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[Chris]

One thing is clear, though. There is an incredible degree of neuroticism playing out, both on the right and on the left.

For instance ─ and this is something that struck me when I read about it a few days ago ─ J.K. Rowling is now under attack from the left because she said that she shared the opinion of another notable woman ─ a journalist, I believe ─ on the fact that someone's gender is a biological matter. And for whatever reason, "Harry Potter" lead actor Daniel Radcliffe immediately chose to openly chastise J.K. Rowling over that.

It has become a real shit storm in the media in the meantime, and within two days after J.K. Rowling uttered those words ─ she didn't even posit it as her opinion, but instead they were somebody else's words, to which J.K. Rowling said that she agreed with them ─ the issue was added to her political views on her Wikipedia page.

Why? Because of neurotic social justice warriors who feel it's a world-shocking event that someone doesn't share their opinion that biological gender (supposedly) doesn't exist. It is in fact such an important issue that it had to be added to her Wikipedia page right away. And so now J.K. Rowling is already officially being labeled in the media as trans-phobic, even though she has not made any trans-phobic comments at all. And this shit storm may have a significant (and in my humble opinion completely undeserved) impact on her reputation, and on her further success as an author.

I consider myself moderately progressive, but I really dislike these so-called social justice warriors and their thought control. In my book, they are no better than those idiots from the alt-right. If you have issues with self-acceptance, then find yourself a good psychotherapist, but don't insist on policing the thoughts of other people, least of all a reputed and respected author whose words didn't even come anywhere close to trans-phobia, homophobia or whatever.

It really is that same old shit as we get with the adherents of the alt-right, i.e. the failure to recognize oneself for who and what one is, and the projection thereof onto another (and innocent) person ─ the tale of the splinter and the beam.

Could we please all return to sanity?

I'm afraid it isn't just neuroticism, but outright Maoism.

This is exactly how the Maoists took over the university campuses in China, then the newspapers and the rest is history.

The denouncements, the public shamings, the grovelling apologies that sound like hostage letters, the labelling of everyone who isn't sufficiently on board with the "progressive" political programme, all these should be readily recognisable to all those who have studied the history of communist takeovers all over the world. It is unbelievable to me that most people don't recognise what we're dealing with and where it's coming from.

I personally think that a civil war, along the same lines as the red-white one in Bolshevik Russia or the Maoist-Nationalist one in China is now a very likely outcome of all this. If I were Trump, I would not allow this to take place and would arrest all the Communist infiltrators and agitators, but he's unfortunately too weak and stupid to do the right thing for his country. All he cares about are his own poll numbers.

[Emil El Zapato]

The above posts got me thinking about my blue collar days:

I had a boss that I actually liked (He was a very good golfer) that laughingly gave me some advice once because I was always getting into trouble (in my partying days).

He said, "You need to quit writing checks that your ass can't cash"...that was a bit sobering... Incidentally, he was later sent to alcohol rehab...he was alcoholic.

Man, it was a difficult environment that I worked in, most of the guys, emphasis on guys, drank more booze on the job than they did in a bar...

Here's a little self-aggrandizement for you...They had a plant that had been open for maybe 20 years or so doing production of making, packaging, and shipping truckloads of product. At the time, I was working in the shipping department loading 'racks' for loading onto 18-wheelers.

There was controversy whether or not I was the 'best ever'. Some claimed so, others said Top 5 (managers). I figure realistically, that I was in the top 3 somewhere. It was like physical poetry for me. Anyway, I finally escaped the job, my 10 year long red-haired Scotch-Irish girlfriend, and my past...


Addendum: If anyone wonders what would compel a human to post this kind of overt pap, it is what I do when in defense mode... no worries, though, it won't last.

pap
noun
soft food for infants, as bread soaked in water or milk.
an idea, talk, book, or the like, lacking substance or real value.

[Emil El Zapato]

United States? Chris, this is not going to happen, what will happen is that the U.S. will move one step closer to its promise.

