This is a very bad time for a lot of people. In fact, perhaps it’s a bad time for everyone. We’ve been kicked around so stupidly by people who were supposed to be acting in our best interests that even those like me who never really trusted experts feel betrayed.

The nature of the betrayal, too, means that lives were ruined, young people were destroyed, education and job prospects blighted. All of us — I think every last one of us — lost friends or relatives, because things like cancer checkups were suddenly “elective” for two years.

Even those of us who suffered almost nothing, who still have jobs and whose marriage didn’t implode, and who are losing the stress weight they gained in lockdown didn’t emerge unscathed. Last week I was talking to a friend how difficult it is to nerve oneself to any social gathering. This is not just for large gatherings — every time a con looms, I start looking for ways to cancel, even if I really, really, really want to go. (And we might need to cancel either SOS or Liberty con this year, for legitimate reasons, not because of this. At the VERY LEAST we’re going to have trouble getting the cats looked after if we attend one or both. Because of family things it means we’d be away a full three weeks, and on the road. And after Helena, boarding isn’t an option.) But to be fair, I’ve never been fond of cons, because they’re WORK. And because I have to be in my public persona around a lot of people, some of which will inevitably be, at best, disagreeable and at worst hostile. But now it’s difficult to nerve myself to see friends, even when I don’t have to travel, which I have always hated. My regular Tuesday “have coffee with a local writer” thing is often on the chopping block, because I freak out before he gets here. Keep in mind that the entire thing is, he comes over and has coffee. Sometimes we talk. Often we just each type at the same table. But I have a quiet freakout and have to stop myself cancelling before he arrives. Or, note I quietly freaked out before Thanksgiving and Christmas, even though the guests were my sons and their spouse/fiance. But they were “more than two people who don’t live with me.” Freakout.

I’m still fine with going out into groups of people I don’t know, with Dan, and sitting quietly and just observing. Okay, fine, to translate, “I’m still okay going into diners and having a meal.” And mildly okay going to church, if it’s not too packed. Everything else, I FREAK OUT. I usually freak out quietly and internally, mind, but it’s still very annoying, because this was never a thing before. it’s just a scar.

As far as I can tell that’s the only (biggish) scar I carry. There might also be a tendency to go from zero into full paranoid mode, or zero into anger more quickly, but that’s…. I’m not sure it’s so much an effect of the lockdowns as an effect of everything else we’ve gone through (and I’ve gone through) in the last three years. Yeah, I’m sure it’s been noticed, but truly, I’m trying to keep it down.

However, I’m aware I’m not the most affected, nor do I have reason to be one of the most affected by the entire mess of the last three years.

There’s a great anger stalking the land. It’s mostly visible on blue on blue (or in our case, I guess red on red, to update the old meme) conflagrations that come out of nowhere. (Not that the usual shit weasels don’t stand by to instigate/claim it’s out of nowhere after countless provocations. That’s condition normal for this kind of situation.) But also sometimes in person, in odd silences, in puzzled expressions.

I think mostly all that’s keeping the anger from erupting in horrible — and likely misdirected, because anger isn’t rational — violence is two things: One, Americans really are fundamentally, decent people. Our civic culture and mutual help and assistance between equals lingers enough that we tend to default to helping each other rather than taking advantage of disruptions. (People in general, not the paid astroturf of the left.) And Two, what was done to us was so large, so horrible, that we can’t fully conceptualize it. The injury was so massive that we’re still stunned and scrambling.

Put it this way: stealing elections is old hat for the left. But doing it by inventing a horrible plague out of a disease that was not big thing (and be aware, because the right is setting up to fall for the same bs again. Note the paper from China was not peer reviewed, so it’s just them bragging, because why not. I doubt what they’re bragging of could be achieved in a way that would affect the world, and not kill ten people and be gone, by US with our higher precision, care, etc. Fro them, it’s beyond reach. Second, the “disease x” thing from the Dravoniacs it’s just psyops. They’re trying to see if it sticks. Be neither afraid nor stupid) and shutting down not just us, but the rest of the world for verisimilitude? That took a special kind of crazy disregard for humanity in general that is hard for normal –or even only slightly abnormal– human beings to conceptualize let alone act on. It’s a level of psychopathy that leaves you going “if they were lizardoids from space, what would be different, really?”

Mind you — and I laughed yesterday when reading a Darvoniac lamenting that somehow, inexplicably, the last three years meant that the people in general no longer trust the institutions or the news, so that their Green New Deals and Great Resets and other grand plans of a Bond-villain kind suddenly seemed to be out of reach — part of the reason for the idiocy spreading all over the world came from the Darvoisie thinking they could use it to achieve their entire agenda faster. Which goes to show you what I keep telling you “Yes, they plan all these things, but we get a vote too. And these people have not thought of all the second, third, or even first order effects of their oh, so cunning plans.” Or if you prefer, not only aren’t they the sharpest tool in the shed, there’s reason to believe they might be a chocolate hammer.

But the point remains: the world suffered a massive injury, in ways the idiots planning the whole thing weren’t even aware would happen. And America specifically suffered a kick in the pants that removed the rest of the illusions we had about the left in this country. Even if most people are still trying to get back into their soft, warm illusions and close their eyes. It’s not possible, and they also know that at some level, which only makes them angrier.

The problem with this free floating, undirected because the legitimate targets are all too far from us, anger is that people can sense it. And some are even aware they’re tamping their own anger down.

And people can sense all this anger, this feeling of “say the wrong thing and everything blows up” and it turns to fear.

Heck, even those of us who think about the whole thing — overthink, as they’ve been telling me since I was 3 or so — are afraid, at a more rational level. Because the whole analogy of the lever (on the left) and the button (on the right) is not wrong. The left thinks of violence as a tool they use to get what they want. Sane people think of violence as a last resort thing. Which means if you use it…. it’s your last resort. This is why Americans are usually slow to wars and then finish them (when not held in check by the left, who again, think it’s a tool.)

The problem is that there is all this anger. If the button gets pushed, the anger is going to feed into the whole thing. Which means chances of its being restricted, or even hitting the legitimate targets then turning off are zero. Or less than that. This won’t be “We get rid of those holding us down, then we are done.” This will be “We get rid of those holding us down, then the traffic cop who gave me an unjust ticket, then the football player who hit my guy too hard, then the guy in the coffee shop who was rude to me, then the guy who looked at me funny, then this guy who did nothing, but my hand hurts from killing so many people.” Which is why some of us are trying to hold it back, unless it becomes absolutely necessary (and alas it might) because we’re talking of Madame Guillotine and her insatiable hunger. And you know, sure, that was a proto-communist revolution, but it was also the payback of centuries of oppression, disparagement and mistreatment by a tiny minority. The anger was there. If you want to know how out of control it burned, you should read about it. People went to the guillotine because a neighbor thought they were too stingy with the potatoes served at the potluck and no, not joking.

Yes, maybe Americans will be different. We are in so many things. I still have to wonder what’s in the heads of the people streaming in. I know what’s in the heads of those bringing them in, and that’s that they’re creating their own private army. But that’s not how any of this works. If the restive population turns (so much rides on the elections. And no, the idiots have no clue) at the very minimum everyone who sticks out will be in danger. (As someone with a noticeable accent, ask how happy this makes me.) This is likely to be worldwide, which is why I tell you it’s a really bad idea to move somewhere you’ll stick out. But in the US we’re not used to it, and in addition to the sheer mess it will be, there will be recovering after, and dealing with what happened and the scars it leaves.

This is just to give an idea of the legitimate fear most people who think and can see past the next week are living with. Then there’s the free floating fear because we sense the anger, ours and others, and don’t know when it will blow up. And then there’s the fear and anger occasioned by knowing that our institutions and most of our press are in the hands of psychopaths, who’d as soon look at us as fillet us for breakfast.

Yesterday in a group fear was brought up, and Cedar — who some of you know has a … complex and not easy history, i.e. she’s a survivor of things most of us would have been destroyed by — said “you know what comes after fear? I come after fear.”

And I realized suddenly and clearly that this applies to me too. I am what’s here, after fear. After doing things that literally felt as though they’d kill me. Things that probably killed a lot of me.

Let me explain: I always laugh when I get called a happy warrior, for the same reason I always laugh when I get called an optimist. I can see how people get that idea, but what they’re looking at is not what I am naturally, nor what I started out with. It’s what came after. After the fear, after the trials, after doing things that I thought were impossible. After thinking I would die in all meaningful ways if– And then the if happened, and we survived. Something died, but something survived. Which one was really me is a good question. But a philosophical one. I’m still here. I came after the fear.

I don’t have the kind of background Cedar had. I had my own trials, some of them severe, but it’s not my story to tell, and a lot of it has to do with when and were I lived at the time.

However, by the time I was an adult, I was so conflict avoidant and agreeable that most people had absolutely no idea what I really thought. All the groups in college claimed me, including the communists, who were convinced I was really, secretly, a sympathizer. (I kept my hooliganism away from the college, because I could endure physical confrontation. Had learned not to flinch from it years before, but I could not endure even mild conflict with people I’d have to see every day.) Mostly I smiled and slid out from under any mildly threatening argument/issue. And, like now, I hated traveling. I hated being among strangers. I hated having to make new connections.

Marrying Dan was the first time I lost my mind. And it wasn’t my fault. When he proposed, I saw very clearly that it would mean losing all my connections; going to a place where my laboriously acquired and very impressive credentials meant nothing; a place where I’d always sound funny. Now, I loved the US, and at the time I had an offer for an assistantship at an ivy league and had been accepted for a doctoral program. But I’ll be absolutely honest, if I hadn’t fallen in love with Dan, the other factors would probably have meant I’d never actually leap. I’d probably still be putting off from year to year coming over, even as way after way offered itself.

However I did love Dan (still do that) and it was stark and clear to me that if I didn’t marry him I’d regret it the rest of my life. The connections and credentials thing was just the price. And sometimes the price must be paid.

