Tag: society

“The secret of the elites is that they’re not all that smart so they need the deck stacked to continue the illusion that they are elite at all.”

– Rob Peffer

He’s absolutely right. That’s why the fake elite devotes 100 percent of their collective effort to trying to maintain the illusion and keep the deck stacked. It’s also why nationalism and populism terrify them. They know their power and influence could be broken literally overnight by a sufficiently angry populace.

This is no longer about ideology. All the idearrhea about “liberal” and “conservative” and “communism” and “objectivism” is a veil to obscure the realities of the stacked deck. It’s about lawless rule by a small, mostly foreign and self-appointed fake elite. They all have imposter syndrome because they are all imposters.

Differences in intelligence matter. For members of the cognitive elite to maintain otherwise is like the rich arguing that money does not matter. Differences in g affect the lives of individuals and families. They help shape the social order and limit our ability to reshape it (Gottfredson, 1985, 1986b; Gottfredson & Sharf, 1988).

Much social policy has long been based on the false presumption that there exist no stubborn or consequential differences in mental capability. Worse than merely fruitless, such policy has produced one predictable failure and side effect after another, breeding widespread cynicism and recrimination. Educators routinely overpromise and schools, accordingly, consistently disappoint. Welfare reformers do not take seriously the possibility that today’s labor market cannot or will not utilize all low-IQ individuals, no matter how motivated they may be. Civil rights advocates resolutely ignore the possibility that a distressingly high proportion of poor Black youth may be more disadvantaged today by low IQ than by racial discrimination, and thus that they will realize few if any benefits (unlike their more able brethren) from ever-more aggressive affirmative action. Virtually everyone is capable of living productive, fulfilling lives in which they contribute to the general welfare of their communities. However, protecting and enhancing that potential requires us to appreciate its greater vulnerability to disruption among lower IQ individuals.

From a study entitled “Why g Matters: The Complexity of Everyday Life” by Linda Gottfredson. There are essentially three factors that determine what a society will be like. The first is average IQ. The second is the level of trust. And the third is religion.

Note that two of those factors are genetic and heritable.

As one of Melania’s “friends” writes a book about her private conversations, Anonymous Conservative explains how all of these problematic people just happen to have people in their lives who not only have no personal loyalty to them, but just happen to have been making recordings of their conversations from the start:

Once you are isolated, then they can send in their people, briefed on your likes and dislikes, and arrange a chance meeting. Knowing just how to click with you, suddenly you have a friend. And once that friend is there, they can bring in others. And if they want you on tape saying something specific, look at how they can arrange circumstances….

Not everyone will get that treatment, but if you intend to succeed and begin to succeed at your intention, It is going to happen to you. Just look at how many people around Trump were recording covertly, that we have heard about. There was his fucking lawyer of all people, Cohen, the niece with the book, Omarosa, the Access Hollywood crew, this one, almost Rosenstein, the FBI, the CIA, and probably multiple agents from them. And I’ll bet there were three of four for every one of those, at least, who never managed to get anything useful and you haven’t heard about them. It is not a coincidence all of these people and more were running tape on Trump and his family. That is what it is like to be the target of Cabal’s intelligence operations. If you aspire to exert influence, understand it is not unlikely that your “friends” were sent in to work against you. If fact, it is probably more than likely.

This is why it is vital to speak exactly the same truth in your personal life that you do in your public one. It is also why you should never, ever, let your guard down when speaking with anyone, no matter how strongly they’ve backed you or how enthusiastically they’ve supported you. Especially these days of the Panaudiocon, when even the televisions and computers, to say nothing of Alexa and Siri, are actively listening to everyone, it is simply necessary to discipline your tongue in all circumstances.

In East Germany, 620,000 people worked undercover for the secret state police. That’s 3.8 percent of the population; the US equivalent is 12.3 million. Now ask yourself this question: what are the chances that none of those social surveillance agents are paying any attention to a confirmed dissident and thought criminal like you?

Keep your old friends. And keep a polite, but firm, distance from everyone else, especially those who want to become your new best friend.

Nothing destroys the fantastical imaginings of Marxist economics more completely than the observation of the disappearance of work:

A common topic around the web is whether automation will drastically increase unemployment. The usual scholarly answer is only a bit, and conservatives often insist that new jobs will always be found. Actually, automation has already created much joblessness. It continues to do so. We don’t notice because we have disguised the unemployment.

Consider. In 1850, everybody worked. In England, children notoriously were sweated in mines and factories and, in America, worked on their parents’ farms.

Then child labor laws took kids off the labor market, keeping them from competing with adults. Compulsory high school removed adolescents perfectly capable of doing many jobs of adults. College now keeps millions more in, usually, economically pointless idleness. We have over three million people in prisons. Large numbers live on welfare. The government factors none of these into the unemployment stats. If it did, the unemployment numbers would rise sharply.

