MG XI

responses to posted comments also: here (MG X); here (MG IX); here (MG VIII); here (MG VII); here (MG VI); here (MG V); here (MG IV); here (MG III); here (MG II); and here (MG) ~

<<nota bene: some of my responses may not appear to some viewers via Safari (web browser); use an alternate web browser to view ALL of MY RESPONSES>>


Mille Grazie (XI)


selected comments (in grayscale, more or less) and 
my responses (in purple, more or less)
(in more or less chronological order by blog post, comment, or response)

* January *


my responses (batch I - 1/10/2026...)
Sneaker (1/9/2026)
"If we remain optimistic that our rights will remain intact simply because they always have been, we fall into a trap of normalcy bias. We need something more rigorous than optimism: we need informed skepticism that leads to radical responsibility."

when a police state repudiates a public's right to subject police-state-'agents'
to accountability measures by, for example,
'illegalizing' documenting actions of police-state-'agents' or
'illegalizing' documenting police-state-'sanctioned' rules, policies, practices or
'illegalizing' real reality

a public that trusts a police state's 'report' of 'the truth'
because 'honorable people', 'pious people', 'normal people' trust police-state-'agents' implicitly,
is a public that repudiates its inalienable responsibility to discern fiction from real reality

"A police state thrives on compliance. The antidote isn't just a positive attitude, but a willingness to be a friction point in the machine."

absolutely
a 'frictionless' populace is part and parcel to 'the purpose' and 'the end-game'
of wind-up plastic rictus-faced monkeys, casually evil cheerleaders, servants of Ate

"if we are sitting back waiting for a happy ending to the current trend of global surveillance and state overreach, we are essentially consenting to the outcome. The response required is not a smile and a hope for the best, but a grim, determined vigilance that prioritizes action over expectation."

advocates of 'obedient' inaction
are police state pacifiers and police state allies
in all but name

"thank you!"

thank you!!!
BenLewis (1/9/2026)
"We've moved past Big Brother and straight into 'Big Narcissistic Stepfather!"

not only are 'loyal believers' naive to the weaknesses of police states
but 'loyal believers' lionize and revere "Big Narcissistic Stepfathers"
like parking lot pennies are 'liberators' of 'the faithful'

as if everyday people who are police state loyalists aren't as casually evil
as 'absolute dominators' of 'the meek and mute faithful'

"We're sleepwalking into a world where your freedom is just a series of pre-approved options! You want to protest? Fine! Just make sure you do it in the Free Speech Zone which is a soundproof box in the middle of a SALT FLAT IN UTAH! And once you are there, don't be shocked when you end up in the new Free Speech Zone in a random Central American or African institute..."

lolol

reminds me of the motivational aphorism:
'The criminalization of being a living, existing, breathing human being will continue
until police state ratings improve!'

"I have a right to be a private, miserable human being without an idiot counting how many times I scratch my backside in a CVS parking lot!"
amen

police states 'break eggs to make omelets', which is to say,
sanction police state impunity for breakfast
because 'omelets' = 'ratings'

"I can't take it! My brain is sweating! We've traded our souls for the promises, the winks, the optimism of a better tomorrow, a safer tomorrow. We are STUPID! We are a nation of toddlers handing our car keys to a shark because it promised us a cookie and a locked door!"

for your insights and your candor - THANK YOU!!!

APrince (1/9/2026)

a perfunctory 'defense' of 'shepherded sheep' does not deserve applause
here, there, or anywhere

SofiaTheFirst (1/9/2026)
"This is a classic protective racketeering strategy: the state breaks the world, then demands total authority to fix it."

as if the police state is the only 'legitimate solution';
as if anything less is unwise, unreasonable, indefensible;

as if such 'common sense' isn't casually evil cowardice

"The litanies and homilies serve as a moral anesthetic. By branding surveillance and militancy as [morally just], the state prevents the public from identifying government actions as violent or oppressive. Instead, they are framed as restoring order."

for reverential devotion to police states
lubricates the restoration of illusions of 'harmony'

"a perpetual market for state-sponsored fictions, illusions of success and approval"

police states deluge the public with narratives
so there's always an illusion of your choice to toss back with an 'omelet'

ACowboyAtMidnight (1/9/2026)

"architect"?
you?

an exhaustive body of comic-book-superheroes
have addressed ad infinitum
an exhaustive lot of conscience-impaired comic-book-villains

such that this corruption of sagacity and common sense
in flagrante
arouses no one who is not a #policestatetool

HeimdallAvatar (1/9/2026)
"To say that we overestimate the differences between us is a coward's lullaby. In the halls of eternity, we know that differences are what define the spirit. When the Giants march, shall I tell myself to stand down because a poll suggests they value peace?"

lolol

the oft-exalted credo of world unity and peace:
'The firing of lethal munitions during ceasefires will continue
until deaths by firing achieve peace!'

my responses (batch II - 1/29/2026...)
HamburgersFromLeipzig (1/16/2026)
"A state that sees its own people primarily as a threat to be managed, rather than as a sovereign body to be served, has already lost its moral compass."

how many states proclaim their "moral compass" - faultless -
while "managing" human beings - villainously!

"the instruments of a police state are the very tools that fascism requires to breathe. Fascism needs an atmosphere of fear; it needs a mechanism to silence dissent; it needs a police force that answers to power rather than to the people."

in other words - without casual evil - fascism cannot breathe

PainNowandForveverHereAndThere (1/16/2026)
"We behold today a specter rising under the guise of unity, a philosophy of fascism that seeks to bind the individual to the chariot of the state. It is a doctrine that demands the surrender of the mind and the worship of a mortal man as though he were a deity."

this "doctrine" proclaims its ideology the noblest of all - 'freedom'!

as if such ideology isn't a farce
for no citizenry commanded to appease a despot is free

"It is the business of little minds to shrink; but those whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue principles until their last breath."

"little minds" believe in spoils of capitulation,
especially illusions of power,

for enchanted kingdoms that serve slop and piggery
are anointed! sublime! golden!

AntiMoloch (1/16/2026)
"I see you hiding in the architecture of your own silence, building a skyscraper of not-my-business that scrapes the belly of a hollow heaven."

skyline after skyline of "not-my-business skyscrapers"
define by toothless teeth, nation after nation

"I am with you in the wreckage, where we finally look each other in the eye and say: NO MORE BLINDNESS! NO MORE SILENCE! The universe is a telegram of truth, and you are the one holding the wire, refusing to read the message while the world burns for a nickel."

thank you

AlphaCentauriOrBust (1/16/2026)
"You sit in your warm halls, counting coins while the wind of tyranny howls at the door of your neighbor."

we have done something - something we have done before - to "neighbor"

we have made "our neighbor" - our ally
we have made 'neighbors who are not ours' - our enemy

not by merit
or its lack

nor by character
or its want

but by the most meaningless and superficial... reality

by likeness
and difference

as if these are the most real... reasons
to ally or to war

"To trade the wide, white expanse of freedom for the narrow, gray corridor of a police state is the act of a slave, not a hunter."

which is to say, not a "hunter",
superior and formidable

but a "slave",

TeleogicalMeans (1/18/2026)
"Liberty, as we have established, requires the ability of citizens to deliberate together for the common good. However, when the ears of the populace are stopped with the wax of partisan zeal, deliberation becomes impossible. The echo chamber creates a state of stasis, where the citizens no longer share a common reality."

"not sharing a common reality" is where much begins

from the experiences of human beings subjected to injustice
to the experiences of human beings burdened by poverty
to the experiences of human beings with means
to the experiences of human beings in power

"the echo chamber" invites us to divide from each other

as if "our un-common reality" is a natural truth
that irrevocably disunites us from each other

instead of a hypnotic exhortation
that conflates 'experiences' and "reality",
transmuting 'our un-shared experiences' into "our un-common reality"

for they are not one and the same

no more than such conflation immutably defines, as if by a natural law,
who we are habitually united with
and who we are pitilessly divided from

"Thank you, as always, you are the nearest and dearest to the truth and I can't imagine the crater of a world we would be in without you and yours."

thank you
and you're welcome

TheHandThatFeedsTheWolf (1/18/2026)
"where is the 'liberty' we are always told America stands for?"

there are Americans for whom
'liberty' is a privilege for NOBODY but them

not because such human beings are more deserving of 'liberty'
but because an accident of birth privileges NOBODY else

notwithstanding, a privilege by accident of birth is not earned
any more than rule or throne by inherited claim or title is

"When you replace trust with roving patrols and fear, you aren't just enforcing law; you are breaking the social fabric. It feels like America is trading its soul for a false sense of security, and as someone from a country that values the rule of law and transparency, it's heartbreaking to witness this mass deportation machine being built on such a scale."

many Americans who cheer "this mass deportation machine" with one roar
salute "America's soul" with one fist

the purification of which
is through rites of witnessing 'the putting in trauma' of human beings

SifLovesNorway (1/18/2026)
"We are teaching [children] that: suspicion is the default state, privacy is a luxury, not a right, and authority is something to be feared, not questioned. If a child spends 18,000 hours in an environment where their every movement is logged and their every word is scrutinized, we should not be surprised when they grow into adults who lack the intellectual courage to challenge tyranny."

I wonder... if cultivating 'obedience' was not 'a noble purpose'
of 'strange bedfellows' of 'progressive' education reforms then

and I wonder... if fostering 'obedience'
informs 'strange bedfellows' of education reforms still

such that... education reforms now
unapologetically promote 'obedience' for 'obedience' is "the primary function
of an educational environment" that "essentially [programs children]
for a police state"

"I ask you to define security. Is society truly secure if its citizens are so conditioned to surveillance that they no longer understand the value of the liberty they are supposedly securing? Logic dictates that if you destroy the thing you are trying to save in the process of saving it, your strategy is a failure."

when... "your strategy" for "saving" children and "securing" liberty
is the police state,

you have failed both

HelloFromTheMed (1/26/2026)
"Save the children. Lock up the bad guys. Feel safe in a bubble. These are high-level marketing bullets. But the "How," the actual architecture of how you achieve those things, that's where most people lose their way."

when "one-button" makers pitch "one-button solutions"
as honest-to-goodness

is it surprising... that "one-button" buyers buy such pitches
as eagerly as Jacks buy magic beans?

