works out that way. But the main reason I left religion was not the hate, but the preaching. The constant, endless, never ceasing cacophony of demands, special pleading and instructions were what really drove me from the church. Churches are great at telling you how to feel bad about your actions, but I had already been hating myself for a long time. I already felt guilty when I went to church; that is why I ended up there in the first place. All the church did was heap even more guilt on top of the guilt I was already bearing on my exhausted shoulders. Once at church I learned that I was not feeling bad the right way, that I had to feel even worse than I already felt before I ever came there. So, there was really no point to be there either. If it is all about feeling like an awful person instead of trying to feel better, then, really, religion has no point, not to me anyway. So I returned to my secular life and I enjoy my secular life. But it is my secular life, no one else's. I do not need other secular people, whether they be relatives, celebrities or social media influencers to instruct me on how to live my secular life. I am not interested in that. That is why I rarely bother going on social media these days, unless it is just a quick hello to the fans of the show. Social media, much like church, simply has nothing to offer me...other than guilt that is. Influencers are just preachers without the funny costumes. They have followers, merchandise, books, dictates, group forums, and self-righteous sermons. Sounds like a church to me. I have no love for secular preachers just as I have no love for religious preachers because there is no difference between the two. They both want to control you; they both want you to behave, to follow the rules, to adore them and to put no gospel before their own. I have no time for this. I have far better things to do than to listen to someone scream at me for eating a steak on Christmas or for getting married to my high school sweetheart or for not having the appropriate amount of empathy or for not agreeing with a news anchor. Again, this is just church by another name; and a church by any other name puts me to sleep. Group think is boring; it does not matter who does it. It does not matter how cool you think your brand of mob behavior is, it is still mob behavior nonetheless. I am my own man. I do not need to yell that at some out group from a stage like Dave Chapelle or Jerry Seinfeld. I do not need to paid for my individuality. I will always give that to you for free. You do not need to pay me to be myself. Perhaps I agree with you most of the time, but that does not mean I completely agree. I find the very idea of groups stifling because all groups seek to create guilt in their members. Now keep your sermon to yourself and kindly show me the exit.

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The Equal Opportunity Delusion

Sat, 19 Feb 2022 17:54:03 GMT

In America many people are under the delusion that we all have an equal shot to be successful, that, as long as we have positive vibe and put in an appropriate amount of work, that the world is at our fingertips. This is stupidity at its finest. To make the assumption that fairness and equality are at work within a capitalist system that is solely based on survival of the fittest and ruthless competition is downright childish. At some point you have to grow up and recognize the very clear writing on the wall. The game is fixed folks. The reason that many people are unable to find work is not for lack of trying, but because employers only hire people they know. You can have all the qualification and talent in the world, but you ain't getting that nice job because the hiring manager already has it reserved for their dumb cousin they owe a favor to. The whole interview process is just a formality. In America, you only have to pretend to give people a fair shot. Once the pretense of "the interview process" has been completed, hiring managers are under no obligation whatsoever to hire the most qualified candidate and they rarely do. I will never forget the time I went to interview for a teaching job in they bay area. I had been contacted by a recruiting person from Oakland that thought I would be great for the job. I did not apply for the position so I figured this was pretty much a slam dunk. I mean, why even bother calling a person to come in unless you liked them? They were interviewing for a drama teacher and I had been acting and teaching for well over ten years. I had the experience. I had the talent. I had the passion. It was a perfect fit. I even had a degree in political science and the job was specifically describe as incorporating politics and theater. How many people do you know who are such a perfect fit for a job description? What more do you need than that? There was no way I would not get this job. I stood outside for hours because there was a bomb threat and the school was on lock down. Those idiots had me waiting out in the cold for hours for what turned out to be a false alarm, only to tell me to go home. I came back the next day (I had to walk for a few miles because I had no money at the time; I had walked the first day as well) and gave an amazing interview. I nailed every question. One of the staff members even congratulated me on how well I had done. The kids loved me too. I thought, surely there is no way I did not get this job. But, low and behold, I got a call a few days later informing me that I was not going to be given the position. If that is not proof enough for you that hiring managers and job recruiters alike are a bunch of heartless pricks who orgasm every time they crush a dream, then can I ask you what more you need? Do they literally have to use you as a stepping stool before you recognize the favoritism they play all the time? Even if they did that, most people would still live in denial. They would still claim that hiring managers are just misunderstood, that there are so many candidates and it is just too hard to make the right decision. Well, that's not true either. It is just a power play. It is just another way for them to exert their dominance over others. Employers do not care about having the best talent. They care about giving their friends and family jobs. That is all. I really do not understand why Americans ever left the UK. They have the same aristocracy class in America that existed in Britain. They all hire each other, while leaving the more talented people they do not know out. That is how they get down. Look, not many people will tell you this, but you have no chance. Those are not hiring managers; those are saboteurs. Those are not job recruiters; they are job deniers. Chances are, they have already decided who they were going to hire well before the job posting ever made it to indeed. Interviews are nothing more than joke and our lives are the punchlines.