Then there is makework. A great many governmental workers do little or nothing of use. This amounts to paid unemployment. Sometimes this unemployment is distributed: A hundred workers do useful work that thirty could do. Then there is the military. It produces nothing and, since the US has no military enemies, amounts to more paid unemployment. The arms industry uses more multitudes in building things of no use, such as ever more intercontinental nuclear bombers. For engineers, this is marginally more dignified than digging holes and filling them in. It is as much a jobs program as the Depression-era CCC.

Another phenomenon we see is the disimportantification (patent applied for) of work. In 1850, work done was genuinely important: growing food, without which we tend to be dead and not of much use in an economy. Then the farms automated and everybody went to work in factories, making cars and refrigerators. These were pretty important, but not as important as food. You can’t eat a refrigerator. Then the factories automated or went away and people became massage therapists, nail salon operators, psychologists, sociologists, consultants, or diversity counselors. Others ran massage parlors, restaurants, gymnasiums, or cutesy-wootsy boutiques selling unbearable kitsch. They were employed, but in occupations of ever-increasing triviality. We have gone from feeding people to rubbing their backs.

You know it’s getting out of hand when even the world’s oldest profession is being automated.

I can’t say that I would honestly mind having a badge that would forbid anyone to talk to me in real life:

Transgender conference organisers have given academics traffic light ‘safe space’ badges to show whether they can cope with a conversation.

Scholars attending the Thinking Beyond: Transversal Transfeminisms event at Roehampton University in southwest London were given green, amber and red lanyards to signal if they could talk.

A green badge meant ‘I wish to speak with other delegates and welcome you to approach’, yellow was for ‘I will approach you if I wish to speak’ and red meant ‘I do not wish to speak with other delegates.’

The guests were able to switch between the colours if they chose during the day, according to the Sunday Times.

Women, of course, will require a pink badge, which means “I do not wish for you to speak with me unless I find you attractive.”

This declining acceptance of social and sexual deviance is not surprising. The pendulum always swings back eventually.

A new study suggests that young Americans are becoming less comfortable around LGBTQ people. The data indicates either an uptick in bigotry or a blowback against “extremism” in the gay community – depending on whom you ask. The number of Americans in the 18-to-34 bracket who are comfortable interacting with LGBTQ people fell from 53{9ac076056c033cb7ea9c419f2d9e88bca336d6b835d3285ead4a08b0d3f45a8d} in 2017 to 45{9ac076056c033cb7ea9c419f2d9e88bca336d6b835d3285ead4a08b0d3f45a8d} in 2018, according to the annual Accelerating Acceptance report. That figure is down from 63{9ac076056c033cb7ea9c419f2d9e88bca336d6b835d3285ead4a08b0d3f45a8d} in 2016.

The findings raise serious questions about the common conception that young people are more progressive and tolerant than older generations, John Gerzema, CEO of The Harris Poll, which conducted the study on behalf of LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, said.

By the time the next round of wars end, deviancy will be illegal and quite possibly even a capital offense in many jurisdictions. This is not the first time in history that deviancy has been legal and widely accepted. It won’t be the last. But it’s clear that what for lack of a better term one might as well call Peak Gay has already passed.

In the meantime, the converged continue to celebrate deviancy. Nothing spells commitment to success like driving away your customers. After all, what is the central purpose of a bank, if not to actively support deviant behavior?

Barclays tweeted to unhappy customers: ‘While homophobia, biphobia and transphobia still exists in the UK, we’ll continue to actively support Pride.

And listen to GenX, not the idiot Boomers. You’ll be glad you did:

Kirstie Allsopp has slammed young couples who wait until their thirties to have children.

The Location, Location, Location presenter, 47, took to Twitter on Wednesday to urge women in their twenties not to wait until they ‘have more money or feel ready’, and to save their money for ‘proper childcare’, instead of splashing on lavish weddings and expensive houses.

Expressing her frustration at millennials who tell her they want ‘a few more years of fun’, she argued that ‘nothing will ever be more fun than children’.

Kirstie also revealed her regret at waiting until she was 35 and 37 to have her sons Bay, 11, and Oscar, nine, admitting that she was ‘too old’ to have a third, and had only waited until her thirties to start a family as she hadn’t met the right man.

However her impassioned Twitter thread sparked a heated debate, with many followers warning her that her message was putting unnecessary pressure on young couples, and could panic women into starting families…. Slamming the TV presenter’s message, one follower wrote: ‘Stop telling women in their late 20s they’re running out of time to have kids. It’s so damaging.’ Another argued that millennials should be allowed to live their lives to the full while they were still commitment-free, so they wouldn’t feel they missed out later.

The problem is that no one feels they’ve missed out more than a woman who focuses on having fun during her fertile years only to discover that she missed out on motherhood. Don’t wait. You won’t regret it.

