Decoding The Left

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

Decoding the left is easy. Like all cultists, their internal life is simple to the point of boring.

Yesterday a friend asked why in hell were pipelines bad, when trains and trucks transporting oil is much worse for the environment, both in the burning of fossil fuel for the transportation and the possibility of leaks, disasters, etc.

But that’s kind of silly. That’s taking the left at its own word. They might say they’re doing things becaus they care, or for the environment or whatever, but they don’t.

Just like they don’t care about the poor or the downtrodden or–

Look, in their minds, they do care about these things, okay. Or at least it’s how they disguise their true feelings and beliefs from themselves.

It’s just that when push comes to shove, they don’t care about the real environment, but the environment in their heads. Just like they don’t care about the real working class, but the working class that thinks correct thoughts and quotes Marx. I.e. the working class in their heads. And they certainly don’t care about female Latin immigrants who don’t like Marxism, because those aren’t real female Latin immigrants. I have it on good authority that those are actually white Mormon males (with or without a great rack.)

They care passionately about these concepts in their heads. And if people only behaved correctly, the left would care about them too.

But the problem is people don’t. They never do. People, in their actual real-world manifestation are messy and unruly and disobedient. They don’t believe the high faluting concepts you want them to believe, the working class refuses to be noble and non-materialistic, other races don’t act like the perfect victims you want them to be, and no one, no one recognizes your superior wisdom.

So while spouting care for many things, and hiding behind a barrage of abstract concepts and fashionable words, the left really has three rules:

1- Favor whatever hurts the US. (You know the US intimately. And they refuse to recognize your brilliance, damn them. Also, you’ve been told every other country is so much better. And it must be, because you’re so smart, good countries would recognize your brilliance.

2- Favor whatever hurts the Western world. (Sure, France is so sophisticated, and you heard Britain was so much cooler than the US, and all that, but hey, they are capitalists, and white, and white people “literally” invented slavery and capitalism to oppress the rest of the world. Particularly YOU since capitalism doesn’t recognize your brilliance and people refuse to pay you the pots of money that y ou deserve by just existing with all your brilliance.)

3- Favor whatever hurts humanity, even if to do it you must hurt other parts of the environment as well.
(You know humanity is shitty, because it refuses to recognize your brilliance. I mean, you understood Marxism at a go, because you’re so smart and sensitive. And you’d think that people would reward you for being so smart and sensitive. But humans don’t, because they are so shitty. Look at all of them living happy lives while ignoring you and your sensitivity and intelligence and suffering. Obviously they don’t need to exist. Only smart and sensitive people like you should exist, and not reproduce, so you don’t risk bringing less magnificent humans into the world. And then when you die, the world should be left pristine, as if humanity never existed. Because humanity didn’t deserve to exist.)

If you’re imagining this said in the voice of a wounded and half-crazy teen, bingo.
The left might be composed mostly of older people at this point, but at its heart is a generation that was hurt and neglected, and not paid much attention to by their parents, and which perpetuated its errors. “The neglected children of World War II” as Heinlein called them, grew up to have neglected children who grew up to have neglected children.
Look, I know it’s not a choice, but kindergarten teaches lessons, and they’re not good ones. And nations that let their children be raised by strangers reap what they’ve earned.

At the heart of Marxism is pride, envy and all unkindness. Marxism enshrines envy and resentment as their cardinal virtues.

Given their head — they never will be, because these people would never hold control. They are fourth generation, and no longer even know where food comes from. Their obsession with eating bugs, besides because they like making people do repulsive things, is because they honest to bog believe the Earth isn’t producing enough food because “too many people.” They have the logical-thinking ability of gnats. And my apologies to gnats, some of whom might be brighter — they would exterminate first the US then the West, then humanity, and if they still could, then mammals, then warm blooded animals, all the way down, till nothing even vaguely related to humans existed.

It’s almost as though raising kids in the self-esteem belief they’re special, the world owes them, and being jealous and envious means they’re “socially aware” and “social justice warriors” is a bad thing, isn’t it?

Leftists want to extinguish everything they can’t control and given the brain power of mentally damaged gnats, that’s everything, including themselves.

Therefore, the end goal of socialism is like the end goal of some goddling in Babylon (I’m too lazy to go to the bookshelf five feet away and look the name up in the book. Deal) who extinguished all life on Earth because it was too noisy.

Teach your children well.

Don’t let them become socialists.

280 thoughts on “Decoding The Left”

  1. How dare they think that they are the Smartest People around.

    I’m the Smartest Person On Earth (and I know how many idiot things I’ve done). [Very Big Grin]

      1. I can’t believe that you are calling Dragons Non-Persons.

        Next you’ll be calling Ox a Non-Person. [Very Big Crazy Grin]

        1. Ox, dragons & more non persons; if I grabbed a couple shots of Irish before the sun’s above the yardarm, I suspect I could find an oxymoron joke or 3 therein.

          1. Póg mo thoin, seanathair.

            I am completely a person. I’m just not human. Or consistently sober. I also don’t want you drinking anything of me, cuz that’s just bloody fecking quare. But in the immortal words of Jack Black, “I see you like to chew. Perhaps you’d like to chew … on me fists!”

            1. Póg mo thoin? Not that I would but would I, after a look at you I wouldn’t know where to start.

              If you want to stop by with two or three fifths of Jamesons we can discuss it.

              Oh, by the way, you might want to bring one more for your wee self.

              Does remind me of a St. Paddy’s Day party at the Big I (Jack Sexton’s International Bar, Fairbanks, Alaska).

              I said to my buddy: “Hey see that guy over there at the bar”, a rather large gentleman from County Cork that came by to make a few dollars helping stretch a piece of pipe from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, “go over and tell him póg mo thoin.”

              My buddy, of course asked, “What does that mean?”

              I of course, replied, “Why that means to your health and Ireland forever!”

              Dang that was a fun party!

        2. You’re a USAIAN, that covers all person and non-person entities of the correct beliefs in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

          1. True, but a shark that bites me quickly becomes a dead person. 😈

              1. You never want to kill the fish because you want them to keep coming back to the table.

      2. Remind me to look up and pay attention the next time Paul says “Gosh, sorry, I wasn’t feeling myself today…”

  2. … some godling in Babylon who extinguished all life on Earth because it was too noisy.

    Yeah, I remember something like that … search … search … ah, here it is in Wikipedia, “Enlil”:

    In the later Akkadian version of the flood story, recorded in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enlil actually causes the flood, seeking to annihilate every living thing on earth because the humans, who are vastly overpopulated, make too much noise and prevent him from sleeping.

    1. Heh. I mean, as far as ‘crazy things gods in mythology do’, that one is…rather more sympathetic than some. We’ve ALL wanted to murder-stab someone because they woke us up. (Of course, the key is NOT murder-stabbing someone for those reasons, but still.)

          1. Zeus “did” just about anything that moved and a few things that didn’t iirc.

            Maybe a bit of hyperbole

                  1. ^This. (Any man who tried to use the excuse “Well, she/you just can’t keep me satisfied and that’s why I cheated” is asking to get something Very Dire done to him.” I’m pretty sure the only reason Very Dire Things weren’t done to Zeus is because he was the King of the Gods–another reason monarchy is evil 😀 )

                    2. I’ve always maintained that the Greek gods were a particularly shoddy lot. (Granted, I’m not sure the Egyptian gods were much better…and they were ALL better than any of the Mayan/Aztec/Incan/Olmec ones.)

                    3. The Olympians where very human, with all of our virtues and flaws. They were just massively powered up

                    4. And at least they, by and large, did not demand many of the sorts of sacrifices other, nastier pantheons demanded.

                      While I realize that the Old Testament’s injunctions against worshiping other gods tend to fall under the “because God is a jealous God” reasoning, frankly I think the real reason was He was up there going “Look, guys, SERIOUSLY??? First of your flocks is one thing–and it’s because I’m trying to make you understand the idea of what I’m sending my own Son down to do, but…NO IT IS NOT OKAY TO SACRIFICE YOUR CHILDREN they’re infants, not adults, okay time for another scourge since you won’t grasp it…”

                      A lot of people forget that Isaac was a fully grown adult when the whole little object lesson was asked of Abraham as well. Isaac likewise had to consent…and the point was that God wanted them to *understand*, not actually go through with it (and stopped them from doing so).

