The Media Produces Derangement: Proof From New York Times Readers

 

You can learn a lot from reading reader comments as Dennis Prager illustrates.  There are lots of people who read the NY Times who firmly believe that Global Warming will destroy the planter in the lifetimes of their grandchildren, so they're not having any.

This past weekend, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd added another column to the myriad irrational and hysterical pieces about the “existential threat” climate change allegedly poses to human life. 

As I do after almost every piece I read on the internet, I read comments submitted by readers.

One provided me with an epiphany.

It was a comment submitted by New York Times reader “Sophia” of Bangor, Maine:

“I have one child, a daughter, who told me age 8 that she would never have a child because of global warming. She’s now 34 and has never changed her mind. So I will not experience a grandchild. For her wisdom, I am grateful. I would be heartsick if I did have a grandchild who would have to experience the onslaught of changing climate.”

It is hard to imagine greater proof than that comment of the power of mass media and of the left. That a normal woman would celebrate her daughter’s choice not to be a mother and not to make her a grandmother can only be described as deranged. No normal-thinking human being would think that way. Jews had children during the Holocaust and made sure to have children if they survived the Holocaust.

Prager goes on to cite the fact that fewer and fewer people are actually dying of either heat or cold.  But facts don't get in the way of propaganda.

For more proof of how deranged many New York Times readers — and Washington Post readers, CNN viewers and NPR listeners — are because they rely on these sources for what they believe about the world, here are some replies to Sophia’s comment from other New York Times readers:

B. Rothman, New York City: “I completely agree. I have 6 grandchildren and weep inside for the calamitous life that is ahead for them.”

Ida Martinac, Berkeley, California: “I weep with you, Sophia. Whenever I look my 11 year old daughter in the eyes I feel so many emotions: guilt for bringing her into this dying world.”

Liberal, Texas: “I feel your pain. I have 2 sons. Neither one will have children and their partners agree. I’ll never have grandchildren. But I also realize that their decisions have in some way been molded by me. I am proud of their decision.”

Liz, Portland: “Frankly, as someone who has been concerned about climate change, and observing what is happening over the last ten years with real dread, I do not understand why anyone in the last ten years would voluntarily have a child.”

Read the whole thing, then be grateful that you are not the victim of the Media.

FBI Delenda Est-But No Cato or Scipio Are In Sight

The Babylon Bee, as usual, nails the idiocy and absurdity of the FBI:

 

Based On LEGO Evidence, FBI Believes Capitol Rioter Was Also Planning Attack On Hogwarts Castle https://t.co/J4hhl9EN1d

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 7, 2021

 This refers, of course, to the FBI’s and DOJ’s weighty pronouncement that one of the 1/6 arrestees was in possession of–wait for it!–an assembled Lego model of the Capitol. Except it wasn’t actually assembled. It was still in the box. But still! Obviously he was planning dastardly deeds with Legos! It’s amazing the Republic survived. Thank God the FBI is there to protect us!

The FBI has of course been going all out to apprehend the trespassers, gapers, gawkers, and other assorted invaders of the Capitol. They announced with pride some weeks back that they had made 535 arrests. (Gee. Why that number?) (And none for sedition. Why is that, if this was a greater threat to “our democracy”–which it ain’t–than the Army of Northern Virginia?)

But of course the FBI had advanced warning. So why didn’t they stop it?

Why do I say that they had advanced warning? Because I guarantee that every remotely open access organization or ad hoc grouping is penetrated by the FBI. FFS, the FBI has surveilled the “Concerned Women of America,” as if it’s the ISIS Women’s Auxiliary. What next? Red state sewing circles?

Based On LEGO Evidence, FBI Believes Capitol Rioter Was Also Planning Attack On Hogwarts Castle

 

PITTSBURGH, PA—The FBI released disturbing new details today regarding alleged January 6th rioter Robert Morss, who had a fully-constructed LEGO Capitol building in his home. Agents say Morss was also building several LEGO Harry Potter sets, leading authorities to believe he was planning a similar attack on Hogwarts Castle.