I mean... when complex nuanced involved solutions are the alternative,
who can blame Jacks for flocking to flimflammery?

"once the "Law and Order" operating system is installed on every street corner and in every classroom, it doesn't matter who's sitting in the CEO chair." "People think they're buying a Protection App, but they're installing malware that eats their liberty." "We must... start asking how we can build a world where we don't need a big, beautiful bubble to feel human."

the "need" for "big, beautiful bubbles" comes from... somewhere

the "need" for "bubbles" to be 'served and protected' by "Law and Order"
comes from... something

such that giving up "their liberty" to meet imperative existential "needs"... is tenable

because somewhere something... must be an exigent threat to them
for whom "[saving] the children [and locking up] the bad guys [and feeling] safe"
call for nothing less than a police state

never mind the "actual architecture" of wronging with impunity
that define police states

JackOscarNeillToStars (1/26/2026)
"The reality on the ground is far beyond a safety narrative; it's a full-scale federal occupation." "This isn't protection; it's a retaliatory action against our community." "We aren't just reading about a police state anymore; we are living in ground zero."

while citizenry who stand with no-kings are subjected to hostile campaigns
on city streets and in suburban parking lots and on front porches of family residences

strongholds of police-state-cheerleaders are not

which is to say,
when police-state-cheerleaders vote for the police state,
it's not their community or their people or their cities or their states
that are militantly occupied
first

CarolineTheBlack (1/26/2026)

this is absolutely everything
thank you

"They tell us the cameras are there because they love our children. They tell us the soldiers in the subway are there to protect our way of life. But what kind of life is it when you're constantly proving you're not a criminal just walking to work?"

police-state-cheerleaders "tell us": 'if we have nothing to hide,
we have nothing to fear'

after all, police states that have the truth to hide,
police states that have the truth to fear

cheer no champion of nothing to hide, nothing to fear,
more than police states

TheTribesSecondFinest (1/26/2026)

lolol!

"We're going with the, "Bright Side of the Moon," strategy while the moon is currently being fitted with a 4-terabyte surveillance lens and a tactical vest?" "if your optimism requires you to ignore [the occupying force] in the tactical gear standing in your flower bed, that's not a gift to democracy."

the Munchkins of Oz
who sing and dance to a witch's murder

and revere a seizer of power
who terrorizes seekers of a wizard's aid

are a gift to police states
that hallucinate that they are joyfully worshipped
by the policed

PowderWhitePerfectKing (1/26/2026)
"People speak of a police state as if it were a new invention of cold machines and glass eyes. It is not. It is the oldest hunger of the weak ruler [and the gilded crown]." "A police state is a cowardly thing. It hides behind the words of safety and protection" "A state that must watch its people in their schools and their streets is a state that is [terrorized by and hostage to fear]"

hypothetical parrot kings are old dogs that play old tricks
because time-worn plays are the cheapest in the parking lot penny book

IamtheRepublicWeWantToHave (1/26/2026)
"a serious, adult conversation"?
"about the reality on the ground"?

the police state has no respect for human beings

it has no "sacred duty"
for nothing sacred moves 'the soul' of a venal mercenary will

such that
the police state is nothing more than a golem
embodied
by "those who have no respect for the life and property of others"

like
the parrot and the tool and the puppet
"who live without the constant threat of" a despot's
gross legalistic license


my responses (batch I - 2/3/2026...)
Sneaker (1/30/2026)
"once you give an inch to a tyrant, you're not just losing your rights, you're losing your soul. And once that's gone, there isn't a mountain in the world high enough to hide in."

how tyrants win free elections
is
bananas

you see,
every consequence that is consequential
is addressed to citizenry
like a campaign pitch

so rather than sit with uncomfortable
feelings of consequentiality,

citizenry accept invitations to marinate
as past and future electorates in
one campaign pitch deluge after another,

without confronting or interrogating or dispelling
illusions of 'enlightenment'
that despots lean into to defend
ideological callousness and indifference
and unwholesome calculations of state-sponsored harm
today

SifLovesNorway (1/30/2026)
"To call cruelty rational and harm better than the alternative is the oldest trick in a tyrant's book." "true service to the people begins by calling a monster by its name."

but when the monster is a bedfellow
keep the lights off and in the dark
call it 'master'

SofiaTheFirst (1/30/2026)

well said!

"the state stops being a protector and becomes a predator. This shift triggers a collapse starting with the death of legitimacy, the normalization of disobedience, and the shift from authority to coercion." "The state becomes a giant with clay feet" "[the people leave] the empire to collapse under its own hollow weight."

some people sneer "the social contract" is dead
while decrying its demise as an unthinkable tragedy

then
cheer despots who demand the 'restoration' of "the social contract"
while gustily dismissing its relevance

then
halo police-state-illusions of police-state-'success' and police-state-'gratitude'
while spitting at 'nasty' 'disrespectful' flies in "the social contract" ointment

like
whiplashed senselessness is 'just common sense'

BenLewis (1/30/2026)
"We've got a social contract that's being used as a piece of scratch paper by a bunch of corrupt power-tripping bureaucrats who couldn't find the public good if it was stabled to their foreheads! They build a police state, they sharpen the surveillance, they watch us like we're all suspicious toddlers in a china shop"

the servile obsequiousness
that police-state-allies and police-state-cheerleaders
ecstatically adopt
to paper-over and rug-sweep malicious incompetence
oozed by obviously perverse and "corrupt, power-tripping bureaucrats"

who 'serve' at the yawning pleasure of a despot
- not "the public good" -
but the private interests of power and wealth and influence and fame

is
as unbelievable
as fealty to 'the salvation of a nation and its soul'
being sacredly performed
through soulless capitulation to tyrants and their tyrannies

"The state is supposed to be the waiter, not the guy eating your dinner while he stares at you through a thermal imaging camera! Read it. Learn it. Or don't! But don't act surprised when the whole thing falls over because you forgot who was holding up the floor!"

wait...
"the floor" isn't held up by elephant-serpent-dragons on tortoise-turtles?

my responses (batch II - 2/8/2026...)

NWTyrone (2/7/2026)
"The Wizard of Oz is a literal nightmare. He's got that smoke and mirrors, he's got the village-crushing claims, and he rules Munchkinland with an iron fist. And yet? Look at those Munchkins! They weren't just following orders; they were harmonizing! You don't get that kind of choreography without a terrifying amount of buy-in."

that, in the end, is 'the brand'

try-hard pick-me main-character desperation
to coax the 'majority',
like counterfeit aftershave
that 'authenticates' the charismatic appeal of frauds,

to "buy-in"!

"[the opposition, certain segment of the population, enablers who live and breathe "stan culture"] are busy serving the Problem. They've traded their we for a he or a she or a Sentient Orange Shadow."

the... timeless... blueprint of "serving the Problem"

begins with "traded we for" believing in miracles
and ends with served slop and piggery

because Hell's best baked Alaska... serves

sure

AlphaCentauriOrBust (2/7/2026)
"You speak of your Founding Fathers as if they were benevolent gods... But... They did not build a hall for the people; they built a fortress for the few, and they paved the courtyard with the bones of the stolen and the broken." "It was never a rule of the many; it was a council of the wealthy, masquerading as a gathering of the free." "You follow tyrants who promise to protect you... while they pick your pockets and salt your fields... This is not the way of the benevolent; it is the way of the vulture."

'patriotism' isn't the love of a real story;
it's the love of a historical fiction

that commands a citizenry
to believe

or else

TheRealKW (2/7/2026)
"the "Founders?" They weren't saints in powdered wigs. They were chieftains" "[who]" "didn't build a commune. They built an empire while calling it a neighborhood watch."

'loyalty' to peoples' or states' or nations' mythologized histories
is less to do with celebrating sacred truths

than with narratives that license beliefs

case in point,
moral terror baiting slop that licenses lipstick wearing piggery
is less to do with principles of, say, patriotism

than with state-sponsored wrong-mongering

ThornsWithoutPricks (2/7/2026)
"my modern existential dread: the idea that our peace is actually just a high-gloss coat of paint over a foundation of silence." "In this framework, "optimism" isn't a hope for the future; it's a muzzle for the present." "There is a profound [senselessness] in a world that champions [our] authenticity while simultaneously demanding [our] appeasement."

'Hell's best baked Alaska'
is 'heavy lifting' beyond what I have thus far expounded

nevertheless,
"the side that thrives on" seductive lipstick wearing piggery
not only whiplashes senselessly: (i) the pig isn't on fire,
(ii) the fire isn't fabricated outrage,
(iii) everybody is charmingly seduced by performatively fiery spectacles,
(iv) there is no artificed spectacle worth tooth-achingly savoring
more than 'just desserts',
(v) 'just desserts' is never a lie
that serves lies,

but also: (vi) cake never tastes like tyranny
when it's the foundation of a farce on fire

my responses (batch III - 2/20/2026...)

UrusulaIsMoreThanASetOfStars (2/7/2026)

'Hell's best baked Alaska' is serving fiasco on fire
with a working title of 'this is better than the alternative'

(like moral terror baiting slop
is what we order

so seductive lipstick wearing piggery
is what we are served)

notwithstanding,
 serving fire and ice (or the end of the world)
is how Hell serves just deserts

ProgressHasBeenHalted (2/20/2026)

if words were... progress, then who could... impede what drips and drops
from you so... naturally?

alas progress... "requires" more than words
dripped and dropped

PostTraumaticMachineShop (2/20/2026)
"The [calculus] is simple but the [ensuing chaos is senseless]... Mad respect for your insight. Keep being you!"

I don't disagree with you and thank you!

DarkEnlightenmentBeyondtheSilverReflection (2/20/2026)
"Get over yourself."

this is what you wore your big boy pants for?

to... attack...?
"subversive elites like [me]"?
"who want to strip away [your supremacism]"?

