Although I generally agree with Caitlin, this post pulled me up short. I am no friend of the military. I think resolution of conflict through force is 150 years past its sell-by date. However, it sounds like you've drunk the transgender ideology Koolaid. If you are female, I suggest you take another look. And of course, militaries being what they (really) are, it is quite relevant to militarism. The transgender bandwagon is a force being pushed on us from above for pretty nefarious reasons and the first targets are women (and why women would join the military is beyond me). Incidentally, I think a big mover and shaker of the transgender movement are intelligence services and military psyops groups. Without women, I doubt homo sapiens would still be around for other than the most obvious reason of reproduction and the transgender movement hopes to take reproduction out of women's hands soon enough. Women leaven male aggression. Right now male aggression is running amok in many sectors of society, and with it commonsense appears to have gone out the window. Caitlin, you need to educate yourself further on where transgender ideology really comes from, where they intend to take it, and who are being harmed most by it (women and children). The future of the species depends on this. Stephen Hawkings was very clear that he did not want to be alive when certain unnamed or gauzily named events should occur. They're occurring now with transhumanism and AI all wrapped up in a pretty (rainbow) bow. You need to pull out your feminist chops and sharpen them. This is not about unicorns and men in skirts wearing make-up. This is about bio-engineering through enforced "vaccines" and inhuman medical surgeries and 5G and 6G and enforced sterility and excised uteri and printed meat and all manner of antibiotic (as in anti-life) "progressiveness" by way of mind control/groupthink. It is time to end the era of the dominance of men with Aspergers. It is time for all of us to get back to the business of being human. That means turning away from militarism and many other, even more threatening isms than war. The real war is not on any military battlefield. It's inside our very (thankfully still) human bodies. It's the ultimate case of the political is extremely personal. The battlefield is now very literally in your cerebellum. That ain't no metaphor. It's literal.
I do agree that the ability to think for yourself and to question everything--not just "authority"--is essential for survival. And more than half the Western world have already allowed their bodies to be colonized by technology by way of those idiot vaccines. Transgenderism is the next stage. A lot more people have been killed by the vaccines than by bombs. And a lot of people aren't going to be born because of the sterilization of children through hormonal treatment and surgery. The political is now about as personal as you can get. And it is not about "right" and "left". The left has not won the culture wars; it's been colonized by the military/medical/technological industrial complex.
The transgender obsession from conservatives was created not because anyone gives a shit about womens sports and not because you care about kids either, but because you’re perverts and child molesters. It’s pure deflection, that’s all.
Just look at all the religious pedophiles. Look at Colleen ballinger, an actual danger to children and you’re all defending her and trying to protect her from the “woke mob”.
Leave trans people alone and stop being an internet troll. Find meaning in your worthless pathetic life that doesn’t involve bullying people who haven’t done anything to you.
Go back to blocking people with different opinions and basing your views only on agreeing with people as long as they’re as fake polite as you are. Trans people did nothing to you. You’re an ignorant, pretentious, easily influenced bigot.
My dearest Han (👈🏽 btw, this is an example of me actually being “fake polite”, previously I was sincerely polite),
1) I blocked you because every comment directed at me (and many others) is abusive and full of assumptions; I’d say that’s a legit reason, to block a person, no?
(But I’m confused, this blocking thing doesn’t seem to work... how come I can still read your comments and you can read mine? 🤔)
2) I don’t have a problem with trans adults (I have known many in my life as both friends and collaborators). But I do have a problem with minors being given pharmaceuticals behind their parents’ back -- drugs that will compromise their fertility and give them numerous other health issues -- and making decisions as teenagers that they might later regret. I’ve watched many testimonies of young adults who say they wish it had not been so easy to procure such drugs, and that their life is now ruined. It’s heartbreaking.
(I don’t expect a rational response to this so I’ll just say “bye, troll” in advance to the invective that’s likely to follow).
Also wanted to add that not only is your argument totally full of shit, the fact that you’re even thinking about the fertility of minors is absolutely disgusting and proves you’re a huge pervert. Someone is struggling with their gender identity and the first thing that comes to your mind is their fertility being jeopardized? The handful of detransitioners you cherry picked for your poorly thought out, ill-intentioned, dishonest argument more often than not do so because of trolls like you, who go out of your way to make their lives harder because you can’t stand to see anyone different and confident.
I see through your phony, passive-agressive, manipulative, pretentious facade because I’m not easily fooled by the false veneer of civility and optics.
And no, I wholeheartedly disagree. I never block anyone, but I realize I’m substantially more nuanced and rational than you are so that’s probably why.
You don’t have a heart to break, you’re a soulless liar and your only real concern is pushing an agenda. The circumstance you’re insinuating doesnt happen 99.9 percent of the time. Getting on HRT is an extensive, exhausting process for adults to begin with. For minors, they have to see a psychiatrist for at least a year and even then they have to be at least 16 and have a parents permission, and that’s just in your extremely liberal state of California.
So either you’re stupid enough not to question the lies you’ve been told because confirmation bias is more important to you than reality, or you’re as manipulative as I said. Probably both.
Individual morality is a waste of time and breath. Every property claim is a claim bearing upon all. Fix your emotional fetishism problem and think materially, like a grownup.
I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area before. That has fuck all to do with the fact that trans people did nothing to you. Stop trying to justify your bigotry. You’re disgusting.
It's probably innate to a degree. I've always felt something was terribly wrong with the world which led me to seek answers. Most people seem to go their whole lives never really questioning things, assuming this system is normal because they grew up with it.
That's true, isn't it? I tend to think people want to fit in but there's such stigma in our society of being perceived as a "loser", it's basically the same. Sad state.
Socialists seem to mistakenly think that their position is unassailable, whereas a truly unassailable position is a stance firmly against all coercive government. The truth is out there.
