Mike, I think things are, well, much, much sadder than that. When Biden won the 2020 election, a MAGAot exclaimed to me: "Prove he didn't steal it!"
Then the following discussion ensued:
Me: "Okay. So I have to prove Biden didn't steal the election. But then you have to prove you're not a pedophile."
"Are you saying I'm a pedophile?"
"Yes," I said. "That's exactly what I'm saying. You're a pedophile."
"No, I'm not."
"Prove it."
"I never-"
"Never?" I interrupted. "Can you prove you never abused a child? Can you account for every second of every day of every year since you were born, what, fifty years ago? No. So, you're a pedophile."
"Ehh, yes. No. But... wait a minute. If you say I'm a pedophile, you have to prove I am. I don't have to prove I'm not."
"Really? But Biden has to prove he didn't steal the election? That what you're saying?"
"Yes! Because he stole the election!"
"Like I said - you're a pedophile. You're a child abuser, a disgusting piece of excrement."
"You cannot go around accusing people like that. That's-"
"Oh, but you can go around accusing Biden of stealing the Presidency?"
"Yes! Because he stole the election!"
My point being - it's not so much that something has gotten lost along the way, that perception and understanding of Democratic principles have degraded compared to former generations.
It is my firm belief that a large percentage of the population - any population, and throughout history - does not have the intellectual ability to follow simple logic, or to master conceptual thinking on the most basic level, comparable to the way a color blind person cannot see colors.
I don't say this in judgment of any kind. None of us have made ourselves, and we all have to row with the peddles we've been dealt. Also, and this I find extremely fascinating, I have found no correlation between morality and intellect. People who are no good at logic and conceptual thinking can have the best of hearts, while some who do have great intellect have a heart that darkens a full moon sky.
The only correlation I think I found is between morality and introspection.
Anyway, I do mean to say that it explains why large swaths of people can be made to believe the most illogical, insane and contradictory things. And can fall under the spell of a grown man who goes through live dumbing down the world we live in because he has the intellect of a ten year old boy, and not a particularly bright one at that...
Trump Is NOT Constitutionally Qualified to Be President #Section3 #14A. Enforce 14th Amendment & remove Trump! We demand a new election in 2025 to replace the farcical, illegal election 2024.
Thanks very much. It’s been wonderful that you’ve been doing the live videos so often. I have an easier time falling asleep later after hearing you speak. And thanks for saying « coup » so many times instead of « Constitutional crisis » which I find annoying when I’m so depressed about the coup.
What Michiel said in his post I agree is our reality.
"It is my firm belief that a large percentage of the population - any population, and throughout history - does not have the intellectual ability to follow simple logic, or to master conceptual thinking on the most basic level..."
I believe this to be true, at a different level, to the mainstream media commentators insofar as their not seeing the "End Point" of all that has occurred in this Error (sic) of Trump et al.
1. We saw years of Normalizing Trump and members of his "administration" where media tried to make something formerly unacceptable and rejectionable to be normal or acceptable.
2. Now we are at the stage of Rationalizing Trump and perhaps members of his Administration along with the GOP Congress. We are expending time and emotional energy to provide logical reasons or explanations for totally unacceptable behaviors or actions.
3. If America is to survive- as we have known it, with its failings at home and abroad, then we must as a Nation arrive at Realization. It has come down to do or die in needing to fully grasping the meaning or implications of something. This means a significant shift in our insights and perspective.
All of the above is consistent with Michiel's comment (correct me if I am mistaken Michiel).
Washington called our new government "the great experiment." I would like to redefine the acronym DOGE to mean:
Destroy Our Great Experiment (DOGE).
Let me back this up with my version or adaptation of something originally written by Martin Niemöller referring to the Holocaust.
First they came for immigrants of color
And I did not speak out
Because I am white.
Then they came for the FBI
And I did not speak out
Because I am not an agent.
Then they came for the Department of Education
And I did not speak out
Because I am not a member of that department.
Then they came for the Judges of the Supreme Court
And I did not speak out
Because I am not a Justice.
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me….
Stephen B. Strum (1942-202?)
Mike Brock likes to use 2+2 = 4 and there are 24 hours in a day. I like to suggest an updated version, so to speak: "you see what you want to see, you hear what you want to hear."
We are now living in early Nazi, Germany. We are no different than the German populace that stood by and enabled Hitler to almost destroy the world. Putin's Russia is more like Nazism than Communism. Putin's Russia has all of the hallmarks of Fascism.
The following is from a Google search done by me this morning. Yes, I also use Google's AI (and I do not use A1). Isn't it about time the mainstream media and much of the American electorate understood what follows. I have taken the liberty (while I still have it) to capitalize the characteristics of Nazism, Putinism, Trumpism and show they are of the same mold.
