I completely agree with you on the clone issue and I will offer some proof to back you up:
Some of you have probably read my comments on my dad and what he did but here I will eplain something about what was done to him by way of an example of what they do to people who don't go along with the group think:
I learned a lot from my dad who was an admiral and a top advisor to a past president. Because he was extremely honest with a sterling reputation and sincerely wanted to help his country, which he saw being destroyed, the deep state did their best to destroy him. I learned a lot about how the deep state operates. The Dept. of Justice came to my dad and threatened to utterly destroy him in all forms of the media in every news source in the country unless he resigned. He had done NOTHING wrong but they needed him gone, he was a whistleblower and a patriot. He had owned his own media business and knew every single Managing Editor at every single large newspaper in the country and was greatly respected by them - and yes, deep state still could have destroyed him, the editors would have been threatened most likely, along with their families. My dad was born in 1920 and grew up so poor he had malnutrition from starvation. This only fostered a strong ambition to be successful and just about everything he undertook, he was really good at. His Waterloo came when he had risen as far up the ladder as a man could go - a top advisor to President of the U.S. He wanted to give back to America because he knew he could never have achieved the kind of success he had in any other country but America, which he loved with his whole heart. But he was forced to resign because deep state would have ruined him, his business, his family and my brother & I would have had to live under the shadow of a hugely infamous scoundrel they would have said my dad was. Think of the worst crimes anyone could commit; they would have charged him with it on every front page of every newspaper and on every news station for days. This is the kind of thing deep state does, it's how they destroy people. btw, this happened over 40 yrs ago, deep state has been at this for a very long time. Think about it; what would you do if you'd been in my dad's position? What if the DOJ came to your door and told you they would do everything they could to destroy you and your family unless you went along with their agenda?
These people are beyond ruthless and evil. They have no soul, they sold it long ago.
They don't like the honest "adults in the room." They actually seem to fear and despise these people and will "run them off" by any means possible - fair or unfair.
We are the "non-player characters" in the game being played by the so-called elite. They think we have no voice, no opinion, no beliefs, no thoughts. They think we are just non-players that simply do our part by working and paying to keep the players in the condition they think they deserve. Whereas we simply need to rise like lions from our slumber, shake off our chains because we are many and they are few (to paraphrase Shelley!).
Hear! Hear! The great silver lining of our Covid New Abnormal is we now KNOW who these obtuse and/or evil leaders really are. We now know who we have to purge.
From the "Mask of Anarchy." Last year, I briefly discussed how that poem, which for a long time was a favorite of radicals and Marxists, has been recently attracting conservative fans! https://substack.com/home/post/p-139440369 I even adjusted one stanza to better fit our situation:
But the man of our hour for simple poetic recognition of our corrupt elites is not Shelley, but Van Morrison. Try "Double Bind," "Duper's Delight," "No More Lockdowns," "Western Man," "Money from America," "Pretending," "Not Seeking Approval," "You Don't Understand." All fresh poetic expression, from the last 6 or so years.
I often have the same experience, of reading an article or post and eureka! a fresh realisation occurs. As now in reading your post.
While knowing the many ways in which I am different to family and most of society, through feeling and experiencing being an outsider, I've notched my difference to being creative, artistic and being a critical thinker always questioning. You've pointed to the difference under those differences. Those in power and in charge will never include a person who doesn't regurgitate the organisations thinking - that thinking made up of beliefs and values.
There is no art of persuasion, masterful enrollment (one body of work participated in for 7yr) or empathy to transform exclusion to inclusion. Even though we hear of this constantly pushed through the woke agenda, a Fascist effort to enforce equality which is really not wanted by anone in the upper echelons feeding the masses with the current fashionable ideology proposed to reform the world to utopia.
The woke will never support or include the non-woke. Stated thusly, I accept being other and excluded.
I think this essay does pretty much explain everything. It's a depressing piece as I realize how hard it will be to change this culture - a society where every important organization is completely captured. That means every "leader" in almost every important organization would have to be exposed and purged. And, even if this happened, you don't know about the replacement leaders.
I think if we sent a strong enough message, the replacements might learn a valuable lesson and adjust their behavior and perhaps work to change this clone culture. This scenario would require real leadership.