                    5. Yeah, old guy who was in such bad shape that he couldn’t even carry the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain was definitely not going to overpower even a young teen.

                      Which leads to yet another prefigurement with the Sacrifice carrying the wood to be used when he’s offered.

                    6. Hera was his sister. I don’t blame him for wanting to bang someone not his sister. She tended to go after anyone he got with, though, as much because it would diminish her own power as because she actually wanted HIM. And she attacked his kids, WHEN THEY WERE KIDS, like it was THEIR fault Zeus went wandering.

                    7. Ah, yeah, I admit I forgot the bit where they were siblings. Not that that was in any way out of the ordinary for gods (or royals) back then.

                      She was awful to the godlings–but then, I figured her attacks on them/Zeus’ lovers (willing or otherwise) were also because she couldn’t actually attack *Zeus.* But she was also as petty and awful as most of the Greek gods, heh.

                      Honestly, Hades was the only functional one of the bunch. And apparently the only one who took his marriage seriously, despite its inauspicious beginnings. (Which I suppose is why the modern preferred interpretation is “Persephone was also willing, but her mum was a problem.”)

                    8. The Fun Part about the Zeus/Hera “relationship” was that she might not be able or willing to attack Zeus but Zeus (in spite of being King of the Gods) wasn’t able or willing to attack Hera. 😈

                    9. This is true. Actually, come to think of it, that may have been the case for most of them? It’s been a long time since I read any Greek mythology, but…”attacking other gods via their favored mortals” did seem to be the most popular approach.

                    10. The only example I can think of is Haphaestus capturing Ares with a golden net. To be fair, he was in flagrante delecto with Aphrodite, to whom Haphaestus was married at the time

                    12. It wouldn’t have been proper. At that level of power, the protocols are *important*

                    13. Honestly, Hades was the only functional one of the bunch. And apparently the only one who took his marriage seriously, despite its inauspicious beginnings. (Which I suppose is why the modern preferred interpretation is “Persephone was also willing, but her mum was a problem.”)

                      *Hephaestus coughs quietly from the forge*

                      *Hestia smiles and goes back to poking the fireplace*

                      In fairness, Persephone being willing would not *contradict* the old stories, it was simply something the wouldn’t consider worth wondering about.

                    14. In Holly Chism’s Modern Gods, Hephaestus never had sex with his so-called wife and Hera told him that means you’re not really married to her so he threw her out.

                      He later get seriously involved with Loki’s widow (oh yes, Loki got tricked and got killed).

                    15. Wait, I thought Hephaestus was married to Aphrodite…? If not, I stand corrected 😀

                      (And if I’m right…Hephaestus might be functional in terms of doing his job, but his marriage certainly was not, heh.)

                    16. IIRC, she was awarded to Hephaestus by Zeus as a punishment for her. It wasn’t a love match.

                    17. There may be multiple myths, but I’ve certainly read ones where she picked him. Perhaps for the jewelry?

                    18. In the Modern Gods Series, it comes out that Aphrodite couldn’t stand having sex with Hephaestus and he was “too nice” to force her.

                      He later kicked her out (with Hera’s blessings” and Aphrodite found out that the jerk Ares really didn’t like her. He only had sex with her to “get back at” Hephaestus.

                      Apparently Zeus & Hera like Hephaestus more than they liked Ares. 😈

                    20. Exactly. She wouldn’t have picked Heph on a bet. Arranged marriages are usually problematic.

                    21. Right, right, remembering most of this.

                      Heh. Honestly, though–I think the shenanigans of mythology are proof positive that there is some kind of ‘soap opera’ gene hardwired into human DNA, lol…

                    22. What we think of as “Greek mythology” is a retcon of a retcon of a retcon. The original myths and legends were hyper-local (that’s how we get “Delian Apollo” and “Thracian Zeus”) and not in any way consistent. Then along came someone unnamed during the Greek Dark Age and said “all the local Zeuses are the same Zeus and all the stories are about the same god, even if that doesn’t make a lot of sense”. Then Hesiod took all the contradictory creation stories and glued them all together in the Theogony, and Homer took all the local culture-hero stories and glued them all together into the Iliad like a comic book mashup. Then later somebody or other put all the Theban Cycle culture heroes into a generational order. Then the Athenian playwrights mashed the stories up again to suit their dramatic purposes. And then last but not least, the Roman writers like Ovid rewrote all the stories again, which is where most of the “and then Zeus transformed X into a Y after having sex with her” stories come from, at least in their final form (honestly, I think Ovid had a serious TF/TG kink; I wonder if he would have been a furry in modern times).

                      And then authors like Bulfinch rewrote them again for Victorian tastes, and that’s what we give kids and say “this is Greek Mythology”?

                    23. Nod.

                      There was also the idea that when the worship of Zeus came to a new area, one of the local gods was assumed to be Zeus and any goddess the local god was associated with were now some of Zeus’s love-mates.

                    24. Note: the Romans were also big on this syncratic fanfic project.

                      Roman gods were also Greek gods tends to seem pretty reasonable to us. Jove/Zeus, Juno/Hera, Mars/Ares, Mercury/Hermes, etc. But, the Romans also claimed that Thor was Jove, Tyr was Mars, and Odin was Mercury. We can see the seams where things don’t match there.

                      Beyond that, this topic mostly reminds me of this thing I’ve been reading and rereading on Royal Road. One of the major characters is strongly associated with the Greek Nyx (Night). There is also a character that is described as both Aphrodite, and Eos(Dawn). I’m basically unsure if the author is the bad type of crazy, or not. The author could have simply mashed up a bunch of mythology, in order to make a story. I’m worried that they may take it seriously, which would probably ruin the story.

                    25. Well, Mars & Ares wasn’t that good a match-up.

                      Mars may have been a “god of war” but he was also associated with agriculture.

                      And of course, in the Greek Tales Ares was very much a jerk.

                    26. Eh, Ares was once prosecuted for murder by Poseidon. Ares’s defense was the son of Poseidon he killed was trying to rape his daughter at the time. (A myth to explain the name of the place where Athenians held trials.)

                      Wasn’t all bad.

                    27. Heh. Like soap opera/melodrama, fanfic is ALSO hard-coded into human DNA 😀 (Actually, that one I fully subscribe to–there’s a *reason* you have so many variations on the same stories, after all!)

                      Slightly off topic but still tangential, I was stunned while listening to a podcast recently where a biblical scholar commented that one of the Four Gospels had actually been intended to be *performed* like a play, which is why it was so oddball and condensed, and had somewhat weird asides. (It suddenly explained a lot about that particular Gospel–I want to say it was Mark?)

                      At any rate, bible fanfic of various forms has been a thing for centuries as well 😀

                    28. I don’t know about it being a play but I’ve heard that the Gospel of Mark may have been written like a story to be told in the Marketplace.

                    29. Kind of that schtick, yeah. Performed in secret, though, more likely than the marketplace. But, hilariously, that had never even occurred to me–but it makes sense. Most people wouldn’t have been literate at that time. And you had Christians and would-be converts largely meeting on the down low, in most places–how ELSE would they be able to convey the message in a short amount of time? It also then explains why in that Gospel, more than the others, the disciples act like idiots–they were supposed to be the audience vehicle (and also likely provide a bit of humor, probably to keep people awake, heh.)

    2. And who *hasn’t* wanted to do that when annoying yammering was ruining their sleep?!

      A lots-better reason than JVH’s, the way I see it.

      1. As I recall one of the very big differences between the Abrahamatic religions and the other ones in the region was, in the others, humanity was an accident that mostly existed to annoy the gods, while in Judaism, God created man because he wanted to share life with them.

        This is your Father who is in Heaven vs this is the local strong man who’s stuck with you.

        1. An even bigger difference is that the God of Abraham follows His own rules! When God tells Abraham He is going to destroy Sodom, Abraham challenges Him. “Shall not the God of Justice deal justly?” God knows there isn’t a righteous community in the city, but acknowledges if there was, He would have to spare the city.

      2. And Yahweh not only saved a family so humanity wouldn’t totally perish, he made sure they took along enough animals they could offer sacrifes in thanks for their survival.

