How are you so sure you're not part of the lying? There's witting lying and unwitting lying. Even those who point out it's all lies lie to themselves and others be it witting or unwitting. The CIA for example, or the FSB for that matter or any intelligence service, realizes it's all lies and they accept it and choose to live in that reality and perpetuate it. They know it's all lies and they embrace it and wittingly contribute to the lying. Even if our reality as such is not a simulation set in motion by some force outside the simulation, it certainly is a simulation by forces within the simulation.
None of us is "sure." Simply because we're all liars caught in our own heads of fuzzy wonder. We're all swimmers stroking hard to keep from going under. We're all winners, wishing that we held a lucky number. Having a human brain within a socioeconomic system that actively separates us from the rest of the biosphere almost guarantees the possibility of self-delusion. I'm no surer than you are, despite observing this insanity for too many years. Anyone who claims they're sure is probably an unreliable source.
OMG. I hope you don't mind if I quote you. Please let me know. I ask permission to include your quote in the book I'm writing about the very thing Caitlin has so eloquently covered herein. Please.
Yeah, I struggle with the ol' Blame and Shame Game, too.
Your comment is excellent and spot on. Here's a small piece of the book I have in process. I have hundreds of pages to edit and coalesce:
Two clusters of easily found data strongly suggest that we’ve been witnessing our revolution occurring IRL for some time now and—because we’re living in exponential times—our myriad individual responses to what’s coming largely have gone unnoticed by the corporate fascists who own virtually the entire planet, since they hold the vast Hoi Polloi in complete contempt.
The first cluster has to do with our species’ pernicious religiosity, a stultifying patriarchal relic thousands of years old. (Note that this is not about our species’ spirituality, which has long been coopted by the wealthy.) Pew surveys in 2018 and 2019 reveal that the percentage of US adults who now describe themselves as Christian is 65%, down from 77% in a 2009 survey. The percentage of US adults who report their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” is now 26%, up from 17% in 2009. And the percentage of those who identify as Christians who attend church services at least once a week has declined steadily to 27% in 2020. This tells me that peeps are reclaiming their critical thinking skills and their spirituality, since religiosity and poisonous pedagogy are feedback loops that have worked for millennia and overcoming them takes a great deal of effort.
The second cluster has to do with the current crop of neoliberal sycophants infesting our government, war criminals to a one. As of this July 4th, Congress has a 16% approval rating, Biden has a 39% approval rating and Harris has a 40% approval rating. The majority of us stand in opposition to the corruption we are enduring. When you look at the numbers of followers of the more successful social media activists—Jimmy Dore in the US and Russell Brand in the UK—it is clear that millions of us are reclaiming our critical thinking skills and engaging in social media activism, independent journalism, and lifestyle changes that increase our ability to survive the neoliberal dystopia we're enduring. More of us are using the internet to self-educate, network, and generate income.
This is our quiet rebellion, using our critical thinking skills and our resourcefulness to strategize and increase the likelihood we will survive what is looming on the horizon. Meanwhile, the truth tellers continue to tell truths, millions of us are listening (Russell Brand has almost six million followers and Jimmy Dore has just over a million), and no one knows when the spark will flare that will light the tinder we’ve become.
How the heck did you come up with that? She just cited them as examples ... there is no indication by what she wrote that they are somehow ‘the chosen’. I detect arrogance on your part with the get real comment you made.
Wow. Triggered much? I have a list of fallacious arguments that would help you avoid making insupportable and derisive posts like these: don- lindsay-archive. org/skeptic /arguments.html (*remove spaces).
In this era of instant access to terabytes of data, you have ample opportunities to confirm the existence of the data I’ve shared. I can confirm that data, as I'm using it in the book I'm writing.
Like the rest of us, your world view has been shaped by relentless corporate propaganda (since the post-WWII corporates brought Bernays over the pond) and a coopted system of public education, designed to stunt our critical thinking skills and inflict upon us a visceral aversion to all things academic. Is it any wonder anti-intellectualism courses through our nation's zeitgeist like a dank sewer?
I’m writing about this psychic wound on a macro level, because we're all survivors. It's incumbent upon each of us to determine how our critical thinking skills have been compromised, and to seek the knowledge we need to survive what's coming.
Your snarky comment tells peeps a lot about you and nothing about me. While you have every right to disagree with me, showing your ass with such commentary is verbal bullying. As I’m in the Crone stage of my life, I no longer mince words when addressing such toxicity. Ergo:
You know what gets me about peeps like you? Peeps like you generally bust down the front door of a post to condescendingly display a self-proclaimed yet nonexistent intellectual prowess about any and all subjects, particularly the subject of the post. Typically, this is in the form of an insupportable, trollish comment, like the one you just offered up.
Typically, peeps like you will then engage in a sophomoric opera of baseless defenses and justifications. This hasn’t happened here yet, but it is so predictable. And trollish behavior like this is so tiresome and unproductive.
When peeps like you get input that invalidates your contentions or highlights your condescension, the ad hominem attacks begin. This hasn’t happened here yet, but let’s just watch this page…
I would think people who "knew it was all lies" would manifest less confidence about their beliefs and their ability to deal with the world. They would exhibit what the majority would almost certainly deem paranoia. Doublethink is a useful tool but when it runs into hard physical fact it usually has to be abandoned, at least temporarily. Yet when I look around I see people -- grownups -- who believe in all kinds of fanciful things, like the content of the _New York Times_.
How are you so sure you're not part of the lying? There's witting lying and unwitting lying. Even those who point out it's all lies lie to themselves and others be it witting or unwitting. The CIA for example, or the FSB for that matter or any intelligence service, realizes it's all lies and they accept it and choose to live in that reality and perpetuate it. They know it's all lies and they embrace it and wittingly contribute to the lying. Even if our reality as such is not a simulation set in motion by some force outside the simulation, it certainly is a simulation by forces within the simulation.