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From Colonialism to Communism

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 18:47:44 GMT

Being alive today, one would think that communism was on its way to becoming a legitimate ruling force in American politics. But this has never been the case. Communism has never had any wide appeal in America. The “threat” of communism is nothing more than a talking point used by political pundits, mostly on the right, but also on the left whenever it is convenient, to scare the working classes into docility and indifference. It is the most successful talking point in the modern era of American politics. This very old talking point (the first fears of communism did not happen in the 1950s, but right after the October revolution in 1917) has been so effective that everything from child tax credits, to the largely Christian black civil rights movement, to atheist celebrities, to hippie communes, to science fiction novelists, to free food programs have at one point or another been completely demonized as a secret communist plot to subvert the Constitution. Make no mistake, I blame the effectiveness of this vile talking point not on the spineless corporate politicians that make use of it, but on the painfully lazy American populous that chooses to turn to corporate owned media networks to get information about world events. Anyone who wishes to know about current events may easily do so by reading real political journals, but instead America chooses to say informed by hearing the thoughtless opinions of elite businessmen and corrupt politicians. Any political analyst worth their salt will readily tell you that the very idea that a communist revolution is coming to subvert the wealth of Elon Musk and Kayne West is just as ridiculous as saying that Big Bird is trying to brainwash your child into getting vaccinated. Providing access to information is not the same thing as manipulation or "brainwashing". Simply because a university teaches communism, that does not mean that the university itself is communist. There are no communist universities in the United States of America; that is simply not allowed here. But even if such a university did exist, it would not last very long. Communist rhetoric remains extremely unpopular in America because the mechanisms for a successful communist revolution simply do not exist in America. There are plenty of reasons for this. The first reason is that most students who attend university are simply the children of the elite classes. Life has been good to these elites; they have no need of communism. Am I supposed to believe that the likes of Paris Hilton and Willow Smith are currently organizing a communist uprising to steal their own wealth form their own parents? The second reason is that studies show that people who attend university for four years become more conservative, not more liberal, by the end of their college experience because they are exposed to the gospel of capitalism all day long for four straight years. But the final reason really puts the whole thing in perspective. Wherever there has been a violent communist uprising, that uprising has always followed the same trajectory. There must be a powerful and technologically advanced colonial force occupying or threatening the country and an oppressed, mostly uneducated and starving, working class. Before the revolution in Russia, Germany invaded Russia during WWI. Before communism took hold in Vietnam, France had exploited Vietnamese resources for years. Before China became a communist nation, it had been constantly attacked by both Japan and the western powers. Who is occupying America? No one. Where is the mostly uneducated and starving peasant class in America? Nowhere. How many communist are there in America? As I write this post, the American communist parties have fewer than 100,000 members and have almost no influence over American political debate and none whatsoever when it comes to policy. An interesting side note: they had even fewer members before Donald Trump became president and began cutting welfare programs.