[Wind]

If I were Trump, I would not allow this to take place and would arrest all the Communist infiltrators and agitators, but he's unfortunately too weak and stupid to do the right thing for his country. All he cares about are his own poll numbers.

That's very McCarthian of you. I don't know if you follow Jordan Peterson, I follow him quite a lot, but I have always cringed at his rants about the post-modern neo marxists or whatever name he has for these social justice warriors. Come on, they're idiotic ideologues mostly... But it's still another thing from a commie. That communist card is such right wing-rhetoric and it's sounding like downright paranoia at times. I consider myself a leftie and a liberal as probably any empathic non-authorian human being would, but I never ever would support those extreme left loonies. Then again, I have strong disdain for alt righters also. We have to be extremely wary of the extreme sides as their viewpoints at times may seem inviting. There's a huge clash between ideologies in the western society today, but it's mostly on socio-cultural level.

I'll use this quote again for clarity's sake.

Considering current alt-right glee at Elon Musk (I’m not presuming his meaning) my view is: following the Matrix analogy, taking the red pill cannot mean going Right. Historically, the (religious) right *was* the Matrix (the establishment). In the 60s, to be Red-Pilled was to be left wing.

Today, it should only mean to be balanced.

‪Why I say this is becoming increasingly self-evident: to see through the establishment is to be red-pilled. ‬

‪Today’s financial establishment is Right-wing. ‬

‪Today’s cultural establishment is Left-Wing. ‬

‪See through both of them, or just go home & stop playing games. ‬

‪Ancient wisdom, whether of the yin & yang, or Zoroastrian notions of balancing good & evil, understood this.

In modern times we need to balance left & right, head & heart, brain & brawn, love & hate, opportunity & equality. It’s the hardest thing to do, but a sure way to succeed. ‬

~ Maajid Nawaz

[Chris]

That's very McCarthian of you. I don't know if you follow Jordan Peterson, I follow him quite a lot, but I have always cringed at his rants about the post-modern neo marxists or whatever name he has for these social justice warriors. Come on, they're idiotic ideologues mostly... But it's still another thing from a commie. That communist card is such right wing-rhetoric and it's sounding like downright paranoia at times. I consider myself a leftie and a liberal as probably any empathic non-authorian human being would, but I never ever would support those extreme left loonies. Then again, I have strong disdain for alt righters also. We have to be extremely wary of the extreme sides as their viewpoints at times may seem inviting. There's a huge clash between ideologies in the western society today, but it's mostly on socio-cultural level.

I'll use this quote again for clarity's sake.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSpCkCIZU8A

Well, perhaps you are right in that the current far-left paradigm isn't actually communist, in that they don't want to abolish private property altogether, just redistribute it, mostly from rich White and Asian folks to poor Black and Brown ones, on a global level.

Still, the tactics used are very much reminiscent of Bolshevism and Maoism and any reasonably informed person can spot the unmistakable parallels.

BTW, the various Socialist experiments that flourished and then flamed out so spectacularly over the last century very much had Wealth and Power redistribution at the forefront of their ideologies, whether, they targeted rich Jews, Kulaks and Boers (especially White Landowners), Armenians or the Chinese, usually it was the productive and merchant class that was in their crosshairs and it was the working and peasant classes that were supposedly benefiting from it, but in the end they just all ended up impoverishing themselves collectively.

In recent times, the case of grand-scale land theft from Zimbabwean and South African white farmers, fuelled by Marxist-Leninist ideology and the resulting collapse in food production and economic output in general, provides an instructive lesson on why these movements always end badly, even if the sentiment behind them, the burning injustice of social and historic inequality can be understood.

Basically, my point is that one can sympathise with the grievances of the downtrodden and impoverished, yet the supposed remedy from the far-Left is just going to end up hurting them even more.

[Emil El Zapato]

Chris, that is the dream that no one dare dream...

