I just noticed that this article didn't allow posts for non-subscriber readers. I check this button with every article and the default WANTS to go to "posts for PAID subscribers only."
I want every reader to be able to make comments if they want to. With this article, I thought I enabled the button that would make this possible.
I'm now paranoid about everything and wonder if there's some kind of effort to make it harder for readers to comment.
Anyway, I think I've now restored the ability for everyone to make comments.
I should highlight one subset of the population I admire.
These are the people who were A) duped, but B) quickly realized they'd been conned and, then, C) Got pissed off about this and, then, ... D) decided they were going to try to stop other people from being duped, plus expose the people who orchestrated the scam and, lastly, E) try to save lives and reduce misery going forward.
With a sidebar on the topic: Elon Musk was asked at his DOGE conference if AI's self-learning would render mankind dumb. The questioner and Musk bantered about the movie "Idiocracy." He answered that the AI tech development requires a quotient of morality to inform the decisions made by AI to serve humanity.
My quip here doesn't do the subject justice, but to your point Mr Bill, we're all screwing up ourselves with the conveniences of modern tech.
My Mom (rolling in her grave) is probably saying, "I told you so!" (She used a snazzy red Olivetti Valentine portable manual typewriter up to the year 2000. We (the tech-savvy fam) on our computers worried about the Y2K glitch.
AI will end up making even more people dumber. I'm sure of that.
Even I now know that AI can write articles, songs, jingles and I guess books. But I don't think AI would write essays like I write. AI would write essays and articles like Robert Reich and the NY Times writes.
Someone has programmed AI to stay away from the topics I write about.
It's like the kids riding their e-scooters in the bike lanes. Looks fun, you just stand there like a zombie, get where you wanna go fast. Consequences? Obvious.
You're right, fluoride, excessive screen time, isolation from the physical world, the collapse of education, endless propaganda, there are real factors that make the citizenry even dumber than they otherwise would be. But they weren't up to the job to start with. When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, it was clear all politicians had to do was promise free stuff and slam the opposition as dangerous and most everybody fell for it. Since humans organized into groups it's been easy for charismatic leaders to lead their people into endless wars of conquest and all sorts of barbarity. Sir John Gluibb wrote of how humans have never been able to sustain a successful society for more than about 10 generations in his must-read masterpiece:
So while I agree with you, I think our woes are more a result of intrinsic human flaws than imposed cognitive damage.
Although hoping that a critical mass of the public become clear-thinkers is foolish, that doesn't mean there's no hope. In fact, something already worked. The people need a mostly benevolent dogma to buy into. Christianity fostered the greatest social and economic advances ever, in a relatively short time as measured against human history. As it declined, so necessarily did Western civilization. There are signs of a Christian revival. Golden Rule. Greed is bad. Helping others is good. Being productive is good. Worship a deity, not people or things. It's the best thing ever to happen to humanity. Is it all true? Dunno. But I'm pretty sure it's the answer, if the revival is strong enough.
I didn't want to make this article too long. But if I made it longer, I would have made the point that nothing happening today is "new." In fact, I made reference to this with my sentences about past political leaders "figuring out" how to manipulate the masses.
And I definitely didn't have space to get into any possible "solutions." In this example, the solution would be a project to reverse the dumbing down effect/program. This would be one hell of a project.
We could start with abolishing the Department of Education. I know for a fact my parents' generation received a much better education in the 1940s and 1950s when we had no federal Department of Education.
Agree on education. I'm lucky that way, being born in '50. I was shocked in my mid-twenties to see the educational establishment abruptly turn away from everything I was taught it should stand for. Which is pursuit of truth wherever it leads. That's what I was taught, anyway.
Reversing the dumbing down and abolishing the DOE would be great. But not sufficient to turn us into a nation of responsible, clear-thinking citizens. Most people lack the ability, inclination, or both to be what we both wish they would be. It has never happened, and never will. Of course we should move in that direction as much as we can.
I used to be mostly hostile to organized religions. That was wrong. Most people must believe in something beyond their own faculties. Christianity got replaced by wokeness, climate hysteria, general left-wing stuff, or something, anything to latch onto. All of which are harmful. I've changed my ideas 180. Christianity has been the greatest foundation for human flourishing ever, and we really need it back.