“The suspect had several completed LEGO Harry Potter building sets and was about 80% of the way through building the advanced-level LEGO Harry Potter Castle,” said FBI bureau chief Warren Alvarez. “We feel we caught him just in the nick of time before things turned violent once more.”

Alvarez said a review of Morss’ online social media accounts show him to be a staunch supporter of Lord Voldemort, believing that Albus Dumbledore was fraudulently elected as the leader of Hogwarts. Documents found on his computer show that Morss was planning a violent protest at the school on July 31, Harry Potter’s birthday.

“This is a huge win for law enforcement,” said Alvarez. “The FBI is proud of our work taking dangerous, LEGO-building criminals off the streets. Also, now I don’t have to buy my kid a birthday present, which is awesome.”

In related news, press secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden is renewing his calls for common-sense LEGO control, calling for universal background checks for all LEGO purchases as well as closing the toy show loophole. Psaki said. “We must work vigilantly to keep these dangerous LEGO weapons of war off our streets,” Psaki said.

 The Babylon Bee, as usual, nails the idiocy and absurdity of the FBI:

Bernie Goldberg Meets Jason Whitlock…Finally

If you think you've got it bad, try being an outspoken Black conservative.   

 Bernie Goldberg: Once upon a time, sports was a place that we went to get away from the daily barrage of politics and a lot of other stuff we don’t like. Not anymore. Is that a fair assessment?

Jason Whitlock: Yeah, I think one upon a time, sports was second to religion in bringing people of diverse backgrounds together. And so, I think, other than religion, nothing promoted unity more than sports in America.

Bernie: What happened?

Jason: I think that the adversaries of America realized the power of sports to bring people together and started investing in turning sports into something polarizing that didn’t bring us together.

“Blackness has been turned into a political ideology.”

And so, they have to hop on board with what Colin Kaepernick is promoting or what LeBron James is promoting, because the social-media machines—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram—will brand you as “racist” if you don’t get on board. If you don’t think George Floyd is akin to Martin Luther King, you could be branded as racist. And people are in fear of that; and so everybody’s truth is being compromised; and everybody’s hopping on board with the propaganda that’s being promoted; and sports have become highly politicized.

And so, people are just being bullied into supporting this anti-American sentiment and promoting the idea that America is the land of unchecked, racial bigotry.

Bernie: For fear, you believe, of being called a racist?

Jason: Or, if you’re black, they’ll call you a sell out and Uncle Tom.

Read the whole thing. 

SUBSTACK: Last, Best Hope for Free Speech.

 Via Instapundit:

So the internet was a democratic revolution. For a while. Today, though, a huge proportion of ideas flows through just a few tightly controlled pipelines owned by the e-barons who rule Twitter, Facebook, Amazon and Google. The tech lords simply shrug at anyone who protests when they ban books, movies, newspapers, business bloggers, medical discussions and even a sitting president of the United States, which is what Donald Trump was when he was kicked off Facebook and Twitter. He continues to be banned from both platforms even as a private citizen, although the initial rationale was that he must be prevented from reaching an audience because he commanded the armed forces.

For those whose epistemology boils down to: Let everything be discussed, and may the best ideas win, it’s essential to build a safe haven for  free exchange of ideas. Just in the past few months, Substack has emerged as that platform. To call it a breath of fresh air would be an understatement; it’s more like a blast of pure oxygen after emerging from a coal mine. Legacy outlets such as New York magazine and the New York Times, and even sites built specifically to challenge existing narratives such as Vox and The Intercept, have driven out some of their most talented people, but they’re all having the last laugh on Substack, where they are finding large and receptive audiences — and in some cases are startled to suddenly find themselves among the highest-paid columnists in the United States.

