<![CDATA[Rogue-Nation Discussion Board - A Rogue's Opinion Piece]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/ Thu, 16 Apr 2026 04:27:37 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[Irredeemable]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=3143 Wed, 29 Oct 2025 16:45:53 +0000 Minstrel]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=3143  It is an opinion piece,
  with no redeemable value.

- - - - -  -  - - - - -

Do you care about New York City?

Why?

Even the RADical Right
 in New York City
  are so timid,
   they sound like church mice
    in a revival choir.

NYC wants the luxury of all 'America' has to offer
 While, hobnobbing with London, Paris & Rome...
  As if they are not part of 'America'
   And, are 'cool',
    Like the best
     of the rest
      of the world.
- - -
  "You got a Muslim mayor?
    We'll get a Muslim mayor. Sounds like fun.

  "You are overrun with migrants and lawlessness?
     We can do that, too
      and watch them play their games
       from our penthouse balconies.

    "We snub our noses at Walmart America
      Then, demand that Walmart America
        pays for all our...miscalculations.

    "After all - What would Walmart America do/be
      without The Big (Red-Nosed) Apple?"
- - -

If they think that turning such a cesspool
 into another Middle Eastern wasteland,
  is okay...
   why not also let/Make them
    secede
     from the nation
      and become a nation
     to themselves
    (like Hong [King] Kong) ...?
                   [They've been crying for it... !]

Then...we can bomb them
 when they get out of line... [Penguin laugh]

--- What does NYC produce/have/offer
      that the rest of the nation does not?

Aside from a very few good people
 mixed in with the Lot,
  there are a limited number of excuses
   for caring about the place.
  ...
  ...
  ...
    ... (and all of Abram's prayers
          will have come
           to naught.)

Then again
 - it's not like they are 'the first'
  metropolitan rock opera
   to go 'cosmopolitan' (*)
    in the U.S.'...

Though, they do consider themselves
 'on another plane'.

Maybe, everyone-else will get to see what
 a few years of Shariah-leaning administration
  can do for the Big Apple...

If you continue doing business with or through
 the new Islamic state of NYC
  You will, likely, be contributing to the coffers of
   some very hostile and unsavory members
    of avowed enemies to/of the U.S.A.

If you do not care about the U.S.A.,
 and/or, otherwise, 'despise' the U.S.A. (**)
  --- you are an enemy of the State, by default.

Admit it.

And, while I, as well, despise many things
 about the U.S.A.,
  I must, at least, acknowledge that
   my sovereign survival
    and that of my descendants
     is intertwined with
      the sovereign survival of the U.S.A. .

Do you see it otherwise?


(* The cosmopolitan thrust, being...
     Integrate all of the disparate peoples
      Into one big soup bowl of peoples, where
       Individual identity gets lost in the mix
        Ancestral beliefs, traditions and histories
         Are lost in the mix
          'Beliefs' become 'the same'
           And the masses are easier to control
            Like clockworks.)


(** &, if, you are a Citizen of the U.S.A. )]]>  It is an opinion piece,
  with no redeemable value.

- - - - -  -  - - - - -

Do you care about New York City?

Why?

Even the RADical Right
 in New York City
  are so timid,
   they sound like church mice
    in a revival choir.

NYC wants the luxury of all 'America' has to offer
 While, hobnobbing with London, Paris & Rome...
  As if they are not part of 'America'
   And, are 'cool',
    Like the best
     of the rest
      of the world.
- - -
  "You got a Muslim mayor?
    We'll get a Muslim mayor. Sounds like fun.

  "You are overrun with migrants and lawlessness?
     We can do that, too
      and watch them play their games
       from our penthouse balconies.

    "We snub our noses at Walmart America
      Then, demand that Walmart America
        pays for all our...miscalculations.

    "After all - What would Walmart America do/be
      without The Big (Red-Nosed) Apple?"
- - -

If they think that turning such a cesspool
 into another Middle Eastern wasteland,
  is okay...
   why not also let/Make them
    secede
     from the nation
      and become a nation
     to themselves
    (like Hong [King] Kong) ...?
                   [They've been crying for it... !]

Then...we can bomb them
 when they get out of line... [Penguin laugh]

--- What does NYC produce/have/offer
      that the rest of the nation does not?

Aside from a very few good people
 mixed in with the Lot,
  there are a limited number of excuses
   for caring about the place.
  ...
  ...
  ...
    ... (and all of Abram's prayers
          will have come
           to naught.)

Then again
 - it's not like they are 'the first'
  metropolitan rock opera
   to go 'cosmopolitan' (*)
    in the U.S.'...

Though, they do consider themselves
 'on another plane'.

Maybe, everyone-else will get to see what
 a few years of Shariah-leaning administration
  can do for the Big Apple...

If you continue doing business with or through
 the new Islamic state of NYC
  You will, likely, be contributing to the coffers of
   some very hostile and unsavory members
    of avowed enemies to/of the U.S.A.

If you do not care about the U.S.A.,
 and/or, otherwise, 'despise' the U.S.A. (**)
  --- you are an enemy of the State, by default.

Admit it.

And, while I, as well, despise many things
 about the U.S.A.,
  I must, at least, acknowledge that
   my sovereign survival
    and that of my descendants
     is intertwined with
      the sovereign survival of the U.S.A. .

Do you see it otherwise?


(* The cosmopolitan thrust, being...
     Integrate all of the disparate peoples
      Into one big soup bowl of peoples, where
       Individual identity gets lost in the mix
        Ancestral beliefs, traditions and histories
         Are lost in the mix
          'Beliefs' become 'the same'
           And the masses are easier to control
            Like clockworks.)


(** &, if, you are a Citizen of the U.S.A. )]]> <![CDATA[Guidestones Rant]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=3130 Fri, 24 Oct 2025 09:51:37 +0000 F2d5thCav]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=3130
Why a rant ?

Because of the manufactured mystery aspect of the Stones.

A mysterious individual engages a local firm to erect huge granite stones.  Not only that, the stones are so arranged and carved that they can function as both a clock and a calendar.  And to top it all off, they include "commandments" in several languages intended to guide humanity as to how to survive after an apocalypse.

I mean, think about it.  This person revealed their identity to the local banker but told him to keep it secret.  The project in 1980 cost some $100,000 and the money was sent by bank transfer.

Umm, that means there are bank records regarding the transfer, like ... whose account it came from.  But no one has apparently ever shown any curiosity about that.

The other huge red flag is the property upon which the stones were erected.  Who owned that property ?  Let's get real, OF COURSE they knew about the construction and probably had a good idea of, at the least, the group behind the construction of the stones.  But again, no one seemed curious about that.

Finally, there is the question of local planning officials, the mayor, etc.  They knew damned well about the project and were happy with it, else it would NOT have been completed.  I mean (again), one doesn't just go to one state in the USA from another state and fund the construction of such a project without collaborators.  Just the permissions required can be a legal mess, but in this case, it was apparently no issue at all.

= = = =

Some people have dug into this affair.  It seems likely the person who spoke to the banker and construction company in Elberton was a Doctor Herbert Kersten from Fort Dodge, Iowa.  Kersten was known for having far ranging speculations on topics like overpopulation (something mentioned on the stones).  As well, his writing style depicted in letters to the editor in his local newspaper resemble the style used in the written communications to the banker in Elberton.

As someone on find-a-grave asked, "why all the secrecy" ?

Continues ...

MinusculeCheers
Moreover, one might ask, "what good did this project do ?"

Elberton officials appreciated the tourism associated with the Stones and moaned bitterly when they were destroyed, but that kind of "good" hardly matches the Olympian tone adopted by the commands that were etched into the stones.  No, this wasn't about helping anyone directly, or to prepare, or in any other regard.  It was an act of showing off, a way of saying, "look at what we can do and you yokels will never know who was behind it".

By why Kersten, and why a location in Georgia ?

Cav's take: Kersten was a Mason.  He had met with other Masons over the years and at some point, the idea for a project like this had germinated.  People put their money where their mouth was and someone in the group was either the owner of the land used for the project or had influence over the owner.  The banker, the builder, the local officials ... all were in on it.  Whether the last group were all Masons ... who knows.  All they needed to know is that an ostensibly harmless construction project had potential to bring tourists and their spending to a rural corner of Georgia.

And why Masons ?  Why, of course, because it was a huge stone (masonry) project.  Just the thing they're good at, and, as a "secret" society, they are well practiced in lying when they believe that such behavior protects other Masons and does no overt harm.  To be fair, the deceit involved is behavior that many groups would practice given the tribal instincts of people.  But a project this large would have made a great Masonic secret that only those who were high enough in the organization would have knowledge of.