A strong enough message superseding monetary and status rewards - what message does that? The world on the precipice of imploding and ultimately ending - as has been the design - has the uber wealthy building underground bunkers by which to emerge from in the aftermath and the all clear is noted (such technology!)
The masses are lost in self-satisfying edification through material indugence completely oblivious, regurgitating nonsense and lies to avoid being cast out.
Was it such a fundamentally different world when we heard the assurance of Louis Armstrong poetically sing "What a Wonderful World?" Fundamentally no, substantially yes.
This sentence nails the bottom-line of today's essay: "The masses are lost in self-satisfying edification through material indulgence completely oblivious, regurgitating nonsense and lies to avoid being cast out."
IMO the fear of being cast out of the herd explains much of our rapidly-deteriorating state of affairs.
Another eureka moment; having never felt included and to belong (well defined by Brene Brown in her book "Atlas of The Heart") and learning to live as outsider from an early age appears to now bear its fruit. Standing alone, excluded and other, though painted as degenerate (i.e. gunman acted alone - one of a plethora of subliminal messages denigrating independence.)
Distinguishing individual from independent is key - individual has been exonerated while independent is anathema. A truly schizophrenic world.
Abruptly stopping the gaslighting and narrative hijacking, used as tools by the power holders and their shameless grovelling sycophants to build a brick wall around those feeding on the dominant narrative to maintain their approval status.
A start to dismantling that wall ... by brutal honesty, no holds barred. Speaking truth has been occurring with a tone of uncertainty, tepid trepidation, lacking boldness. A fear of offending those smitten by Disney-hallucinogens-word-salads made of imaginary scenarios distancing and disabling a human mind from seeing, recognising, and discerning factual reality.
Words are magic - stories cast spells, an ancient truth used unscrupulously by the billionn dollar advertising world. Cue the Edward Bernays story (Nephew of Freud) described by Wikepedia as a public relations pioneer.
And if we do slip past the gatekeepers, we are often pushed out by managers/colleagues threatened by competence, criticism, and a penchant for quality.
Great article, all so true. Always problems though, one of which is while we may outnumber them 100,000 to 1, that depends on how you define "we". If non-elites, sure. But as vaccine uptake demonstrated, 80,000 or more of the 100,000 were easily fooled. That's who they are. Temporarily getting suspicious at the moment is just that, temporary. They'll have them bamboozled as ever, very easily. I hope I'm wrong, but that's how I see them.
I just hope the new boss isn't the same as the old boss. Or even the old Trump, who didn't drain the swamp and became a pharma shill. I hope he survives long enough that we find out. He'd have to be a lot stupider than he appears to not see how badly the deep state needs to be defanged now. If he doesn't attack them mercilessly and relentlessly, he's not our friend. Interesting times.
It will be a huge disappointment if Trump doesn't apply "lessons learned" to a second term. We'll know a lot more when we see who he appoints to key positions in his next administration.
Of course, there's still six months until he would assume office and anything could happen in those six months. So, I guess, it's no sure-thing he'll be "elected" or live to serve again.
I worked 12 years for a company that was the leader in its industry. We created custom marketing technology solutions for our clients and there was a reasonable amount of creativity required to develop the optimal solution for each client. The company encourage innovation and attracted highly intelligent and articulate people. Best company I ever worked for.
Then it was sold to another company that was more of a bottom feeder in the industry. The new leadership team immediately tried to remove the creativity and make the solutions more cookie-cutter. Creativity was frowned-upon. When they took over there were 35 VPs and within two years only 5 of the 35 were still there. They drove the best and brightest out on purpose and lost their industry leader status as a result.
Of course, in government excellence is not really a goal so they don't really see any downside for mandating groupthink.
Great anecdote. In this article, I talk about how we need a "Great Purge." But your post reminds me we've already had a "Great Purge" of smart and traditional-thinking people in almost every organization. This definitely happened in the military ... and we can see it happened in the Secret Service.
It's happened in EVERY large and significant organization. They intentionally purged independent thinkers.
Yes and that is a HUGE disadvantage. We literally heave years if not decades of work to accomplish in order to reverse or correct course. That’s what we all must understand at the very least. It’s almost getting to the point where we need to burn it down and start over. We are very close to that edge.
First of all - congrats on 300 paid subs! We're (slowly) winning, even if most people don't know what Substack is yet.