There are Substack newsletters about running, Hollywood, basketball, art, food, wine, money, sex and lots of other subjects, but the platform’s greatest value is in publishing thinkers who challenge the intellectual ruling class. Bari Weiss, the New York Times writer and editor who quit last year in spectacular fashion after being bullied by her colleagues — ‘Twitter is not on the masthead of the New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor,” she said in her resignation letter — has quickly established a Substack op-ed page, Common Sense with Bari Weiss, that doggedly and vigorously challenges conventional wisdom and has become essential reading. The left-wing writer Glenn Greenwald, who was hounded out of The Intercept even though he was its principal founder, continues to strike an anti-imperialist, anti-war, class-based approach to politics on his Substack. That approach makes him deplorable to mainstream progressives, who are far more interested in race than in anything else and tend to parrot the Democratic party line on everything. Matt Yglesias, who co-founded Vox in 2014 but was increasingly marginalized by his own colleagues, started the wonkish newsletter Slow Boring to emphasize policy solutions over woke rants. Jesse Singal delves into social-science research and how it sometimes conflicts with progressive dogma on his newsletter. John McWhorter dares to wade into the turbulent waters of race and language. All of these newsletters offer some of their content for nothing but ask for a small fee, typically $5 a month, from subscribers who want to unlock everything they write.

The NSA now admits that it "unmasked" Tucker's identity after an intelligence intercept. Plus: the tyrants at Facebook confirm that they have been censoring this show. pic.twitter.com/AeYbQzNWLI

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 24, 2021

It's Official: The NSA Unmasked Tucker Carlson

 

Three weeks after Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused the National Security Agency of reading his communications, the agency has confirmed he was unmasked. 

"The nation’s top electronic spy agency found that Carlson was mentioned in communications between third parties and his name was subsequently revealed through 'unmasking,' a process in which relevant government officials can request the identities of American citizens in intelligence reports to be divulged provided there is an official reason, such as helping them make sense of the intelligence documents they are reviewing," the Record reports. 

 

Ibram X. Kendi is the false prophet of a dangerous and lucrative faith

Ibram X. Kendi’s name appears everywhere: in school curricula, corporate training programs, even the Navy’s official reading list. The Boston University prof is a blazing supernova in the constellation of radical-chic race activism. But be warned: His philosophy would jeopardize the bedrock American ideal of individual dignity and equality under law. ...

But Kendi, like his counterpart Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, is a prolific capitalist in his personal life. He charges $20,000 an hour for virtual presentations and has merchandised his entire line of ideas, releasing self-help products and even an “antiracist” baby book. He gratefully accepts millions from tech and pharmaceutical companies on behalf of his Antiracism Center. Fighting Big Capital, it turns out, is a lucrative enterprise....

Kendi fashions himself a revolutionary, but like the radical-chic activists before him, he will likely be absorbed into the fabric of elite institutions, where supposedly radical ideas are cosseted into conventional wisdom — and sold at $20,000 an hour.

If you can become an ultra-wealthy billionaire by stealing people's identity and selling it to corporations, like Mark Zuckerberg, you can get very rich by selling racism to Liberals.   

Misinformation Nazis

 

It's not about your health

 

Inflation is the objective

 The idea that you can flood the nation with trillions of dollars created by the Federal Reserve without a concomitant increase in the amount of goods and services will not lead to inflation is so bizarre that anyone who holds this view should be banned from giving financial advice.  The only question is “how much.”  

One statistic I have seen is that the Fed is creating new “money” to cover roughly one-third of the federal deficit.  

Imagine if you will that the Federal Reserve gives everybody $1 million dollars.  They can do that with a little help from the Biden Administration.  After all, that’s not such a big stretch from sending everyone a $1400 stimulus check.  Just a few extra zeros.  Suddenly the demand for steaks and lobster would explode, as would the demand for new cars and Rolex watches.  But the supply of steaks and lobsters, cars and Rolexes is not that elastic so you would see some serious price hikes as shoppers bid for the limited supply.   After a while, the supply/demand balance would come back into balance leaving the price of beef at, say $500/pound and the price of a new car at $200,000.  The sad part is that all those millionaires wouldn’t be better off.  There’s a limit to how far a million will go.  So they will be back to  buying Big Macs, now priced at $100.  

