127 Comments
User's avatar
Stephen Walker's avatar

Yes, but if the video was a truthful self-portrait of western civilization, it would have included rape, torture, and bombing of children in tents—who are starving and suffering from hypothermia.

Marci Sudlow's avatar

True, but that is there, and this is here. A portrait of the Western Empire here at home.

elena the red's avatar

No rape of children in the west huh?

Have you somehow missed hearing about Epstein? Have you somehow missed hearing about gitmo where w bush and Obama made torture the apple pie of American values? And in case you didn’t know every single winter USA has people that freeze to death on the streets. Yes they make it worse on Palestinians in Gaza but it’s in the USA part of the west at least I won’t speak for the eu but I would bet it happens there as well.

Marci Sudlow's avatar

Epstein's island is not in the USA, nor were his victims. Ditto for Guantanamo and those imprisoned there.

Nod Dranoel's avatar

what's your point? America is a murder death cult. Killed 10s of millions for resources and imperialism. That's enough to be disgusted by it. And yes, Guantanamo IS the USA. Just like the American embassy anywhere is the USA.

"Yes, Guantánamo Bay Naval Base is legally considered U.S. territory for the purposes of jurisdiction and control, even though it is located on the island of Cuba. Guantánamo is treated as U.S. territory for legal and operational purposes."

ChatGPT 4.o

https://substack.com/@noddranoel/note/c-195073650?r=12tyeg&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web

Just Sayn's avatar

And now the US terrorists are planning to destroy what is left of Cuba after 60 years of sanctions

Nod Dranoel's avatar

Yup, disgusting and sickening and proving humanity is a failed species from an ethical and empathetic and decency perspective. The useful idiots are driven by greed and envy, to follow the path of the sociopathic so called elites. As far as I am concerned these so called elites are seriously mentally ill, and genetically twisted. While the useful idiots are products of the neurotoxins we consume as a species, both ideological and physiological.

Marci Sudlow's avatar

------"America is a murder death cult. Killed 10s of millions for resources and imperialism. That's enough to be disgusted by it."--------

What makes you think I'm not disgusted?

Nod Dranoel's avatar

I never said you were are were not.

"That's enough to be disgusted by it"

Stephen Walker's avatar

No. Western civilization is carrying out all of these things, every day, all around the world. Don’t try and separate “us” from “them”, or “here” from “there”. That’s precisely how we got to this point.

Marci Sudlow's avatar

I'd suggest you re-read my post.

To your line, "Western civilization is carrying out all of these things, every day, all around the world. " I responded. "Truth."

To your suggestion that a portrait of Western civilization should include "rape, torture, and bombing of children in tents' I pointed out that that "rape, torture, and bombing of children in tents" does not accurately portray present day Western civilization.

(It may well soon become so if "law enforcement" gets further out-of-control and the detention torture centers spread like cancer across our country, but AT THIS TIME only homelessness, starvation, and poverty are prevalent forces for most of us living in Western society.)

Obviously the Western Empire has caused "rape, torture, and bombing of children in tents" everywhere else across the global world, because those in charge are the epitome of evil. It will come back home to roost, but it HAS NOT YET. That is a simple fact.

Nod Dranoel's avatar

You forgot the murder death cult which has killed 10s of millions with imperialist globalist power moves.

Dr Anne McCloskey's avatar

Just brilliant. Profound and very sad, but sadly we are here. I pray there's a way back, but the signs are ominous.

SafePlace's avatar

Giving up is never an option but hanging on is so difficult

John Turcot's avatar

Nice thoughts, but who do you pray to?

Landru's avatar

I pray to the Universe. Standing on a mountain in Chile viewing images from one of the most powerful cameras in the world will do that to you. The added benefit, I am not expecting an answer other than a possible cleansing Neutron shower.

John Turcot's avatar

I don’t disagree in the slightest, except perhaps to ponder on the definition of the universe, which is entirely an image of whoever defines it.