Black and white thinking - tyranny depends on it. Wide brush strokes, to vilify "the other". There are plenty of countries in the West that have a hybrid between socialism and capitalism - but when you engage in ideological warfare, and are close minded as fuck, the truth you believe you have - is a narrow minded, fanatic's facade of hubris.
So would a democratic-socialist social order be more or less coercive than a plutocracy, which is what we seem to get with capitalism? Socialism is, or used to be, "the ownership or control of the means of production by the workers, or the community in general," which doesn't sound _particularly_ coercive.
Thank you for your fair question. I'll try to keep my answer brief.
Anything with a government with any actual power is coercive, dependent on force and violence.
True capitalism necessitates the absence of coercive government.
Please try not to mistakenly blame capitalism for that which capitalism has not caused. Crony capitalism, although it has capitalism in its name, is far from true capitalsm.
True capitalism causes true capitalism and that is all.
The plutocracy that governments have made and protected for centuries would have no power without coercive governments See recent history like the last four years for the true transfer of wealth from poor to rich. Thanks governments!
Technically, it doesn't, and certainly not at the expense of the presence of a coercive government. It is, however, in the best interest of owners of property to want to enforce their own property rights, or see to it that an efficient (yet non-coercive government) mechanism exists for acknowledgement and protection of property rights.
Enforcement of property rights is a form of coercion, at least from the point of view of those who disagree with them, for example the American Indians versus the European settlers. But to go on the other foot for a moment, can you give examples of modern capitalism without an elaborate system of property rights and the administration thereof? Not talking here about flea markets or desert islands. I worked for several years for a commodities exchange so you can assume I understand that context.
There also seems to be a sort of basic, fundamental continuity even in a non-dreaming state. (There may be some exceptions to that observation, such as deep anesthesia or coma.
Yes, enlightening, liberating and quite frankly you begin to realize, if you're being truthful w yourself that is, that they're the ones that are messed up not you. At least that's how it came to me. But it's a neverending rabbit hole, it keeps going deeper and if you continue following it, it becomes a life's work. You work on yourself. For the more you learn, the more complex it is. It is next to impossible to be highly successful today completely on one's own. That is not necessarily a negative trait. No man is an island.
As far as our military is concerned, it's become weak and woke, deliberately so. However, the military leadership has become weaponized politically in accordance w the DS.
That the U.S. is willing to use cluster bombs is not just bad in general it’s batshit insane, as those things will be killing people there, including Ukrainians too, for years or decades after the war that’s why they are banned by most countries: they kill indiscriminately and harm non combatants on both sides:
This is just downright uncivilised behaviour to insert this into a conflict. Even the Ukrainians should be against this - it’s them and their children that will be killed by these things in future years.
The US war machine cares nothing for Ukrainians or indeed anyone else on this planet. It exists only for collecting power and money for its owners. It is the most hideous enemy of humanity. Banksters also lend money at usury to both warring sides of a conflict. Very profitable. My suggestion is change what we use as money or stop using their usurious permanent debt-creating money altogether & head for a gift economy within a real resource based economy. The sinews of war would thus be neatly snipped. Bankonomics would be no more!!
US/NATO are wrecking the country - much like the scorched earth Nazi's. They want to poison the land (thus the depleted uranium and cluster bombs) and destroy the infrastructure (blow up dams and nuke power plants and other economic assets) to impose maximum human and economic costs on Russian (they know Russia will win the war) and prevent recovery.
It is impossible to accurately define, firmly grasp - except by relentless negation of all that it is not - but it is not an illusion - it is ever present, awake, always the most immediate, alive yet inert part of this very moment
sharing a short poem i wrote about it a few years ago
Well, also, logically, if there is some kind of mental activity going on which one is experiencing then it seems absurd to deny that it is happening to something* somewhere* regardless of whether its content is illusory. (* Allowances to be made for limitations of the ability of language to represent things, states, etc.)
I'm so tired of endless, meaningless debates. Mao Tse-tung said "All Power proceeds from the barrel of a gun", or something very similar. That sums up the Epitome of Socialism, whether Fascist or Communist. Other Thuggary, depending upon allegience to a Dictator and their Aparachiks, morphs into All the Best for "the Best/Most Loyal, a form of socialist poverty for the masses will emerge.
"The Point" being, All Authority depends upon Force. John Adams said our Constitutional Gov was suited Only for a Moral People, and was wholly inadequate for any other (people).
Moral People require little enforcement from a government authority..... Also a Moral people will not Tolerate an Immoral Gov......
I am a Self Made Man, not rich, but walked away from Corporate Work early on, became self-employed for 30+ years living by my wits to support my family, ups & downs, but Free!!! Never, ever regretted removing the yoke of being owned by others.
I Wanted to Create More than I did, it wasn't about greed or amassing wealth, It was about the Pursuit of Happiness, and I'm satisfied with my life's journey at the end of every day. The gub-Mint did very little to assist me, mostly setting up barriers and expenses to lessen the chances of success.
By the way this entire “self made man” narrative was totally debunked a long time ago in an OECD study - the type of study they are no longer allowed to do in todays world where their job is mainly propaganda
“…. Obstacles to social mobility weaken equal opportunities and economic growth, says OECD study
10/02/2010 - It is easier to climb the social ladder and earn more than one’s parents in the Nordic countries, Australia and Canada than in France, Italy, Britain and the United States, according to a new OECD study. Intergenerational Social Mobility: a family affair? says weak social mobility can signal a lack of equal opportunities, constrain productivity and curb economic growth.
Climbing the social ladder depends on a range of factors such as individual ability, family and social environments, networks and attitudes. But public action – particularly education and to some extent tax policies - can play an key role in helping people achieve a higher income and social status than their parents.
Across all countries family and socio-economic background is a major influence on a person’s level of education and earnings, but the impact of parental education, or lack of it, on a child’s future prospects is particularly marked in southern European countries and the UK….”