Of course, Kersten's family denied he had anything to do with the stones.  Maybe they didn't realize he was a Mason, or didn't ask many questions about his trips, assuming they were related to his medical practice at the clinic he ran.  Or perhaps they are lying to cover for him ... ultimately not important what the case was here.

= = = =

The Masons may not have realized that the monument would become mildly controversial.  Some people didn't like the mystery behind it, or found the commandments and their multilingual presentation something reeking of globalist propaganda.  IMO, a fair concern, after all, it wasn't like monuments like this were appearing in China, India, or the Middle East (where they would have been immediately destroyed as a monument to a false idol).

But at some point, someone, or some group, tired of the mystery theater and took direct action.  Thus, after 42 years, the Stones came down.  The locals who benefited from tourist dollars yelped ... but I think many simply didn't care.

As is clear from my comments here, I certainly don't miss the Stones.  Had they been erected in full transparency (like asking locals there if they really wanted something like that in their area), I might feel differently.  But the manufactured mystery was, as I mentioned, an act of showing off, and practically a dare to those who didn't like it ... to do something about it.  And so they did.

MinusculeCheers]]>
Why a rant ?

Because of the manufactured mystery aspect of the Stones.

A mysterious individual engages a local firm to erect huge granite stones.  Not only that, the stones are so arranged and carved that they can function as both a clock and a calendar.  And to top it all off, they include "commandments" in several languages intended to guide humanity as to how to survive after an apocalypse.

I mean, think about it.  This person revealed their identity to the local banker but told him to keep it secret.  The project in 1980 cost some $100,000 and the money was sent by bank transfer.

Umm, that means there are bank records regarding the transfer, like ... whose account it came from.  But no one has apparently ever shown any curiosity about that.

The other huge red flag is the property upon which the stones were erected.  Who owned that property ?  Let's get real, OF COURSE they knew about the construction and probably had a good idea of, at the least, the group behind the construction of the stones.  But again, no one seemed curious about that.

Finally, there is the question of local planning officials, the mayor, etc.  They knew damned well about the project and were happy with it, else it would NOT have been completed.  I mean (again), one doesn't just go to one state in the USA from another state and fund the construction of such a project without collaborators.  Just the permissions required can be a legal mess, but in this case, it was apparently no issue at all.

= = = =

Some people have dug into this affair.  It seems likely the person who spoke to the banker and construction company in Elberton was a Doctor Herbert Kersten from Fort Dodge, Iowa.  Kersten was known for having far ranging speculations on topics like overpopulation (something mentioned on the stones).  As well, his writing style depicted in letters to the editor in his local newspaper resemble the style used in the written communications to the banker in Elberton.

As someone on find-a-grave asked, "why all the secrecy" ?

Continues ...

MinusculeCheers
Moreover, one might ask, "what good did this project do ?"

Elberton officials appreciated the tourism associated with the Stones and moaned bitterly when they were destroyed, but that kind of "good" hardly matches the Olympian tone adopted by the commands that were etched into the stones.  No, this wasn't about helping anyone directly, or to prepare, or in any other regard.  It was an act of showing off, a way of saying, "look at what we can do and you yokels will never know who was behind it".

By why Kersten, and why a location in Georgia ?

Cav's take: Kersten was a Mason.  He had met with other Masons over the years and at some point, the idea for a project like this had germinated.  People put their money where their mouth was and someone in the group was either the owner of the land used for the project or had influence over the owner.  The banker, the builder, the local officials ... all were in on it.  Whether the last group were all Masons ... who knows.  All they needed to know is that an ostensibly harmless construction project had potential to bring tourists and their spending to a rural corner of Georgia.

And why Masons ?  Why, of course, because it was a huge stone (masonry) project.  Just the thing they're good at, and, as a "secret" society, they are well practiced in lying when they believe that such behavior protects other Masons and does no overt harm.  To be fair, the deceit involved is behavior that many groups would practice given the tribal instincts of people.  But a project this large would have made a great Masonic secret that only those who were high enough in the organization would have knowledge of.

Of course, Kersten's family denied he had anything to do with the stones.  Maybe they didn't realize he was a Mason, or didn't ask many questions about his trips, assuming they were related to his medical practice at the clinic he ran.  Or perhaps they are lying to cover for him ... ultimately not important what the case was here.

= = = =

The Masons may not have realized that the monument would become mildly controversial.  Some people didn't like the mystery behind it, or found the commandments and their multilingual presentation something reeking of globalist propaganda.  IMO, a fair concern, after all, it wasn't like monuments like this were appearing in China, India, or the Middle East (where they would have been immediately destroyed as a monument to a false idol).

But at some point, someone, or some group, tired of the mystery theater and took direct action.  Thus, after 42 years, the Stones came down.  The locals who benefited from tourist dollars yelped ... but I think many simply didn't care.

As is clear from my comments here, I certainly don't miss the Stones.  Had they been erected in full transparency (like asking locals there if they really wanted something like that in their area), I might feel differently.  But the manufactured mystery was, as I mentioned, an act of showing off, and practically a dare to those who didn't like it ... to do something about it.  And so they did.

MinusculeCheers]]> <![CDATA[Cultural point of view]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=3116 Sun, 19 Oct 2025 04:02:52 +0000 Kenzo1]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=3116

Culture is not you friend   (Terence Mckenna )


[Image: attachment.php?aid=3102]

[Image: attachment.php?aid=3103]


And the way language affect, models our perception in to level beyond reality....






Did you ever got that odd feeling ?  What is this.....is this the matrix....is this some kind of simulation .....or something is off and you have felt that your entire life ,but cant precisely accurately define it ?


I think, much of our surroundings /  realitys  are too articifial , not true enough .Which then keeps our minds distracted and dumbed down .

I really dont feel using the word hallucination is wrong word to be used in this context related to this all ........


Funny

.jpg   GztYQ2uXIAAF772.jpg (Size: 103.93 KB / Downloads: 26)

.jpg   60670835_2914515125230310_1415066418361139200_n.jpg (Size: 44.97 KB / Downloads: 24) ]]>

Culture is not you friend   (Terence Mckenna )


[Image: attachment.php?aid=3102]

[Image: attachment.php?aid=3103]


And the way language affect, models our perception in to level beyond reality....






Did you ever got that odd feeling ?  What is this.....is this the matrix....is this some kind of simulation .....or something is off and you have felt that your entire life ,but cant precisely accurately define it ?


I think, much of our surroundings /  realitys  are too articifial , not true enough .Which then keeps our minds distracted and dumbed down .

I really dont feel using the word hallucination is wrong word to be used in this context related to this all ........


Funny

.jpg   GztYQ2uXIAAF772.jpg (Size: 103.93 KB / Downloads: 26)

.jpg   60670835_2914515125230310_1415066418361139200_n.jpg (Size: 44.97 KB / Downloads: 24) ]]> <![CDATA[Yes, You Are The Asshole]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=2754 Thu, 08 May 2025 17:06:07 +0000 GeauxHomeLittleD]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=2754
Why do so many seek the judgement of internet strangers? The answers can be varied but my opinion is only this: Yes, you are the asshole!

We are all the asshole in someone's story. We are all the villain in someone's mind. None of us are perfect- not a single one. No matter how we frame our story in the other guy's story we are evil. I have learned to accept this. No matter how good of a person I think I am from someone else's perspective I am the bad guy. This is true of ALL of us.

The next time you feel all self-righteous and indignant please remember that you too are the asshole in somebody's story, maybe just as much as they are the asshole in yours.

Enjoy your Mother's Day weekend, Rogues! I'll be over here just being an asshole!]]>
Why do so many seek the judgement of internet strangers? The answers can be varied but my opinion is only this: Yes, you are the asshole!

We are all the asshole in someone's story. We are all the villain in someone's mind. None of us are perfect- not a single one. No matter how we frame our story in the other guy's story we are evil. I have learned to accept this. No matter how good of a person I think I am from someone else's perspective I am the bad guy. This is true of ALL of us.

The next time you feel all self-righteous and indignant please remember that you too are the asshole in somebody's story, maybe just as much as they are the asshole in yours.

Enjoy your Mother's Day weekend, Rogues! I'll be over here just being an asshole!]]> <![CDATA[My take on the US fires - West Coast. Part 1.]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=2537 Thu, 09 Jan 2025 13:15:12 +0000 Bally002]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=2537
I'm following news on the intense fire over your way, during your winter, 'mind you'.