So, I came over with a little suitcase and burned all my savings-to-date on the plane ticket. And survived. Then survived acculturating, which sometimes quite literally felt like I was falling to pieces/going crazy, as all the fundamental assumptions of who and what I was and my place in the world were questioned and broken and rebuilt.

And after years of not finding work, or finding work I hated with my whole heart, we had a kid, and I didn’t want anyone else to raise him, so the whole “get serious about writing” thing came up, and Dan said it was time. I’d been writing the whole time, just you know, never expecting to break in, or expecting it to make much money. I had job(s) for that. The writing was just something I had to do and it happened on weekends and evenings if we had time. I won’t say that trying, really trying, wasn’t scary. I mean, it was. But mostly I never expected to succeed.

Oh, and along the line there were other things that genuinely terrified me. We moved twice, once across this vast country, away from all the friends, family and familiar things and places we had. Those weren’t as scary as moving across the ocean, but they weren’t easy, particularly since we had no one to advise us or organize us or even help, so it felt like we were inventing the entire process on our own, as we went along. Oh, the same for looking after the kid and all the financial and other upheavals. None of it was as scary as moving and acculturating. None felt like I would die from doing it.

The only thing that came close was publishing. Particularly once I figured out (pretty much instantly. I have ears and used to hear very well, including conversations across the room) that anyone to the right of Lenin was persona non grata and considered practically a Nazi. (Which let me tel you was a weird experience for a libertarian.) Because I saw them drop people for saying the wrong thing, or not saying the expected thing, and since I didn’t know that indie would be a thing, I knew if I were dropped and cancelled and blacklisted, it would end up being all publishers (depending on the reason, to be sure) and then I knew I’d die.

Spoiler: I didn’t die. It was unpleasant, but I didn’t die. No matter how many years I’d been terrified of it.

And then there’s this blog, and coming out politically. Which of course, this blog wasn’t supposed to do. It was supposed to be a publicity vehicle. I was supposed to write cute little things about my daily life, and what I was writing, and–

Yeah. At some point I … okay, I can’t explain it, but I had to come out politically. I just had to. For one, I couldn’t continue down the path of staying quiet and letting them assume I agreed, much less affirm the crazy and evil things I knew were crazy and evil. I could literally see the point at which I’d lose my soul. And as much as I love writing, and as much as being published is needed for that, because writing is communication, so of course you want to be read, I couldn’t go on without becoming unable to look at myself in the mirror.

That felt like dying. 

My few, in retrospect rather timid posts in this blog horrified me and terrified me. I usually had to show it to three or four friends/friendly acquaintances before I had the nerve to press publish.

As things got fraught, and I started to take attacks from the left (and sometimes the crazier right) a lot of them bizarre and out of nowhere and claiming things I couldn’t understand (irrationality scares me more than just about anything else) how they’d come to think, it felt a lot like dying. The impulse of the still very conflict averse and agreeable person within was to shut up and go away. Only I couldn’t. So I didn’t. Even when keeping going felt like coming apart and dying.

Does it still feel that way? Not most of the time. Not unless I personally care or at least like the person I’m arguing/fighting with. And that’s not very common.

It’s still not pleasant, but scar tissue — though less flexible than unscarred skin — is less sensitive. It doesn’t hurt as badly, and it’s not scary. Even knowing the enemy lists I’m on is not scary, though to be fair that never was. There’s prices to pay and you pay the price and there’s no reason to be afraid of it, no matter how bad. It was the emotional confrontation that terrified me. (And no, I can’t explain that. Maybe I’m naturally snow-flakish?)

The life I wanted, what I thought I was setting out to, was being a reclusive fiction writer, who wrote my little stories, and sold them, and made enough to justify not having another job. And no one ever knew my politics or how I felt about things.

That dream — that person — died somewhere along the line. The fear died too. THAT fear at least.

And I’m still here.

There is life after the fear. Like Cedar, and perhaps with less justification, and in completely different circumstances, I am what comes after the fear.

I just thought you should know. The fear, itself, and the thing that causes the fear, even when the fear is justifiable, and thing horrible — like being cancelled from one’s life-long avocation — are survivable. It’s possible to stand after the fear.

And maybe the anger if it explodes will burn itself quickly — we are American anyway, and therefore unpredictable — and maybe — well I was vouchsafed a certainty it would be so — the Republic is ideal or closer to ideal on the other side.

But we have to face whatever comes, and we have to know that we can get through it. We can get through the fear and the anger. And we have to have hope. Doomerism never solved anything. And doomerism has never been right either. Yes, in certain times and places thing have gotten and will get very bad indeed. But the ultimate defeat of the forces of good hasn’t ever happened. And communism, the particular hobgoblin we’re facing, has never triumphed anywhere. And no — hattip to Don Surber — I don’t think it will be seventy years. Seventy years is what it lasts with external support. We supported the USSR in many ways, financial and not. Even if we were to go full stupid, there is no one with enough resources to support us. There isn’t a USA to support the USA should the USA suddenly go non productive and idiotic. The limit on that seems to be closer to 14 years. Maybe less.The Nazis lasted that long because there were countries they could invade and whose resources could support them. Again, there isn’t a country vast enough and rich enough to support us. We could invade half the world, and it would just cost us more resources.

All totalitarian regimes are warmongering. They have to be. It’s how they survive. But we can’t get anything by wars, except expense. The math doesn’t work. 14 years. Maybe less.

And yes — like Don Surber — at my age that’s likely my remaining life. Or more. But history doesn’t move at human pace. it moves at the pace of large groups of people. Which means, slow and stupid. On our side — and against us, both — is the fact the left by and large is older than us (their young are both stupid and by and large ineffective) which is part of the reason they’re so desperate to “win.” And why each misfire drives them nuttier. Which means they’re likely to get even crazier than locking down the whole world to steal an election. Which means this might be over earlier, just extremely ugly. There is probably no way to avoid the extremely ugly.

But there is a reason to stoically accept the fear, trust we’ll be here when it’s gone. And to not let the fear fuel the anger, and not let the anger burn out of control. Yes, it’s possible they’ll do something so monumentally stupid it all collapses without the anger getting its say. (That is something else to contemplate, because what happens to all that anger then? I don’t know.) And we can hope and pray for that. But if the anger must be let out, let’s try to keep it small and targeted, and effective. (And no, this isn’t a call for violence, Fed the Fred. It’s a call for hoping it doesn’t come to pass. And if it DOES, to keep it as targeted and small as it can possibly be.)

Don’t be ruled by anger and fear. If I hadn’t been so conflict avoidant from the beginning, my career would have been completely different and possibly much better. And perhaps the anger wouldn’t have built up, and I wouldn’t have ended up out of the political closet. I think I am where I’m supposed to be.

But in general, and in group movements letting your fear and your anger decide what you do is bad. And leads to bad things.

So, have hope. Doom is not coming. Something like it might come, but it won’t be doom. Not THAT doom at least. And even if it did, we’d survive. Or our children/grandchildren/young people in our nation would/will.

Waste no time on fear. What will happen will happen. And we’ll come after the fear.

In a way, we won’t be us — trust me on this — what we are will die in the conflagration anyway. But we’ll become what we have to be. And what we have to be — as individuals, as a nation, as a civilization — has a good chance of being better. And it will go on.

Be not afraid.

Of all the idiocy going around in the seats of power these days, few things get me more… linguistically creative than The WEF Darvoisie wanting to curb “Misinformation” and “Disinformation” and Sally Karen Suburban in the US joining in because all those people are saying bad think out loud and aren’t even ashamed, and shouldn’t we stop them.

Both “Misinformation” and “Disinformation” as things that should be curbed by institutions and governments are ideas of the ditactorships of the twentieth century. And the reason for that is obvious, of course.

You see, big centralized governments — and there are none more centralized than communist regimes, which usually end up devolving into “strong man rule”– have an information problem.

They are tasked with making decisions for everyone in however big the country is. But they can’t know the conditions on the ground.

Even assuming a large city for a domain, and perfectly honest — bah — reports, the central planner might know that he has x tons of fish, which will allow everyone in the city to survive x days before the fleets have to go out again, and order the fleets to repair and the roads from outside closed to fix. It is impossible for him to know, above a couple thousand people how many of the people in the city have seafood allergies and how many will therefore die in those days.

Now make it into countries. Make the dictator have the ability to order factories started and stopped, to order goals of production, etc. etc. etc.

First, everyone up the line is going to lie. In that kind of regime, where your advancement, or even your life depends on the big guy thinking well of you, you’re not going to admit you had a problem, that a machine broke, that one of your subordinates failed, etc. etc.

This information problem gets worse the further up and more concentrated the information gets, because it’s virtually impossible for say the minister for rural production to know which cows are off their feed at the time.

On top of this, there is the problem of what people want. This is something our own Darvoisie refuses to understand. They keep saying “Buy why can’t you rent everything you need? See how much more efficient it is!”

But I don’t work that way. I’ve found for instance that houses younger than about 80 years feel odd to me. And if you replaced all my stuff with Apple, because “it’s the best for writers” you’d end up with a lot of equipment being given frisbie-tosses. Mostly because I’m not visual, and Apple has no way to get around “this is all visual and you’ll memorize the symbols.”

Normally, except for some very targeted gadgets, I use tech that’s 3 cycles out of date. I no longer buy it in thrift stores simply because thrift stores here don’t have it. They did in Colorado.

I get tech, clothes and furniture used, and then I make it last. And it’s not a matter of price — though it’s also a matter of price — and it’s not a matter of conservation — I’m not a rabid environmentalist, though I come from frugal and non-wasteful people — it’s a matter of what I feel comfortable with. When Dan bought me a car that was only second hand, I was terrified of driving it, lest I crashed. New and shiny computers inspire similar terror. And furniture? Don’t get me started. I like being comfortable most of all. I like not worrying that the crack I just heard was the very expensive table. You know what I mean.