Kudjoe: I watched two Nick Johnson videos recently. In one video he was in Jackson, Mississippi. Johnson considered it the worst place in the USA. Average income is around $20k. The place is falling apart.
The other video was about Huron, CA in the Central Valley. Mexican farmworkers live in Huron and again, average income is around $20k per year.
Huron is a clean city with well kept homes and yards.
Before I read this I wrote in my journal, “rigid definitions/parameters of identity are the critical error.” While reading that part in her article just now I got chills.
Give it a rest, Han. Time will tell. A lot of professionals are afraid to give their honest opinion these days on many issues--not just transgender ideology.
bigot
bĭg′ət
noun
One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.. A hypocritical professor of religion; a hypocrite; also, a superstitious adherent of religion.A person who is obstinately and unreasonably wedded to a particular religious or other creed, opinion, practice, or ritual; a person who is illiberally attached to any opinion, system of belief, or party organization; an intolerant dogmatist.
Because their “honest opinion” truthfully does not matter. They’re doctors and mental health professionals. That means that their profession requires them to be unbiased. They’re not politicians, the ones you follow on Twitter who agree with you aren’t real.
It’s not a tripe. The healthcare profession requires them to be unbiased so that no discrimination of patients occurs. You’re not a doctor and you’re arrogant, ignorant and disrespectful so your opinion, as always, doesn’t mean shit. I’ll be monitoring your account from now on to ensure that no further discrimination of protected classes occurs from you, which is a violation of substack terms of service. You should go back to Twitter, troll. All of you bigoted trolls should go back to Twitter. This website is for writers, not transphobic idiots. I get it, you’re desperate for attention. That’s great. But no one here cares or will entertain your bullshit. You’re wasting your time.
ETA- I used to be a nurse, so you can shut the fuck up now. And forever, disrespectfully
Take your own advice and get the fuck off of this website. This website is for authors. You’re a troll and a complete waste of space. Your life is meaningless and I hope sooner than later you do something permanent about that. To yourself. Do the world a favor for once. Sick fuck
Your article doesn’t mention one key element: discernment! Not everyone has it and many never will, especially the sheeple or as the Deepstate calls useless eaters.
"The deepest and most worthy rabbit hole you can possibly dive into is the question of identity."
This might amuse you. Back in the late Middle Ages (Byzantine period) I was a high-priced computer systems consultant -- that is, I wrote programs to patch up broken systems when all else failed. I was not political enough to get into the good mathy stuff -- they had people with advanced degrees for that. However, I used to go by and chat with those guys from time to time to find out what was going on in the grown-up world. One day, one of them said to me, "We're constructing a universal identity system for this business (a very large, very famous brokerage house)."
"Whoa," I said. "You're embarking on analyzing a very difficult philosophical problem." In other words, going down a deep rabbit hole, although that phrase hadn't become fashionable yet.
You might think that what they mean by identity in the financial world is a bit simpler than the congeries of concepts around the idea of the self, self-hood, individuality, category membership, representation, impersonation, and so on, but it is still pretty complicated, because, for instance, an "account" could mean a person, part of a person (as when one has many "accounts"), a partnership, a corporation, a part of a corporation, an interest group, relatives, heirs and assigns, trusts, persons with power of attorney, and so on -- the list is probably infinite, but of course what the institution wants is to give everybody a number. Can't do it. But the geniuses laughed me off.
Months and months later they were still working on the problem -- way down in the rabbit hole by then -- and the bosses were preparing their blowtorches. "Ha, ha," I would say to the geniuses on my visits. "You should have stayed awake in your Phil 101 class." (Hard to do, I will admit.)
Fortunately for everybody the company went out of business not long after that.
I do diverge with one aspect of your article in which I would be hard-pressed to believe that you believe that you just accidentally fell into your current expression and level of self-awareness.
There are no accidents.
We, each of us, come into this existence with an intent. And that intent drives everything that we do.
People oppose Capitalism because they are economically ignorant. As Hayek writes : "If socialists understood economics they wouldn't be socialists.”
We would not be having all of these Neocon wars and CovidMania if the totally clueless and ignorant messes weren't gladly sending 50% of their wealth to a coercive monopoly of clueless and tribalistic dogooders in various capitals. It is not Walmart and Amazon.com and Google and Microsoft that are attacking millions. These companies, although of course increasingly influenced by Neocons and other tribalistic morons hire and integrate and give a productive order to millions of people all over the world and are constantly having to innovate and copy each other's innovations due to the need to compete for customers. Something no socialist minded government coercive monopolistic entity has to do.
I hope you consider reading about 'The Austrian School of Economics' . I'm sure you already greatly respect people like Ron Paul. Why not read about the men that created him?
Defenders of capitalism who condescendingly bloviate about how nobody understands economics except them are always shockingly ignorant about the ideological positions they attack, and have almost universally done zero reading of any Marxian economists.
I disagree, and I’m also not someone who’s easily fooled by the false veneer of civility and optics. You sound very pretentious btw.
Like one of those people who says shit like “as soon as you cursed you lost the argument.”
A lot of people think that the most important part of a discussion is being “respectful” (fake) as opposed to the actual point that someones trying to make. Same thing with grammar.
If semantics are more important to you than the actual point that’s being made, stop pretending like your opinion is based on anything important. It’s not, and I want you to be aware of that.
"In Unity, Strength" Is a famous Marine motto. When you're in the Marines, you can't voluntarily do whatever the fuck you want. The Marines collaborate in order to achieve a common goal.
Replacing government with just voluntaryism is a load of shit. We all know that.
You obviously have no clue about what voluntaryism is. Nowhere does Voluntaryism propose "You can do whatever the fuck you want." Educate yourself before you shoot your mouth off. And.. The Marines are a Huge load of Shit... If we have to go to ad hominem attacks right from the gitgo.