      3. Please… “a leftist”. But yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking–or at least, that the storytellers were the philosophical forebears of today’s leftists.

    5. Enlil actually surpassed Pol Pot, hero of the Academic left in the US until the very moment the NVA marched in and put an end to his regime…But 2d place isn’t bad!

    6. Enlil and Paul Ehrlich have pretty much the exact same level of destructive pettiness, they’re just not matched in actual power.

  3. I think the opposition to pipelines is simple obstinacy: “the oil companies want these, therefore they must be bad.” I’ve seen that a lot from the left; whatever the arbitrarily defined bad guys are doing, we’ll do the opposite. I remember a ballot initiative about a decade or so back where the city of Boulder wanted to take over the power company, shut down all the power plants, and replace them with “green energy.” Those against the proposal argued that no one in the city government had a clue how to run a power company, that the takeover was going to be much more expensive than estimated, the green technologies couldn’t come anywhere close to meeting the energy demands, and since the plan would affect a number of people outside the city limits, those people ought to get a say too. Those for the proposal argued that because the power company had come up with so many arguments against it, obviously they really didn’t like it, so it was clearly a good idea. Naturally, this being Boulder, the proposal passed in a landslide.

    (Note that as of this moment, nothing in said proposal has actually come to pass; the courts are saving the city from its own stupidity. Then again, I don’t know if the point was to actually do anything or simply to prove the voter’s virtue by standing up to “big energy.”)

    1. I agree with this. They’re stuck in a never ending Monty Python Argument sketch. They get away with it because we are rich beyond measure.

      Number two son does a lot of athletic coaching and he despises parents that tell their children “good job” when it’s manifestly not a good job and has told me that he appreciates my being honest with him. I didn’t criticize him necessarily, but I only told him he’d done a good job when he’d done a good job. These poor babies have to know they’re not always good, but they’ve been told by the people in authority over them that they are always good. It’s a reasonable jump from there to everything is a lie so I might as well lie to get what I want.

      My wife and a I used to wonder what these people would be like when they “grew up” after watching their parents coddle them. We assumed that reality would bite them, but it hasn’t worked out that way, yet. We never imagined it would be what it is now.

      1. Reality hasn’t bit them yet, because the people who pushed the “everyone gets a participation trophy!” politicians have (so far) managed to keep it from doing so.

        Which, by prolonging the inevitable, only means the biting on the posterior has steadily gone from “black fly bite” (which does hurt) and is probably about now at the “alligator bite” and is approaching “steel jaws attached to a 100ton hydraulic press” levels…

        1. I remember very clearly the first time I beat my father at something. It was one of the best days of my life since I knew I’d accomplished something. My father had played major college basketball and was a good athlete into his 60’s. He never, ever let me win. He didn’t go all out when I was small, but he never let me win so when I won, I’d won. When I lost, he’d point out what I’d done well and where I needed to improve. I did the same with my children, when they won, they won. No BS. I think they call it teaching.

          The kids know. My daughter ended up in one of those we’re not keeping score soccer leagues — she hated it and moved on to field hockey and horses — but both teams knew which team had scored more goals, so they know and they know when they’re being lied to. The number of young psychopaths is significantly lower than the number of young cynics and cynics is what the participation trophy world has produced.

        2. Plus it’s not hard to find stuff kids can beat grownups at. I always lose Memory to my nieces and nephews and I never let them win.

      3. Younger co-worker was for some time seemingly in a continual state of surprise. He was used to making outrageous claims and was figuring I was doing the same. Only to discover that my claims might have seemed weird and wildly improbable, but were still true. “Wait…. that really happened?!”

    2. No problem! Special for everyone who voted for it, we’ll separate out the 95% that’s icky dirty fossil energy, and only send you the 5% that’s nice clean green energy.

      What? your lights are dim, your fridge stopped working, and your EV won’t charge? How is that OUR problem?? You got what you wanted!!

      1. i got a puzzled look recently from a person who is paying the power company extra for ‘green sourced power’ when i asked “Do you have separate electrical lines from everyone else on the block, then?”

        1. I always wonder how many (likely answer, few to none) of the people screeching for taxing the rich / giving the gov more money are also giving the gov more. After all, the IRS has a page with instructions on how to give the gov money if you think you need to…

          Me? I’m trying to keep my deductions to *JUST* the point where I end up either with a small tax bill or a small payback of my interest free loan to the gov every year.

          1. You’ve missed the point. As official “ordinary people,” they are paying too much already, because the Evil Rich have distorted the tax code to keep the Boot of Oppression upon them while the EV wallow in their ill-gotten gains, reaped from the blood and sweat of better people than themselves. It’s unfair to expect the complainers to pay more! In fact, to suggest it proves you’re a lackey of the Capitalist Running Dogs….ad nauseum.
            It bothers me I can write this drivel so easily. And they believe it so easily.

  4. I actually sat in a senior Bingo session and after an hour of the numbers, searching, and noise, I realize that I may be a child of Enlil. I still have a headache thinking about the noise.

    1. There are local stores and restaurants I won’t go into because of that.

      They were already too noisy *before* they added a PA system blaring “music” and twenty big-screen TVs yarbling and gobbling with the volume turned up to compete against each other.

        1. Acoustic tile? That’s so… old-fahioned, darling.

          No seriously. It’s not in style right now.

    1. “10 out of 10 lizard people support Marxism! Sign up early to beat the rush!”

  6. “3- Favor whatever hurts humanity, even if to do it you must hurt other parts of the environment as well.”

    At this point remind them that voluntary human extinction begins at home. When the REEEEEEEing starts, you can say, “Children of the night — what beautiful music they make!”

    Or, if you’re of a more satiric bent, “Children of the night — shut up!” (Name that movie!)

    2. a friend recently told me about a discussion he had with an Efil type… ugh, it makes my head hurt

    2. Agreed – urban public school systems delenda est … even in Texas, where some sanity still remains. The Grandson Unit will be home-schooled, by me. I’ll have him reading by the time he is four. And big books, without pictures, certainly.

        1. Got a large number of the Asterix books saved over from the Daughter Unit – she loved them, and of course, I will read them to the Grandson Unit. And we’ll have to dig out the stuffed Steiff boar from the bins of the Daughter Unit’s stuffed animals, stored away in the garage. The boar’s name, of course was Boris. The little stuffed lamb was named Lambert.

        3. I collect some Asterix in each language I have ever tried to speak … it makes a fun refresher whenever I need to spin up a dusty old language for an upcoming trip. Plus you never know when you might need to say “wild boar sausage” … I actually ran across some in a French market (yum).

          1. We were getting ice cream in a Texas joint a few days ago and their “exotic meat,” burgers included “wild hog burger.”

            1. Much of the South is getting overrun with feral pigs. They do a lot of damage to crops and forests alike, and there are professional hog hunters trying to keep the numbers down.

              Fortunately, they’re made out of pork, just like any other pig.

      2. Wait until someone floats the idea of state boarding schools. Some parents would be all for that; no daycare or babysitter expenses, no annoying kids underfoot during their ‘quality time’, no having to arrange their schedules around school hours…

        24/7 indoctrination. All win for the authoritarian jackboot types.

        The colleges are halfway there already…

        1. This-except-mandatory has *long* been one of my bone-deep fears… >.<

    3. Honestly, you need to be talking with your kids. A public school education can be perfectly fine IF you’re teaching your child critical thinking—and how to fly under the radar, too. Be sure to provide them with plenty of books.

      1. Our son thanked us last night for drilling in a work ethic. He’s acting shift leader at Cracker Barrel and too many “new employees,” work one shift and are never seen again.

        1. While it’s not the only reason, sometimes the “show up once and never again” is simply casing the joint.

          When my sister was at Target, almost all the thieves they caught were “showed up a few days” employees. EAsier to make the TV walk out the back door if you look right, after all.

  8. I can see why there’s so much overlap between the religion of if you submit nothing is your fault and the religion of envy and your true worth depends on the strength of your resentment.

  9. A corollary to Goal 1 and 2, and something I’ve been saying for a long time (and paraphrasing Conquest’s Second Law):

    “Any international agreement or organization not explicitly pro-US is intended to be a stick to beat the US with, or will eventually become one.”