With regards to the article, hiring 'yes men' is not really surprising because the #1 goal of any organization is the continuance of that organization. Doesn't matter if it's a business or a church or an NGO tackling homelessness. The 'silver lining' is that bad decisions in private business are punished -- as we see with Target/Bud Light/Tractor Supply. Sadly, this doesn't happen in government -- indeed, the infection actually spreads MORE QUICKLY because the organization is completely disconnected from outcomes.
When I was publisher of The Troy Citizen (25 years ago), I changed this weekly from a free advertising-supported newspaper to a paid subscription paper.
In a couple of weeks, in a county with 30,000 citizens, I had 3,000 paid subscribers.
It took me two years to get to 300 paid subs on Substack - and I'll probably be back below 300 by the end of this week.
Different markets, I guess. Different times. Different publications.
As I wrote recently, if current trends continue, I'll be up to 1,000 paid subscribers ... in September 2033.
One oddity of my newsletter "business" is that 99 percent of the people I know in Troy and the state of Alabama don't even know I have a Substack.
Of my 301 paid subscribers, I think three or four are from Troy, Alabama.
The best way I could probably change this is with Facebook posts ... but I'm banned from Facebook (or shadow-banned to an extent I don't even bother making posts anymore ... and I can't even get on the site anymore.
So this censorship has definitely harmed my Substack business or my ability to earn income. I wonder if I could sue Mark Zuckerberg? If I wanted to, I couldn't find a lawyer who would take the case.
Bill, I tried just now to send you a small gift via "kofi," and the "kofi" website pretended to not recognize my debit card. I've sent small donations via "kofi" before, to other substack authors, using the exact same debit card, with no trouble whatsoever. What am I (or we) to make of this? Has this been happening to others? I suspect this is intentional. And it makes me furious.
A targeted boycott won't work because every brand you see in the super market is owned by a handful of companies. You need to by local produce/meat as much as possible and stop consuming mainstream goods. Easier said than done, I know, but every decision makes a difference. All their food is garbage anyway, so good luck!
I recently retired and the last five years I worked on a large tech campus in the Seattle area. It was the first BIG company I ever worked for and just about very cliche I’ve ever heard about ‘corporate America’ fell fully exposed at my feet.
In the year before I left, I read a pronouncement from the Chief People Officer (shoot me!), as we approached the new year. “Now is the time to connect with your why. Let it be your guide as you look back on 2023 and ahead to the promise of a new year.”
This ridiculous platitude, on top of near constant DIE Messaging, helped me realize the truth you unveil in this piece, Bill. DIE kills and extinguishes any possibility of finding, or ever getting the opportunity to discover or pursue your personal ‘Why.’
The Great Purge would be like a ‘corporate rapture.’ Who would be left standing?
I too work for a big corporation. I liken every yearly “self-assessment”, done so that my direct manager can “work forward” from my own “self-assessment” to down score me to a level that is numerically acceptable to the higher ups, to a soul sucking black hole of insincere garbage that I am required to do in order to maybe earn a tiny raise every year. For almost seven years I didn’t get a raise because I already made more per hour than the new hires. Now, in my mind, as an excellent, compassionate, and well liked pharmacist who has customers who only call or come in when I am there because I am awesome, I SHOULD be making more an hour than some snot nosed, newly indoctrinated plebe who just graduated from indoctrination school and can’t explain their way out of a paper bag. I’ve been doing this for 36 years ffs which should count for SOMETHING. I also very rarely make mistakes, and, if I do they are insanely minor and do not endanger patients in the slightest. I’m not bragging, I’m just saying I’m goddam good and should get a damn raise for it. But here I am, every year, following their stupid rules of self assessment, which I honestly find to be condescending drivel. It sucks but I do it because I can no longer fight the system in order to have my own business. I like my job honestly, because it gives me the time I need to interact with people in a meaningful way as I’m alone, overnight, with a much lighter workload than a daytime pharmacist has. So while I appreciate it, the decent pay, and the ability to avoid giving vaccines there are still negative aspects that I find thoroughly depressing. I get my satisfaction from personal interactions with people who appreciate my competence and honesty, which, after all, is enough to keep me going every day.
100% Bill. They think that if life/the workplace looks like the bar scene from Star Wars then things are 'diverse.' The problem is that everyone of these 'diverse characters' thinks the same and is full of hate.
