“Even if Russia expands its possessions at the expense of neighboring colonies, unlike other colonial powers, it gives more to its new acquisitions than it takes from them. This is not because it is driven by some kind of philanthropy or anything like that. The initial aspirations of all empires are not much different, but wherever the Russian man appears, everything miraculously takes a completely different direction.
Developed in the Eastern Slavs since pre-Christian times moral norms do not allow the Russian man to rape someone else’s conscience. More often out of the ineradicable feeling of compassion rooted in him he is ready to give his last shirt than to take it away from someone. Therefore, no matter how victorious Russian weapons are, in purely mercantile terms, Russia always remains a loser.
Those defeated by it or taken under its protection usually win in the end, keeping intact their way of life and spiritual institutions, despite their apparent insufficiency for progress, as one can easily be convinced after getting to know them more or less thoroughly, increasing their material wealth and significantly advancing on the path of civilization.
Estland (the northern part of Estonia – note) and the Caucasus are illustrative examples of this, for example, they have been despised and raped by their neighbors for centuries, but have taken an honorable place among the nations and achieved incomparable prosperity under the patronage of Russia, while the situation of the Russian people, i.e. the native population of Russia, has not improved at all as a result of the acquisition of Estland and the Caucasus. The latter seems to us a paradox, but this is the reality, the root causes of which lie, undoubtedly, in the peculiarities of Russian morality”.
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, speaking at a crowded rally against Britain’s entry into the Crimean War famous Scottish scientist-geologist, who named the periods of the early Paleozoic era: Silurian, Devonian and Permian (after the names of the places where he conducted his research). Year 1853.
The problem is NOT any one system of government—but the lack of Virtue (arete – excellence, moral virtue in ancient Greek). The Ancients understood this.
The Greeks had the concepts of Manliness, Righteousness, Sophrosyne (ancient Greek concept of an ideal of excellence of character and soundness of mind, which when combined in one well-balanced individual leads to other qualities, such as temperance, moderation, prudence, purity, decorum, and self-control – Wikipedia), Phronesis (wisdom in determining ends and the means of attaining them, practical understanding, sound judgment, from Greek phrónēsis, meaning “practical wisdom, prudence in government and public affairs” in Plato, Aristotle, and other heavy hitters – Wikipedia).
Lycurgus commanded Virtue for the Spartan Republic.
Remember, Virtus Romana ! — And the mythical Mucius Scaevola, from school?
The writer of II Peter 1:5 “Supplement the Faith with Virtue”. — No church, Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, has ever complied with that verse.
Virtue is the antidote to the effects of the original sin. Virtue is character training and morality. It is what makes a person good. People have to be trained to be good. There is no training in The Good in America!
That is the problem, not the systems of government. Besides that, a democracy is inherently based on the lowest common denominator and is flawed from the get-go.
Peasants could obviously complain when they didn’t like something, and they could protest, (sometimes at the cost of their lives) and they could send representatives to speak to the Lord or the King about their grievances. But for the most part, peasants had little interest in the workings of Government.
It was a scam to bring all of these peasants into the public process of government. That’s what “democracy” is. And once you’ve brought them in, you can’t expect them to understand the higher social order and concepts of philosophy, personal morality and virtue because they are not educated, and primarily think about sex, food, and entertainment.
Now it is even worse, as we have the champions of capitalism (see Bill Gates, Rockefeller, Soros or Musk) who claim their leadership authority emanating from the sum of their bank accounts. No established record of virtue in the service of their society. Greed and Vanity are their only coordinates.
Die schwarze Schmach (“the Black Disgrace”) was a German nationalist propaganda term for the African colonial troops deployed by France during its occupation of the Rhineland after 1918. From Wiki:The majority of colonial African soldiers were accused of committing rape and mutilation against the German population. The campaign reached its peak between 1920 and 1923, but did not stop until 1930. Adolf Hitler blamed Jews for bringing the Senegalese into the Rhineland.
Children of mixed parentage were known as “Rhineland Bastards”.