    1. Because there’s money in it. It’s true. See also: support for climate change agendas, et cetera by third world countries. Whether they actually believe in capitalism and free markets, think the US is good and worth emulating, or not- there’s money in it. And you get more of what you endorse- with money.

  10. I often try to help my leftest acquaintances and support them in their efforts to save the (fill in the blank.).
    For example when they earnestly explain to me how making a carbon two oxygen chain is doom and destitute for all, I try to tell them.
    Reduce world destroying carbon dioxide (‘nother pet peeve; Dang them all to Pacific flat fish for doing away with subscript so I can’t type CO(sub)2!).
    Do your part!
    Take a deep breath.
    Now hold it until I tell you to exhale.
    Wait,
    wait,
    wait…..
    Sigh, they never listen, sooner or later they always exhale

  11. OT, but here’s a cyber win for the good guys, which even though, through some oversight, the word “Trump” somehow does not appear in any of these articles, per the stories the operation started three years ago thus during President Trump’s administration – so like Operation Warp Speed, another with for President Trump:

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/australias-encryption-laws-used-by-afp-in-countrys-most-significant-operation-in-policing-history/

    1. I can’t consider the winners here “good guys” because I’m one of the people who make that controversial anti-encryption law controversial. “Oh, but it was used against genuine Bad Guys(TM) here” just makes it a case of bad guys vs bad guys, and if you believe it will only ever be used against genuine Bad Guys(TM) then I have a bridge to sell you. Cheap.

      1. Well the Feebs are not on my good guy list, especially at the politicized HQ level in DC, but the Oz federal police have not been on my radar as far as I know, and the “bad guys” they went after here are badder guys in almost any assessment – but mainly, this success is yet more ammo to use against the idiots attempting to expunge things like Operation Warp Speed and The Abraham Accords and record low unemployment and record great gas prices and record-breaking US oil exports from history because Orange Man Must Be Erased.

  12. I’ve been saying for years that socialism and it’s bastard stepchildren of Fascism and Communism (and they are socialism’s children) are a religion in all but name. They have a dogma, a priesthood, a Devil that is forever threatening over the horizon and could be in your heart right now, unclean people to be shunned and occasionally pogromed when things are bad, indulgences and “special exceptions,” etc, etc, etc, etc.

    And, that’s the pernicious thing about them-it fill that niche that a lot of religions are supposed to fill and the people that are truly in charge of it know it.

      2. …it makes an even more perverse kind of sense now, socialism being a Christian heresy that does far too well hitting where Christianity has issues. And, even started by a highly-alienated Jew.

  13. Off-topic but I figure the Huns and Hoydens would appreciate this. I was watching a Youtube video by a British guy (can’t place his accent better than “British”) who said at one point, “I don’t drink tea, I’m a coffee drinker”. So I left a comment:

    “I don’t drink tea, I’m a coffee drinker”. knock knock Open up! It’s the tea police! Sir, we’re going to have to take your British passport away. You’ve been found guilty of flagrantly un-British conduct. We’d expect that sort of uncouth behavior from an American, I mean, they were so uncivilized as to throw boxes of tea into the Boston harbor. Which is why we had to kick them out of the Empire. Oh, we let them put a brave face on it, claim they’d won their little war for independence… but did you really think the British army could have possibly lost to a bunch of colonials? No, they didn’t like our tea so we kicked them out. Now, hand us that passport. You can get it back by showing us proof that you’ve drunk tea every day for a month.

    1. They should have sent better tea. They complain whenever they have to come over and drink it.

  14. Every time I hear a Democrat/leftist/progressive/Communist spout off about this, that, or the other, I have a hard time not laughing.

    We’re against racism (we’re anti-racist): Looks at Lori Lightfoot refusing to meet “white” reporters.
    Words are violence: Looks at Portland, Minneapolis, etc. But apparently actual violence isn’t violence.
    We denounce this white supremacist anti-Asian violence: Looks at crime statistics showing nearly all anti-Asian violence is conducted by someone who identifies as other than “white”.
    We denounce these big corporations leaving our cities devoid of critical services: Looks at policies like “no cash bail requirements,” refusal to charge suspects for crimes, refusal to respond to property crimes, etc.
    The racial disparity of incarceration rates is unconscionable: Looks at Joe Biden who authored many of those laws responsible for such disparity, and Kamala Harris who kept minority men in prison knowing they were innocent.

    It’s almost as if every single thing they decry is their own dang fault.

  15. This seems appropriate for leftists:

    Joh 8:44 ULB “You are of your father, the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies.”

  16. Somebody mentioned them and they show up. 😉

    The Gods of the Copybook Headings

    AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
    I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
    Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

    We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
    That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
    But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
    So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

    We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
    Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
    But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
    That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

    With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
    They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
    They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
    So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

    When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
    They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
    But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”

    On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
    (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
    Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”

    In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
    By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
    But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

    Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
    And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
    That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

    As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
    There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
    That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
    And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

    And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
    When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
    As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
    The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

  17. Random notes:
    Harris went to Guatemala yesterday and got a cool reception. Something about the President of Guatemala blaming her and Joe for the upswing in coyotes stealing children to take to the border. Also, she was met by a sign saying, “Trump Won.”
    Macron was doing a press-the-flesh walk down a line of people and one them smacked him in the chops. I hate to think of what will presumably happen to the guy but it seems like a portent.

    1. Come! sing along with us! Join the revolution. Sorry for the lack of accent marks. This tune has been an ear worm to me, the wife is certainly sick of it.

      Nous on veut, continuer a danser encore!

      Et quand le soir a la tele
      Monsieur le bon roi a parle
      Venu annoncer la sentence
      Nous faisons preuve d’irreverence
      Mais toujours avec elegance

      …..

      Chaque mesure autoritaire
      chaque relent securitaire
      Voit s’envoler notre confiance
      Ils font preuve de tant d’insistance
      Pour confiner notre conscience

      Nous on veut continuer a danser encore!

  19. So the question has to be asked, what is the point of Critical Race Theory?  Yes, sure, to scapegoat Whites in retaliation for evils past and present, real and imagined.  It will have the function of compensating for a sense of inferiority that non-Whites are presumed to have: “I’m OK because you are not.”  That certainly seems plausible, but your Irascible Correspondent believes there is a deeper, more nefarious reason.

    All religious systems rely on a universal mechanism to maintain social harmony as first posited by René Girard in his 1972 seminal work “Violence and the Sacred,” which subsequently became the focal point of his professional life.  The central thesis of his work is that when the mechanisms in society which moderate envy among its members break down then society begins to come apart which is marked by an increase in violence.  The solution is to sacrifice a human victim on whom the entire rage of the society is displaced, which ritual murder then resolves the tension and restores harmonious relations among the members.  This bloody mechanism is present in all societies ancient and modern, primitive and sophisticated.

    The way out of this cycle, according to Girard, is Christianity, in which a single blameless victim is forever present, drawing to Himself and defusing the ire of the world through all ages.  It was this realization that restored him to the Catholic Faith which he had abandoned in the French educational system.  For those interested “Violence Unveiled, Humanity at the Crossroads” by Gil Bailie, an erudite and beautifully written exposition of these themes.

    In our own land we have seen in our time Christianity greatly diminished and in its place the rise of Marxist Socialism in the guise of “Progressivism,” a religion no less dark and bloody than any of its preceding iterations.  In fact, wherever Socialism, or Communism – Socialism in a hurry – has gained control, dissolving the traditional glue of social cohesion is a primary goal, and inevitably the hallmarks of Socialism quickly appear: Famine, Terror, Failure and Mass Murder.

    Critical Race Theory appears to prepare the ground for the last of these, Mass Murder.  Critical Race Theory is a religious dogma used by the current Communist regime, which is envy based, as they all are, to engender, engorge and direct the anger of supposed victims to designated perpetrators, Whites, working the believers up into a killing rage in preparation for a killing spree.  It is the moral justification for the mass murder of Whites wherever Western Civilization has been displaced by Marxist barbarism.  Of course, the fundamental problem is not the Original Sin of Whiteness, but Original Sin itself, which because it cannot be expunged by bloody paroxysms of violence, nor cleansed by the Blood of the One Spotless Victim (since they deny Him), remains to reignite the cycle.  Always, the first victims of the cycle of violence are only the first victims, there are always more. For Marxists, Socialists, Liberals, Progressives, Communists, etc. the point of the exercise is to seize, hold and wield power forever. The ultimate power is the power to take the life of another, thus mass murder is a feature, not a bug.