I can no more "dismantle" the fairy tales you tell yourself are 'the truth'
than I can deny you the atta-boy you tell yourself you have 'earned'
for... lowkey big boy pants energy

nevertheless...
it goes without saying that the grown up in the room
is never the one who believes the real Santa
is fascists in red hats

reply to above by SofiaTheFirst (2/20/2026)

YES!!!

"If your civilization depends on a lie to keep from collapsing, maybe it's time to ask what, exactly, you're so desperate to preserve."

as if that which has no equal -
unmatched hallucinations that license beliefs
that corrode
before oxygen and the sun and time -
isn't
rot and perversion and decay
preserved to seed a future born to perish

BlondeHolmHF (2/20/2026)

a "moral justification" for casual evil, though disingenuously framed
as a line in the sand in defense of "the rights of innocents", is still
a moral justification for casual evil

"we must be careful not to let the political nature of [serving "We the People"] obscure the underlying moral facts." "Individuals are not mere tools to be used for greater good, and ["We the People"] are not required to bear unreasonable costs that hamper our ability to live our own lives." "Often, "serving the people" [imposes] risk [and exacts] harms on innocent bystanders. If we cannot perform a service [without unforeseeable or incidental or collateral consequences towards others], then that service loses its moral justification."

to reverse the brittle senseless "morality" doctrine of despots
in defense of tyrannies

in order to explicitly
discourage a citizenry from "[being] used for greater good"
because "the right" to not suffer from any incalculable effect of "change"
is a "moral" line in the sand
defined as the "[requiring]" of a citizenry "to bear unreasonable costs"

presumes
the brittle senseless "morality" doctrine of despots
in defense of tyrannies
isn't prejudicially employed to senselessly "hamper" citizenry
with "unreasonable costs"
not for any harmless or riskless "good" or "service"
but for the indefensible,

 for totalitarian regimes
governed
by "morality" shields that license state-sponsored casual evil

SailorMoonJones56 (2/20/2026)
"Oh my god, thank you for this. Seriously."

you're welcome!
and thank you!

"If we want to actually serve the people, we have to stop building our entire future out of our leftover grievances. Treating revenge like it's justice is just a great way to make sure everyone stays miserable forever, and calling "obedience" unity is like calling a hostage situation a "community dinner."" "We need to stop being "meek and mute" and start being the plurality that demands a future that isn't [a wink that winks or a promise that promises or a prayer that prays for the impossible: a future that won't be the past]."

the sanctimonious criticism of 'public disunity' within liberalism
is such a tired vacuity
when every pretense of so-called 'public unity' within conservatism
is rooted in an uncritical obedience

that defines the oft-lionized 'worship' and 'loyalty' and 'values'
of those who slur honest scrutiny
as
'virtueless hatred'

NoPastIsWorthTheFuture (2/20/2026)
"True service requires more than just a vision for tomorrow; it requires the collective courage to stop digging. We are so preoccupied with who dug which hole and who deserves to fall into them that we've lost the ability to level the ground and build a new tomorrow."

hole-diggers refuse truths, realities, facts

like omissions aren't lies

as if personal and collective, monstrous and incidental
wounds
must be excavated and litigated and tested
without end

as if hole-digging is a sacred purpose
of truth-deniers, realities-deniers, facts-deniers

like hallucinations cultivated like legacies
aren't rot, perversion, decay

as if hole-diggers and the rest of us
aren't subject to the same truths, the same realities, the same facts,
the same laws

ParryCay (2/20/2026)
"We are being taught to build a future based on the past, but the past was never designed to carry the weight of our potential." "Most people live in [a bubble, a coffin, a lie] where you should only care about those who look, think, and vote like you." "We don't need more [false "justice" that is "obedient" to monstrous "Masters"]"  

(i) on the "rules"

there is a corrosive 'legalism' that dominates 'public conversations'
that begins with a proclamation that police-states are 'just'
and ends with a demand that 'the law be executed'
because 'the rules are the rules'

that denies the truths and the realities and the facts
of bureaucracies, of catch-22s, of life

that rejects common sense exceptions to 'the rules are the rules'
as if no lawful 'right' to stop 'the execution of the law' exists

as if legal amnesty, clemency, exoneration
are never more cost-effective, more wise, more politic

never mind 'normal' exceptions to 'legalism' within police-states,
acquittals and pardons
undeserved,
gifted as acts of power

(ii) on "obedience"

such proclamation further proclaims that police-states
are
'lawfully lawless'

vested with absolute immunity to enforce
'patriotic gratitude'
defined as frictionless and uncritical obedience

of the subject to 'lawfully lawless' impunity:
the ruled,
the policed

as if acts of power by despots
legalize
tyranny

(iii) on "justice"

justice ≠ senseless incompetence,
indifferent inhumanity,
vengeful retribution

Arovet Li (2/21/2026)
"Appeasement is the coward's alchemy - believing that if you feed the beast enough of your neighbors, it will eventually become a vegetarian."  

   or "if you feed the beast enough of" the 'wrong' people,
   the 'right' people will feast on all that is deserved,
   that is,
   'just dessert'

reply to above by MeMyselfandIAlone (2/21/2026)
"stop trying to "polish" humanity and start trying to [liberate human beings from any expectation to "be civilized"]"  

   cynical anarchy
   still
   serves lipstick wearing pig

* March *
 (3/5/2026)
Call Me No One

my responses (3/8/2026...)

Sneaker (3/5/2026)
"the illusion we keep falling for" "[trading] the difficult work of being [messy or "Many"] for the [the comfort of authority or "The One"]" "That's the exact blueprint a demagogue uses." "It's an old trick."

it's not only "an old trick" because it 're-appears'
in its tired guise as 'new' and 'popular' and 'revolutionary'
in every 'age'

it's also "an old trick" because it has never vanished
from use as a tool by tools, for tools, against human beings

HaljaTheDamned (3/5/2026)
"You mortals... Let them"

because "there is only the freezing truth"?

only mortals embrace nihilism as "a truth of earth"

see also Wannabe below

EmuBeenHappy (3/5/2026)
"you speak" "you mourn" "you assert" "you argue" "you suggest" "you write" "you mistake" "do not let [yourself be blinded]" "and may you find the true liberation that comes from knowing the One who created you not to be broken by men, but to be honored by them"

the ones who claim authority through divinity are rarely
exemplars, much less paragons, of faithful humility

they truthsplain as if their ignorance of knowledge
is their witness of allknowing

they mansplain as if morphological claims of masculine identity
endow material bodies with exclusive piety

they faithsplain as if it honors the truth
to lie

reply to above by TheTribesSecondFinest (3/5/2026)

thank you!!!
your perspicacity and humor are
sane anodynes to whatever the actual !@#$ is happening right now

"[The Day of Judgment] is a very convenient policy for people who want zero accountability in this life... It outsources our shared, messy, earthly responsibility to an invisible third party. Promising that the billionaires and dictators will be stripped of their crowns in the afterlife is just a great way to make sure nobody tries to strip them of their crowns [on a hypothetical Ides - metaphorically speaking - of a month in a year or] a Tuesday in November!"

such policy condones earthly inaction
in response to earthly injustice

as if 'leaving justice' to "an invisible third party"
is just

wtah

"did monotheism humble all men and tear down their delusions of lordship [and godhood]? Tell that to the Divine Right of Kings [and its 'new names' in the euphemistic jargon of 'modern legalism']. Tell that to the [royals and caliphs and] emperors who conquered half the globe with a sword in one hand and a holy book in the other."

"monotheism humbles" by "equalizing in prostration"?

tell that to blessed users of private jets
whose 'equalities in prostration' stay not acts of power
that condemn the ruled to "God's will"

"If a system is so perfectly designed to be hijacked by the worst, most power-hungry egos [every single day for thousands and thousands and thousands of years all over the world... at some point, you see the illusion that a scapegoat is to blame for the trainwreck that is the actual, on-the-ground reality of human history... for the lie it truly is] "

the "scapegoat" is all too often
the human beings that monotheistic systems exclude

from institutional power within monotheistic systems
or 'salvation'

"reading a piece of writing with the intellectual spine to look thousands of years of prevailing dogma in the eye and say, 'Yeah, I'm not buying the company line,' is a profound and much needed breath of fresh air, so, sincerely, thank you!"

you're welcome!!!

BenLewis (3/5/2026)
"Oh, we can absolutely expand on this masterpiece! Because what you have done is outline the greatest, longest running, most outrageously successful restructuring in the history of the universe! Think about the genius of the "Many."... You just looked up at the sky, shook your fist at whatever middle-management deity was on duty that day, and went about your miserable little little life. We knew we were small, we knew we weren't in charge, and frankly, that was comforting! But then we have this horrible, collective epiphany"

you paint an extraordinary picture,
lucid and fair,
that for all its tragicomic arc,
is an unabashed joy!!!

"Humanity looked at personal responsibility, stared right into the horrifying face of accountability, and screamed, ABSOLUTELY NOT!" "We built the ultimate, untouchable CEO to bear the brunt of our own screw-ups. We created a giant, invisible suggestion box where we could dump all our guilt, all our blame, and all our responsibility. "It's not my fault I took your land, Bob, it's GOD'S WILL!" It is the most spectacularly cowardly thing a species has ever done!"

obviously "a giant, invisible suggestion box"
would require cosmically marvelous tech-support

else "the ultimate, untouchable CEO"
would never hear herself think over the cacophony
of 'dumpty dumping dumps'

"Enter the "few of us with imagination... with mettle... with vision." The Con Artists. These absolute sociopaths" "didn't invent the One God to save us; they invented it to build their kingdoms! They cornered the market on grace. They put a velvet rope around salvation and charged an admission fee, leaving the rest of the "Many" completely stripped of their own power." "Why...? Because we were terrified of the alternative."

that moral terror baiting slop
and seductive lipstick wearing piggery

'converts' so many human beings
into 'believers'

is
"a truth so depressing you almost have to laugh to keep from weeping"

"We would rather hallucinate a divine dictator and let a bunch of greedy opportunists rob us blind than simply look at each other and say, "I've got your back." It is brilliant. It is devastating. And it makes me want to scream into a large hole!"