These are wild fires, not seen before, out of season, from what I read.

True love and I have survived several in our 12th year here, inclusive of 2019 where up to 85 dwellings burnt down in our little village not to mention the devastation across our continent.

After the 2019 fires I never thought our bushland would recover, (Black sticks and dust.  Melted metal) but it did.  Took a few years but now I'm surrounded by Australian bush again.  Even thicker.  That is the Aussie bush.  Unique.  Bushfire and termite resistant in the short/long term. 

For context in this otherwise lengthy post my caveat will be I am expressing my own opinion from my self knowledge and experience.  If I repeat some things it is important.


.jpg   Fire.jpg (Size: 105.06 KB / Downloads: 2)

It's forever green growth here except for pasture during drought.    Most tall trees here are a variety of Eucalypts.  I've named them before so I won't go into detail.  Others are huge native pines and a fair amount of wattles, paperbark melaleucas, bottlebrush and cycads.  (pretty colourful flowers all good for bees).

If you don't maintain them and/or thin them they can in return reward you with a firestorm because, fire is how they survive or regenerate.  Known fact.  (Aussie pastures are the same, eg: Kangaroo grass or spear grasses.) 

My reasoning:- 

It's Australian Flora.

I have luckily been educated over many years by real down to earth aboriginals in the deserts and other parts inclusive of Northern and Southern regions, Hot to Cold.  I could go on but I'll attempt to summarise because it will take me pages.

Simply put, Francis "Jabarula" Kelly and Tommy "Tjungala" Rice explained it to me in the Tanami as thus. (Aboriginal Elders)

"Tjungala (me being a Tjungala too) , what the old ones (ancestors) did to survive they moved with the seasons, reading the stars, sun and moon. (me, juvenile, looking and thinking 'yeah righto'). Pintubi and Warlpiri (tribes) went to their lands (Gibson and Tanami) moving around.  When they arrived at a waterhole they immediately burnt the ground in their camp.  This scattered the animals which they hunted. It also made it safe to camp from the spiders, snake and thorns. (Spinifex).  They hunted, cleaned that area, drank from waterhole and moved on when that season started changing.  Everything went in to the ground. (biodegradable). Then they burnt again where they had lived.  They went to next waterhole with their fire and after that many walking time they did the same.  Around and around.  Sometimes many time in the year.  When they returned to the original camp it was all ready again with fresh growth and those animals."  (Yearly cycle depending on the tribe and lands).

A most important aspect here is the use of fire and it's subsequent effect over 60,000 years as far as we know.  This coupled with the smallest continent's isolation during millennia, pre human history if you like brought to life Australia's unique Flora and Fauna. Isolation, is the key word.  Nothing changed. A cycle of life if you will where the challenges, especially with regards to flora surviving, determined the species. Seasonal.  The bush adapted to living so developed a method of seeding that led to regeneration through fire.  So good in fact that introduced species have little hope of surviving. Inclusive of new arrivals of animals and humans who cannot comprehend the Aussie bush, rural, urban, suburban etc.  They, the colonists, rodents and the like must adjust and adapt.

Which brings me to the part 2 of this explanation as to why LA and surrounds burnt like it did.  If you grow Eucalypts and the like because they are hardy, attractive, strong and high strength you must tend to those plants.  Good that they tend to thrive in harsh climates but they are used to thriving during a forest fire in an Australian summer which if you think about it, equates in hemispherical terms, to a dry winter in that northern portion of the Earth.  In Part 2 I hope to explain why Eucalypts and the others explode, burn to the core, yet still survive.  The is a point to all this.  If you wish to propagate Aussie flora, then learn the lessons. In saying that, they still haven't here.  These are my thoughts.

Kind regards and going to hit the farter, will update on the morrow.

Bally)

.png   image.png (Size: 494 bytes / Downloads: 34) ]]>
I'm following news on the intense fire over your way, during your winter, 'mind you'.

These are wild fires, not seen before, out of season, from what I read.

True love and I have survived several in our 12th year here, inclusive of 2019 where up to 85 dwellings burnt down in our little village not to mention the devastation across our continent.

After the 2019 fires I never thought our bushland would recover, (Black sticks and dust.  Melted metal) but it did.  Took a few years but now I'm surrounded by Australian bush again.  Even thicker.  That is the Aussie bush.  Unique.  Bushfire and termite resistant in the short/long term. 

For context in this otherwise lengthy post my caveat will be I am expressing my own opinion from my self knowledge and experience.  If I repeat some things it is important.


.jpg   Fire.jpg (Size: 105.06 KB / Downloads: 2)

It's forever green growth here except for pasture during drought.    Most tall trees here are a variety of Eucalypts.  I've named them before so I won't go into detail.  Others are huge native pines and a fair amount of wattles, paperbark melaleucas, bottlebrush and cycads.  (pretty colourful flowers all good for bees).

If you don't maintain them and/or thin them they can in return reward you with a firestorm because, fire is how they survive or regenerate.  Known fact.  (Aussie pastures are the same, eg: Kangaroo grass or spear grasses.) 

My reasoning:- 

It's Australian Flora.

I have luckily been educated over many years by real down to earth aboriginals in the deserts and other parts inclusive of Northern and Southern regions, Hot to Cold.  I could go on but I'll attempt to summarise because it will take me pages.

Simply put, Francis "Jabarula" Kelly and Tommy "Tjungala" Rice explained it to me in the Tanami as thus. (Aboriginal Elders)

"Tjungala (me being a Tjungala too) , what the old ones (ancestors) did to survive they moved with the seasons, reading the stars, sun and moon. (me, juvenile, looking and thinking 'yeah righto'). Pintubi and Warlpiri (tribes) went to their lands (Gibson and Tanami) moving around.  When they arrived at a waterhole they immediately burnt the ground in their camp.  This scattered the animals which they hunted. It also made it safe to camp from the spiders, snake and thorns. (Spinifex).  They hunted, cleaned that area, drank from waterhole and moved on when that season started changing.  Everything went in to the ground. (biodegradable). Then they burnt again where they had lived.  They went to next waterhole with their fire and after that many walking time they did the same.  Around and around.  Sometimes many time in the year.  When they returned to the original camp it was all ready again with fresh growth and those animals."  (Yearly cycle depending on the tribe and lands).

A most important aspect here is the use of fire and it's subsequent effect over 60,000 years as far as we know.  This coupled with the smallest continent's isolation during millennia, pre human history if you like brought to life Australia's unique Flora and Fauna. Isolation, is the key word.  Nothing changed. A cycle of life if you will where the challenges, especially with regards to flora surviving, determined the species. Seasonal.  The bush adapted to living so developed a method of seeding that led to regeneration through fire.  So good in fact that introduced species have little hope of surviving. Inclusive of new arrivals of animals and humans who cannot comprehend the Aussie bush, rural, urban, suburban etc.  They, the colonists, rodents and the like must adjust and adapt.

Which brings me to the part 2 of this explanation as to why LA and surrounds burnt like it did.  If you grow Eucalypts and the like because they are hardy, attractive, strong and high strength you must tend to those plants.  Good that they tend to thrive in harsh climates but they are used to thriving during a forest fire in an Australian summer which if you think about it, equates in hemispherical terms, to a dry winter in that northern portion of the Earth.  In Part 2 I hope to explain why Eucalypts and the others explode, burn to the core, yet still survive.  The is a point to all this.  If you wish to propagate Aussie flora, then learn the lessons. In saying that, they still haven't here.  These are my thoughts.

Kind regards and going to hit the farter, will update on the morrow.

Bally)

.png   image.png (Size: 494 bytes / Downloads: 34) ]]> <![CDATA[Words]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=2340 Sun, 08 Sep 2024 18:32:04 +0000 FlickerOfLight]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=2340
The internet was originally thought to of brought us all closer together. To spread information, and connect with one another. Distance was supposed to be a thing of the past, when it comes to relationships. Distance was no longer a factor in spending time with friends and loved ones. The internet was originally thought to of brought the world closer, as we share our lives, experiences, opinions and ideas with one another. 

The actual result is quite the opposite. 

So many opinions floating around that they've lost all value. We see fit to argue over the slightest differences of an opinion. We ridicule and mock anything that is different, as if it's somehow "wrong" just because it's not our own opinions.

We have been flooded with so much misinformation, that we don't know fact from fiction when it's right in front of our faces.

