What it is Like to Start Seeing the Progressive Left for What it is.

Fascinating video. This woman recently started seeing the DNC and progressive left for what they are. She describes the experience of scales falling from her eyes.

I created a transcript of her 3-minute video:

I feel like I have a unique perspective with this whole election thing. Because I used to be very, very far left, like I was one of the people having a fucking mental breakdown in 2016 when he won, right? And I didn't even like him up until six months ago, when it became very obvious that they were staging a coup and tried to assassinate him. And then some shit started clicking. So I'm still very new to this whole side of things. But the thing is, when I was very far left, like, radically far left, I thought I knew what was going on. I genuinely believed I was informed. I thought I knew better than everybody else, and that's what these people think, too. And the thing is I would get so triggered and so angry when people would question me because I didn't actually know what the hell I was talking about. I thought I did, but really I didn't actually know any policies. I didn't actually know any politics. All I actually knew was what I had seen online, in mainstream media, and because everybody was saying, I just assumed it had to be right, right. And I think where a lot of this comes from is like, people just don't want to be wrong. Like, it's humbling and it's embarrassing to acknowledge that you were wrong or that you didn't know as much as you thought you did, but I would get so defensive and fly off the handle when and whenever somebody would question me, because I didn't actually have any talking points, and the talking points I did have were inaccurate.

But I didn't want to be wrong so I just kept fucking regurgitating. I just kept echoing the same shit that I was hearing over and over again, and that's what people are still doing. And I I don't blame them. I'm not mad at them, because really, I mean, if you're only exposed to that, then that's what you're gonna believe.

But it's crazy to be on the other side of it for this election and see just how misinformed people are, and they will argue with you, and I won't have a card, because they will argue with you till they're blue in the face because they are just so convinced that they're right, and I was one of those people, and the fear they're feeling is very real. I'm not invalidating the fear. I'm just it's just that the fear is not founded in anything factualbecause it's not the things that they're scared about. It's not going to happen. It didn't happen last time, it's not going to happen this time.

And it's just it's so crazy. It's like being the sober person at a party full of drunk people.

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“That’s How People Really Are”: An Important Message for These Times

That video is one of the most wonderful things I've ever seen on the Internet. The story begins south of Bakersfield, California.

Don't believe the endless stream of divisive rhetoric you see on Corporate Media. It will destroy your ability to be part of a community.

I don't know who this man is, but I applaud this message. I hope all of us continue to share it widely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhctl_lEj3I

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Our Private Selves and our Public Selves

I've repeatedly seen that many people lack the courage to publicly say what they believe. They either stay silent on critically important issues or they pretend to align themselves with a prominent tribe in public discourse. Those who who speak their minds even occasionally pay the price in the West, where cancel culture has been honed to a high art form. This immense problem has been described and diagnosed by The Canceling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott.

Here's the data:

I am horrified by these statistics because of the deep and somewhat subconscious interplay that exists between our public side and our private thoughts. When we get into the habit of publicly pretending we are someone else, we corrupt our capacity to learn and grow organically and authentically. We become our public silence and lies.

Hannah Arendt was concerned about the long term effect of a dishonest society:

The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.
What is the solution? Speaking up even though you know that you'll be snarled at. Most of us will live to see another day. Most of us won't lose our jobs or lives, even though we will lose some of the people we considered our friends. We will gain new, more honest and forthright, friends. And you are probably not alone with regard to your position on most issues. Consider these additional statistics:

People privately agree on most issues.

For two-thirds of the sensitive issues studied (43 of 64), ranging from abortion rights and school choice to legal immigration and voter ID requirements, 90% of demographic groups are privately on the same side of the issues.

Men and women have similar views.

A majority of men and women are on the same side of 57 of the 64 sensitive issues in this study.

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Journalism Defined and Mangled by MSNBC at Madison Square Garden

Eric Weinstein schools us on the basics of journalism:

Now consider the "journalism" practiced by MSNBC when describing Trump's Madison Square Garden rally to a 1939 Nazi rally.

MSNBC:

But that jamboree happening right now, you see it there on your screen in that place is particularly chilling because in 1939, more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden for a so-called pro-America rally.

By the way, Trump's "Nazi" rally featured many people who were prominent Democrats until recently, including Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk, RFK, Jr.

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