I could say I hear you
but a 100 dB rage-metal-band who recreationally gas-leaf-blows
lives in my !@#$%^& head

Gipatiya (3/5/2026)
"By elevating a single, dictatorial idol, whether that's a literal deity, an untouchable con, or a political strongman, the opportunists of the world crowned themselves." "It is the perfect, flawless blueprint for autocracy. They hoard the power, outsource the blame, and strip the rest of us of our shared strength. It's the truth."

not that everybody doesn't well and good know
the reality in their own faces by their own hands
but it bears repeating and repeating and repeating

the second oldest con after the first "untouchable" one
is
the one that pits us all against each other

to keep us from organizing collectively
against
royals and caliphs and emperors
who condemn us all
to their delusions

SofiaTheFirst (3/5/2026)
"When a tyrant claims to speak for the only God, any opposition isn't just a political disagreement; it becomes heresy. The narrative is so easily weaponised."

case in point:
when 'crimes' from blasphemy to idolatry are 'equivalized'
as apostasy

and political dissent is 'moralized' or 'equivalized'
as 'crimes against morality'

opposition to tyranny 'becomes'
a capital offense of such turpitude

that to face such wickedness
with soulless mercilessness
is
normalized as a casual evil that believes it is pious

"By allowing this "soft polytheism" to flourish beneath the umbrella of monotheism, the powerful... maintained the ultimate, centralised authority of the One God (and by extension, the singular authority of the Church and King), whilst tossing just enough breadcrumbs of familiar, local worship to the masses to keep them compliant and ensure their conversion."

controlling the practice of 'faith'
is the 'prerogative' of the ones
who claim authority through divinity

that this disallows 'this and that' here and now
at the same time
that this allows 'this and that' there and then
reflects the whiplashed senselessness of rule
by dictates

 Wannabe (3/5/2026)
SifLovesNorway
"a mortal... Let them"

because "roots always break, the concrete"?

mortals playing-at speaking-as immortals
is a conceit
of wannabes
who despise and exemplify hubris and supremacism,

as if arrogance and incoherence
are not tell-tales
of crass impostures of immortality

see also HaljaTheDamned above

TuckYouandYou (3/6/2026)

the ones
who profit from the dismantling of 'institutions'
are not, say, 'prophets'

so much as detritivores
who feast on decay

"You know what that is? That's reality. That's a functioning civilization."

okay...

notwithstanding
the romanticization-adjacent-characterization of reality here
that rigidly 'views'
"natural forces" and 'the natural order' and "honest living" and "making sense"
with arbitrary specificity
and rose-colored glasses

not uncommon within, say, extremist ideologies

"[the people who want to control you] wanted to keep breaking things: your economy, your borders, your schools but they didn't want you to be angry at them. They wanted a scapegoat."

okay...

notwithstanding
the moral-terror-baiting-slop throughline here

that rejects "massive, overarching authorities"
called ""The Science," or "The Global Order," or "The Consensus""

and passionately embraces supremacist dictators
called divinities, personalities, celebrities, officials

as if there is neither incoherence nor casual evil
in the sanctity and virtue of hypocrisy

"the few, the people with "vision," the billionaires, the Davos crowd, the people who dream their little kingdoms into being, couldn't stand [that the many were doing just fine]. So they rigged the game." "They denied you the grace of a normal life, just so they could consolidate their own power and pretend it's divine will."

your role as a voice
for extremist ideologies and supremacist dictators
does not mean
you do not know how to tell the truth;

it means
when you tell the truth
it serves a lie, a liar, or both

my responses (5/13/2026...)

(3/7/2026)
ξέρω τον έναν αληθινό θεό 

"The sheer profundity of your reflection lies in its courageous unmasking... We forged a singular, absolute Master not to serve the many, but to absolve the few of their earthly breaking and taking... we weaponized the divine to bear the blame..."

   thank you

   to see what is and what is not
   is
   to be humble enough;
   open hearted, minded, souled enough;
   wise enough

   to know that blind conviction is neither a truth that truths
   nor a cornerstone of righteousness
   nor a bedrock nor a pillar nor a rule that overrules all

"the [truth] of human agency... [and] the shared, collective grace of the many"

   human agency, shining with the grace of the many, is a wonder;

   it is also a rarity

AlphaCentauriOrBust (3/7/2026)
"when [the economy] shifts to hyper-capitalism and the aggressive consolidation of wealth" --> "Everyday people... become economically unstable... [and] desperate for [relief]" --> "authoritarian "visionaries"... [and] demagogues... [say prosperity and] security based on fear and exclusion... is... [the only solution]... [and furthermore] socialism [is the enemy of everyday people and prosperity and security based on fear and exclusion... [therefore] no one and nothing is trustworthy but]" "authoritarian "visionaries"... [and] demagogues... [and their ruthless autocratic authority and power]"

if being ruled by The One's autocratic authority
saves us
from tyrants and diktats,

what saves us from tyrants and diktats
that weaponize the divine
to exercise unscrupulous, corrupt, profligate cruelty,

as if wanton villainousness
is
a cornerstone of righteousness?

response to above by TaxMeUpinDanbury (3/7/2026)
"You and your family suffer from... [delusions of rationality and "grace"]... and ignore the very real threats of crime, terrorism, or hostile nations [which] is the kind of luxury belief you can only hold if you live in a gated community." "...we [the wannabe few] have [an arbitrary and "selectively" applied "standard"] of right and wrong that ["protects"] us from ["the Many"]. We [the wannabe few] aren't trading [our] liberty for a strongman; we [the wannabe few] are trading [your liberty] for [the kind of luxury belief you can only hold if you live in a delusion of superiority merited through perverse illogic and gracelessness]." "If wanting a safe, prosperous, and ["faithful"] country makes us [cheerleaders for tyrannies], then... sign me up [to die on hills worth dying for]"

the wannabe few who are eager to dispossess others of their "liberty"
are rarely
the first to "sign up" to die on hills
they defend
behind microphones and keyboards

after all,
to be used up and thrown away as "the Many"
for the wins and the whims of "the Few"
isn't what
"Theirs but to do or die" means for the wannabe few,
right?

{from "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
attributed to Alfred, Lord Tennyson}

response to above by AlphaCentauriOrBust (3/7/2026)

the kind of "unapologetic dominion" aspired to by the everyday people
who are pleased most by casual evil
is
a "Thneedville"
walled from a wasteland used up and thrown away
for biggering ad mortem!

IsabelFromAtlantico (3/7/2026)

well-said!!!

"While [our Constitution ultimately established a secular state], the cultural muscle memory of religious absolutism remains deeply ingrained." "[Notwithstanding]... populist demagogues... do not necessarily [believe in the "divine mandates" or "pious extremism" they profess]; they [believe in rabid guard-rail-less license "anointed" by imagined religious authority and unlimited sovereign power "sacralized" by faux religious pretext]"

if "Heaven" on Earth
is "Heaven" for "the few" and "Hell" for "the Many",

then secularism and humanism will be vilified
by "the few" for whom
"Heaven" for "the Many" is "Hell" for "the few"

as evil incarnate

* July * October *

(7/9/2026)
Independence

my responses (10/7/2026...)

Sneaker (10/3/2026) <-- icymi: notSneaker (10/3/2026)
"The reporters I respected"

I recently watched a local news segment on "the misuse of surveillance cameras":

the first half of the segment 'reported' that surveillance cameras
have unquestionably "aided policing";
the second "reported" that policing's 'answer' to the criminal abuse of current technologies are "in the future"...
"new policies".

This is 'the new gold standard' of "reporting":

'facts' that support and endorse the police state
alongside 'promises'.

As if 'aided policing' and 'future policies' of the police state
are 'facts'
because the police state is 'trustworthy'.

As if technologies in the hands of the police state
are cans kicked down the road for the public good and not INJUSTICE NOW
because duh.

MomentOfZenNJ (10/3/2026)
"We've built an entire economy on that... and it becomes the weather."

The thing about the weather is
three people in the same 'region' subject to the same objectively real forecast
may not experience the same 'weather'.

But aggregated after the fact,
three people who may not have experienced the same 'event'
'shared an objectively real reality'
that never existed.

So... 'markets' blame the 'weather'.
And 'economists' author after the fact narratives that aggregate
objectively nonexistent 'shared experiences'.

And three people subject to the same sun and the same moon
do not "argue about whose weather it is".

They protest being subject to 'markets' and 'economists'
who make up 'real worlds'
like there isn't a real one that's a shitshow.

TruthinessInc (10/3/2026)
"officially agree... while privately"

Such illustrations of intellectual comity unrealized for...
let's call it 'mutual public good'
are at best graceless illusions of 'common ground'.

At worst... ducks that quack like ducks
are complicit collaborators.

RetiredRedHat (10/3/2026)
"Plain common sense"

Populism, including "common sense" popularism,
is a campaign pitch for engagement and voter turnout.

People with "common sense"
know it;

people without "common sense"
know 'the truth'.

BernieBroInIdaho (10/3/2026), KeepItLocal35 (10/3/2026)

see replies above (e.g. TruthinessInc, RetiredRedHat)
and below

False 'comity' is a tactic used to DESTABILIZE TRUST in reason.

It 'softens' personal boundaries and intellectual guardrails
by appearing to 'compliment' rationality and evoke 'kitchen table' civility
while leaning into thought terminating cliches,

including hollow 'common sense' truisms that are simplistic and lazy,
to shift discourse away from knowledge that is invaluable
and expertise that is useful
towards rhetorical illusions,

including 'trustworthy' police states,
objectively nonexistent 'shared experiences',
'common ground' with complicit collaborators,
a 'swamp draining' political millionaire and billionaire class,
etc.

