Reading, thinking and commenting this week.
March 1 - 7, 2021. Last reading log for awhile.
I didn’t know it when I started logging my reading habits a few weeks ago, but I think I was trying to gather information about what issues are most interesting and urgent to me, and which information sources are most valuable, as contrasted with topics that are less compelling, and sources that are repetitive or time-wasting.
In making the reading logs, I’ve learned that I’m most interested in
the human capacity for evil and mass cruelty (as currently manifest by Fauci and his acolytes);
free speech, free press, censorship and surveillance issues as related to Big Tech, elitism, woke culture, and cancel culture;
failing, unaccountable, centralized educational and health care systems; and
failing, unaccountable, centralized and increasingly tyrannical civic, governmental institutions (executive, legislative and judicial).
I’m especially interested in alternatives: movements of the pro-liberty and anti-authoritarian sort, working toward decentralization, secession, minarchy and anarchy.
The alternatives seem to be far outside the parameters of what polite people consider polite right now.
But if the level of smug condescension, marginalization and vitriol aimed at those exploring or advocating decentralized alternatives, by status quo supporters and corporate media, can be used as a gauge, then the alternatives may represent the interests and goals of far more people than GloboCap wardens want us prisoners in GenPop to understand about ourselves and each other.
All of these issue-sets were brought into much sharper focus by the Covid-wars of the past year.
All seem poised to continue demarcating a sharp line between Americans who prioritize values of individual courage, self-determination, liberty, dissent and risk-taking in the interests of living meaningfully human lives, and those who most value population-wide fear-inculcation, authoritarianism and conformity in the interests of power centralization, presented to the public as being for “safety,” with anomic longevity as the sole marker of success, regardless of all other moral values that individuals may hold, and all other ethical factors that ordinary people consider in making personal, family and small business management decisions.
I think I’m almost ready to stop reading and thinking so much about the Covid tragedy itself, by which I mean the governors of almost all of America’s states spending a year destroying millions of lives and livelihoods through medicalized mass terrorism based on lies.
But the searing experience will almost certainly propel me for a long time, especially if I find a way to join others who are working to block escalation of the terrorizing, bring fear levels down, boost courage levels, and inoculate against repeats.
I hope and plan to focus on those philosophical, non-local topics and make myself useful to the GenPop-Liberty team in the fight against the GloboCap-Authority team.
Top recommendations for long reads last week:
John Waters, Court of little appeal (SubStack 3/2/21)
Brandon Smith, How the fight over American freedom will probably escalate (Alt-Market, 3/4/21)
Mick Hume, Let’s hear it for the heretics and ranters (Spiked, 3/5/21)
Patrick Dewals, The Emerging Totalitarian Dystopia: An Interview With Professor Mattias Desmet (Lockdown Sceptics, 3/4/21)
Other good stuff:
Andrew Doyle, Why free speech matters (Spiked 2/26/21)
Alasdair Palmer, Blinded by science (Critic March 2021)
Alastair Cavendish, Why I am not a lockdown sceptic (Lockdown Sceptics 3/2/21)
Ann Bradshaw, The cruelty of the hugging ban (Spiked 3/2/21)
Binoy Kampmark, Delusions of self-defense: Biden bombs Syria (Off-Guardian 3/4/21)
Brendan O’Neil, Priti, Meghan and the racism of political correctness (Spiked 3/5/21)
Caitlin Johnstone, There’s only one news story, repeating over and over again (Caitlin Johnstone 3/2/21)
David Catron, Lockdowns: Which ‘Experts’ Were Right? (Spectator 3/3/21)
Edward Curtin, The pine-eyed boy escapes from the belly of the dark night in the fish’s tale (Off-Guardian 2/28/21)
Emily Hill, Screw the sex ban (Spiked 3/1/21)
Emily Hill, Fuck them on the beaches (SubStack 3/1/21)
Emily Hill, The roadmap to economic oblivion (SubStack 3/3/21)
Ethan Yang, Do We Still Have the Will To Continue as a Free Society? (AIER 3/7/21)
Freddie deBoer, The weight (SubStack 3/2/21)
Freddie deBoer, Nitro edition: there you go again (SubStack 3/3/21)
Freddy deBoer, Behavior is the product of incentives (SubStack 3/4/21)
Freddie deBoer, SubStack and Media (SubStack 3/3/21)
Freddie Sayers, Lord Sumption: civil disobedience has begun (UnHerd, 3/4/21)
Gary Jordan, The real ‘lunatic fringe’ and where to find it (Off-Guardian 3/5/21)
Glenn Greenwald, Biden’s protection of murderous Saudi despots shows the hidden reality of U.S. foreign policy (SubStack 3/2/21)
Glenn Greenwald, As the Insurrection Narrative Crumbles, Democrats Cling to it More Desperately Than Ever (SubStack 3/5/21)
Glenn Greenwald interviewed by Omeed Malik and Christian Datoc (Daily Caller via YouTube 3/1/21)
Henry Rodgers, ‘Transparently Security Theater’: Onlookers, Members Of Congress Call Bullsh*t On Capitol Police ‘Security Threat’ (Daily Caller 3/4/21)
Jack Nicastro et al, The right to work and occupational licensing (AIER 3/4/21)
Jeffrey Tucker, The emancipation of Texas (AIER 3/5/21)
Jenin Younes, Your right to refuse a health passport (AIER 3/4/21)
Joakim Book, Yuval Noah Harari’s terrifying pandemic future (AIER 3/3/21)
John Michael Greer, Aries ingress: Washington DC (SubscribeStar 3/2/21)
John Michael Greer, Strange days dawning (Ecosophia 3/3/21)
John Stossel, Mike Rowe: Everyone is essential (PJ Media 3/4/21)