So when they say “You could rent” I say “No. give me the stuff the cutting-edge renters discarded.” I like knowing what’s mine, and controlling it. And I don’t mind if it’s old. I’ll take good care of it, but if it breaks it’s not the end of the world, either.

They can’t understand that. They can’t understand a lot of other Americans who have their own reasons not to give up their autonomy and independence. I mean, some of us would rather wash our clothes by hand in the river than rent a washer, am I right?

The central planners don’t see that. To quote Heinlein, they never used an unsterilized spoon. Their whole lives are lives of chasing the newest and most cutting edge, and of course “renting” is a way to signal and great they are, and how non-materialistic.

Anyway, so, like that. They have an information problem. But as they realize that everything they do turns to sh*t because people are lying to them all along the line they turn around and try to control information from the top. Because if they can’t be infallible, they can stop people from seeing they aren’t infallible, right?

Our idiots have been snake bit for one and a half administrations now: Obama, and then Brandon. ”But I’m doing all the things that should result in wonderful stuff. Why do people hate the economy? What’s wrong with them?”

Because none of these people know, nor can they conceptualize, that a working class family might prefer cheap gas to “clean wind power” or value their kids being healthy and fed over opening the border to migrants. Because even if the functionaries closer to working class people know that, they have no compassion for working class people, or if they do they don’t want to show it, because that would diminish them, socially. It’s a social positional good to show how much you care for the environment, not for the garage mechanic or your waitress.

And so, the “elites” of the Junta come up with the answer for why people think Bidenomics doesn’t work: it’s that bad disinformation and misinformation. Which is when they run around, trying to shut it down. Because if people don’t hear about their failures, they won’t notice they’re paying a king’s ransom at the grocery store and getting less, I guess.

In fact, Brandon’s people have been trying to control people’s speech for a long time, from threatening social media companies, to outright destroying the lives of anyone who said anything about how the Covidioy was idiocy and the virus killed fewer people than the panic.

But the less their grand ideas work, the more they want to shut down disinformation and misinformation. By which they mean, things that disagree with their narrative, or expose them for the frauds and failures they are. Not to mention the things that expose them as totally corrupt freaks of nature.

“Disinformation” and “Misinformation” are very serious sounding words, and as some cookie-eating-(male)-bitch explained to me on Twittex “Misinformation are things people say that they don’t know are wrong.” And “Disinformation are things people say they know are wrong but they want to propagate.”

At which point I corrected him. (I bet he loved that too.) There is no Disinformation and Misinformation. There are truths and there are lies. And while people might believe lies, yes — like believing that Brandon is a good person — usually the cure for that is not to stop them talking. It’s to talk more.

No one, no matter how “expert” or “brilliant” knows everything. No one — on this Earth at least — has special discernment to tell truth from lies. Sure, you’re more likely to be able to tell the closer you are to the event/person. But considering I know three couples who seemed to be/were perfectly happy till it came out one of them had been keeping a whole other family for over 20 years, proximity and familiarity are not always a guarantee that anyone knows the truth.

There is only one way to make sure most of the people know the truth most of the time. And that’s free speech. Let the little boy who sees the king is naked speak. Let the person with no special credentials who can add up numbers realize that if the Diamond Princess numbers are real, then Covid is not the world-killing plague it’s been advertised. Let the flunkie in the low levels point out that his boss just told a lie or is misinformed.

Let them all speak. It will become clear who is right. And you’re less likely to all go careening over the cliff.

Part of the reason we are where we are — and the “elites” are now in a panic — is that for almost a century they did control information, sweep their failures under the rug, and paint themselves as experts and geniuses. (FDR — spit.) Because the communication technology was top down, easy to centralize, and had long since bent to the will of those in power.

Now that’s no longer the case. And they can’t stand it. In Europe and places like Canada they keep making laws on what people aren’t allowed to say, talk about or disagree with the government on.

And even then, their attempts are failing, because people find ways around them, and inform themselves, and trust them less and less.

Which is why at the WEF they’re all talking about how important it is to gag us, and control our speech, so we don’t lose our faith in experts.

That’s right a group that locked down the world, destroyed lives, caused deaths, destroyed young people’s health and happiness, and flushed half a century of wealth down the hole, wants us to trust them. And they think the problem is not that they are clowns trying to create a clown world, but that we don’t trust them.

To them I say, “Misinformation and disinformation are words tyrants use when they don’t want the people to expose their lies with truth.”

To you I say: hold on to the first amendment. Hold on to it and defend it by every means possible.

The only remedy for corrupted information is more information. The cure for lies is the truth and plenty of it.

Let my people speak. And the truth will become obvious.

Or…. new and interesting ways to get in trouble…. for everyone!

Galactic Enquirer submission call!

Are you looking for an opportunity to hone your writing skills, get feedback, even make some money?  According to Hoyt has some for you!

First off, money!

Sarah Hoyt’s Inkstain Press is soliciting submissions for our Galactic Enquirer Anthology.  Please submit your humorous science fiction story of 6k-10k words to hollyfrost.inkstainpress@gmail.com by March 1, 2024 (note new date if you have seen this announcement elsewhere).  Payment will be by shares of royalties through Pubshare.

The 41st century is upon us, and historians work to piece together the 21st century from the bits, the bobs, the fragments and flotsam remaining. Humanity roams the stars, but a few overworked, underpaid, dedicated souls work to piece together what went before. What was earth like at the dawn of the first space age? They dig through rubble, occasionally they find a stash of paper, a trove here or there. Imagine, if you will, the 21st century as reconstructed from tabloids, from comic books, from bits written down. Language changes, oh, yes, it changes through the years, centuries and millennia.

But some few precious resources have helped these clever souls to decipher the past. To put together a true picture of life as it was. Glossy magazines, though crumbling, give gems of knowledge! Who knew politicians were lizards? Those creeps and sneaks from Zlorch must have visited earth earlier than officially claimed!

Was all of politics merely theater to entertain the masses? After all, the beloved JFK was reliably seen alive decades after his reported death! What about yeti? Is that the same as the Yschlo in Sector Gamma 3? And UFOs? Clearly, humanity was not the first in their branch to obtain the stars as has been commonly thought, but who or what visited Earth remains mysterious. No other records of these beings are extant, and the purpose of these visits, despite the evidence, remains unclear.

An archaeologist plumbing the remains of plumbing nearly dies, but makes the find of his career! A diplomat averts an alien takeover of his planet. After recognizing the tactics they used two thousand years ago on earth, he uncovers a plot to replace the king and his cabinet. A historian, scorned and shuffled to the side finds success with a new popular history of the 21st century that hinges on the relationship between Hillary and the “Alien”, personages that survive only in the pages of the enquirer. And what about the time traveling bard, Elvis? There are entire symposia designed to discuss and trace his appearances for hundreds of years after death. As for JFK and his many possible deaths, there are entire libraries devoted to them, and librarians who love every single volume and would die to defend them.

The possibilities are endless. Make a silly, over the top story of life as reported by 21st century tabloids, or fragments of our cities.

Join now! You too can see your name on the cover! Or at least be a member of Team And More.

Now, for something completely different:

Son of Silvercon is pleased to announce our inaugural Fission-Chan Writers Award.

Enter the short story contest, win recognition, get feedback from a panel of professional writers. See your name in ligh– Okay, fine. You can get a nifty plaque or certificate, and that all important feedback.

See more information and enter at: https://sonofsilvercon.wordpress.com/writers-award/

And for the younger set (share it with your kids, your friends’ kids, your home school group)

Son of Silvercon Young Writers Award:

Son of Silvercon is delighted to announce our inaugural Young Writers Award Competition. For fiction writers nineteen (19) years of age and under, this competition awards the Fission-Chan Award for Young Writers.

See more information and enter at: https://sonofsilvercon.wordpress.com/young-writers-award-entry/

Obstinate Ignorance by David Bock

This is a characteristic we see all too often where someone refuses, in the face of documented and confirmed facts, to allow themselves to be reasoned out of a position they weren’t reasoned into in the first place.

I’m sure all our readers are aware of the recent attack in southern Israel and the atrocities committed there. Many are also likely aware of the call for a worldwide day of violence on Friday, October 13^th by leaders of that horror. Thankfully, it seems very few zealots decided to answer that call.

According to the FBI as well as other sources, Jews are the number one targets of hate crime in the United States, with the second place winner not even being close most years.

For example, in 2019 (the latest year for which data is available) there were a total of 1,521 hate crime incidents reported in the United States, resulting in 1,715 victims. Of these, 953 incidents were targeted against Jews resulting in 1,032 victims.

Muslims were the next highest targeted category with 176 incidents and 227 victims.

As a result of this history as well as current events, I was asked by a member of my congregation to sit outside during services that Saturday. I, of course, said yes. So that morning, myself and another member showed up before services, got a couple of chairs, and placed ourselves outside the main doors of the Synagogue.

We were, again of course, both armed, though his wife asked us not to bring rifles. We complied, but next time we may have a couple of ARs staged at the door, just in case.

We may only be speedbumps to any attackers, but we want to be the most effective speedbumps we can.

Thankfully, nothing untoward happened during services, but I did have some interesting interactions with other members both during the time we were sitting outside and at a social gathering later that evening.

During services, a member came outside to check on us and see if we needed anything. Right before he went back inside, he asked if we had whistles or some other type of noisemaker to alert those attending services if there was trouble outside.

My fellow sentry and I exchanged a knowing glance and assured him that A) we did, in fact, have noisemakers, and B) they would certainly be loud enough to be heard inside if we needed to use them.

We found out later he was completely unaware of the types of noisemakers we were carrying. After he left, we shared some good natured banter about “noisemakers.”

Later that day, many of us gathered for a birthday party for one of the older members who is also the mother of a close friend. While we were there, two members approached me separately to request my assistance.

One, wanted to learn how to handle a firearm. Her husband had one in the house, and she’d always meant to learn how to use it, but she’d never made the time. After what had happened mere days before in Israel, she didn’t want to put it off any longer than necessary.

