"it’s odd to see American elites cheering on anti-mandate demonstrations in China while heaping calumny on them in North America."
I have pointed this out to some of my close folx, and they are not ready to see it, nor amused when I point out that, as far as covid response goes, they are now essentially siding with Trump...
Also:
"Don’t think of it as death; think of it as inventory reduction." 2 marks, but Oof.
Thank you, Richard, for your always powerful and insightful reflections. They’re spot on! I’ve missed you and I pray for your good health. I look forward to your continued wisdom this year and I’m happy and proud to be on the journey with you! 💕
I keep thinking about the scene in the movie, "Titanic" where the crew lock the doors so the poor people can't escape the boat, as it is sinking. If only it was just a movie, problem is, it is reality and it keeps happening. The fed increasing interest rates to fight inflation that they caused by making money to give to the rich and Ukraine. Climate Change which the gov't does little to nothing to solve, as the rich make plans to escape via space. Our leaders are evil and corrupt, as all rich are, or they would end the suffering and death.
"Takeaway #6: ...apparently it’s okay to censor free speech on social media and everywhere else if it promotes ideas you don’t like."
I see where you're coming from, but just for sake of argument, Nope.
Social media are for the most part commercial entities (not "people" but run by people) and mostly not required to give up their typical codes of conduct or sensibilities regarding their customers. 'No shoes, no shirt, no service' is stilled posted on windows and walls around the country. No one thrown off a commercial medium is 'censored' – they are simply prohibited from spouting whatever their personal foolishness is upon that particular commercial platform. If they painted their nonsense (however defined) upon some storefront the store owner would clean it off or paint over it. That is not censorship. Alternatively, if someone asked the store owner if they could post a handbill about an upcoming event – even a call to arms – some store owners would go along with it.
And when someone who is a customer of a social medium is upset by a fellow customer, they are free to complain to the proprietor but the proprietor also is free to decline to do anything about it. No need to discuss the difference between those circumstances and an equivalent exercise of speech in a governmental public forum. They really are different things, with different rules.
If anyone wants to spout the worst collection of ideas in human consciousness, they are free to yell as loudly as they want on the public streets. Or create their own commercial medium. Or start a church. And their opponents are free to call them out on it. But that isn't censorship. And our government won't get in that argument, unless it gets violent. So when on, say, January 6, 2021, 30,000 protesters clog the National Mall in obeisance to their Supreme Swamp Thang it is just another day in DC. No harm, no foul, no censorious action. But when a few thousand of them walk downmall to the Capitol, beat the shit out of public servants and threaten to murder public officials, the state manages to step in and stop that.
And yes, I was there that day, because I live in this town and I watch what goes on, and I need to witness nazis in all their ingloriously vile delusions. And if my phone battery had not died, who knows, some of my witnessing might have made it into the public record.
"Takeaway #2: More than one million Americans died in a pandemic (so far), and it’s being treated in politics and the media as if it’s no big deal."
This is vitally important to me. I've said for years that war is not about the historians, who get to interview survivors. War is about the dead people. Same with pandemics. Focusing on the rest is fun after hours, tabletop theorizing. The central focus ought always to be the despair, the absolute crushing loss...
Seldom does anyone speak for the dead in the way they deserve. We survivors and bystanders never get the blood, the entrails and the brains of the dead smeared across our faces so that we finally do the necessary things to ensure it never happens again.
"it’s odd to see American elites cheering on anti-mandate demonstrations in China while heaping calumny on them in North America."
I have pointed this out to some of my close folx, and they are not ready to see it, nor amused when I point out that, as far as covid response goes, they are now essentially siding with Trump...
Also:
"Don’t think of it as death; think of it as inventory reduction." 2 marks, but Oof.
Thank you, Richard, for your always powerful and insightful reflections. They’re spot on! I’ve missed you and I pray for your good health. I look forward to your continued wisdom this year and I’m happy and proud to be on the journey with you! 💕
I keep thinking about the scene in the movie, "Titanic" where the crew lock the doors so the poor people can't escape the boat, as it is sinking. If only it was just a movie, problem is, it is reality and it keeps happening. The fed increasing interest rates to fight inflation that they caused by making money to give to the rich and Ukraine. Climate Change which the gov't does little to nothing to solve, as the rich make plans to escape via space. Our leaders are evil and corrupt, as all rich are, or they would end the suffering and death.
"Takeaway #6: ...apparently it’s okay to censor free speech on social media and everywhere else if it promotes ideas you don’t like."
I see where you're coming from, but just for sake of argument, Nope.
Social media are for the most part commercial entities (not "people" but run by people) and mostly not required to give up their typical codes of conduct or sensibilities regarding their customers. 'No shoes, no shirt, no service' is stilled posted on windows and walls around the country. No one thrown off a commercial medium is 'censored' – they are simply prohibited from spouting whatever their personal foolishness is upon that particular commercial platform. If they painted their nonsense (however defined) upon some storefront the store owner would clean it off or paint over it. That is not censorship. Alternatively, if someone asked the store owner if they could post a handbill about an upcoming event – even a call to arms – some store owners would go along with it.
And when someone who is a customer of a social medium is upset by a fellow customer, they are free to complain to the proprietor but the proprietor also is free to decline to do anything about it. No need to discuss the difference between those circumstances and an equivalent exercise of speech in a governmental public forum. They really are different things, with different rules.
If anyone wants to spout the worst collection of ideas in human consciousness, they are free to yell as loudly as they want on the public streets. Or create their own commercial medium. Or start a church. And their opponents are free to call them out on it. But that isn't censorship. And our government won't get in that argument, unless it gets violent. So when on, say, January 6, 2021, 30,000 protesters clog the National Mall in obeisance to their Supreme Swamp Thang it is just another day in DC. No harm, no foul, no censorious action. But when a few thousand of them walk downmall to the Capitol, beat the shit out of public servants and threaten to murder public officials, the state manages to step in and stop that.
And yes, I was there that day, because I live in this town and I watch what goes on, and I need to witness nazis in all their ingloriously vile delusions. And if my phone battery had not died, who knows, some of my witnessing might have made it into the public record.
Maybe my phone was censoring me...
"Takeaway #2: More than one million Americans died in a pandemic (so far), and it’s being treated in politics and the media as if it’s no big deal."
This is vitally important to me. I've said for years that war is not about the historians, who get to interview survivors. War is about the dead people. Same with pandemics. Focusing on the rest is fun after hours, tabletop theorizing. The central focus ought always to be the despair, the absolute crushing loss...
Seldom does anyone speak for the dead in the way they deserve. We survivors and bystanders never get the blood, the entrails and the brains of the dead smeared across our faces so that we finally do the necessary things to ensure it never happens again.