    It is my hope and belief that America in on the cusp of another Great Awakening, which alone can restore our nation, and our own souls.

    1. Critical Race Theory in a nutshell is Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad’s “white people are the devil” dressed up in academic Marxist language. Period.

      1. Yup. So much this – just dressed up in nicer clothes. Critical Race Theory is a special sort of social poison. A fruit of a poisoned tree of race-hate and resentment.

      2. It’s both “white people are the devil” combined with one of the “the devil is more powerful than the creator” heresies: Caucasian all-encompassing evil and omnipowerfulness combine to make any shaded personage trying at all to succeed a suckers bet, so the only thing to be done is enroll, get your victim card, and submit (there’s that word again) in all things to the direct personal control of The Movement.

    2. Inciting 13% of the population to ‘mass murder’ the other 87% strikes me as a plan not well thought out. Especially when that 87% contains almost all of those ‘Redneck Gun Nuts’ and their 600 million guns.
      ———————————
      Does the Left drive those idiots barking mad, or were they drawn to the Left because they were already batshit crazy?

      1. I’m told a lot of said minority think they’re really over 80% of the population, because they live together in cities and hardly see anything else except on TV.

        The reality, if they join something like one of the armed forces, apparently shocks them.

        1. See also gay people. Self-imposed ghettos, also known as echo chambers, are real. People tend not to notice when they are off on the edge of a bell curve because we all think our own internal processes are “normal”, even when they very much are not.

      2. “Does the Left drive those idiots barking mad, or were they drawn to the Left because they were already batshit crazy?”

        Embrace the power of and.

    3. “It is the moral justification for the mass murder of Whites wherever Western Civilization has been displaced by Marxist barbarism.”

      If you look at Europe, I wonder if the Left isn’t trying to generate mass-murder of non-Whites. Lefties hate non-Whites. And “teh gays,” the neuro-diverse (ask me how I know) and women generally. They pretend not to, but they really do.

      In the USA and Canada, they’re just destroying the economy deliberately. Any racial strife they manage will be a bonus.

      https://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2021/06/why-is-canada-insane.html

      The part I find funny is that they think we’ll let them. When it starts to be too hard to put gas in the car and meat on the table due to taxes, there will be a revolt. Plain and simple. See France for details.

      1. I’ve never really understood the rationale of antagonizing the people who turned genocide from a hit and miss military action into a full on mass production (reduction?) assembly line action. Did they just forget? Do they believe it won’t happen again?

        1. As I said, I think the people pushing this crap want it and are trying to make it happen again.

          Like this guy: https://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2021/06/whiteness-new-lefty-cause.html

          Dr. Donald Moss, psychiatrist: “Whiteness is a condition one first acquires and then one has—a malignant, parasitic-like condition to which “white” people have a particular susceptibility. The condition is foundational, generating characteristic ways of being in one’s body, in one’s mind, and in one’s world. Parasitic Whiteness renders its hosts’ appetites voracious, insatiable, and perverse.”

          Dr. Moss is, of course, a White socialist living in New York City. Looks like an alcoholic to my eye, but I’m open to correction on that detail. His bibliography reads like he’s trying to start some shit, maybe get a bunch of brown people declaring war on the White Race.

          Which they will of course lose, because the White Race is historically unmatched at killing people and breaking shit. Commies are better at starving peasants to death, the Chicoms hold that record. But they suck at war.

          Leading me to think that Dr. Donald Moss maybe hates brown people more than the late Robert Byrd ever did.

    4. “We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people…at least for now.”
      — Julius Malema

      youtube DOT com/watch?v=FrrlLQFbVOs (brief version)

    5. There is ONE overall Problem with this idea. Whites are NOT a small Minority like the Jews were. Whites are NOT a Minority at all. The main people Blacks that CRT says are Good and sets up to be the cannon fodder and kill the Whites are the Minority and at about 13% not a large Minority. I would think that someone in the Black Community would have noticed this and said “Hell NO! This is insane”. But nobody really has. I don’t really see what their endgame is. They cannot believe that the Blacks can accomplish this. Are they thinking that so many Whites are Progressives that will support this believing that it is NOT aimed at them??
      There are a lot of Blacks pushing CRT, I don’t understand where they think this is going???

      1. For one thing, I think the Blacks who realize the Nonsense of CRT (and a Race War) aren’t the people that the News Media “listens to” thus few hear from these Blacks.

        2. Remember the Asian reporter who was cancel-cultured because he aired a local black guy saying he had never seen the rioters in his neighborhood before and that he thought the rioting was nonsense, he wanted the cops here when things were bad otherwise?

          Because actually reporting what an actual local black being “helped” by the “protesters” said was evil and racist.

          1. There is a fading (but still present) tradition in the black community of faith, service to the country, and hard work. I was raised around folks like that. Despite all the media that pushed rap music and gangs as role models for young black men, plenty still grow up with their heads screwed on straight. And yes, there is a high correlation between regular church attendance and not being a high school dropout, not getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant before you turn eighteen, and staying out of jail. It also tracks very closely with intact, two parent families as well.

            These aren’t the blacks that the media is looking for, though. Like the tornado struck trailer park, reporters will walk straight past the family in clean clothes carefully picking through the wreckage looking for a pet hamster to the pink haired loon in her night gown screaming at the top of her lungs for someone to come “Hep! Hep me! Why ain’t nobody comin’ to HEP!” Civilized black folk don’t fit the narrative. And Heaven help them if they ever mistakenly get ahold of a black military mom or a vet… *chuckle*

            That proud black culture is never the one taught in schools. It isn’t one you’ll see in the media. And it is almost never taught how the decline of the black family created many of the problems we face today. It would be funny to say that the core values of the stable black families are quite the same as white families, Asian families, et cetera… if it wasn’t so taboo to say it out loud. You don’t inculcate proper values and virtues in children of any culture by encouraging their opposites- looting, burning, rioting, and all.

            1. I just read:

              https://quillette.com/2021/02/10/unspeakable-truths-about-racial-inequality-in-america/

              A refreshing critique of woke CRT cancel culture.

              I see five things here that I do not think are true.

              1. I am not sure where he is coming from where the claim of demonization of young black men is concerned. Hollywood’s mind games are not the wider American culture. BLM’s careful presentation of ‘good shoots’ as somehow wrong is not the wider American culture.
              2. George Floyd’s death was not particularly objectionable. The theory that drug users should not count as human beings, and also should be killed, is race indifferent. It is absurd that society should be expected to prevent drug users from killing themselves, and at the same time is not allowed to simply confine drug users in psychiatric facilities.
              3. His condemnation of “okay, what has /your/ society produced” is not correct. Fundamentally, a really impressive society is a complicated thing with a lot of moving parts. Developing the productive set of behaviors took a great deal of incremental work. Pretty much no previous society had all of the pieces in place, and for that reason they all would underperform in comparison. Furthermore, a majority practicing a Christian religion are a fundamental part of that useful behavior. The academics who develop socialist ‘theories’ are religiously communist, and the societies that they represent are only the modern communist pointlessly wasteful hells on earth.
              4. His talk regarding ‘benevolent sky beings’ also rubs me the wrong way. Okay, the ‘white man is the devil’ theology pointing towards that magical theory of societal change is probably wrong. However, in absence of religious preference for the theory of black humanity, we are only left with cultural preference. And we white Americans are informed that it is wrong to impose our own cultural preferences. Accepting customs as the ‘way of the world’ can also include accepting things that he might prefer be opposed.
              5. I quite dislike Ghandi.

              I note that he does not mention the theory that, given criminality rates, the police should have been killing more blacks, and that this shortage is a cause of greater black poverty.

            2. This is quite literally the thing that pisses me off the most about racial issues in the US today. How being a low-class thug was turned into the only way to be authentically black, and the massive disservice that does to everyone. It encompasses the “acting white” nonsense about school and work success, the complete disregard for black history (including entrepreneurs, inventors, and educators), all of it.