[Chris]

I don't usually post long videos of talks and lectures here, but this one is a must-watch. It reflects exactly my thinking on global societal collapse and the trials and tribulations period we have entered into. If you care at all about your salvation and the ultimate destination of your soul, I would urge you to watch it and carefully ponder its implications. Time is running out to wake up, get in tune with your Divine Self and accept the fate of the world with equanimity and peace.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELA-ApRrBfQ

[Wind]

I've watched this guy before. Not sure what to make of him, but I think he gives some good advices.

[Octopus Garden]

Chris,

You will never and I mean NEVER have to worry about a Communist takeover from within. And most certainly not from outside of the country. The Communism you are referring to, dissolves the right to private property. A large percentage of U.S citizens own their own homes. The government makes it easy to do this by various means.

For starters they allow tax payers to write off interest homeowners pay on mortgages. This is a huge giveaway and part of the long term Communism prevention programme. What the U.S. never designed or implemented was a Fascist prevention program...and that's what you have now... a perfect blend of corporate and state power.

[Aragorn]

I'm afraid it isn't just neuroticism, but outright Maoism.

This is exactly how the Maoists took over the university campuses in China, then the newspapers and the rest is history.

The denouncements, the public shamings, the grovelling apologies that sound like hostage letters, the labelling of everyone who isn't sufficiently on board with the "progressive" political programme, all these should be readily recognisable to all those who have studied the history of communist takeovers all over the world. It is unbelievable to me that most people don't recognise what we're dealing with and where it's coming from.

Thought control and indoctrination aren't exclusive to the communists ─ far from it. The USA, as a de facto fascist nation, has been doing that very same thing since at least the start of the Cold War, and both fascist Italy and Nazi Germany were also already doing it from long before the beginning of World War II.

I've got a couple of names for you too: Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones. And they're by far not the only ones. The American education system and the American media are rife with this stuff.

---

That's very McCarthian of you. I don't know if you follow Jordan Peterson, I follow him quite a lot, but I have always cringed at his rants about the post-modern neo marxists or whatever name he has for these social justice warriors. Come on, they're idiotic ideologues mostly... But it's still another thing from a commie. That communist card is such right wing-rhetoric and it's sounding like downright paranoia at times. I consider myself a leftie and a liberal as probably any empathic non-authorian human being would, but I never ever would support those extreme left loonies. Then again, I have strong disdain for alt righters also. We have to be extremely wary of the extreme sides as their viewpoints at times may seem inviting. There's a huge clash between ideologies in the western society today, but it's mostly on socio-cultural level.

Amen to that, Brother!

[Chris]

This analysis from an Israeli newspaper about Viktor Orbán's enduring appeal and popularity in Hungary is perhaps the best and most balanced I've read from a foreign news source in a while.

It is only of local interest, but if you were wondering why our own particular Trump is so entrenched in power and appears impossible to remove, the below article will provide most of the answers.

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/....rban-1.8919482

The Key to Hungary's Infatuation With Hate-mongering, Soros-baiting Authoritarian Viktor Orban

Why is Hungary one of the most inward-looking societies in Europe, fertile ground for Orban's illiberal democracy and crusades against migrants, George Soros and the LGBTQ community? It's all about language

Yehuda Lukacs

BUDAPEST - Less than a month ago, the Hungarian parliament passed an anti-transgender bill introduced by the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, ostensibly as part of COVID-19 emergency legislation. The new law, passed by 134 to 56, stipulates that gender can only be defined based on one’s biological sex at birth. Under this new law, trans people can no longer change their gender or names on official documents.

The new law is in line with previous government policies, such as the October 2018 government decree banning gender studies at all Hungarian universities: "The government’s standpoint is that people are born either male or female, and we do not consider it acceptable for us to talk about socially constructed genders rather than biological sexes," an official spokesman said. The speaker of the Hungarian parliament has compared gay adoption to "moral pedophilia."