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A Politics of Paranoia

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 00:31:48 GMT

For decades now, political pundits and analysts have been making the same observation over and over and over again: that being that somewhere along the line American politics became meaner than it once was. These people completely misunderstand American politics; they know nothing of the political history of this nation and, either mistakenly or intentionally, they are misinforming you. America’s politics have always been violent, which is probably one of the reasons so few people enjoy talking about politics in America. You have to have a bit of a taste for the profane as an American political observer. People who say such silly things will always try to find one distinct causes of American political violence; the conservatives point to defund the police, while liberals point to Trump supporters. But there is an overall trend in both sides of the political spectrum toward violent rhetoric. This makes sense considering the fact that early American colonizers committed a genocide on the Native population of this country and did not even bat an eye about it. Still today there are Americans who refuse to even recognize that the aforementioned mass killing even took place or who exclaim at the top of their lungs, “get over it or get out of my country!” The same thing is often said about slavery. Today Americans are so ready to forget that slavery ever took place that they are more than ready to ban the teaching of it in school altogether! They are doing this because they refuse to admit to their ancestors’ violent history and, in so doing, they are bolstering, encouraging and promoting the same violent history. The Salem witch trials are another perfect example of America’s willingness to engage in violent acts (in this case the mass drowning, burning and torture of its own citizens) in order to solidify political power. After the mass genocide of the Native population, America then proceeded to kidnap Native children from their homes and hold them captive in “schools” where torture was inflicted upon them in order to prevent them from practicing their culture in public. It does not get much more politically violent than that. We also should not forget that it was once commonplace to ruthlessly beat women both at home and on the job. We also often forget the mass use of child labor in the United States. Children worked under awful conditions and were often injured or killed on the job during the industrial revolution. The barbaric practice of forcing children to work ten hour days with little rest did not end in America until the 1930s. Then there was the internment of the Japanese, not to mention the brutal treatment of Chinese railroad workers. Chinese workers were paid less and hundreds lost their lives in squalid conditions that no American today would accept. Fast forward to today and homeless people meander through the street; they sleep on the sidewalk in front of luxury stores while bleeding from the head. Cops come along and thaw corpses off of park benches before the day’s work begins. Veterans, who risked their lives for this nation, sleep in tent cities. Countless people were simply tossed out of their homes because they lost their jobs through no fault of their own. People with serious disabilities are refused checks because America’s wallet has tightened just as much as its heart. And what of America's secret love affair with domestic violence? According to the NCADV, intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime in the U.S.A. 10 million people in a year suffer from domestic violence, that amounts to a shocking one in four woemen and one in nine men. Is this not ruthless? Callous? Is this not violence? Is it not violent to call for the killing of elected officials or celebrities? It was when they did it to AOC, Mike Pence, Liz Cheney, Josh McDermitt, Anna Gunn, and Adam Kizinger. But it is not new, just ask JFK, RFK, FDR, Malcolm X, John Lennon, Jodi Foster, and many, many more.

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"Entitlement"

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 02:16:56 GMT

Listening to people talk about entitlement or at least what they view as entitlement today, one would think that it was a mental disease, and, at this rate, it will probably make it there eventually. If you run a quick google search on the word entitlement you will only see it spoken of as a negative mode of thought that prevents you from becoming a billionaire. Here are some of the articles that pop up when you run that search: “Entitlement Mentality: Causes, Symptoms and More” (WebMD), “The Psychology of a Sense of Entitlement” (betterhelp.com), “Five Ways to Deal With Entitled People” (quickanddirtytips.com), “Entitled People: What To Expect and How To Deal With Them” (spsp.org). This is a symptom of capitalism run amuck. Now, people who demand what used to be civil rights (the right to eat, the right to employment that aligns with one’s talents, the right to marry, the right to walk down the street without being harassed) are suffering from “entitlement mentality”. It seems to me like this is just another war on the poor cloaked in the guise of righteousness. But what does entitlement actually mean? What is the real definition? Here you go. Entitlement: the fact of having a right to something, the amount to which a person has a right. Those are the first two definitions of the word. It is not until you get to the third and final definition of the word that entitlement is presented as being in any way negative. Entitlements are also a form of government welfare such as Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment and Welfare Programs (WIC, Food Stamps, TANF and so on). The vast majority of entitlement programs are geared toward elderly people and children. Without these entitlement programs countless elderly people and young children would starve to death. The elderly people of the day did not steal this money. They worked for their social security and medicare by paying taxes their entire lives. The same can be said about people on unemployment; our tax dollars fund unemployment programs, not your tax dollars, everybody’s tax dollars! And what of the children you all pretend to love? Would you have them die of starvation because a person is injured and cannot work? Would you have poor people stripped of their children because they have fallen on hard times? Do you wish that child to be torn from their family and thrown into an orphanage, which is known to cause criminal behavior in children? Do you want the crime rates to continue to rise? Do you enjoy it when old people die slow painful deaths? Seriously, what is your problem? Many of you behave this way with protests as well. You say, “how dare they protest getting beaten to death by police? How could they be so entitled?” Do you not know that protest is a protected right? You say, “how dare they get married and have children when they cannot afford it?” Do you not know that marriage and starting a family is a civil right as defined by Supreme Court in 1967? Do you know anything or are you just a grumpy person who is jealous of us poor people who have found some comfort in a ruthless world? Have you grown so cold that you are willing to take away even the little tiny bit of comfort that we have developed for the poor in this nation? I think that people who demand that entitlement cease are the entitled ones. They feel entitled to take rights away from others simply because they are successful. What happens when your luck runs out? What happens if you develop a chronic illness? Who will care for you if not the government rights and programs that you so readily mock as entitlement syndrome? I really hope that your talking points don’t end up destroying your life like they have destroyed mine. I lose four jobs, four jobs because of this nation refusing to get vaccinated or practice basic hygiene and you call me entitled so you can take the only things from me keeping my family from starving? You don’t even know the meaning of the word.