              1. It’s the crab-bucket of inner city black culture (which, according to Sowell, is Scots/Irish border culture of the 17th century–and still very much modern “white trash” culture as well–grafted over) writ large.

                Or, even more condensed: it’s the crab bucket of most tribal cultures still out there, that somehow these idiots think is a “good” thing. But these are the same morons who think culture is somehow genetic, and related to skin color, and that THAT is also a good idea.

                (If that were the case, given MY genetics, I’d be forced to be as white trash as most of my extremely Scots/Irish white trash relatives. NO THANK YOU.)

              2. And the ones that *do* succeed, and thrive, despite all that the media and other black folks do to dissuade them from self discipline and self respect, they’re positively vilified. “Acting white,” as you said, as if hard work and honesty were things to be avoided at all cost. More than that fidelity to your spouse is derided, and the act of childbirth is regarded (largely) as a monumental inconvenience!

                There is much work yet to be done in restoring proper virtue to her place in the culture. I don’t know if it *can* even happen in my lifetime. That’s no reason not to try, though.

      2. The carefully curated evidence we have been presented is of a lot of Blacks pushing CRT.

        We should presume that evidence is fraud.

        Also, if you are even a little bit numerate, you will be tempted to not get a college degree, or to not get a degree in CRT.

  20. Leftists are athiests. My dad told me once: “When you deny God, you have to pick something else to worship as a god. Athiests pick the next best thing: Themselves.”

    This is why leftiest are so angry and miserable and murderous. The world does not conform to their god-view and therefore everything is wrong and must be destroyed. This is also why they are tedious and boring.

    “Puny god.”

    2. Humanity is hard-wired for worship. Take away God and they will find something else to worship, every time.

        1. Mine too. Maybe it broke from everybody trying to switch it on all the time.

          “You must BELIEVE!!”
          “Uh, no. Not seeing it.”

          1. Well, everybody tells me that; might as well own it.
            ———————————
            They say I can’t be a nonconformist because I’m not like the other nonconformists.

        3. I have often told proselytizers to not waste their time. I am defective — there is a hollow place in my brain where my bump of reverence is supposed to be.

        4. I’ve been agnostic for probably 25 years now. Never been a leftist, and never will be w/o some serious brain damage or washing.

      2. It’s actually interesting to watch. Although they might not call it worship, people worship sports, or nature, or their families, or hundreds of other things. Look at something that completely consumes a person’s life, whether that be a business, money, or a particular plant, and you’ve found a possible item of worship. Of course, only the person can say what their “worship” consists of, but it’s always there. An atheist/agnostic (she vociferously denied the existence of God but strongly believed in the afterlife) who will scream at people who don’t accept climate change. Or a person who claims to be religious who “worships” once or twice a year but religiously 🙂 follows a particular ball game.

        1. There’s an pretty interesting book that explores some what you’re talking about. The writer discusses how in many ways sports teams fulfill the role of Native American totems in modern society. Also, that in many ways, TV is now ‘god’. It’s been a while since I’ve read and really need to read it again. “Dark Light: The Appearance of Death in Everyday Life” by Ronald Schenk. I wish it was easier to get another copy, I checked amazon and the current price is $95 for the hardback which appears to be out of stock.

            1. Thank you! I’ve never heard of this site and I think I’ll be able to track down a couple books I’ve been looking for!

        2. Thing is, worship may consist of /group/ ritual activity. Then, if it isn’t a group behavior, it is not worship.

          If you do not exclude the individual rituals, the definition of religion includes magic. There are reasons for assuming that the behavioral phenomena of magic may be distinct from religion.

          So, for me, recycling, which isn’t done for economic utility, is then based in magical thinking, and is a ritual. Wanting others to know about the ritual makes it a group ritual, and religion. So a lot of the recycling activity is religious. Therefore, government recycling programs are mostly establishment of religion.

          The general trend is towards folks who practice ritual based on choice of group identity. But human variation includes people self contained enough that their ritual behavior and magical thinking is not religious. It is just that they do not make up the whole of populations, so it is proper to go looking for religious behavior when one does not see behavior publicly labeled as religious.

          1. There is always a fringe where religion and magic blur into each other. Yes, it can be denounced as the sin of superstition in some religions. Nevertheless, it exists.

    3. It’s funny. A lot of them pretend to be atheists, but if you get them going it turns out that they -hate- God. Quite the opposite of not believing.

      1. Do they hate your god, or are they simply incensed at being told ‘If you do not worship god, you worship the devil’?

        1. There are atheists who actively hate Religion and Religious People no matter how polite the Religious Person is.

          1. I don’t doubt it. I do my best to avoid such tendencies.

            Those who believe, with no evidence, that gods do not exist are relying on faith just as much as the ones insisting that a god or gods do exist.

            We will all find out eventually if there is an afterlife, and I am willing to wait a loooong time.

            1. “If you met (a) God, you’d change your mind?”
              “Of course. Evidence shouldn’t be ignored.”
              “So you’re really agnostic, not atheist.”
              “Just like you are a unicorn agnostic.”
              “Huh?”
              “Are there unicorns?”
              “No…”
              “But if encountered one, and could prove to yourself it wasn’t some fakery, you’d change your mind?”
              “Of course.”
              “Unicorn agnostic.”

            2. I’m asocialist, and agaianist.

              I believe, as a statement of faith, that socialism is not correct. There are no inevitable historical forces. Aggregating information about individuals can produce patterns, but not all patterns are necessarily meaningful.

              I believe, as a statement of faith, that there is no spirit of Earth, and I’m also quite skeptical of the Earth label. Physically, there is obviously matter there. It is not clear to me that treating everything held by the gravity field as being a singular whole is appropriate and meaningful. (Describing what one is talking about is a bit difficult when one is trying to explicitly deny the concept of ‘Earth’. I have spoken imprecisely here.)

              I would further add that I think that asocialism and agaianism are properly a part of any modern Christian confession of faith.

              This is religious, in that these rituals of denial are shared with others. I also am explicitly motivated by others demonstrating religious beliefs in socialism, and in earth/environment/nature. It is a dislike of those believers, a dislike of the implications of those ideas, and a personal conviction that these ideas are not true.

              The cases of my convictions in asocialism and agaianism cause me to suspect that both religious and non-religious implementation of atheism can exist.

              1. everything held by the gravity field as being a singular whole
                Category error, impedance mismatch, or failure to communicate. Most (probably “all”) Gaians do not think of “Earth” in those terms.
                It’s much the same with New Age folks and “energy”. What they’re talking about bears no relationship to the physics definition of “energy”, which most of us assume in this day and age. I had an ongoing argument with someone about this. We agreed that “physics energy” and “human energy” exist and that they were not at all the same thing. We never did agree on what word to use instead.

                2. Well, my position is that what they are talking about flat out does not exist.

                  The obvious defense is to point out the real physical things that actually do exist.

                  If you start nailing them down on specifics, they may get around to talking about temperature of the earth’s /surface/, or eco-systems. I think the talk of surface temperature is still quite muddy. I’m not sure if I believe that a) eco-systems are not systems b) eco-systems do not actually exist.

        2. I think it is more that they hate some idea in their mind of an immoral God-bothering cleric from TV, and then project that onto every person they see who ever went to a church. “Every Christian is Jimmy Swaggart” type of thing.

          Quite convenient for them. The little old lady who won’t bake that cake is Jimmy Swaggart, so it is perfectly OK to beat her face in with a “milkshake” and torch her bakery. The idea is to maximize the number of legit targets and not think too hard about the people whose lives they’re trying to ruin.

          Don’t forget, these are the same people who nail dead rats to the front door of the abused women’s shelter and spray-paint “DIE TERFS!!!” across the windows. Conservatives and Incels are not really doing that type of thing these days.

          1. I have never quite understood the hostility to religion some atheists exhibit. It is no secret that I do not believe in the existence of the Xian God. Any more than I believe in Odin or Zeus or astrology or Bigfoot or Skittles Crapping Unicorns. However, I do not assume that anyone who does believe in any of the above is automatically a moral or intellectual degenerate.

