Tag: Machiavelli
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’51 memes
Some jokes from a 1951 magazine, probably distributed nationally as Features, the earlier version of today’s Memes. We don’t see Memes in mainstream publications now. “Journalism” has rigorously insulated itself from ALL feedback and connection to popular wisdom. The postwar inflation and shortage was still around in 1951, just starting to fade out. Our postwar…
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Worth watching
Vivek’s latest interview is worth watching. He’s talking with Darren Beattie, an academic in political science who was Trump’s speechwriter for a while. Beattie, like Vivek, is a HARDASS realist. Beattie sees things from a high-level perspective that feels ‘over my head’ at times, but I always listen when a speaker demonstrates total Machiavellian realism…
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Don’t help them
Activists always have a tendency to overshoot. When rulers manipulate activists, they push hard to force the overshoot. This is well known in political and cultural and religious activism. Life always applies NEGATIVE FEEDBACK to minimize overshoots. Monsters always apply POSITIVE FEEDBACK to maximize overshoots until the system is damaged. Damaging the system is the…
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Algorithm note
In the last couple weeks I’ve been spending less time reading Substack, where I’m a pure product, and more time in WordPress, where I’m both customer and producer. At first the advantage wasn’t clear, but after more exploration I’m finding more satisfaction. Substack has gone purely algorithmic. It forcefeeds you standard orthodoxy. The more you…
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Jeffrey gets Booker T
Jeffery Tucker of Brownstone is a complicated figure. He has some Libertarian genes that occasionally pop out, possibly without full intentions. His deep anger at the SHIT we endured drives him to PROTEST! Be like MLK! Be like Assange! Get imprisoned and assassinated so you can’t influence anyone at all! He’s moving quickly toward the…
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Understands 2
Writers at Compact Mag often UNDERSTAND reality, which is extremely rare online. Ryan Zickgraf is writing about a new movie that runs the usual D idiocy about R “insurrections”. = = = = = START REALITY: But while there are certainly cracks in the American project, there is little evidence that we are on the…
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More farts
Idiot Repooflicans are making some especially stinky farts this week, knowing as always that zero action will ever result from the farts. = = = = = Fart 1: An NPR employee “revealed” common knowledge, as Deepstate always does. Deepstate never reveals genuine information. He “revealed” that NPR is all Democrat all the time. His…
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Donating
Continuing the theme of Trump as LBO artist and gangster. Every company or country he touches goes bankrupt so he can grab the assets. Even if he DOESN’T grab the assets the company or country goes bankrupt. The Ankler included these numbers in one of their articles about developments in the media business: = =…
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What is a politician?
A politician is a salesman for broadcast media. TV started in 1948 as a way for people to watch live sports events. Radio was inadequate for the purpose. For a few decades TV provided a broader range of entertainment. Now it’s back to nothing but sports. There are four major-league sports on TV. Football, baseball,…
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Kirn quibble
Kirn: We are never at peace anymore. Wartime restrictions are being instituted across every segment of society & culture. Even at the height of the Cold War there were mainstream, popular, & ruthless satires of the great bureaucratic, military, & corporate powers. Yup. This situation isn’t new; the same total control happened during Wilson. There’s…
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Not unprecedented
Greenwald discusses some fool who made the mistake of working for Trump for a few days. Now the fool is in jail, and Greenwald calls it unjust and unprecedented. Of course it’s unjust. Everything in politics is WAY beyond unjust. Words like justice shouldn’t be ruined and blasphemed by applying them to politics. But it’s…
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Rererereprint on experts
Closely tied to previous two items. I’ve reprinted this list many times in various contexts with various additions. Feels like a good time to reprint it again, connecting it to my recent language-based comparison of facts vs commands and the recent UFO frenzy. This version of the list is from 2017, with a good discussion…
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One specific fact
When I read Naomi Wolf’s latest poetic lament on our modern hell, I wrote a quick passionate assent to her main point. She was saying that demons certainly exist. I wrote that demons have always been about 1% of the population, but before 1980 they were kept in asylums and prisons. Now they occupy all…
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Pew comes through again
Pew surveyed people in 30 countries, asking them what’s wrong with democracy in their country and how it can improve. One answer came up almost universally: PEOPLE. The politicians themselves are fucked. If you could replace them with competent sane humans, things would improve. Below this top answer, each country had different secondary answers. Meanwhile,…
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Seems like a command
Random cranky observation. About two weeks ago, it appears that a command was given to the fake “independents” in various social media. The real independents gave up and went silent a year ago. Last month the fake “independents” stopped pretending and slotted neatly into the Trump cult or the Biden cult. Before the charge was…
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