Over at IM-1776, there's a post on stepping back from more immediate media such as video, sound, and even photos, to provide some distance, to make it more difficult to be swayed by false rhetoric and propaganda. Not only has digital technology accelerated the dissemination of news events, it has allowed higher fidelity in their transmission, achieving a realism that was lacking in the twentieth century. For these reasons, modern news coverage has an unprecedented rhetorical power to shape the viewer’s world. But this power is now routinely abused. Corporate media entities aren’t satisfied to simply bring the…
All posts in philosophy
The Rittenhouse trial is over, as is the McMichaels trial, and we are now looking at the trial for the Daunte Wright shooting. While he'll never live a normal life, or likely work a normal job again, I'm glad Kyle was acquitted. I'm disappointed, but understand to a degree why, that he's giving interviews instead of taking time to get himself together. I also don't blame him in saying something along the lines that we can all agree on Black Lives Matter. He's young, and as I've pointed out before, the lie is effective and pervasive. The thing is, and…
I learned an importan lesson long ago in physics class. On the blackboard, the teacher drew a picture of an atom similar to the one below: He then asked if that was the correct model of the atom. We, being know-it-all college students, said no. So he drew up an orbital model we'd seen in discussing chemical reactions. Again- correct? Again - no. And so on. After a few different versions, he stopped, and said we were all wrong. He then explained why. None of the models on the board were truly atoms. They were maps, symbols, models. They were…
The behavior of the prosecution in Kyle Rittenhouse's case is nothing short of abominable. Ignoring the severe "eat my cake AND have it" fifth amendment issues in Kyle's cross examination that ended up with the judge yelling at binger, or repeated examples of Binger - the only major character on the court stage without a nickname - and his assistant being petty and malicious, there was also today's example of arguing to keep a charge in when they knew, flat out, according to the judge's instructions, that the charge was not viable. Apparently they were hoping the jury in their…
I am sure it's not the first time that I've covered this, but, a reminder. It has become the habit of criminals in LA to spot a likely looking target, and follow them "home" to rob them. The police recommend you do not resist, that you simply stand by and be a good victim, er, "witness", and then call the police. It may be a pragmatic solution, but I fundamentally disagree. Even leaving aside the whole "defund the police" movement, and the attitude that the criminals can be excused by many on the left. One: everything that one has, in…
I've spent some time pointing out that the left hates boundaries. Recently, Brian Niemeier wrote on "locus of control", and how control freaks have an external one. If you’ve read a self-help book, been to therapy, or attended a motivational seminar, you may be familiar with the locus of control concept. Someone with an internal locus of control is self-directed, whereas someone with an external locus of control sees himself as being at the mercy of outside forces. Folks with external loci of control are perpetually tossed hither and yon by the whims of their peer group, corporations and…
There's an old story, apparently american indian, about everyone having two wolves inside them, one good, one evil, and the one that wins is the one you feed. It makes a good point. I've said before that the boundary between sin and normal human emotions and living is excess. letting it control you vs you managing it. Take wrath vs anger, or gluttony vs hunger. These become problems when you are obsessing over behavior, addictive or otherwise, to the point where it takes over your life instead of being a facet of it. As I've recently mentioned when mentioning Alexandru's…
My friend over at the Dacian wrote a piece recently that I believe is worthy of consideration. Namely - about how ragebait and clickbait were a slow and chronic Daily Dose of Poison. The sick part is that we love it. We are addicted to the hate served by the Technodemons. Did you see what the vice president did? Tweet, Retweet, Like, Comment. Snow White is now a Zulu Princess! Tweet, Anger, Like, Comment. Grilling is patriarchal white supremacy, eat bugs instead says Anti-Viral Magazine! Tweet, Hate, Like Comment. We see the latest nonsense engineered to upset us and we…