Christians have been, and will be duped into choosing unwisely. The smarter people are the less that happens. We need both good dogma and smarter people.
In retrospect, the believers had the greatest chance to organize a real revival that would make a difference. However, of course, all the organized church denominations - and all their pastors and bishops - went along with the herd.
If this is a spiritual battle - and I think it is - it will be the devout true believers who lead us "into the light." But these believers need "leaders" too ... and these leaders haven't showed up yet.
A good friend of mine keeps arguing that a genuine religious revival needs to happen ... and still could happen, but first it will take repentance on a mass scale.
... One could argue I'm trying to be one of these leaders. However, my message is not REACHING enough people to make a real difference.
The leaders in great movements in the past exponentially grew their followers. Jesus did (I'm not comparing myself to Jesus, I'm just citing one example. Martin Luther King, Jr. did the same thing).
One might also argue I'm largely wasting my time trying to "reach" more people on Substack. Maybe someone like me should try to reach people in the pulpits or with old-fashioned religious revivals?
Again and again and again, reach is the key to the operation.
Tis my sentiment if a message "resonates" it does - if it don't - it doesn't - but that must mean that I have faith in the human spirit cause for something to "resonate" requires others to recognize - and so I don't think the "number" of followers has anything to do with this in a way - cause if the followers are "puppets" then they halfway don't even know what they are following - cause they have given up the most precious aspect of a being a human being individual - that is free will.
I wish I knew the key to reaching more. Maybe the Means siblings have it figured out? Funny how they're such a big deal all at once. I suspect they have special "resources".
You will never know the ripple effect you have created in this world. Let that be enough for now. Many read your words and never “ like” or reply. Just keep on keeping on, and one day you will see. I read you long before I replied or clicked “ like.” 👍 I know I’m not the only one. Don’t dwell on data. It’s a lot like watching daily stocks or waiting for water to boil.
Christian institutions, like all institutions, become corrupt. The Catholic pedophilia fiasco shows how bad it can be. The corruption will be everywhere there is institutional power, including the church. What made Christianity so great is the rank and file believing and trying to live by the doctrines. Christian leaders, not surprisingly, are often no better than any other "authorities". Religious leaders during COVID were horrible, mostly.
I agree with that good friend of yours. And with you - fostering as much general intelligence as possible is equally important.
I told my 7th grade daughter I'd volunteer to be a guest speaker in her social studies class. They are always talking about social trends and reforms or policies intended to help people.
I could talk about the Real World and use the Socratic Method to test whether all these alleged scientific truths are really the truth.
I could ask students, "Does anyone here think the Covid shots stop people from getting Covid?"
"How many of your classmates have died from Covid in the past five years?"
Somehow I don't think the principal or that social studies teacher would let me speak to their class. But I'd be imparting wisdom and teaching critical thinking skills.
Abolishing the Censorship Industrial Complex would help too. Prior generations definitely didn't have 50 different heavily-funded organizations that exist for one reason only - to suppress the reach of the smart dissidents.
I love this piece, Bill. If I sent it around to certain friends and former friends, I’d likely piss them off. I’ve already lost enough friends for being my contrarian, intelligent self. Oh, what the hell- I’ll send it anyway. Thanks for this!
Tell your friends - friends - I don't think you are "puppets" - but have you considered this.....
~
if they stare back at you with a "glazed" look in the eye - it could be they are a puppet - and for some - the act of "cutting the strings" is beyond their ken. Tis truly sad how so many have been "subsumed" by group-think ideology, but this a sign of the times - and take solace in this - the pendulum always swings back - and those relinquished their free will out of fear most likely never deserved it in the first place - cause they became fearful - and truly - if this whole "covid-scam" event has been anything it is this:
Thanks, Buffalo. I agree with you. Sometimes, it’s better to just let them go since they’re gone anyway. My neighbor told me yesterday, after I’d listed the many harms of mRNA, “Well, why haven’t I heard of all this then…? I watch the news every day.”
I just ruefully laughed and tried to explain why he “hadn’t heard anything” on the mainstream news he listens to constantly. Sigh.