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The Rise and Fall of Edgy Comedians

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 07:56:28 GMT

Edginess is next to godliness...until edginess becomes boring that is. Such was the case with political humorist, Mort Sahl, who recently passed away last month. Though Sahl enjoyed landmark success in his life, revolutionizing comedy, hobnobbing with the Kennedy's and eventually becoming the highest paid comedian in the business, he eventually fell into obscurity. Of course fans of Mort Sahl, mostly comedians and people like me who used to watch Sahl's old stuff with my older parents, will mostly argue that this is because people these days are too politically correct or not intelligent enough to understand Sahl. His comedy, they would argue, is simply too cutting edge for a world that has been dumbed-down by cancel culture obsessed liberal downers, also like myself, which is strange seeing as I am one of the only people under forty on the planet today who even knew who Mort Sahl was before modern comedians paid tribute to him after his death. It is also strange because today Mort Sahl's style of comedy has made quite the comeback, albeit without him this time around. Comedians like Dave Chapelle, Chris Rock, and Kevin Heart all follow Mort Sahl's basic formula: infusing outlandish and often downright rude critique of their political opponents into humor in order to get a few laughs. It is even more interesting that, much like Dave Chapelle, Mort Sahl fell out of favor of the political elite of his time after going a bit too far with some of his jokes. Sahl mocked the Kennedy administration and many of Kennedy's fans never went back for seconds. This also caused Sahl to go off the rails a bit; after the Kennedy murder, he began reading odd excerpts from the Warren Report on stage, and even did a bit of conspiracy theorizing about the events during his "comedy routine". This was not well received and Mort Sahl became unfunny for the first time in his life. Once again, oddly like Dave Chapelle, Mort Sahl made a triumphant return to comedy during the Nixon administration and was very well liked by the democratic establishment once more. Dave Chapelle, of course solidified his return to comedy during the Trump years, promoting free speech above politeness, and an all out assault on people who are kind to the LGBTQIA folks. But Mort Sahl's triumphant return was short lived, as will be Dave Chapelle's of course. The thing about comedians like Sahl and Chapelle is that they are simply too political to keep the audience laughing in the long term; attributing the audience's lack of interest in political discourse to political correctness, which most people cannot even define, misses the point entirely. People watch comedy to relax, not to think about deep issues like whether there was a conspiracy involved in the Kennedy killing or whether or not free speech trumps trans rights. Trust me on this one, I went to school for this and I have performed for over twenty years. If there is one thing most people do not come to a comedy show for, it is odd conspiratorial rants about the "establishment". Lenny Bruce, another comedian who I would venture to say that most people my age have never heard of, followed this exact same trajectory. Bruce go off on saying shocking, political things so much during his routines that he would read excerpts from his court hearings on stage in an almost histrionic fashion. Bruce was very clearly trying to alter political viewpoints on stage; making people laugh became secondary for him. After awhile, people stopped biting and Bruce, like Sahl, died in obscurity. What I am trying to say here is that, though you may like politics onstage, most people do not. Comedy is about bringing people who are different together, but politics only reminds us of how different we are. I do not wish this on comedians; they do it to themselves. They try to control the thoughts of their audience by shaming them into acquiescence and, eventually they always fail. When an audience laughs to stop the pain, comedy dies.

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