We are currently working out scheduling for her first lesson.

The other member, who’d been in the Army during the Viet Nam era, but hadn’t done much with firearms since, though he did own some, asked me to go over cleaning and maintenance with him, as they’d been sitting in safe storage for years and he wanted to make sure they were ready to go if needed.

We are also working on coordinating a get together.

Then there was the other side of the coin. I was not present for this interaction, which was probably for the best, but My Wife was, and she relayed some of the main points of the conversation to me on the drive home. Probably also a good decision on her part.

One particular member wasn’t happy there were armed guards outside temple during services. She felt it was somehow sacrilegious to have firearms present at a place of worship and peace.

One of the things mentioned during this conversation was the temple has a contract with a security company for armed security during major holiday services, but not regular weekly services. This is a small congregation and even affording the expense of security for the major holidays is a strain on the budget. There’s no way we can afford to have them there all the time.

In addition, she claimed she’d done the research and guns caused more harm than good, so we didn’t need them there. If there were any problems, we could just call the police.

I don’t know if anyone pointed out that the police would bring guns with them. What was mentioned by several people was her information was wrong, emergency services would take *at a minimum* ten to fifteen minutes to respond, and by the time they got there, any harm would have already been done.

As one person put it, if there was an attack at the synagogue, the police would just bring body bags. She was confused by this statement.

Once it was explained, she refused to accept this and instead started talking about installing steel doors, reinforced windows, and other emergency barriers instead of having armed security present.

Remember the budget issues I mentioned earlier? Yeah, I doubt she had any idea how much these types of things would cost. But that was irrelevant, as she felt it was certainly better than having guns at temple.

I’m also guessing she’s unaware of the story of 25 year old Inbar Lieberman, who distributed firearms to a dozen members of kibbutz Nir Am and coordinated a defense plan as the attacks were occurring. The defenders then used these firearms to kill at least 25 terrorists who had come to murder them. Ms Lieberman killed five of them herself.

As a result of this decision and her personal bravery, unlike every other kibbutz in the area, kibbutz Nir Am suffered no casualties in the attacks that cost so many lives elsewhere.

As I’ve said before, without the means and willingness to apply effective defensive force, “Never Again” is just a catchy slogan. Ms Lieberman had both of those in spades.

Again, I doubt this member of my congregation knew of this story, but if it had been brought up, I’m sure she would have come up with some reason why that was different, or such things couldn’t happen here, or some other dismissive comment.

Due to the efforts of Ms Lieberman and her team, kibbutz Nir Am had a much better outcome than kibbutz Nahal Oz, where Shlomo Ron, being unarmed, sacrificed his life to protect his family. He did the best he could with what his government allowed him to have.

May his memory be a blessing.

Eventually, the topic was changed to a less divisive one. But for some of us, the damage was done. This is not a person I feel should be trusted to be involved with the security of the congregation.

These are not isolated incidents, I’ve had many similar exchanges with people on this as well as other topics over the years. I’ve talked about some of them in earlier segments.

Generally, I tend to be more analytical and fact based in my mindset, due in part to my nature, but also in part from my father being an engineer. This doesn’t mean I don’t have emotionally based positions, of course I do. Some people would likely posit my religious beliefs are of that type, and they could be right.

I figure we’ll all find out the truth of it after we die, so there’s no point in arguing about it now and causing additional strife.

I also hope I won’t find out for a good long while.

Keep aware and stay safe.

Links:

FBI Hate Crime Data

Inbar Lieberman

Shlomo Ron

Israel Music Festival Attack

Jewish People and Trust

Munich Clip

Brena Bock Author Page

David Bock Author Page

Team And More

As some of you — all of you? know — we’ve recently acquired two female kittens — now four months old — which means we get to see young mammals up close and personal.

Okay, forget seeing — that would be easy — what we actually get to do is experience young mammals up close and personal at around six to seven am. You see, for reasons known only to the psychiatrist that kittens can’t have, as soon as there’s the slightest hint of light out, the two girls decide it’s time to have a series of fights on my feet.

These aren’t exactly to the death fights — both have “play face” on while they put each other on choke holds, or pretend to rip the other’s belly out. But they growl and squeak at each other. The squeaks get more urgent when Indy joins the fun, because the somewhere North of 16 lbs muscular new-adult (a year old in a couple of weeks) cat thinks he’s his sisters’ size and wants to play with them the same way.

I’ve now trained myself to reach down and put my hand between him and whichever girl he’s squishing without meaning to, without waking up. I wake up with both of them licking my hand, which is a very weird sensation.

But the point here is that limited and play violence seems to be part of being a young mammal. They chase each other and try physical intimidation/attack/defense methods on each other which, if they were you know, wild felis domesticus of the Serengeti (Far side, Poodles of the Serengeti) would be needed for their lives as adults, defending cubs from predators, and/or males bent on cubicide, or females bent on cubicide so the other’s cubs didn’t take resources from their own cubs.

Now, my elementary ( 1st through 4th grade in Portugal) school teacher, admittedly rather old, said mine was the weirdest class of girls she’d ever taught, in terms of the games we played at recess. This might have been my fault because a lot of the games were inspired by what I was reading (and told them about) at the time. So, there were a lot of play sword duels, and chasing each other around with bamboo cane “swords” from the field next door, and pushing each other down the ramp from the Earth berm by the wall to said field, as we played Musketeers or Robin Hood’s men or whatever.

I would often come home with bruises and cuts from recess activities.

Even so, my school (or side of the school. It was a 2-room school house) being all girls, I remember peering over the wall to the boys side, once, somewhere between first and fourth grade, and for the first time in my life till then, being heartily glad I wasn’t a boy.

The entire playground in my memory is complete chaos, a scene where — as opposed to OUR “violence” — violence could erupt at any moment. Two guys would be tossing a ball at each other, then suddenly one would jump the other and start trying to drive him into the dirt of the playground, punching and kicking. Or some kid would be quietly sitting in a corner, and either two boys jumped him, or he’d suddenly, for no reason I could figure out, run across the playground, grabbing a stick on the way, to beat the living daylights out of some kid who was, before, engaged in climbing a tree. Only all of this was happening at the same time, and there were five or six other boys just running around getting into fights.

Look, I’m sure there was an internal “logic” to the interactions that I missed as a little girl, or that it was like watching the last episode of a thriller series, without seeing the previous installments, but to my rather shocked eyes, it seemed like the world of boys my age at that time, in that place, was as chaotic as Circe’s and Muse’s interaction, where the one of them who just ran screaming to hide behind my knee, will suddenly jump on her sister and start biting her ears for no apparent reason.

At the time I looked at that playground I remember thinking “I wouldn’t survive as a boy.” But later, when my kids were in school, the violence was more like the violence on the girls’ side, when I was a kid. It was stylized, and shouting in each other’s face, and maybe pushing if no one was looking, except for the inevitable young psychopath, who would beat on the other kids behind play structures and where no one could see him, and whom we had to give older son permission to beat. (Younger son, about the size of this kid’s arm, had already beat him once, by clambering up his side holding on to his neck and punching him on the head screaming “no one beats on my brother but me.” Note at the time this brought no punishment because no one could believe the tiny pre-schooler who weighed maybe 25 lbs soaking wet was hitting the 3rd grader-but-my-height giant.) After months of his getting older son in places where the playground guards weren’t looking and beating him till he was bruised, and/or breaking his glasses, older son turned around and punched him a couple of times. And suddenly we’re in the office, and being told that we should not have told him that because “violence never solved anything.” To which the 4th grader answer “Tell it to the city fathers of Carthage.” (Proud momma moment, even though I don’t think any of the teachers knew what Carthage, IL had to do with it. Because that was about the level of thought in that room.)

I’ve been re-reading a lot of books I read for the first time when I was a teen. A lot of them are mysteries written at the beginning of the 20th century.

Someone probably 20 years ago in a con, talking about how writers’ research said how mysteries are the best way to research the “texture of real life” in a certain place and time. For instance, Miss Marple captures the texture of life in a small British village at the turn of the 20th century. Like, the post office is in the grocery store, type of thing.

If that’s true — and I think it is — being a man in the early 20th century was a lot more like my vision of being a boy in that playground than what we know of public interaction of males nowadays. 

Leave aside the fact that men are often private investigators you still get a feel for what is acceptable or even possible in society and what is not. And it was possible for some rando on the street to take violent exception to what he thinks you just told your girl. Or to your comment about someone else’s behavior. Or. And it was possible — or it fails as fiction, and also, this appears so often in fiction by so many different people, it’s unlikely to be impossible — for two men to punch each other over this sort of interaction without — unless it was in a private venue where this just wasn’t acceptable — anyone calling the police, or anyone suing anyone else. I mean, it might get you tossed out of the bar (in an attempt not to let it spread, is my guess) but it wouldn’t get you arrested.

There is a physicality to life that just isn’t present nowadays.

Because human evolution simply doesn’t happen in these few generations, the only thing causing this is different “controls.” I.e. these days you’re likely to get arrested for punching someone no matter how much they needed it. And you might get sued for defending some woman who is being abused in public. And–

So what is happening is the same thing that happened in the kids’ schools. Violence is still there but under ground, and hidden, and those who either can afford to be sued/arrested because they’re very rich, or very poor. And the violence is likely to be more intense and far more serious because you have to get it in while you can, before the authorities notice.

And here’s the thing. I don’t have answers, but I have questions:

• Is it good or bad for society to lose the “first level” of policing on acceptable public behavior and outsource it to courts, police and social arbitration?
  
• Is it good or bad for young male development that they are no longer allowed to have playground tussles? How does it work in terms of them being adult males capable of doing or responding to controlled violence?
  
• How much does the “violence never solved anything” which we all know is a lie contribute to empowering the bullies at both the child and adult level?

I don’t know. As far as I can tell no one knows. Utopians just decided that men should no longer be at home with controlled violence, and therefore applied the “violence never solves anything’ rule from childhood on.

