Why do I keep researching and writing on Stoicism and current events, trying to collect and present evidence to both validate my points of view and convince others of their truth? The analysis from GPT below, I believe, explains what is happening. So what does this mean for me?

I think my constant drive to find evidence supporting my positions, along with my desire to promote those positions in blogs, posts, or books, reflects the constant attacks on my positions in the media triggering my defense mechanisms as described in the ChatGPT analysis below. In the end though, am I changing anyone’s views, or just reaffirming my own views through my defense, along with those of the limited audience who read what I write? I think it is almost all the latter.

So what then? I can keep pissing into the wind (or cyberspace) in the vain attempt to influence the views of others (my rationalization for my actions), or I can accept that my views are my own, that I have my own reasons for them based on my (biased) analysis of evidence, and that nothing I say is likely to change anyone else’s mind (the psychological reality) if they disagree with my positions. This does not mean that I think I am wrong; it is just that my attempts to convince others are largely a fool’s errand.

Compounding this is also the reality that I am old, not well, and not likely to be around for much longer to keep tilting against windmills. It is the increasing reminders of this reality in my daily life that has driven this reassessment.

Is the world suddenly going to come to an epiphany and exclaim, “It’s so clear! You are so right! Your words have raised the blinders from my eyes!”—hah! not going to happen and time to slap down my ego for thinking so.

In recognition of this reality, I’m going to be putting my work on this site on hold and will let the domain registration run out (it still has several years to go). I still agree with what I have written over the years and think there is good advice here for those who may need it, so I will keep this site live while the domain remains active. While I don’t anticipate adding new posts, it may happen that the itch is so strong that I will be forced to scratch it, as I have learned to never say never, especially when it comes to my motivations. But for now, my drive for external confirmation has abated, and it’s time to find something to do with my idle hands and mind to keep them occupied. Michel de Montaigne may be my inspiration, just for my own edification.

If you are reading this, thank you for your interest, and I wish you a long and happy life (hint—I believe Stoicism is the key to achieving that!).

ChatGPT analysis on what drives people to defend their views:

When people hold a belief—whether about politics, personal identity, science, or moral values—it becomes woven into their sense of self and social belonging. Challenging that belief is often experienced not as a benign exchange of information but as a threat to one’s identity. The psychological mechanisms that drive resistance to change and even strengthen the original belief under attack are well-documented in social and cognitive psychology, and several empirical studies illustrate these effects.

At the core is motivated reasoning, the process by which people evaluate evidence in a way that supports conclusions they want to arrive at rather than those that are objectively warranted. When confronted with disconfirming evidence, people don’t process it neutrally; instead, they engage in selective acceptance and criticism. They attend to information that confirms their existing belief and discount information that contradicts it. This pattern is not merely a failure of logic but a psychological strategy for maintaining coherence among beliefs, self-image, and group identity.

A seminal set of experiments demonstrating motivated reasoning was conducted by Charles Lord, Lee Ross, and Mark Lepper (1979). Participants who held strong positions on capital punishment were presented with two studies—one ostensibly supporting the deterrent effect of capital punishment and one opposing it. Rather than moving toward a middle ground, proponents and opponents each rated the study consistent with their position as more methodologically sound. Moreover, exposure to both studies increased participants’ confidence in their initial position rather than decreased it. This pattern of biased evaluation exemplifies how people defend their beliefs by discrediting opposing evidence and bolstering confirming evidence*.* (Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979)

A related mechanism is cognitive dissonance. When beliefs and new information conflict, it creates an uncomfortable psychological state. To reduce this discomfort, people will change either the belief or the interpretation of the information. In many cases, especially where a belief is tied to identity or group norms, it is easier (psychologically) to reinterpret or dismiss the new information than to revise the belief. Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance (1957) predicted this, and later experiments have shown that when people are publicly committed to a position, they are even more likely to harden that position when faced with contradictory evidence rather than abandon it.

One experimental demonstration was done by Elliot Aronson and colleagues, where participants who had freely chosen to advocate for an unpleasant task subsequently increased their positive evaluation of the task. This “effort justification” effect shows how people rationalize commitments and resist admitting they might have been wrong, which generalizes to belief defense more broadly.

A contemporary formulation of these processes is identity-protective cognition, proposed by Dan Kahan and colleagues. When issues are perceived as connected to cultural or group values, people process information in a way that protects their standing within their group. Instead of beliefs changing in light of evidence, individuals shift interpretations to match group-aligned positions, preserving social identity and status. Several studies using risk perceptions (e.g., climate change, gun control) show that individuals with strong cultural identities selectively interpret scientific information to align with their group’s stance and that correcting misperceptions can backfire if it is perceived as an attack on group identity.

Another strand of research underscores that emotional investment and epistemic certainty influence resistance. Beliefs tied to moral foundations or emotional meaning are less susceptible to change because the cost of altering them is psychologically high. Feedback that appears threatening or condescending tends to trigger defensive processing, whereas information framed in a way that affirms autonomy and shared values is more likely to be considered.

Taken together, these findings illustrate that the urge to defend beliefs and the paradoxical strengthening of those beliefs under attack are products of cognitive, motivational, and social dynamics. They are not random errors but systematic patterns of reasoning shaped by the interaction between evidence, identity, and motivation.

Key studies referenced:

• Lord, C. G., Ross, L., & Lepper, M. R. (1979). Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

• Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press.

• Aronson, E. et al. (specific studies on effort justification and dissonance).

• Kahan, D. M. (cultural cognition research on risk perception and identity-protective cognition).

I walk through life facing backwards, buffeted by events that I both can and cannot anticipate. My belief, in thinking I can control my future, is an illusion - fate dictates my destiny regardless of my intentions. At best, I can try to set a destination for my journey.

My actions are like throwing seeds over my shoulder, hoping they will grow as I want. In the end, my efforts to bring balance to my life are best spent on managing my reactions to life’s anticipated and unanticipated buffets, and only then on ordering my thoughts and actions.

The external world is constantly peppering me with inputs that my monkey mind perceives as threats or immediately desirable events. Recognizing and separating actual physical threats, immediate or deferred, from threats to my self-image is the key to controlling my thoughts and actions. In this regard, the Cynics were on to something, though I do not agree with their disregard of the need to fit into society.

In other words, focusing on properly recognizing and reacting to life’s inputs is more important and productive than trying to manage my outputs. I will work to recognize and not let undesirable thoughts and actions gain root in my mind, so I will have less weeding to do in the future.

When I was young, my life seemed endless. The years stretched out in front of me, and the horizon was so far away as to be invisible. I also had the advantage, growing up, of a relatively clear direction for my life and career (tech BTW), combined with a job market that offered me opportunities unimaginable to those starting out today. I assumed there would always be plenty of time to try things, change direction, correct mistakes, and eventually arrive somewhere comfortable.

Now, looking back, I have an entirely different perspective. The future that once seemed so long in front of me has compressed into something surprisingly small when looking in the rear-view mirror. Entire chapters of my life that felt slow while I was living them now pass through my memory in seconds. School, early jobs, the first moves to new places, the people who appeared and disappeared along the way—so much of it feels as though it happened only yesterday.

I think of this when I read about (and see all around me), the terrible state of those who are growing up in today’s world. Compared to my youth, most are well and truly f*ed. The go to college, get a good-paying job in your chosen career, get married, get a house, have 2.1 kids, retire rich and happy fantasy is stone cold dead. The problem is that Gen Alpha and Z are either still on the treadmill, chasing a mirage, or have gotten the message and given up, retreating to their parents’ basement to play on the Xbox and smoke weed.

So what are their options? In my view, only one. MOVE! Do something, take action, get off their asses, take a risk and try something new. More than ever, reconnecting with the classics and reading about how others lived their lives, as well as what life was like in earlier times, brings perspective to today’s challenges (Dickens and Twain are two good choices). For all the travails of today’s world of AI, outsourced jobs, and corporate predation, the world we live in is still unimaginably prosperous to someone who grew up in the 19th century (when my grandparents were born, if you can imagine that).

Some of the most important turns in my own life began as experiments that did not work the way I expected. A job taken for one reason led me toward a skill I had never considered developing (how I transitioned from hardware to software). Failed jobs all taught me lessons that forced me to rethink how I approached the next ones. Decisions that seemed questionable at the time eventually introduced me to people and opportunities that I never would have had otherwise. If I had waited for certainty before trying something new, I would never be where I am today.

Getting older has also caused me to think more about the approaching end of my life (what a surprise). When I was young, death was an abstract concept that I hardly thought about at all. It was something distant, something that would happen eventually, sometime far in the future. Today, the question is no longer if, but simply when (and to a lesser extent how). And if I am honest with myself, “when” is almost certainly likely to be sooner than I anticipate.

That realization has a strangely calming effect. It forces me to sort my priorities more carefully. If dying tomorrow is a real possibility—and it always is—then it becomes harder to justify spending time on things that do not matter—petty conflicts, pointless obligations, habits, and work that produce nothing meaningful. With age, the distinction between meaningful and trivial becomes clearer—trust me on this.

So, “Going, going, …” and at some point, Gone! When that moment arrives, the memories of me in those who remain will be the legacy of my life—both the warts and the bright spots. I can only hope and do what I can in the time that remains to shape those memories as best I can. As for my future post mortem, if any, I’ve already written about that.

Before long, it will all be dust to me anyway.

“I found it on the internet, so it must be true!”. This meme is becoming a bigger joke than ever, with the latest estimates that 52% of articles on the internet are now AI-generated. Personally, I suspect it is higher than that if LinkedIn is any indication, and will certainly climb as more people become dependent on AI to read, write, and research information.

So what’s the issue with that? The problem is that AI is not generating information a priori; it is doing so based on information on the public web, which is already AI-generated. Rather than increasing the base of knowledge, we are instead curating and concentrating it as AI generates more material based on AI-generated material, which in turn is used by AI to refine their models, which in turn generates more information… You get the picture.

