I was going to vote for trump and Vance anyway, but it sure is nice to be able to hear them for 6 collective hours unedited on Rogan so that you have a more complete view of how they think and what their plans are.

As an informed voter I would like to have the same 6 hours of Harris and Walz. So that I could form the same view of them.

Unfortunately they are either too scared to sit in the hot seat or too controlled to be allowed to do so.

One thing that changed this election is the shift from traditional to alternative media.

I suspect trump is going to win and going forward candidates will be expected to sit for 3+ hours with Rogan or an equivalent program.

The best way to find out when the establishment is hiding something or when a "conspiracy theory" is true, is to carefully read the "fact check" that is pushed everywhere.

If you know what to look for you'll spot them quickly. How many times they add an unimportant or needlessly specific detail to a claim and then only refute that detail. Or that throughout the entire thing it's a series of mild caveats with no hard data, or obvious hand waving like "both sides were there" without addressing the difference between them or going out of their way not to mention the massive discrepancy.

A simple example from the other day:

The Claim = "There are zero cases of autism or chronic illnesses in Amish community because they are unvaccinated"

The Fact Check = "Some Amish get vaccinated too. There are definitely cases of Amish having cancer, chronic illnesses, and autism."

What they DID do:

• Used "zero cases" as their very easy metric to shut down because its an impossible claim, rather than addressing the obvious point of the claim, that there's a vast difference.

• Pointed to some specific person saying this thing and the loose information they had to back it up at that specific time. "He based this off interviewing a few dozen Amish, NoT SciEnCe." Rather than again, actually talking about the issue or looking at real data.

What they did NOT do:

• They never discussed the vast difference between the two populations.

• They never shared investigations or brought up information about whether there was actually a difference between the vaccinated or unvaccinated Amish, even disregarding the difference from the wider population.

• They shared the same old post-hoc uncontrolled studies of vaccinated populations, without any data from the Amish or a less vaccinated population to compare to, in order to justify the same old "it's safe" narrative.

Basically it was a lesson in political framing and narrative posturing. The fact is, either they directly refused to bring up the hard data and actually address the issue, OR they couldn't find any real data to support their "fact check" (ie. they had zero facts to actually refute the problem posed) revealing the legitimacy of the concern, rather than it being a falsehood.

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

It's important for us to understand that everything you read from everyone has a degree of unreliability. The "conspiracy theorists" are incentivized to believe and find info that proves that every disease since the beginning of time was caused by Big Pharma. While the establishment is going to twist and caveat everything into confusing nonsense and simply try to make anyone who says anything that deviates from The Narrative™️ seem crazy, strawman their claim, or associate them with someone with no credibility. This is universal.

It's often in the defense that you will find the threads you should pull on. It's what they DONT refute. What they refuse to provide data on. Or the issue they avoid talking about that will reveal where they have no foundation to stand on.

For the people who know what to look for, you'll find the "fact checkers" themselves to be one of your best resources for finding out whether or not they are completely full of shit.

I appreciate people across the political spectrum, and have friends in multiple worldview camps. Especially since they are often from different countries with different contexts. My friends do tend to cluster in certain areas due to our shared interests (i.e. I am freedom-oriented in general), but there are people who consider themselves to be anarcho-capitalists and others that consider themselves to be aware progressives, for whom I would invite them to my home and stay in our guest area.

But I have a visceral disgust toward people who I perceive to be playing a role or being consciously fake. I'm not against people playing an actual obvious caricature for satire of course. But in the modern era, there is a tremendous amount of audience capture, gaslighting, fake social media influence that is meant to come off as genuine, and influencers and politicians treating their audience as though they are literally retarded.

Once I perceive someone as fundamentally fake and consciously playing a false role that they pretend is real to their audience, they're done to me. This behavior has been on an enormous uptrend in the past few years, much to my provocation. It's an acceleration of cynicism. Those that do this are intelligent but cynical toward their audience, manipulating them either for personal gain or for their political purpose.

Be aware of this trend.

Couldn’t agree more. It’s like playing a game without rules.

In 1977, Bill Gates was arrested for a traffic violation. The outline of his mugshot would go on to be used as the default profile pic for Outlook (2010)

😮😮😮😮😮

Maybe. IMO, the valley at the top of his head doesn't fit for me...

In 1977, Bill Gates was arrested for a traffic violation. The outline of his mugshot would go on to be used as the default profile pic for Outlook (2010)

😮😮😮😮😮

the people untainted and influenced by the corporate information algorithms will have the advantage.

If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present - Lao Tzu

When I was younger I thought “wow if everyone believes that it must be true”

Now that I’m older I think “if everyone believes that it must be wrong”

When I was younger I thought “wow if everyone believes that it must be true”

Now that I’m older I think “if everyone believes that it must be wrong”

It has become so weird that the US Right supports Israel’s war on Palestine while the US Left supports Ukraine’s defense against Russia.

Political sides dig in. The wars become associated with culture.

There is so little voice today from those who oppose aggression. Those who support Jews but are not onboard with Israel’s actions against Palestinians. Those who support Ukrainian independence but don’t want to commit unlimited troops for border regions that literally speak Russian amid a complicated history.

More people die in Sudan and Cambodia than Israel/Palestine, but we are all focused on Israel/Palestine because it’s a conflict of cultures. Religious cultures but also western imperialism vs the global south. The focus of it all. That occupies our attention even as bigger massacres occur elsewhere that aren’t directly across these massive fault lines.

I refuse to engage in attention whoring. I support peace in most instances globally, other than total war against someone’s existence where it becomes right to fight back. People have a right to self-defense. And those who have power over others have a responsibility to hold back on using it fully.

Keep in mind that at any moment, tons of violence is occurring globally. The media directs you to a subset of it that is geographically, economically, or culturally relevant for their purposes. You ignore or are unaware of the rest, and get emotional about what is fed to you. That’s how most people act, anyway.