I mane, no one WISHES for violence, or at least no woman, but sometimes might it be the least evil alternative? 

To what extent does “no violence” work? What side effects does it have in society at large? And what effect on society?

And shouldn’t we know that, before implementing society-wide experiments?

Book promo

If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM JERRY BOYD: A Reptile Dysfunction (Bob and Nikki Book 42)

Bob and the crew found out about some castaways, who seemed to be related to their new friends. What to do but take their friends to rescue their people? Of course, things are never as easy as they seem. Come along and find out what their shepherd has in store.

FROM LILANIA BEGLEY: Djinn: A short scifi romance.https://amzn.to/48KpyYY

The planet Sumire’s dry surface holds many surprises. Seona’s academic background hasn’t prepared her for what happens when her flitter crashes, and she nearly lands on top of Henry. Henry has his own secrets, but first, they have to survive…

FROM SABRINA CHASE: Red Wolf: Scout Part 1 (Red Wolf Serials Book 4)

An unexpected hazard of going from a world of modern technology to a primitive, alternate Asia: explaining the concept of “swimsuit” to people who can’t swim. Nic must train a truly effective special forces team, and protect the only safe haven she’s found. The people of Shanmen fortress have accepted her— even if some still think she is a wolf demon in her spare time—but Feng Guo, the general in command, has a powerful enemy determined to wipe them out.

Nic must save the fortress and the people within from sabotage, single spies, and entire squads of soldiers in a world wracked by rebellion. She only has her wits and what she had on her when she was shunted to this timeline. What can she do with a cell phone, a tourist guide, and a very slightly used geology degree? Wreak havok, and let slip the Red Wolf of war!

FROM DAVID COLLINS: Return of the Old Gods

The modern gods are gone; they have been removed from power by the old gods. The old gods are back: Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Roman, Hindu, Aztec, Celtic, Japanese, Chinese, Babylonian, and many others.

The first thing they do is kill off over 1 billion people who have been judged as Evil. They also eliminate the weapons of all of the militaries, all nuclear power fuel, and waste.

Gordon Anderson was a clerk at a 7-11, and he was (as usual) late for work. That is suddenly the least of his problems.

The world is changing; everything is in turmoil. However, the most disturbing fact may be that his phone now has some new contacts listed in his address book.

The gods of old, the ones that have just judged and executed a billion people and are literally shifting continents like chess pieces. They now have him on speed dial…

FROM SEAN FENIAN: Fireborn

An end can be a new beginning … sometimes.

Life is not kind to everyone. Some would say it is cruel to more than it is kind to. But sometimes, someone’s life can become so empty, so miserable, so filled with pain, that they simply don’t want to live it any more. Life has become an unbearable burden. Some people in such a position choose suicide … or perhaps find death rushing at them and simply make no effort to avoid it.

Often, that person doesn’t really want to die. They just can’t bear to continue living that life any longer. What they want is an escape, any escape, from a life that has become intolerable.

But even if you are somehow granted that escape, you must still somehow heal the trauma of the life you escaped — and learn who you are NOW. And you may find that even your second chance comes at a cost.

Fireborn is an alternate-world fantasy novel including dragons, a “magic” system based on Finnish mythology, detailed swordsmithing, and a lot of back-story about poly relationships and healing from past abuse. Ever heard of a smith who can mix advanced metal alloys by ear? In this book, you will.

FROM NATHAN C. BRINDLE: A Huntress on the Rocks (Timelines Universe Book 4)

A young military intelligence agent. Hunting a murderous drug dealer across a floating city on a water world light-years from Earth – with only his name, and a vague description of what he might look like. Will she finally find her quarry and bring him to justice, or will cases of mistaken identity mean she’ll simply end up

A Huntress on the Rocks

(A Delaney Wolff Fox story)

FROM LIANE ZANE: The Harlequin Protocol (The Unsanctioned Guardians Book 2)

Prequel to the Elioud Legacy series

She was trained to follow orders. She chose her conscience instead.

Berlin, 2011—The War on Terror is ten years’ old and shows no signs of abating. While on a high-stakes operation to unearth a terrorist cell on the verge of a devastating attack, newly minted CIA officer Olivia Markham spots a young woman being harassed by a group of immigrants. Unable to stop herself, she intervenes. For better or worse, her actions affect the mission objective. The instincts that made Olivia a stellar CIA recruit threaten her ability to work in the field.

But Olivia’s instincts won’t be denied.

Even as she faces opposition within the CIA, Olivia meets two other operatives from other agencies whose instincts match her own: Captain Alžběta Czerná of Czech military intelligence and Anastasia Fiore of Italian foreign intelligence. Yet each action outside the wire risks her future at the CIA. As what’s right becomes lost in the fog, Olivia must balance her official and unsanctioned covert activities. Until the dangerous mission that forces her to write her own operational protocol.

Set two and half years before THE ELIOUD LEGACY series, THE HARLEQUIN PROTOCOL tells the story of Olivia Markham’s transition from trained field operative to unsanctioned guardian.

“If I loved Olivia before, I am insanely mad about her after this. She is a superb character.” — Ted Fichtl, Col. USA (retired)

FROM HOLLY CHISM: The Godshead (Modern Gods Book 1)

Food and drink for sale; snark for free…

It’s hard to be a god nobody believes in, sometimes. Especially when one spends their days trying to quietly go about his or her life in a world that barely remembers the myths surrounding the old Greek gods, but where some religions still follow the old Norse gods.

And some of the Norse gods are getting more dangerous: Loki, the trickster, has lost the last of what passed for his sanity, and needs to be helped, or stopped. One of the two. And no one seems to be up to it.

At least, not alone. Working together, they can avoid the worst of Loki’s tricks, and maybe even solve their problems.

A tale told from several points of view.

FROM DALE COZORT: Snapshot: Book 1 of the Snapshot Universe

Alternate realities you can fly to.

For eighty million years, the Tourists have taken Snapshots of Earth, creating living replicas of continents. Life in the Snapshots quickly diverges from the real world, creating a universe where humans and animals from Earth’s history fly between Snapshots, exploring, fighting, and sometimes meeting themselves.

In 2014, the Tourists’ newest Snapshot catches Middle East Analyst Greg Dunne rushing toward Hawaii to join his wife, who just went into labor. The new Snapshot doesn’t include Hawaii, cutting Greg off from everyone he loves.

Greg is thrust into the aftermath of a hidden, decades-old massacre, where Germans from a pre-World War II European Snapshot battle ranchers from a Korean War-era U.S. Snapshot,a fun house mirror version of the US cut off from the world since 1953.No Beatles. No Internet. No Personal Computers. No cell phones. No Vietnam War.But an endless new frontier.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Rockin’ the USA

It’s not easy being married to the leader of the band, even in the best of times. When everything becomes political, you’ve got a nightmare on your hands.

Laurel had her doubts when her husband signed on to headline Governor Thorne’s Independence Day concert in Candlestick Park. Now that the band’s committed to the appearance, the Flannigan Administration has decided to shut the show down, with prejudice.

Laurel knows she has to fight this attempt to stop the signal. But doing so may put her in more danger than she could ever have anticipated, and risk those she loves.

A story of the Grissom timeline, originally published in Liberty Island Magazine.

This edition also includes a bonus essay on the era of dictatorship in Grissom-timeline America.

FROM MARY CATELLI: Winter’s Curse

Who but a fool would linger after Zavrien laid his curse? Ill luck can kill — and all the more in Zavrien’s enchanted, endless winter, haunted with ice giants and frost fairies.

When the soldier Gareth is cursed, the young wizard Perriel learns how dangerous lingering can be.

But she can hold out a sliver of hope for breaking the curse — if it doesn’t break them first.

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: obedient

Part of the problem we have with the left’s fantasies is that they are very bad at world building.

I mean, you can see that in their movies and books. The number of books I’ve thrown against the wall because “this is not how any of this works” including the book where “because of global warming” Kansas was underwater but London wasn’t. Or the one where Space colonies were great because it was incredibly communist but Earth was in deep trouble because of being free trade. Or the one where– But truly, what’s the point? I’ve walled more leftist bad world building than I’ve read, and even so I tolerate a lot of bad world building.

But what you have to understand — No, seriously, as if the post leading to the semi-fisking of the last few days didn’t make that clear — is that to them the most ridiculous nonsense makes perfect sense, and that they think like that in real life too.

No, seriously. They’re all about the story, but if they’re given a “reason why” they never poke into it, see if it’s true, or even do the most basic elementary “wait, that doesn’t add up.” Ever.

Instead they decide that things are a problem/not a problem for some arbitrary reason and when the reason doesn’t materialize or have anything to do with it, they still decide it’s needed, because of … reasons.

Take their entire fixation with getting rid of cows. It all started with Diet For A Small Planet. I read it standing up in a bookstore, way back, fascinated at the sheer insanity of it.

Being, as I was, from a rural area, I could tell the person coming up with this theory had never, ever, not even in semi-lucid imaginings been near an agricultural region or had any idea how one grew food or cattle.

They had instead just done abstract math. They’d either read Ehrlich’s Population Bomb (I’m not sure, you know, if it was before or after the Diet bs and I’m not going to look it up. They’re both stupid.) And then they did the calculations on what cows eat and what humans eat, and had a brain storm: if only everyone just ate vegetables, we could feed a lot more people.

What they missed, of course, that any rural kid knows is that you don’t feed livestock on what humans can eat. Instead, you feed the stuff humans can’t eat, the stuff left after processing corn, or wheat or whatever to… well, you feed just about anything to pigs. But you can feed wheat straw to cows. And frankly, you can pasturage cows on land where you can’t grow anything. They’re not like goats, that you can feed on three tin cans and an old log, but they still can digest hard vegetable matter humans can’t eat.

In the US this is even more stark. A lot of land in the US west is really not good for agriculture. Too steep, too arid. In Colorado mostly full of scrub oak. In fact, unlike in good land in the east, in the west the land is likely to support fewer cows per acre. But it does support them. And humans can eat the cow, which is concentrated calories.