Add to this the issue that LLMs do not know what is “true”. For that matter, they do not “know” anything. They are statistical sampling engines that create inferences from large data sets. When those data sets are themselves created by AI, the problem is that the pool of true knowledge rapidly shrinks as a percentage of the information available. Instead of knowledge, we are mass generating garbage.

Compounding this is the issue that the models themselves are not only prone to knowledge concentration, they are also prone to corruption by those who create and tune them, by the selective use of the data that they feed them as the sampling base. This has been more than aptly demonstrated by the leftist/woke bias in the responses to queries as documented for all the major AI players.

Finally, there is the stupefaction of humanity itself by its increasing dependence on AI to do the work that until very recently required that you rub your brain cells together to do. From grade school and college students to law clerks and politicians, we are rapidly losing our ability to think and reason, instead increasingly relying on the crutch of AI to give us the answers we are seeking. Who cares if the answer is wrong or biased? Look how quickly we got it!

I certainly have complained in recent years about the inability of Gen Z and Alpha to count change or do math without a calculator. God forbid that they actually have read a book in their lives. Now with them increasingly dependent on AI for not only answers and information, but also digital companions and relationships, it seems that we are speeding toward turning the movie Idiocracy into reality in our lifetime. Certainly, the increasingly public displays of emotion vs reason as a means of debate are just one indication of this trend.

So what’s to be done? I’m afraid I despair about anything that can reverse this trend. Like lemmings rushing to the cliff, humanity as a herd is trapped in group think and the inability to sense the danger we are in until we have already gone over the edge.

Can this be reversed? It certainly could, by strict laws and regulation on the uses of AI, as well as a wholesale reform of education by returning to the basics (reading, writing and arithmetic) as well as restrictions on the use of social media and computers by youth. Will it be done? I’m afraid there is not a snowball’s chance in hell, that being the destination we are rapidly approaching…

BTW, this article was not written by AI - yes, I actually do still have a functioning brain

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

– Ephesians 6:10-12, KJB

Evil is a human condition, expressed in the actions of all those who harm others with intent, be they serial killers, sadistic child rapists, Marxist dictators, or Islamic terrorists killing Christians around the world.

Today, the tide of evil is rising as the leftist/Marxist press denies the evil that is the Islamist terrorism against Christians, which is occurring around the world, but in particular within Africa. According to a study by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, militant Islamist groups in Africa have been responsible for the deaths of over 150,000 people, primarily Christians. The study revealed a 60 percent increase in violence since 2023, with nearly half of the deaths occurring in the Sahel region, spanning countries such as Mali, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso. Parishes and villages are being burned to the ground, innocent women and children are being hacked to death and burned alive, all while Western governments either discount the reports as local land disputes or ignore them altogether.

This denial is not unlike prior denials of the Holocaust, or the Rwandan or Cambodian genocides of the past century, and as usual, is parroting the denials from the governments permitting and carrying out these atrocities. Even worse than the governments are the non-actions of Christian churches in denying that these evils even exist. While they continue to promote gay pride, proper pronouns, and climate hysteria, they turn a blind eye to the murder of fellow Christians around the world.

While ignorance may have excused such blindness in the past, in today’s connected world, it is more likely that fear of speaking the truth, highlighting the evil (and by implication calling for action), and therefore driving away parishioners (and their contributions) are more relevant factors. Churches and denominations that don’t speak out against this evil are betraying the very foundations of their faith, and by doing so, are exposing the hypocrisy of their principles and statements, as are all those who call themselves Christian in word but do not express their faith in deed.

“There is no evil that does not offer inducements. Avarice promises money; luxury, a varied assortment of pleasures; ambition, a purple robe and applause, and the influence which results from applause, and all that influence can do. Vices tempt you by the rewards which they offer; but in the life of which I speak, you must live without being paid. Scarcely will a whole life-time suffice to bring our vices into subjection and to make them accept the yoke, swollen as they are by long-continued indulgence; and still less, if we cut into our brief span by any interruptions.”

– Seneca. Epistulae Morales AD Lucilium

As the final act of this season’s performance of the endless play draws near, I am reminded that it does no good to be angry, jealous, or envious of the .1% who accumulate ever more wealth and power to themselves. In the end, the result will be the same as it always has been, with the playing field leveled, the debris swept away, and the start of the new season of “Who gets to be King of the Mountain?”.

How then should I live my life in the interim, chasing the carrots dangled by the puppet masters, railing against the injustice, or giving into despair? I will do none of these, but will instead recognize the cycle that I am a part of, and will attempt to live my life according to the values and virtues I have chosen, while ignoring the temptations and distractions of the circus performers.

The true rewards of living a virtuous life are internal. If I am doing so simply to receive the praise and admiration of others, I am as guilty as the fallen. As Seneca says, “I must live without getting paid”. However, it is the lack of that pay, and all the obligations that come with it, that frees me to truly be happy and unencumbered by expectations to meet the demands of others.

Likewise, I will not be angry with the fallen or those who brought (or bought) them to that state, but rather pity them all, because a lifetime will truly not be enough to remove the chains they have shackled themselves with.

To explore this concept further, the book “The Midas Plague” by Frederik Pohl is a fascinating read.

I continue to think about life and what it means for me and others. The choices that people seem to make regarding their life’s purpose, if any, seem to fall into 4 broad categories.

The first category would be the nihilist view of life, with an emphasis on self-indulgent and/or narcissistic behavior. This seems to fall into a spectrum - life has no meaning, so why not enjoy myself to the fullest while I am alive? The consumerism that underlies modern society (from the 1900s onward) has at first slowly, and in the past decades more quickly, replaced traditional religious/cultural values with a “me first” perspective.

The explosion of anxiety/depression in the populace, especially among younger generations, and the pharmaceutical industry that has evolved to treat it, if not create it, is an indication of the depth and breadth of this trend. As those growing up are exposed to the blatant consumerism of society, while having no backstop of tradition/culture to counter it (due to the explosive growth of broken families and the disintegration of the extended family), they seem to succumb either to hedonism or despair if they cannot find meaning in traditional religions.

Religions, then, are the second and smaller category of how people establish meaning in their lives. In some cases, they either come to religion after not finding satisfaction in the nihilism of the first category, or they grew up in it and have been indoctrinated by it. From this point, they seem to either drift out of religion to the first category based on the rejection of the dogma of their religion, stay with it throughout their lives, or, for what I believe is a very small number, evolve to the 3rd category of Skepticism.

In the 3rd category (which I count myself in), I have come to the point of rejecting both nihilism and religion, finding both lacking in terms of providing meaning for my life, and in being obviously detrimental to humanity as a whole (when the accelerating personal/societal strife is considered and the extent to which these events can be traced back to those who are living with the world view of the first two categories).

In my view, the study of philosophy can provide the foundation for a meaningful life and happiness, as a consequence not as an objective. In my case, it is the study of the Stoic philosophy and the adaptation of it to my circumstances (as I have related in other posts) that has been successful for me. Constant learning, questioning, and adjusting is my life in this state, with my understanding of life and the world constantly being updated as I learn more and live longer.

Finally, there is, I believe, a 4th (and thankfully small) category of those who have gone beyond both dogma and skepticism through to full-blown psychosis in believing that they have the answer for how others should live their lives and life’s meaning, and have therefore become the founders of new religions with their own dogma that brooks no objection. Whether this is the spin-off of an existing religion or the start of a wholly new one, the results are the same from the standpoint of limiting human growth and potential.

Those in the 4th category tend to pray on those in the first, and in this regard, all categories are in a circle, with one’s own place on the circle subject to evolution as they mature, though hopefully from first to third, and not first to fourth.

“You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.”

– President Joe Biden

I believe Covid has been the greatest boon in history for those who wish to expand government control over others (Big Brother) and may have also been intended as a tool to support a mass depopulation effort, directed by those who have an eugenics agenda. Additionally, this all could have been orchestrated by China as part of their strategy to destabilize the West and erode Western values and social structures.

Covid’s Origins

Whether it was deliberately released from China as a bioweapon or by accident, it appears clear that China’s Wuhan bioresearch (or bioweapons) lab was the origin of the virus and that it was man-made. Again, whether this was for nefarious purposes or to support gene therapy research is still to be determined, though there is certainly a trail back to the CDC and Big Pharma regarding the funding and support of the illegal (in the US) gain-of-function research. Anyone who dared to question the official narrative was branded a conspiracy-addled nut job and banned from social media platforms.

• Bombshell Fauci Documentary Nails The Whole COVID Charade

• Final House Report on Coronavirus Pandemic Released, Vindicates ‘Conspiracy’ Theorists

Covid & Big Pharma

There are many indications that Big Pharma actively exploited the release of Covid, if not directly participated in its development, so that they could then make massive fortunes selling their gene therapy shots, which were released with almost no testing (in comparison to prior vaccines) and from which they were shielded from any liability due to the severe harms that these products caused. This is but the latest example of Big Pharma’s profit-driven motivations to promote sick-care and not health-care (as healthy people do not buy drugs).

• Big Pharma Owns The World

• Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare

• Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering

• Sacklers Sacked But Purdue Still Caused Opioid Epidemic

Covid & Control

Covid was the perfect vehicle to allow the US government and its globalist allies, both in the UN and the private sector, such as Bill Gates, to test and implement their plans to subjugate the population and condition them to accept that “Big Brother” knows best. Whether it was nonsensical mask mandates or the illegal lockdowns of individuals, schools and businesses, the damage to societies doubtless ran into the trillions of dollars, and the societal aftereffects are still being played out today, both in terms of economic impact as well as the impact that the lockdowns and remote learning had on an entire generation of children. Any doctor who dared to propose alternative treatments or suggested that the shots were not “safe and effective” was threatened with revocation of the license and firing from their positions. Same with anyone who refused to submit to mandatory vaccinations at their place of employment.