None of us is "sure." Simply because we're all liars caught in our own heads of fuzzy wonder. We're all swimmers stroking hard to keep from going under. We're all winners, wishing that we held a lucky number. Having a human brain within a socioeconomic system that actively separates us from the rest of the biosphere almost guarantees the possibility of self-delusion. I'm no surer than you are, despite observing this insanity for too many years. Anyone who claims they're sure is probably an unreliable source.
Agreed. Nicely put.
OMG. I hope you don't mind if I quote you. Please let me know. I ask permission to include your quote in the book I'm writing about the very thing Caitlin has so eloquently covered herein. Please.
Quote away. I'd be flattered except that I try to stay away from that type of self-adulation because it's liable to lead to self-delusion.
Yeah, I struggle with the ol' Blame and Shame Game, too.
Your comment is excellent and spot on. Here's a small piece of the book I have in process. I have hundreds of pages to edit and coalesce:
Two clusters of easily found data strongly suggest that we’ve been witnessing our revolution occurring IRL for some time now and—because we’re living in exponential times—our myriad individual responses to what’s coming largely have gone unnoticed by the corporate fascists who own virtually the entire planet, since they hold the vast Hoi Polloi in complete contempt.
The first cluster has to do with our species’ pernicious religiosity, a stultifying patriarchal relic thousands of years old. (Note that this is not about our species’ spirituality, which has long been coopted by the wealthy.) Pew surveys in 2018 and 2019 reveal that the percentage of US adults who now describe themselves as Christian is 65%, down from 77% in a 2009 survey. The percentage of US adults who report their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” is now 26%, up from 17% in 2009. And the percentage of those who identify as Christians who attend church services at least once a week has declined steadily to 27% in 2020. This tells me that peeps are reclaiming their critical thinking skills and their spirituality, since religiosity and poisonous pedagogy are feedback loops that have worked for millennia and overcoming them takes a great deal of effort.
The second cluster has to do with the current crop of neoliberal sycophants infesting our government, war criminals to a one. As of this July 4th, Congress has a 16% approval rating, Biden has a 39% approval rating and Harris has a 40% approval rating. The majority of us stand in opposition to the corruption we are enduring. When you look at the numbers of followers of the more successful social media activists—Jimmy Dore in the US and Russell Brand in the UK—it is clear that millions of us are reclaiming our critical thinking skills and engaging in social media activism, independent journalism, and lifestyle changes that increase our ability to survive the neoliberal dystopia we're enduring. More of us are using the internet to self-educate, network, and generate income.
This is our quiet rebellion, using our critical thinking skills and our resourcefulness to strategize and increase the likelihood we will survive what is looming on the horizon. Meanwhile, the truth tellers continue to tell truths, millions of us are listening (Russell Brand has almost six million followers and Jimmy Dore has just over a million), and no one knows when the spark will flare that will light the tinder we’ve become.
#ExtinctionRebellion
Too funny. Jimmy Dore and Russell Brand are going to lead us to the promised land as will Putin too no doubt and maybe also Xi. Get real.
How the heck did you come up with that? She just cited them as examples ... there is no indication by what she wrote that they are somehow ‘the chosen’. I detect arrogance on your part with the get real comment you made.
Wow. Triggered much? I have a list of fallacious arguments that would help you avoid making insupportable and derisive posts like these: don- lindsay-archive. org/skeptic /arguments.html (*remove spaces).
In this era of instant access to terabytes of data, you have ample opportunities to confirm the existence of the data I’ve shared. I can confirm that data, as I'm using it in the book I'm writing.
Like the rest of us, your world view has been shaped by relentless corporate propaganda (since the post-WWII corporates brought Bernays over the pond) and a coopted system of public education, designed to stunt our critical thinking skills and inflict upon us a visceral aversion to all things academic. Is it any wonder anti-intellectualism courses through our nation's zeitgeist like a dank sewer?
I’m writing about this psychic wound on a macro level, because we're all survivors. It's incumbent upon each of us to determine how our critical thinking skills have been compromised, and to seek the knowledge we need to survive what's coming.
Your snarky comment tells peeps a lot about you and nothing about me. While you have every right to disagree with me, showing your ass with such commentary is verbal bullying. As I’m in the Crone stage of my life, I no longer mince words when addressing such toxicity. Ergo:
You know what gets me about peeps like you? Peeps like you generally bust down the front door of a post to condescendingly display a self-proclaimed yet nonexistent intellectual prowess about any and all subjects, particularly the subject of the post. Typically, this is in the form of an insupportable, trollish comment, like the one you just offered up.
Typically, peeps like you will then engage in a sophomoric opera of baseless defenses and justifications. This hasn’t happened here yet, but it is so predictable. And trollish behavior like this is so tiresome and unproductive.
When peeps like you get input that invalidates your contentions or highlights your condescension, the ad hominem attacks begin. This hasn’t happened here yet, but let’s just watch this page…
Is that a Ukraine emblem, CXK? Are you all in for Ukraine? 🤣🤣🤣
I would think people who "knew it was all lies" would manifest less confidence about their beliefs and their ability to deal with the world. They would exhibit what the majority would almost certainly deem paranoia. Doublethink is a useful tool but when it runs into hard physical fact it usually has to be abandoned, at least temporarily. Yet when I look around I see people -- grownups -- who believe in all kinds of fanciful things, like the content of the _New York Times_.
The NYT has some truth in it, but truth to what end? That's the catch.
The NYT is propaganda. Propaganda often contains a salting of truth to improve its flavor. Same as pore ole Soviet Pravda, so ironically named.