If everyone went vegetarian, we wouldn’t feed more people. We would instead have to put more land under the plow. In fact the entire dream of the insane left of sticking us all in stack a prol apartments makes perfect sense with this, except they think the rest of the world would be a natural preserve. In fact, we’d have to grow food everywhere. Including in the road medians.

But they don’t know this, and they fell in love with that idea. In the future, we’re overpopulated, and we all have to eat only plants.

Okay, so maybe they are too soft and get weirded out at eating moo cows. I’ve met some of those. Or perhaps they just don’t like the idea of people raising these huge animals.

But you know the real reason they fell in love with that idea so much? Because when they read this as teens, they thought it was brilliant and made perfect sense. They told people that and people kept laughing at them. So in their heads they decided they were too smart for the world, and the world would see they were right when everyone had to go vegetarian, not to starve.

Only, you know? Turns out the population bomb was a fizzle. And the need for vegetarianism never became a thing.

So now they’re old (most of them are older than I) and they are determined to make everyone eat the plants (and the bugs) and to ban cows, because they still have this vision in their heads, and they want to make sure that everyone does the thing they said they would do, back when they read the world’s stupidest books.

In the same way, they’ve been enchanted with “climate change” for decades now. I remember hearing people older than I cackling about all those idiots (read people more successful than them and who didn’t fall for the just so stories of the doom mongers) would be sorry when the world was under water 20 years ago.

Like Diet For A Small Planet — or Marxism — it is the sort of system that is self-verifying inside the system, and as long as you don’t leave the system is completely logical. You know, in a world where cows eat the same humans eat, and where all land is equally arable, and in which humans are reproducing like bunnies, Diet for a Small Planet would be true. If this sounds like “If ifs and ans were pots and pans, everyone could cook,” it’s because it is. The climate models are the same thing, except on computers. If you keep inside the model, then the model is right. If you assume that all the factors possible went into the model, then … well, we’d already be baking or something.

Except of course, the models can’t even predict past weather. But for the people enchanted by the models and convinced it makes them smarter than other people and/or who see in these models a way to power and to stop all ‘the idiots’ who don’t believe these things from being wealthy, it’s easy to put hands over ears and go ‘lalalalalalala.’

Which brings us to the idea that the left does everything to an exact plan and they’re keeping their plan and —

It’s not that simple. It’s not even that close to that simple. It’s more that yes, they want power and they grab at everything as a vehicle of power.

But they also believe these things, because it’s part of how their minds work. Even the ones “at the top”, even the ones in on concocting the lie end up buying it, because it allows them to think of themselves as insightful and brilliant, and also caring. They’re saving the world. Or keeping people from starving, or whatever.

Hints of these confused thoughts come through periodically, like when John Kerry said we needed to stop traditional agriculture, or people would starve. At the bottom of that incoherent idiocy was Diet For A Small Planet that some portion of Lurch either thinks it’s real or wishes were real.

And then we get to their happy fun idea that Global Warming (hear the capitals) would submerge islands and destroy agriculture across the world, and there would be “climate refugees.” They were deathly serious about it.

Of course, it didn’t happen, the same way that overpopulation didn’t happen. Because, well, the world might be warming (not noticeably for about a decade, but whatever) but these things aren’t computer models and in the real world these things don’t happen immediately, in movie-schedule. So, no, nothing is submerged, and no patterns of agriculture have changed.

But hey, if you open the borders, and get various shady NGOs and commie fronts to ship the world to our Southern border, you can claim — and tell yourself — that these are “climate refugees.”

Of course, as a rich country, who profited from the thing that made the warmering, we should look after all the refugees. Notice their insistence in calling them “refugees.” These aren’t invaders, sent in to be their wrecking ball on America. No, they’re refugees caused by our greed and capitalism (everything is caused to capitalism. Is there anything it can’t do?) And look how kind the left is looking after them in our hotels, schools and… airports?

Mayorcas said that because the left absolutely believes this. Partly because they very much want to. And they fail to realize it is the most absolute, utter garbage.

No? Well, tell me what parts of America are now under water? None, you say? In fact, wealthy lefties keep buying sea side property?

What magic is this? How come we have sea-shore privilege and the sea only goes up where the poors littlez brownz peoplez live? Nefarious of us, isn’t it?

What about climate change destroying agriculture? Look, there are droughts and floods around the world at any given time. Like, South Africa in the eighties in some places had people who were 18 and had never seen rain. (Or didn’t remember seeing rain. Don’t quote it. I read the article, but it was a long time ago. It might have been in Dutch, which tells you how long ago it was.) And we remember that California had floods — Australia too — in recent years. And our midwest is dry-ish in spots. But all this is part of the normal swings of weather, and no, they’re not really causing that much of a disruption in any nation much less in all the nations these supposed “refugees” came from.

Again, our land doesn’t have some kind of capitalist privilege. No one has built a shield over America. If climate were so bad in so many regions, we’d also already be starving, or at least having serious trouble growing anything. Even cows on scrub oak.

So, you know? All of this is nonsense.

They view the world through a half formed network of dreams, all of these dreams being really nightmares for everyone else, and designed to make them look like heroes and geniuses.

It’s important to know where they’re coming from, and what is going on in their brains, and how they’re guzzling their own ink, and how it poisons them.

But ultimately? Ultimately their lies and idiocy.

And not only are we not required to let them drag us backwards into their insanity, it is our duty to point out it’s insane, and has no contact with anything but the fantasies of their deranged brains.

And it’s important to keep this in mind and refuse their language which leads to their insanity. These are not “refugees” even if they come from countries with profoundly bad governments. No, they’re illegal immigrants, or border jumpers, or, if you prefer, commie advance guerillas (at least the military age ones.)

Be not afraid. Hold on to the truth, and keep telling it.

In the end, we win, they lose.

A friend, who is perhaps not as allergic to leftist/progressive duck-speak recommended an article — albeit noticing that it was leftist, so saying some adaptation would be needed — as giving us some ideas for how to prepare to what is/will be to some extent a bad crash.

I mean, I don’t think I’m giving anyone news when I say that 2025 is going to be a mess, even if by some miracle we manage to beat fraud and get the usurper destroyers out of our in the US. Because they’re going to go insane and terrorist-like, even worse than the fiery summer of 2020 love. And they’ll use their perces of power in our culture to destoy us, worse than they’ve been doing.

And so, we’ll have to rebuild. These rules are in a way how to face the destruction and how to position ourselves to make it short and rebuild.

Except they are from the left side. Note that these were written by an historian who studied the tyrannical regimes of the twentieth century and that he really should know better, but that he’s persistently and bafflingly ignoring how his own side is violating these “don’t do that” and giving off all danger signals. His blindness is baffling and infuriating, and sometimes his bubble-assumptions are hilariously weird, like the idea that what you do with newfound friends is “march” with them.

So this is part fisk, part “this rule is good” and part “this is how we can apply this.”

The article (which he first wrote in 16, then republished recently, because if Trump won/wins reeeeee instant Hitler) is here in archive link, because I really don’t need a blog war. Too busy for that.

And if you’re a completist: Part one, part two, part three.

16. Learn from peers in other countries.  Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries.  The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend.  And no country is going to find a solution by itself.  Make sure you and your family have passports.

16 – Okay, first off, he’s not exactly wrong. I have friends abroad. Some of you are abroad. 10/7 shocked and changed a lot of us, even if it happened in Israel. And how the left took it here shocked and changed us more.
Also we’re aware of what Castreau is doing in Canada. And of the — literal — freedom fighters trying to claw back the right to grow food from the eco-industrial-complex in Europe.
And he’s not wrong that this is part of a worldwide trend, just like the sick 20th century pash for Marx was a worldwide trend, to an extent predicated on the culmination of the industrial revolution and the realization that — with the technology of the time — concentrated and planned production was better. This led them to believe that government should also concentrate power and plan everything, including the economic life of the entire country. (Note the trend started in the 19th century, just reached its apogee in the 20th. History is slow.)
So, we had the two hard core attempts, which this guy supposedly studied — fascism and communism — and the soft, namby pamby Marxism with a smiley face of Europe the rest of the time, because their governments discovered how much they liked all the power to control what people made and read and ATE during the two world wars. So they installed “socialism” which was a pathway to that perfect communism that never happens. That this man doesn’t realize that socialism is a “soft” but not much changed version of the tyrannical regimes he studied, and that the slide to tyranny is inherent and inevitable in concentrated power telling every individual what to do, believe, eat, think is a mystery.

The problem is socialism kills. Fast or slow. In the camps and gullags, or in births that don’t happen and the slow death in life of diminished lives, meaningless lives.

We’ve now reached the point where socialism’s reach for more power has become an obvious death grip, and people are fighting it for their lives. Because the alternative is dying. And all the old, sclerotic institutions, long skinsuited by the socialists are now utterly inefficient and useless when not counterproductive. A blind man can see it. The socialists’ habits of hiring for ideology, not competence, has produced in a scant century what took the Hapsburgs five centuries of controlled incest to create: rulers and an elite so demented, so stupid that they would take three tries to figure out what end of a queen to put the crown on.

So, yeah, the crisis is global.

BUT learning from other other countries? Pardon my French, but F*ck that Sh*t. 

I mean we can learn minor flourishes from them. It has been pointed out the trucker’s convoy of Canada got the idiots to back off, but I think that’s a “one time” trick. And while the French spraying manure on their government buildings was fun to watch, let’s remember that proles had to clean that, and it was paid for by the proles’ own tax money. And knowing what doesn’t work is half the battle.

However ultimately, getting a passport is only good for a small sojourn abroad should that be needed, and even then. Remember, as I experienced first hand in the seventies, when the US sneezes, the world catches pneumonia. No. We stay here. We fight here. The idiocy has to die in America, because it hid in our campuses and institutions when the USSR fell.