Hi there, I live in Western Australia and I am unable to forward your articles to anyone. I get blocked every time. However when I get an email from Substack listing some of the new articles I am able to forward. Ha!! Trying to forward articles on the blood clots as noone else seems to write about them
I have a profound understanding of what you mean. Summary of Issues Affecting My Ph.D. Completion: Violation of Academic Freedom: These actions represent a concerted attack on academic integrity and freedom of expression; Ideological Censorship: The pervasive influence of "woke" and DEI ideologies created a hostile environment for intellectual diversity. You may find it helpful to read my complete interview: https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/heresy? https://palexander.substack.com/p/the-operation-warp-speed-ows-lockdown?
Anybody who is sharp and has something to offer - who was never hired or was ignored or harrassed after being hired - can probably relate to this essay.
We don't know how different (and better) the world would be if more organizations listened to the smart naysayers.
The culture in these organizations is toxic to these people. Maybe we need to start more of our own "important" organizations.
I came across a job advert on linkedin earlier today that specifically said the applicant had to be vegan. Note, this was not a job or company directly linked to vegan products in any form. The job itself was remote. I’m going to massively stereotype vegans here, but this is the company’s way of weeding out a certain percentage of society and increasing the chances of the applicant having certain views and politics without breaking employment law.
I think the greatest example of discrimination is the requirement that people for many type jobs have a college degree. I could argue that there are numerous people in the world who could do every job ... without finishing or even attending college.
Yes, a great heart surgeon could learn how to master heart surgery without even going to college. I don't think Abe Lincoln graduated from a law school. Certainly, someone who is in "sales" doesn't need any college classes to know how to sell a widget or service.
The most successful businesses in my town - which employ thousands of local citizens - were started by a man who never went to college.
Can’t comment about the US, but here in the UK so many ‘average’ jobs are asking for degree qualification for the simple reason that our high school education system has been dumbed down so much that many of the high school qualifications and grades are basically meaningless. It’s not basic discrimination as such, more an additional layer of sorting wheat from chaff. Thankfully our universities tuition fees are not out of control like in the US, they’re capped at the equivalent of about $12k per year even for oxford and cambridge.
This college degree requirement is an easy "screening" process that has been approved by the Courts as being non-discriminatory. But it IS discriminatory.
It also is the key plank that justifies a "college degree." So this requirement supports a massive and captured industry (higher education).
(When colleges say, a degree will increase your earning potential by huge amounts over your lifetime, they are actually telling the truth. Most of the high-paying jobs require this piece of paper. However, most people could have done just as well in their professions if they'd never gone to college or graduated.)
How do you test the "truism" that you HAVE to have a college degree to make a good living? (Actually, plenty of people have proven this "truism" is ... bogus.)
I feel another article (on the "higher education/degree scam" ) coming on!
"Another positive development is citizen journalists on X (and independent journalists on Substack and invaluable sites like the Brownstone Institute) have already supplanted the “legacy” press as the only places to get important information.'
That is a positive. I'm partial to print, not video, but once in a while I like to see what the talking heads are saying about current events. They only channel I get I can stomach is Fox. But even it is so lame. Then I remembered ALEX JONES. Watched his recent shows, SO much better. And he chooses REAL experts to have on, not idiots. Tucker Carlson is good, but not enough content, unless you subscribe.
Another BRILLIANT article, Bill, thank you!
I completely agree with you on the clone issue and I will offer some proof to back you up:
Some of you have probably read my comments on my dad and what he did but here I will eplain something about what was done to him by way of an example of what they do to people who don't go along with the group think:
I learned a lot from my dad who was an admiral and a top advisor to a past president. Because he was extremely honest with a sterling reputation and sincerely wanted to help his country, which he saw being destroyed, the deep state did their best to destroy him. I learned a lot about how the deep state operates. The Dept. of Justice came to my dad and threatened to utterly destroy him in all forms of the media in every news source in the country unless he resigned. He had done NOTHING wrong but they needed him gone, he was a whistleblower and a patriot. He had owned his own media business and knew every single Managing Editor at every single large newspaper in the country and was greatly respected by them - and yes, deep state still could have destroyed him, the editors would have been threatened most likely, along with their families. My dad was born in 1920 and grew up so poor he had malnutrition from starvation. This only fostered a strong ambition to be successful and just about everything he undertook, he was really good at. His Waterloo came when he had risen as far up the ladder as a man could go - a top advisor to President of the U.S. He wanted to give back to America because he knew he could never have achieved the kind of success he had in any other country but America, which he loved with his whole heart. But he was forced to resign because deep state would have ruined him, his business, his family and my brother & I would have had to live under the shadow of a hugely infamous scoundrel they would have said my dad was. Think of the worst crimes anyone could commit; they would have charged him with it on every front page of every newspaper and on every news station for days. This is the kind of thing deep state does, it's how they destroy people. btw, this happened over 40 yrs ago, deep state has been at this for a very long time. Think about it; what would you do if you'd been in my dad's position? What if the DOJ came to your door and told you they would do everything they could to destroy you and your family unless you went along with their agenda?
