Nov 27

Open B

“Open borders” is a religious inclination and declaration, no different than asserting that the eucharist is in fact the body of Christ. That some people really believe in the open borders scam doesn’t matter. Some people sincerely believe in transubstantiation, too.

And for the same reasons. It makes the proclaimers of the absurd idea feel bliss and elation and moral superiority. They expect others to bow before their moral rectitude and probity, and are confused when others do not.

There are other reasons, too, but the religious one is a huge one.

Nov 27

Choosing

Intuitive eating, “choice” feminism, identity games, Fat Acceptance — all of these are to allow the illusion of volition while steering those “choosing” into very discretely defined paths that are as inescapable as a SuperMax prison.

Big shocker that you “choosing your choice” is exactly what benefits a whole passel of big corporations and the elites of society while also promoting electoral disinterest and the destruction of effective political coalitions.

Choice constrained is now the choice, and when something else is glimpsed in the mists of the possible it makes people angry.

Nov 27

Trust Funders

I do not agree with unleashing CS gas on kids, but what about the working class of this country — you know, the people who already live here?

Trust funders like she almost certainly is (most journalists are, even Lefty ones) don’t have to worry about an influx of labor causing an already-terrible $10 an hour job to be done by someone willing to do it for $6 an hour.

As the opposite of a trust funder (my parents actually stole money from me), a decent job is the only thing that anchored my dad. When he lost it our entire existence went into a tailspin from which the family never recovered financially and emotionally.

But of course trust funders don’t care about that because throwing open the borders and unleashing whatever occurs to the working class doesn’t matter to them at all. Not in the least.

You know, there’s millions of journalists and writers around the world who’d love to come to America if they could to compete with these amoral putzes. Why not let them? These terrible journalists need the competition. And I wish it went without saying that someone earning $10 an hour driving a forklift doesn’t need competition from anyone, despite whatever ninnyhammers like Sarah Leonard thinks about it.

She’s not the one paying the price.

Nov 27

2 6 eh

New personal record on the deadlift this evening of 260 pounds.

Feels good to be getting strong again.

Nov 26

Tesselated

On this, I am more likely to believe Tesla and Musk.

The NYT is a well-known water carrier for big oil and their interests. And Musk has the data. Why would he need to lie? I am quite sure the reviewer set out to make the Tesla vehicle look bad to show “what could happen” and got busted doing so. I know a few people with Teslas. They are more than pleased with them and they simply don’t behave like this. This isn’t how they operate and if they did so, it’d be disastrous.

Musk should release the data, agreed, but I do not trust the NYT for reliable journalism in cases like this so I suspect the review was cooked. I’d bet quite a lot of money on it.

Nov 25

Boom Down

I think one of the reasons for the extreme selfishness and antipathy of the Boomer generation to the future and toward their own children and grandchildren is that they are the first generation ever to be told to live as if they’d never die.

This debilitating doctrine of feigned immortality is now having pernicious psychological effects as many Boomers believe not in the future or the past, but rather the eternal shimmering present effulgent with the gleam of a time and place that never existed at all.

Over the past few years I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to understand why Boomers are so supportive of policies that directly and demonstrably harm their own children and grandchildren while hardly making their own lives better at all. The immortality cognitive maladaptation is a large part of this, I think. They aren’t concerned with a bequest to the future in the form of money or good deeds because in their heart of hearts they believe against all evidence they’ll be present for that future (really the eternal present), and they care not for harming their own children because they see them as the competition not as emblems of a future time they will not in fact experience.

The Boomer generation enjoyed all the benefits of consumerism and “choice” feminism while being told to live as if they’d never die. We’re now paying for allowing that sort of avarice and solipsism to fester for so long.

Nov 25

Single Hilarity

We are about to experience a singularity, but not the way the tech-bros and futurists envisioned.

Climate change on a vast scale lies ahead and no one knows what awaits beyond that stygian gate. Could be extinction. Or even a better world. The equations are unsolvable; no one knows the answers or even the questions. That is what a singularity is, by definition.

We are beyond all reason and understanding, foundering for now on Homer’s wine-dark sea.

I though the future would be cooler.

Nov 24

Taxation

There is not a single good article in English about the French tax protests and riots occurring all around that nation. This is the journalism we must endure.

It’s not about fuel tax increases, really, as the English-speaking press reports. That’s just the spark. The real animus behind the tumult is regressive, neoliberal-style taxes levied against the French people. Being regressive, they will and are hitting average workers and wage-earners much harder than they are the rich. That is Macron and his ilk’s modus operandi. Why spend your money when you can take it from the workers?

Particularly telling is the “frais bancaires.” That means “bank fees.” Who pays bank fees? Not anyone with money. And electricity tax up 17%? Hugely regressive. “PV stationnement” is a roadworthiness certificate, kind of like inspections some states in the US have.

Nov 24

Go Die Me

We are so inured of evil that this hardly raises an eyebrow — but this shows the extent of the failure of our society. That we have become accustomed to it does not excuse it, but makes it yet more monstrous.