• Grand Jury Vindicates 5 Covid Claims You Weren’t Allowed To Say

• Let us never forget the left’s reprehensible behavior toward fellow Americans who refused COVID jabs

Covid Vaccine Kills

As to the “vaccine itself, it seems that there are numerous harms that it causes due to its novel structure. Not a vaccine in the traditional sense, it is a gene therapy that causes the body to produce the very toxin (the spike protein) that causes harm from infection in the first place. This has led to death and hospitalizations far beyond anything that has been seen in prior vaccines, and the evidence is piling up that this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of future harms that are likely to occur due to the damage that it causes. Initially, the evidence of these harms was downplayed by Big Pharma/Big Brother and the media (their lackeys). The truth on these harms, both past and future, is now coming to light as the evidence has become overwhelming as to the damage that has been caused.

• Oct 14, 2025 - First Peer-Reviewed Study Finds Direct Molecular Evidence of mRNA “Vaccine” Genomic Integration

• Aug 28, 2025 - Three Peer-Reviewed Studies Provide Irrefutable Grounds for Immediate Market Withdrawal of COVID-19 mRNA Injections

• Jan 24, 2024 - COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines: Lessons Learned from the Registrational Trials and Global Vaccination Campaign

Why I believe this

• The ongoing cover-up of Covid originating from the Wuhan lab, with links to Big Pharma and the Chinese military.

• The cover-up of Covid research being funded by the US.

• The denial of any treatment other than those developed by Big Pharma and available at a massively higher cost than cheap generic alternatives.

• Wildly illogical overreaction to Covid based on mortality in comparison to past pandemics. The IFR (Infection Fatality Rate) for Covid was no different than that of a moderate to severe flu season.

• Brutal lockdowns and mask mandates, despite proven studies of their ineffectiveness and harm

• The vaccine was developed in record time, generating massive profits for Big Pharma, with evidence that development had already started even before the pandemic was even declared.

• Vaccine was mandated for many groups, in spite of the lack of long-term testing on their effects.

• The cover-up of vaccine harms, which far exceeds all past vaccines, even for what has been reported.

• Blatant manipulation of Covid deaths and infections, with constantly shifting goalposts to meet the agenda of the day.

• The articles/research I cited are just the very tip of the iceberg of evidence I have collected over the past 4 years (more than a thousand articles, medical journal reports and congressional investigations), more of which comes out daily across all of these areas, reenforcing my conclusions.

“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us.”

– Epictetus

An article discussing the translation from Greek of the quote above from Epictetus has caused me to reexamine my interpretation of the Stoic concept of the Dichotomy of Control.

The change is subtle, though powerful. Reading the quote, I have always read “up to us” as “in my control” and have added the caveat, “if I choose to or am able to do so.” However, viewing this statement from a cause vs. control perspective provides a subtle but powerful shift in how I can actually use this to improve myself.

I now view my emotions and my actions as caused by me, as opposed to controlled by me. The perfect example is someone who says or does something hurtful to me, vs. their doing it to someone else. Someone cuts me off in traffic; I get pissed. Someone cuts another off in traffic; I don’t have the same reaction. We often only care about those events that directly impact or affect us.

It is me, my emotions, that had the angry reaction. I could also say that my emotions are under my control, but that is both true and false. It is more helpful to view it as I am the cause of my feelings. Whether I want to change these reactions is up to me. All improvement starts with this awareness.

Looking at it from this perspective softens the whole “control” paradigm, with its implicit implication of guilt and failure. If I lose my temper, I am not in “control”; therefore, I have failed. Better to see it as “I am the cause of my anger” and make the conscious choice to change it if I wish, based on an analysis of why the event has caused me to be angry. In the end, it is my choice to be manipulated by the actions of others and suffer the anger that ensues. Likewise, it is my choice not to, if I have the awareness to recognize what is happening.

Viewing it this way is a more realistic approach to dealing with all the challenges of improving ourselves. Often, people are trapped in situations beyond their control, be it physical limitations, addictions, psychiatric diseases, bad relationships, or circumstances. They often have no “control” over these, or they are difficult to change.

Starting with the realization that, however they react, they are the ones who caused that reaction is a better first step to improvement, rather than telling an addict that their failure to stop taking drugs is a failure of control, which just reinforces their sense of failure.

Improving myself and trying to live according to an ethical code is a difficult and never-ending journey. I am never there, never perfect, because, at the core, I am human with all the evolutionary baggage that implies. That is not an excuse to not try, but rather an acknowledgment that there is no magical cure, phrase, or action that can transform my situation.

It is a journey, it is hard work, and it never ends. And I would not have it any other way.

“But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

– 1 John 2:11, KJB

Evil does not usually begin with mass killings or tyrannical regimes. It begins with small steps. A compromise here. A silence there. A decision to look the other way. Each of these makes the next step easier, until finally the person, or the society, has descended so far into darkness that turning back feels impossible. The slope is real, and examples of how quickly it can carry people downward abound all around us.

Good and evil are not abstract terms. They are rooted in the choices we make every day. When you decide to treat others with fairness and compassion, you are practicing goodness. When you choose to exploit, manipulate, or harm others, you are practicing evil. These choices can be personal, such as how one treats a neighbor, colleague, or stranger. They can also be collective, expressed in movements, ideologies, and systems that either uphold virtue or destroy it.

This dual reality means that good and evil operate on two levels. On the personal level, each individual bears responsibility for their decisions and their consequences. On the collective level, societies build cultures, institutions, and movements that can either lift humanity toward justice or drag it into oppression. The same principle applies to virtue. Wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice are practiced first in personal life, but when multiplied across a society, they create cultures that resist evil. Their opposites—ignorance, cowardice, intemperance, and injustice—begin in individuals, but when tolerated, they become the operating principles of mobs, governments, and empires.

Understanding this dual nature of evil is critical. What begins as a personal choice to ignore or excuse wrongdoing often grows into a collective movement that normalizes it. And once normalized, evil becomes harder to resist because admitting the truth would mean confronting one’s own complicity. This is the essence of the slippery slope. The descent begins with ignorance, deepens with cowardice, accelerates through intemperance, and finally hardens into injustice. At each stage, the difficulty in reversing the downward slide becomes greater.

Ignorance vs. Wisdom

Wisdom begins with seeing the truth clearly. Ignorance, its inversion, blinds us to it. It is the first step into evil because it allows people to stop seeing others as human beings and start treating them as objects. You cannot be good if you do not know what good is.

History is filled with examples. The Aztec and Mayan civilizations practiced ritual human sacrifice, killing thousands—including children—because they believed their gods demanded blood. Rome filled its arenas with gladiators, turning the slaughter of men and women into entertainment. The crowd had to blind itself to the humanity of the victims, or else admit it was complicit in murder.

Modern ideologies continue this blindness. Whether in the racial theories of the Nazis, the class warfare of communism, or the “us versus them” rhetoric of today’s progressive-driven identity politics, the same lie repeats: some people are less human, less worthy of dignity, less deserving of life. Once this belief is accepted, cruelty is inevitable.

Ignorance is not always permanent. If a person turns toward the truth early enough, they can pull themselves out of the decline. But the longer they live in the lie, the harder it becomes. Wisdom is the safeguard, because wisdom insists on seeing people as they are: human, dignified, and worthy of compassion. Without it, the descent begins.

Cowardice vs. Courage

Courage is the willingness to act for what is right despite the risk to your life or well-being. Cowardice is its inversion, the silence and compliance upon which evil depends.

Germany during the Second World War shows this clearly. Most German citizens were not ignorant of the atrocities that were happening. They saw Jewish neighbors vanish. They heard the rumors of camps. Soldiers on the front lines and officers in the cities knew the atrocities. But fear of execution, imprisonment, or loss of livelihood kept them quiet. Cowardice allowed the Holocaust to unfold.

The same pattern still repeats itself in corporate life. Employees see their companies harming others, but stay silent to protect their paychecks. The opioid epidemic in America is one example. Pharmaceutical executives pushed addictive painkillers, and thousands of employees kept quiet out of fear of losing their jobs. Their silence helped fuel a crisis that killed hundreds of thousands.

Cowardice is never neutral. Refusing to act against evil strengthens it. Courage, by contrast, is the only response that can halt a person’s further descent toward evil. Speaking the truth, even at personal cost, is how one breaks the chain that otherwise leads deeper into darkness.

Intemperance vs. Temperance

Temperance is how we govern our emotional nature. It demands self-control, restraint, and reason. Intemperance throws these aside, letting anger and resentment explode into violence and irrational behavior.

In recent years, movements that began with causes worth discussing have often turned destructive. Protests turned into riots, arson, and looting. Antifa and radicalized factions of Black Lives Matter left behind billions in damages, dead bodies, and broken communities. What could have been dialogue became mob hysteria, while the leaders of these movements enriched themselves on the funds that they extorted from virtue-signaling corporations.

Lenin called such people “useful idiots.” They believe they are serving justice, but in truth, they are pawns. They are convinced they are brave, but they are hysterical. They believe they are truth-sayers, but they are tools. Their rage supplies the energy, but their passion blinds them to how they are being used. The mob becomes a weapon in the hands of those already further down the slope—those who deliberately direct chaos to gain power.

Developing and promoting temperance is the answer. Fight passion with reason. Rage with dialogue. Without temperance, intemperance and the mobs it fuels always lead the way to greater evil. While the mob creates the fire, there is always someone behind it supplying the matches.

Injustice vs. Justice

Justice demands fairness, truth, and dignity. Injustice twists all three into weapons. It is the final stage of the slope, where evil ceases to be accidental or chaotic and becomes deliberate and systemic.

This is the realm of true evil. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot did not stumble into cruelty and the murder of millions—they built it. They blinded their populations with propaganda, silenced dissent through terror, and harnessed mob rage into organized oppression. Their systems did not simply permit injustice; they required it.

In modern times, figures like George Soros represent another form of this corruption: those who foment chaos for personal power, funding and directing movements that erode freedom and stability. While serial killers and psychopaths like Charles Manson shock us with personal depravity, their impact on society is small compared to those who can mobilize entire populations. While we must fight to identify and remove individuals who perform evil acts on a personal level (pedophiles, serial killers, murderers, etc), the masterminds of injustice are the greatest threat, because they transform the ignorance, cowardice, and intemperance of others into weapons of mass destruction.