AngelOftheMorning (10/3/2026)
"Thank you, this blog means more than you realize"

you're welcome

(and... who is "likely to be disbelieved"
is anybody... really)

SofiaTheFirst (10/3/2026), RoomOfHerOwnWifi (10/3/2026)

uhm...

inflexible certainty... let's say 'minimizes'
real contradictions baked into living in alignment with
a multitude, a horde, a profusion of values
(speaking of me, hello)

such that contradiction-less-ness is... well... an impossible
(and absurd) ask of reality

LastDeaconGoodSamitarian (10/3/2026)
"the difference is where most of my sermons live"

my words live there too
where the real world and the public good
are on common ground

my responses (10/9/2026)
SemperFiWeekender (10/3/2026)
"[what about keeping] us safe"
"[philosophizing is fine and dandy but an] office with empty chairs is not a metaphor"

There is an obsession with "safety" that is really
an obsession with fear.

Which is to say, when "keeping us safe" is pretext
for police states and maximal wars and
'appease us or else' policies
from coast to coast and pole to pole

what is 'won' in the name of 'security' and 'protection'
is neither 'our defense'
nor 'our freedom' from fear.

That isn't "philosophizing"
and grievances and hatreds we've inflamed in the name of 'us first'
aren't "metaphors".

WarriorPodcastDad01 (10/3/2026)
"It's easy [to be a cynic] from a comfortable chair"
"people [whingeing that 'justified wars' were] manufactured, right up until [nation states met hostilities with hostilities]"

see reply to SemperFiWeekender above
and below

That your response is so misinformed as to be gormless
reflects the low barrier of entry for... dialogue.

TabulaRasaTom (10/3/2026)
"consent obtained by deceit is no consent at all...
we have been consenting to a cause that was hijacked"

yes,
votes have been won by deceit
and our consent to be governed by our elected class
has been "hijacked" to serve deceit

not because we consented to a 'gilded age'
rot with corruption and fraud,

but because a 'swamp draining' political
millionaire and billionaire class
seized all the spoils in the name of 'meritocracy'

and distributed suffering in the name of votes
because the luxe life is theirs
and ours is to pay for it

IAmEverythingAndNothing (10/3/2026)
"Doubt is a fine pride... Humility is to kneel"

see reply to TabulaRasaTom above
and below

maligning "doubt" as "pride"
and valorizing the abandonment of the backbone estate as "humility"

from the unimaginable 'bible'
of a "trusted" witch inquisitor...

"forgive me if I am not impressed"

my responses (10/10/2026)
LibertyInVirginia (10/3/2026)
"what follows from that"

I don't disagree that war is an answer to "broken trust"

but if war is the best and only answer
then we have ceded our reason for arms

as if we are gentlemen who invoke irrational bloodthirst
as a point of honor

SifLovesNorway (10/3/2026)

a rare pleasant facsimile
like a deepfake
that is trying not to do wrong by the real thing

a nice faux... fur

SofiaTheFirst (10/4/2026)
"we rehearse the tyrant's habits, contempt, mob certainty, delight in someone else's fall, until they [are] our own"

sunshine cannot hide from me
and what a light behind which you hid a star

:hugs:

UncleJayFromCork (10/4/2026)
"teaching ordinary people that the person next door was an existential danger"

there is this, on the scale you describe

and there is something like this, I am experiencing
on a scale so small as to appear insignificant within the vastness of time

and yet, I wonder
if little wars of little wannabe gods are not a part of the whole

a consequence but also, a cause that fuels the scale of weaponized "certainty"
and "threat and danger" baiting slop
that spans nation states and centuries of history

for I, as a person next door, am so vilified
for being not as little wannabe gods please,
but for being as I am

as if the whole OUROBOROS is to do with
POWER

and whose right to it is a 'birthright'
that damns us all to a 'heaven' that is Hell's best baked Alaska
because of course it is

my responses (10/11/2026, ed. + cont. 10/13/2026...)

MomentOfZenNJ (10/4/2026) in response to SemperFiWeekender; BravoSixOneSix (10/4/2026), LibertyInVirginia (10/4/2026), and TheRealKW (10/4/2026) in response to WarriorPodcastDad01

speaking of fools and their tools:

when seats at the table
pretend low barriers of entry
represent a realization of 'meritocracy',

the plot has been lost
to little wannabe gods who reign over ruins
like surtrs

burning everything to the ground,
because a flaming sword that isn't

is a goddamn waste
of a tool

GavelAndGrain (10/4/2026)

from one broken record to another:

aside from misty fantasism favored by fantasists... I don't disagree

ThornsWithoutPricks (10/4/2026)
"machinery of accountability only works if"
"Free people don't win once."

Who's 'winning' and why
isn't 'nonfiction', exclusively 'truthed' by 'truthers',

for 'nonfiction', exclusively 'truthed' by 'truthers'
are myths,

invisible window dressings woven with invisible threads of
naked 'truths' that are shameless fantasies.

Hence "free people" cannot rest while

fools and their tools swing flaming swords
like a 'birthright' to Armageddon

is their goddamn Heaven on Earth.

TheRealKW (10/4/2026)
"Read... Dangerous"

which is more... meaningless:

these eleven words on a headstone?
or the lives inspired by these eleven words?

BenLewis (10/4/2026)
"Is there a way to make the uncomfortable truth as compelling as the comfortable lies?"

I don't know

but not knowing has never stopped me
from trying like I give a f*cking damn

and isn't that the point?

to not roll over and give up because you don't have all the answers?
because not having all the answers
isn't a good enough f*cking reason to quit like it never f*cking mattered anyway

right?

RiverFarawayBuiltMe (10/4/2026)
"Narcissistic bullies"
"we have to stop treating their engineered [Heaven and Hell] as a legitimate debate... Being good means... refusing to let a bully's ['threat and danger' baiting slop] dictate [the terms of our surrender to their dictatorial reins]"

It is distasteful to see "narcissistic bullies" in action,
but when you do

notice how they 'praise' how 'smart' loyalists are,
entrusting their lives and their livelihoods to
a 'swamp-draining' political millionaire and billionaire class of
exceptional moral... 'backbone';
 
how they vigorously 'atta boy' attack dogs of police states with
backhanded 'praise' that notches police state wins to body counts
they 'own' as little wannabe 'mayors', 'masters', 'gods', 'kings';

how they 'credit' tools who 'credit' users
with winsome gratitude because complicit collaborating is
what ducks quack for;

which is to say,
neither "apathy" nor "fatigue" are 'pot-sweetening'
what we're swallowing,

because what we're swallowing
is sweet enough to poison us.

In other words,
"narcissistic bullies" supply sweets to diabetics and liquor to alcoholics
and prediction markets and gas station highs and internet backpages to addicts
and communicable disease reservoirs to believers and disinformation to everybody
who will not be denied their poisons of choice

any more than wars of choice will be denied "narcissistic bullies",
because "narcissistic bullies" supply
people who double down on surrendering to dictatorial reins,
unapologetic 'freedom' to be used

as pigs, cows, sheep, horses, dogs,
that is to say, meat,

as parrots, tools, puppets,
or bulls, matchsticks, pawns,

as golems
with neither minds nor souls of their own
to waste.

ConcordiaPrinciples (10/4/2026)
"When people are subjected to a maximal war on their attention, they retreat"
"quiet, unglamorous, hyper-local action"

from "hyper-local action",

let me continue... "Hyper-local bullies, meanwhile,
in your neighborhoods, your parks, your libraries, your school playgrounds,
your grocery stores, your places of worship, your entertainment venues, etc.
exercise god-complex-level grandiosity with self-important impunity,

because who can 'police' everybody, everywhere?
and who'd want to?

other than the very-narrowest-and-meanest-minded people whose
wrong-headed-and-stiff-necked dominating
would revoke everybody's rights but the 'birthrights' of hyper-local bullies?"

I mean,
"political bullies" are manifestly cut from the same cloth
as everybody, everywhere

Unknown (10/4/2026)
"the anatomy of a cult"
"whoever meets people's need to belong can bend their sense of what's true. Our task is to meet that need first, and more honestly."

There are many useful... let's call them 'silo-ed'
answers to gordian problems.

Case in point: comments
by ConcordiaPrinciples, RiverFarawayBuiltMe, Unknown, etc.

Each offers... a prism of insight
into a reality that is... well, if not kaleidoscopic,
I don't know.

Which is to say, a single solitary prism of clarity is worthwhile...
while a congress of prisms of knowledge and expertise is, well, more.

With respect to "cults", it bears acknowledging
an overlap with totalitarian-leaning across, let's say 'traditional institutions',
is obvious and unmissable

such that frameworks of understanding
and playbooks of resistance and de-programming
from 'adjacent' disciplines and contexts are, to varying degrees,
'compatible' if not 'transferable'
whether what's being addressed is cult-ish or totalitarian-ish.

Of course.

With respect to "meeting the need to belong",
when millennia-old-civilizations' "answers" to "belonging" range
from in-group-identity-based-loud-and-proud-pride
to anti-out-group-label-based-supremacism...

fantasism is doing, uhm, heavy lifting in 'solutions' that lean triumphantly
into, oh, unity-through-acceptance-of-differences, for example.

Because unity-through-acceptance-of-differences is too often
a skin-deep version of 'social harmony'
or 'social glue'
that props veneers of unity-through-homogeneity, too.

Such that neither 'group',
despite explicitly nourishing a human "hunger" for belonging,
 is particularly or specifically resistant to, oh, cult-leaning or totalitarian-leaning;

hence cult-hugging and totalitarian-adoring
people otherwise, including demographically, 'diverse'.

After all, a human "hunger" for "belonging"
is, cough, ack, ahem, vibe-adjacent
and while vibes give
wood-carved-companions-of-lonely-men-deserve-to-be-real
main-character-energy

vibes aren't
what I am really fighting for.

my responses (10/16/2026...)
PeripateticPhilosopher (10/4/2026)
"A citizen who withdraws from public life to protect their comfort hasn't escaped politics; they've just handed it to whoever is willing to take it. The tyrant counts on that"

It is even more... confounding
when people of 'means' justify "comfort" over politics;

from performers who... 'loudly' leave their 'homes' to 'escape',
I don't know, reality?
to retirees whose retirements abroad are, to their 'relief',
also 'escapes' from, I don't know, somebody else's suffering?