There has been so much misinformation spread that we can longer share anything that is actually Truth, without being bombarded with negative views about the facts we are trying to relate and share.

Every bit of intelligence put out on the internet is abruptly hit with counterintelligence. 

If one were to share too much of the truth that person will get into some sort of "trouble." Sharing an actual truth is something that could get them into deep water, and so it's not even safe, really, to share something with facts and proof these days.

Information is highly regulated, so even coming up with proof js damn near impossible. To even "hypothesize" on the internet these days is counterproductive. If it's not bots, or foreign agents, or local bs, then it's some dumb ass troll ripping up any good* ideas.

Sad part is, the majority of people listen to everything else.

So, much so, that people have no desire to write about anything anymore. Nothing other than politics, anyways.

((Plus the fake lives everyone has on Facebook and Instagram))

If I step back and look at this, I realized something...


The Internet is dead.

Words have lost all meaning.....because of too many words.

We've been there, and done that.

Nothing left to impress us.

The internet was a powerful tool that could have been used for more good. The constant barrage of words and opinions and misinformation has destroyed tge usefulness of the internet; and has such taken away the power of our voice. 


I believe this is by design. It has served to confuse us and control us, while we typed away in our "free speech" we have inadvertently killed our words; our voices. If anything, severely weakened our voices.



Has the internet helped, or hurt us? Social media sure hasn't "helped" anything, other than ego.


That's my two cents of another worthless internet opinion. 

Kudos, internet. You beat us at our own game.  Cool

People don't even believe in truth anymore. They only believe in what suits them. This is a thousand fold worse since social media came on the scene.

How long before our words have lost all their meaning...

Or, have they already?]]>
The internet was originally thought to of brought us all closer together. To spread information, and connect with one another. Distance was supposed to be a thing of the past, when it comes to relationships. Distance was no longer a factor in spending time with friends and loved ones. The internet was originally thought to of brought the world closer, as we share our lives, experiences, opinions and ideas with one another. 

The actual result is quite the opposite. 

So many opinions floating around that they've lost all value. We see fit to argue over the slightest differences of an opinion. We ridicule and mock anything that is different, as if it's somehow "wrong" just because it's not our own opinions.

We have been flooded with so much misinformation, that we don't know fact from fiction when it's right in front of our faces.

There has been so much misinformation spread that we can longer share anything that is actually Truth, without being bombarded with negative views about the facts we are trying to relate and share.

Every bit of intelligence put out on the internet is abruptly hit with counterintelligence. 

If one were to share too much of the truth that person will get into some sort of "trouble." Sharing an actual truth is something that could get them into deep water, and so it's not even safe, really, to share something with facts and proof these days.

Information is highly regulated, so even coming up with proof js damn near impossible. To even "hypothesize" on the internet these days is counterproductive. If it's not bots, or foreign agents, or local bs, then it's some dumb ass troll ripping up any good* ideas.

Sad part is, the majority of people listen to everything else.

So, much so, that people have no desire to write about anything anymore. Nothing other than politics, anyways.

((Plus the fake lives everyone has on Facebook and Instagram))

If I step back and look at this, I realized something...


The Internet is dead.

Words have lost all meaning.....because of too many words.

We've been there, and done that.

Nothing left to impress us.

The internet was a powerful tool that could have been used for more good. The constant barrage of words and opinions and misinformation has destroyed tge usefulness of the internet; and has such taken away the power of our voice. 


I believe this is by design. It has served to confuse us and control us, while we typed away in our "free speech" we have inadvertently killed our words; our voices. If anything, severely weakened our voices.



Has the internet helped, or hurt us? Social media sure hasn't "helped" anything, other than ego.


That's my two cents of another worthless internet opinion. 

Kudos, internet. You beat us at our own game.  Cool

People don't even believe in truth anymore. They only believe in what suits them. This is a thousand fold worse since social media came on the scene.

How long before our words have lost all their meaning...

Or, have they already?]]> <![CDATA[Changes]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1874 Fri, 08 Mar 2024 03:55:44 +0000 Ninurta]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1874
The concept of "liminality" involves a between-ness, the "'tween". It is a time, a place, or any other transitional thing that is neither one nor the other, neither the old nor the new, but a transitional position between the two,

AJ at "The Why Files" has an entire video explaining the concept, with examples:





Liminality leaves most folks with a feeling of anxiety, often a troubled feeling that one can not quite put a finger on, but an unsettled feeling nonetheless. It happens when we find ourselves in a transitional time or place, where we are no longer anchored on the old, nor have we a firm grip on what comes next. We feel adrift, in an alien place, and desperately want to be firmly in one or the other, but not "between".

These are the times we find ourselves in currently. We are unmoored, adrift, moving, but seemingly without a direction, and without a compass to point the direction out. It's leaving most of us feeling unsettled, anxious, despondent. What was, is no more, and we have no soil to root ourselves in any longer, and no clear view of what's on the other side, or how to get there..

Because we feel this way, we have a desire to lash out and place the blame on the "other", whichever polarity is opposite our own, "They" are either propelling us into a reality we don't want to go in to, or else retarding our progress in getting to shore again, where we can firmly plant our feet and become grounded once again. Which one of those it is depends entirely on our beginning orientation. An example is "Conservatives vs, Liberals". Which one we place the blame on is whichever is opposite to the place where we once were, and felt comfortable.

So, it's either "those damned Liberals are wrecking our world!" or "those damned Conservatives are blocking our progress!"... but, in reality, it is neither. We are simply in a place of liminality, a time of transition, and neither Conservatives nor Liberals have any control over the way the wind is blowing us at all. We are simply in a time of change, and neither "they", nor any other group ("the Elites", for example), has any damned control over the situation at all. it just IS, and it's just in flux. Where it ends up is anyone's guess, and under no one's control. That's just about as unsettling as anything else, until you realize a few things.

First, this is nothing new to the human experience. It happens ever time a civilization collapses, in the in-between time before a new one coalesces.

It happened around 1180 BC, during the Bronze Age collapse. It happened at the end of the Roman Empire, what is now called "The Dark Ages" came before a new civilization and social order arose - the Renaissance. It happened in Russia during the 1917 revolution, and again some 70 years later when the Soviet Union collapsed, before the Russian federation became a thing. It happened in America, first during the American Revolution, then 80 years or so later during the Civil War. That last one was the transitional period from a true Republican form of government to a more centralized and authoritarian form of government called a "democracy".

It has happened time and time again, all around the world, in various times and various places, although not often in all places all at once. Some transitions were larger, and some smaller - the fall of Rome was a larger one, the collapse of the Soviet Union a smaller one, but the conditions and the way folks felt at those times and in those places were and are always the same. They feel unsettled and anxious until something new and substantial comes along.

We also need to recognize that none of us, neither "side", in in control of it. Instead, it has a randomness and chaos brought about by the swirling eddy currents created by everyone trying to seize control all at the same time. The tussle and the struggle of that produces chaotic vortices, that will continue to swirl and destroy - as well as create - until it settles back down into the new system, whatever that may be. We all have some small degree of influence over the eventual outcome, but none of has, or even can have, absolute control of it. The outcome is actually determined by all of those little bitty bites of control that we each have. The new system forms itself out of those.

Understand as well that this is nothing new, nothing that humanity has not survived over and over again on multiple occasions. We will survive again through this one as well. Perhaps not all of us individually, but humanity as a whole will continue onward, forging the Brave New World to come in the aftermath of the fall of the last one we had.

All we can really do, as individuals, family units, and communities, is to hold on for dear life. Just ride this spinning raft until is settles on a beach somewhere, and enjoy the ride as much as we can until that time comes. Understand that the time WILL eventually come that it settles back down again, and order is once again restored. It may not be the same order we had gotten used to before, and probably won't be, because it seldom is, but it WILL come again, and is not under the control of any one faction of us, but rather under the micro-control of all of us, thousands of tiny cuts that will eventually lead to the shape of the final sculpture.

We, individually and in communities, can control NOTHING that is beyond the length of our own arms... and the world is much bigger than that. We can have  a small, local influence, but that which comes will be much wider than our reach. We must be prepared to adapt to whatever it is. Adaptability is the greatest strength humans posses. It's gotten us through all, each and every one, of the previous liminalities that humanity has endured and conquered.

As a final thought, Douglas Adams had it exactly right in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - DON'T PANIC! It'll all eventually work out. The less stress you bring upon yourself by worrying over an inevitability that you have no personal control over, the better.