Starry Gordon: If that is true, how do you explain the years that Alexander Selkirk (the real-life Robinson Crusoe) was stranded on an island off of Chile? Selkirk was completely alone on the island but he had goats, a hut he built, a garden, and the clothes he made from goat skins. Did Alexander Selkirk own his property? Where is the social relationship?
Ok. This has to be said, a comment so pretzel twisted has to be set straight.
Hayek, the Austrian School and greed created NeoCon theory along with Dr. Paul Wolfowitz. My time in Dr. Wolfowitz upper division university class, History 486 Economics of War, became afternoons of self praise as an aide to Henry Kissinger and a nascent theory of solving the end of markets in global capitalism using constant war and conflict as “the driver of capitalist democracy”. The term itself is an oxymoron. Capitalism is not Democratic it is wealth accumulation without limits.
The endless wars are the bastard child of greed and narcissism enamored of things rather than human needs. The endless wars ARE Neoconservative theory in practice.
The donors to campaigns advertising hope on saving a planet are human beings practicing human compassion in action.
The twisted use of falsehoods is an attempt at validating a personal belief, heinous in its contortion of fact, and is the most valid proof of an inhumanity into which capitalism has descended.
Timmie Teas: what personal gain do you earn in posting targeted insults?
1. You insult from nowhere with no validation.
2. Your style is an assault as the focus of comment.
3. Eschew using drivel as a basis for personal insults, especially in denying another’s experience in affairs.
This practice of assault as you’ve plainly exhibited gives insult to trolling. Any further aggressive comment will be reported, and I encourage others to do so in any evidence of aggressive trolling.
Yeah - the guy has been consistently trolling me ever since he appeared. I believe the comments section has been targeted likely because a group (political, deep state?) of people actually disagree with most of what Caitlin writes and want to abuse her comments section. This guy is right up there with grade A+ ass.
jamenta: Your comments always side with the "greater good" and the State. Weren't the last three years proof enough for you that there is no "greater good"? Didn't the last three years prove to you that the State is not looking out for us?
You are not only a rabid ignorant ideologue, but a liar to boot. No rich bastard on the planet sends 50% of their wealth to any government on earth. There are no wealth taxes and the income taxes are low and being lowered across the globe. Read Karl Polanyi, not your Austrian racist friends.
Why tf would you think any socialist respects Ron Paul? You have such a simple misunderstanding of the world. Every concept to you is “simple”. That’s because the illogical conclusions you’ve arrived at are simple. They require no thought process, no insight, no consideration.
Capitalism is obviously not working for most people in America. Only a privileged few. You won’t believe me because you’re brainwashed and infatuated with western propaganda, but North Korea is actually doing a hell of a lot better than the US despite being substantially less wealthy. No homeless people, free, quality healthcare, nice homes, good jobs and enough money to live comfortably.
To me, that is what a successful country looks like. Hard work alone doesnt pay off like it used to. Especially with no job security, almost no unions and astronomical rent/ home prices thanks to deregulation.
I get it.. you’re old and out of touch. But that’s not something to be proud of at all. Evolve.
Han: You are obviously insane. If you hold up North Korea as a paradigm of good, you are truly mad. Go there and see for yourself. Kim Ill Dong doesn't tolerate loonies.
That’s because you, like most Americans, are easily influenced and fooled by western capitalist propaganda. The rest of the world has a very different opinion of North Korea. The US has an agenda to push, they need you and other idiots like you to believe nk is horrific so you don’t end up realizing how bad things actually are here. And you’re stupid enough to believe it blindly, because you think you live in the greatest country in the world.
That’s because you, like most Americans, are easily influenced and fooled by western capitalist propaganda. The rest of the world has a very different opinion of North Korea (:
The rest of the world hates the US. Most countries have a good relationship with North Korea. Even though you’re an idiot and incompetent, you can easily look this up.
Although I generally agree with Caitlin, this post pulled me up short. I am no friend of the military. I think resolution of conflict through force is 150 years past its sell-by date. However, it sounds like you've drunk the transgender ideology Koolaid. If you are female, I suggest you take another look. And of course, militaries being what they (really) are, it is quite relevant to militarism. The transgender bandwagon is a force being pushed on us from above for pretty nefarious reasons and the first targets are women (and why women would join the military is beyond me). Incidentally, I think a big mover and shaker of the transgender movement are intelligence services and military psyops groups. Without women, I doubt homo sapiens would still be around for other than the most obvious reason of reproduction and the transgender movement hopes to take reproduction out of women's hands soon enough. Women leaven male aggression. Right now male aggression is running amok in many sectors of society, and with it commonsense appears to have gone out the window. Caitlin, you need to educate yourself further on where transgender ideology really comes from, where they intend to take it, and who are being harmed most by it (women and children). The future of the species depends on this. Stephen Hawkings was very clear that he did not want to be alive when certain unnamed or gauzily named events should occur. They're occurring now with transhumanism and AI all wrapped up in a pretty (rainbow) bow. You need to pull out your feminist chops and sharpen them. This is not about unicorns and men in skirts wearing make-up. This is about bio-engineering through enforced "vaccines" and inhuman medical surgeries and 5G and 6G and enforced sterility and excised uteri and printed meat and all manner of antibiotic (as in anti-life) "progressiveness" by way of mind control/groupthink. It is time to end the era of the dominance of men with Aspergers. It is time for all of us to get back to the business of being human. That means turning away from militarism and many other, even more threatening isms than war. The real war is not on any military battlefield. It's inside our very (thankfully still) human bodies. It's the ultimate case of the political is extremely personal. The battlefield is now very literally in your cerebellum. That ain't no metaphor. It's literal.