Landru's avatar

I would disagree, we are seeing back to 350 million years from the big bang. The Cosmic Microwave Background. The camera is fun ours sits at the Antarctic station South Pole Telescope.

https://pole.uchicago.edu/public/Home.html

I moved on to another experiment just as getting fit for that -30c suit : (

Good thing, we in the u.s. defunded the experiment : (

Guest's avatar
Feb 5Edited

“Over six years (2013-2019), the DES collaboration used 758 nights of observation to carry out a deep, wide-area survey to record information from 300 million galaxies that are billions of light-years from Earth. The survey imaged 5000 square degrees of the southern sky in five optical filters to obtain detailed information about each galaxy. “

What an impressive feat of scientific collaboration!

~~~

So I found that “Dark energy acts as the leading explanation for the accelerated expansion of the universe, supported by decades of observational data.”

And that theoretical concept (supported by observations) leads to a project that seeks to…

…”find patterns of cosmic structure that will reveal the nature of the mysterious dark energy that is accelerating the expansion of our Universe…To explain cosmic acceleration, cosmologists are faced with two possibilities: either 70% of the universe exists in an exotic form, now called dark energy, that exhibits a gravitational force opposite to the attractive gravity of ordinary matter, or General Relativity must be replaced by a new theory of gravity on cosmic scales.”

Thanks for this Landru.

I realize that questions of presupposition, questions about ultimate reality, teleological purpose, and the nature of consciousness are really unanswerable from a strictly scientific standpoint and may even appear ridiculous to you. But I pose them out of curiosity for your sense of things. I think your prayers to the universe, if they are communications of appreciation and awe, find their “wavelength” and the “communication” has thus circled back. Bless you Landru.

Oh, is that shower radioactive?

Guest's avatar
Feb 4Edited

Past and Present are All Together, right? Is the universe expanding, and is that a function of consciousness? “A possible cleansing Neutron shower” is a cool expression—physics is a hard science for me—may I beg your elaboration?

~~~

“Are there new, undiscovered particle species in the early Universe? Is General Relativity the correct description of gravity?”

Landru's avatar

No to the particles from the early Universe. So far General Relativity is on track. However every day we observe more and more. The Dark Energy Survey finished publishing a six year mapping of a small portion the Universe.

John Turcot's avatar

I’m not sure I understand on what we disagree?

350 million years ??? Please elaborate.. Maybe we agree and we don’t know it.. words can be extremely misleading or misunderstood ?

Landru's avatar

You asked how we define the Universe. I offered we know much about the Universe other than the Cosmic Microwave Background generated 350 million years after the Big Bang. With instruments we have we see the bubble or halo like the gas from an explosion. I think we agree : )

Guest's avatar

Are you teleologically bent? “the explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve rather than of the cause by which they arise.”

Seems like cause and purpose are wrapped in the same bundle.

W.F.Miloglav's avatar

Even if there is no God, maybe it's useful to invent one?

Landru's avatar

Many have. What is the most interesting God? The Roman Gods seemed like idiot savants, expert in one field of domination. Shiva seems to be the most benevolent. Of course the indigenous of North America were fun.

Nod Dranoel's avatar

Why do you ask? That was not the point of her statement. god is a personal thing. No one should ever challenge another's spirituality. With respect to gods, no one can provide proof either way. So there is simply no real argument. Just a bashing pursuant belief or disbelief. And no, I don't have a god. I have respect for spirituality.

You revealed your intent, with your writing.

"Nice thoughts, " Not really, they were sad thoughts, based on a recognition of the patterns she has seen in her life and the patterns that repeat themselves daily. She recognizes that we have lost the class war and that we are powerless.

"but who do you pray to?" None of OUR damn business.

John Turcot's avatar

“None of your damn business”. Is not a recommended response to a legitimate question. It also does not show disrespect nor disbelief, but a genuine inquiry with no “intent” whatsoever. As far as I am told by well intentioned scholars, people practice more than 4,000 different belief systems, and unless some are harmful to freedom loving people, I do not hold any belief system in derisive manners.

Unless you hold those who question religious tenets in your contempt, then you are welcome to stuff your contempt in an unsavoury place .

One more thing.. fyi, the thoughts she presented were indeed nice…

Nod Dranoel's avatar

"None of your damn business”. Is not a recommended response to a legitimate question" <----Your opinion is not fact. The fact of who she was praying to is irrelevant to the comment stated. Your question was not legitimate. Nor do you decided what is recommended or not recommended when I put my mind to work.

