#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
Today marks the passing of the 8 million views milestone for Arktoons. Thanks very much to everyone who has made this exceptional achievement possible!
CLASSIC BIBLE TALES Episode 66: Happenings in Capernaum
CHATEAU GRIEF Episode 123: Punchline ®
REBEL DEAD REVENGE Episode 36: The Widow’s Request
SAVAGE MEMES Episode 149: Mom
SPACEKRAKEN Episode 19: Diversity Fired
CHUCK DIXON PRESENTS: WAR Episode 59: Iron Mike McGraw Gyrene Raid
EVIL MONKEY MEMES Episode 43: Drive Safely
Martin Giddes on how the events of recent years have separated those who seek the truth from those we previously believed to have been friends and family:
The people who we thought were friends turned out to be merely acquaintances with a shared context and past. They didn’t understand who we really are in terms of our values, and neither did we see them clearly for who they are. The scamdemic in particular has resolved such misconceptions, as you cannot hide whether you are a colluder or resister. Those with whom we share a blood relationship may have notionally been family, but many have belatedly realised there was no true love there, and that duty was one-way.
We are having to build new families of choice, as our families of origin have abandoned our delight in life for an adulation of death. Once someone starts to suffocate and imprison children, indoctrinate them into premature and perverse sexualisation, and inject them with poisons, there is no going back to how we used to relate. Occam’s Mirror has shown the stark divide between those willing to engage in human sacrifice, and those who will resist it with all their might — and make sacrifices to do so.
To discover that your parents or siblings will maim and sterilise their own children for group approval is disturbing, but at least we now know. No matter how difficult things have been, there is no way I would want to go back to the world we had 5, 15, or 25 years ago. I have looked in the mirror, and seen both the beauty and ugliness in far starker terms than ever before. I am no longer confused by claims that prettiness is putrid or vice versa. The transvestigated false idols in the mass media look hollow and pathetic. In contrast, fluffy clouds and fruity bushes have become magical wonders of everyday living.
I have found who my true friends are, and it is those who will not compromise when it comes to harming children. Each of us faces personal strife, life setbacks, and the occasional sagging morale. There has been a toll extracted by this psychological warfare, social division, and barbaric genocide. Yet none of these loyal friends ever discusses with me whether we should switch from the narrow to the broad path. The protection of the young from predation is literally the issue we are willing to die for.
For me, the separation appears to be primarily between those who live by truth and those who live by fear. While I neither hate nor despise those who live by fear, I simply don’t have much to say to them anymore. What can you say to those who spend their days jumping at every narratival shadow while blithely ignoring the very real, and very substantial, threats to their families, their nations, their nominal faith, and the human race itself?
It’s rather like the IQ Communication Gap, only worse. And it doesn’t help that one cannot possibly hide one’s opinion of those literally sacrificing their children to their fears.
Not only is Krugman reliably wrong, now he’s perverting the very subject in which he is supposed to be an expert:
Economist and New York Times opinion writer Paul Krugman has been ruthlessly criticized after claiming the US was not in a recession and that the term ‘didn’t matter’ in a CNN interview Sunday. Krugman, 69, appeared on the network’s Reliable Sources talk show to discuss the state of the American economy, and was asked almost immediately by host Brian Stelter: ‘Are we in a recession and does the term matter?’
‘No we aren’t, and no it doesn’t,’ Krugman responded curtly. ‘None of the usual criteria that real experts use says we’re in a recession right now. And what does it matter? You know, the state of the economy is what it is.’
The response prompted a hail of criticism, particularly as it transpired late last week that US GDP shrank for the second quarter in a row – a popular marker of recession. A recession is defined as a ‘widespread and prolonged downturn in economic activity’, and was described in 2000 by former president Bill Clinton as ‘two quarters in a row of negative growth’.
At this point, I’m almost willing to believe that he’s just an actor, spouting off inane lines that have been written for him in support of the Narrative.
What criteria don’t indicate an economic contraction? The fact is that every economics metric has been so completely converged and redefined that they are no longer capable of providing any meaningful information whatsoever. For example, what use is an “employment rate” that eliminates people who aren’t working from the equation?