.]]>
The concept of "liminality" involves a between-ness, the "'tween". It is a time, a place, or any other transitional thing that is neither one nor the other, neither the old nor the new, but a transitional position between the two,

AJ at "The Why Files" has an entire video explaining the concept, with examples:





Liminality leaves most folks with a feeling of anxiety, often a troubled feeling that one can not quite put a finger on, but an unsettled feeling nonetheless. It happens when we find ourselves in a transitional time or place, where we are no longer anchored on the old, nor have we a firm grip on what comes next. We feel adrift, in an alien place, and desperately want to be firmly in one or the other, but not "between".

These are the times we find ourselves in currently. We are unmoored, adrift, moving, but seemingly without a direction, and without a compass to point the direction out. It's leaving most of us feeling unsettled, anxious, despondent. What was, is no more, and we have no soil to root ourselves in any longer, and no clear view of what's on the other side, or how to get there..

Because we feel this way, we have a desire to lash out and place the blame on the "other", whichever polarity is opposite our own, "They" are either propelling us into a reality we don't want to go in to, or else retarding our progress in getting to shore again, where we can firmly plant our feet and become grounded once again. Which one of those it is depends entirely on our beginning orientation. An example is "Conservatives vs, Liberals". Which one we place the blame on is whichever is opposite to the place where we once were, and felt comfortable.

So, it's either "those damned Liberals are wrecking our world!" or "those damned Conservatives are blocking our progress!"... but, in reality, it is neither. We are simply in a place of liminality, a time of transition, and neither Conservatives nor Liberals have any control over the way the wind is blowing us at all. We are simply in a time of change, and neither "they", nor any other group ("the Elites", for example), has any damned control over the situation at all. it just IS, and it's just in flux. Where it ends up is anyone's guess, and under no one's control. That's just about as unsettling as anything else, until you realize a few things.

First, this is nothing new to the human experience. It happens ever time a civilization collapses, in the in-between time before a new one coalesces.

It happened around 1180 BC, during the Bronze Age collapse. It happened at the end of the Roman Empire, what is now called "The Dark Ages" came before a new civilization and social order arose - the Renaissance. It happened in Russia during the 1917 revolution, and again some 70 years later when the Soviet Union collapsed, before the Russian federation became a thing. It happened in America, first during the American Revolution, then 80 years or so later during the Civil War. That last one was the transitional period from a true Republican form of government to a more centralized and authoritarian form of government called a "democracy".

It has happened time and time again, all around the world, in various times and various places, although not often in all places all at once. Some transitions were larger, and some smaller - the fall of Rome was a larger one, the collapse of the Soviet Union a smaller one, but the conditions and the way folks felt at those times and in those places were and are always the same. They feel unsettled and anxious until something new and substantial comes along.

We also need to recognize that none of us, neither "side", in in control of it. Instead, it has a randomness and chaos brought about by the swirling eddy currents created by everyone trying to seize control all at the same time. The tussle and the struggle of that produces chaotic vortices, that will continue to swirl and destroy - as well as create - until it settles back down into the new system, whatever that may be. We all have some small degree of influence over the eventual outcome, but none of has, or even can have, absolute control of it. The outcome is actually determined by all of those little bitty bites of control that we each have. The new system forms itself out of those.

Understand as well that this is nothing new, nothing that humanity has not survived over and over again on multiple occasions. We will survive again through this one as well. Perhaps not all of us individually, but humanity as a whole will continue onward, forging the Brave New World to come in the aftermath of the fall of the last one we had.

All we can really do, as individuals, family units, and communities, is to hold on for dear life. Just ride this spinning raft until is settles on a beach somewhere, and enjoy the ride as much as we can until that time comes. Understand that the time WILL eventually come that it settles back down again, and order is once again restored. It may not be the same order we had gotten used to before, and probably won't be, because it seldom is, but it WILL come again, and is not under the control of any one faction of us, but rather under the micro-control of all of us, thousands of tiny cuts that will eventually lead to the shape of the final sculpture.

We, individually and in communities, can control NOTHING that is beyond the length of our own arms... and the world is much bigger than that. We can have  a small, local influence, but that which comes will be much wider than our reach. We must be prepared to adapt to whatever it is. Adaptability is the greatest strength humans posses. It's gotten us through all, each and every one, of the previous liminalities that humanity has endured and conquered.

As a final thought, Douglas Adams had it exactly right in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - DON'T PANIC! It'll all eventually work out. The less stress you bring upon yourself by worrying over an inevitability that you have no personal control over, the better.

.]]> <![CDATA[Increase In Behavioral Problems In Children]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1226 Sun, 03 Sep 2023 22:14:56 +0000 NightskyeB4Dawn]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1226
Especially coming from a scientific society that believes so strongly in evolution, why would they not see such obvious changes in behavior in so many children, and not make the same jump in thought that I did. Could there be changes in our atmosphere, water, or food supply that may be the reason for these behavioral changes?

Anyway, watching this video got the gears turning in my brain in 50 directions at once.

The last thing these children needed were more chemicals being thrown at them, as they experimented to find out what would stick. 

I have seen and heard of families that have had good luck with strict dietary control of their children and making sure they avoided GMO foods, and only feed them fresh organically grown and harvested foods.

Maybe more emphasis should be on what not to give children instead of what medications to feed them.

"The Medicated Child"


]]>
Especially coming from a scientific society that believes so strongly in evolution, why would they not see such obvious changes in behavior in so many children, and not make the same jump in thought that I did. Could there be changes in our atmosphere, water, or food supply that may be the reason for these behavioral changes?

Anyway, watching this video got the gears turning in my brain in 50 directions at once.

The last thing these children needed were more chemicals being thrown at them, as they experimented to find out what would stick. 

I have seen and heard of families that have had good luck with strict dietary control of their children and making sure they avoided GMO foods, and only feed them fresh organically grown and harvested foods.

Maybe more emphasis should be on what not to give children instead of what medications to feed them.

"The Medicated Child"


]]> <![CDATA[Not Everything Is Bad]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1029 Fri, 21 Jul 2023 15:28:51 +0000 BIAD]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=1029 'news' these days and rarely offer items that can give a person the feeling that not everything
and everyone can be categorised in the deliberate columns of pessimism.

Here's one.


Quote:'WHAT A NICE MAN' Carer left in tears as King’s Guard breaks protocol to pose with man with
Down’s syndrome

'A Carer was left in tears after a King’s Guard broke proto to pose for a photo with a man with Down’s syndrome.
Mike van Erp, 50, and the man stood a few feet from the guard hoping for a snap outside Buckingham Palace.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=1044]
"Careful lad, these men are trained to protect"

[Image: attachment.php?aid=1045]
Someone's day was made by being simply a human.

Despite being famed for keeping still and silent, the soldier moves towards the pair, helping them capture the
perfect pic. After thanking the guard, Mike then told the man he cares for: “What a nice man. What a cool thing
to do.” He said of his colleague: “I’ve worked for his family and him for a decade now and this left me with tears
in my eyes for a few evenings.”...'
The Sun:

.jpg   Bucks1.jpg (Size: 104.4 KB / Downloads: 84)

.jpg   Bucks2.jpg (Size: 85.04 KB / Downloads: 84) ]]> 'news' these days and rarely offer items that can give a person the feeling that not everything
and everyone can be categorised in the deliberate columns of pessimism.

Here's one.


Quote:'WHAT A NICE MAN' Carer left in tears as King’s Guard breaks protocol to pose with man with
Down’s syndrome

'A Carer was left in tears after a King’s Guard broke proto to pose for a photo with a man with Down’s syndrome.
Mike van Erp, 50, and the man stood a few feet from the guard hoping for a snap outside Buckingham Palace.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=1044]
"Careful lad, these men are trained to protect"

[Image: attachment.php?aid=1045]
Someone's day was made by being simply a human.

Despite being famed for keeping still and silent, the soldier moves towards the pair, helping them capture the
perfect pic. After thanking the guard, Mike then told the man he cares for: “What a nice man. What a cool thing
to do.” He said of his colleague: “I’ve worked for his family and him for a decade now and this left me with tears
in my eyes for a few evenings.”...'
The Sun:

.jpg   Bucks1.jpg (Size: 104.4 KB / Downloads: 84)

.jpg   Bucks2.jpg (Size: 85.04 KB / Downloads: 84) ]]> <![CDATA[Social Media Didn't Do This]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=995 Fri, 14 Jul 2023 13:01:59 +0000 NightskyeB4Dawn]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=995
The internet is like a magnifying glass. What you see under a magnifying glass may seem unfamiliar, fractured, and imperfections are enlarged and easier to see, but the glass does not change what the viewed object is.

