Civil War or 1776

I've been a skeptic of claims that the United States is heading for Civil War II. The laws and policies of the United States that led to the split between the confederacy and the Union as distinct geographic regions don't have an analog today. The major splits today are between rich and poor and urban and rural, and these splits are really likely to be transient. There's a million little subcultures and factions in the US. The cities and regions that soak up all the Federal Reserve funny money today might go bust tomorrow.

A more worrying and persistent, long term trend is the accumulation of quasi-governmental "power" by corporations and cartels in the US who now seek to enact government like authority over individuals. Tech companies and financial companies, who should act as common-carriers and not be permitted to intervene in legal trade or stifle speech begin to enact the whims of their executives and shareholders. In some cases, the reasons are ideological, in some they're acting on behalf of cartel associates. The cartel businesses seem unrelated, like pharma companies and credit card companies, but really they're just one big entity.

I think there's a real potential for rapid escalation to violence, unfortunately. It's not hard to think of scenarios that spin out of control almost immediately and where large portions of the population would jump in.

The Atlantis Religion

I'm starting to think that there's an Atlantis Cult--an antediluvian society--that's smaller but much more influential than other mainstream organized religions. I think a key element of that cult is a claim to primacy and a "true" history of mankind.

The Uphill Battle of Alt Media

A few friends of mine, who I consider to be intelligent and well informed people campaigned for and supported Hillary Clinton, even though they disliked George Bush intensely. When I point out to them that's she's basically George Bush, especially when it comes to warmongering, they can't really even process the concept. They also can't process the concept that you can dislike and not vote for both major party candidates. They're also really afraid of being called names like "racist" or a nationalist or whatever.

Most people, really like 80% or more, can only form an opinion from a sort of group consensus mechanism rather than independent judgement. I've observed our ducks think in much the same way. They have a sort of distributed brain and decide what to do as a group rather than as individuals. There's a lot of value in group learning and opinion forming. It combines the brain power of the group, and also speeds learning. The downside is this mechanism is very easily hijacked by malignant manipulators.

The "establishment" is really entrenched in the opinions of this mass of people. The low level violent pushback against alt media personalities like Sargon is a manifestation of this. Some journalists can label him as a "hatemonger" or a racist or some other similar term, and the vast flock nods and agrees.

YouTube is home to the counterculture, and the counterculture actually is very important. The establishment is backward looking, and generally unable to create anything. The counterculture is the well spring of new ideas. That said, those ideas and people face a severe uphill battle.

It's Insane to Chase Debt Money

I've been working in "tech" since the late 1990s. I've mostly avoided the Office Space type jobs and have worked on some really interesting projects. That said, tech can really be an annoying grind and the work is often ephemeral like some shitty version of making a sand Mandala.

Since the 90's, a huge amount of money tokens were invested in tech and many of those tokens were just from an increase in the money supply. The tech "industry" is really a sponge and excuse for the banking system to spew cash into to drive makework projects.

My salary has outpaced inflation, but it's taken a ridiculously large chunk of the total increase over that time. Over that period, the dollar's depreciated roughly 45-50%. Consequently, many of the years I spent busting ass to compete for that Federal Reserve funny money were wasted by currency dilution.

When currency dilution is the primary means of fueling economic activity, it isn't sensible to chase after prosperity via a corporate job especially if you're constantly gaining skills and productivity.

Astroturf Ethnonationalism Discredits Critiques of Neoliberal/con Policies

A couple of years before Trump was elected, some YouTube channels started pushing "white ethnonationalism". It seemed fake and forced. It's still being sold, even though the audience for it is pretty small.

At the same time, there's a spastic push from the "left" to censor or otherwise attack people who entertain "white" ethnic identity, even though the "left" also pushes every other variety of ethnic tribalism as laudable.

I think it's all coordinated propaganda that ties up people's attention and keeps them focused on nonsense instead of acting in concert to protect their own interests.

Ryan Dawson's Take on the Dancing Israelis

Here's a good interview with Ryan Dawson. He's an independent journalist/researcher who was able to piece together a fairly detailed analysis of who the "Dancing Israelis" were and how they were involved in 9/11. His take is that the attacks were carried out by a combination of the Mossad and the Saudis with the tacit involvement of the Bush administration.

The Empire Needs Degenerates

Self discipline and thoughtfulness are the biggest enemies of the Empire. Palpatine in Star Wars, for example, tries to lead Luke of the path of discipline and self control. In the Return of the Jedi, Luke says "no" and his demonstration of self control is what actually destroys the Emperor, and ends the Empire.

A couple of days ago I wrote about how The Matrix is misunderstood. Cultivation of consciousness and self mastery does bend reality, not in the magical and dramatized ways depicted in the movie, but in the sense that a slowly accumulating set of beneficial outcomes will improve the world.

That's why the Empire needs degenerates and attacks every institution that can help people form a consensus understanding of reality and replaces it with propaganda and divide and conquer schemes like ethnonationalism, feminism, the opposite of feminism, etc... In prior eras when people in the United States organized against corporate interests, they sometimes won pretty handily.

What's degeneracy? In this sense, it's really just living a life of distraction and not thinking about anything. Any person, regardless of race, creed, sexual preferences, age and experience can be disciplined and thoughtful. Likewise, any person can be sucked into a world of distraction and dissipation. I don't think that's a moral or congenital failing. It's just something that can happen when a man gets swept away by desires and loses mindfulness; It's part of being a human being.

The mass consumer and corporate culture in the United States really thrives on people who are perpetually in that state. While it does attack institutions that might organize people and lead them to a higher consciousness, it relies more on jamming the signal of alternatives with noise and gaudy displays.