Nazi Germany had the following essential features. It was AUTHORITARIAN (and possibly totalitarian), patriarchal and illiberal; it was led by a self-chosen CHARISMATIC LEADER (to some) who claimed to be OMNISCIENT, INFALLIBLE, enjoyed a personality CULT and was ADORED by his many followers, who truly believed that he was Germany’s messiah; it supported STATE INTERVENTION in an otherwise capitalist economy; it mobilized the population; it employed VIOLENCE against its REAL AND PERCEIVED DOMESTIC ENEMIES and INTERRED THEM in a network of concentration camps and PRISONS; it subordinated the army to the party and secret police; it was revisionist; it glorified and waged IMPERIALISTIC war.
In turn, Nazi ideology promoted and was rooted in the messianism of the German nation and empire; it claimed to liberate the working man and woman; it emphasized the unity and solidarity of the nation; it identified one group, Jews (NOW IMMIGRANTS), as the source of all evil; it was RACIST.
Now, Putin and his political characteristics compared to Nazism
Some trivia here is relevant.
Vladimir Putin's paternal grandfather, Spiridon Putin, worked as the personal chef of Vladimir Lenin and also cooked for Joseph Stalin.
Putin’s regime bears an uncomfortably close resemblance to Nazi Germany, while Putin himself closely resembles Hitler. Putin’s mobilization of Russians is not quite at Hitler’s level; his use of domestic violence is more limited (though Alexei Navalny’s murder suggests that violence may be about to take off); his network of punitive institutions is smaller than Hitler’s, and his glorification of war is a tad more restrained. Ideologically, Putin’s Russia is racist, though far less obsessively so than Nazi Germany, but it, too, has identified a group — the Ukrainians — as the source of all of Russia’s ills and tries to systematically destroy it.
Putin’s Russia may not be quite as rabidly Nazi as Nazi Germany, but it is surely Nazi enough to be termed a Nazi-like state — or, if one prefers, a Nazi-lite state. Both imperial Germany and the Soviet empire experienced a humiliating systemic collapse and subsequent economic hardship, political polarization and widespread cultural anomie. Weimar Germany and late-’90s Russia blamed their woes on the democrats who were then in power and welcomed the man on horseback who promised to MAKE THEM GREAT AGAIN.
Both Hitler and Putin dismantled democracy and replaced it with their forms of personalistic, authoritarian rule. This is my take on what the media is missing in not seeing the reality of Trump. This failure of realization is the detective not identifying the perpetrator. Interesting that perpetrator combines "perp" with "trator"- I think we need to look more closely at language and what truths can be found in the nature of words.
This post has gotten too long. I am now in the last stages of writing on the Hallmarks of Fascism, something the media has yet to describe what is occurring in these dystopian times in America.
Mike, I think things are, well, much, much sadder than that. When Biden won the 2020 election, a MAGAot exclaimed to me: "Prove he didn't steal it!"
Then the following discussion ensued:
Me: "Okay. So I have to prove Biden didn't steal the election. But then you have to prove you're not a pedophile."
"Are you saying I'm a pedophile?"
"Yes," I said. "That's exactly what I'm saying. You're a pedophile."
"No, I'm not."
"Prove it."
"I never-"
"Never?" I interrupted. "Can you prove you never abused a child? Can you account for every second of every day of every year since you were born, what, fifty years ago? No. So, you're a pedophile."
"Ehh, yes. No. But... wait a minute. If you say I'm a pedophile, you have to prove I am. I don't have to prove I'm not."
"Really? But Biden has to prove he didn't steal the election? That what you're saying?"
"Yes! Because he stole the election!"
"Like I said - you're a pedophile. You're a child abuser, a disgusting piece of excrement."
"You cannot go around accusing people like that. That's-"
"Oh, but you can go around accusing Biden of stealing the Presidency?"
"Yes! Because he stole the election!"
My point being - it's not so much that something has gotten lost along the way, that perception and understanding of Democratic principles have degraded compared to former generations.
It is my firm belief that a large percentage of the population - any population, and throughout history - does not have the intellectual ability to follow simple logic, or to master conceptual thinking on the most basic level, comparable to the way a color blind person cannot see colors.
I don't say this in judgment of any kind. None of us have made ourselves, and we all have to row with the peddles we've been dealt. Also, and this I find extremely fascinating, I have found no correlation between morality and intellect. People who are no good at logic and conceptual thinking can have the best of hearts, while some who do have great intellect have a heart that darkens a full moon sky.
The only correlation I think I found is between morality and introspection.
Anyway, I do mean to say that it explains why large swaths of people can be made to believe the most illogical, insane and contradictory things. And can fall under the spell of a grown man who goes through live dumbing down the world we live in because he has the intellect of a ten year old boy, and not a particularly bright one at that...
Trump Is NOT Constitutionally Qualified to Be President #Section3 #14A. Enforce 14th Amendment & remove Trump! We demand a new election in 2025 to replace the farcical, illegal election 2024.
Thanks very much. It’s been wonderful that you’ve been doing the live videos so often. I have an easier time falling asleep later after hearing you speak. And thanks for saying « coup » so many times instead of « Constitutional crisis » which I find annoying when I’m so depressed about the coup.
Michiel Nijk, and Mike Brock:
What Michiel said in his post I agree is our reality.
"It is my firm belief that a large percentage of the population - any population, and throughout history - does not have the intellectual ability to follow simple logic, or to master conceptual thinking on the most basic level..."