These people are beyond ruthless and evil. They have no soul, they sold it long ago.
They don't like the honest "adults in the room." They actually seem to fear and despise these people and will "run them off" by any means possible - fair or unfair.
Thanks for sharing this very sad story.
Thanks Bill, your comment means a lot to me. Your first sentence - so very true.
God bless your father and his heirs, as my husband says, no good deed goes unpunished
We are the "non-player characters" in the game being played by the so-called elite. They think we have no voice, no opinion, no beliefs, no thoughts. They think we are just non-players that simply do our part by working and paying to keep the players in the condition they think they deserve. Whereas we simply need to rise like lions from our slumber, shake off our chains because we are many and they are few (to paraphrase Shelley!).
Hear! Hear! The great silver lining of our Covid New Abnormal is we now KNOW who these obtuse and/or evil leaders really are. We now know who we have to purge.
We still dont actually "know" who pulls the strings of the string pullers we see.......
From the "Mask of Anarchy." Last year, I briefly discussed how that poem, which for a long time was a favorite of radicals and Marxists, has been recently attracting conservative fans! https://substack.com/home/post/p-139440369 I even adjusted one stanza to better fit our situation:
For he knew the Legislations
of our Reps were rightly his;
His the gavel, gown, and booted feet,
and every button that Deletes.
But the man of our hour for simple poetic recognition of our corrupt elites is not Shelley, but Van Morrison. Try "Double Bind," "Duper's Delight," "No More Lockdowns," "Western Man," "Money from America," "Pretending," "Not Seeking Approval," "You Don't Understand." All fresh poetic expression, from the last 6 or so years.
Van Morrison was the only rocker who stood up to The Man.
(Eric Clapton later joined him.)
I often have the same experience, of reading an article or post and eureka! a fresh realisation occurs. As now in reading your post.
While knowing the many ways in which I am different to family and most of society, through feeling and experiencing being an outsider, I've notched my difference to being creative, artistic and being a critical thinker always questioning. You've pointed to the difference under those differences. Those in power and in charge will never include a person who doesn't regurgitate the organisations thinking - that thinking made up of beliefs and values.
There is no art of persuasion, masterful enrollment (one body of work participated in for 7yr) or empathy to transform exclusion to inclusion. Even though we hear of this constantly pushed through the woke agenda, a Fascist effort to enforce equality which is really not wanted by anone in the upper echelons feeding the masses with the current fashionable ideology proposed to reform the world to utopia.
The woke will never support or include the non-woke. Stated thusly, I accept being other and excluded.
I think this essay does pretty much explain everything. It's a depressing piece as I realize how hard it will be to change this culture - a society where every important organization is completely captured. That means every "leader" in almost every important organization would have to be exposed and purged. And, even if this happened, you don't know about the replacement leaders.
I think if we sent a strong enough message, the replacements might learn a valuable lesson and adjust their behavior and perhaps work to change this clone culture. This scenario would require real leadership.
A strong enough message superseding monetary and status rewards - what message does that? The world on the precipice of imploding and ultimately ending - as has been the design - has the uber wealthy building underground bunkers by which to emerge from in the aftermath and the all clear is noted (such technology!)
The masses are lost in self-satisfying edification through material indugence completely oblivious, regurgitating nonsense and lies to avoid being cast out.
Was it such a fundamentally different world when we heard the assurance of Louis Armstrong poetically sing "What a Wonderful World?" Fundamentally no, substantially yes.