Justice alone breaks this cycle. It demands truth over propaganda, equality over privilege, and accountability over corruption. Without justice, injustice hardens into tyranny, and once entrenched, it cannot be uprooted without the destruction of societies and the death of millions.

Fight Back!

The slope to evil is real, but it is not destiny. At every stage of this descent, there is a chance to resist. The answer is to call out evil when you see it and to live by the virtues that prevent the descent. Wisdom dispels ignorance. Courage overcomes cowardice. Temperance restrains rage. Justice defeats corruption.

Charlie Kirk lived this out by engaging ignorance and passion with dialogue and education, not with shouts and slogans. He showed that reason and truth are stronger weapons than rage or hysteria. His example is a reminder that the way to reverse the slide into evil is not through violence but through the steady practice of virtue. His assassination is a reminder of how far the leftist progressive movement has gone in warping the minds of its followers, that anyone who questions their theology must be silenced.

Each of us faces the choice. We can drift downward, silent and complicit, or we can stand in the light and refuse to yield. The first path leads to darkness. The second toward the light of reason. We must all commit to fighting the darkness—before it is too late.

“He who spares the guilty harms the innocent.”

— Seneca, On Anger (Book I, 20)

Few biblical phrases have been so widely displayed, repeated, and misunderstood as the Bible’s Sixth Commandment. Across centuries, “Thou shalt not kill” has been engraved in church walls, echoed in sermons, and even today carried on protest signs. Modern demonstrators invoke it to oppose war, capital punishment, or even the right of self-defense. The words are meant to silence debate, as though the commandment itself forbids all forms of killing.

But as Seneca reminds us, sparing the guilty inevitably harms the innocent. Justice cannot survive if it treats murderers and victims alike. And that is exactly what happens when the commandment is misread. In the original Hebrew, the text does not forbid all killing. It forbids murder. Exodus 20:13 reads lo tirtzach (לא תרצח), a command against ratsach, the unlawful shedding of blood. Other Hebrew words, such as harag, are used for general killing. The distinction is fundamental: the law condemns unjust killing, while leaving space—indeed, demanding—for killing that is just.

The mistranslation of this verse as “Thou shalt not kill” has obscured the biblical meaning and shaped Christian practice in ways that undermine the concept of Justice itself. By erasing the category of justified killing—whether in self-defense, in war, or in capital punishment—the mistranslation leaves communities and individuals vulnerable to predation and violence. Justice, one of the Stoic cardinal virtues, is impossible without the courage to punish the guilty and defend the innocent.

Justice as a Stoic Virtue

For the Stoics, Justice was not an abstract slogan but a living responsibility. Along with Wisdom, Courage, and Temperance, it was one of the four cardinal virtues, forming the foundation of the good life and of any stable society.

Marcus Aurelius, reflecting in Meditations, wrote that “What is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bee.” He meant that individual virtue cannot exist apart from service to the community. Justice was social, not solitary. It required protecting others as much as refraining from personal wrongdoing.

Seneca taught that justice restrained cruelty and ensured fairness, warning that neglecting punishment of the guilty harmed the innocent. Epictetus argued that a person’s duties flowed from their roles—citizen, father, soldier—and could not be abandoned without betraying Justice.

Justice, then, was an active duty. It demanded that one not only avoid committing harm but also resist those who sought to inflict it. To stand aside while the innocent were destroyed was not virtue but cowardice. Properly understood, “Thou shall not murder” aligns perfectly with this Stoic vision: condemning unjust killing while obligating punishment for the murderer.

Murder, Killing, and the Pursuit of Justice

The Hebrew text insists on a distinction between murder and killing. Murder (ratsach) is always unjust. Killing (harag) can be just or unjust depending on context. Without this moral distinction, justice collapses into contradiction.

The biblical law recognizes three legitimate forms of killing:

• Self-Defense. Exodus 22:2 declares that if a thief is struck and killed while breaking in at night, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed. The right to life carries with it the right to defend it. Justice requires that the victim not be punished for protecting his own life or that of others.

• Societal Defense (War). God commanded ancient Israel to defend itself against hostile nations. War is tragic, but when survival is at stake, killing becomes the necessary act of communal self-preservation. To refuse to defend the weak would be to hand them over to slaughter.

• Capital Punishment. Exodus 21:12 states, “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.” This was not seen as murder but as justice—the community’s acknowledgment that life is sacred, and that to take it unlawfully requires the ultimate penalty.

These categories demonstrate that killing is not synonymous with murder. To kill without justice is murder. To kill in the service of justice is protection. The Stoics, like the Hebrews, recognized this: Marcus Aurelius accepted war as part of the emperor’s burden, and Seneca affirmed that punishment—even execution—was sometimes necessary to restrain cruelty against others.

The Error of Pacifism

The mistranslation “kill” instead of “murder” has fueled centuries of Christian pacifism. Some early Christians, rejecting Roman militarism, leaned toward abstaining from violence altogether. Later, entire sects—the Quakers, Mennonites, and Brethren—enshrined pacifism as central to their identity, insisting that all killing was sin.

The Sermon on the Mount reinforced this belief. Jesus’s command, “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also” (Matthew 5:39), was meant to break the cycle of personal vengeance and humiliation duels common in his time. Yet many Christians misunderstood this as a prohibition against all resistance, even to violent attack.

Such readings collapse personal humility into public irresponsibility. They confuse Jesus’s call to reject retaliation with an imagined command to accept slaughter. For the Stoics, this would be unthinkable. Justice demands that the innocent be protected, even when force is required.

The consequences of pacifist misinterpretation are not merely theoretical. They are written in blood. When Christian communities embrace absolute nonviolence, they leave themselves defenseless before predators. Evil thrives where resistance to it is forbidden. Gun-free zones are the perfect example of this idiocy and the prime reason that they are chosen by those who seek to commit terrorist acts. I have yet to hear of any such attempts at police stations or gun shows.

Nowhere is this clearer than in modern Africa. Across Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Sahel, Christians suffer relentless violence from Islamist militant groups such as Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the Allied Democratic Forces. Entire villages are burned, churches destroyed, worshippers massacred.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reports that Nigeria alone accounts for the majority of Christians killed worldwide each year. Open Doors International documents thousands of deaths annually, with millions more displaced across Sub-Saharan Africa. Idealistic slogans do not prevent these atrocities. Communities that can’t or won’t defend themselves are slaughtered.

Pacifism may soothe the conscience of those far from danger, but for the vulnerable, it is a death sentence. To refuse to resist evil with force when necessary is not holiness—it is betrayal of the very concept of justice.

Justice Requires Courage

The mistranslation of “Thou shalt not kill” has shaped centuries of Christian thought, encouraging pacifism and clouding moral reasoning. Today, it still appears in public discourse as a ready-made slogan against war, punishment, or even self-defense. Yet the original commandment, “Thou shall not murder,” insists on a sharper truth: murder is always forbidden, but not all killing is murder.

Justice requires the courage to make this distinction. Killing in self-defense, in the defense of your country, or in the lawful punishment of the guilty is not sin but duty. As Seneca warned, “He who spares the guilty harms the innocent.” Justice cannot be built on mistranslation or on pacifist illusions. It can only be built on truth—and on the courage to act when justice demands it.

“The counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States.”

– The China Threat (2025), Federal Bureau of Investigation

I believe that the PRC (People’s Republic of China, or China for short) is the #1 threat to the US in particular and Western civilization in general, and is playing the “long game” in its goal to replace the US as the sole global superpower. China’s strategy is to avoid confrontation and war, and instead subvert and weaken the US from within, so that it is too distracted and lacks the will to recognize and counter the Chinese threats. With the collapse of the US as the world leader, China would become the premier superpower and would be better able to plunder US resources (primarily food and minerals) for the use of its own population and objectives. 

In implementing this strategy, China is following the playbook of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, in particular the passages:

1. “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” (China’s overarching strategy)

2. “Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” (As seen in the many asymmetric measures that China is using to undermine US resolve and culture)

3. “To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.” (China’s adoption of its version of Capitalism)

4. “Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.” (China’s presentation of itself as a Western country, when it is not)

5. “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.” (While China works to weaken the US from within, to make an attack more likely to succeed or weaken the US to the point that it fails without having to be attacked, it is also aggressively attacking weaker countries such as the Philippines and neighboring countries.)

6. “The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.” (China’s false face of being a capitalist, western society, while hiding to the extent possible, its Communist roots and global intentions)

7. “Hence, it is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results. Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army’s ability to move.” (China employs a vast number of spies to steal sensitive information from government and private sources)
   

Every interaction with China should be viewed through the lens of it being a direct or indirect attack against US and Western interests. China is not altruistic, and no interaction, however innocuous, should be considered to be without strings or a hidden intent to advance its global intentions.

Supporting Information:

China’s multifaceted approach to undermining the US, which leverages next-generation weapons, including synthetic narcotics (e.g., fentanyl and cannabinoids), bioweapons (e.g., Covid-19), psychological manipulation and influence (e.g., TikTok), and a broad arsenal of irregular warfare tools.

• China’s “Assassin’s Mace” Irregular Warfare Campaign May Render Trump’s Golden Dome Useless

• Unrestricted Warfare

China has been actively engaged in espionage and wholesale data and IP theft, both directly and through closely related quasi-criminal groups that are really arms of the CCP.

• FBI: The China Threat

• How China’s hackers may have stolen data from almost every American

• CSIS “Survey of Chinese Espionage in the U.S. Since 2000” (Feb 2023)

• Indictment of China-Based Actors Associated with APT 41 for Intrusion Activities

China is actively attacking the US by supporting the production and distribution of fentanyl and other deadly drugs to US youths, with the intent of both causing immediate death and chaos through associated crime, and to weaken the next generation in order to reduce the long-term US ability to resist Chinese aggression. Their support ranges from the supply of precursor chemicals to cartels to the laundering of drug money from the cartels.

• US Official Warns Of New Deadly Synthetic Opioid From China

• China Is The ‘Senior Partner’ Directing The Fentanyl Crisis Killing Americans

• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) — National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) 2024 & 2025

• U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC & FinCEN) — Sanctions actions and special orders (2023–2025)

China actively works to gain political influence and subvert politicians in the US and Western countries, in order to block legislation that is harmful to its interests and promote legislation that is in its interests.