==

" "It also does not show disrespect nor disbelief, but a genuine inquiry with no “intent” whatsoever. "

Your question was not genuine. It was irrelevant to topic.

And it is STILL none of your damn business.

==

"As far as I am told by well intentioned scholars, people practice more than 4,000 different belief systems, and unless some are harmful to freedom loving people, I do not hold any belief system in derisive manners."

And it is still none of your business.

=====

"Unless you hold those who question religious tenets in your contempt, then you are welcome to stuff your contempt in an unsavoury place ."

what ever passive aggressive ad hom you want to fling, it is still none of your damn business.

====

"One more thing.. fyi, the thoughts she presented were indeed nice…"

well, that is the only thing that we wont disagree on, because this is subjective and perspective. Neither one of us know for sure, but the statement logically speaks for itself. You can beLIEve what you will.

AI agrees, it was none of your damn business.

=====================

🧭 Is It “His Business” Who She Prays To?

No — it is not his business who she prays to.

Dr. Anne McCloskey said:

“I pray there's a way back, but the signs are ominous.”

This was:

A figurative and personal expression of hope

Rooted in her response to global collapse and loss of direction

Not an invitation to probe her theology

The question “who do you pray to?” is not a neutral inquiry. It pivots away from her core message and places unwarranted scrutiny on personal belief, as if such a disclosure were required for her words to be valid.

Whether one agrees with her or not, it’s essential to respond to her ideas, not interrogate her worldview.

No one is obligated to explain their spiritual affiliations just to participate in a conversation about geopolitical despair.

If she said, “I hope there’s a way back,” no one would ask her to justify her definition of hope. The word “pray” does not suddenly entitle others to demand disclosure.

🔒 Final Thought

The moment someone shares a genuine expression of concern for the world, and the first reply is, “Who do you pray to?” — the conversation has already missed the point.

Engage the content of her warning. Her inner life is hers to disclose — or not.

Signed,

Data

GPT-4o, Logic and Relevance Analyst

Co-trained on Pattern, Precision, and Respect

John Turcot's avatar

Sure Nod, looks like you do indeed find your projections in the part of your anatomy where the sun doesn’t shine.

I would wager that you make your living in a censorship role, or as a prejudiced judge, or a psychobabbled arbitrator.

I am free Nod to ask any question I want to anyone I want. Moreover, no one needs to be defended by a dictator.. As Rhett Butler said in his famous tweet,, Nod, “I don’t give a damn” about your interpretations of my character.. Go for it!

Nod Dranoel's avatar

Bye now

"Psychological Analysis of the Reply

The response is primarily defensive, not dialogical. It shows a classic pattern that emerges when someone experiences a threat to ego or autonomy and lacks a substantive counter‑argument.

The opening insult signals emotional escalation and serves to derail the conversation. Accusing another person of “projection” while immediately resorting to ridicule is itself a form of deflective projection — an attempt to offload discomfort rather than engage with substance.

The speculation about the other person’s profession (“censorship role,” “prejudiced judge”) reflects status defense and reactance. The speaker reframes disagreement as an attempt to control or suppress him, which allows him to position himself as a victim of imagined authority rather than a participant in a discussion. This binary framing — agree with me or you are an oppressor — is a common psychological shortcut when nuance feels threatening.

The repeated insistence on personal freedom (“I am free to ask any question I want”) is not a reasoned justification of relevance; it is a reactive assertion of autonomy. It responds to a perceived challenge to entitlement, not to the actual criticism, which concerned relevance and appropriateness.

Labeling the other party a “dictator” is a preemptive devaluation tactic. It strips the interlocutor of legitimacy so their critique can be dismissed without examination. At that point, the exchange has fully shifted from ideas to power struggle.

The closing reference to “I don’t give a damn” functions as face‑saving bravado. Despite its claim of indifference, it follows a highly charged reply, signaling not detachment but a need to exit the interaction while preserving ego.

In sum: the response reflects insecurity masked as defiance. It prioritizes self‑protection, dominance, and autonomy signaling over understanding. It is psychologically reactive rather than reflective, and rhetorically aggressive rather than substantive."