We can’t run and we can’t hide, so cut your cloth to suit your purpose. Prepare yourself physically and mentally now. There is no running away.

And repeat after me: The world can d*mn well learn from us. The antidote to Marxism are natural rights of the individual. Among others, but essential, the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For the purpose of safeguarding such rights legitimate governments are instituted upon the world. Any government that doesn’t safeguard them or violate them is illegitimate.

All the rest is dross.

17. Listen for dangerous words.  Be alert to use of the words “extremism” and “terrorism.”  Be alive to the fatal notions of “emergency” and “exception.”  Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.

17- Giggles hysterically. If I weren’t so busy and didn’t have better things — 5 novels to finish — to do with my time, I’d go to blog war, and send this guy videos of the Red Speech and the Abomination at Valley Forge.

Onto you I give other dangerous words to watch for: disinformation is one. Legitimate governments don’t try to stop you from hearing wrong things. They make sure you listen to a lot of things, and let you listen to EVERYTHING. They inform. They don’t suppress disinformation. The difference between information and disinformation is apparently decided by government experts. Which means censorship and propaganda. Or, you know, there’s Democracy and someone’s election being the end of democracy.

Or, in general, a government that hates its own people and wants to control it, destroy it and punish it.

Angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary? Well, you cookie-eating-bitch, I’m only not traveling to Valley Forge with a truck full of hydrogen peroxide to disinfect our sacred site from the presence of the ugly, ridiculous usurper of all that is right and good in this nation, because the attempt was so ridiculous and pathetic. A speech against insurrection in a site sacred to the Memory of George Washington is like a speech against ice cream in a creamery.

So what do I propose to do about it? Well, I fight with what I have. Speech. Lots of speech. Pointing out the ridiculousness of the current regime, and that they’re not less terrifying for being ridiculous. Hitler was a ridiculous little man with funny mannerisms. Stalin was a ridiculous man with an oversized mustache. But millions of people died laughing.

What can you do? I don’t know. Being angry is not very useful, so you have to go beyond anger, and craft quips and words that show other people the danger we’re in, and where it’s coming from.

Will it save us? I don’t know. Probably not. But after the crash, or during, it might wake up some people. Perhaps enough people.

18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives.  Modern tyranny is terror management.  When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power.  The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book.  Do not fall for it.

18. First he wants us to be angry. Then he wants us to be calm. And apparently he’s been asleep in a cryogenic tank in deep storage the last four years, and hasn’t seen each and everyone of these things used by the left, blatantly and in everyone’s face, including the persecution of a political enemy who is apparently “uniquely” scary.
Yeah, I don’t think we’re at any risk of falling for this. How to wake up someone who studied tyranny and doesn’t see it? I don’t know. At this point I feel like the man is either insane or under an hypnotic suggestion.

So what do we do in the face of this propaganda? We ignore it. We don’t believe it. We disobey whenever we can. We disobey in funny ways that encourage others, if we can, and we don’t shut up.

We tell the delusional bitches to look in the mirror. And we show them the double digits straight up.

19. Be a patriot.  Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come.  They will need it.

19. Looks pityingly at the author of the original article: And what does America mean, sweet cheeks?
Because if you think it means opening our borders and our purses to anyone who traipses in uninvited, you got it wrong. (I’m all for immigration, and if we still had a frontier, or at least didn’t have a welfare state, I’d even be okay with people just walking in. But walk in and become our pensioners? Well, that’s something quite different. We no longer lest circumstances cull those who will become Americans.) If you think it is America’s job to send its troops as social workers to spread progressivism all over the world, you’d be wrong. If you think America owes anyone spit, you’d be wrong.
America is or should be, the land of the free and the home of the brave. The place where those of us who just want to be left alone to live our lives are allowed to do so, without bending the knee to king, queen or potentate and without assuming someone is better or worse than us by virtue of birth.
And I’m being a patriot as hard as I can. While you have forgotten or never knew, I try to defend and uphold the constitution of the United States of America against enemies domestic and foreign.
And if she — forbid the thought — should fall, I intend to continue teaching her and preaching her, sot hat eventually she can come back.

America, in the flowering of her blessed Constitution, and despite her falls and slips, and her compromises, has been the best thing to happen in the long, blood soaked history of mankind.

She shall not vanish from this Earth. And if she falls, I will do my utmost to restore her.
You? Do what you can, when you can. It’s all we can do. But don’t forget how special the Republic is that we inherited (some of us wrong side of the bed, by means of naturalization) and how important it is she not perish.

And as you do so, cock a snook at the cookie-eating-bitch who wrote the original article and who thinks that being patriotic is voting for the progressive du jour and defending our democracy is keeping Democrats in power. I bet you he’s never seen middle fingers like ours. Because ours are American. And he’d be lucky to see them.

20. Be as courageous as you can.  If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.

20 And you know? He is right, other than the fact that he can’t see that his side is already instituting tyranny makes it worse.

BUT I have words for you, and listen to me: Being prepared to die is not the same as rushing upon martyrdom. The early church fathers apparently told people not to be in a rush to get killed for the glory of G-d. And you, don’t you rush to die for our cause, though it’s glorious.

And don’t you go pushing into violence without thinking, just because you’re angry. There’s many ways to skin a tyrant, and only on of those is physical. In many ways they fear our rebellion less than they fear our disobedience. And they’re getting that, straight up and double size. No? Then you haven’t paid attention to their repeated attempts to re-institute the Covidiocy and how much Nope they’re getting, right in der Fuhrer’s face. Not to mention the fact their climate panic is falling flat except to the very young and very neurotic — and even then most of those are starting to realize that a Winter without fuel and unable to afford food is worse than a couple degrees of warming — or that their well-spoken, “it’s just fairness” DIE (Yeah, they call it DEI. It’s DIE. Racism ain’t divine) policies are being exposed for the sham and destruction, and worse, ridiculousness they are.

They are facing the destruction of all they’ve worked for, and they wish you’d just rebel. A few of you, in a relatively small force, so they can stomp you and use the “fear” of you to hunt everyone who is humiliating them so badly in the public square. 

In default of that, they’re trying to use Jan 6 to hunt down everyone who didn’t condemn it. (And yeah, that probably means you should watch, in case this space suddenly becomes blank.)

It won’t do them any good, because it makes them look more ridiculous.

Right now, you’re not required to die. And you shouldn’t listen to the caveman in the back of your brain saying what we really need is some atrocities to scare the other guys. We are no longer in the stone age. All atrocities do is scare the vast majority of humans and revolt the rest.

Yes, you’re angry. So am I. But don’t let them use your anger against you. The majority of non-politics addicted people are starting to notice something is very wrong, but they’re not where you are yet.

Remember Americans have been late to every war. Every single war. And when we enter it, we finish it.

Let it play. Don’t rush. This is not a movie.

There is still a chance that physical violence passes us by. And at any rate, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that we wait till our just cause be plain as a slap on the face, or as a drawn gun. Their drawn gun, not ours.

Prepare, prepare, prepare. It’s entirely possible this degenerate leadership will realize who they’re dancing with, and will run to non-extradition countries (who’ve already been paying them.) Look, miracles do happen.

But probably there will be violence here and there, with or without official sanction. When there is violence be prepared. First, be prepared not to be there. Particularly if you’re in no state to fight. But if needed, be prepared to end it and to protect the defenseless. I call to your attention the Kenosha Kid. Be like Kyle. Don’t be a martyr, be a defender.

More importantly and almost for sure, some of us here and there will fall victims to the regime, either with our lives or with lawfare that strips us of everything worth living for.

None of us wants this. I don’t want this. None of you wants this. We don’t want to lose our lives or our liberty, or the things we’ve worked hard for.

But if we got to go? If the music stops and any of us is standing? Face the music as well as you can. Because the man is right about one thing: if you don’t stand for anything, you’ll fall for nothing.

Be not afraid. In the end we win, they lose. It’s the middle that’s going to be painful and spiky.

But given what we’re fighting for, it is more than worth it. Great things have a great cost. And the restoration of the republic is great. If we don’t see it, the next generation will.

Let’s keep the beacon of freedom lit as a light for the world.

There is this article that a friend recommended as a preparation for the next year, because you know that whoever wins (I believe in miracles, despite the fraud) it’s going to be hell on earth, and for what comes after, as well, when we, hopefully, get to rebuild. (That article link is archived, because I’d rather not start a blog war. Not because I can’t hold my home, but because I’m buried in fiction and don’t have time.)

The article surprised me, both in its being useful, and in the level of utter blindness of someone who wrote this before Trump’s first presidency, and who is now running it again, because Trump is so dangerous. It’s unbelievable how he doesn’t see what this administration has already done and is doing that fits his list, or the violations of this list that are solidly in the “progressive” camp.

Anyway, this is part fisk and part “Yeah, he’s right and here is how we can apply it to our situation, but ARGH how blind can he be?

Part one is here.

Part two is here.

11. Investigate.  Figure things out for yourself.  Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media.  Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you.  Learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad).  Take responsibility for what you communicate with others.

11. And there we go. Yeah, sure, print media does investigative journalism. (Smacks head hard with flat of hand.) That ANYONE in the 21st century still believes this is mind-boggling. As for some in the internet being there to harm you: No shit Sherlock, but compared to the AP fed media they’re virtually sweetness and light. As for the sites that tell you what’s reliable, hasn’t he noticed most of those have been debunked or revealed to be lying themselves? No, he probably doesn’t at that. Liberal privilege is never having to think.

SO FOR US: Investigate, investigate, investigate. Most of us already have an habit of doing this. Because as someone pointed out, even sites we trusted bit us during the Covidiocy. Or went they went foaming at the mouth siding with democrats, just because Trump won in 16. Even though none of their dire predictions about Trump came true.

So investigate. Then investigate some more. Particularly if it’s something designed to “scare” or make you give up. We know the other side is running psy-ops on us, and even the “just” right has a bad habit of gloom and despondency from the days when everyone assumed that Communism was the future and that anti-communism could never win.

