Welcome back to the monthly Upheaval Subscriber Community Thread: always on a different date and time to keep you on your toes. I don’t have much to update you on up top this time, other than that the planned essay on Lewis and Tolkien was slightly delayed due to a) my over-ambition making it more complicated than expected, and b) being very nicely asked to contribute something to a print magazine but then having to actually make a deadline. It’s on its way though.
Oh my, Xu's letter to his daughter is chilling, heart rending. How can we not be affected by it? It deeply impacted me.
This thought from him makes me shiver: "Big Brother is not only omnipotent, he takes a particular pleasure in his work. People in the system get a kick out of every covert operation, they savor the pungent smell of blood of each kill, and they are emboldened by every success. To their insensate and cunning minds we are nothing more than statistics, corporeal digits to be manipulated and abused at will."
I recognize our own governmental officials and bureaucrats in this statement. We're not so far off.
As to the Canadian think tank executive summary: pretty rich, eh, coming from Canada!
I had planned Brave New World and 1984 in my HS Civics class this year (we start in 3 weeks). Now I know what essay I'm going to give them when they finish 1984.
Why do these 87,000 to be hired so-called "IRS agents", need to be armed, agree to use deadly force, and be on call 24/7 365 days a year? Hint: they are planned Brownshirt enforcers, not actual IRS agents.
To combine with Mr. Lyon’s previous theme of “virtuals vs. physicals,” there’s a connecting thread here with the linked pieces that suggests the “virtuals,” whether in China or the US, are all trending totalitarian. Not to go full Marxist, but, perhaps, something in the new technology- driven economy that came after the rise of the Internet is somehow creating worldwide totalitarian impulses ideologically. Is it the “knowledge workers” instead of the “vanguard of the proletariat” that’s now claiming we have nothing to lose but our chains?
I think there is a connection, yes. Virtuals are used to a world that is abstract, not messy, and able to be easily manipulated and controlled, like a well-oiled/programmed machine. So if this becomes their view of how the real world is or should be, then they are liable to start treating it as such, attempting to control and reengineer the world and the people in it to fit their imagined ideal. But the real world is far more complex than they can understand, and far more messy, and so things don't go as planned; so they put more and more effort into attempting to make the world submit to their control, becoming the totalitarians we all know and love.
"If we ever want to achieve any progress on the big issues – from the economy to health to education – then the culture wars must be fought and won.
If anything, the term culture war does not capture the gravity of what we are facing right now. It is a woke onslaught, a cultural insurrection. And it is affecting and damaging every aspect of political and social life today. It even threatens democracy itself."
This seems the most important admonition in the world at this time in history. I think we are screwed if we don't wake up to the fact that we are currently fighting WWIII and losing.
I am almost despondent with the recent news that even with the copious long list of Democrat-responsible nihilism and destruction we have experienced during the pandemic and with the Biden set, that Democrat politicians are raking in the donations and appear to be headed toward keeping the Senate and the maybe the House too. WTF?
How can this be happening? Are the pollsters lying? Are they controlled by the Democrat political establishment that is the power base for the elites and faking the data to keep people like me depressed and less likely to vote?
Part of their battle plan has been to strangle the economics of those that vote Republican so that they don't have the funds to contribute to politics. However, why are well-off moderates supporting the party of destruction? Do they like having their children harmed by unneeded school shutdowns? Do they like having their budgets destroyed by purpose executive orders to strangle the energy sector? Do they like having their free speech rights eliminated? Do they like homelessness and crime exploding? Do they think that globalism is doing well for them and the country. Do they like more drug overdose deaths and suicides and millions of new illegals flooding into communities as the Biden border is kept wide open?
Do they like all this woke crap?
It really does not make any sense to me unless these people have their media feeds so biased and tuned to the left propaganda show, that they really don't even know the extent of the destruction going on around them?
They say that people generally get the government they deserve. I think in this case, with our universities and our mainstream media so corrupted to do the work of our national enemy, we are not getting the government we deserve. We are getting the government the elites are pushing though a fantastically successful coordinated influence and marketing plan.
How to we fight against that is not with eventual violence?
It isn't the Trump support that has dwindled. It is the Liz Cheney-type support. Republicans are just not happy with the existing GOP establishment. They view is that they suck only a bit less than Democrats... who suck yugely.
Exactly, the Republican base wants a strong-man sociopath in charge. The sane Republicans are peeling off to the Democrats, especially because they've realized that the Trump cult is serious about controlling women's bodies.
Ha. Yeah. Sure. Trump "cult" wants to control women's bodies. Like controlling their gender assignment while in grade school and decide which "women's" bodies that are biological male bodies can compete in "women's" sports and SCOTUS nominations that cannot even define "woman".
Anyone that votes Democrat these days is deranged.
Truly a dispiriting compendium of news---but essential reading. Thank you for doing your part to make our current quandary public: we're forced to sail between the Scylla of China and the Charybdis of an America hi-jacked by Woke imperialists.
The effective altruism article is definitely one to look forward to. The New Yorker was entirely too sympathetic to the movement to have anything to say about it.
Oh my, Xu's letter to his daughter is chilling, heart rending. How can we not be affected by it? It deeply impacted me.
This thought from him makes me shiver: "Big Brother is not only omnipotent, he takes a particular pleasure in his work. People in the system get a kick out of every covert operation, they savor the pungent smell of blood of each kill, and they are emboldened by every success. To their insensate and cunning minds we are nothing more than statistics, corporeal digits to be manipulated and abused at will."