            OTOH, the way religionists split epistemology by introducing special rules for reasoning about “supernatural” entities does make my teeth itch.

            1. Religion is very inconvenient to Marxists. Therefore they view it as a thing to be destroyed, just like the nuclear family.

              It is perhaps no surprise that religious believers tend to be impatient with Marxists. ~:D

            2. Since you’re using the system that was developed and designed via reasoning about those supernatural entities, the special rules are introduced via a rather different route.

              You’ll have to explain why they are irrational and must be thrown out, not just assume they are wrong because they make your teeth itch.

      2. One atheist on Baen’s Bar has talked about “Anti-Theists”.

        As he would say it “He doesn’t believe in G*d but has no problems with those who do but Anti-Theists actively Hate Religion and Religious People”.

        I thought his comment about “anti-theists” made a lot of sense.

        1. That’s pretty much me.

          Most “atheists” I know or know of don’t believe God doesn’t exist; rather, they believe God does exist but refuse to worship him. In most cases, it’s because they’re angry at their parents who told them they were going to hell for being gay, or a Sunday school teacher who abused them, or a priest who molested them, or what have you.

        2. There are atheists who don’t believe in God but don’t arrange their lives around that lack of belief. They might get testy if someone pushes the religion card a bit too hard, but in general will accept wishes for a Merry Christmas (you don’t have to believe Jesus of Nazareth was God in order to be happy on the 25th) or even a “I’ll pray for you” while acknowledging the good intentions of those saying such.

          And then there are atheists for whom it’s all consuming. On any thread that has the slightest connection to God or religion, they’ll be there mocking “imaginary sky fairy.” On any thread that doesn’t have the slightest connection to God or religion, they’ll find a way to drag it in so that they can mock belief in the imaginary sky fairy. They fit the classic definition of a fanatic: “someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

          1. I’m the first type. I’m not even slightly religious; my joke is I seem to be missing the spirituality gene. Mostly I just wasn’t raised in any church or religion at all. My mother was sort of vaguely Unitarian and my father wasn’t raised in a church either.

            On the other hand, I can see that religion is and has been massively important to literally billions of people throughout all of human history, so I must be the odd one out. I don’t see any reason to disrespect people who feel differently from me, with the sole caveat that they do the same toward me.

          2. I tend to refer to the latter kind of atheist as an “evangelical atheist.” Really puts their nose in a twist too, but it fits!

            1. Now you’ve got me wondering what it would take to be a ‘fundamentalist atheist’ 😛

              1. Depends on what you mean by “fundamentalist”.

                For some Christians, “fundamentalist” means believing in the Fundamentals of Christianity.

                Now, if somebody thinks “fundamentalist” means arrogant Jerks, then there are some fundamentalist atheists around.

                2. Back in the 70s, when I was a simple college students, the campus radio station had a spokesman. For the American Humanist Association (I think) to rhapsodise over the wonders of humanism. I called in and said something like, “So you’re saying human beings are the highest and best things in the universe.” He immediately went into a several minutes long soliloquy about humanity being the pinnacle of the universe and finished with, “Does that answer your question?”
                  I replied, “Actually, I haven’t asked it yet.”
                  I could hear the host choking off laughter in the background.
                  Asking him what he’d do if we encountered intelligent aliens was anticlimactic at that point.

              2. Possibly that atheism has been mixed with stuff like communism, which is not the true atheism, and it is time to bring the practice of religious atheism back to the basics, to only disbelieving in the existence of deities.

                In this case, you would expect a fundamentalist atheist to also reject the animistic worship of spirits of inevitable history, or the spirit of the earth.

                Fun test for discussing this: What is your opinion on the worship of ‘war criminals’ at Yasukuni shrine?

                1. There is a difference between NOT believing in deities and actively DISbelieving in deities. Active disbelief without evidence is as much an expression of faith as is belief.

                  1. And which is the true fundamental atheism would seem to be subjective, a matter or personal choice. 🙂

                  2. Indeed. And boy, don’t the evangelical atheists get upset at that bit of logic as well. “Okay, I can’t prove to you God exists. Prove to me He doesn’t.” never goes over well. (And 99.99999% of the time, I haven’t got the energy for that kind of argument–their arguments are always as groundless, so to speak, as the faith based ones are to them.)

              3. There are many fundamentalist atheists who think they have the One True Interpretation of the Bible and are the sole authority on what Christianity actually teaches. Apparently not believing in the Holy Spirit infallibly reveals it all to you.

          1. They tend to be extremely boring people, under that very thin veneer. And I suspect most of them are aware of it, which is why they cling so hard to their schtick, instead of doing what most of the rest of us do: Accept that we’re boring to 99% of the rest of the human population, and that’s okay. Find the few who don’t think you’re boring, and find some good hobbies, and mind your own business 😀

      4. A useful detection methods for if they are atheist or anti-theists is if you can tell what faith they left. A Catholic atheist isn’t a Baptist atheist isn’t a Muslim Atheist and they’re all three very different from a Hindu or Buddhist atheist.

          1. Philosophical and usually quite tiresome with it. Also bad at philosophy, for the most part. Like the flopping camel, perfect example of the type.

            1. I’ve actually gotten about a 50/50 for the philosophical ones, on a per-individual basis. (Quite fond of some, I married one of the philosophical agnostics.)

              The problem is that applying solid philosophy to theism tends to be a very unstable state– same way that angry Catholic or Jewish atheists tend to reason themselves out of the rage-at-God-for-not-doing-what-they-want thing. (Probably others, as well, but those are the ones I’m familiar with.)

              Can’t comment on the flopping camel, haven’t read enough to see if I can identify which vision of God he’s pissed at.

              1. Usual mainstream Lefty “meat robot” type atheist. British Labour party weenie, so probably ex-Anglican. Nothing interesting, for sure.

                1. The “meat robot” sorts do tend to be Anglican influenced, from what I’ve seen.

                  Thank you for sparing me the risk of getting curious enough to try to figure it out.

  21. Your summation near the end puts me in mind of the wise words of Leonard Cohen:
    “Yes, you, who must leave everything that you cannot control,
    It begins with your family but soon it comes ’round to your soul;
    Well, I’ve been where you’re hanging, I think I can see how you’re pinned:
    When you’re not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you’ve sinned.”

    Just saying.

  22. My belief is that at the leadership level, it’s never about whatever it is said to be about, that is only a means to the forever desired end which is power and the money power makes easily available. The leaders who rise to the top on the left are sociopaths addicted to power over others.

    1. Like how many of us voted for Trump, believing in his *actions* after he was elected in the hope he would do at least some of what he told us he would- we take him seriously, just not always literally. For the leftists at the leadership level, their words are as weightless as air. If you look at their actions, they are the most greedy of capitalists, the most corrupt of politicians, and the most immoral of men. I do believe there is no depth to which they would not sink, given the opportunity to, did it give them more power.

  23. “3- Favor whatever hurts humanity…”

    Oh yeah, the “humans are a plague” friggin’ SF story. There’s nothing else out there. No “intrepid Humans in space!” Not even “humans can be fun pets.”

    I’m of the opinion that ever-increasing numbers of readers are heartily sick of “humans are a plague” stories. I certainly am, at any rate.

        1. I’m liking the “Humans Are Space-Orcs” type stories as long as there’s an element of “Humans can be nice until you Get Us Mad. You won’t like Humans When We Get Mad.”. 😈

          1. The story where aliens abduct a hibernating grizzly … “See earthlings aren’t so toug ….” (Grizzly woke up.)

            OR

            1. On his Facebook page, John Ringo once commented on the hilarity a human would feel after being told about the horrible encounter a foot patrol from the alien conquorers had with a hippo.

              1. Writing in John Ringo’s Posleen Universe, Tom Kratman had “fun” writing about the experiences that a “young” Posleen “God-King” had in a Panama jungle. Also felt sorry for the “guy”. 😈

                1. But the young Posleen did well for himself. Got himself off VX and became a Reverend for a Church. Helped the Posleen become more civilized. He did very well and helped convert the Posleen to Christianity. Roman Catholic of course, His church was too peaceful, almost Quaker, for the majority of Posleen. His Son really helped and if I remember was going back to become a Priest.