The parallels between 1937 Germany and the present USA situation is before all to see. You cannot unsee it. The level of dissatisfaction and abject hatred between the two political dynasties is starting to boil over. And the average American citizen is watching from the censored sidelines.
I have come to believe that the only way out of this situation is to allow the pending explosion. Do not fight the fire. Throw hi octane gasoline on the conflagration, stand back and watch.
Only then will the hidden perpetrating scum be visible.
If the U.S. is to survive as a republic with freedom for all we must excise these demons from our midst. That is the only way forward.
*
Can’t count the number of times I’ve been in some group of guys who go on and on about football stats, who should have been traded, who is good at what position, scores, upcoming games and so on. Most players these days are black so it’s rooting for one’s favorite negro. When it comes to something else though they’re all clueless and uninterested. Something like the Ukraine situation they know nothing about but act like they’re backing one team over another. They can’t be bothered to spend a half hour researching the subject before forming an opinion on something but simply parrot what they’ve heard on television. What can you do with this stupid population? They’re just what the elites want, malleable and conformist. People keep doing a geographic, moving around to get away from diversity and other ills of society but everybody is running out of space to run to. If the US collapses it would be a nightmare sci-fi scenario. It could never reconstitute itself seeing as it’s not a country but an economic empire. Take away the imperially supported economy and there’s nothing left but some disparate people with nothing in common.
*
I recently represented a man on disability for “his back.” Never mind that he weed eats, crawls under cars and can move a refrigerator. He gets $1200 a month as well as $190 per month in EBT (food stamps.)
I ask tons of questions and discover that his father, his brother, his ex- wife, her mother and a sister in law are ALL on disability. They are all white. They all appear that could bust a log over their leg like a twig. They take drugs, drink, fish, fight, and generally have the Life of Riley. They are not getting up in 20 degree weather and hustling to work. They are sleeping late and watching Magnum PI reruns in their dirty Lazy Boys.
So, making conversation waiting for his case to be called up in court, I said: I can’t believe I just paid $6 for a bag of corn chip. His reply? No commiseration or awareness: “I don’t look at prices.” He doesn’t have to acknowledge inflation. He lives in a busted out mobile home that is paid for and so do the other grifters.
Now add millions to that mindset. So here we are, the dumbos who keep working to pay for these leeches. Add in the blacks and the illegals we pay for- and it is demented.
So I ask you: Whose the dummy?
*
I’ve been criticizing White men for supporting professional “sports” for more than a few decades. I never watched that garbage…
Not only the “Negro Felon League” and the “Negro Basketball Association” but even that bastion of truly white skills, NASCAR has been infected with “woke” ideology. When (((they))) banned the “Stars and Bars” flag, a part of their history, NASCAR sealed its fate, along with the promotion of substandard affirmative action” negro driver “bubba” wallace complaining about “racist” garage door pulls, NASCARs fate was set. To add insult to injury, recently “bubba” wallace’s violent tendencies were on full display.
Let’s not forget the billions spent by White male “sports fans” on negro ball jerseys, caps and other “trinkets”, overpriced game tickets and taxpayer-subsidized stadiums (playpens), all to benefit the (((owners))) of the criminal steroid-addled costumed players who are paid millions of dollars to play children’s games.
“Bread and circuses” which are provided to “quell the masses” are just as successful now as they were in ancient times…
It is disgusting to see White men spout off useless and meaningless sports statistics and the adulation that they give these costumed players (actors). It is just sickening to see White men debase themselves.
I realize that negro ball is “entertainment for the masses” and do look down derisively on grown White men who sport their favorite negro ball players clothing or other accouterments. I think to myself: “don’t you have anything better to do?”
There are much better things for white men to do than watch negro ball sports.
Build something…repair something…study philosophy or technical journals on something that interests you, make something better, improve yourself and your standard of living and devices…use your wisdom and knowledge to get your fellow Whites to THINK for themselves, not what to think, but HOW to think and to not just accept the pablum, lies and falsehoods of the mainstream media and useless professional sports.