• ODNI Annual Threat Assessment (2024)

• Asia Society report

• Australian Strategic Policy Institute report

• Axios: Suspected Chinese spy targeted California politicians

• Tim Walz’s ties to Communist China demand attention

• Suspected Chinese spy reportedly slept with, courted US officials to gain intel

China is actively working to infiltrate critical infrastructure systems and networks, both for espionage purposes as well as to sabotage these systems if needed in the event of future conflict between the US and China.

• 3/23/26 - FCC Updates Covered List to Include Foreign-Made

  Consumer Routers

• The next Pearl Harbor will be digital — and made in Beijing

• US warns hidden radios may be embedded in solar-powered highway infrastructure

• Advisory on PRC State-Sponsored Hacking of U.S. Critical Infrastructure

• China’s Unseen Cyber Threat to Energy Security

• Chinese-manufactured cargo equipment at ports poses cyber espionage threats

China is using social media and other applications to both influence youth, harm the mental health of US youth, and steal information from users of these applications. Nothing from China is “free” – users are always paying with their personal information, if not their mental health.

• TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed is pushing children towards harmful mental health content

• TikTok Engaging in Excessive Data Collection

• DeepSeek: Uncovering Major Privacy and Security Risks

COVID-19 was engineered in a Chinese lab in Wuhan with complicit and illegal support of the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci. It was accidentally, if not deliberately, released into the environment.

• Spy bosses ‘silenced’ Defense Department, FBI scientists from briefing Biden on COVID lab leak evidence

• The COVID cover-up still haunts the world

• Suppression of the Lab Leak Hypothesis Was Not Based on Science

• Final House Report on Coronavirus Pandemic Released, Vindicates ‘Conspiracy’ Theorists

China employs espionage, state-backed subsidies, overcapacity, and below-cost export pricing to eliminate foreign competitors and secure dominance in key industries. These practices form a consistent strategy of using trade to eradicate competition and to position China as the sole or primary source of critical materials and products.

• China-Linked APT41 Hackers Target U.S. Trade Officials Amid 2025 Negotiations

• Reuters: China hits back at U.S. tariffs with export controls on rare earths

• U.S. Department of Commerce: Final determinations in Antidumping & Countervailing Duty investigations of solar panels

• U.S. Trade Representative — 2024 Report to Congress on China’s WTO Compliance

China is expanding its military influence across the Pacific and around the world, aggressively encroaching on the territories of its neighbors and building bases in order to expand its sphere of influence and control.

• In Maps: China’s Military Activity in the Indo-Pacific

• The President’s Inbox Recap: The China-Philippines Standoff

• Intelligence reveals scale of China’s base-building in the South China Sea

China is leveraging trade and long-term development contracts in the 3rd world in order to counter US and Western influences as well as steer these countries in their foreign relations, both in the UN and regionally.

• Global China: Regional influence and strategy

• Understanding China’s Calculated Influence Abroad

• China’s Growing Influence in International Organizations

China leverages the extensive network of Chinese workers and students in the US to steal classified information and sensitive intellectual property from universities, government agencies, and private companies. Considering the constant reporting of people arrested for these attempts, this can only be considered a small fraction of the Espionage that is occurring and which is not detected.

• Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases

• Chinese National Admits to Stealing Sensitive Military Program Documents From United Technologies

• Former NASA Contractor Arrested On Way to China

• Ex-Apple worker charged with stealing self-driving car trade secrets

• Chinese National Who Worked at Monsanto Indicted on Economic Espionage Charges

China utilizes bots and agents to actively sow chaos and foment dissent in social media channels, as well as directly funding activist groups with the intent of continuing to “stir the pot” and cause social unrest in the US.

• Comer and Luna Ramp Up Probe into CCP-Linked Funding Fueling Civil Unrest in the United States

• Chinese Next-Generation Psychological Warfare

• Weaponizing Tragedy: Beijing Is Exploiting Charlie Kirk’s Assassination Online

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts, …”

– As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII, by William Shakespeare

As the curtain lowers on this season’s performance of the endless play, I am reminded that anger, jealousy, and envy toward the few who hoard wealth and power are wasted emotions. The so-called victors of this round—the one-tenth of one percent who believe themselves secure upon their mountain—are merely actors in the same cycle as those who came before them. Their victories are temporary, their dominion fragile. Soon enough, the lights will dim, the scenery will be torn down, the props swept aside, and the stage prepared for yet another performance of that perennial game: “Who gets to be King of the Mountain?” The names will change, but the play remains the same.

The pressing question, then, is what is my part in this eternal spectacle? Shall I chase after the carrots dangled by puppet masters, exhausting myself for rewards that were never truly mine? Shall I spend my energy railing against the injustice of a game rigged from the start, shouting into the wind until my voice breaks? Or shall I surrender to despair, convinced that meaning itself is impossible amidst such futility? No. I will do none of these. Instead, I will accept that I am part of the cycle, but not a slave to its illusions. I will set my eyes not on crowns of gold or thrones of power, but upon the values and virtues I have chosen. My task is not to master the mountain, but to master myself.

The true rewards of a virtuous life are inside me, hidden from the applause of the crowd. If I live in virtue only to be seen and praised, then I am no different than those who parade their hollow victories before an audience desperate for spectacle. As Seneca cautions, “I must live without getting paid.” To live without pay is not a loss but a liberation, for in rejecting the wages of vanity I am freed from the debts and obligations they carry. In that freedom lies happiness, a serenity untouched by the expectations of others.

Nor will I let my heart harden against the fallen, whether they are those who clambered up the mountain only to be cast down, or those who, through wealth and intrigue, contrived their ascension. I will not curse them, nor celebrate their ruin. Instead, I will pity them, for they remain prisoners of the very chains they forged for themselves. Their ambition, their fear, their unquenchable hunger—these are shackles no one can release them from, other than themselves.

So I will choose another path. While the play continues, I will not sit in the audience enthralled by the drama, nor join the cast in pursuit of hollow accolades. I will walk offstage, into the quiet, and there I will live according to my own script—one written not in gold or acclaim, but in wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. In such a life, the cycles of the mountain may turn as they always have, but I will remain unmoved, free, and at peace.

“Power is tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

– 1984, George Orwell

As social creatures, the psychology of humans is easily influenced by the behavior of others. This drives two of the main ways in which marketing operates on our subconscious: “monkey see, monkey do” and “fear of missing out”.

Throughout history, outbreaks of mass behavior—what scholars now call social contagions—have shaped communities, disrupted societies, and sometimes destroyed lives. In today’s hyperconnected world, the onset is faster and the consequences even more dangerous when a new social contagion starts to spread.

The Dancing Plagues of the Middle Ages

One of the earliest recorded examples comes from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when men and women across Europe found themselves seized by the “dancing plague.” In Strasbourg in 1518, dozens of people reportedly danced uncontrollably in the streets for days, with some collapsing from exhaustion and even dancing themselves to death. Historians believe this was a form of mass psychogenic illness—madness by imitation—fueled by collective stress, famine, and superstition. What began with one individual quickly spread to dozens because the act itself was reinforced by visibility and attention.

Ecstatic Fits in Evangelical Churches

Centuries later, similar contagions surfaced in religious contexts. In certain evangelical and Pentecostal traditions, speaking in tongues and falling into seizure-like states are presented as manifestations of divine presence. While some genuinely believe these experiences are spiritual, sociologists note the contagious nature of such displays. When a congregation gathers and a few members begin convulsing, shouting, or babbling in glossolalia, others often follow. The affirmation of the group—and the implicit expectation to participate—creates a feedback loop that sustains the behavior.

The Satanic Panic and “Repressed” Memories

The 1980s and 1990s in America brought another kind of contagion: the satanic panic. Spurred by therapists promoting the unproven concept of “repressed memories,” parents and children came to believe in widespread ritual abuse and conspiracies involving hidden satanic cults. Careers were ruined, families destroyed, and innocent people imprisoned—all because of a self-reinforcing cultural wave. Like the dancing plagues, the satanic panic relied on visibility, repetition, and collective fear. Once mainstream media amplified it, the contagion spread unchecked.

TikTok Challenges and the Age of Virality

Today, the most visible examples are found on TikTok and other social platforms. Challenges such as the “Blackout Challenge,” encouraging children to choke themselves until unconscious, or the “Milk Crate Challenge,” where people risk breaking bones by climbing stacked crates, have led to serious injuries and even deaths. Unlike the slow spread of medieval plagues or localized panics, these trends can reach millions in a matter of hours. The cycle of imitation is no longer confined to a town square or congregation—it is global, instantaneous, and reinforced by likes, shares, and comments.

How the Internet Supercharges Contagions

The danger today is that social media provides both immediacy and affirmation. A single video can spark a trend, and feedback in the form of views and digital applause accelerates the behavior. Where medieval villagers might have seen a handful of dancers, today’s teenager can see hundreds of thousands of participants from around the world. The psychology is the same, but the scale and speed are exponentially greater. What once took months now takes minutes.

From Social Fads to Political Polarization

This same dynamic of contagion has seeped into politics. Online platforms encourage tribal identity and reward outrage, Bluesky being among the most polarized. Political narratives spread virally, with algorithms amplifying the most extreme voices. What started out as a marketplace of ideas has become a battlefield of reflexive hostility.

This has particularly polarized the American political landscape. The left has often adopted a posture of reflexive opposition: if conservatives promote an idea, the instinct is to demonize it, regardless of merit. As VP J.D. Vance remarked, “If Trump were for breathing, the left would hold their breath.” The quip is sharp, but it captures the reality of contagion-driven polarization. Opposing “the other side” becomes a social ritual, rewarded by applause within one’s tribe and reinforced by the viral logic of social media.