The Saker is the latest to discover that limiting comments becomes inevitable once a sufficient readership is obtained:
The problem is that this explosion in readership brought A LOT of new commentators who are not regular readers of the blog and whose comments were often quite disruptive of the normal mood of our comments section. So alongside plenty of very good commentators, many with true expertise, we good flooded with all sorts of very unhelpful types, including for example these:
GROUP A: the sincere (however misguided) ones
“Drive by commentators”: they leave one sentence, such as ” this author is an IDIOT”. No argument, nothing, just an insult.
“Preachers”: they have some agenda, say that nuclear weapons are an invention and do not exist. They will not even bother reading the article, they will just plug their slogans.
“Jew haters”: for these folks, Jew and only Jews, are responsible for all the bad things in creation, so all they can talk about is Jews, Jews, Jews and more Jews. These are the folks who will use that stupid trick of writing trick (((Raevsky))) around the name of anybody they suspect might be a Jew.
“Religious nutcases and assorted Bible-thumpers”: for them it is all about quoting Scripture ad nauseam no matter what the topic is. The worst of those are those who think that they know something about Christianity but, in reality, not only know close to nothing, but the little they know, they wholly misunderstand. They will bombard you with scriptural quotes to try to hide their own ignorance of the Scripture and its meanings.
“Brainwashed corporate media drones”: they will say that they read in, say, the so-called Institute for the Study of War, Foreign Policy or even CNN/FOX that the Russians are out of ammo, Putin has cancer, and the latest US Wunderwaffe will turn the tide and defeat Russia.
“Self-advertisers”: they just want to use the comments section to “plug” their website, book, ideology, etc.
“The offended ones”” these are the folks who are offended by something a guest author or myself have written and they are on a vendetta to get back to me/us.
“The entitled ones”: they believe that commenting on the Saker blog is a God given right, even if they don’t bother reading the moderation rules, and if their comment is not posted, they get seriously offended.
“Idiots”: these are folks who are too dull to realize their level of ignorance and incompetence. They think that they have the “right” to their opinion and they deliver their inanities with great gravitas and pomp. When their comments get intercepted, they go into rage.
“Sloganeers”. They are under the mistaken impression that a few disjointed sentences brough together in a paragraph amount to an argument. Typically, here is what they would write like this: “Putin is just a WEF puppet. The Russian army is getting hammered by HIMARS. Russia will soon run out of aircraft. So-and-so is a scumbag (and probably a Jew). The US F-22s and F-35 can quickly defeat the Russian forces.” 5 slogans, separated by period, no factoids, no substantiation, nothing but slogans. And BOY do they get offended if you tell them that they need to learn how to think before sharing their “gems of wisdom” with the rest of the planet.
There are many more, but I will stop here.GROUP B: the deliberate trolls
Technique one: they flood the comments with questions/statements which are aimed at pushing the discussion within the confines of the official narrative. For example, they will repeat mantrically that the Ukrainians have defeated Russian forces in this or that location.
Technique two: they wait for a new post, and then the pounce like a pack of wolves. The idea is that if under an article the 10 out of 12 comments are very negative, then the article probably deserves that. That is an old psychological trick (read up on the Asch conformity experiment for interesting details).GROUP C: computer generated trolls
These are trolls which don’t exist, they are just paid PSYOP operators supported by AI machines. One of the things which gives them away is that they never check if their comments are posted. We have had some of these which for YEARS post 3-10 comments PER DAY even though we banned them many years ago and none of their comments every get posted. Yet they still continue.
Fortunately, we have no need for comments anymore, because we have SocialGalactic.
People are beginning to figure out that economic sanctions do not work, but they still haven’t figured out why:
Western sanctions against Russia are the most ill-conceived and counterproductive policy in recent international history. Military aid to Ukraine is justified, but the economic war is ineffective against the regime in Moscow, and devastating for its unintended targets. World energy prices are rocketing, inflation is soaring, supply chains are chaotic and millions are being starved of gas, grain and fertiliser. Yet Vladimir Putin’s barbarity only escalates – as does his hold over his own people.
