Not so O/T, about aspects of the culture war, from Jen Dyer days ago, in “Rule by hate, lies, and death cults”:
< The world has never been in this place before. There have been breakdowns of order over large swaths of the earth, but never before without the safety valve of ill-traveled, unmapped hinterlands, conveniently separating ruling hatreds from each other, muffling the echo of *lies*….
One of the biggest, which many will think of as the first really big one they came to recognize, is the *enormous* lie, that Donald Trump was in some sort of vague, undefined “collusion” scheme with Russia about the 2016 election, a scheme that required years of “investigation.” Oddly, I was in a position to see through that lie almost immediately, and yet it took *me longer* than immediately, to recognize what the “investigation” was really intended for.
The information that told me the “collusion” allegation itself was a big lie was, Devin Nunes’s initial revelation about the electronic spying on Trump and his associates. Nunes announced what he had learned in March 2017, and it took only a brief period of cogitation for me to realize, that none of the allegations *could be* true. The Nunes statements meant, that the Obama administration had already spied out years’ worth of information about Trump and his connections – and yet had obviously found nothing….
When the common understanding is being ruled or forcibly overwritten by lies, it can be hard to remember what the actual lies are, as opposed to disputes of opinion. In the case of the 2020 election, the big lie is *not what* people probably think.
The big lie is the claim, that anyone has ever *genuinely investigated* the extensive evidence of irregularities, and demonstrated that they didn’t affect the electoral outcome.
That has never happened; it’s a lie to say it did…. >
< This pattern—male, grandiose, humiliated— is also evident in those who commit nonviolent acts of destruction against their game. From an early age Robert Hanssen dreamed of being a spy. He loved James Bond, and bought himself a Walther PPK pistol, a shortwave radio, and even opened a Swiss bank account.
But Hanssen’s father was abusive, belittling him and inflicting strange punishments.
“He forced him to sit with his legs spread in some fashion,” his *psychiatrist* reported. “He was forced to sit in that position, and it was humiliating.”
Such degradings also happened outside the home. Whenever his best friend’s mother encountered his father, there was “always something belittling about Bob.
No matter what Bob did, it wasn’t right. I’ve never seen a father like that. He would never have a kind word to say about his only child.” Even after Hanssen was grown and married, the degrading continued. When his parents came round for dinner, he’d be too frightened to come downstairs. “He would get sick to his stomach, and could not face his father at the table.
[His wife] *Bonnie* finally said, ‘If you are under this roof, if you cannot be respectful to Bob, then you are not welcome to come.’”
But Hanssen’s need for status was strong. He became an “ultra-religious, devout, zealous” member of the Catholic Church, a part of the elite group Opus Dei, that was the Pope’s personal prelature. He joined the FBI in 1976, where he hoped to live a life of statusful excitement as a counter intelligence operative, but was repeatedly *turned* down for such prestigious roles.
According to his biographer, he kept finding himself in back rooms, “watching from afar as others performed more exciting work.” Hanssen was seen as “very, very smart” with strong technical skills, but he came off as superior and difficult, carrying a “wry expression on his face. He just didn’t suffer fools gladly. Why should I have to reduce myself to this level?”
In 1979 Hanssen contacted the Soviet Union, and offered to spy for them. He wasn’t arrested until 2001, by which time he’d passed thousands of top secret documents to the KGB, and compromised many American assets, some of whom were executed. Hanssen is considered the most damaging spy in US history. Following his trial, his psychiatrist said, “If I had to pick one core psychological reason for his spying, I would target the experience he had in his relations with his father.” >
Excerpted from The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It by Will Storr
w/ *dozens* of categories (e.g. Manipulation of Language), and *hundreds* of links, incl. by/ about Bari Weiss, *Greenwald*, Joe Concha, *Carlson*…; and, https://www.resistance.org/links , w/ links to almost *2 dozen* Think Tanks/Research and Policy Institutes, Media and Ethics Watchdogs, etc.; leans libertarian.
Not so O/T, about aspects of the culture war, from Jen Dyer days ago, in “Rule by hate, lies, and death cults”:
< The world has never been in this place before. There have been breakdowns of order over large swaths of the earth, but never before without the safety valve of ill-traveled, unmapped hinterlands, conveniently separating ruling hatreds from each other, muffling the echo of *lies*….