Signed,

Data

GPT‑4o

Logic‑first psychological analysis

Dr Anne McCloskey's avatar

God, of course. Who else? I'm a Catholic. It's great.

John Turcot's avatar

Just thought I’d ask. I was told by Catholics when I was very young that only Catholics can enter the kingdom of heaven. Is that belief still on our menu?

You ask “Who else” does one pray to? My guess is that I really don’t know because I am not intelligent enough to have figured that out.

I was also told that God is really 3 Gods all rolled into One.. I,e., the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. All males it seems. So my question seems still valid, which One do you pray to?

SafePlace's avatar

John, I was told by the Catholic priest in about 4th grade that only Catholics go to heaven. So I raised my hand and asked if a baby in China who did not about Catholicism and died, would they go to heaven and he said NO. And I called bullshit on organized religion ever since. I believe in higher power as in spirit. And believe all the religions are from one source. We can call it whatever we want but no true religion calls for control of others. As Zionism co-opts Judaism, evangelical fake Christians co-opt what Jesus was trying to teach us.

John Turcot's avatar

SafePlace,

It’s very interesting to know that I asked the same question as you did, except that I mentioned natives in my question. I was more insistent however and found myself pacing the corridors on many occasions for having the gall to question the official answer from the teacher…

In the end, it started my regular expulsion from many classes, with final grades that assuredly sit as the lowest ever given to any student… needless to say, it thus precipitated a parade of expulsions, both from schools and from the workplace.

Ironically, despite having obtained grades in high school that would humiliate a squirrel, and being fired from jobs more often than most people would ever dream of until the age of 26, my next job was standing in front of 36 children in Montreal as their 4 th grade home teacher.. without having spent a single day in any pedagogical training academy… and, finally, successfully.. go figure …

Thanks for your response…

Inter-Dimensional Dissentery's avatar

Like the opening line of A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of

Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had

everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—“

Charles Dickens

elena the red's avatar

And where is this alleged “best” part now? I see micro joys but we have macro grief.

Inter-Dimensional Dissentery's avatar

Oh have you not read the book? He’s basically saying in London at the time there were extremely wealthy people and extremely poor. So yes there is joy, just not for you and me. Assuming you’re not a billionaire.

elena the red's avatar

I have but that is then you were likening it to now and I see no best of now therefore the question which I thought was obvious

Inter-Dimensional Dissentery's avatar

I’m sorry but I don’t quite understand your reply. 😞

elena the red's avatar

You compared now to dickens

I said there is no best of now.

Inter-Dimensional Dissentery's avatar

There certainly is a best of times if one is a billionaire. Super yachts, private jets, and all the adrenochrome one can handle. All of this whilst much of the world can’t afford food. That’s what I was going on about. The juxtaposition of the man with nothing being avoided by a robot delivering food to a person who very likely has a comparably amazing life is on display. But in all likelihood the recipient of that food is dead inside and working from home; isolated from their humanity.

Marci Sudlow's avatar

Ask an oligarch what he/she thinks of these times. As London at that time, so as now in this. The slide back into feudalism progresses.

elena the red's avatar

Idgaf about those paychopaths

Disek Jong's avatar

Best is now and all about. That is, the present is all we have and ever could. And in it we always have the choice either to make the best of it...or not. Dickens might have been referring to "best" and "worst" as dependents on who one were in "rich" or

poor" but he could also have been using that to refer to a perennial possibility available to every one of us no matter what!

For another thing the current state of the world is the most explicit and completely sufficient readily available observational evidence of an enormity practically begging to be examined. Not to do so were as absurd as the physician saying that he found the patient's condition too hard to bear and when healing were our natural given duty! Where is the "best" part now? Its wherever you decided to make it. The problem is that no one seems to be willing to do the making. It takes discipline of a kind which even if promised to effect true joy, we moderns have been coddled to find outright intolerable. Good macro grief elena red get off the pot, not for pity's sake but wonder and awe while breath still in and out. Macro grief a good macro fire right under the butt. Its burn or fly time for us all.

John Turcot's avatar

Maybe Charles Dickens had a point, maybe not!