As it is written, every organization that becomes converged loses its ability to perform its primary function. Mastercard is in the process of doing so:

Every time someone in the trans or nonbinary community has to whip out their credit card to rent a car or buy dinner, they may be required to prove a credit card that misidentifies them is actually theirs. That can mean a string of uncomfortable, personal questions that may feel like harassment masquerading as security concerns, and it can make going about daily life not only emotionally draining, but downright dangerous.

According to one survey, nearly one-third (32{f33784e39f95a4a537f95eb029d837fe676a3542b2380ed2d704b841b03a8c5e}) of individuals who have shown IDs with a name or gender that did not match their presentation found themselves being harassed, denied services, and/or attacked. That is a lot to deal with when you’re just trying to buy groceries, see a movie, get your hair done, or just exist in the world.

Now Mastercard is taking one step toward making life a little easier for people in this situation. The company just announced the True Name card, which will allow people to use their true names, not deadnames, on cards without the requirement of a legal name change. The True Name card will make lives easier and safer.

One of the primary functions of a credit card is to correctly identify the person to whom credit is being provided. Now imagine the myriad of ways this new security hole is going to be exploited by thieves and credit card scammers.

Clerk to tall bearded man: “Why does your credit card say Penelope Chao?”

Penelope: “That’s my True Name.”

Clerk: “You didn’t steal this card from that little Asian woman whose purse was snatched in front of the store yesterday?”

Penelope: “Of course not! Can’t you tell I identify as a woman?”

Clerk: “My apologies, Ms Chao. No offense intended.”

Penelope: “None taken. Hey, gimme three packs of Marlboro Reds too.”

Alabama leads the charge against Roe v. Wade:

After several hours of contentious debate, the Alabama Senate on Tuesday night voted 25-6 to pass what many say will be the strictest abortion ban in the nation. The bill makes abortion a felony in Alabama. A similar measure already passed the Republican-controlled House but controversy erupted last week in the Senate after an attempt to add amendments that would allow exceptions for victims of rape or incest. Another attempt to add rape and incest exceptions on Tuesday also failed and led to a filibuster attempt. Proponents of the measure pushed for a “clean bill” without amendments in order to clear the way to a legal fight in the U.S. Supreme Court and a review of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion. The bill now goes to Gov. Kay Ivey, who will decide whether to sign it into law. 

Roll Tide.

UPDATE: It just keeps getting better:

If it’s signed off, the new law will make it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy – punishable by up to 99 years in jail.

They should probably make it a felony for ANYONE to perform an abortion at any stage, with a similar penalty attached.

Jordan Peterson’s me-first philosophy is NOT helping you or the society in which you live:

I feel like a ghost. I’m a 35-year-old woman, and I have nothing to show for it. My 20s and early 30s have been a twisting crisscross of moves all over the West Coast, a couple of brief stints abroad, multiple jobs in a mediocre role with no real upward track. I was also the poster child for serial monogamy. My most hopeful and longest lasting relationship (three and a half years, whoopee) ended two years ago. We moved to a new town (my fourth new city), created a home together, and then nose-dived into a traumatic breakup that launched me to my fifth and current city and who-knows-what-number job.

For all these years of quick changes and rash decisions, which I once rationalized as adventurous, exploratory, and living an “original life,” I have nothing to show for it. I have no wealth, and I’m now saddled with enough debt from all of my moves, poor decisions, and lack of career drive that I may never be able to retire. I have no career milestones and don’t care for my line of work all that much anyway, but now it’s my lifeline, as I only have enough savings to buy a hotel room for two nights. I have no family nearby, no long-term relationship built on years of mutual growth and shared experiences, no children. While I make friends easily, I’ve left most of my friends behind in each city I’ve moved from while they’ve continued to grow deep roots: marriages, homeownership, career growth, community, families, children. I have a few close girlfriends, for which I am grateful, but life keeps getting busier and our conversations are now months apart. Most of my nights are spent alone with my cat (cue the cliché).

I used to consider myself creative — a good writer, poetic, passionate, curious. Now, after many years of demanding yet uninspiring jobs, multiple heartbreaks, move after move, financial woes, I’m quite frankly exhausted. I can barely remember to buy dish soap let alone contemplate humanity or be inspired by Anaïs Nin’s diaries. Honestly, I find artists offensive because I’m jealous and don’t understand how I landed this far away from myself…. I used to think I was the one who had it all figured out. Adventurous life in the city! Traveling the world! Making memories! Now I feel incredibly hollow. And foolish. How can I make a future for myself that I can get excited about out of these wasted years?  What reserves or identity can I draw from when I feel like I’ve accrued nothing up to this point with my life choices?

Man is not a solitary creature. He thrives best when surrounded by his own herd, his own pack, his own kind. This is not “collectivism” or “statism”, and group identity is not “pathological”, it is, to the contrary, the epitome of healthy and normal humanity.

Putting individualism first and foremost is a good way to end up broke, friendless, and feeling that you’ve wasted your life.