The internet allows us to see ourselves as we truly are.

]]>
The internet is like a magnifying glass. What you see under a magnifying glass may seem unfamiliar, fractured, and imperfections are enlarged and easier to see, but the glass does not change what the viewed object is.

The internet allows us to see ourselves as we truly are.

]]> <![CDATA[Why Do Conservatives Fall For Fake News?]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=876 Thu, 29 Jun 2023 02:44:02 +0000 Freija]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=876
]]>
]]> <![CDATA[An interesting rant about current times]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=648 Tue, 23 May 2023 14:42:01 +0000 F2d5thCav]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=648
My take is there is a lot of truth in the comments.  I'm not sure what the precise agenda of the author was, considering this was being posted in the comments section of various forums.  But you may (or not) enjoy the read.  I will split the comments into multiple posts.

Cheers

-----------------

By "Stephen Morris"

It's not "Goodbye to the West" but "Goodbye to the Modern Era" as Elitist politicians (like those who write for Project Syndicate) pursue their relentless campaign for the "refeudalisation" of society.

It's easy to forget that the Modern Era with its Modern Era values of egalitarianism, democratisation and national self-determination is . . . well . . . MODERN. It hasn’t been around for very long.

It is easy to forget that when viewed with proper perspective, human history up until the time of the Modern Era was a story of aggressively narcissistic, machiavellian psychopaths competing (sometimes collaborating) to attain positions of power, then using that power to dominate and brutalise their fellow human beings. We know from the historical record that these rulers showed no remorse in wasting the lives of thousands - even millions - of people they regarded as “their” Subjects.

That is the norm. That is the “base case” for human behaviour.

In that behaviour, psychopathic rulers were abetted by “sycophants” - typically timid, less dominant males - who sought to promote their own survival and reproductive prospects by allying themselves with the dominant males. Articulate sycophants often provided the “theology” of elite rule, constructing elaborate justifications for the privilege of their patrons.

Significantly, in times past the ability of such elites to dominate and brutalise others was limited by the capacity of individual human beings to kill each other, and therefore by the need to recruit and reward a circle of allies (a “praetorian guard”) which could carry out such enforcement.

Now, if that long-standing behaviour seemed to change in the Modern Era it was not because the psychopaths woke up one morning and said, “Oh my God!! Is that the time!? Is it the Modern Era already? Quick. We’d better start enacting social reforms!”

Human psychology has not evolved. Evolution operates over a much longer time frame. The psychopaths (and their sycophant supporters) have not gone away.

All that happened in the Modern Era was a temporary change in the environment: the demands of the industrial economy meant that it was expedient – for a time – for the rulers to make limited concessions to their Subjects.

The industrial state required the training of large numbers of Subjects to operate the complex – but not fully automated – machinery of industrial production. Having had so much invested in their training, Subjects acquired value and their bargaining power relative to their rulers improved. In the extreme, they could withdraw their labour and quickly impose greater costs on the owners of capital than they themselves suffered.

Under such conditions, the optimal strategy for rulers (and only after they had tried violent suppression and found it ineffective!) was to make certain limited concession to their Subjects. Thus we had the quintessential ideals of the Modern Era, culminating in the 20th century:

a) egalitarianism, the ideal that all people are entitled to the same basic opportunities irrespective of their ancestry;

b) democratisation, the ideal that Subjects are entitled to have some say in how they are governed; and

c) national self-determination, the ideal that self-identifying communities are allowed to choose for themselves how they will govern themselves.

If there was one ideal that characterised the 20th century it was surely that of national self-determination: from the first shots fired by Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo in July 1914, through Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, through the post World War II era of decolonisation, through the collapse of the Soviet Empire, and right back to Sarajevo and the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Given the opportunity, like-minded communities like to govern themselves.

But none of these concessions meant that the psychopaths had gone away. And there was never anything to say that the conditions of industrial production would last forever.

What we are witnessing now is an elite response to the post-industrial world of AI and robotics.

No longer are large numbers of Subjects required to run complex but not fully automated machinery. Now it is small numbers of very highly trained technicians required to manage the robotic workforce. Small in number, they can easily be bought off. Better still, they can effectively be reduced to the status of indentured workers through the weapon of crippling student debt. They dare not rebel for fear of their debts being called in.

As for the rest of humanity, they are now redundant or soon will be. Their rulers no longer need them. And those the earlier concessions are - as the saying goes - “inoperative”.

To be sure, the masses may get employment of a kind, especially in providing personal services. But it will be employment in the “Uber Economy”, the “Gig Economy”, of savage competition between workers with all economic rent flowing to the owners of the monopolistic market platforms.

And the New Elite are responding precisely as one would expect an aggressively narcissistic, self-serving elite to respond. They are relentlessly winding back any concessions hitherto made, while their sycophant economic theologians are busy justifying it all as being for the “Greater Good”.

Inequality is quickly returning to its historical norm, as Piketty has documented. Piketty’s U-shaped graphs show inequality of wealth in the most developed countries declining into the mid 20th century then rising steadily again. It’s the past century that was the anomaly. We are returning to a “feudal” state in which property is owned by the magnates and almost everyone else is reduced to the status of dependent serf.

Where conventional property has proved insufficient, they’ve invented novel forms of “intellectual property” to expand the scope of private ownership.


--- continues ---


As for democratisation, in most countries it never developed beyond “elective” government dominated by elite parties. Moneyed interests and pressure groups found it a trivial exercise to subvert that. Campaign bribery and the revolving door of jobs-for-the-boys ensure that the interests of politicians and senior bureaucrats remain aligned with those of the elite.

This past year has seen an outbreak of rebellion, but it’s unlikely to last.

In the wake of Brexit and the Trump rebellion, there is now open talk in elite circles on whether it is appropriate to allow “obviously ignorant” people to vote on critical issues. “They’re not college educated, you know.”

There is now open talk on whether those who “receive more in government benefits than they pay in tax” should be allowed to vote at all. Significantly, there is no suggestion that those monopolists who receive more in economic rent than they pay in tax, or those lobbyists who receive more in government contracts than they pay in tax, or those too-big-to-fail bankers who receive more in bail-outs than they pay in tax, should be similarly disenfranchised.

Remember that the universal adult franchise is modern. In most countries it’s barely a century old. There is nothing to say that the Elite won’t campaign to remove it again. Or effectively subvert it by making it difficult for lesser mortals to enrol. Or re-jig the electoral system to ensure that minor parties have no hope of election.

Even minor parties and “outsiders” who do get elected prove to be a disappointment. Never forget that those attracted to politics are inevitably those who yearn to exercise power.

For example, following the 2010 election, the Liberal Democrats were given a once-in-a-century opportunity to reform Britain’s voting system and introduce proportional representation. Nick Clegg threw it all away in return for the chance to be Deputy Prime Minister for five years.

In the US, those who threw in their lot with the supposed "outsider" Donald Trump (out of sheer desperation for an alternative) may not have long to wait before suffering the pangs of disappointment.

In any event, the Elite are entrenching their gains by taking ever more critical decisions out of the hands of elective government altogether: the privatisation of strategic monopolies, essential services and critical databases means that elected politicians are forced negotiate with private magnates on terms dictated by the private magnates.

And finally there is national self-determination which has been eroded by the growth of undemocratic, opaque and unaccountable “neo-empires” like the EU, and so-called “trade” agreements which have less to do with trade and more to do with signing away sovereign powers to unaccountable committees of elite business interests.

Organisations like the EU may be created with the best of intentions, but no sooner do they come into existence than an “iron law of megalomania” takes hold. They begin to attract those self-same narcissistic, machiavellian individuals who are drawn to the prospect of exercising dominion over millions of other human beings.

As with any empire, the Subjects soon end up suffering in the pursuit of some “greater good”. Witness the economically counter-productive brutality inflicted on Greece. Witness the “Lost Generation” of unemployed European youth sacrificed to the Eurozone fantasy.

Now, like Elites throughout history the post-modern Elite seek to weave a cloak of virtue to conceal the nakedness of their self-interest. Their theologians devise all manner of mellifluous apologia.

Elite theologians love to talk in honeyed terms about the “end of borders”, but do not be deceived. They don’t really intend to abolish ALL borders. They simply want to replace “national borders” (over which the mass of ordinary citizens might have had some control) with “private borders”: elite private property.