John Waters, Work in Crisis, Part 1 (SubStack 2/28/21)
Jonathan Turley, LA teachers union under fire for effort to racially classify critics (JonathanTurley.org 3/4/21)
Jonathan Turley, Baltimore Student Who Failed All But Three Classes In Four Years Was Ranked In Top Half Of His Class (JonathanTurley.org 3/5/21)
Jordan Schachtel, Abandon ship! Governors scramble to end lockdowns, mask mandates (SubStack 3/2/21)
Jordan Schachtel, A COVID-19 year in review: Central planners lied, people died (SubStack 3/5/21)
Jose Nino, The idea of secession isn’t going away (Mises Institute 2/22/21)
Kit Knightly, Five ways they’re trying to trick you into taking the Covid ‘vaccine’ (Off-Guardian 3/4/21)
Lance Roberts, The feedback loop between the Fed and the elite (Real Investment Advice 3/5/21)
Libby Emmons, States do battle with Biden Administration over Covid lockdowns and mask mandates (Post-Millennial 3/4/21)
Matt Stoller, Big: Apple threatens North Dakota, suffers crushing loss in Arizona (SubStack 3/3/21)
Matt Taibbi, Are the days of the K-shaped con finally over? (SubStack 3/2/21)
Matt Taibbi, In defense of SubStack (SubStack 3/1/21)
Matt Taibbi and Emily Bivens, Meet the Censored: Myanmar writer Zaw Moe Shinn (SubStack 3/5/21)
Paul Alexander, The CDC’s mask mandate study: debunked (AIER 3/4/21)
Raheem Kassam, Recipe for disaster: Democrat governors put Covid-19 patients in nursing homes, contributing to thousands of deaths (National Pulse 5/13/20)
Robert Wright, The Covid Crucible (AIER 3/4/21)
Robert Wright, Paternalism Remains Public Enemy Numero Uno (AIER 3/5/21)
Rosemary Frei, The stats on Covid-vaccine injury and death don’t add up (Off-Guardian 3/2/21)
Sean Collins, Why the cancellation of Dr Seuss matters (Spiked 3/3/21)
Steve Deace, More and more Americans are realizing that Dr. Fauci is not their friend (Blaze 3/1/21)
Todd Hayen, Do as I say, not as I do (Off-Guardian 3/4/21)
Tom Slater, We didn’t start this culture war (Spiked 3/5/21)
Tyler Durden, Cuomo aides rewrote July nursing home report to hide Covid death toll (ZeroHedge 3/5/21)
Newsletters:
Lockdown Sceptics
Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition
Twitter feeds: Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Alex Berenson, Jordan Schachtel, Jack Posobiec, Mike Cernovich, Michael Tracey, Alice from Queens, Michael Malice, OilFieldRando, Naomi Wolf, Kulvinder Kaur, Jeffrey Tucker, Mark Changizi (especially on the essential nature of facial expressions and body language for human identity and connection, and the monstrosity of Zoom substitutes for in-person gatherings)
Gab feeds: @boriquagato
Hard copy magazines:
The Sun (March 2021)
Comment on Glenn Greenwald, Biden’s protection of murderous Saudi despots shows the hidden reality of U.S. foreign policy, which concluded: “…If the U.S. Government can get people to actually believe that, what can’t they get them to believe?”
KW: Well put. I know you haven't spent much time on the repressive authoritarianism of Covid-era governmental decrees here in the U.S., particularly in blue states, and to some extent, that makes sense to me because it's a large topic outside the foreign policy areas you usually cover and also because expressing concern about the civil liberties/police state impacts of mask mandates (as contrasted with mask recommendations), occupancy limitations and business closures (as contrasted with occupancy recommendations), social distancing mandates, and so forth, is a great way to massively increase the censorship demands made on dissidents such as yourself.
If I were you, I also would steer clear of the Covid-wars, and I also understand that since you are in Brazil, your perspective on the disease, public health measures, efficacy data and so forth are different.
Having said that, I've watched the last year of repressive, snitch-promoting, trust-eroding Covid lockdown public policy with a similar question to your last line:
"If the U.S. Government - through it's approved, yet often self-contradictory and evidence-light public health pronouncements and demonization and deplatforming of dissenters - can get people to actually comply with all sorts of highly invasive restrictions on their freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly and association and religion, what can’t they get them to comply with?"
The answer is, "Almost nothing."
They can get the American people to do almost anything, if they frighten them enough and keep them far enough apart, unable to socialize in private and public spaces, unable to compare notes about their own experiences, and unable to share questions and alternative viewpoints.
Comment on John Michael Greer, Strange days dawning
Agree with the poster above who wrote “fantastic and timely post.”
Have been struggling especially with the psychic garbage around the Covid-wars, the sense of being surrounded by and smothered by crazy people, coupled with the sense of obligation to try to “do something” about it, and of course, the sense of futility engendered thereby.
Working on the backing away slowly and bolstering of the spiritual supports, but don’t want to disengage too much because I cling to the idea/folly that there must be some societal value in the sane people not abandoning the crazies.
John Waters at Unchained on Substack had a pithy piece addressing this yesterday: Court of Little Appeal, with extensive quotes and analysis of Denis Rancourt’s work on the vulnerability of Western societies to totalitarianism, and the usefulness of even small individual acts of refusing to go along with the lies of the authorites, for the sake of giving others a glimpse of what sanity could be for them too…