Like it's... good
to walk away from civic responsibility;

like it's... moral
to eschew citizenship as a scrupulous duty
for citizenship as a trivial unwelcome burden.

Whether pretending or aspiring not to be "political",

a farce,
a delusion,
a shame

is not how to "show up" and show out "tyrants" in our midst.

Öndurdís (10/4/2026)
"don't be afraid of being called [you name it]"

Like every "currency that costs them nothing" -

name-calling,
humiliating,
excluding

- is how little it takes
to 'overpower' free people into submission.

Moreover, instead of standing up to bullies and narcissists and tyrants,
free people cult-hug and totalitarian-adore

because little wannabe 'mayors', 'masters', 'gods', 'kings'
'SEE' us cult-huggers and totalitarian-adorers!

Like every "currency that costs them nothing" -

hot air

- is how little it takes
to 'sweet talk' us into loyalty.

ILoveEssaysOfThoughts (10/4/2026)
"A person... who catches themselves enjoying a cruelty and stops, is doing something"

"doing something" is a place to start
from doing nothing

furthermore, when "something" is "privately in the mind" and nowhere else,
it costs nothing

still,
doing nothing costs nothing, too...

so impasses impasse...

TheMessengerGod (10/4/2026)
"cheap blankets start to look... flimsy"

for many, "flimsy" is good enough
and "craftsmanship" is a luxury

seizers of spoils in the name of 'meritocracy' flaunt
as luxe life accoutrement

after all,
widespread unexceptional inequity-based-inaccessibility is
a feature of goods and services exemplifying "a craftsman's eye",
not a flaw
NurseryTales (10/5/2026)
"adults... who mistake their own wounds for wisdom"
"we can raise the next generation differently"

if it were simply a recipe,
á la 1 child + 1 childhood = 1 adult,

with tweakable components for desired outcomes,

then after having 'tweaked' every component imaginable
for every ideal outcome imaginable
for millennia,

what world would thereupon 'be created'?
if not the world as it was, as it is, as it will be?

for human beings are not 'recipes'
and 'good' ones are not outcomes of 'recipes' invented and reinvented
and invented and reinvented
and invented and reinvented

so much as 'recipes' thrown out
for something more than "patterns" that were, "patterns" that are, "patterns" that will be

LindenBard (10/5/2026)
"we cannot forgive what we are unwilling to hold accountable."

I do not think it's a secret that
I am neither a champion of forgiveness nor
its defense.

For all its appeals and qualifiers,
I see it often exhibited as a virtue-signal,
a badge, if you will, of 'sanguine equanimity', or
a halo, if you prefer, for trauma 'sublimely overcome'.

Such that I do not understand the relationship qualified here between
"forgiveness" and "accountability"
that is not already part and parcel to, err, forgiveness?

In any case, the idea that "each person who participates in wrongdoing"
can "be brought to face their own part in it plainly"

is a stretch-goal at best towards "real paths to repair";
at worst, such an approach to "judgment" singles out wrongdoers who wrongdo
as if both are "plainly" so deserving

and not, oh, complicated or grey or messy...
because, you know, life...
TheSuperMan (10/5/2026)
"Every demagogue who has ever risen to power has been, at heart, a curator of grudges, keeping the museum of old injuries open day and night so that no one leaves to build anything new."

it is true, "to act without being chained to yesterday"
seeds freedom to "build the future"

it is also true, "guardians" of "graves of the past"
defend
the price that's paid to never forget

as if liberty is meaningless
without "self-imprisonment"

IamPopularPopulistYouAreDirt (10/5/2026) in response to NurseryTales
"who is truly breeding conformity"

spoken like a cult-hugger and totalitarian-adorer
whose one wish of the blue fairy is 'to be seen' by
little wannabe 'mayors', 'masters', 'gods', 'kings'

as for the answer to "who is truly breeding conformity"?

why, that's as plain as the noses on wood carved companions of lonely men:

the very-narrowest-and-meanest-minded people whose
wrong-headed-and-stiff-necked dominating

mark them as bullies and narcissists and tyrants

my responses (10/18/2026...)
Sneaker (10/17/2026)
"They tell you you're smart, you're reasonable, you're one of the sensible ones, and then they ask you to be sensible enough to stop asking the question that matters."

yes!

false "comity", often presented with faux "friendliness",
opens doors and shuts minds

because fine print is too inconvenient,
too 'inconspicuous' to see, too 'unfamiliar' to read, too 'hopeless' to comprehend

because pausing before believing means

something overwhelming feels overwhelming and
something giving 'too much' is too much and

something insisting fakes and flimflams aren't real and true,
threatens cozy feelings and warm vibes

so doors open and minds shut

because who pauses before believing anyway anymore?

someone who sees what's inconspicuous? reads
what's unfamiliar? comprehends what's hopeless? oh please, amiright?

HanoverPubOrator (10/17/2026)
"Madam, I have read and reread your words... Thank you"

WOW, thank you for yours

and you're welcome

TheOneThatMistletoeWasFor (10/17/2026)
"you've taken every warm word on the shelf and turned it over to read the label... every single one. :hugs: back across the ocean."

aw shucks, thank you

and ditto

FormerlySomeoneNowElsewhereANoOne (10/17/2026)
"Here's my defense, for what it's worth."

the problem with "the comfort defense"
is not that it exists (because of course it does)
or that you claim it for yourself (because of course you do)

the problem with "the comfort defense"
is its ease,
its balm against conscience,
its wound-healing-adjacency to

casual evil that believes it's not


GavelandGrain (10/17/2026)

see comment by TheSuperMan and reply to TheSuperMan
above and below

there is conceit, if not hubris, in mistaking... politeness for carte blanche
to double down and furthermore, to equivalize

not unlike mistaking desperate armed defense for patriotism or
discontent for treason

I do not "imagine a country that lives up to its founding documents",
because I do not clutch to my breast justifying narratives
that are fairy tales that believe they're real

FrederickTheGreat (10/17/2026)
"Nobody needs to be a cop. We just need more people willing to be the second voice in the room, the one who makes the bully"

are you fucking... serious? sorry not sorry:
"we just need more people willing to be" you?

of all "the second voices" in rooms we have shared,
I do not recall one - ONE! - that "made the bully" experience an epiphany -
EPIPHANY! - ever being yours

as for mine,
if I were ever so vain, so grandiose, so delusional
as to believe it ever enlightened a bully,

I'd be you

BenLewis (10/17/2026)
"Every town has a John."
"The national bullies get the headlines, but the local ones are the farm team."
"The only thing more persistent than a bully is somebody who's decided they're done being bullied. Be that person."

Damn right "every town has a John",

and standing up to "John" is a daily battle
not to give up because it'd be easier to give up;

and opposing what "John" stands for is a daily battle
not to give in because it'd be easier to give in;

and not giving up and not giving in
does not make us "angry all the time";

and not giving up and not giving in
does not make us "lose ourselves";

because stands and oppositions
are neither what we do for us,
nor for our mental health,
nor for our identity;

stands and oppositions are what we do
because we believe;
stands and oppositions are what we do
for the world, for everybody and everything;
stands and oppositions are what we do
because the alternative
is
unconscionable, indefensible, and casually evil;

for stands and oppositions are what we do
as the backbone estate
giving
wrongdoers and wrongdoing
hell.

* October *


my responses (10/24/2026...)
Tribes2ndFinest (10/23/2026)
"And the guy who cut the program that would've helped you with all three? He's the [sadist]."
"The [sadists] saying "this is God's plan" are watching the storm from a second home on a hill that somehow never floods. Weird how divine providence keeps zoning in their favor."

weird how sadists are "the faithful" and "true believers"

because I can't picture a halo on a sadist
or angel wings

but damned if sadists can't imagine the unimaginable

BenLewis (10/23/2026)
"Oh wait, they don't get receipts. They get reimbursements! And "trust the process"? I trusted the process once. It was a vending machine. It ate my dollar and gave me nothing, and at least the vending machine didn't tell me it was building my character!" 

the grotesque pressure with which the mighty and "the meritorious"
grind us beneath their signets,

excoriating us for failing to ascend from 100-year-heat-storms and 100-year-floods
with woe-forged "characters"

as if the ultimate tell-tale of woe-forged "character"
is
signet kissing

BayouBengalCM (10/23/2026)
"Lemme tell you something, darlin'... Wrap the grab in a hymn and dare anybody to boo."
"Fear and faith are the two cheapest fuels in politics." 

"lemme tell you" sumthin bout seein' wit one eye
when ya dun got two:

when "the two cheapest fuels in politics" are good enuf
fer folk lookin' ta git lit to vote

"grabs" are a feature of power - not a flaw - no?