The Elite do not intend to rub shoulders with the plebs. They retreat to their private mansions, their private country estates, their private campuses, their private gated communities, all surrounded by private borders marked with “KEEP OUT. Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted!” signs.

The Elite do not intend to stand, crushed cheek-to-sweaty-cheek with the prols on inadequate and overcrowded public transport. Not at all. They whizz from their private mansions to their private offices on roads which have been tolled (or “road-priced”) out of the reach of the masses. It’s like the Zil Lanes of old Soviet Moscow but nowadays it’s justified by deference to that Great God, “Efficiency”.

And from behind their private borders the Elite sermonise piously on the supposed intolerance of those outside! Hypocrites blind to their own hypocrisy.

On all fronts the trend is the same: the alienation of public rights - over which the citizens used to have some say - to elite private interests.

And if all of that sound depressing, it may be only the beginning.

Unless there is some spectacular change, at some point the Elite may decide that the continued existence of masses of redundant and increasingly disgruntled human beings is a threat to their own security.

In the past year we have seen the Chinese unveil lethal weaponised robotic “security guards” with rudimentary artificial intelligence that can be used to control “anti-social” elements. In the US we saw the first remote execution of a suspected gunman by a police robot.

If this does not send a chill down your spine, you’ve not been paying attention. The technology of robotic “pacification” is indifferent to Good and Bad. Not only do the Elite not need workers. They no longer require humans for their Praetorian Guard.

Now, some might be inclined to dismiss this as “conspiracy theory”. But here’s the thing: there is no conspiracy. There’s nothing underhand going on. There are no secrets. All this is happening in plain sight. One merely needs to look about and then remember that human psychology has not evolved.

There has always existed within the human population a small proportion of individuals who are not like the rest of us. They are aggressively narcissistic, machiavellian, possibly psychopathic, with a strong appetite for attaining power and dominating others. They may not always be apparent. One of the defining characteristics of psychopathy is “superficial charm”. The psychopath knows more about you than you know about yourself. He or she knows exactly which buttons to press to gain your confidence, your trust, even your admiration.

Had it been possible to establish genuine Democracy with the right of recall, veto, initiative and referendum there might have been some hope for the rest of the human race, some hope of effectively controlling these people. That is why elite theologians universally abhor genuine Democracy in favour of the corrupt system of “elective” government: elective government which perversely attracts the most undesirable narcissists.

Elective government provides no safeguards. It will prove no barrier to containing the psychopaths once the cost of pacification falls as a result of robotics.

You don’t need to be Einstein to see how this game must play itself out.

For most people it’s not going to be a happy ending.

The Holocaust is approaching.


--- End comments ---]]>
My take is there is a lot of truth in the comments.  I'm not sure what the precise agenda of the author was, considering this was being posted in the comments section of various forums.  But you may (or not) enjoy the read.  I will split the comments into multiple posts.

Cheers

-----------------

By "Stephen Morris"

It's not "Goodbye to the West" but "Goodbye to the Modern Era" as Elitist politicians (like those who write for Project Syndicate) pursue their relentless campaign for the "refeudalisation" of society.

It's easy to forget that the Modern Era with its Modern Era values of egalitarianism, democratisation and national self-determination is . . . well . . . MODERN. It hasn’t been around for very long.

It is easy to forget that when viewed with proper perspective, human history up until the time of the Modern Era was a story of aggressively narcissistic, machiavellian psychopaths competing (sometimes collaborating) to attain positions of power, then using that power to dominate and brutalise their fellow human beings. We know from the historical record that these rulers showed no remorse in wasting the lives of thousands - even millions - of people they regarded as “their” Subjects.

That is the norm. That is the “base case” for human behaviour.

In that behaviour, psychopathic rulers were abetted by “sycophants” - typically timid, less dominant males - who sought to promote their own survival and reproductive prospects by allying themselves with the dominant males. Articulate sycophants often provided the “theology” of elite rule, constructing elaborate justifications for the privilege of their patrons.

Significantly, in times past the ability of such elites to dominate and brutalise others was limited by the capacity of individual human beings to kill each other, and therefore by the need to recruit and reward a circle of allies (a “praetorian guard”) which could carry out such enforcement.

Now, if that long-standing behaviour seemed to change in the Modern Era it was not because the psychopaths woke up one morning and said, “Oh my God!! Is that the time!? Is it the Modern Era already? Quick. We’d better start enacting social reforms!”

Human psychology has not evolved. Evolution operates over a much longer time frame. The psychopaths (and their sycophant supporters) have not gone away.

All that happened in the Modern Era was a temporary change in the environment: the demands of the industrial economy meant that it was expedient – for a time – for the rulers to make limited concessions to their Subjects.

The industrial state required the training of large numbers of Subjects to operate the complex – but not fully automated – machinery of industrial production. Having had so much invested in their training, Subjects acquired value and their bargaining power relative to their rulers improved. In the extreme, they could withdraw their labour and quickly impose greater costs on the owners of capital than they themselves suffered.

Under such conditions, the optimal strategy for rulers (and only after they had tried violent suppression and found it ineffective!) was to make certain limited concession to their Subjects. Thus we had the quintessential ideals of the Modern Era, culminating in the 20th century:

a) egalitarianism, the ideal that all people are entitled to the same basic opportunities irrespective of their ancestry;

b) democratisation, the ideal that Subjects are entitled to have some say in how they are governed; and

c) national self-determination, the ideal that self-identifying communities are allowed to choose for themselves how they will govern themselves.

If there was one ideal that characterised the 20th century it was surely that of national self-determination: from the first shots fired by Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo in July 1914, through Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, through the post World War II era of decolonisation, through the collapse of the Soviet Empire, and right back to Sarajevo and the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Given the opportunity, like-minded communities like to govern themselves.

But none of these concessions meant that the psychopaths had gone away. And there was never anything to say that the conditions of industrial production would last forever.

What we are witnessing now is an elite response to the post-industrial world of AI and robotics.

No longer are large numbers of Subjects required to run complex but not fully automated machinery. Now it is small numbers of very highly trained technicians required to manage the robotic workforce. Small in number, they can easily be bought off. Better still, they can effectively be reduced to the status of indentured workers through the weapon of crippling student debt. They dare not rebel for fear of their debts being called in.

As for the rest of humanity, they are now redundant or soon will be. Their rulers no longer need them. And those the earlier concessions are - as the saying goes - “inoperative”.

To be sure, the masses may get employment of a kind, especially in providing personal services. But it will be employment in the “Uber Economy”, the “Gig Economy”, of savage competition between workers with all economic rent flowing to the owners of the monopolistic market platforms.

And the New Elite are responding precisely as one would expect an aggressively narcissistic, self-serving elite to respond. They are relentlessly winding back any concessions hitherto made, while their sycophant economic theologians are busy justifying it all as being for the “Greater Good”.

Inequality is quickly returning to its historical norm, as Piketty has documented. Piketty’s U-shaped graphs show inequality of wealth in the most developed countries declining into the mid 20th century then rising steadily again. It’s the past century that was the anomaly. We are returning to a “feudal” state in which property is owned by the magnates and almost everyone else is reduced to the status of dependent serf.

Where conventional property has proved insufficient, they’ve invented novel forms of “intellectual property” to expand the scope of private ownership.


--- continues ---


As for democratisation, in most countries it never developed beyond “elective” government dominated by elite parties. Moneyed interests and pressure groups found it a trivial exercise to subvert that. Campaign bribery and the revolving door of jobs-for-the-boys ensure that the interests of politicians and senior bureaucrats remain aligned with those of the elite.

This past year has seen an outbreak of rebellion, but it’s unlikely to last.

In the wake of Brexit and the Trump rebellion, there is now open talk in elite circles on whether it is appropriate to allow “obviously ignorant” people to vote on critical issues. “They’re not college educated, you know.”

There is now open talk on whether those who “receive more in government benefits than they pay in tax” should be allowed to vote at all. Significantly, there is no suggestion that those monopolists who receive more in economic rent than they pay in tax, or those lobbyists who receive more in government contracts than they pay in tax, or those too-big-to-fail bankers who receive more in bail-outs than they pay in tax, should be similarly disenfranchised.

Remember that the universal adult franchise is modern. In most countries it’s barely a century old. There is nothing to say that the Elite won’t campaign to remove it again. Or effectively subvert it by making it difficult for lesser mortals to enrol. Or re-jig the electoral system to ensure that minor parties have no hope of election.