This sentence nails the bottom-line of today's essay: "The masses are lost in self-satisfying edification through material indulgence completely oblivious, regurgitating nonsense and lies to avoid being cast out."
IMO the fear of being cast out of the herd explains much of our rapidly-deteriorating state of affairs.
Yes. Our individual and collective Achilles Heel.
Another eureka moment; having never felt included and to belong (well defined by Brene Brown in her book "Atlas of The Heart") and learning to live as outsider from an early age appears to now bear its fruit. Standing alone, excluded and other, though painted as degenerate (i.e. gunman acted alone - one of a plethora of subliminal messages denigrating independence.)
Distinguishing individual from independent is key - individual has been exonerated while independent is anathema. A truly schizophrenic world.
Bill - possibly the way out of this sinking ship, is by way of brutal honesty as done here by Alex Berenson from Unreported Truths (https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/do-not-let-the-media-lie-about-joe)
Abruptly stopping the gaslighting and narrative hijacking, used as tools by the power holders and their shameless grovelling sycophants to build a brick wall around those feeding on the dominant narrative to maintain their approval status.
A start to dismantling that wall ... by brutal honesty, no holds barred. Speaking truth has been occurring with a tone of uncertainty, tepid trepidation, lacking boldness. A fear of offending those smitten by Disney-hallucinogens-word-salads made of imaginary scenarios distancing and disabling a human mind from seeing, recognising, and discerning factual reality.
Words are magic - stories cast spells, an ancient truth used unscrupulously by the billionn dollar advertising world. Cue the Edward Bernays story (Nephew of Freud) described by Wikepedia as a public relations pioneer.
"Contrarians need not apply!"
And if we do slip past the gatekeepers, we are often pushed out by managers/colleagues threatened by competence, criticism, and a penchant for quality.
Your "work environment" will NOT be pleasant.
Great article, all so true. Always problems though, one of which is while we may outnumber them 100,000 to 1, that depends on how you define "we". If non-elites, sure. But as vaccine uptake demonstrated, 80,000 or more of the 100,000 were easily fooled. That's who they are. Temporarily getting suspicious at the moment is just that, temporary. They'll have them bamboozled as ever, very easily. I hope I'm wrong, but that's how I see them.
Thanks, SteelJ. It will be interesting to see if the masses are capable of belated "learning."
The Powers that Be are probably betting, "Nah, they'll forget ... we can easily fool them again."
The Who sang, "We won't be fooled again!"
I guess we'll see if those guys were right.
I just hope the new boss isn't the same as the old boss. Or even the old Trump, who didn't drain the swamp and became a pharma shill. I hope he survives long enough that we find out. He'd have to be a lot stupider than he appears to not see how badly the deep state needs to be defanged now. If he doesn't attack them mercilessly and relentlessly, he's not our friend. Interesting times.
It will be a huge disappointment if Trump doesn't apply "lessons learned" to a second term. We'll know a lot more when we see who he appoints to key positions in his next administration.
Of course, there's still six months until he would assume office and anything could happen in those six months. So, I guess, it's no sure-thing he'll be "elected" or live to serve again.
True. Not counting any chickens in our house.
Spot on, Bill!
I worked 12 years for a company that was the leader in its industry. We created custom marketing technology solutions for our clients and there was a reasonable amount of creativity required to develop the optimal solution for each client. The company encourage innovation and attracted highly intelligent and articulate people. Best company I ever worked for.
Then it was sold to another company that was more of a bottom feeder in the industry. The new leadership team immediately tried to remove the creativity and make the solutions more cookie-cutter. Creativity was frowned-upon. When they took over there were 35 VPs and within two years only 5 of the 35 were still there. They drove the best and brightest out on purpose and lost their industry leader status as a result.
Of course, in government excellence is not really a goal so they don't really see any downside for mandating groupthink.
Great anecdote. In this article, I talk about how we need a "Great Purge." But your post reminds me we've already had a "Great Purge" of smart and traditional-thinking people in almost every organization. This definitely happened in the military ... and we can see it happened in the Secret Service.
It's happened in EVERY large and significant organization. They intentionally purged independent thinkers.