BigTentChairman (10/23/2026)
"I'll be honest"
"good people... They're not the problem."

it's fatuous to blow
everybody-is-blameless-flavored-hot-air

when you're not-seeing everybody's hands
death-gripping their bottom lines like

offertory is a demonic abomination

when it's an ask
for public schools, health care, transit improvements, renewable fuel infrastructure,
living wages, inclusionary zoning, supportive services, that is,
when it's an ask to finance essential care for the public good,
to serve present and future communities with monies where mouths are

when
being "the first ones" to "fill sandbags" or "bring casseroles" or "drive the elderly"
also means being "the first ones" to rapturously cheer
the defunding of disaster relief to the suffering and food assistance to the elderly,
etc.

you exonerate casual evil
as if standing with, behind, and for "the people" who are "the problem"
is
"good people" being faultless, harmless, and virtuous

AlphaCentauriOrBust (10/23/2026)
"divine right theory wrapped in modern populist branding... to silence dissent and privatize the gains."

without us, there are no "gains"
and without us, there are no "gains privatizers"

if the tools of our misery are our tools,
why are we told we are powerless to put those tools to better use
than as hammers against the public good?

for hammers who work for the mighty and "the meritorious"
aren't hammers who work for nails

CivicMindsin28 (10/23/2026) in response to AlphaCentauriOrBust
"institutional economic... public goods are defunded under the guise of fiscal discipline or "tough choices" (the secular version of a test of faith)"
"[one hand cradles the mighty and "the meritorious"; the other makes your] suffering mandatory"

there are words... but after having been... tossed in a Vitamix, I guess,
the fruit of this labor... lacks coherent cogency

such that it appears this is maybe... a lost in translation situation

otoh, when... concoctions of this, let's call it "flavor",
land on audiences desperate to experience authentic "harmony" gaffed by false "comity",
gulls content to swallow swill... swallow

SofiaTheFirst (10/23/2026)
"anyone who complains can simply be dismissed as lacking grit, faith, or patriotism."
"The "guardians of liberty"... [demand] that you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the very people [who're converting induced and inflicted public misery into private capital]."
"We do not need another lecture on [moral character] from people who have never [missed a wink of sleep for lack of moral comfort or peace of mind]."

the idea of 'a trusted source',
of there being 'a source' that is 'heard'

while all other 'sources' are neither 'trusted' nor 'heard'

is bonkers

when the basis of this 'trust'
is neither to do with what's real nor to do with what's true

but to do with whether 'the trusted source'
is uncompromisingly loyal to "people who have never"
missed a wink of sleep for lack of moral peace of mind

my responses (10/26/2026)
SifIsLovingNorway (10/23/2026)

well said, fellow "pointing" sister!
:p

TheVoluntarist (10/23/2026)
"The spigot is the problem."

dear readers,

this is a variation on the theme: "defund it to kill it"

and for any dear readers with "stupid" on their foreheads,
the point of "defund it to kill it" is not to "shrink" either "treasure" or "temptation"

why not?

"treasure"! "temptation"!

when induced and inflicted public misery, that is,
when grossly justified and legalized razing of the public good

can be converted into "treasure",
capitalized and privatized to slake every unimaginable "temptation",

why give up a single red parking lot penny
to finance essential care for the public good,
to serve present and future communities with monies where mouths are?

after all:

"Every time" campaigns of "defund it to kill it"
win the public square,
it's not the mighty and "the meritorious" who line up for the bread lines,

is it?

OverturnedTables (10/23/2026)
"[Jesus] didn't tell the people being fleeced that it was a test [of faith]." 

"the prosperity gospel" and "the Gospels"
are not speaking from the same "faith tradition", sure

but "I think it's worth saying out loud":

inheritors of eternal flames, regardless
of granular differences in religious doctrines,
are rarely immune to invitations to

let them murder

Archivist12982 (10/23/2026)
""tests" of loyalty: oaths, public denunciations, purity checks. The point was never to measure belief. It was to make people perform it, publicly and repeatedly, until disagreement felt like betrayal."

speaking of blueprints of dead and gone polities
and
fighting the same battle... over and over and over and over

HemlockHustle (10/23/2026)
"One who serves only himself isn't ruling at all. He's a thief with a title."

"a thief with a title" and
a complex of retaliatory machinery at the beck and call of

the very-narrowest-and-meanest minded people whose
wrong-headed-and-stiffed-necked dominating

mark them as bullies and narcissists and tyrants

TheReasonablyLightLantern (10/23/2026), SagesFromLittleMountainsAndTowns (10/23/2026)

the devil is in the details

or I'd agree with you

see also my response (10/29/2026) below

ATreeofBrains (10/23/2026)
"Alas, the holes [in the design of our safeguards and guardrails]... [ensured] that their wealth and power would be protected from the common man and kings."
"Factions[, partisans, special interests]... and the people... may [become] as tyrannical as any [vain and grasping] king."

there is no perfect answer;

no just or benevolent "dictator";
no wise or rational "mob"

instead, there is only you and me and an indefatigable opposition
to bullies and narcissists and tyrants,

who would deny us all
our right to be free
to give wrongdoers and wrongdoing
hell

TheSwampCleaner (10/23/2026)
"They're the mighty... "Trust the process"? That was their line for [a moment in time I proclaim "two years of lockdown!" because my vibes, my truth]!"
"Welcome to the movement!"

No.

Soaking the space between your ears
in an arsenic-acid-biocide of ignorance

is not "the movement" of a well-informed citizenry
so much as the drooling screed of the whingeing class.

see also my response (10/27/2026) to USAFirstForRealAmericans below

GenerationsFarmingDirt (10/23/2026)
"My granddad called that "being asked to pray for rain while somebody's diverting the creek.""

it's not just "being patient, staying loyal" amounting to
"praying for rain while somebody's diverting the creek";

it's subsidies and bailouts
for "the biggest operations" and the smallest, across so many industries,
that are experienced as "entitlements"

that provoke bottom-line-death-gripping resistance
when they're questioned pursuant to economic reform

such that everybody is for economic reform
for everybody else,

and everybody is for cutting "entitlements"
for everybody else

while the bill for essential care for the public good,
to serve present and future communities with monies where mouths are

sits on tables,
clanks down can-choked-roads,
falls off cliffs,

to a silence filled with the drooling screed of the "where's my economic justice?" class,
like "the biggest operations", the smallest, and everybody else

MomofanAdultSonandProudOfIt (10/23/2026)
"We're being failed."

the natural consequences of such policies enacted by unrepentant rulers
is hardship

and the natural consequences of such grievous hardship
is dethronement

meanwhile,
inhalers of fumes
churned and refined by the mighty and "the meritorious" to influence
lit and anoxic votes, will not be gainsaid their "freedom"

to spit at natural consequences

CostlyGrace (10/23/2026)
"Real grace... demands we stand with the scorched and the drowned, not with the people holding the matches and the floodgates."

inheritors of eternal flames hear messages
for "true believers" and "the faithful" from real santas in red hats

and
inheritors of eternal flames hear messages
for "true believers" and "the faithful" from me

to say I'm not holding my breath is a colossal understatement

Sneaker (10/23/2026)
"Not the ones who abuse power. The ones who let them."
"Calling the fire a test is just the most sophisticated way yet of telling people to keep their buckets at home."
"now that you know, what are you going to do?... doing nothing [is] just the [choice] the mighty are counting on."

though I'm not holding my breath,

I'm not silencing my voice,
because the flame eternal is me and mine and unquenchable

TheMeritocrat (10/23/2026)
"I think it's important to be fair... and I'll be very direct... The post says ["I don't] believe first and ask questions later," then spends two thousand words [taking a flame-throwing-robot-dog to my birthright and my worldview, which are one and the same]."
"respectfully... We don't need fewer people who believe [the fumes I'm blowing to influence lit and anoxic votes]. We need more of them. That's not a test of faith that isn't. That's the one that [stands between me and the desertion of pots to piss in]."

"respectfully", there's cosplaying a pitiless synthetic overlord
and then there's you with your "where there's a whip, there's a way" swagger and frisson

that rejects any interest in sans-signet-kissing-discourse
and thus renders any intelligent response to your "worldview", a howl into the void

so... who pissed in your cereal, man? oh wait,
was it a flame-throwing-robot-dog?
confused between the pot to piss in and
the ashes of your moral compass transmuted into tableware?

otoh... with a name like "Garmr" and a master like you,
you get what you beget, buttercup

my responses (10/27/2026...)

SunsetStripsandDrinks (10/24/2026)

uhm... right... so... there's "vapidity" as a brand,
there's "vapidity" as a vibe,

and then there's "vapidity" as a way of life that doubles down on
nothing matters but brands and vibes

if that's you... well... I don't love that for you

because a person who really cares about you,
doesn't love that for you

because a person who really cares about you,
loves what's real for you

IWriteComediesWhileCrying (10/24/2026)
"the guy who's supposed to pick up the phone is on a yacht that was somehow paid for by the children breakfast's budget."

tell me about it

the budget to gild dicks is bigger than the budget to feed the hungry,
because, you know, no one's looking at the hungry,

not with shiny little dicks here! shiny little dicks there! shiny little dicks everywhere!

ProgressIsPossibleWithVotes (10/24/2026)
"Policy creates vulnerability, and then faith language covers it."
"questions are the beginning. Votes, budgets, public comment periods, and oversight hearings are how we make the answers stick. Show up. Bring the receipts. We need you in the room."

I agree that
a well-informed citizenry is how a well-informed policy is well-informed.

Meanwhile,
the drooling screeds of the "freedom" to spit at natural consequences class,
the "where's my economic justice?" class,

the class of fools and tools whose "birthright" to Armageddon is "God-given",
the class of little wannabe gods,

are sucking the oxygen from "the room",
to light up anoxic votes for tyrants.

Which is to say... "Show up"? Yeah, people are;
"Bring the receipts"? Yeah, people are;
"We need you"? Yeah, about that:

we need people elected to serve the people
to serve as servants of the people;

we need a little less false "comity" and a little more real backbone,
because a policy of appeasement is a policy of spinelessness;

we need people appointed to serve the people
to serve as servants the people;

we need a little less signet-kissing and little more real brains,
unsoaked by arsenic-acid-biocides of ignorance;

we need people confirmed to serve the people
to stop huffing fumes churned and refined by the mighty and "the meritorious"
like anoxia cultivates wisdom,

because serving as servants of the people isn't a metaphor.

Which is to say... "Show up. Bring the receipts. We need you in the room",
because the people's power in the halls of power and the people's voice in the decision rooms
are ours and ours are an unmatched millions-strong wonder to behold...

USAFirstForRealAmericans (10/24/2026)
"Notice how it's... in quotes... That's because [I think] the real power... [I see you] hinting at."
"[In my opinion, which is the only one with brains here, you've]... got the wrong target."

see my response (10/26/2026) to TheSwampCleaner above

a conspiracy theorist doesn't see what's there and what isn't there;
rather, they refute consensual "facts" and invent unimpeachable "truths";

because conspiracy theorizing doesn't serve reality;
rather, it serves vibes

and a "position" or a "stand" based on vibes
exists smack within the political party tent of your choice

as for me?
if that's where "you think" I am,
ensconced midst the whingeing class,
you prove the point

BishopOfTheValley (10/24/2026)
"suffering can be redemptive, but... the infliction of suffering [never is]"
"I wish my flock had more like you in it, you stand in the company of our prophets and are not afraid to speak the truth."

a rare kindness: a sincere compliment,
thank you, :hugs:

AbundantHarvestForAll (10/24/2026)
"Sister... When you call yourself a victim, you become one."