I believe this to be true, at a different level, to the mainstream media commentators insofar as their not seeing the "End Point" of all that has occurred in this Error (sic) of Trump et al.
1. We saw years of Normalizing Trump and members of his "administration" where media tried to make something formerly unacceptable and rejectionable to be normal or acceptable.
(e.g., crude language, repetitive lying, racist remarks, misogynistic attacks, belittling epithets.
2. Now we are at the stage of Rationalizing Trump and perhaps members of his Administration along with the GOP Congress. We are expending time and emotional energy to provide logical reasons or explanations for totally unacceptable behaviors or actions.
3. If America is to survive- as we have known it, with its failings at home and abroad, then we must as a Nation arrive at Realization. It has come down to do or die in needing to fully grasping the meaning or implications of something. This means a significant shift in our insights and perspective.
All of the above is consistent with Michiel's comment (correct me if I am mistaken Michiel).
Washington called our new government "the great experiment." I would like to redefine the acronym DOGE to mean:
Destroy Our Great Experiment (DOGE).
Let me back this up with my version or adaptation of something originally written by Martin Niemöller referring to the Holocaust.
First they came for immigrants of color
And I did not speak out
Because I am white.
Then they came for the FBI
And I did not speak out
Because I am not an agent.
Then they came for the Department of Education
And I did not speak out
Because I am not a member of that department.
Then they came for the Judges of the Supreme Court
And I did not speak out
Because I am not a Justice.
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me….
Stephen B. Strum (1942-202?)
Mike Brock likes to use 2+2 = 4 and there are 24 hours in a day. I like to suggest an updated version, so to speak: "you see what you want to see, you hear what you want to hear."
We are now living in early Nazi, Germany. We are no different than the German populace that stood by and enabled Hitler to almost destroy the world. Putin's Russia is more like Nazism than Communism. Putin's Russia has all of the hallmarks of Fascism.
The following is from a Google search done by me this morning. Yes, I also use Google's AI (and I do not use A1). Isn't it about time the mainstream media and much of the American electorate understood what follows. I have taken the liberty (while I still have it) to capitalize the characteristics of Nazism, Putinism, Trumpism and show they are of the same mold.
Nazi Germany had the following essential features. It was AUTHORITARIAN (and possibly totalitarian), patriarchal and illiberal; it was led by a self-chosen CHARISMATIC LEADER (to some) who claimed to be OMNISCIENT, INFALLIBLE, enjoyed a personality CULT and was ADORED by his many followers, who truly believed that he was Germany’s messiah; it supported STATE INTERVENTION in an otherwise capitalist economy; it mobilized the population; it employed VIOLENCE against its REAL AND PERCEIVED DOMESTIC ENEMIES and INTERRED THEM in a network of concentration camps and PRISONS; it subordinated the army to the party and secret police; it was revisionist; it glorified and waged IMPERIALISTIC war.
In turn, Nazi ideology promoted and was rooted in the messianism of the German nation and empire; it claimed to liberate the working man and woman; it emphasized the unity and solidarity of the nation; it identified one group, Jews (NOW IMMIGRANTS), as the source of all evil; it was RACIST.
Now, Putin and his political characteristics compared to Nazism
Some trivia here is relevant.
Vladimir Putin's paternal grandfather, Spiridon Putin, worked as the personal chef of Vladimir Lenin and also cooked for Joseph Stalin.
Putin’s regime bears an uncomfortably close resemblance to Nazi Germany, while Putin himself closely resembles Hitler. Putin’s mobilization of Russians is not quite at Hitler’s level; his use of domestic violence is more limited (though Alexei Navalny’s murder suggests that violence may be about to take off); his network of punitive institutions is smaller than Hitler’s, and his glorification of war is a tad more restrained. Ideologically, Putin’s Russia is racist, though far less obsessively so than Nazi Germany, but it, too, has identified a group — the Ukrainians — as the source of all of Russia’s ills and tries to systematically destroy it.
Putin’s Russia may not be quite as rabidly Nazi as Nazi Germany, but it is surely Nazi enough to be termed a Nazi-like state — or, if one prefers, a Nazi-lite state. Both imperial Germany and the Soviet empire experienced a humiliating systemic collapse and subsequent economic hardship, political polarization and widespread cultural anomie. Weimar Germany and late-’90s Russia blamed their woes on the democrats who were then in power and welcomed the man on horseback who promised to MAKE THEM GREAT AGAIN.
Both Hitler and Putin dismantled democracy and replaced it with their forms of personalistic, authoritarian rule. This is my take on what the media is missing in not seeing the reality of Trump. This failure of realization is the detective not identifying the perpetrator. Interesting that perpetrator combines "perp" with "trator"- I think we need to look more closely at language and what truths can be found in the nature of words.
This post has gotten too long. I am now in the last stages of writing on the Hallmarks of Fascism, something the media has yet to describe what is occurring in these dystopian times in America.
Will our diversity ultimately save us given that the “conversation” frames our differences as a polarity?
@5:30 - you hit a critical point.