These measures come as no surprise. To a large extent, they reflect the plurality of public opinion on matters related to gender and the LGBTQ community. According to a 2019 survey conducted by Eurobarometer, most Hungarians hold negative views toward the LGBTQ community. This animosity has grown in the past several years as a result of persistent campaigning by Fidesz, the governing party.

Only 46 percent of Hungarians support equal rights for the LGBTQ community, whereas 96 percent of Swedes and 59 percent of Czechs hold that view. The overall support for equal rights across Europe is 76 percent.

Homophobic legislation is clearly only one example of the Hungarian intolerance of otherness.

Based on a Spring 2016 survey conducted by Pew Research Center, one of the most respectable U.S. public opinion research organizations, Hungarians fare very poorly in comparison with other Europeans in their attitudes toward Muslims, Roma and Jews.

- 72 percent of Hungarians, compared to 43 percent of all Europeans, hold negative views of Muslims.

- 64 percent of Hungarians, compared to 48 percent of all Europeans, hold negative views of Roma.

- 32 percent of Hungarians, compared to 16 percent of all Europeans, hold negative views of Jews.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has been nurtured by the massive anti-migrant campaign pursued by the Orban government. The Roma population of about 800,000 people, constitutes approximately 8 percent of Hungary’s population. They are the largest minority in the country and clearly suffer from multiple discriminations in nearly every walk of life.

A woman touches a wall bearing names of victims during the Holocaust memorial day at Budapest's Holocaust Memorial Centre April 15, 2011. More than half a million Hungarian Jews were killed during World War Two

The history of antisemitism in Hungary is long and complex More than 600,000 Hungarian Jews perished during the Holocaust. Religion, socio-economic envy, and bitterness toward the many Jews who played an active role in the Communist take-over of the country have fueled anti-Jewish sentiment. Today there are approximately 100,000 Jews in Hungary, living mostly in Budapest. As the Pew survey indicates, a substantial portion of the Hungarian population explicitly identifies with antisemitism.

Israel and Hungary, however, have sustained close ties over the years. This was true even after 1967, when all Eastern bloc countries severed diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. The cozy relationship with Israel is used by Budapest as a fig leaf to fend off critics who claim that antisemitism is alive and well in Hungary.

Prime Minister Orban and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have developed a close rapport, as has Fidesz with Netanyahu’s Likud party. Both parties uphold super-nationalist policies, share a disdain towards migrants and are suspicious of the European Union’s liberal, pro-human rights policies.

Hungary provides Israel with a diplomatic shield against anti-Israeli resolutions by the European Union which often require a consensus by all members. In turn, Netanyahu opened doors for Orban in Washington, D.C. when he visited President Trump in May 2019.

Explanations abound as to the origins of Hungarian nationalism, chauvinism, and xenophobia. History certainly plays a significant role in shaping Hungarian attitudes. However, the Hungarian language is also one of the principal roots of Magyar nationalism and self-declared exceptionalism.

Hungarian is part of the Finno-Ugric language tree and shares some grammatical structures with Finnish and Estonian. A Finn or an Estonian, however, cannot understand Hungarian, and vice versa. This means that Hungary constitutes a distinct linguistic island in the heart of Europe with significant cultural and political implications.

Since no other country in the world speaks its language, apprehension of otherness is structurally embedded in each individual’s worldview and informs society as a whole, setting Hungarians apart from their European neighbors.

Given this linguistic peculiarity, the next question would be about how many Hungarians have acquired a second language as a bridge to the outside world.

According to a 2016 Eurostat survey, only 42.4 percent of Hungarians between 25 and 64 speak another language. In Poland, by comparison, 67 percent of the population has acquired at least one additional language.

Lack of a second language not only holds cultural implications but, more importantly, political ones as well.