Yes and that is a HUGE disadvantage. We literally heave years if not decades of work to accomplish in order to reverse or correct course. That’s what we all must understand at the very least. It’s almost getting to the point where we need to burn it down and start over. We are very close to that edge.
so true! my experience exactly. cannot have independent thinkers who can be a threat. w
First of all - congrats on 300 paid subs! We're (slowly) winning, even if most people don't know what Substack is yet.
With regards to the article, hiring 'yes men' is not really surprising because the #1 goal of any organization is the continuance of that organization. Doesn't matter if it's a business or a church or an NGO tackling homelessness. The 'silver lining' is that bad decisions in private business are punished -- as we see with Target/Bud Light/Tractor Supply. Sadly, this doesn't happen in government -- indeed, the infection actually spreads MORE QUICKLY because the organization is completely disconnected from outcomes.
When I was publisher of The Troy Citizen (25 years ago), I changed this weekly from a free advertising-supported newspaper to a paid subscription paper.
In a couple of weeks, in a county with 30,000 citizens, I had 3,000 paid subscribers.
It took me two years to get to 300 paid subs on Substack - and I'll probably be back below 300 by the end of this week.
Different markets, I guess. Different times. Different publications.
As I wrote recently, if current trends continue, I'll be up to 1,000 paid subscribers ... in September 2033.
You were also starting from a much wider base back then -- all the free subs. Here, you had to start from zero!
One oddity of my newsletter "business" is that 99 percent of the people I know in Troy and the state of Alabama don't even know I have a Substack.
Of my 301 paid subscribers, I think three or four are from Troy, Alabama.
The best way I could probably change this is with Facebook posts ... but I'm banned from Facebook (or shadow-banned to an extent I don't even bother making posts anymore ... and I can't even get on the site anymore.
So this censorship has definitely harmed my Substack business or my ability to earn income. I wonder if I could sue Mark Zuckerberg? If I wanted to, I couldn't find a lawyer who would take the case.
Jeff Childers where are you? I wish this could happen! Have you tried lately? I’m not so sure you’re all that controversial anymore. 🤷♀️
Bill, I tried just now to send you a small gift via "kofi," and the "kofi" website pretended to not recognize my debit card. I've sent small donations via "kofi" before, to other substack authors, using the exact same debit card, with no trouble whatsoever. What am I (or we) to make of this? Has this been happening to others? I suspect this is intentional. And it makes me furious.
Oh my gosh. Thanks for sharing, Truthbird. This really disturbs me. It seems someone is blocking me from making $ from this Substack.
A targeted boycott won't work because every brand you see in the super market is owned by a handful of companies. You need to by local produce/meat as much as possible and stop consuming mainstream goods. Easier said than done, I know, but every decision makes a difference. All their food is garbage anyway, so good luck!
I recently retired and the last five years I worked on a large tech campus in the Seattle area. It was the first BIG company I ever worked for and just about very cliche I’ve ever heard about ‘corporate America’ fell fully exposed at my feet.
In the year before I left, I read a pronouncement from the Chief People Officer (shoot me!), as we approached the new year. “Now is the time to connect with your why. Let it be your guide as you look back on 2023 and ahead to the promise of a new year.”
This ridiculous platitude, on top of near constant DIE Messaging, helped me realize the truth you unveil in this piece, Bill. DIE kills and extinguishes any possibility of finding, or ever getting the opportunity to discover or pursue your personal ‘Why.’
The Great Purge would be like a ‘corporate rapture.’ Who would be left standing?
Man, outstanding post and great anecdote, Chris. Thanks!
I too work for a big corporation. I liken every yearly “self-assessment”, done so that my direct manager can “work forward” from my own “self-assessment” to down score me to a level that is numerically acceptable to the higher ups, to a soul sucking black hole of insincere garbage that I am required to do in order to maybe earn a tiny raise every year. For almost seven years I didn’t get a raise because I already made more per hour than the new hires. Now, in my mind, as an excellent, compassionate, and well liked pharmacist who has customers who only call or come in when I am there because I am awesome, I SHOULD be making more an hour than some snot nosed, newly indoctrinated plebe who just graduated from indoctrination school and can’t explain their way out of a paper bag. I’ve been doing this for 36 years ffs which should count for SOMETHING. I also very rarely make mistakes, and, if I do they are insanely minor and do not endanger patients in the slightest. I’m not bragging, I’m just saying I’m goddam good and should get a damn raise for it. But here I am, every year, following their stupid rules of self assessment, which I honestly find to be condescending drivel. It sucks but I do it because I can no longer fight the system in order to have my own business. I like my job honestly, because it gives me the time I need to interact with people in a meaningful way as I’m alone, overnight, with a much lighter workload than a daytime pharmacist has. So while I appreciate it, the decent pay, and the ability to avoid giving vaccines there are still negative aspects that I find thoroughly depressing. I get my satisfaction from personal interactions with people who appreciate my competence and honesty, which, after all, is enough to keep me going every day.