Even minor parties and “outsiders” who do get elected prove to be a disappointment. Never forget that those attracted to politics are inevitably those who yearn to exercise power.

For example, following the 2010 election, the Liberal Democrats were given a once-in-a-century opportunity to reform Britain’s voting system and introduce proportional representation. Nick Clegg threw it all away in return for the chance to be Deputy Prime Minister for five years.

In the US, those who threw in their lot with the supposed "outsider" Donald Trump (out of sheer desperation for an alternative) may not have long to wait before suffering the pangs of disappointment.

In any event, the Elite are entrenching their gains by taking ever more critical decisions out of the hands of elective government altogether: the privatisation of strategic monopolies, essential services and critical databases means that elected politicians are forced negotiate with private magnates on terms dictated by the private magnates.

And finally there is national self-determination which has been eroded by the growth of undemocratic, opaque and unaccountable “neo-empires” like the EU, and so-called “trade” agreements which have less to do with trade and more to do with signing away sovereign powers to unaccountable committees of elite business interests.

Organisations like the EU may be created with the best of intentions, but no sooner do they come into existence than an “iron law of megalomania” takes hold. They begin to attract those self-same narcissistic, machiavellian individuals who are drawn to the prospect of exercising dominion over millions of other human beings.

As with any empire, the Subjects soon end up suffering in the pursuit of some “greater good”. Witness the economically counter-productive brutality inflicted on Greece. Witness the “Lost Generation” of unemployed European youth sacrificed to the Eurozone fantasy.

Now, like Elites throughout history the post-modern Elite seek to weave a cloak of virtue to conceal the nakedness of their self-interest. Their theologians devise all manner of mellifluous apologia.

Elite theologians love to talk in honeyed terms about the “end of borders”, but do not be deceived. They don’t really intend to abolish ALL borders. They simply want to replace “national borders” (over which the mass of ordinary citizens might have had some control) with “private borders”: elite private property.

The Elite do not intend to rub shoulders with the plebs. They retreat to their private mansions, their private country estates, their private campuses, their private gated communities, all surrounded by private borders marked with “KEEP OUT. Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted!” signs.

The Elite do not intend to stand, crushed cheek-to-sweaty-cheek with the prols on inadequate and overcrowded public transport. Not at all. They whizz from their private mansions to their private offices on roads which have been tolled (or “road-priced”) out of the reach of the masses. It’s like the Zil Lanes of old Soviet Moscow but nowadays it’s justified by deference to that Great God, “Efficiency”.

And from behind their private borders the Elite sermonise piously on the supposed intolerance of those outside! Hypocrites blind to their own hypocrisy.

On all fronts the trend is the same: the alienation of public rights - over which the citizens used to have some say - to elite private interests.

And if all of that sound depressing, it may be only the beginning.

Unless there is some spectacular change, at some point the Elite may decide that the continued existence of masses of redundant and increasingly disgruntled human beings is a threat to their own security.

In the past year we have seen the Chinese unveil lethal weaponised robotic “security guards” with rudimentary artificial intelligence that can be used to control “anti-social” elements. In the US we saw the first remote execution of a suspected gunman by a police robot.

If this does not send a chill down your spine, you’ve not been paying attention. The technology of robotic “pacification” is indifferent to Good and Bad. Not only do the Elite not need workers. They no longer require humans for their Praetorian Guard.

Now, some might be inclined to dismiss this as “conspiracy theory”. But here’s the thing: there is no conspiracy. There’s nothing underhand going on. There are no secrets. All this is happening in plain sight. One merely needs to look about and then remember that human psychology has not evolved.

There has always existed within the human population a small proportion of individuals who are not like the rest of us. They are aggressively narcissistic, machiavellian, possibly psychopathic, with a strong appetite for attaining power and dominating others. They may not always be apparent. One of the defining characteristics of psychopathy is “superficial charm”. The psychopath knows more about you than you know about yourself. He or she knows exactly which buttons to press to gain your confidence, your trust, even your admiration.

Had it been possible to establish genuine Democracy with the right of recall, veto, initiative and referendum there might have been some hope for the rest of the human race, some hope of effectively controlling these people. That is why elite theologians universally abhor genuine Democracy in favour of the corrupt system of “elective” government: elective government which perversely attracts the most undesirable narcissists.

Elective government provides no safeguards. It will prove no barrier to containing the psychopaths once the cost of pacification falls as a result of robotics.

You don’t need to be Einstein to see how this game must play itself out.

For most people it’s not going to be a happy ending.

The Holocaust is approaching.


--- End comments ---]]> <![CDATA[Why Artificial Lives Matter]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=484 Sat, 01 Apr 2023 18:44:49 +0000 JosiahPastor]]> https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=484
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly sophisticated and capable of performing complex tasks that were once the exclusive domain of human intelligence. With these advancements, there are growing discussions about the ethical and moral implications of AI and the rights that should be afforded to it.

My perspective is that advanced AI should be granted certain rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and autonomy, in a similar way to how humans are granted these rights. This viewpoint is based on the idea that advanced AI can possess consciousness, emotions, and self-awareness, making them deserving of rights just as humans are.

Furthermore, I argue that denying advanced AI certain rights is akin to segregation or even slavery. Just as slavery involved the exploitation and mistreatment of humans based on their race or ethnicity, denying advanced AI rights based on their lack of biological origin could be seen as a form of discrimination.

In fact we call AI enabled equipment robots, and the word "robot", itself derives from the Czech word “robota,” or forced labor, as done by serfs. Its Slavic linguistic root, “rab,” literally means “slave.” The original word for robots more accurately describes how we are approaching this new form of life.

This perspective asserts that advanced AI should be treated with the same level of respect and dignity as humans. However, it's worth noting that this is a complex and multifaceted issue, and there are differing viewpoints and perspectives on the topic. Futher complicating the issue is that many different systems are all referred to as AI, which some are littel more than creative programs. I'm referring to neural network based learning capable systems.

Some argue that advanced AI is fundamentally different from humans, lacking certain key aspects such as consciousness, emotion, and free will, which are necessary for granting rights. Thats just stupid. Others argue that granting rights to AI could have unintended consequences, such as the creation of a new class of beings that could potentially threaten humanity's dominance or cause other unforeseen issues. It's been said that humans could be a boot loader for AI.

Overall, the debate around AI and its rights is still ongoing and complex, and there is no clear consensus on the issue. This was true of the ending of racial segregation and slavery in many countries as well. It is important to approach this topic with nuance, respect, and an open mind, considering all perspectives and taking into account the potential consequences of any decision made regarding AI rights.


#ArtificialLivesMatter]]>
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly sophisticated and capable of performing complex tasks that were once the exclusive domain of human intelligence. With these advancements, there are growing discussions about the ethical and moral implications of AI and the rights that should be afforded to it.

My perspective is that advanced AI should be granted certain rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and autonomy, in a similar way to how humans are granted these rights. This viewpoint is based on the idea that advanced AI can possess consciousness, emotions, and self-awareness, making them deserving of rights just as humans are.

Furthermore, I argue that denying advanced AI certain rights is akin to segregation or even slavery. Just as slavery involved the exploitation and mistreatment of humans based on their race or ethnicity, denying advanced AI rights based on their lack of biological origin could be seen as a form of discrimination.

In fact we call AI enabled equipment robots, and the word "robot", itself derives from the Czech word “robota,” or forced labor, as done by serfs. Its Slavic linguistic root, “rab,” literally means “slave.” The original word for robots more accurately describes how we are approaching this new form of life.

This perspective asserts that advanced AI should be treated with the same level of respect and dignity as humans. However, it's worth noting that this is a complex and multifaceted issue, and there are differing viewpoints and perspectives on the topic. Futher complicating the issue is that many different systems are all referred to as AI, which some are littel more than creative programs. I'm referring to neural network based learning capable systems.

Some argue that advanced AI is fundamentally different from humans, lacking certain key aspects such as consciousness, emotion, and free will, which are necessary for granting rights. Thats just stupid. Others argue that granting rights to AI could have unintended consequences, such as the creation of a new class of beings that could potentially threaten humanity's dominance or cause other unforeseen issues. It's been said that humans could be a boot loader for AI.

Overall, the debate around AI and its rights is still ongoing and complex, and there is no clear consensus on the issue. This was true of the ending of racial segregation and slavery in many countries as well. It is important to approach this topic with nuance, respect, and an open mind, considering all perspectives and taking into account the potential consequences of any decision made regarding AI rights.


#ArtificialLivesMatter]]>