Message to White men: Get away from the negro ball. You are much better than that…
*
If “we” Whites are truly that dense collectively, then I’m not sure that we’re worth preserving at all. Truth be told, we White people are ultimately responsible for our own demise simply because we DON’T have the innate common sense to defend ourselves or preserve our racial identity. This probably serves as a partial explanation for why imprisoned Whites not only don’t band together to defend themselves from $#!+skinned sexual predators, but also why the White supremacists behind bars don’t do so, either. They are the minority of Whites who are racially conscientious and have come to justifiably despise those Whites who are not.
Putting it more succinctly, if Whites don’t band together and stand up for themselves now, why would anyone think they’ll do so at any point in the future? The reality is that we will all continue to act as “lone wolves” in the face of adversity and will be defeated because of our failure to unite. Embedded programming doesn’t change.
One of my favorite follows on Twitter right now is a smallish account run by an anti-imperialist activist who goes by “Left I on the News”, because he has a real knack for going through articles in the mainstream press and highlighting the mundane little manipulations we’re fed each day to shape our worldview in alignment with the US empire.
One story he singled out recently was a New York Times article titled “Russia Fires Drones and Missiles at Southern Ukraine,” which opens with the line, “Russian forces launched drones and missiles at cities in southern Ukraine from the Black Sea early Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said, a day after Moscow blamed Kyiv for an attack on a bridge linking the occupied Crimean Peninsula to Russia.”
Can you spot anything funny in that sentence? It’s not super obvious at first glance.
“Look how the NYT phrases this subhead to make Russia sound extra evil,” Left I tweeted with a screenshot of the article. “Not ‘a day after Kyiv attacked the Kerch Bridge’, but a day after Russia blamed them for doing it (as if it’s just some wild accusation). Remember — the most effective propaganda is the subtlest.”
“The most effective propaganda is the subtlest” is a phrase you should try to remember, because it’s so very true.
It is indeed ridiculous to try to frame this as some wild accusation by Russia, as though Moscow should have remained open to the possibility that the bridge was struck by Bolivia or Nepal. CNN reports that Ukrainian officials have taken credit for the attack, and just days ago Ukraine’s deputy defense minister publicly acknowledged that Ukraine was behind last year’s attack on the very same bridge. No serious person doubts that Ukraine was behind the attack, including those who support Ukraine.
But that subtle manipulation didn’t really stand out when you first saw it, did it?
As we’ve discussed previously, these subtle little adjustments of perception are what constitutes the vast majority of the propaganda westerners ingest through the news media from day to day. This is because the really overt, ham-fisted propaganda isn’t what’s effective; what’s effective is those sneaky little lies that slide in unchecked underneath people’s critical thinking faculties.
Contrast the above example with the response we’ve been seeing to Yeonmi Park, whose outlandish, larger-than-life propagandistic lies about what it’s like to live in North Korea have turned her into an internet meme. She’s become so widely mocked that even The Washington Post, among the first to help amplify her as a trustworthy North Korean defector after her arrival in the US in 2014, is now openly questioning her credibility.
This is because propaganda only works if it doesn’t ring people’s cognitive alarm bells. You can’t slide propaganda down people’s throats if it triggers their critical thinking gag reflex. If you want to poison someone’s food, you can only pull off the deed if they don’t taste the poison or throw it up before it takes effect.
So most propaganda isn’t of the Yeonmi Park “communists are so poor that they have to eat mud and get out of the train and push it because there’s no electricity” variety. It’s subtle. It’s these tiny little adjustments where US allies are reported on more sympathetically than US enemies, claims made by unaligned governments are reported with much more scrutiny and skepticism than aligned governments, and the sins which take place within the US-centralized power structure are overlooked while those outside it are amplified and condemned.
We’ve been ingesting these tiny little manipulations all our lives like microplastics in our water supply, and they build up within our reality tunnels to significantly warp our perception of what’s going on in the world.
And the fact that it’s been so many tiny little lies over years and years means it’s a lot harder to extract all the perception management from our worldview once we’ve discovered that it’s happening. If it was just a few really big lies we could reorient ourselves toward truth fairly quickly just by recognizing them, but because it’s so very many tiny manipulations it takes years of sincere work to fully free yourself from all the distortions and false assumptions you grew up with.