FBI Discovers Building Full Of Dangerous Extremists Organizing Acts Of Terror Across Country

 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Federal Bureau of Investigations has announced that it has uncovered a group planning to hatch terror plots all across the country. In a shocking twist, the organization is headquartered right in Washington, D.C., at the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building.

The group was uncovered after FBI agents began tracing most of the terror plots in this country back to one giant organization. "This is bigger than any of us realize," said the founder of the FBI, Bob FBI. "It's all connected. Pretty much every terror plot of the last few decades was being encouraged in secret by this one giant, shadowy organization. But rest assured, we're going to make sure these guys pay for what they've done to our country. No one hatches terror plots under our watch."

"They were right under our noses this whole time," said one FBI agent as he prepared to raid the FBI building, where hundreds of FBI agents were working on terror plots to be enacted all across the country and around the world. "We're gonna take these guys down."

The agent then rushed the building. "Freeze!" he shouted. "Oh, hey Steve!" he added, greeting the receptionist. "We still on for golf tomorrow?"

At publishing time, the FBI had hatched a plot to help FBI agents help other FBI agents hatch terror plots so they could catch them in the act.

Seriously, how much longer can the FBI - or any organization - continue to function when they are the subject of this much ridicule.  When the FBI image goes from the Efram Zimbalist  to this ....

 -  a wife beater who helped set up a couple of dupes in a fake kidnapping plot, you have a big, big problem.  

Send your daughter to college, get this mentally-ill human debris back.

Word salad for mental illness pic.twitter.com/CIlzRZOKvr

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) July 13, 2021

Bloodsucker?

that escalated ..so quickly pic.twitter.com/glhHkoB1Pc

— Jessica O’Donnell (@heckyessica) July 23, 2021

This is the New York Times - Can it Get Any More Stupid?

Never forget this piece of extreme stupidity. pic.twitter.com/vITTuQMIcv

— Inez Stepman ⚪️🔴⚪️ (@InezFeltscher) July 22, 2021

The Biden Crime Family, part 1,000,001

"Hunter Biden's appearance at the art shows, where he'll presumably socialize with potential buyers, is seemingly at odds with an agreement...that aims to keep buyers' identities secret from Hunter Biden, President Biden, the White House, & the public." 🤷‍♂️https://t.co/cVgWBqMqF0

— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) July 21, 2021

The Antifa/FBI Coalition

 

Prior to Jan. 6, Trump supporters had held dozens of mass rallies without burning cities or murdering people.  This was a major embarrassment for the Deep State.  Media coverage of the Jan. 6 event has been largely successful in minimizing that embarrassment.  This was a major Deep State coup and the planning and execution of this "insurrection" reveal a disturbing relationship between the government and radical groups. The FBI did not only fail to adequately prevent the disturbance, they appear to have actively facilitated it. The FBI and radical leftists are branches of the Deep State.

Why are the thousands of videotapes of the events of January 6th not being released?

Part of the reason for the feds not releasing the government videos is that there are literally tens of thousands of researchers who plan on viewing the tapes. They may reveal FBI informants taking part in the violence.  The left has an extensive network of training facilities for agents provocateurs.  

Woke Racial Activism Bears Fruit: Gallup Survey Shows Positive Views On Race Relations In Free Fall

 

Professor Willaim Jacobson: Views of race relations fell off a cliff in 2013 correlating to the launch of the Black Lives Matter movement, and went into further freefall more recently with the rise of woke Critical Race politics.

Since the inception of this website, I have warned of the destructive impact on our society of racial politics engaged in by Democrats.

On October 15, 2008, just three days after launch, I wrote “Race” As Political Weapon:

The suppression of legitimate political expression through false accusations of racism by the Obama campaign and its supporters is the defining theme of the 2008 campaign. This tactic, while it may be successful, is shameful and has damaged our society in ways we may not understand for years.

