Jeffrey Tucker Describes the Bleak State of the World

Jeffrey Tucker has ambitiously taken the temperature of the political, economic and social world with an article titled: "The Coup, the Calamity, and the Conspiracy." I highly recommend a full read.

Tucker begins with this graphic:

Here is an excerpt:

[Y]ou could be more realistic and see that this was not a mistake at all. It was entirely intentional, the unfolding of a dark scheme hatched by an indescribably sadistic ruling class. Indeed, if this had all been an accident, we surely would have heard someone apologize by now.

There is also the planning involved. There was Event 201, the lesser-known Crimson Contagion, and many others. They are usually described in the mainstream press as rehearsals for unplanned contingencies, like resiliency training. Absurd. This was plotted far in advance. We have all the receipts. To realize this and connect the dots does not make you a conspiracy theorist. It makes you a person with the capacity to think.

To deny nefarious motives and schemes makes you impossibly naive to the point of sedation. At best, it makes you ill-read in history.

After five years, what can we say was the plan and purpose of this calamity? We all have our views. Certainly within Brownstone ranks, there are many opinions. We argue among ourselves all the time. Coming up with a clean and clear explanation is not easy because there are so many moving parts and so many industrial opportunists who took advantage of the crisis to cash out.

This is such an expansive article that resonated with me over and over.

I have many of the same concerns, but I won't say much here. I will say (as Tucker mentions in the early paragraphs) that I'm sure how well coordinated all of the powerful players are. Just because they are well-entrenched, monied and politically connected doesn't mean that they necessarily agree with each other day to day, much less year to year. But in my mind, there is definitely a hell of a lot of coordination.

The best solution to this horrific anti-Democratic mess is a vigorous, courageous and free press, but the powers-that-be know this deeply and they've got the formerly half-respectable "journalism" industry 95% locked down.

So in the meantime, it's Jeffrey Tucker, independent media and people like you and me doing what we can. It feels like a David and Goliath battle, especially when you see Trump kowtowing to Pfizer, just like Biden did and harris would have

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Our Class Problem. The Populism Problem of the Super-Rich

Ed Dowd, former BlackRock fund manager.

"What [the U.S. has] is a class problem... 1% of the population of the globe owns 50% of the global wealth... this is... why you're seeing the rise of division. Because the way you control the many is you make the many hate each other."

"What we have in this country is a class problem. We have, you know, 1% of global wealth is the 1% of the population of the globe owns 50% of the global wealth. So this is a class issue. It's been going on for a long time, since the great financial crisis and since 2000. And we have, And this is not just a US Problem. This is a global problem.

"And when we get to these types of situations they're cured one of two ways. The elites pay an existential price and or the system collapses and they're forced to share the wealth again. So this is how it's done.

"I'm not suggesting it's imminent, but this is why you're seeing the rise of populism, and this is also why you're seeing the rise of division. Because, the way you control the many is you make the many hate each other. You make the pitchfork guy look at the torch guy and say, hey, the torch guys are trying to take our pitchforks. And that's what's going on today. We got all this finger pointing. This is a class issue. It's not a black, white, Hispanic, left, right, Muslim. This is a class issue."

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Status and Power Seeking on the Backs of the Unfortunate

The elites portray themselves as good-doers. The could be some of that, of course, but there is a Machiavellian side to such displays too. Rob Henderson explains:

Elite overproduction happens when a society produces too many people who believe they deserve high status. To get there, they often try to align themselves with genuinely marginalized groups in order to unseat the current elites and replace them. A lot of the time, when you hear someone loudly criticizing elites, what you’re really hearing is an audition to join them—an attempt to co-opt the suffering of people who are actually mistreated.

Even if someone has never personally experienced hardship, they can point to history or to the struggles of people who share their traits and say: they suffered, I’m like them, therefore you should give me power. That might mean a spot at a university, a job at a prestigious firm, or some other coveted position.

What’s interesting is how this shift away from individualism and toward group identity makes it possible for someone who’s only ever known affluence and comfort to be rewarded, so long as they share something in common with a historically marginalized group. Meanwhile, the people who really have been mistreated may get nothing. And yet people seem surprisingly willing to go along with it.

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Eric Weinstein’s Proposal for Recreating a Moderate Left

Eric Weinstein's proposal for a moderate left:

Make markets somewhat fairer for working families."

"Protect nature! Up to a point!"

"Welcome, to a managable number of actual refugees."

"Make Trans accepted and EXCEEDINGLY rare."

"Manage M1 but do not print your way out of debt."

"Accept Gays and Lesbians...but don't promote kink. Also...after LG the whole alphabet thing can change into something else entirely if you go out far enough."

"A little Spanish can be useful! But learn English."

"Vaccines are a great idea, but need to be watched like a hawk."

"Let's be more empathic without sticking it to men, the rich, Christians or people of European descent."

"Let's acknowledge our problematic history and also take pride in how awesome we became in so many ways."

"Let's be tolerant as a rule of thumb, but not of the intolerant."

"Let's house the homeless, and not confuse them for the drug-addicted and souls suffering from mental illness"

"Love who you want! But for god sakes, have kids and raise them to be normalish."

"Racism *remains* a problem...but much much less than it used to be!! Let's take our wins people. Great job!"

"White Christian European men did a lot of bad things...just like everyone else. The problem was that they were so good at doing things that they did bad things at scale. And MAN did they pull off miracle after miracle. Hats off to our founding fathers. Warts and all!!"

"Let's acknowledge that markets do not work perfectly people as their zealous supporters claim!! But damn...what an amazing idea for lifting people out of squalor!!"

"Worship almost however you wish to worship. But don't be a murderous or intolerant lunatic about it. Just chill bro."

"Don't use mean language when you can avoid it. But don't be a pussy or go around being a killjoy-nanny-policeman either when you can avoid it. Use judgement."

"Your identity deserves to be celebrated! Briefly. Because it is interesting...but not that interesting. Everyone has one."

https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1940000994500518350

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