One of the biggest, which many will think of as the first really big one they came to recognize, is the *enormous* lie, that Donald Trump was in some sort of vague, undefined “collusion” scheme with Russia about the 2016 election, a scheme that required years of “investigation.” Oddly, I was in a position to see through that lie almost immediately, and yet it took *me longer* than immediately, to recognize what the “investigation” was really intended for.
The information that told me the “collusion” allegation itself was a big lie was, Devin Nunes’s initial revelation about the electronic spying on Trump and his associates. Nunes announced what he had learned in March 2017, and it took only a brief period of cogitation for me to realize, that none of the allegations *could be* true. The Nunes statements meant, that the Obama administration had already spied out years’ worth of information about Trump and his connections – and yet had obviously found nothing….
When the common understanding is being ruled or forcibly overwritten by lies, it can be hard to remember what the actual lies are, as opposed to disputes of opinion. In the case of the 2020 election, the big lie is *not what* people probably think.
The big lie is the claim, that anyone has ever *genuinely investigated* the extensive evidence of irregularities, and demonstrated that they didn’t affect the electoral outcome.
That has never happened; it’s a lie to say it did…. >
Also O/T, but likely of great interest to our host, from
https://quillette.com/2021/09/13/male-grandiose-humiliated/ :
< This pattern—male, grandiose, humiliated— is also evident in those who commit nonviolent acts of destruction against their game. From an early age Robert Hanssen dreamed of being a spy. He loved James Bond, and bought himself a Walther PPK pistol, a shortwave radio, and even opened a Swiss bank account.
But Hanssen’s father was abusive, belittling him and inflicting strange punishments.
“He forced him to sit with his legs spread in some fashion,” his *psychiatrist* reported. “He was forced to sit in that position, and it was humiliating.”
Such degradings also happened outside the home. Whenever his best friend’s mother encountered his father, there was “always something belittling about Bob.
No matter what Bob did, it wasn’t right. I’ve never seen a father like that. He would never have a kind word to say about his only child.” Even after Hanssen was grown and married, the degrading continued. When his parents came round for dinner, he’d be too frightened to come downstairs. “He would get sick to his stomach, and could not face his father at the table.
[His wife] *Bonnie* finally said, ‘If you are under this roof, if you cannot be respectful to Bob, then you are not welcome to come.’”
But Hanssen’s need for status was strong. He became an “ultra-religious, devout, zealous” member of the Catholic Church, a part of the elite group Opus Dei, that was the Pope’s personal prelature. He joined the FBI in 1976, where he hoped to live a life of statusful excitement as a counter intelligence operative, but was repeatedly *turned* down for such prestigious roles.
According to his biographer, he kept finding himself in back rooms, “watching from afar as others performed more exciting work.” Hanssen was seen as “very, very smart” with strong technical skills, but he came off as superior and difficult, carrying a “wry expression on his face. He just didn’t suffer fools gladly. Why should I have to reduce myself to this level?”
In 1979 Hanssen contacted the Soviet Union, and offered to spy for them. He wasn’t arrested until 2001, by which time he’d passed thousands of top secret documents to the KGB, and compromised many American assets, some of whom were executed. Hanssen is considered the most damaging spy in US history. Following his trial, his psychiatrist said, “If I had to pick one core psychological reason for his spying, I would target the experience he had in his relations with his father.” >
Excerpted from The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It by Will Storr
The lunatics are running the asylum when AOC can wear a Tax The Rich dress to a $30,000 a plate fundraiser and they let her in.
Maybe not lunatics.
Maybe, (as Mark & Greenwald imply here) these wheels know, her message is lip service to the rubes, which has *no* chance of making any real diff.
One thing about Substack and email distribution, it tends to work against updates a bit. This post is, in fact, updated re Google.
Largely O/T, but important: an extensive page on propaganda etc., at
https://www.resistance.org/propaganda ,
w/ *dozens* of categories (e.g. Manipulation of Language), and *hundreds* of links, incl. by/ about Bari Weiss, *Greenwald*, Joe Concha, *Carlson*…; and, https://www.resistance.org/links , w/ links to almost *2 dozen* Think Tanks/Research and Policy Institutes, Media and Ethics Watchdogs, etc.; leans libertarian.