Given the Orban government’s tight control of the media, the majority of the population has to rely exclusively on official news and propaganda provided by pro-regime media outlets without the ability to verify its accuracy or to access alternative information disseminated in other languages.

Consider this: The Hungarian independent investigative outlet Atlatszo reported that in the last eight years, the government has spent 216 million euros on spreading propaganda and fear-mongering campaigns. Two noteworthy examples are the ongoing anti-migration campaign as well as the crusade against Hungarian-born financier George Soros whom Orban views as his arch nemesis.

The unique and outlier Hungarian language, the lack of a second language by most Hungarians, and the historical legacies of conquest and servitude of Hungary by Ottomans, Austrians and the Soviet Union have all left their deep scars on the Hungarian psyche and society, fueling Hungary’s unfortunate positioning as one of the most inward-looking societies in Europe.

It must be added that Hungary is experiencing a serious negative migration by the mostly young people who are likely to speak a second language. Portfolio.hu estimated that that approximately 600,000 of them emigrated from Hungary between 2006 and 2019 to Western Europe mainly in search of job opportunities.

The absence of these young and mobile Hungarians has left a significant void in the opposition to Orban’s policies. Although these emigres are eligible to vote in national elections by mail, the government placed severe restrictions including limited hours and few available locations, so the number of actual ballots cast by Hungarians abroad has been limited.

On the other hand, ethnic Hungarians who live in the neighboring countries of Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine - part of Greater Hungary before the 1920 Trianon Treaty that reduced Hungary’s territory by two-thirds - are allowed to vote.

The Trianon Treaty is still seen by most Hungarians as a "stab in the back by the West." In an effort to strengthen the ethno-national identity of these trans-border Hungarians, Orban’s government offered them citizenship and approximately one million were naturalized and became dual citizens.

In gratitude, these ethnic Hungarians voted in the 2018 elections overwhelmingly (96.2 percent) for Fidesz, thus providing Orban’s party with a two-thirds majority in the parliament.

Viktor Orban has been in power for the past ten years. His populist authoritarianism is neither an anomaly nor an accident. He has been successful in reinforcing Hungarians' suspicions and mistrust of the other by conducting a massive indoctrination campaign.

But his Kulturkampf falls on fertile ground. Orban’s nativist Hungary embodies the types of political, social and cultural landscapes that many Hungarians welcome.

Yehuda Lukacs is Associate Professor Emeritus of Global Affairs, George Mason University

[Emil El Zapato]

Hi Chris,

As I'm slipping back into sanity, it occurred to me that Wind made a very good point the other day...Living in the environment you described doesn't require the supernatural to consume one's identity. I know how old I get, but I've seen and lived that, too. Honestly, I would advise you move to a more 'settling' place. The Feng Shui doesn't sound conducive to peace and harmony.

[Wind]

You reminded me of something NAP, I think there should be a thread about supernatural phenomenon here.

Did you ever play with the ouija board? If not, good for you. I never thankfully did and never would based on the stories.

[Emil El Zapato]

, yes, of course...and I broke all the rules. I would play by myself because I knew I wasn't faking it. That is kind of a long scary story and I still really dont' know what to make of it.

[Chris]

Hi Chris,

As I'm slipping back into sanity, it occurred to me that Wind made a very good point the other day...Living in the environment you described doesn't require the supernatural to consume one's identity. I know how old I get, but I've seen and lived that, too. Honestly, I would advise you move to a more 'settling' place. The Feng Shui doesn't sound conducive to peace and harmony.

I would prefer to live in the countryside, but my tiny studio apartment (which I own outright), isn't worth that much and for the amount I could sell it for (about 35000 USD), all I could get is an empty plot, with nothing on it. I would have to take out a considerable mortgage to buy anything substantially better than what I currently own and I'm not even sure if I would qualify.

In the current situation I prefer to stay put. Property prices here have gone through the roof in the past few years, because we are right next to the Austrian border and within commuting distance of Vienna (1-1,5 hours, depending on traffic).