It’s been downhill since then, but the politics fine-tuned by the Obama campaign and supporters really hit its stride with the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2012-2013 based on the false racial narrative of the Trayvon Martin case, and the national growth of the movement after the fabricated narrative of “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” in the Michael Brown case in 2014.

...

Here is the headline and talking point for the latest Gallup survey, Ratings of Black-White Relations at New Low:

For the second consecutive year, U.S. adults’ positive ratings of relations between Black and White Americans are at their lowest point in more than two decades of measurement. Currently, 42% of Americans say relations between the two groups are “very” or “somewhat” good, while 57% say they are “somewhat” or “very” bad.

..., the reading has eroded nine percentage points over the past two years as the nation has grappled with the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent nationwide protests and calls for racial justice.

If your objective is to create a race war, there's nothing you would do differently.

 

DID THE FBI PROMOTE THE PLOT TO KIDNAP GOV. WHITMER?

 The answer to this question appears to be that, yes, the FBI did. At any rate, that conclusion follows from this BuzzFeed article.

....

[S]ome of those informants, acting under the direction of the FBI, played a far larger role than has previously been reported. Working in secret, they did more than just passively observe and report on the actions of the suspects. Instead, they had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception. The extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.

A longtime government informant from Wisconsin, for example, helped organize a series of meetings around the country where many of the alleged plotters first met one another and the earliest notions of a plan took root, some of those people say. The Wisconsin informant even paid for some hotel rooms and food as an incentive to get people to come.

[A key informant] became so deeply enmeshed in a Michigan militant group that he rose to become its second-in-command, encouraging members to collaborate with other potential suspects and paying for their transportation to meetings. He prodded the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping plot to advance his plan, then baited the trap that led to the arrest. . . .

Last week, the lawyer for one defendant filed a motion that included texts from an FBI agent to a key informant. . .directing him to draw specific people into the conspiracy — potential evidence of entrapment that he said the government “inadvertently disclosed.”

It's now become obvious that it was really an FBI plot all along to fake a kidnapping of Governor Whitmer to smear her opponents.   Anyone involved who was not part of the FBI plot was a dupe working at the FBI's direction.

Joe Biden Babbles Incoherently During CNN Town Hall Train Wreck

 

When asked about when children under 12 will be eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19, Biden delivered a mind-boggling word salad in response.

“That’s underway, just like the other question that’s illogical, and I’ve heard you speak about it because you always—I’m not being solicitous—but you’re always straight-up about what you’re doing, Biden told Lemon, who mumbled something inaudible in response.

“And the question is whether or not we should be in a position where our—why can’t the experts say we know that this virus is in fact it’s going to be, or—excuse me—we know why all the drugs approved are not temporarily approved and but permanently approved. That’s underway too. I expect that to occur quickly” he said.

“You mean for the FDA,” Lemon said, attempting to make sense of Biden’s answer.

Victor Davis Hanson: Democrats No More

 So what happened to turn the party of Harry Truman, JFK, and even Bill Clinton into a woke neo-Maoist movement? 

Globalization created a new $8 billion consumer market for American media, universities, law firms, insurance groups, investment houses, sports and entertainment, and the Internet, social media, and online gadgetry. 

In contrast, work with arms and hands was passé, the supposed stuff of meth heads, deplorables and clingers—and so better outsourced and offshored. 

Traditional Democrats were seen increasingly as namby-pamby naïfs, who rotated power with establishment Republicans. 

Now with money, institutions in their hip pocket, and cool popular culture, the Left would not just damn American institutions, but infect them: alter their DNA, and reengineer them into revolutionary agencies. 

So here we are with a near one-party system of a weaponized fused media, popular culture, and the administrative state—confident that all Americans will soon agree to love Big Sibling. 