I do agree that the ability to think for yourself and to question everything--not just "authority"--is essential for survival. And more than half the Western world have already allowed their bodies to be colonized by technology by way of those idiot vaccines. Transgenderism is the next stage. A lot more people have been killed by the vaccines than by bombs. And a lot of people aren't going to be born because of the sterilization of children through hormonal treatment and surgery. The political is now about as personal as you can get. And it is not about "right" and "left". The left has not won the culture wars; it's been colonized by the military/medical/technological industrial complex.
The transgender obsession from conservatives was created not because anyone gives a shit about womens sports and not because you care about kids either, but because you’re perverts and child molesters. It’s pure deflection, that’s all.
Just look at all the religious pedophiles. Look at Colleen ballinger, an actual danger to children and you’re all defending her and trying to protect her from the “woke mob”.
Leave trans people alone and stop being an internet troll. Find meaning in your worthless pathetic life that doesn’t involve bullying people who haven’t done anything to you.
What he said.
Go back to blocking people with different opinions and basing your views only on agreeing with people as long as they’re as fake polite as you are. Trans people did nothing to you. You’re an ignorant, pretentious, easily influenced bigot.
My dearest Han (👈🏽 btw, this is an example of me actually being “fake polite”, previously I was sincerely polite),
1) I blocked you because every comment directed at me (and many others) is abusive and full of assumptions; I’d say that’s a legit reason, to block a person, no?
(But I’m confused, this blocking thing doesn’t seem to work... how come I can still read your comments and you can read mine? 🤔)
2) I don’t have a problem with trans adults (I have known many in my life as both friends and collaborators). But I do have a problem with minors being given pharmaceuticals behind their parents’ back -- drugs that will compromise their fertility and give them numerous other health issues -- and making decisions as teenagers that they might later regret. I’ve watched many testimonies of young adults who say they wish it had not been so easy to procure such drugs, and that their life is now ruined. It’s heartbreaking.
(I don’t expect a rational response to this so I’ll just say “bye, troll” in advance to the invective that’s likely to follow).
Also wanted to add that not only is your argument totally full of shit, the fact that you’re even thinking about the fertility of minors is absolutely disgusting and proves you’re a huge pervert. Someone is struggling with their gender identity and the first thing that comes to your mind is their fertility being jeopardized? The handful of detransitioners you cherry picked for your poorly thought out, ill-intentioned, dishonest argument more often than not do so because of trolls like you, who go out of your way to make their lives harder because you can’t stand to see anyone different and confident.
You can’t bear to see anything other than ugly.
I see through your phony, passive-agressive, manipulative, pretentious facade because I’m not easily fooled by the false veneer of civility and optics.
And no, I wholeheartedly disagree. I never block anyone, but I realize I’m substantially more nuanced and rational than you are so that’s probably why.
You don’t have a heart to break, you’re a soulless liar and your only real concern is pushing an agenda. The circumstance you’re insinuating doesnt happen 99.9 percent of the time. Getting on HRT is an extensive, exhausting process for adults to begin with. For minors, they have to see a psychiatrist for at least a year and even then they have to be at least 16 and have a parents permission, and that’s just in your extremely liberal state of California.
So either you’re stupid enough not to question the lies you’ve been told because confirmation bias is more important to you than reality, or you’re as manipulative as I said. Probably both.
Individual morality is a waste of time and breath. Every property claim is a claim bearing upon all. Fix your emotional fetishism problem and think materially, like a grownup.
"Trans people did nothing to you." Han.
Han, you obviously don't live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area before. That has fuck all to do with the fact that trans people did nothing to you. Stop trying to justify your bigotry. You’re disgusting.
I suspect nosey parker may be a she 🧐
It's probably innate to a degree. I've always felt something was terribly wrong with the world which led me to seek answers. Most people seem to go their whole lives never really questioning things, assuming this system is normal because they grew up with it.
Many care only about winning.
That's true, isn't it? I tend to think people want to fit in but there's such stigma in our society of being perceived as a "loser", it's basically the same. Sad state.
Even if you don't have money you must at least pretend that you have a scheme to make it.
Socialists seem to mistakenly think that their position is unassailable, whereas a truly unassailable position is a stance firmly against all coercive government. The truth is out there.
Black and white thinking - tyranny depends on it. Wide brush strokes, to vilify "the other". There are plenty of countries in the West that have a hybrid between socialism and capitalism - but when you engage in ideological warfare, and are close minded as fuck, the truth you believe you have - is a narrow minded, fanatic's facade of hubris.
"Tyranny depends on" the actions and inaction of the un- and under-principled. Congratulations jamenta! It seems you qualify, and in spades!
The jackass ne'er can know his reflection in the pool.
jamenta: Don't fall into the pool. We don't want to do mouth-to-mouth rescue on you. Splish-splash...
So would a democratic-socialist social order be more or less coercive than a plutocracy, which is what we seem to get with capitalism? Socialism is, or used to be, "the ownership or control of the means of production by the workers, or the community in general," which doesn't sound _particularly_ coercive.
Thank you for your fair question. I'll try to keep my answer brief.
Anything with a government with any actual power is coercive, dependent on force and violence.
True capitalism necessitates the absence of coercive government.
Please try not to mistakenly blame capitalism for that which capitalism has not caused. Crony capitalism, although it has capitalism in its name, is far from true capitalsm.
True capitalism causes true capitalism and that is all.
The plutocracy that governments have made and protected for centuries would have no power without coercive governments See recent history like the last four years for the true transfer of wealth from poor to rich. Thanks governments!
Capitalism requires the enforcement of capitalist property rights.
Technically, it doesn't, and certainly not at the expense of the presence of a coercive government. It is, however, in the best interest of owners of property to want to enforce their own property rights, or see to it that an efficient (yet non-coercive government) mechanism exists for acknowledgement and protection of property rights.