Transgenderism (aka The Potted Plant Contagion)

Consider a society in which a single person declares, “I am not human—I am a potted plant.” At first, such a statement would draw laughter or pity. Most would dismiss it as eccentric or delusional. But contagions rarely remain isolated. If others affirm that person—whether out of kindness, fear of offense, or the desire to appear enlightened—the claim gains traction. What begins as an individual neurosis becomes a collective expectation: friends, coworkers, even institutions begin to treat the individual as though they truly are a plant in a pot.

With repetition comes normalization. Soon, more people emerge making similar claims, and the idea spreads like a meme. Social media algorithms amplify the novelty, rewarding every video, photo, and blog post where people showcase their “plant identities.” What once seemed absurd now circulates as a serious cultural demand.

The afflicted demand that they be addressed by their chosen plant identity: Ficus, ivy or violet. Teachers are asked to affirm it, doctors to provide care consistent with it, including chopping off limbs and providing fertilizer supplements, and corporations market products that signal their solidarity. Laws are passed mandating that birth certificates and government documents reflect a person’s “plant” identity.

The contagion does not stop there. As history shows—from the dancing manias of the Middle Ages, to evangelical fits of tongues and seizures, to the satanic panic of the 1980s, to TikTok challenges that injure children—every social contagion escalates when affirmation is not enough. Those who doubt the delusion become the enemy. In the case of our “potted plant people,” anyone who dares to say, “You are human, not a plant,” is condemned as hateful, dangerous, even violent. And because dissent threatens the fragile identity on which the entire contagion rests, defenders of the delusion lash out with hostility. Violence, whether physical, reputational or legal, becomes the enforcement mechanism of the movement.

At this stage, reality itself is inverted. To deny the delusion is to commit the gravest offense. To affirm it is to signal virtue. The contagion transforms from eccentricity to orthodoxy, then from orthodoxy to tyranny. Society finds itself trapped in a cycle where absurdity must be defended with fury because reason would otherwise reveal the truth.

This is the essential danger of social contagions. They exploit human suggestibility, reward imitation, and escalate through affirmation until rational dissent is no longer tolerated. Whether in Strasbourg in 1518, in American courtrooms during the satanic panic, in viral TikTok trends, or in the allegory of the “potted plant,” the pattern is the same: ideas spread, affirmation fuels them, and eventually, enforcement silences opposition.

In the end, the potted plant is not just a metaphor for one person’s delusion; it is a reality that is being violently played out in the news daily, most recently with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It is a warning about the fragility of societies that trade truth for belonging. When reason bows to contagion, reality becomes negotiable—and those who refuse to pretend pay the price.

We must fight back against the insanity by calling it what it is. Only by the collective actions of the sane to no longer affirm the delusions of the afflicted can we hope to regain our reason and stop its spread to others, mainly vulnerable youth who lack a moral foundation in their lives.

“A man gotta have a code.”

— Omar Little, The Wire

Everyone needs a moral code to help guide their life; otherwise, they are no better than a leaf blowing in the wind, driven by the ever-shifting dictates of society. For many, that code is defined by their religion, for others, their community/culture, and for the majority, it is whatever they see their friends doing or whatever they are told by social media is the current definition of “right” behavior. Your code is your guide to determining what is right or wrong, both in your behavior and that of others.

In my life, I have made Stoic philosophy the basis for my code. In my code, I have defined what I believe and why (with references), and how these beliefs influence the behaviors I consider to be good (those I strive to do) and bad (those I strive to avoid).

If you lack a moral framework for deciding what is good or bad, right or wrong in your own life, or you are tired of the inconsistencies in morality as defined by religion or society, consider this a starting point for developing your own “code”.

What I Believe and Why

• Humans are evolved apes.
  

  • As animals, we are still shaped by instincts and emotions, and these remain a powerful influence on our behavior. See Human Evolution Evidence
    

• Humans are innately irrational, lazy, and emotional.
  

  • We constantly invent stories regarding what we did or failed to do, in order to deceive others or justify our actions to ourselves. Because we are so attuned to stories, we can be easily misled by them. See Predictably Irrational
    

• Humans are not naturally guided by reason.
  

  • Reasoning takes effort and must be learned and practiced to be useful. See Misbelief
    

• All humans are capable of evil.
  

  • Evil can be driven by upbringing, culture or religion, or an innate psychological defect in an individual. Those who are evil lack empathy and see others not as people but rather objects to be manipulated, killed or discarded in order to satisfy their needs or interests. See The Lucifer Effect
    

• Children without proper guidance will grow up to be narcissists or worse.
  

  • Children grow into narcissistic adults as a result of poor parenting. This behavior defines the word “Bad”. See The Culture of Narcissism
    

• Everyone makes mistakes.
  

  • It is by our mistakes that we learn what doesn’t work and work to find better solutions. Intelligence is not defined by never making mistakes, but rather by learning from them and not repeating them: the definition of stupidity. See Proverbs 24:16
    

• Our lives are shaped by the choices we make.
  

  • Every decision we make, no matter how small, moves the arrow of our lives. At any moment, if we are unhappy with who or where we are, we can decide to make better choices. See Man’s Search for Meaning
    

• Life is not fair.
  

  • Some things are in our control, most are not. How we respond to adversity is in our power: to either let ourselves be overcome or continue to act virtuously regardless of the outcome. See The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
    

• Whether there is an afterlife should not be our concern.
  

  • We will all find out one way or another when we die. To spend our lives guessing or worrying is a waste of the time we have. We should strive to live a virtuous life, and let the chips fall where they may. See The Morality of Happiness
    

• The scientific method is our best tool for understanding reality.
  

  • When practiced correctly, it allows us to continuously deepen and evolve our understanding of reality. See A Field Guide to Lies
    

• Science, when institutionalized, can become dogmatic.
  

  • Like religion or any other ideology, followers of outdated scientific theories can cling to them in order to preserve their power or influence, opposing evidence that invalidates their views. See Broken Science
    

• We should be skeptical of unfounded claims.
  

  • We must test claims wherever possible and verify them as best we can before provisionally considering them valid. The greater the claim, the greater should be the evidence to support it. See Skeptic
    

• We should remain open to new knowledge.
  

  • When we discover or are exposed to information that causes us to question our existing beliefs, we should not dismiss it out of hand. Likewise, we should not waste time examining implausible claims until there is plausible evidence to support them. See Skeptic
    

• The larger and older an institution, the likely its purpose has been corrupted.
  

  • History shows that the more archaic an institution, the more it focuses on protecting its leaders, institution and dogma, rather than delivering on its original purpose. See The Great Degeneration
    

• Constant lies are a warning sign of bad or evil intent.
  

  • Those who rely on deceit are showing their true character, and their words and motives should not be trusted. See The Sociopath Next Door
    

• Strong families produce strong children.
  

  • Children raised by stable, loving, and disciplined parents have the greatest chance for happy lives and the strength to weather adversity. See Bringing Up a Moral Child
    

• Not all cultural and moral values are equal.
  

  • Those cultures and values that tolerate or promote deviancy, injustice or violence should be resisted. See The Right Side of History, and Teach Your Children the Truth about Islam
    

• The forced merger of different cultures leads to chaos and destruction.
  

  • Clashes between cultures with different moral values destroy those that are morally weak. See The Strange Death of Europe
    

• An unjust law or institution carries no authority.
  

  • When laws contradict reason and virtue, they lose their claim on our obedience. To submit to them is to betray the virtue of justice. See MLK, Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Declaration of Independence
    

• Wealth cannot be created by taking from one to give to another.
  

  • Redistribution not only distributes wealth but also power. See No, They Can’t
    

• Nothing in life is free.
  

  • Promises of something for nothing are almost always lies meant to exploit us. See No Free Lunch
    

• Virtue is the best path to living a meaningful life.
  

  • By leveraging our capacity to reason, living in harmony with nature, accepting fate, freeing ourselves from destructive passions, and working for the betterment of the world we live in. See Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius

How I Try and Live My Life

• Distinguish what is within my control
  

  • Epictetus made this the foundation of Stoic philosophy: “Some things are in our control and others not” (Enchiridion 1). Freedom and peace come from focusing on my judgments and choices, not on external events.
    

• Cultivate wisdom
  

  • Wisdom is the ability to judge rightly and act according to reason. Seneca noted, “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it” (On the Shortness of Life 1). Wisdom helps me spend my days purposefully.
    

• Practice courage
  

  • Life demands fortitude in the face of fear, pain, and uncertainty. Seneca reminded Lucilius that “it is not that life is hard, but that we are weak” (Letters 13). Courage strengthens me to meet hardship as training rather than disaster.
    

• Exercise temperance
  

  • Self-mastery is the freedom not to be enslaved by our desires. Marcus Aurelius urged restraint: “If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it” (Meditations 12.17). Temperance disciplines both word and deed.
    

• Uphold justice
  

  • Justice is the foundation of community, for without it, all other virtues collapse into selfishness. Marcus Aurelius declared, “Injustice is impiety” (Meditations 9.1), meaning that to wrong another person is to violate the very order of nature itself. Justice preserves human fellowship, while injustice tears it apart, and for this reason, the Stoics considered justice the highest expression of virtue.
    

• Recognize externals as indifferent
  

  • Wealth, possessions, and reputation are not good or bad in and of themselves. As Marcus Aurelius said, “Things of themselves have no power to form our judgment. They do not come to us and say what they are. It is we who give them their meaning.” (Meditations 5.36). What makes something external to me good or bad lies in how I use it.
    

• Train my perception
  

  • How I see events determines how I experience them. As Epictetus taught, “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.” By altering my perception, I alter my reality, allowing me to experience life’s downturns without being distressed by them.
    

• Prepare for adversity
  

  • The wise anticipate misfortune, not in fear but in readiness. Seneca counseled, “He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand” (Letters 91). By rehearsing hardship, I can blunt its sting.
    

• Accept fate with equanimity
  

  • The Stoic embraces the unfolding of events as part of the greater whole. Epictetus counseled, “Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy.” To accept what comes is to align myself with nature and find peace in its order.
    

• Practice self-examination
  

  • Progress requires reflection. Seneca ended each day by questioning his actions: “When the light has been removed and my wife has fallen silent, I examine my entire day and go back over what I have done and said” (Letters 83).
    