The FBI has lost the plot

Roger Kimball (excerpt)

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make ridiculous. Consider the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That once-respected institution has been busy wiping (or, more to the point, not wiping) egg off its face at least since the moist tenure of James ‘higher loyalty’ Comey. For those wondering why it is that Comey is cashing fat royalty checks instead of stamping out license plates at Club Fed, the answer is part of my story. There is the Elect, of whom James Comey numbers himself, and there are the Serfs, among whose number, Dear Reader, you probably belong.....

 The FBI has rendered itself ridiculous. It has jumped the shark and it turns out the shark is only a mechanical, maybe a Lego, model. We have granted them unprecedented power, we have lavished money and other resources upon them, in order that they might find and neutralize the bad guys. They miss a lot of them — remember 9/11? — but they itch to perform the tricks they’ve been trained to do. I believe it was the Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz who first described the ‘vacuum effect’ among animals taken out of their natural habitat. A terrier confined to a city apartment, for example, will be found ‘digging’ in imaginary dirt on the carpet in order to ‘bury’ an imaginary bone. A dirt-less, boneless life is not to be borne, so the bow-wow practices its instinctual behavior in make-believe.

The FBI is similarly domesticated. Its number is increasingly part of the shapeless swamp that controls our lives. Its actions are, seen from afar, often ridiculous. But that does not mean they are not also malevolent. That’s an important point: that the ridiculous often easily cohabits with the vile. Hence the dawn raids, the summary incarcerations, the identification of people they disagree with as ‘domestic extremists’, ‘terrorists’, etc.

It's a shame, really.  Any police force has to have the support of the community to be effective, or it will be hated, surrounded and attacked because it's always less numerous that the ordinary people around it.  

The larger question is who or what is behind the destruction of the social fabric?   It's as of some outside agency is destroying the trust that Americans had in the goodness of it's government.  We knew many were ineffective, some corrupt and others in it for themselves, but now it's previous supporters have become its enemies.  

Che the Murderer

 

What are the warning signs of incipient tyranny?

 Why is the Biden regime putting out such obvious lies, such transparent falsehoods?  The reason is not to convince the people who use commons sense.  That remains the majority of the people of any country including the United States.

The reason lies in the history of tyranny and dictatorship.  Would-be dictators need to identify people who are potential enemies of their regime.  Tyrants throughout history, most recently people like Stalin, Hitler, Mao, followed the same pattern.  

Would-be tyrants can identify their allies by putting out obvious lies and seeing who repeats them, uncritically.  These people are the trusted guardians of the totalitarian regime.  

Those who publicly reject the lies identify themselves as enemies of the regime.  

For the rest, perhaps the majority, will stay silent and continue their lives as well as they are allowed to.  They are not a threat.  

We can take warning from that and learn before it’s too late.  

Chinese Prostitute

 

Facebook is a conversation between friends

A commenter in the Wall Street Journal recently made this remark about Facebook:

 There's something that's been bothering me about all these social media kerfuffles.   Why do so many people on both sides think that people are so credulous as to believe anything they read on Facebook?  

You'd have to be a severe combination of ignorant and gullible , and I just don't think there are that many childlike people around.

This is a common  misconception about Facebook.  It's not an alternative version of CNN, ABC, the New York Times, or any part of what's referred to as "The Media."  Facebook is fundamentally different by its nature.

Here's my reply.

The answer to your question is that Facebook - for most people - is a conversation with friends.  It's not some potato on CNN spouting communist propaganda.  

Now, your friend may be wrong or have an idea with which you disagree. But because they are your friends, they probably agree with you.  Along with cat videos , pictures of the food they are eating, pictures of their kids and grandkids, their vacations, etc., they share ideas they find interesting, 

That's what Facebook is for most people.  It's a conversation with people you know but who are not in the same room or sitting at your dinner table.

So when Zuckerberg's minions try to silence your friends and you from the free discussion of ideas, when they label your beliefs and expressions as "wrong," or "misinformation,"  or remove you from their platform altogether, that's right up there with The Stasi - the secret police - coming for you because of a private conversation you are having.

Critical Race Theory in Academia