Enforcement of property rights is a form of coercion, at least from the point of view of those who disagree with them, for example the American Indians versus the European settlers. But to go on the other foot for a moment, can you give examples of modern capitalism without an elaborate system of property rights and the administration thereof? Not talking here about flea markets or desert islands. I worked for several years for a commodities exchange so you can assume I understand that context.
You are 100% correct! And no, I can't.
Yep. The journey into the rabbit hole is painful as entire worldviews are blown to bits but enlightening as truth starts kind of washing over you.
Consciousness is like a flower, with many petals.
Consciousness comes and goes. How do you explain sleep?
There seems to be a kind of consciousness that occurs in sleep. Possibly also in certain induced states like meditation.
Starry G: Yes. The REM sleep is like actually being there in the dream.
There also seems to be a sort of basic, fundamental continuity even in a non-dreaming state. (There may be some exceptions to that observation, such as deep anesthesia or coma.
Starry G: Last November I went under anesthesia for 3 hours. I don't remember a thing.
Yes, enlightening, liberating and quite frankly you begin to realize, if you're being truthful w yourself that is, that they're the ones that are messed up not you. At least that's how it came to me. But it's a neverending rabbit hole, it keeps going deeper and if you continue following it, it becomes a life's work. You work on yourself. For the more you learn, the more complex it is. It is next to impossible to be highly successful today completely on one's own. That is not necessarily a negative trait. No man is an island.
As far as our military is concerned, it's become weak and woke, deliberately so. However, the military leadership has become weaponized politically in accordance w the DS.
Letsrock: It's not "our" military. Never was.
Just like it's not 'our' gubmint.
That the U.S. is willing to use cluster bombs is not just bad in general it’s batshit insane, as those things will be killing people there, including Ukrainians too, for years or decades after the war that’s why they are banned by most countries: they kill indiscriminately and harm non combatants on both sides:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/31/treaty-banning-cluster-munitions-turns-10-without-us
This is just downright uncivilised behaviour to insert this into a conflict. Even the Ukrainians should be against this - it’s them and their children that will be killed by these things in future years.
The US war machine cares nothing for Ukrainians or indeed anyone else on this planet. It exists only for collecting power and money for its owners. It is the most hideous enemy of humanity. Banksters also lend money at usury to both warring sides of a conflict. Very profitable. My suggestion is change what we use as money or stop using their usurious permanent debt-creating money altogether & head for a gift economy within a real resource based economy. The sinews of war would thus be neatly snipped. Bankonomics would be no more!!
Insane in the sense of cold-blooded murder being insane. It is probably practical and sane from the point of view of psychopaths.
Kudjoe: I'm blocked from liking your comment. No idea why.
US/NATO are wrecking the country - much like the scorched earth Nazi's. They want to poison the land (thus the depleted uranium and cluster bombs) and destroy the infrastructure (blow up dams and nuke power plants and other economic assets) to impose maximum human and economic costs on Russian (they know Russia will win the war) and prevent recovery.
"The deepest and most worthy rabbit hole you can possibly dive into is the question of identity. "
Simple, direct and powerful concluding segment . Into the rabbit hole that dissolves every idea of who we are
Yet many have the experience of the unique, indivisible self. It may be "illusory" but if it's an illusion it's still a _real_ illusion.
The indivisible self is the only thing that is not an illusion
It's certainly an experience a lot of people have, yet there are those who say it's an illusion. I don't know exactly what they mean, though.
It is impossible to accurately define, firmly grasp - except by relentless negation of all that it is not - but it is not an illusion - it is ever present, awake, always the most immediate, alive yet inert part of this very moment
sharing a short poem i wrote about it a few years ago
https://anandaonly.in/2020/07/07/reflection-on-a-window/
Well, also, logically, if there is some kind of mental activity going on which one is experiencing then it seems absurd to deny that it is happening to something* somewhere* regardless of whether its content is illusory. (* Allowances to be made for limitations of the ability of language to represent things, states, etc.)
Fucking right on....thank you...Be Here Now
I look at life as a sponge. Soak it all in, and at the end of the day, wring out the excess. You keep what sticks.
I'm so tired of endless, meaningless debates. Mao Tse-tung said "All Power proceeds from the barrel of a gun", or something very similar. That sums up the Epitome of Socialism, whether Fascist or Communist. Other Thuggary, depending upon allegience to a Dictator and their Aparachiks, morphs into All the Best for "the Best/Most Loyal, a form of socialist poverty for the masses will emerge.
"The Point" being, All Authority depends upon Force. John Adams said our Constitutional Gov was suited Only for a Moral People, and was wholly inadequate for any other (people).
Moral People require little enforcement from a government authority..... Also a Moral people will not Tolerate an Immoral Gov......
I am a Self Made Man, not rich, but walked away from Corporate Work early on, became self-employed for 30+ years living by my wits to support my family, ups & downs, but Free!!! Never, ever regretted removing the yoke of being owned by others.
I Wanted to Create More than I did, it wasn't about greed or amassing wealth, It was about the Pursuit of Happiness, and I'm satisfied with my life's journey at the end of every day. The gub-Mint did very little to assist me, mostly setting up barriers and expenses to lessen the chances of success.
genearly.substack.com
By the way this entire “self made man” narrative was totally debunked a long time ago in an OECD study - the type of study they are no longer allowed to do in todays world where their job is mainly propaganda
https://www.oecd.org/economy/obstaclestosocialm
“…. Obstacles to social mobility weaken equal opportunities and economic growth, says OECD study
10/02/2010 - It is easier to climb the social ladder and earn more than one’s parents in the Nordic countries, Australia and Canada than in France, Italy, Britain and the United States, according to a new OECD study. Intergenerational Social Mobility: a family affair? says weak social mobility can signal a lack of equal opportunities, constrain productivity and curb economic growth.