But it’s worth doing, because positive change can only come from an awareness of what’s true, whether you’re talking about individuals or humanity as a whole. Our task as humans is to come to a truth-based relationship with reality to the furthest extent possible, and that means fearlessly diving headfirst into the long, hard slog of sorting out fact from fiction, one lie at a time, no matter how subtle.
NOTES ON DEMOCRACY By H. L. MENCKEN “DEMOCRATIC MAN: HIS APPEARANCE IN THE WORLD” Published in 1926 –
Democracy came into the Western World to the tune of sweet, soft music. There was, at the start, no harsh bawling from below; there was only a dulcet twittering from above. Democratic man thus began as an ideal being, full of ineffable virtues and romantic wrongs — in brief, as Rousseau’s noble savage in smock and jerkin, brought out of the tropical wilds to shame the lords and masters of the civilized lands.
The fact continues to have important consequences to this day. It remains impossible, as it was in the eighteenth century, to separate the democratic idea from the theory that there is a mystical merit, an esoteric and ineradicable rectitude, in the man at the bottom of the scale — that inferiority, by some strange magic, becomes a sort of superiority — nay, the superiority of superiorities.
Everywhere on earth, save where the enlightenment of the modern age is confessedly in transient eclipse, the movement is toward the completer and more enamoured enfranchisement of the lower orders. Down there, one hears, lies a deep, illimitable reservoir of righteousness and wisdom, unpolluted by the corruption of privilege. What baffles statesmen is to be solved by the people, instantly and by a sort of seraphic intuition. Their yearnings are pure; they alone are capable of a perfect patriotism; in them is the only hope of peace and happiness on this lugubrious ball. The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy! ….
Early democratic man seems to have given little thought to to the democratic ideal, and less veneration. What he wanted was something concrete and highly materialistic – more to eat, less work, higher wages, lower taxes. He had no apparent belief in the acroamatic virtue of his own class, and certainly none in its capacity to rule. His aim was not to exterminate the baron, but simply to bring the baron back to a proper discharge of baronial business. When, by the wild shooting that naturally accompanies all mob movements, the former end was accidentally accomplished, and men out of the mob began to take on baronial airs, the mob itself quickly showed its opinion of them by butchering them deliberately and in earnest. Etc.
…the great boon of democracy: the man of native integrity is either barred from the public service altogether or subjected to almost irresistible temptations after he gets in. …
In most other countries of a democratic tendency — for example, England – this outlawry and corruption of the best is checked by an aristocratic tradition – an anachronism, true enough, but still extremely powerful, and yielding to the times only under immense pressure. The English aristocracy (aided, in part, by the plutocracy, which admires and envies it) not only keeps a large share of the principal offices in its own hands, regardless of popular rages and party fortunes; it also preserves an influence, and hence a function, for its non-office-holding members. The scholarship of Oxford and Cambridge, for example, can still make itself felt at Westminster, despite the fact that the vast majority of the actual members of the Commons are ignoramuses.
But in the United States there is no aristocracy, whether intellectual or otherwise, and so the scholarship of Harvard, such as it is, is felt no more on Capitol Hill than it is at Westerville, Ohio. The class of politicians, indeed, tends to separate itself sharply from all other classes. There is none of that interpenetration on the higher levels which marks older and more secure societies.
Roosevelt, an imitation aristocrat, was the first and only American President since Washington to make any effort to break down the barriers. A man of saucy and even impertinent curiosities, and very eager to appear to the vulgar as an Admirable Crichton, he made his table the resort of all sorts and conditions of men. Among them were some who actually knew something about this or that, and from them he probably got useful news and advice. Beethoven, if he had been alive, would have been invited to the White House, and Goethe would have come with him.
Louisiana federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Biden administration to limit its contact with social media platforms, determining that the government likely violated the First Amendment by working to censor disfavored political viewpoints online.
Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointed U.S. District Court judge, issued a preliminary injunction barring federal officials and agencies from contacting social media firms to seek the removal of protected speech, Politico reported.