100% Bill. They think that if life/the workplace looks like the bar scene from Star Wars then things are 'diverse.' The problem is that everyone of these 'diverse characters' thinks the same and is full of hate.
Hi there, I live in Western Australia and I am unable to forward your articles to anyone. I get blocked every time. However when I get an email from Substack listing some of the new articles I am able to forward. Ha!! Trying to forward articles on the blood clots as noone else seems to write about them
Thanks for letting me know this, Noelle. I'm getting more and more reports similar to this one. Hmmm.
I have a profound understanding of what you mean. Summary of Issues Affecting My Ph.D. Completion: Violation of Academic Freedom: These actions represent a concerted attack on academic integrity and freedom of expression; Ideological Censorship: The pervasive influence of "woke" and DEI ideologies created a hostile environment for intellectual diversity. You may find it helpful to read my complete interview: https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/heresy? https://palexander.substack.com/p/the-operation-warp-speed-ows-lockdown?
Anybody who is sharp and has something to offer - who was never hired or was ignored or harrassed after being hired - can probably relate to this essay.
We don't know how different (and better) the world would be if more organizations listened to the smart naysayers.
The culture in these organizations is toxic to these people. Maybe we need to start more of our own "important" organizations.
I came across a job advert on linkedin earlier today that specifically said the applicant had to be vegan. Note, this was not a job or company directly linked to vegan products in any form. The job itself was remote. I’m going to massively stereotype vegans here, but this is the company’s way of weeding out a certain percentage of society and increasing the chances of the applicant having certain views and politics without breaking employment law.
I think the greatest example of discrimination is the requirement that people for many type jobs have a college degree. I could argue that there are numerous people in the world who could do every job ... without finishing or even attending college.
Yes, a great heart surgeon could learn how to master heart surgery without even going to college. I don't think Abe Lincoln graduated from a law school. Certainly, someone who is in "sales" doesn't need any college classes to know how to sell a widget or service.
The most successful businesses in my town - which employ thousands of local citizens - were started by a man who never went to college.
Can’t comment about the US, but here in the UK so many ‘average’ jobs are asking for degree qualification for the simple reason that our high school education system has been dumbed down so much that many of the high school qualifications and grades are basically meaningless. It’s not basic discrimination as such, more an additional layer of sorting wheat from chaff. Thankfully our universities tuition fees are not out of control like in the US, they’re capped at the equivalent of about $12k per year even for oxford and cambridge.
This college degree requirement is an easy "screening" process that has been approved by the Courts as being non-discriminatory. But it IS discriminatory.
It also is the key plank that justifies a "college degree." So this requirement supports a massive and captured industry (higher education).
(When colleges say, a degree will increase your earning potential by huge amounts over your lifetime, they are actually telling the truth. Most of the high-paying jobs require this piece of paper. However, most people could have done just as well in their professions if they'd never gone to college or graduated.)
How do you test the "truism" that you HAVE to have a college degree to make a good living? (Actually, plenty of people have proven this "truism" is ... bogus.)
I feel another article (on the "higher education/degree scam" ) coming on!
They're even making a vet tech a college degree job now. Jobs that ppl could get righ out of HS and get paid decent are disappearing 🤬.
"Another positive development is citizen journalists on X (and independent journalists on Substack and invaluable sites like the Brownstone Institute) have already supplanted the “legacy” press as the only places to get important information.'
That is a positive. I'm partial to print, not video, but once in a while I like to see what the talking heads are saying about current events. They only channel I get I can stomach is Fox. But even it is so lame. Then I remembered ALEX JONES. Watched his recent shows, SO much better. And he chooses REAL experts to have on, not idiots. Tucker Carlson is good, but not enough content, unless you subscribe.