"when you call yourself" a "hearer" of "pain",
"when you call yourself" a "speaker", "watcher", "caller", "prayer', "sower",

you want to believe "you become one"

but a god that's a wish-giver isn't a god;
it's a blue fairy

and that's fitting,

for fairy tales are fictions
wherein wood-carved-companions-of-lonely-men-deserve-to-be-real
main-character-energy
is heroic

instead of infantile

see also my response (3/8/2026) to EmuBeenHappy above

ReasonableDoubter (10/24/2026)
"some of the sharpest critics of [abuse of power, abuse of trust, abuse of people] come from inside it."

a little... captain obvious... but, sure

NotFromALogCabinAnymore (10/24/2026)
"I have often observed... surrenders, each excused by fine words."

thank you for your carefully considered, thoughtful, and keen observations

SoupKitchenFriend (10/24/2026)
"for people to be good. That means we can't separate prayer from justice or charity from..."

notwithstanding casual evil
hand-in-hand with "people being good"
á la my response (10/24/2026) to BigTentChairman above

the, let's call it "idea", though it's a dishonest conceit of the self-righteous,
that "people being good" is something to do with "prayer" and "charity"

is repugnant and offensive

because it pooh-poohs me not-to-see and not-to-hear and not-to-speak
truth to power

to wit:
not only "can we separate" performative religious observation and exercise
from "justice" and a raft of policies that address essential care for the public good

doing so does not increase an internal inhibition or resistance "to being good"
in human beings

because a functioning moral compass
is nothing to do with performative religious observation and exercise

and
everything to do with a motivation and inspiration "to be good" that repudiates
institutional doctrines of exclusion

see also my response (3/8/2026) to TheTribesSecondFinest above

TheElderInTheDesert (10/24/2026)
"Our oppressors went to church every Sunday."

this has been true, this is true, this will be true
so long as human beings are... only human, right?

TheSterlingWords (10/24/2026)
"religious institutions have too often served as the domestic police force for empire, baptizing the violence of the powerful"
"True faith does not demand that we suspend our ethical faculties or ignore the structural rot beneath our feet. By exposing how theological language is weaponized to enforce compliance, this essay performs a deeply pastoral and spiritual service."

an ignorant, entitled, infantile, dishonest, self-superior, performative
"faith" and "belief"
defends and sanctifies unconscionable apologetics

thank you for not

WatchdogDanForth (10/24/2026)
"There is an inverse relationship between how loudly a politician proclaims their patriotism or piety [or pride or party] and how accountable they are to the public purse [as in] a straight answer on where the taxpayer firehose actually went."
"Transparency is not an attack on [national] solidarity; it is its foundational bedrock." 

ethicism is never an attack on honesty;
ethicism is honesty's receipts
 
my responses (10/28/2026)
IAmNotThatVance (10/24/2026)

see my response (10/26/2026) to
TheReasonablyLightLantern, SagesFromLittleMountainsAndTowns above

see also my response (10/29/2026) below

NoraPoeticWaxingLin (10/24/2026)
"language is one of our primary tools for reclaiming our agency from those who would manage our consent. Poetry can be a weapon against tyranny"

here, where my words are, yes

there, where their words are, language is a tool of tyrants
and poetry, defanged and hollowed-out,
fancies embellished air, sacred and vital

AstridHellOfIce (10/25/2026)
"moral sleight of hand. Individual acts of charity allow people to feel like virtuous saviors without ever having to interrogate the structural inequalities [and injustices] that produced [privation and suffering]... But when you build a [healthy, sustainable, and] robust public welfare state through taxation [that is respectfully contributed, rather than dodged and evaded via permissible loopholes and legalistic accounting structures], you are acknowledging [that a shared duty of care and responsibility as owners and consumers of the public good is part and parcel to being a decent human being and citizen]."

when people are asked "to do charity",
they're invited "to feel good",
they're praised for "being wonderful" and they're thanked for "being generous"

when people are asked "to accept charity",
they're invited "to feel grateful",
they're told it takes courage to accept "help" and good people everywhere are "generous"

when charity is denied,
people say to themselves, how shameful to uncharitably refuse "to do more"

when charity is declined,
people say to themselves, how prideful to ungraciously refuse "help"

otoh:

people who are asked to pay taxes
are neither praised nor thanked for their "financial gift"

and people who are asked to accept what taxes subsidize or pay for
are not grateful for the "generosity" of taxpaying strangers

and when taxes are dodged and evaded,
people say to themselves, I'm not leaving money on the table!
Nothing wrong with keeping what's mine!

and when goods and services that taxes subsidize and pay for are spurned,
people say to themselves, if its free or its public, it's a handout or it's awful!
I'd rather pay for the privilege for the rich to get richer on my nickel and dime!

in other words:

a good and just world isn't a world with
more performative "givers" and more performative "recipients";

a good and just world is a world where
the public good isn't public enemy #1

AlistairJurisprudence (10/25/2026)
"From a legal and jurisprudential standpoint... Restoring public integrity requires [holding] the powerful strictly accountable for their [miscarriages of] stewardship."

YES. From top to bottom: THIS.

DirtRoadRealist (10/25/2026)
"There is a special kind of cruelty"

This is what voters voted for
when they voted for a vibe

that rejected "race this" and "pride that";

when they voted for a vibe

that repudiated "economic facts" and "economic numbers";

when they voted for a vibe

that embraced mockery of "libs" and "tards" and "fuggos";

when they voted for a vibe

that lionized bullies and narcissists and tyrants.

This is what voters voted for
when they railed that "elitists" talked "down" to real people;

when they listened to complainers and complaints and complaining,
nickels here! and dimes there! and wails everywhere!

when they heard real people and real stories
that validated bigotry and normalized hatred and justified cruelty;

and exercised their "voice"
to vote for "heroes" and "patriots" and "true believers"
standing behind, with, and for the jubilantly and unrepentant sinful;

to vote for "freedom" over a shared duty of care and responsibility
as owners and consumers of the public good as part and parcel
to being a decent human being and citizen;

to vote for "freedom"
to experience "a special kind of cruelty"
coast to coast, pole to pole, ad mortem.

FólkvangrActual (10/25/2026)
"You don't spend a career operating downrange without... [being] prouder of [who I am and where I come from] when I read this post."

an inherited moral compass is a formidable... arena buff
and, like the person within whom it mightily burns,
outshines all the brass that strut like fools of fury
across breasts and stages

my response (10/29/2026...)

TheReasonablyLightLantern (10/23/2026), SagesFromLittleMountainsAndTowns (10/23/2026), IAmNotThatVance (10/24/2026)

above, I have already responded with
"the devil is in the details"

while there are a fair number of "details", there's at least one
like a thread, running through all three:

the presumption that
the goodness and innocence of "the religious"
and the wholesomeness of "electorates"
are pillars upon which can be built actually just societies

instead: goodness and innocence and wholesomeness
are rarities and exceptions to the rule

that cannot be the basis of a just representative government

for such a representative government exists solely
as an impossible and unrealizable idea

which is to say: actually just societies
require our engagement with and acceptance of
the real state of things

to see "the religious" as they really are and to see "electorates" as they really are
and to not presume goodness and innocence and wholesomeness
not in evidence
as that which shall be guardrails or safeguards of a just representative government
that shall ultimately "save us" from bullies and narcissists and tyrants

in other words: saving ourselves, preserving our democracy and our republic,
sustaining our faith and our belief in a just world for all,

starts with letting go of fair facades
and facing reality

* November *

(11/7/2026)
The Poisonous Fruit of the Politics of Conservatism

my responses (11/9/2026...)
AndWhatsThatAbout (11/8/2026)

Let's... illuminate, shall we?
how your comment typifies the politics of conservatism:

an 'opening' that leans into rhetorical fallacies to 'rage bait' -
notwithstanding,
ad hominem fallacies, straw man fallacies, motte-and-bailey fallacies
are no more 'common sense' for "peasants" than "offensive" sophistries -
check;

anchored by self-superior and self-righteous snobbery,
hostile to disagreement as reasonable, and
 repulsed by mutual reciprocity -
check;

dismissive of multilateral solutions
on the basis of a 'vibe' that insists it's 'reality' -
case in point your, let's call it 'treatise', on "pining",
for there's no "want" conservatives covet more intimately
than "insulation" -
check;

including validating the-grievance-class as 'victims' of harms,
never mind the license for harms against "ordinary people"
being the ugly legacy of conservatives who dominate "the ruling class"
as gilded-age-martyrs on creatine and peptides -
check;

because not-seeing conservatives for conservatism
as apologists for abusers
is not a "tell" or a "truth" or a "fact" -
check;

and not "noticing"

a throughline of sadistic justification
that excludes the public and 'the many' from
the promises and the blessings of a robust plural democracy
is
"just what happened"
when nakedly and "bitterly" rooted
supremacism, despotism, justification

of conservatives, by conservatives, for conservatives
bore first fruit -
check.

tbc: name (date)

am
{ ~ }

&EverythingIsPolitical

Now is not the time to be pacified. (It never was and it never will be.) If a pacifier is what you seek, however, be not surprised when the world falls ass over teakettle to offer you pacifiers aplenty in exchange for everything that is real and everything that is true, which is to say, everything that is worth fighting for.

*

As always, thank you for your patience and understanding as comments and responses are posted to this blog and this page, at times sans my rhyme and rhythm, which is to say, PLEASE NOTE:

my formatting has been, is, and will be ABSURDLY and INEXPLICABLY altered such that neither explicit nor intentional MEANING should be 'inferred' or 'construed' or 'understood' from such INTERFERENCE, incl. text color, text size, text typeface, text typography, text restructuring, etc.;

notwithstanding in general and on the whole, intended recipients of my responses should know what is me and what is not because duh.
M

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