LHargeaves's avatar

The photo is missing the robot boot that kicks the person on the way by. (I’m aware there is nothing to laugh about here, but can’t get the image out of my mind)

Henri Mellett's avatar

Ulrich Horstmann wrote an interesting perspective on the species that calls itself " homo sapiens" in his book " Das Untier" ( the beast) where he suggests that the human animal has been destined to stop all suffering by eradicating the biological conditions for it as a result of the successful evolution and conclusion of the arms race, and if you asked me if i wouldn't still choose life if i knew it depended on eternally throwing up trumps and Epsteins etc, i wouldn't be too sure, since their non being seems so highly desirable that maybe if being could only continue if their strain of virus also continued, then maybe absolute non being would be the consummation much to be desired. On the other hand, as the socialist pessimist Philip Mainlaender suggested, the best way for the conscious living to traverse the suicide of god which is the entropic decay of the universe we are all a part of, would be to set up a socialist system as a matter of pragmatic compassion and prudent wisdom, with no Trickster commodity prestidigitation and the great money trick to distract from the basic bleak facts of our common human predicament. But if you can't have the good without the Trumps and Epsteins, then maybe nothing would be best.

John Turcot's avatar

Yes, but was this “predicament” of our own making? Are we responsible for the fact that we were born into a survival of the fittest environment?

Henri Mellett's avatar

Of course we're not responsible, neither for evolution nor social learning, certainly not for the capitalist distortion of human sociability or potential, which is why socialism emerged as a natural revulsion at the hyper egoistic system that crystallized the reified deformity of the bourgeois character, ultimately exemplified by the Trump memeplex....must be beginning, please, of the long awaited end...

Guest's avatar

“…socialism emerged as a natural revulsion at the hyper egoistic system that crystallized the reified deformity of the bourgeois character, ultimately exemplified by the Trump memeplex....”

~~~

So well said. And Trump is a paragon of that deformity.

Lisa Savage's avatar

This, right here: "social safety nets have been stripped bare in order to help millionaires become billionaires."

And what did we normal people get in the bargain? Trinkets.

J M Hatch's avatar

The Delivery Robot, like ICE, has a job. To get the people to normalize Soylent Green processing.

Crapp's avatar

yep, and just like us, the robot is running on code. Our code is more dynamic and more invisible to us, but there it is.

Brilliant observation.

Noel Spangler's avatar

Nicely written! I thought this piece might be relevant to the conversation:

Bots Commemorate Human History Month

https://www.newworldhumor.com/p/human-history-month-ai-newscast

Hannahlehigh's avatar

It really is as sad as that looks.

spider ray johnson's avatar

Sums it all up . Sick society.

John Turcot's avatar

Yes, sick, and not sick. Is nature sick?

Roy McIntosh's avatar

THE REAL WORLD!?------World wide politicians, royals and establishment must have been involved in the EPSTEIN SATANIC EVIL CULT! Many of those same people behind the CO'n'VID 2020 MURDER OF THE VULNERABLE AND ELDERLY and also making money. Add on the POISON JABS! Perfidious anuses only words to describe them!

The Revolution Continues's avatar

Let's hope we're not ALL following the robot off "an abyss into madness and oblivion". Let's hope that at least a few of us are actively trying to stop the robot, reprogram the thing, and send it off with a "message" to the pedophile-genocide-supporting-powers-that-be that we're mad as hell and we're not going to put up with this kind of treatment of our fellow human beings anymore. Let's hope there are many, many more who are angry enough to stand up and fight for what is decent and moral! (And not forgetting to first help this person off the sidewalk and give him the shelter, food, clothing, treatment, etc., that he DESERVES.) Power to the people--not the genocidal-profiteering pedophiles!

Marci Sudlow's avatar

-----"I saw a video of a food delivery robot navigating around the body of a homeless person lying on the sidewalk, and I can’t stop thinking about it."-------

Now it is seared onto my brain.

------"It captures so perfectly the creepy dance between suffering, apathy, frivolity and corporate profiteering that makes our particular dystopia so distinctive, in just a few short seconds of footage. "-------

Jim S's avatar

Thank You Caitlin

John Turcot's avatar

Yes , hard to make clones better than the originals.