To criticise western sanctions is close to anathema. Defence analysts are dumb on the subject. Strategy thinktanks are silent. Britain’s putative leaders, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, compete in belligerent rhetoric, promising ever tougher sanctions without a word of purpose. Yet, hint at scepticism on the subject and you will be excoriated as “pro-Putin” and anti-Ukraine. Sanctions are the war cry of the west’s crusade.
The reality of sanctions on Russia is that they invite retaliation. Putin is free to freeze Europe this winter. He has slashed supply from major pipelines such as Nord Stream 1 by up to 80%. World oil prices have surged and eastern Europe’s flow of wheat and other foodstuffs to Africa and Asia has been all but suspended.
Britain’s domestic gas bills face tripling inside a year. The chief beneficiary is none other than Russia, whose energy exports to Asia have soared, driving its balance of payments into unprecedented surplus. The rouble is one of the world’s strongest currencies this year, having strengthened since January by nearly 50%. Moscow’s overseas assets have been frozen and its oligarchs have relocated their yachts, but there is no sign that Putin cares. He has no electorate to worry him.
The interdependence of the world’s economies, so long seen as an instrument of peace, has been made a weapon of war. Politicians around the Nato table have been wisely cautious about escalating military aid to Ukraine. They understand military deterrence. Yet they appear total ingenues on economics. Here they all parrot Dr Strangelove. They want to bomb Russia’s economy “back to the stone age”.
I would be intrigued to know if any paper was ever submitted to Boris Johnson’s cabinet forecasting the likely outcome for Britain of Russian sanctions. The assumption seems to be that if trade embargos hurt they are working. As they do not directly kill people, they are somehow an acceptable form of aggression. They are based on a neo-imperial assumption that western countries are entitled to order the world as they wish. They are enforced, if not through gunboats, then through capitalist muscle in a globalised economy. Since they are mostly imposed on small, weak states soon out of the headlines, their purpose has largely been of “feelgood” symbolism.
A rare student of this subject is the American economic historian Nicholas Mulder, who points out that more than 30 sanctions “wars” in the past 50 years have had minimal if not counterproductive impact. They are meant to “intimidate peoples into restraining their princes”. If anything they have had the opposite effect. From Cuba to Korea, Myanmar to Iran, Venezuela to Russia, autocratic regimes have been entrenched, elites strengthened and freedoms crushed. Sanctions seem to instil stability and self-reliance on even their weakest victim. Almost all the world’s oldest dictatorships have benefited from western sanctions.
Whenever one’s logic is proven faulty, the correct response is to question the assumptions that underlie the syllogism. In the case of the repeated failure of economic sanctions, the false assumption is the beneficial nature of free trade. Sanctions intrinsically assume that trade is necessarily good for a nation in any and all circumstances, and therefore imposing sanctions that reduce the amount of trade will weaken the targeted nation.
This is a provably false assumption, as evidenced by the way in which economic sanctions have made Russia wealthier and stronger relative to its former trading partners. Economic sanctions don’t work because free trade doesn’t work.
This conclusive evidence of the failure of free trade dogma should inspire more economists to be skeptical of the claims of the comparative advantagists, but unfortunately, the history of economics suggests that it probably won’t.
Yeah, no one thought it was herpes, Scott.
Now, before we start, let me call attention to this gigantic sore on my lip. I know, I know. You’re going to say: is that giant herpes? No, nope. I burned myself on soup. I twice microwaved the same soup – I microwaved it, it got cold, and I microwaved it again – I overmicrowaved it. And when I took a sip, I quickly spit it out because it was scalding, but there was a little piece of spinach that was part of the soup that wrapped around my lip and wouldn’t let go.
WAAAH-AHH-AHH
And so I didn’t realize how bad it was until it actually blistered. I know what people are going to say in the comments. It’s monkeypox, right? Go ahead, just say it, say it. It’s monkeypox. It was NOT monkeypox, it was from hot soup.