Doughty singled out White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and several health officials in the administration, while issuing a blanket ban on FBI and DOJ employees.
The suit is part of a longstanding effort by Republican-aligned states to challenge the Biden administration’s cooperation with social media, which they say improperly censored disfavored positions during the coronavirus pandemic.
The injunction, which was obtained by Fox News, states that the government’s actions “likely violate the Free Speech Clause” and that the court “is not persuaded by Defendants’ arguments,” dealing a significant blow to the White House.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth,’” Doughty wrote.
“If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history,” the injunction adds. “In their attempts to suppress alleged disinformation, the Federal Government, and particularly the Defendants named here, are alleged to have blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech.”
The injunction also claims that “the censorship alleged in this case almost exclusively targeted conservative speech,” but that issues the case raises are “beyond party lines.”
“Viewpoint discrimination is an especially egregious form of content discrimination,” Doughty argued. “The government must abstain from regulating speech when the specific motivating ideology or the perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction.”
The cases could mean that interactions between tech companies and government officials may be significantly limited in the future. Exceptions might include national security threats or criminal matters on social media.
The injunction received favorable responses from the Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general on Tuesday.
“Today’s historic ruling is a big step in the continued fight to prohibit our government from unconstitutional censorship,” Louisiana AG Jeff Landry said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to litigate the case and will vigorously defend the injunction on appeal.”
It is not so much about worrying about what happens in a distant world, as much as being affected by the consequences that affect all of us on a daily basis.
What the European civilization tried hard to implement was to inculcate a set of moral principles, basic moral imperatives in the people and domesticate the jungle. Don’t do this or that. Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t kill, don’t steal. Respect your neighbor, apologize for any mishap, etc. You know.
Many of these were wrapped up in religious worship, but not all, or not always.
But when it is now official teaching from the top leadership that aggression pays off, and substituting reality with daily lies on public television is the main message, this makes it easy to bring out the animal within us and all the subsequent brutish, venal instincts. The sense of taboo is gone, crimes are just a game, keeping one’s word is laughable. We know very well all the litany.
If you look back from Mars, one can see that the old gods of Europe’s Christianity are no longer feared by society – how could anyone believe monstrous superstitions, abominable depictions of hell or heaven on the church walls? In the nineteenth century, there was a great secular movement to educate the peasantry. Our parents’ and their parents’ good manners were a result of that. And we know that they were instilled with secular moral beliefs, a set of ethical principles, and etiquette – what to do and what not to do. – All of that is now gone in the name of the corporate machine.
OK, long sermon. But the net result of this Judaization (another form of Asianization) of our culture is isolation, marginalization, alienation, etc. from the past model of culture. The Chinese model – little ants – is the new model, indeed. When one reads their own best propaganda articles for the Western audience, they still show how opaque they are. No evidence of speaking one’s mind, only Party speak. But that’s not much different from what the woke culture also does, nowadays. Same party/corporate speak.
It is still different in the US society at large. Different even from Russia, which is somewhere in the middle, torn apart by the two opposing trends. To “Westernize” or to “Asianize”, at a time when the West is Asianizing itself? Indeed, there is huge pressure to turn the US itself into the Orwellian, soulless Asian autocratic model.
The Greek invention of searching for the truth and the English focus on facts and empirical observations and respect for the laws of nature, knowledge, science and philosophy of nature – that specific European mindset is overwhelmed these days by the successful machine of the Asians on the meta level. And on the personal level? The loss of any moral compass has turned people into zombies.
And that’s what we are dealing with in our daily life. And it brings unhappiness to all.
Worse still is that the 150 years or so of a self-governing, ethical citizenry is now being canceled across the Western world. Partly, this is a reversion to the darkest days of historical feudalism, partly it is a policy of the dictatorship of a police state, Asian-style: full spectrum obedience by society to the mandarins at the top. Teachers of good manners are replaced by the thought police, batons and tasers, hand-cuffing and prison terms. The wave of repression is growing, it is massive, it targets no specific class. Presidents or former presidents, high-ranking banking executives, intellectuals, thugs and patriots are equally targeted.