I remember seeing somewhere that those with the highest IQs (true geniuses) were the least likely to get the Covid clot shots, but those who were smarter and more educated than average (doctors, lawyers, etc. but not the really high-IQ geniuses) were MOST likely to take all the shots and also harangue others to get them, because they always think they’re smarter than everyone else. I think it also said that the other group least likely to get the shot were the least-educated because they often don’t trust authority. I wish I could remember where I saw that and be sure of all the details. (Guess that knocks me out of the super-high-IQ genius category!)
It is interesting to me that many who follow the narrative du jour are actually very smart, highly educated- often very educated - and quite confident in their beliefs. There must be many reasons beyond basic intelligence and years of education which cause humans to follow the experts or follow the herd. Following the narrative, is in fact, very common among physicians ( maybe this helps reduce the cognitive load and complexity of practicing medicine). Could certain personalities be predisposed to questioning or do life experiences teach this? I would be interested in an article which delves into the whole topic more deeply.
Think about this and nothing else - a new administration takes over and rapidly discovers massive fraud in every federal program - rather than be outraged the Biden/Harris pseudo intellectual class shouts Nazi and Hitler and the “end of democracy”.
It’s inane - better to just burn it all down and start over.
I just noticed that this article didn't allow posts for non-subscriber readers. I check this button with every article and the default WANTS to go to "posts for PAID subscribers only."
I want every reader to be able to make comments if they want to. With this article, I thought I enabled the button that would make this possible.
I'm now paranoid about everything and wonder if there's some kind of effort to make it harder for readers to comment.
Anyway, I think I've now restored the ability for everyone to make comments.
Bill
Just know your fans appreciate you. The money will follow if you do the right thing. Just gave a tip.
MAGA
I saw that, Dennis. Thank you very much ... again.
Thumbs up
Thank you!
I should highlight one subset of the population I admire.
These are the people who were A) duped, but B) quickly realized they'd been conned and, then, C) Got pissed off about this and, then, ... D) decided they were going to try to stop other people from being duped, plus expose the people who orchestrated the scam and, lastly, E) try to save lives and reduce misery going forward.
One other thing that might terrify people as much as losing their lives is losing their hard-earned money.
Look at where it’s going:
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/the-mother-of-all-frauds
What else are they going to find? Maybe ONE confirmed case of "embalmers' clots?"
We can hope, I guess.
I read the SS fraud report earlier and spewed my morning cuppa joe.
At this rate, if the fraud is stopped, SS might last an extra year. 🤣
With a sidebar on the topic: Elon Musk was asked at his DOGE conference if AI's self-learning would render mankind dumb. The questioner and Musk bantered about the movie "Idiocracy." He answered that the AI tech development requires a quotient of morality to inform the decisions made by AI to serve humanity.
My quip here doesn't do the subject justice, but to your point Mr Bill, we're all screwing up ourselves with the conveniences of modern tech.
My Mom (rolling in her grave) is probably saying, "I told you so!" (She used a snazzy red Olivetti Valentine portable manual typewriter up to the year 2000. We (the tech-savvy fam) on our computers worried about the Y2K glitch.
We sighed with relief then... But now??
AI will end up making even more people dumber. I'm sure of that.
Even I now know that AI can write articles, songs, jingles and I guess books. But I don't think AI would write essays like I write. AI would write essays and articles like Robert Reich and the NY Times writes.
Someone has programmed AI to stay away from the topics I write about.
It's like the kids riding their e-scooters in the bike lanes. Looks fun, you just stand there like a zombie, get where you wanna go fast. Consequences? Obvious.
Hang onto your Olivetti Valentine. Those are worth quite a bit these days, and they're not making them anymore.
You're right, fluoride, excessive screen time, isolation from the physical world, the collapse of education, endless propaganda, there are real factors that make the citizenry even dumber than they otherwise would be. But they weren't up to the job to start with. When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, it was clear all politicians had to do was promise free stuff and slam the opposition as dangerous and most everybody fell for it. Since humans organized into groups it's been easy for charismatic leaders to lead their people into endless wars of conquest and all sorts of barbarity. Sir John Gluibb wrote of how humans have never been able to sustain a successful society for more than about 10 generations in his must-read masterpiece:
http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf
So while I agree with you, I think our woes are more a result of intrinsic human flaws than imposed cognitive damage.
