Just A Ramble

There’s a lot of foolishness afoot. As has always been. Thought it seems perhaps these days that there is more.

Everybody is simultaneously telling you to hustle and to know your place.

They’re telling you to be carefree and sexy but also traditional.

We must fight for what’s right but also be a peacenik.

We live in a deeply schizophrenic society.

And they wonder why mental illness is on the rise.

They implicate social media.

But have just barely figured out an operational definition of mental illness.

Think about the abstraction of a mental illness.

How is it distinct from the physiological?

These are fundamental questions barely answered by our most stellar thinkers.

And yet we’re implicating social media in the diagnosis?

Towards such a point that we ban Tik Tok?

What if it’s actually more of a litmus test?

Simply something that reveals a much deeper problem.

There’s always been a lot of genuflecting before the ‘greatest generation.’

Boy howdy they sure had moxy!

Yeah…and two back to back world wars as well as the birth of Communism, Fascism, and Nazism.

Then there was Vietnam.

Then there was Charlie Rose with McNamara saying the domino theory of war of American Weltenschaunskreig doesn’t work.

Then there was Iraq. Twice.

We were in Afghanistan for twenty years.

All of this and the alienation it fosters was well before the ascendency of Facebook circa 2006.

So the rise of mental illness may not be a rise at all.

It might just be something that’s been glaringly apparent since the dawn of time.

It just took some silly dances and whacky identity politics to unearth.

Thanks to social media.

A reflection of society.


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TFS 35 – Cumia on Media, “Strange Activities”, and Rambles


Stuff discussed in order of appearance:

News Weasels with Books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60X0HTK_5-c

Muh Russiagate: https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/14/the-secret-history-of-the-russian-consulate-in-san-francisco-putin-trump-spies-moscow/
I think there’s a bit about Scottish history but I can’t track it down.


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TFS 22 – Coronavirus, Kvass, and Carolina Living

 


Note (I repeated a factoid from another YouTuber (CoffeeTalk) “bird flu has 98% or so survival rate) I was unable to confirm this via Google. All I got was survival rate of the virus strains in Korea not of people. I did find a sixty percent mortality rate. That being said I don’t think he’s entirely off the mark because the CDC said the following:
While the risk from Asian H5N1 is low to most people, CDC recommends general precautions.
Sporadic human infections with Asian H5N1 virus have occurred in other countries, primarily in Asia and Africa. Most human infections with Asian H5N1 viruses in other countries have occurred after prolonged and close contact with infected sick or dead birds.
No animal or human infections with Asian H5N1 virus have occurred in the United States.

Video is about Coronavirus news, media coverage, Kvass and beer, Russian memories, and the economy.

(I’m aware the audio doesn’t match. Sorry, I had no time to fix it.)


Sources

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/02/coronavirus-and-blindness-authoritarianism/606922/

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/h5n1-virus.htm
Coffee talk video:

 

The Importance of Principle


“All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Is a rather famous aphorism.

But how do you know that you are a good man? How do you know what you should do?

I use this aphorism and the resultant questions to highlight the importance of preparation. That is of preparing ones mind for struggle and moral quandries through establishing and examining principles.

The establishment and examination of principles is perhaps the most important function of philosophy.


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Rhetoric vs Reality – My Media Philosophy (Vlog)


I’m basically shadowboxing Steven Crowder to make my points about public discourse. Please take my points with a grain of salt and watch Steven’s videos to form your own opinion. Not trying to be patronizing by stating the obvious. I just want it understood that this is an idea sketch for what I feel is the best style of media for an informed public.


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Sensationalism Buries Flint and Hampers Environmentalism (Vlog)

 

 


Zoologists and climatologists have challenged the narrative portrayed by the new Netflix documentary ‘Our Planet.’

This documentary tied walruses jumping to their deaths to global warming without giving due consideration to alternative explanations. This very much seems to be a case of sensationalism.

A sensationalism that is holding back environmental progress in the name of environmentalism. These sorts of things hog the spotlight and bury other real pressing issues.


Tim’s Video

 


The Jimmy Dore Show


Alex Prud’ Homme’s Book


Music Credit (Free Domain) https://archive.org/details/free-music-for-commercial-use


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Fractal Radio | Episode 19 – Pundits Disease


Public discourse is vital to a free and open society. Effective public discourse faces many challenges. One such challenge is Pundits Diseasemoralizing about pet issues from a high tower.

Pundits and commentators whether mainstream or independent tend to be removed from direct involvement in what they are discussing. A position that leads them to cover vague notions more than they do the practical application of those notions.

A huge problem with this trend is that it dwarves huge issues behind a cloud of hot air and trendy topics.


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A Good Sign?

The video below comes from ‘The Knife Media’ which seems to be taking a step in the right direction. They use a fairly good grasp of logical fallacies to point out the misleading tactics of big media companies and influential personalities. Their journalistic chops working for MSM rags like Bloomberg, TIME, and NYT give them added credibility and insight.

While I’m leary of organizations and people promoting themselves as ‘rational voices’ I think that a lot of good might come out of ‘The Knife Media’ in the years ahead.

Check them out and tell me what you think.

The Knife Media



I found out about ‘The Knife Media’ from another (IMO great) independent journalist: Tim Pool.