Is there an end to it in sight? Not really. Not tomorrow, anyway.
“Europe is a garden. We have built a garden. And the rest of the world, at least the main part of it, is the jungle. And the jungle could invade the garden,” – Josep Borrell
Over the weekend, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made an official visit to China.
It’s the first trip by a senior US representative to the country since 2019, just as relations between the two powers began to fall off a cliff. Since then, the global geopolitical environment has deteriorated. Covid-19, the Ukraine conflict, the Taiwan crisis, you name it. The world has changed.
In Blinken’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang, there was little well-wishing, no forgiveness or self-reflection, only talk of “guardrails” and “lines of communication.” The idea is that the US, while pursuing aggression against China, at least wants to talk and make sure things don’t go “really wrong.”
Even the most optimistic view of ties between the two countries will note that little was achieved in this meeting, and things will certainly not change. The US will continue to sanction Chinese companies, sail warships in the Taiwan Strait, build new alliances around it, and force countries to accept more military bases. There was no commitment to stopping any of that.
However, for the time being, the US has softened its stance, or at least is pretending to do so. Beijing had refused any engagement with Washington since the start of this year, after an alleged Chinese “spy balloon” sent US officials into a frenzy and the original date of Blinken’s trip was postponed. Beijing sought to teach Washington a lesson by making a point that if hostility is the prevailing wisdom of the day, there isn’t much to be discussed.
The US has since been making peaceful overtures, but it’s not just because of China’s position. There is a sense that allied countries may also have “pushed back” against Washington for going too hard on Beijing, in a way which threatens their own fundamental interests. At the recent G7 summit, the US adopted the term “de-risking,” invented by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as a softer alternative to “decoupling” from China. Washington wants to reassure its allies it isn’t aiming to force Beijing out of the global economy, or divide the world into two distinct blocs.
In line with that, the US also made some small concessions. It is letting chip making firms in South Korea and Taiwan expand capacity in China, despite having vowed to coerce them into not doing so. US chipmaker Micron, recently subject to a ban on participating in Chinese infrastructure, will also build a new plant in the country, as well as a Swiss company. The US may have temporarily relented from its efforts to completely crush China’s semiconductor industry, judging that it wasn’t working, and was angering too many of its friends.
Will it last? Don’t bet on it. The US doesn’t do reconciliation. It does temporary reprieves, it does détente, it does strategic patience, but it never relents on its fundamental strategic goals, ever. The US still views China as its biggest geopolitical competitor, a rival to be contained and subjugated, and no amount of warm rhetoric or calls for a “constructive relationship” will ever change that. Even if US strategy is a failure, the US will continue to double down on that failure for a long time, just ask the Afghans how long it took for the Americans to give up and go home.
Consequently, if the US is reconciliatory now, it will only become hostile again when the time suits it. Of course, that isn’t too far away, because by the end of this year, the US election cycle starts again, and what is that election going to come down to? It’s going to be about who can shout the loudest on China, who can be the most hawkish, or the least soft. Despite Biden’s pursuit of being tough on Beijing, do you think those Republican contenders are going to give Joe a pat on the back and say “well done?” Definitely not. They’re going to deride him for “appeasing” Beijing and “betraying” America.
So what that means is that any so-called constructive engagement resulting from this meeting just won’t last. New sanctions will be on the way as the silly season of US hysteria, paranoia and frenzy is whipped up again and politicians play to the gallery. China’s foreign minister Qin Gang called for a constructive relationship, but to the US, a constructive relationship is just building more bases around China and, well… making sure nothing silly happens like an accidental war over Taiwan while Washington is still in the process of containing Beijing.
Russian actress Olga Kormukhina – about the psychological reasons for Ukrainians’ hatred of Russians:
This is the story of Cain and Abel, this is the story of envy. We so love the people whom we have done good, and so we do not love those whom we have offended. Because this is a reminder, first of all, of our unworthiness. I think this is the reason why Ukrainians hate Russians. It is absolutely human. No matter how hard I try, I can’t hate Ukrainians.