                    1. But all that wouldn’t have happened if the Swamp hadn’t gotten to him and he surrendered to one of the Indians just to get out.

            2. “Which one is the sentient? From my observations, it would seem that the large one performs menial tasks for the small furry one.”

              “True, but only the large one has ever been observed operating complex devices. Is the furry one even capable of opening those metal food containers on its own?”

              “You have a point. I guess we’ll just have to take both of them and find out.”

              “I don’t want to carry the big one.”

              [groan] “Fine. You grab the furry one.”

              Let the fun begin! 😛

          2. Saberhagen’s Berserker stories. Also, Alan Dean Foster’s Damned trilogy.

            1. Berserkers are some of my favorite stories. I particularly like the one where the all-destroying machine was done in by mold. That was sweet.

    2. “I’m of the opinion that ever-increasing numbers of readers are heartily sick of “humans are a plague””

      I think that attitude is behind the surge of popularity of “Earth is Space Australia and you do not want to fuck with it inhabitants” internet scifi stories.

        2. I’ve been doing it. “Do Not Annoy The Scary Humans” is a huge theme of my books. Super fun theme too. You can do things like fire on the Unseelie Realm through their own worldgates with guns measued in megatons per second, and create secondary fusion events on their side.

          Then you tell them it was a warning shot. >:D

        1. One SF author wrote a story where the invading aliens never encountered weather like Earth’s weather.

          Not just hurricanes but tornados were a problem for the invaders.

          No, I can’t remember author or title. 😦

          1. There was something similar in the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. The ship that the cast is on reenters Earth’s atmosphere during a thunderstorm, causing the largely born in space bridge crew to wonder if it’s a new enemy weapon.

          2. There was one [reddit?] story where horrified aliens heard of all sorts of Earth’s severe weather (crazy cold, crazy heat, crazy winds, lightning, and the risks of UV exposure)… and then are further stunned when another human complains that all they do is talk about the weather.

            1. In the TV series Farscape, humans were far more heat-tolerant than the Sebacians, and way, way more cold-tolerant than the Scarrans. Temperatures that were merely miserable for us would knock them down or even kill them.

              1. Which, of course, resulted in the Buff Human Dood running around in an undershirt just sweating a lot, while his love-interest Queen Snarker was literally dying.

      4. *Love* the HFY and Humans are Space Orcs stories SO MUCH.

        And having just watched Alien for the first time ever (yeah, I *know* okay??) that idea was there. Subtler, but still there. That surviving human woman might be terrified, and crying, and wishing none of this had ever happened–but that does NOT mean she isn’t going to keep going, keep trying, and outthink your creepy alien a** and shoot you out an airlock rather than give up and die. And she IS going to save that damn cat, because it’s the only thing left TO save. (I actually really loved that Ripley WAS openly terrified and crying through the climax. Actually made her MORE badass in my book.)

    3. Agent Smith in the Matrix said the quiet part out loud for them “I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure.”

        1. The premise is wrong. Consider *actual* human population size vs. claimed. They do more self-modulation than other species – where the modulation is done unto them (disease, famine, predation). Humans still have those issues, but not nearly as much as in earlier times – for now, anyway.

          Humans invented something very interesting indeed and perhaps utterly unique to them: retirement.

          1. Humans at all times in history fought each other -less- than any other animal species. Watch the birds in the back yard for half an hour, you’ll see what I mean.

            On the other hand, other species suck at fighting compared to us, so there’s that. >:D

      2. Which is nonsense on a pogo stick– even that idiot that popularized the “we must prevent the Lesser Humans from breeding because they’ll suffer” recognized that every animal expanded their population to use the available resources, because they died after that.

        Humans improve their environment to support more.

        Since Agent Smith was literally a product of that expand-and-improve cycle, there may be some fridge brilliance in putting that nonsense in his mouth.

        1. Eugenics also came from socialist, are they the gift that keeps on giving or what?

          That particular quote from the Matrix always stood out to me because it’s never been much of a stretch to see people believe it. It is BS, but I think it also provides the perfect picture of how socialists view humanity. Except for themselves of course. Though even then I suspect that at some level they are aware of exactly how stupid, ignorant, and incompetent they are and they project that self-loathing hatred onto everyone else in the world.

        2. As much as i liked that movie, During that part i was saying in my brain ” the writers have obviously never seen a large herd of deer”

          -they’re from Chicago, so ayup.

    4. Despite my mutterings, and at times outright fervent cussing, I do rather like humans. And no, not with mushroom gravy.

      Though I did put off a co-worker once in that regard…

      “Humans are great, especially with mushroom gravy. That’s a lie. I do not like mushrooms. Don’t like gravy, either.”
      “Sometimes you worry me.”
      “Only sometimes?”

      1. I’ve been known to observe in the presence of young hellions whose parents have abdicated that “I just love children…… especially with capers and lemon butter.”

      1. That seems to be a THING also Woman who loves Alien and Alien loves woman. There seems to be an lot of that on Amazon ebooks, in SF/F. I try to just ignore it but “Woman in love with Lizardman” Barely humanoid. Also BLUE seems to be a color for that the Women like in their Alien lovers. Sometimes you have to laugh.

            1. I was debating if I should try to find an Orion Slave Girl meme, or go dig up some John Carter of Mars stuff.

              Or maybe even middle ages folklore about monstrous brides. 😀

                2. Bridezilla…..

                  “With a purposeful grimace and a terrible frown,
                  She puts the hardworking dressmaker DOWN!
                  Helpless waitstaff in kitchens main
                  Scream “My God!!!” as she glares in on them….”

                  1. Me. Never gave a d*mn about the pomp and circumstance of the WEDDING.
                    I was just thinking that my husband might have done better to find a naked chick on a branch in the forest and take her home.

          2. It’s true. Although MINE have a pretty silvery grey skin. And teal hair. Because I like that color combo. And they’re mine so I can.

            1. I have a simi-joke character since I was a teen who was purple and green.

              Just Because.

              I need to blow the dust off of him and see if anything works…..

        2. Well, I mean, if it’s done right…

          Look, my favorite romance option in the Mass Effect games is really quite alien (vaguely avian, but also more scaly/spiky than fluffy feathers, heh). Bipedal, yes, but. 😀 (Granted, the game developers wisely did not delve too deeply into the mechanics of how it would work, aside from a hilarious conversation that another NPC alien–and doctor–corners your character with so he can lecture her about the potential problems, and makes recommendations. While your character squirms in horrified embarrassment. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a video game, topped only by that same alien breaking out into his own variation on a famous Gilbert and Sullivan song.)

          In reality, though, no probably not. 😀

  25. Larry Corriea’s site at monsterhunternation.com has been down for at least 6 hours. Did the Yard Moose get his antlers tangled in the cable? Have the dastardly Pinelandians cut his internet and laid siege to his Evil Mountain Lair?

    2. Monster Hunter Nation is back up. Yay! Looks like the Correia Clan managed to drive off the besieging Pinelandians overnight.

  26. Clearly these are the low IQ products of “liberal” schooling, invincibly delusional, innumerate and entitled.

  27. If any of you are looking for a fascinating read “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & The Remaking of the American Military” is a really good read. I never really had any interest in the history of socialism but found his chapters going over the history of socialism and critical race theory to be both fascinating and frightening. I’m only 50% through, but I’ve been trying to figure out which of my friends I can get to read it so we can discuss it.

    The biggest thing I’ve noticed with these people is that the stated cause, whether it’s the climate or racism, is not a cause they truly believe in, it’s their mental excuse to justify their behavior and signal how wonderful they are to everybody else.

  28. One thing I’ve noticed with environmentalism is that it doesn’t take long for the trappings of religion to emerge in a discussion. According to the religion, the environment was in a perfect state before humans emerged, and any change — any — wrought by humans was necessarily a change from perfection, and therefore sinful (though the use of that word is studiously avoided).

  30. now have in my head an image of a gardener pride parade, with people waving radishes in the air. I’d watch in awe, since the weight of my gaze is enough to make plants die.

    Been there, done that, have the three-foot mushroom I made for it over my desk. And yes, I have photos.

    There’s a reason I love small towns

    Did I ever tell you about the annual Slug races?

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