• Guard my thoughts
  

  • Not every impression deserves belief. Epictetus taught: “Do not let the force of impression carry you away; say, ‘Wait for me a little, impression’” (Discourses 2.18). By pausing, I can choose reason over impulse.
    

• Choose my company wisely
  

  • Our character is shaped by those we spend time with. Seneca warned, “Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach” (Letters 7). To keep bad company is to invite corruption; to walk with the virtuous is to strengthen my own virtue.
    

• Avoid the temptations of vice
  

  • Vice is the opposite of virtue, and it corrodes the soul from within. Seneca observed, “To live with vice is to live with an enemy in your own house” (Letters 28). Anger, greed, envy, and indulgence are snares that draw us away from reason and enslave us to impulse. To shun vice is not merely to avoid wrongdoing but to preserve the health of my soul and keep the path of virtue clear.
    

• Fulfill my duty and responsibility
  

  • The Stoics taught that life is not our own to squander but a trust we must honor. Marcus Aurelius insisted, “A man’s worth is measured by what he does to help his fellow man” (Meditations 8.26). To fulfill one’s duty—whether as parent, leader, friend, or citizen—is to live in service of the greater whole, and to shirk duty is to betray myself and the world I live in.
    

• Transform obstacles into opportunities
  

  • Adversity can strengthen character if approached with reason. Marcus Aurelius wrote, “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way” (Meditations 5.20). Like exercise, obstacles strengthen my ability to deal with adversity.
    

• Accept that my time is limited and unknown
  

  • Awareness of death clarifies life. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself, “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think” (Meditations 2.11). My time is limited; I shall seek not to waste it.

“There is but one thing of real value – to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.”

– Marcus Aurelius

With the just announced assassination of Charlie Kirk, the progressive Marxist death cult, aka the Democrat party, has once again shown the world who they truly are and what they stand for – which is the silencing of dissent, of the debate of ideas, of the morals which built Western civilization, and of truth and justice for all.

The despicable statements from Democrat House members, pundits and politicians regarding the attack clearly show that they lack any moral fiber or standing. Rather than acknowledging the tragedy of a young father being shot at a public event where he was engaging in civil debate in order to educate the public and promote conservative values, they ridiculed him and his ideas. They said that he had brought this on himself by promoting these values, to which they are diametrically opposed.

On top of it all, the evidence is now showing that this is the work, yet again, of a deranged left-wing nut job, likely again transgender. This is the latest in a string of killings perpetrated by these lunatics, acting out the urgings of Democrat leaders to commit violence against conservatives.

While Democrats immediately called for de-escalation of political rhetoric and threats on both sides, the ledger shows that it is these progressive Marxists who have been making the threats and carrying out these attacks, not conservatives. By attempting to frame this as a bipartisan issue, they seek to deflect attention from their record of directly contributing to what happened.

The Democrat party is the party of lies, and anyone who is a member or promotes them is guilty by association, if not active promotion, of their evil. It is time for all Americans who care about the Constitution and the moral values on which this country was built to stop turning the other cheek and stop engaging in debates with those whose minds are so corrupted that they can no longer see, let alone understand, reason. Through direct political action and community involvement, all such citizens can take back the wheel from those who are intent on destroying our country and the values on which it was built.

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

– 1984, George Orwell

If religions were a reliable method for discerning objective truth about the world, one would expect them to converge on a consistent narrative of human origins, morality and purpose. Yet this is not what we find. Instead, the world’s major religions present us with a tangled web of mutually exclusive cosmologies, historical claims, and moral doctrines. These belief systems do not merely differ—they contradict one another on fundamental questions. And if they cannot all be true, this begs the question: are any of them? I personally have to think not.

To say that one religion has the largest number of adherents and therefore must be true is to fall prey to the Ad Populum fallacy. What religion is the most dominant has changed throughout history. Does that mean the structure of reality changed as well, depending on whoever is the current most popular God, dogma and mythology? Once again, I don’t think so.

Conflicting Accounts of Human Origins

Each religion claims divine revelation about humanity’s origins. Yet these “revelations” tell vastly different stories—stories that reflect the cultural, geographic, and philosophical contexts of the societies that produced them. The history of Islam, in particular, is instructive in how its doctrine evolved during Muhammad’s lifetime in order to meet shifting political needs.

The Abrahamic Traditions: Creation from Dust

The Bible opens with the claim that God created the Earth in six days, forming man from soil and breathing life into him:

“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
— Genesis 2:7

The Qur’an offers a similar, if somewhat more earthy view:

“We created mankind out of dried clay formed from fetid black mud.”

— Qur’an 15:26

In both narratives, humanity is a deliberate and direct creation of God, not the product of natural processes. This view conflicts not only with the evidence from anthropology and genetics, but also with other religious traditions.

Hinduism: Creation Through Divine Essence and Cycles

Hindu cosmology offers a more abstract and cyclical vision. In the Rig Veda, creation is described in speculative, poetic terms:

“Who knows from whence this great creation sprang?
He from whom all this great creation came.
Whether his will created or was mute,
The Most High seer that is in highest heaven,
He knows it — or perchance even He knows not.”
— Rig Veda 10.129

There is no single Adam or Eve, no six-day creation, and no fall from grace. The universe is eternal, cycling through ages (yugas), with humans emerging and dissolving over vast epochs. The current cycle, the Kali Yuga, is believed to last 432,000 years.

Norse Mythology: Emergence from the Body of a Giant

In Norse belief, the world is made from the body of a primordial frost giant:

“From Ymir’s flesh the Earth was created, and from his blood the sea, rocks from bones, trees from hair, and the sky from his skull.”
— The Prose Edda

Human beings are later created from driftwood found on the seashore—Ask and Embla, made by the gods Odin, Vili, and Vé.

Buddhism: No Creator at All

Buddhism, particularly in its early forms, rejects the idea of a creator god altogether. The Buddha discouraged speculation on origins:

“Conjecture about the origin of the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.”
— Acintita Sutta

Human existence is instead explained through karma and dependent origination. There is no fall, no paradise lost, and no divine plan for humanity.

These foundational texts tell mutually exclusive stories. A human being cannot simultaneously be made from dust or driftwood. The Earth cannot be 6,000 years old and also the product of endless cosmic cycles. Either one story is true and the others are false, or all are false. They cannot all be the divine truth.

Diverging Views on Human Purpose

Religions are not only cosmologies about the origins of the world; they are teleologies—they assert why we are here and what we are meant to do.

Christianity: Redemption from Sin

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
— Romans 3:23, 6:23

Human beings are born in sin, estranged from God, and require salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The Christian worldview is eschatological: life is a prelude to eternal reward or punishment.

Islam: Submission to God’s Will

“I did not create jinn and mankind except to worship Me.”
— Qur’an 51:56

Humanity’s purpose is obedience—Islam means submission. Paradise awaits the faithful, while the disobedient are condemned to Hell. Like Christianity, Islam is morally dualistic and eschatological.

Hinduism: Liberation Through Karma

“Those who see the Lord as the Supreme Soul, equally present everywhere in all living beings, they do not degrade themselves by their mind and thereby attain the supreme state.”
— Bhagavad Gita 13:29

The self is an illusion (maya), and life is an opportunity to fulfill one’s dharma and accumulate positive karma. The ultimate goal, however, is moksha, liberation from the cycle of rebirth.

Buddhism: The End of Suffering

“…When desire fades away they’re freed. When they’re freed, they know they’re freed. They understand: ‘Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is no return to any state of existence.’”
— Majjhima Nikāya 22:49

There is no divine plan or cosmic judgment—only the impersonal law of cause and effect. Human purpose is self-liberation from attachment.

Mormonism: Eternal Progression

“As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.”
— The Life and Ministry of Lorenzo Snow, Chapter 5

Mormon theology, as refined by the 5th President of the Church, is explicitly anthropocentric: humans can become divine beings. God is not wholly other, but a perfected version of humanity.

These visions of human destiny are not simply diverse—they are mutually exclusive. We cannot be both unworthy sinners and potential gods. We cannot be both eternal souls and empty aggregates of matter. A religion that condemns unbelievers to Hell cannot coexist with one that denies Hell altogether.

Conflicting Historical Narratives

Religions also make historical claims about the lives of their founders, sacred revelations, and divine interventions. But these, too, are filled with contradictions.

• Christianity teaches that Jesus was the divine Son of God, crucified and resurrected. However, Islam denies this explicitly:

“They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them.”
— Qur’an 4:157

• Judaism denies that Jesus was the Messiah at all and awaits a future anointed one.

• Hinduism accepts thousands of gods and incarnations, while Islam and Judaism denounce polytheism as idolatry.

• Sikhism rejects caste and polytheism, while Hinduism institutionalizes both in its theology and social order.

• The Bahá’í Faith claims all previous religions were true for their time, but only it represents the final revelation for the current era—a claim rejected by all other religions.
  

⠀These are not stylistic differences. They are doctrinal incompatibilities—and they undermine any notion of a unified religious truth.

Why the Contradictions Matter

Apologists sometimes argue that different religions are simply “different paths to the same God.” But this is intellectual evasion. The world’s religions are not multiple answers to the same question. They are different questions, posed in different languages, and answered with different and conflicting myths.

The contradictions are not trivial. They have led and continue to lead to sectarian violence, theological exclusion, and doctrinal absolutism. If religion were the universal language of truth, it would not fracture into a thousand dialects, each condemning the rest.

Instead, what we observe aligns far more with a cultural anthropological model: religions are regional responses to existential uncertainty, shaped by geography, politics, and historical circumstance—not eternal truths.

“Envy plus rhetoric equals 'social justice'“

– Thomas Sowell

The premise of Critical Race Theory (CRT) is that all whites are racists, whether they acknowledge it or not, and oppress anyone who is non-white just by their existence. Expanding on this definition of Woke, it now includes all homosexuals “oppressed” by anyone who is heterosexual.

These movements are nothing but Marxism under another name, where class has now been replaced by race, orientation, or any other category by which a person decides to define themselves. As opposed to equality, where everyone has an opportunity to advance and succeed based on their ability, the focus is on equity, which states everyone MUST have the same outcome, taking from those who have to give to those without in order to force the scales to balance.

