Great stuff:

Modern civilization, thanks to innovations in communication from Gutenberg to Pornhub, has returned to its beginning. In 2020, everyone is totally connected. So everyone can and must be engaged with power—just like when we were chimps.

The total state is no longer content with physical compliance. It demands emotional security. Power is not just obeyed. Power must be loved. And this reversion to the total state, our most ancient form of government, makes the modern regime, despite all its toys and transistors, seem somehow surprisingly barbaric.

But when power has our emoluments and our compliance, why does it need our homage? Why must it pester us so, for the mere trinket of love?

Because it feels insecure. Power always feels insecure. Everyone wants power—so it should feel insecure. And the worse its performance, the more insecure power feels, because the more insecure it is; so the more homage it must demand.

🔥🔥🔥

Chasing clout on instagram, apparently

The fact that it's publicly funded guarantees it will have less transparency. This is how it works.

Murder the economy for no reason

Nothing would shock me from fedghouls

Reason 6 trillion to get out of Afghanistan.

Overblown, I suspect like all other times. Even if we get a civil war, the outcome of the election won't actually matter. Things are already in motion if so.

This time by the pentagram itself.

And pretty important evidence that the Pentagram actually is.

MINDSPACE rearing it's ugly head once more, but it's really just the state embracing "biopower".

Amazing they believed the bullshit for this long. Something literally impossible to do economically isn't gonna be done.

Probably the best outcome, It won't hurt Oracle's reputation beyond where it already is.

Bless your grift

The suckers get wise and quit being subjects in enough numbers the whole rotten edifice flies apart at the seams.

Culture isn’t static, though. As the competitive pressure on a state changes, the cultural rules that helped support the empire’s growth are likely to evolve. An ethos of self-sacrifice or restraint in the name of the common good isn’t necessarily the most appealing, and as a population comes to feel ever more secure younger generations might dismiss traditional ways of doing things as staid and silly. Cultural entrepreneurs might mount sophisticated criticisms of established ways of doing things, and concoct alternative stories of national greatness which prioritize the pursuit of self-interest or the superiority of a mode of thinking which is deeply sceptical of the old cultural norms. It doesn’t matter if everyone in the empire is persuaded or not. If some people feel they have been given permission to do a bit more looking out for themselves and a bit less worrying about what’s expected of them as upstanding members of society, that may well be enough to start to work on the cultural equilibrium.

American women are leading the charge in being out for #1. When men stop simping and start doing the same, it's over for the USG. People need to realize there is "nothing in it for them" in perpetuating the US Empire.

I actually agree, as MMOs are universally cancerous

Let's prosecute the evil short sellers.

Thanks to the 'cane. Sucking livestock dry and carrying off small children.

Ultimately just makes it more complicated to piece together the now multi-part DNS queries to know what people are requesting. Not a problem for the actors behind the threats this is supposed to frustrate.

They didn't build the correct counter-narrative to the myths bought by R&D. The explanatory force of the Double Government hypothesis is undeniable.

...valuing the market at 51X LTM earnings during the present parlous moment in time – or even nearly 27X if you want to give the financial engineering jockeys in the C-suites a hall pass for $77 billion of mistakes and losses this quarter alone–is nothing short of nuts.

Sure, let's buy companies that will take 51 years to actually earn enough to reasonably profit from our investment. This isn't just betting on share price, no...

This is why everyone says long/short like they are options traders nowadays. It's just gambling, not investment.

...posing and posturing have become a mass phenomenon, the tattooing of our time. Of nothing is this more true than contemporary Woke morality. Whereas not long ago young people of the middle classes sought to express their sympathy for the lower and supposedly oppressed orders by imitating their tattoos and way of dress, imitation being the highest form of empathy available to egotists, they now express the same desire by making Wokeness the touchstone of their morality. They think they are rebelling when, of course, they are conforming. They do not realize that it is more difficult, and more courageous, to contradict a friend than to criticize a society.

Can confirm 100%. That said it's essentially impossible to "live in a society" completely eaten by this stuff without "making the trend your friend".

While I find most of this social media stuff to be ridiculous nonsense you can make it work for you if you realize it's just there to build your brand rather than anything genuine. That's all Woke, Inc. thinks they are doing -- but brand building is all about reliably demonstrating higher value, not helping people identify with you. Customers want to be more than they are, and do not want to identify with something on their level. They chase "better".

Bingo, it's all about planting your sucker as close to the money spigots as possible. Once that no longer has any value the cities have to shrink back to the level they can actually work. I think that ironically it's the most dispersed cities like those in Texas that will do the best.

Interesting that CHS also put out an article on shrugging; I personally know a few people who have done so recently. This is the biggest sign to me that the current crisis is actually more serious than it seems.

Lots of great brain droppings here:

Ten percent of my social media notifications every day for the last four years:

“Caitlin I’ve noticed you have opinions about the most powerful and influential government on planet earth. As an American, I find this strange and suspicious.”

As the whitebox for Walmart. Fitting, since they were little more than high quality whiteboxes in the past.