Now, in the interest of proper context, at the time I was eating the soup, I was also f—— a monkey. But I don’t think that has anything to do with this. It was probably the soup. And I’m not gay, but the monkey was. The monkey was very gay. And I don’t think that gives you any risk, because I’ve read that you both have to be gay. But I was not gay, I was just a man having sex with a monkey who happened to be male, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Forget the monkey and the possible monkeypox. I’d say we now have a pretty good idea why his wife left him. What woman can be expected to tolerate a man who still hasn’t figured out how to eat soup by the time he reaches the age of 50?
VEGFOLK FABLES Episode 117: Broken Silence
THE RED TATTOO Episode 16: Eat Her
BEN GARRISON CLASSICS Episode 54: Drain the Swamp
CHUCK DIXON PRESENTS: COMEDY Episode 58: Success is Ours
Spacebunny makes an observation:
Women and gamma males are the ultimate rationalizing creatures. Instead of attempting to improve themselves and make themselves more attractive, they double down on what makes them unpleasant and repellent, attempting to drag others down to their level. Nothing is ever their fault. As the saying goes, if no one likes and wants to be around you, it’s probably not everyone else with the problem….. Most will never learn and will die alone and bitter because of their choices.
(nods)
One of the most important lessons required for graduation to full adulthood is understanding and accepting the concept that other parties are autonomous. We see functional children – which is to say women and gammas, among others – repeatedly failing to grasp that they have zero control and very limited influence over the decisions and actions of other people.
Look at all the neocons, who thought they could a) expand NATO eastward and b) invade and occupy foreign countries without experiencing any negative consequences. Now the entire world that is not already occupied by the US military is stacked against them as a direct result of their foolish and short-sighted actions.
Look at the Europeans leaders, who stupidly thought they could sanction Russia without Russia refusing to sell their nations the fertilizer, food, natural gas, and oil that they require.
Excessive rationalization is what happens when people don’t get punched in the face enough to understand that for every human action, there will eventually be an opposing reaction. If you believe you are untouchable, for any reason, then you are still a functional child.
Wikipedia locks in the Fake Biden Administrations redefinition of “recession”:
Wikipedia changed the definition of recession on their website to fit the Biden administration’s redefined language. Wikipedia then locked the page preventing individuals from updating the website, which is a tool that Wikipedia has long provided. The White House changed the definition of “recession” last week ahead of the release of Thursday’s economic report, which showed that the US has had two consecutive quarters of declining GDP. This was the standard definition, but the White House declared that the definition should be tied more closely to unemployment numbers.
This obsession with appearances and word spells goes hand in hand with civilizational collapse, because reality doesn’t care what you call it. To concern oneself with the dynamic narrative is to fail to understand the very purpose of a label; the object exists regardless of what the label happens to be.
It’s not as if there was any there there in the first place. The 2001 recession has been redefined out of existence too, not by changing the definition, but by revising the numbers, thereby eliminating one of the previous quarters of declining GDP.
Ironically, the very term “recession” was created to replace the term “depression”, and for precisely the same reason that “recession” is now being redefined. It’s all about trying to maintain those animal spirits.
Ignore the Narrative. It can only mislead you.
Clearly all that is required in South Africa to avert horrific racial violence is for some Boomers to explain to South Africans that there is just one race, the human race:
A South African opposition figure has warned of impending civil unrest in the continent’s richest country and likened it to ‘an Arab Spring.’ The controversial opposition leader Julius Malema spoke of the country waking up one day with ‘very angry people that are not going to be reasonable.’
Discontent with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in South Africa is at all-time high levels due to the social conditions within the country and ‘the poor becoming poor,’ according to Malema.
‘When the unled revolution comes… the first target is going to be white people,’ Mr Malema told the BBC’s Hardtalk programme, adding that the uprising would also target ‘black elites.’
It’s fascinating to observe how, outside of the USA and Western Europe, absolutely no one believes one single word of all the racial equality nonsense that the subjects of the neoliberal world order take as the inerrant Word of Science. For example, in Latvia, people of Russian descent are not even allowed to become citizens.