This is inherently irrational, as it is a complete rejection of evolution at all levels. As opposed to the constant adaptation of the species in reaction to environmental pressures, this theory mandates that everyone is brought down to the same level and that society be kept static to maintain the “supposed” even distribution of resources. No one and nothing can grow if everything is focused on keeping things the same. Society stagnates, and in yet another example of Marxist failure, the system devolves into a two-class system – the few who decide who gets what (with the deciders getting the largest share) and the vast majority who get what they are given until the whole facade collapses as it always does. This is the real agenda behind Marxism and its derivatives: those without ability but with ambition, seeking to use psyops to replace those with both.

Of course, redistribution cannot occur without someone to determine who needs what and to take it from those who have it. As opposed to the blind hand of the market allocating resources and determining winners and losers based on supply and demand, this is now replaced with central control (some animals are more equal than others), which will make the allocations, enforced through violence.

I think this is why Marxism has been and will always be a failure. People can see that if they make the effort, they can often succeed and improve their living conditions if allowed the opportunity. However, if the reward for their efforts is that the state confiscates them for redistribution to those who do not make the effort, then they will rapidly cease to even try. States like California are a living example of this in action as a Marxist level of taxation has driven the state’s finances into the ground while at the same time prompting companies to leave in mass for greener pastures.

Why don’t I have what I want or what I see others having (success, health, happiness)? Obviously, because the system and the man have oppressed me, not because I failed in my efforts or made bad choices? Why won’t people accept me as I am? Not because I have dyed myself as a pink monkey, but because people are biased and unaccepting of those who do not look, act and believe as they do. It is not enough that people accept my lifestyle; they must accept, support, and adopt my choices in order to validate them. (I’m gay and transsexual; therefore, your children must be taught from the cradle that they can be gay and transsexual and must be allowed to “choose” their gender and orientation, including having surgical changes provided while still in puberty).

The hysteria regarding climate change is another form of this same delusion. Rather than acknowledging that the climate is constantly changing, we must force there to be a constant climate, regardless of the cost or outcomes, or more importantly, without acknowledging the natural causes of the change. It is the rejection of the reality that we live in a constantly changing, natural world. It is the false belief that since we are responsible for micro-changes to the environment (pollution), we must therefore be responsible for macro-changes (climate).

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

– 1984, George Orwell

Big Brother, from George Orwell’s novel “1984”, is my term for all forms of government, both Corporatist and Marxist, that reject the concept of individual freedom and responsibility and replace it with centralized control and regulation of thought. In the case of the US, there are both Fascist (Corporatist) and Marxist (Progressive, Socialist, Democrats – all just synonyms for the same philosophy) forms of Big Brother, and both work to subjugate the populace for their own purposes.

Marxism

Marxism in all its forms, ranging from “progressive” Democrats/Socialists such as AOC, Bernie Sanders, to the outright Communist Zohran Mamdani, all share a common agenda to reshape society to their collectivist vision. Whether they truly think that government is the answer or they know that they are advancing the Marxist agenda to reshape society from equality of opportunity to equality of outcome, the end result is the same: poverty for the masses, power for the party leaders.

Fascism

” Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”

– Benito Mussolini

” Fascism is capitalism in decay”

– Lenin

Fascism is the complex evil twin of the Marxist movement, which is well underway in America. As corporations centralize power and stifle competition, they increasingly leverage government influence to enhance their monopolies. By agreeing with and helping write laws to “regulate” themselves, they are, in reality, creating barriers to entry from competition. In this sense, they are “frenemies” of the Marxist progressives, whom they leverage and manipulate in order to increase their own power.

Besides banking and the military-industrial complex, the other significant example of corporate fascism is in the medical industry, in particular, pharmaceutical companies, but also in hospitals and the medical industry overall. Between hospitals, health insurance, and pharma companies, consumers’ choices are increasingly limited as all aspects of the health care system are reorganized to maximize profit for the shareholders as opposed to patient care and quality of outcomes.

With private equity a growing player in buying up and then shutting down hospital chains, or purchasing ambulance and emergency services, these players are seeking to get into businesses where consumers have little to no choice for needed services, and they can charge whatever they can get away with.

Democracy

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Throughout history, all attempts at democracy have inevitably failed, starting with Athens and Rome, and leading to the US today, where the failure is still in progress. The patterns expressed in earlier attempts are repeating themselves yet again. Pandering politicians and increasing taxation, as those who take steal from those who make, with the politicians arranging the swindle, both skimming for themselves and using the proceeds to grow the base of those who are indebted to them for their welfare.

It seems that the concept of democracy is like a cancer. When starting out, it is a normal cell that performs useful functions, benefiting society. However, as it grows, it consumes more resources, not for the benefit of its host, society, but for its own growth and survival. In the late stages, it consumes practically all resources as it continues its relentless growth, and in this way, it is no different than a cancer that kills as the tumor consumes all the resources of its host, choking off vital functions.

The founders of this country were keenly aware of the dangers of democracy as a form of government. To counter the danger of mob rule, they explicitly designed the Constitution to limit the power of government and divide power across different branches of government, as well as limiting the franchise to those who had a vested interest in good governance by being landowners or taxpayers. In spite of their efforts, their controls have been degraded over time by expanding the franchise to those who contribute nothing to society and only take from the government, and as a result, Benjamin Franklin’s warning is now being played out.

Laws are now made by corporate lawyers to benefit corporate interests, with the corporate-owned media spinning the story about how this is all for the benefit of the plebes paying for it. The military, financial and healthcare sectors have been totally consumed by this pathology. Can the MAGA movement reverse this trend? Only time will tell.

Is there a way out of this trap? If there is, it will rely on building a society structured around self-reliance, duty, and responsibility, with all shared institutions limited to the smallest extent possible and with regular review and expungement when the purpose of the institution is no longer being met. We must turn on its head the truism that there is nothing more permanent than a temporary government program or measure. Likewise, we must make representation as a politician, not a lifetime role where the greatest showman wins, but a civic duty that all capable citizens are required to support.

“A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.”

– Booker T. Washington

Everyone in Western societies is constantly bombarded by competing sources of information, if not outright propaganda, all proclaiming that they are the sole source of “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”, and everything else is nothing but a pack of malicious lies (which is not unlike the views of many religions, for that matter). Obviously, they can not all be right, and they might very well all be wrong.

Why then do I even bother to discover the truth about a matter? Wouldn’t it be easier to just read the New York Times, Politico or Truth Social to find out what is important (in their opinion) for me to know?

For far too many people, this is exactly what they do, and their curiosity extends no further. Go back only a few hundred years, and it was no doubt the same, whatever the village priest or elder says, defines the “truth”; whether it is the crops are failing therefore lets sacrifice a virgin in the volcano, or the old women caused the cow to stop producing milk therefore she is a witch and lets burn her at the stake.

Authority Figures

We all have a tendency to believe whatever we are told by authority figures, especially at an early age when we are sponges for information. We don’t know how things work, and we depend on those around us to explain this strange world we live in.

As we get older, some of us start to catch on that not everything we have been told about history, how the world works, or current events is the unvarnished truth. It becomes obvious that we are living in a bazaar of ideas, and everyone is shouting at us, if not attempting to shove down our throats, their version of the truth.

Digging Deeper

It is at this point that people seem to fall into two camps: either they blindly accept the version of reality promoted by the group they consider themselves a part of, be it a political party, religion or organization, or a few become skeptical and start asking “why and how” questions when presented with unsubstantiated opinions.

As I write my essays, I research the topic and look for information from varied sources in order to attempt to inform and verify my conclusions. Could these sources be feeding me a line of BS? Absolutely! This means I try to seek out sources that have not shown themselves to be consistent purveyors of lies.

What do I consider to be untrustworthy sources? I ask myself: Has the information this source has promoted been shown to be false over time? Does this source resort to straw man, ad hominem and other logical fallacies in its arguments? Does this source show clear biases in what they report and how they report it? Does this source lie about what they have reported in the past and fail to acknowledge their mistakes?

In all these ways, I attempt to identify sources that are more likely to be wrong or biased so I can avoid them, rather than attempting to find those that are true, because as Pontius Pilate said, “What is truth?“. What would appear to be true today could turn out to be a total crock of s* tomorrow.

However, if there is one consistency in the world, it is that liars lie. Once I’ve identified a source as being a regular purveyor of lies (i.e., most of the mainstream media), I don’t waste time trying to find the rare nugget of truth in the mound of manure they constantly produce. I do, however, use them as a reliable source of counterinformation: when they are all shouting to the rooftops that “x” is true, that is to me a pretty sure sign that “x” is false, and vice versa.

Walking the Zig-Zag Path

I have to use my beliefs to help make the best decisions I can today, not at some unknown point in the future when I have more or better information. The world is not waiting for me to make up my mind, and analysis paralysis can be just as fatal in modern life as it was for my ancestors crossing the savannas of Africa holding a spear.

Finding the truth about a matter is similar to a group of blind men trying to discover the true nature of an elephant. Some will shift their positions in order to get as full a mental picture as possible. Others, however, are wedded to holding onto the tail and think that the constant affirmations they receive mean that they alone have the best picture of the elephant. However, their opinions smell as good as they do and are just as helpful.

Yet for all of my efforts, I know I have only developed a partial picture of the truth on most matters, not the truth itself. As such, I try to keep my mind open to new or more complete information that could show where I was wrong in my earlier conclusions. This has certainly played out as I have grown older, as impressions that were formed in the ignorance of my youth about the benevolence of authority figures and institutions, or the character of people, have changed dramatically as I grew older, wiser and more jaded by the corruption, deceit and injustice that pervades the world.

Could I be wrong in some of my beliefs? Absolutely, and I expect that I probably am; however, I don’t consider a misperception to be a fatal flaw in my character, only a sign that I lacked accurate information when forming my belief. When I find additional information that leads me to reconsider my position, I will alter my beliefs accordingly. Being dogmatic is just another word for being a thick-headed jackass in my book.