First, people suffering from depression want the outside world to match the inside one. It justifies their feelings and confirms they aren’t crazy when the world “out there” really is as bad as they feel like it is in their minds. These people believed that the world was ending when Donald Trump was elected; that the COVID pandemic came during his administration only served as the aforementioned verifier that reality really was a disaster, just as they had felt that it was.

Second, because the pandemic came to be such a political matter to that group of people, it has become central to the reality of their identities. Their opponents have said it’s “not that bad” since the beginning. To admit that they’re now right would be to lose the political argument, and perhaps to admit to yourself that the world is not in the existential crisis that for so long your identity has depended on it being in. That’s really hard.

Third, I’d be remiss not to mention that an awful lot of these people are irreligious and have only this material world to cling to. Not that death isn’t a concern for nearly all of us, but it can be all the more terrifying for people who have no hope for anything beyond this life.

“California’s first-in-the-nation law banning the sale of new gas-powered mowers and blowers also targets a machine that has become increasingly popular with consumers in recent years — portable generators. As people face power blackouts — in areas where utilities have cut power to curb wildfire threats, for example — many have turned to generators as a backup energy source. The new law, AB 1346 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto), was signed Oct. 9 by Gov. Newsom. Berman’s bill requires the sale of new small off-road engines to be zero-emission by 2024, or when the Air Resources Board says the cutoff is feasible, whichever is later. ‘Small’ means less than 25 horsepower, and portable gas-powered generators typically have half that level, or less. Portable gas-powered generators would be phased out by 2028.”

This essay is essentially part 3 in a series, starting with Perchance to Dream, and Informational Diabetes. To summarize, the cambrian explosion of "dreams" (hyperrealities) since the pomo epoch have basically devalued mainstream mental models and predictive frameworks to the point they're worse than useless.

This is essentially because almost everything has become marketing. Even the government itself can largely be seen as an armed marketing agency -- you will find that it's whether the narrative is compelling that drives policy rather than compelling policy driving the narrative. This makes nearly all of the modern era make total sense. Put on your PT Barnum lenses, and it's obvious. It doesn't have to be some Vast Jewish conspiracy, it's just marketing sharks swimming towards blood.

An infinite amount of money can be bilked from the anxious. When it comes to fleecing the hypochondriac, the abortionist, the prohibitionist, the nativist or (more recently) the natalist, it's basically first-come, first served. Because lets be real -- there is no fixing any of their problems. The anxious and their "aspirational self image" is an infinite ATM for the unscrupulous, and is being milked on an industrial scale.

Billion dollar industries are popping up right now around RNA testing for colds and flus. Since when are symptoms not be enough for diagnosis? They were enough for hundreds of years of medicine and worked fine. But not for hypochondriacs. They won't be happy until they find out there's something wrong with them (so they can finally get on SSI?) and obscure the fact that they're losers. Now they're fighting a good fight in their great crusade! At the end of the day, it's yet another dopey fandom. At least I get pretty painted figurines out of 40k.

Hundreds of thousands are employed carrying out the nonsensical rituals at the airport to stave off bogeys created by the FBI, CIA and DoD. An endless amount of ink has been spilled, and screen time aired whipping the undead horse that is women's hypergamous failsafe (abortion), and will forever. Same with the doomed western birthrate -- gynocentrism sure as hell hasn't run out of steam, and it won't allow anything but unchecked immigration to be the answer.

If anything, this new economy, which seems entirely based on cynically exploiting the emotions of the gullible for profit is more oriented towards gynocentric emotions-first decision-making than ever. Everywhere I look, people enthusiastically chase the "bullshit jobs" and ignore the real work. The swarms of the well-meaning concerned about those of us who don't enjoy their profession sure as hell don't lighten the load. This adolescent social skill-set attitude of "why would I do it if I don't enjoy it" rather than the adult "I don't enjoy it -- that's why you are paying me, dummy" has become pervasive in the modern firm.

Which circles back to the whole point here. Mental models and predictive frameworks -- and the abject failure of the mainstream ones to do anything well besides enrich those skilled at propaganda. Much of this debate is what Deleuze's critique of Camus was about. Sure there's no meaning in any given hyperreality -- but it sure as hell seems that some predict outcomes a hell of a lot better than others.

This once again underscores the usefulness of Mises' praxeological framework. Even if the information the "acting man" is stuffing his head full of is old rags and emotional pap, they still cannot help but have it guide their actions. Similarly, you can't uninstall your instincts -- this guides both sexes to different directions. This is essentially the whole of the praxeology that is "the red pill" as described by guys like Rollo Tomassi.

Even there, people are less interested in how things actually work here. The people getting ahead in the "red pill" space are still those cynically leveraging marketing insights. This is why people call it "the hustle economy" -- because form has decisively defeated function.

People want lockdown because they're so far removed from the reality of surviving on this execrable ball of rock that they value feeling good about stopping a cold more than their actual well-being. There is also no shortage of unscrupulous operators willing to plow their asses. It's the same with the rest of policy across the board.

This is why it's so important to have a privatized public order. We'll never be rid of people like this who value freedom less than twinkies. Allowing the free market to encyst this human damage so they at least only harm themselves with their lunatic notions of world-improvement would be a big step in the right direction.

Perhaps the increasing virtualization of life and remote work is precisely this coming to pass. Society is healing by letting these solipsist and narcissist NPCs spin their wheels in the mud until they get a 6 foot deep rut. After all, if they don't the actual work won't get done. Which by the way, does have to get done, so I'll give you one guess which group ultimately has to yield.