I recognize our own governmental officials and bureaucrats in this statement. We're not so far off.
As to the Canadian think tank executive summary: pretty rich, eh, coming from Canada!
I had planned Brave New World and 1984 in my HS Civics class this year (we start in 3 weeks). Now I know what essay I'm going to give them when they finish 1984.
87k new IRS agents. Chilling
Oh please. The IRS is very badly understaffed. Massive amounts of blatant cheating (= ripoff of YOU) go undetected.
Why do these 87,000 to be hired so-called "IRS agents", need to be armed, agree to use deadly force, and be on call 24/7 365 days a year? Hint: they are planned Brownshirt enforcers, not actual IRS agents.
*yawn*
Better get back to the Qanon chat, I hear there's a drop soon
Surprised someone with ineligble intellect to debate subscribes to a great mind like Lyons. Begone troll.
Wow, great compilation. That letter was heart breaking. Elon is WAY to optimistic about the future. The Ideologues are going to slaughter us.
To combine with Mr. Lyon’s previous theme of “virtuals vs. physicals,” there’s a connecting thread here with the linked pieces that suggests the “virtuals,” whether in China or the US, are all trending totalitarian. Not to go full Marxist, but, perhaps, something in the new technology- driven economy that came after the rise of the Internet is somehow creating worldwide totalitarian impulses ideologically. Is it the “knowledge workers” instead of the “vanguard of the proletariat” that’s now claiming we have nothing to lose but our chains?
I think there is a connection, yes. Virtuals are used to a world that is abstract, not messy, and able to be easily manipulated and controlled, like a well-oiled/programmed machine. So if this becomes their view of how the real world is or should be, then they are liable to start treating it as such, attempting to control and reengineer the world and the people in it to fit their imagined ideal. But the real world is far more complex than they can understand, and far more messy, and so things don't go as planned; so they put more and more effort into attempting to make the world submit to their control, becoming the totalitarians we all know and love.
In re Musk and his robots, EA and its autistic Mrs Jellybys, Chinese social engineers and their envious Western admirers:
Lord save us from the people who have dedicated their lives to saving us!
"If we ever want to achieve any progress on the big issues – from the economy to health to education – then the culture wars must be fought and won.
If anything, the term culture war does not capture the gravity of what we are facing right now. It is a woke onslaught, a cultural insurrection. And it is affecting and damaging every aspect of political and social life today. It even threatens democracy itself."
This seems the most important admonition in the world at this time in history. I think we are screwed if we don't wake up to the fact that we are currently fighting WWIII and losing.
I am almost despondent with the recent news that even with the copious long list of Democrat-responsible nihilism and destruction we have experienced during the pandemic and with the Biden set, that Democrat politicians are raking in the donations and appear to be headed toward keeping the Senate and the maybe the House too. WTF?
How can this be happening? Are the pollsters lying? Are they controlled by the Democrat political establishment that is the power base for the elites and faking the data to keep people like me depressed and less likely to vote?
Part of their battle plan has been to strangle the economics of those that vote Republican so that they don't have the funds to contribute to politics. However, why are well-off moderates supporting the party of destruction? Do they like having their children harmed by unneeded school shutdowns? Do they like having their budgets destroyed by purpose executive orders to strangle the energy sector? Do they like having their free speech rights eliminated? Do they like homelessness and crime exploding? Do they think that globalism is doing well for them and the country. Do they like more drug overdose deaths and suicides and millions of new illegals flooding into communities as the Biden border is kept wide open?
Do they like all this woke crap?
It really does not make any sense to me unless these people have their media feeds so biased and tuned to the left propaganda show, that they really don't even know the extent of the destruction going on around them?
They say that people generally get the government they deserve. I think in this case, with our universities and our mainstream media so corrupted to do the work of our national enemy, we are not getting the government we deserve. We are getting the government the elites are pushing though a fantastically successful coordinated influence and marketing plan.
How to we fight against that is not with eventual violence?
"Do they like all this woke crap?"
Perhaps you've heard of a little thing called abortion. There may have been some news about it recently ...
A culture that lives off the blood of their own young is a culture with no future. China is understanding that now, but seemingly only too late…
A court decided that not politics. Now politics can work at the state level.
Exactly. That's a big reason why Democrats are surging in the polls.
Another, of course, is that the Republicans have become nothing more than a batshit insane cult of personality.
It isn't the Trump support that has dwindled. It is the Liz Cheney-type support. Republicans are just not happy with the existing GOP establishment. They view is that they suck only a bit less than Democrats... who suck yugely.
Exactly, the Republican base wants a strong-man sociopath in charge. The sane Republicans are peeling off to the Democrats, especially because they've realized that the Trump cult is serious about controlling women's bodies.
Ha. Yeah. Sure. Trump "cult" wants to control women's bodies. Like controlling their gender assignment while in grade school and decide which "women's" bodies that are biological male bodies can compete in "women's" sports and SCOTUS nominations that cannot even define "woman".
Anyone that votes Democrat these days is deranged.
Truly a dispiriting compendium of news---but essential reading. Thank you for doing your part to make our current quandary public: we're forced to sail between the Scylla of China and the Charybdis of an America hi-jacked by Woke imperialists.
Thank you for the letter by Xu to his daughter. Heartbreaking.
The effective altruism article is definitely one to look forward to. The New Yorker was entirely too sympathetic to the movement to have anything to say about it.
Have you read Matt Crawford's "Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road"? If not, I think you'd like it.