Climbing the social ladder depends on a range of factors such as individual ability, family and social environments, networks and attitudes. But public action – particularly education and to some extent tax policies - can play an key role in helping people achieve a higher income and social status than their parents.
Across all countries family and socio-economic background is a major influence on a person’s level of education and earnings, but the impact of parental education, or lack of it, on a child’s future prospects is particularly marked in southern European countries and the UK….”
Kudjoe: I watched two Nick Johnson videos recently. In one video he was in Jackson, Mississippi. Johnson considered it the worst place in the USA. Average income is around $20k. The place is falling apart.
The other video was about Huron, CA in the Central Valley. Mexican farmworkers live in Huron and again, average income is around $20k per year.
Huron is a clean city with well kept homes and yards.
Huron is 95% Hispanic. Jackson is 90% black.
That proves your points.
Before I read this I wrote in my journal, “rigid definitions/parameters of identity are the critical error.” While reading that part in her article just now I got chills.
Give it a rest, Han. Time will tell. A lot of professionals are afraid to give their honest opinion these days on many issues--not just transgender ideology.
bigot
bĭg′ət
noun
One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.. A hypocritical professor of religion; a hypocrite; also, a superstitious adherent of religion.A person who is obstinately and unreasonably wedded to a particular religious or other creed, opinion, practice, or ritual; a person who is illiberally attached to any opinion, system of belief, or party organization; an intolerant dogmatist.
If the shoe fits...
Because their “honest opinion” truthfully does not matter. They’re doctors and mental health professionals. That means that their profession requires them to be unbiased. They’re not politicians, the ones you follow on Twitter who agree with you aren’t real.
>That means that their profession requires them to be unbiased
Imagine actually believing this professional-managerial class mythical tripe. I think I told you to grow up in another comment; now it goes double.
It’s not a tripe. The healthcare profession requires them to be unbiased so that no discrimination of patients occurs. You’re not a doctor and you’re arrogant, ignorant and disrespectful so your opinion, as always, doesn’t mean shit. I’ll be monitoring your account from now on to ensure that no further discrimination of protected classes occurs from you, which is a violation of substack terms of service. You should go back to Twitter, troll. All of you bigoted trolls should go back to Twitter. This website is for writers, not transphobic idiots. I get it, you’re desperate for attention. That’s great. But no one here cares or will entertain your bullshit. You’re wasting your time.
ETA- I used to be a nurse, so you can shut the fuck up now. And forever, disrespectfully
Shut up, Karen.
Take your own advice and get the fuck off of this website. This website is for authors. You’re a troll and a complete waste of space. Your life is meaningless and I hope sooner than later you do something permanent about that. To yourself. Do the world a favor for once. Sick fuck
Your article doesn’t mention one key element: discernment! Not everyone has it and many never will, especially the sheeple or as the Deepstate calls useless eaters.
"The deepest and most worthy rabbit hole you can possibly dive into is the question of identity."
This might amuse you. Back in the late Middle Ages (Byzantine period) I was a high-priced computer systems consultant -- that is, I wrote programs to patch up broken systems when all else failed. I was not political enough to get into the good mathy stuff -- they had people with advanced degrees for that. However, I used to go by and chat with those guys from time to time to find out what was going on in the grown-up world. One day, one of them said to me, "We're constructing a universal identity system for this business (a very large, very famous brokerage house)."
"Whoa," I said. "You're embarking on analyzing a very difficult philosophical problem." In other words, going down a deep rabbit hole, although that phrase hadn't become fashionable yet.
You might think that what they mean by identity in the financial world is a bit simpler than the congeries of concepts around the idea of the self, self-hood, individuality, category membership, representation, impersonation, and so on, but it is still pretty complicated, because, for instance, an "account" could mean a person, part of a person (as when one has many "accounts"), a partnership, a corporation, a part of a corporation, an interest group, relatives, heirs and assigns, trusts, persons with power of attorney, and so on -- the list is probably infinite, but of course what the institution wants is to give everybody a number. Can't do it. But the geniuses laughed me off.
Months and months later they were still working on the problem -- way down in the rabbit hole by then -- and the bosses were preparing their blowtorches. "Ha, ha," I would say to the geniuses on my visits. "You should have stayed awake in your Phil 101 class." (Hard to do, I will admit.)
Fortunately for everybody the company went out of business not long after that.
I do diverge with one aspect of your article in which I would be hard-pressed to believe that you believe that you just accidentally fell into your current expression and level of self-awareness.
There are no accidents.
We, each of us, come into this existence with an intent. And that intent drives everything that we do.
People oppose Capitalism because they are economically ignorant. As Hayek writes : "If socialists understood economics they wouldn't be socialists.”
We would not be having all of these Neocon wars and CovidMania if the totally clueless and ignorant messes weren't gladly sending 50% of their wealth to a coercive monopoly of clueless and tribalistic dogooders in various capitals. It is not Walmart and Amazon.com and Google and Microsoft that are attacking millions. These companies, although of course increasingly influenced by Neocons and other tribalistic morons hire and integrate and give a productive order to millions of people all over the world and are constantly having to innovate and copy each other's innovations due to the need to compete for customers. Something no socialist minded government coercive monopolistic entity has to do.
I hope you consider reading about 'The Austrian School of Economics' . I'm sure you already greatly respect people like Ron Paul. Why not read about the men that created him?
Defenders of capitalism who condescendingly bloviate about how nobody understands economics except them are always shockingly ignorant about the ideological positions they attack, and have almost universally done zero reading of any Marxian economists.
I don't defend capitalism, but I also don't aspire to socialism. Neither are sustainable.
Voluntaryism is the natural state of man. Your spectrum has Shit at both ends.
It’s a shame this thread degenerated to abuse because you all make good points.
I disagree, and I’m also not someone who’s easily fooled by the false veneer of civility and optics. You sound very pretentious btw.