Although hoping that a critical mass of the public become clear-thinkers is foolish, that doesn't mean there's no hope. In fact, something already worked. The people need a mostly benevolent dogma to buy into. Christianity fostered the greatest social and economic advances ever, in a relatively short time as measured against human history. As it declined, so necessarily did Western civilization. There are signs of a Christian revival. Golden Rule. Greed is bad. Helping others is good. Being productive is good. Worship a deity, not people or things. It's the best thing ever to happen to humanity. Is it all true? Dunno. But I'm pretty sure it's the answer, if the revival is strong enough.
I didn't want to make this article too long. But if I made it longer, I would have made the point that nothing happening today is "new." In fact, I made reference to this with my sentences about past political leaders "figuring out" how to manipulate the masses.
And I definitely didn't have space to get into any possible "solutions." In this example, the solution would be a project to reverse the dumbing down effect/program. This would be one hell of a project.
We could start with abolishing the Department of Education. I know for a fact my parents' generation received a much better education in the 1940s and 1950s when we had no federal Department of Education.
Agree on education. I'm lucky that way, being born in '50. I was shocked in my mid-twenties to see the educational establishment abruptly turn away from everything I was taught it should stand for. Which is pursuit of truth wherever it leads. That's what I was taught, anyway.
Reversing the dumbing down and abolishing the DOE would be great. But not sufficient to turn us into a nation of responsible, clear-thinking citizens. Most people lack the ability, inclination, or both to be what we both wish they would be. It has never happened, and never will. Of course we should move in that direction as much as we can.
I used to be mostly hostile to organized religions. That was wrong. Most people must believe in something beyond their own faculties. Christianity got replaced by wokeness, climate hysteria, general left-wing stuff, or something, anything to latch onto. All of which are harmful. I've changed my ideas 180. Christianity has been the greatest foundation for human flourishing ever, and we really need it back.
Christians have been, and will be duped into choosing unwisely. The smarter people are the less that happens. We need both good dogma and smarter people.
In retrospect, the believers had the greatest chance to organize a real revival that would make a difference. However, of course, all the organized church denominations - and all their pastors and bishops - went along with the herd.
If this is a spiritual battle - and I think it is - it will be the devout true believers who lead us "into the light." But these believers need "leaders" too ... and these leaders haven't showed up yet.
A good friend of mine keeps arguing that a genuine religious revival needs to happen ... and still could happen, but first it will take repentance on a mass scale.
... One could argue I'm trying to be one of these leaders. However, my message is not REACHING enough people to make a real difference.
The leaders in great movements in the past exponentially grew their followers. Jesus did (I'm not comparing myself to Jesus, I'm just citing one example. Martin Luther King, Jr. did the same thing).
One might also argue I'm largely wasting my time trying to "reach" more people on Substack. Maybe someone like me should try to reach people in the pulpits or with old-fashioned religious revivals?
Again and again and again, reach is the key to the operation.
Tis my sentiment if a message "resonates" it does - if it don't - it doesn't - but that must mean that I have faith in the human spirit cause for something to "resonate" requires others to recognize - and so I don't think the "number" of followers has anything to do with this in a way - cause if the followers are "puppets" then they halfway don't even know what they are following - cause they have given up the most precious aspect of a being a human being individual - that is free will.
I still think about Peter Benny when I see a rabbit. Still miss the little guy?
I wish I knew the key to reaching more. Maybe the Means siblings have it figured out? Funny how they're such a big deal all at once. I suspect they have special "resources".
You will never know the ripple effect you have created in this world. Let that be enough for now. Many read your words and never “ like” or reply. Just keep on keeping on, and one day you will see. I read you long before I replied or clicked “ like.” 👍 I know I’m not the only one. Don’t dwell on data. It’s a lot like watching daily stocks or waiting for water to boil.
Christian institutions, like all institutions, become corrupt. The Catholic pedophilia fiasco shows how bad it can be. The corruption will be everywhere there is institutional power, including the church. What made Christianity so great is the rank and file believing and trying to live by the doctrines. Christian leaders, not surprisingly, are often no better than any other "authorities". Religious leaders during COVID were horrible, mostly.
I agree with that good friend of yours. And with you - fostering as much general intelligence as possible is equally important.
I told my 7th grade daughter I'd volunteer to be a guest speaker in her social studies class. They are always talking about social trends and reforms or policies intended to help people.