Even the right tends to emphasize the bad things that the other side is doing, and look here, it’s not that this isn’t happening or isn’t important to know. But you’re not the only one resisting. There are thousands of quotidian acts of defiance and non compliance you never hear about. Most of those you don’t hear about because they are tiny, but even when the aggregate is huge, the media doesn’t report it unless to condemn it.

Note the frantic advertising for the vax, because it’s dead in the water. And the way their hair is on fire about Trump because they are afraid they can’t fraud enough.

I’m telling you to suspect the doom narrative most of all, because it’s so prevalent, and because if we really were losing they wouldn’t be working so hard to convince us of it. And remember that after the unprecedented brain washing and lockdowns and everything, they still had to fraud at the last minute and visibly in 2020, because people didn’t say anything, but hunched their shoulders and went to vote for Trump.

Despite how corrupted our information system is — in a lot of this, nobody knows the truth — for the small psy-ops operations they run, the truth is out there and can be found. So look for it.

12. Make eye contact and small talk.  This is not just polite.  It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society.  It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust.  If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.

12 – Sure. Why not. Look, I’m not wonderful in the real world. For one we don’t visit much, since we work from home, and we work a lot. But when we go out, I pay attention, and I try to be cheerful and respectful of others. I figure everyone is under a great deal of stress whether aware of it or not, and I don’t need to add to it.
This magic of knowing whom I should and should not trust is not a thing I know. Maybe he mind-reads? But I know not to trust the Che-t-shirt wearing people. It suddenly occurs to me I haven’t seen a single one in our new area. Interesting.
The “enter a culture of denunciation” is hilarious too, since some of us have been called everything but nice people ever since we’ve been out politically, and interesting crime adduced to our account with zero proof. Sigh. Never mind. Idiots gonna idiot.
I don’t expect strangers to come to my defense because I smiled at them once. That’s simple-minded. it’s movie thinking. Networking? Sure. It might help. I suck at it, but it might help. BUT most of what he thinks this advice can do, it can’t.
What it can do is get you out of the house, interacting with others. When you’re out, mind your six, both because we’re going to be seeing attacks here (duh) and you need to be ready to react, but also because you’re a social ape. You need some contact with your species. In my case, it doesn’t have to be much, but I need to see strangers every so often.

Remember staying shut in will distort your view of real life, and how real humans are coping.

13. Practice corporeal politics.  Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen.  Get outside.  Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people.  Make new friends and march with them.

13. Snort giggle. ”Power wants.” Dear Lord. How Marxist is this man? There is no such thing as incarnate power, and the oligarchy trying to install itself on our necks is not “Power”. It’s more incarnate “greed and stupidity.” They have some power and some levers, and boy, are they pulling them. But honestly, I don’t think even they care if my body softens or not. This is utterly bizarre. Does he think tyrants spend time sitting around, rubbing their hands and going “You, Mr. Smith of 454 Main street. I want you to become a couch potato.” Bah. The rest of it is also fairly daft. ”Put your body in unfamiliar places” might be a great idea if you’re young. But all the same… Why do the places NEED to be unfamiliar? Or the people, either? I mean what is the net value of unfamiliarity?
I’d rather not put myself in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people for the hell of it. I mean if there’s something I want to see or do, and it’s a place I’ve never been (let’s face it, usually a museum) with people I’ve never seen that’s fine, but no, I don’t think this is advice I want to follow for the hell of it.

THIS part was the most hilarious of all though “Make new friends and march with them.” Er…. where are you marching? And why? Is this a thing that happens a lot in lefty circles? “Hi, I just met you, want to march?” What the holy hell does he think marches accomplish other than pissing off a lot of people? Also, do any of the marchers have jobs, and lives? And while they march, do they sing “A thousand miles on foot, it wears out the caligas?” Or perhaps “Lock up your sons and your daughters, home we bring the bald hair plugs seducer sniffer”? Or do they just do boring crap like sing “The International.” (Wanna bet he and his friends are now shaking fists and chanting about from the river to the sea? No? No bets? Aw.)
FOR US: The Power to Truth Camp wants you to do stupid things, and march and trust strangers particularly those with a high and tight haircut and nice polo shirts, not to mention expensive, matching sunglasses. What do they think we are? Stupid? And who has that kind of time, anyway?

Instead, perhaps just extend your areas of comfort a little. When go have to go to an area look around and familiarize yourself with different routes. Health? Sure. try to get that squared away if you can. (After a certain age it’s all downhill, but I should not have let my glasses go two years.) Exercise, if you can and it will help. Walking is good. Avoid cosplayers carrying tikki torches, though. And do the same in the non-physical sense. Learn something, even if it’s not something practical. And learn to do or make something new. It keeps the mind supple, dissipates the sense of doom and gloom, and who knows, it might come in handy in the future, somehow.

14. Establish a private life.  Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around.  Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis.  Remember that email is skywriting.  Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less.  Have personal exchanges in person.  For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble.  Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you.  Try not to have hooks.

14. Giggles hysterically on “Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around.” Dude. I assume everything I do can and will be used against me.

Fortunately — not saying I don’t have a past. Everyone does — most of my life is incredibly boring. I get up, I have breakfast, I write while husband works. We sometimes pet the cats. On really exciting days we have dinner out at a cheap place. On red letter days we meet a friend for dinner at a cheap place.

The most subversive things I look up are usually historical and for a book. The most damning things I write I write in public, on this blog.

If the “nastier sorts” like the ones we have want to pick me up, nothing will save me. Or you. Be you as pure as snow or innocent as a dove, they’ll accuse you of something horrendous and probably plant evidence.

We’ve seen what they did to the Covington School kids. And what they’ve tried to do to a lot of other people. Again we’re not stupid.

FOR US: You’re not safe. There’s nothing you can do to be safe. No, not even joining the left will make you safe. They turn on their own on the regular.

Sure, sure, run malware sweeps, and if you must talk about something mildly damning do it in person if you can. That doesn’t hurt anything. However, be aware it won’t save you. Again, nothing will. We are under a particularly vicious kakistocracy of idiots who will think nothing of making up atrocities to denounce you for.

Move where you feel safer. Don’t give your address, or give an address that will forward to the mass of people. At least if you’re out and exposed. PARTICULARLY don’t give your address to leftist friends and family if you still have any, and if you can avoid doing so. because they’re human (yes, I know, and yet they are) and they will talk. And even if they don’t intend to hurt you, the friend they talk to about you is another matter. (Says she who, at the height of the puppies came home to find a junior kicker in her home, because her son was dating her, and brought her by to introduce her. Yeah. Kids, right? And no, that relationship didn’t last long after she realized who his mom was. Snort. However I felt unsafe until we moved form there.)
Don’t take unnecessary risks but be aware you can’t be safe. So come to peace with that, and instead concentrate on not doing things that you’d hate being arrested for. Look, it’s like this: If they plant evidence of a crime in my house or computer and take me in for it, I don’t care how heinous it is or even if they condemn me for it, because in my heart I’ll be at peace with the fact I didn’t do it. But suppose I’d actually done the thing, like, oh, I don’t know, stolen the family’s silverplate (we never had any) or set fire to a kitten, or whatever. When I was taken in for it, I would be triply upset: Upset for being caught, upset I was so evil as to do THAT, and upset I gave them an opening to get me by doing something evil and stupid.

If they take me in for saying that Joe Biden is an evil old pedo and stupid to boot? Well, at least they’re taking me in for something I did do, and I won’t be the least bit remorseful I said it, because I think it should be shouted from the rooftops. So, you know, at least I’ll feel better, and be able to live with myself.

Another part of this, in the mental hygiene front, and tying to number 11: if they take you in because you, say, blog at instapundit, and they have convincing proof that Professor Reynolds who owns the site blends puppies for a secret youth-giving shake?
1) Refuse to believe them without verifying your friend/relative/friendly acquaintance really did the heinous thing. 2) If you verify it is true (snort) be aware you’re still innocent, because you didn’t know that when you associated with the person. People have secrets you sometimes couldn’t imagine. 3)Question their idea of guilt by association and list back at them all the reprehensible criminals they associate themselves with.

15. Contribute to good causes.  Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life.  Pick a charity or two and set up autopay.  Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.

15- I agree you should contribute to good causes, political and not. Putting a charity or two on autopay… 
Look, it’s not that there aren’t non-corrupt charities out there of the kind you can autopay. In fact, Dan and I have donated to one — which we investigated thoroughly — for 20 years now. And will probably put them in our will unless they change markedly.
However, while you’re doing that, keep in mind that people have horribly crisis when they aren’t poor, and which they couldn’t have foreseen. Particularly right now, because so many people are tight to the bone and have been for years now. This means that any little thing: health, home repair, car repair, can put them in a terrible situation. Yes, we investigate those too, and we don’t donate to “chronic cases”. (Note this is separate from donating, say, to bloggers, which, yes, I do too. Even wealthy ones (I’d like to be wealthy. They keep drawing the wrong lottery numbers) because they’re providing a service I use and laborers deserve pay. Also because frankly, any blogs I’m likely to read regularly mean that people are extending their neck into danger in the present day. But what I’m talking about is charity.) But we do help those in our circle, from friends to acquaintances, to friends of friends. It’s gotten so pervasive, because of the terrible economy, that we had to set a cap on what we’ll give, because we were spending way too much on that every month. Don’t do that.

BUT do contribute to organizations and help people out of tight spots. We don’t have much of a safety net — all of us — these days. So help as you’d wish to be helped.

And sure, get involved in organizations if you can. As I and others have noted, a lot of things have gotten taken over. So, start a new club. A new book discussion on line. Do the thing you want to happen. Make it as cool as you know how.

Be a light to the world. Go and do it. Even when you’re worried, your fingernails are bleeding from trying to climb a sheer scarp, and you don’t know where the next paycheck will come from. Do what you can when you can. It will help you too, if only psychologically.
Trust me on this. Do it.

More tomorrow.