Like one of those people who says shit like “as soon as you cursed you lost the argument.”
A lot of people think that the most important part of a discussion is being “respectful” (fake) as opposed to the actual point that someones trying to make. Same thing with grammar.
If semantics are more important to you than the actual point that’s being made, stop pretending like your opinion is based on anything important. It’s not, and I want you to be aware of that.
Okay, fair enough, mate. 👍🏽
Thanks for blocking me, cunt. <3
Cooperation, collaboration is innate to man - and is what makes a civilized, free society thrive. In Unity, Strength.
That is Exactly what Voluntaryism is.
"In Unity, Strength" Is a famous Marine motto. When you're in the Marines, you can't voluntarily do whatever the fuck you want. The Marines collaborate in order to achieve a common goal.
Replacing government with just voluntaryism is a load of shit. We all know that.
You obviously have no clue about what voluntaryism is. Nowhere does Voluntaryism propose "You can do whatever the fuck you want." Educate yourself before you shoot your mouth off. And.. The Marines are a Huge load of Shit... If we have to go to ad hominem attacks right from the gitgo.
jamenta: So join the Marines.
CJ: Read the Karl Marx Manifesto. #1 is the abolition of private property.
HELLO! Sounds like Marxist bullshit to me.
Well, property is a social relationship, so in a sense it's never private.
Starry Gordon: If that is true, how do you explain the years that Alexander Selkirk (the real-life Robinson Crusoe) was stranded on an island off of Chile? Selkirk was completely alone on the island but he had goats, a hut he built, a garden, and the clothes he made from goat skins. Did Alexander Selkirk own his property? Where is the social relationship?
Ok. This has to be said, a comment so pretzel twisted has to be set straight.
Hayek, the Austrian School and greed created NeoCon theory along with Dr. Paul Wolfowitz. My time in Dr. Wolfowitz upper division university class, History 486 Economics of War, became afternoons of self praise as an aide to Henry Kissinger and a nascent theory of solving the end of markets in global capitalism using constant war and conflict as “the driver of capitalist democracy”. The term itself is an oxymoron. Capitalism is not Democratic it is wealth accumulation without limits.
The endless wars are the bastard child of greed and narcissism enamored of things rather than human needs. The endless wars ARE Neoconservative theory in practice.
The donors to campaigns advertising hope on saving a planet are human beings practicing human compassion in action.
The twisted use of falsehoods is an attempt at validating a personal belief, heinous in its contortion of fact, and is the most valid proof of an inhumanity into which capitalism has descended.
Ron Rodarte: You win! You have made the most senseless comment on this site for this week in July. Congratulations!
Timmie Teas: what personal gain do you earn in posting targeted insults?
1. You insult from nowhere with no validation.
2. Your style is an assault as the focus of comment.
3. Eschew using drivel as a basis for personal insults, especially in denying another’s experience in affairs.
This practice of assault as you’ve plainly exhibited gives insult to trolling. Any further aggressive comment will be reported, and I encourage others to do so in any evidence of aggressive trolling.
Yeah - the guy has been consistently trolling me ever since he appeared. I believe the comments section has been targeted likely because a group (political, deep state?) of people actually disagree with most of what Caitlin writes and want to abuse her comments section. This guy is right up there with grade A+ ass.
jamenta: Your comments always side with the "greater good" and the State. Weren't the last three years proof enough for you that there is no "greater good"? Didn't the last three years prove to you that the State is not looking out for us?
Ron Rodarte: Explain the last sentence in your comment. How many commas and three or four syllable words do you need to prove your high intelligence:?
It should be remembered, that the golden rule of economic 'science', is that all economic models are 100% true and correct.
You are not only a rabid ignorant ideologue, but a liar to boot. No rich bastard on the planet sends 50% of their wealth to any government on earth. There are no wealth taxes and the income taxes are low and being lowered across the globe. Read Karl Polanyi, not your Austrian racist friends.
that was supposed to be "fascist" not racist.
Why tf would you think any socialist respects Ron Paul? You have such a simple misunderstanding of the world. Every concept to you is “simple”. That’s because the illogical conclusions you’ve arrived at are simple. They require no thought process, no insight, no consideration.
Capitalism is obviously not working for most people in America. Only a privileged few. You won’t believe me because you’re brainwashed and infatuated with western propaganda, but North Korea is actually doing a hell of a lot better than the US despite being substantially less wealthy. No homeless people, free, quality healthcare, nice homes, good jobs and enough money to live comfortably.
To me, that is what a successful country looks like. Hard work alone doesnt pay off like it used to. Especially with no job security, almost no unions and astronomical rent/ home prices thanks to deregulation.
I get it.. you’re old and out of touch. But that’s not something to be proud of at all. Evolve.
Han: You are obviously insane. If you hold up North Korea as a paradigm of good, you are truly mad. Go there and see for yourself. Kim Ill Dong doesn't tolerate loonies.
That’s because you, like most Americans, are easily influenced and fooled by western capitalist propaganda. The rest of the world has a very different opinion of North Korea. The US has an agenda to push, they need you and other idiots like you to believe nk is horrific so you don’t end up realizing how bad things actually are here. And you’re stupid enough to believe it blindly, because you think you live in the greatest country in the world.
I would have chosen Japan as a paradigm instead of North Korea. But that's just me, eh?
That’s because you, like most Americans, are easily influenced and fooled by western capitalist propaganda. The rest of the world has a very different opinion of North Korea (:
Golly gadzooks and zoundz!
The rest of the world hates the US. Most countries have a good relationship with North Korea. Even though you’re an idiot and incompetent, you can easily look this up.
Faith and begorrah!
Beware of the one book person.
jamenta: Which book?
Hayek's "Road To Serfdom"
bill wolfe: I haven't read Hayek. I prefer Henry Hazlitt's "Economics on One Lesson."