I could talk about the Real World and use the Socratic Method to test whether all these alleged scientific truths are really the truth.
I could ask students, "Does anyone here think the Covid shots stop people from getting Covid?"
"How many of your classmates have died from Covid in the past five years?"
Somehow I don't think the principal or that social studies teacher would let me speak to their class. But I'd be imparting wisdom and teaching critical thinking skills.
Sounds like a tough assignment!
Abolishing the Censorship Industrial Complex would help too. Prior generations definitely didn't have 50 different heavily-funded organizations that exist for one reason only - to suppress the reach of the smart dissidents.
I love this piece, Bill. If I sent it around to certain friends and former friends, I’d likely piss them off. I’ve already lost enough friends for being my contrarian, intelligent self. Oh, what the hell- I’ll send it anyway. Thanks for this!
Tell your friends - friends - I don't think you are "puppets" - but have you considered this.....
~
if they stare back at you with a "glazed" look in the eye - it could be they are a puppet - and for some - the act of "cutting the strings" is beyond their ken. Tis truly sad how so many have been "subsumed" by group-think ideology, but this a sign of the times - and take solace in this - the pendulum always swings back - and those relinquished their free will out of fear most likely never deserved it in the first place - cause they became fearful - and truly - if this whole "covid-scam" event has been anything it is this:
"The Virus of Fear".
Regards,
BK
Thanks, Buffalo. I agree with you. Sometimes, it’s better to just let them go since they’re gone anyway. My neighbor told me yesterday, after I’d listed the many harms of mRNA, “Well, why haven’t I heard of all this then…? I watch the news every day.”
I just ruefully laughed and tried to explain why he “hadn’t heard anything” on the mainstream news he listens to constantly. Sigh.
Tis my view some lessons only get learned the hard way.
That applies to puppets and psychopaths as well.
Regards,
BK
Self-talk, it's a thing to master.
Another "Deep Thought by Jack Handey" (Bill Rice, Jr).
We all know there's safety in the herd.
Those who have been culled from the herd are corralled into pens like ... Substack.
And nobody in this herd matters or should be listened to.
I posted this article at the Brownstone Writers’ Group thread and quickly got this astute comment from one of my colleagues:
“What may be even worse, they don’t seem to care about what they see. Is this the natural fatal end to Postmodernism??”
My response:
That is or would be the worst part: They see this ... and they don't care.
That definitely applies to our "leaders." Does it apply to all the world's followers as well? Scary stuff indeed.
Yes, there are many people who think of themselves as smart who were pathetic Covid suckers.
And no, it shouldn't have taken two weeks to figure out it was a scam.
On Thursday, I'm posting on how law could have been used to stop Coronamanic suckerdom.
I remember seeing somewhere that those with the highest IQs (true geniuses) were the least likely to get the Covid clot shots, but those who were smarter and more educated than average (doctors, lawyers, etc. but not the really high-IQ geniuses) were MOST likely to take all the shots and also harangue others to get them, because they always think they’re smarter than everyone else. I think it also said that the other group least likely to get the shot were the least-educated because they often don’t trust authority. I wish I could remember where I saw that and be sure of all the details. (Guess that knocks me out of the super-high-IQ genius category!)
It is interesting to me that many who follow the narrative du jour are actually very smart, highly educated- often very educated - and quite confident in their beliefs. There must be many reasons beyond basic intelligence and years of education which cause humans to follow the experts or follow the herd. Following the narrative, is in fact, very common among physicians ( maybe this helps reduce the cognitive load and complexity of practicing medicine). Could certain personalities be predisposed to questioning or do life experiences teach this? I would be interested in an article which delves into the whole topic more deeply.
Have you ever heard the book dumbing down of America
I’ll never forget how difficult it was to read that book. I don’t think I got halfway through. It was too distressing.
This is a good one. Scary, but good.
Think about this and nothing else - a new administration takes over and rapidly discovers massive fraud in every federal program - rather than be outraged the Biden/Harris pseudo intellectual class shouts Nazi and Hitler and the “end of democracy”.
It’s inane - better to just burn it all down and start over.
Frogs who have jumped into the slowly boiling kettle of water resemble this remark you made:
"they - individually and collectively - actually made this state of affairs possible..."