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the cluster b society

friday, august 30th, 2024

A There is a creeping sense that our society has turned upside-down. Healthy debate is replaced by activist hysterics. Speech is declared violence; violence is excused as speech. Masculinity is condemned as “toxic,” while men in dresses are celebrated in the public square. It feels as if we are in the midst of a society-wide mental breakdown.

Psychological dysfunction is now valorized and embedded in our institutions. We need to understand what we’re dealing with.

One might be tempted to laugh at these manifestations as the outbursts of small but vocal minority, but the compromised health of our body politic is no trivial concern. A strange new pattern of psychological dysfunction has infiltrated all our institutions, from humdrum bureaucracies to the highest offices. Wherever we turn, that creeping feeling sets in: our society is sick; our institutions are out of balance; our public life has been consumed by a cluster of disorders that appeal to our worst instincts and derange our most vital social functions.

What happened? Why have old standards suddenly vanished in favor of narcissism, psychodrama, and moral theatrics -- all in the name of “care”?

If we have any hope for recovering our sanity, we must first understand what we are dealing with.

Every historical period develops unique psychological characteristics that shape public life. After World War I, we had the “Lost Generation,” shell-shocked and disillusioned. In the mid-twentieth century, we entered the “Age of Anxiety,” characterized by a sense of existential dread in the face of the atomic bomb. And 50 years ago, we saw the rise of “the culture of narcissism,” which social critic Christopher Lasch described as a society obsessed with ego, desire, and self-image.

Today, we are witnessing the emergence of something new: the “Cluster B society.” Like the culture of narcissism, our digital age has distinct psychological traits, heavily influenced by the rise of personal pathologies and the power of social media. For this generation, the cameras are always on. The audience is always watching. And the old narcissism has transformed into frenzy, moral theatrics, emotional volatility, self-indulgence, and outbursts of violence.

Psychologists have captured the spirit of our modern culture in four specific psychopathologies that, together, make up the Cluster B personality disorders: the narcissist, the borderline, the histrionic, and the antisocial. (They also identify Cluster A and Cluster C groupings of personality disorders.)

Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by a sense of entitlement, obsession with one’s own importance, and deep feelings of resentment, often expressed through moral self-righteousness. Borderline personality disorder is marked by an unstable sense of identity, black-and-white thinking, feelings of emptiness, and recurring self-harm and suicide attempts. Histrionic personality disorder exhibits excessive emotionality, sexual provocation, and attention-seeking, often to serve a pathological need for sympathy. Antisocial personality disorder is typified by impulsivity, manipulation, disregard for others, and a penchant for violence and aggression that violates social norms.

This cluster of psychopathologies is no longer an individual matter, however, to be dealt with in the privacy of the analyst’s office. On the contrary, Cluster B psychological traits have begun to shape the patterns and structures of our culture. The scenes of American public life increasingly resemble a Cluster B psychodrama: victimhood replaces accomplishment as the standard of merit; accusation replaces disagreement as the means of settling disputes; false compassion becomes the primary method of manipulating citizens into compliance; and the whole scheme is enforced with the threat of violence: obey, or suffer the consequences.

For most of American history, significant personality disorders were treated as problems and their sufferers largely relegated to the fringes of society. But in the emerging Cluster B society, narcissistic, borderline, histrionic, and antisocial psychological traits can now be found in those elevated to positions of power and celebrated by our institutions. The new status quo is an emerging leadership class that rules through emotional blackmail and uses the cover of various “victim” groups to impose its agenda on society. If citizens dissent, they are branded hateful bigots, accused of lacking empathy, and sometimes banished from public life. 

While these strategies are contemptible, they are also extraordinarily effective in controlling what we think, what we say, and how we act. And they have slowly transformed our institutions into what psychologist Andrzej Lobaczewski calls a “pathocracy,” or rule by psychological dysfunction. This has become our new social order. Once a thoughtful observer internalizes this phenomenon, he will start to see it everywhere: the Cluster B traits have been formalized and entrenched in our human resource departments, government policies, cultural institutions, and civil rights laws.

Examples abound. A recent CIA recruitment video valorized the Cluster B traits of narcissistic identity obsession, self-righteousness, and craving for affirmation. “I am a woman of color. I am a mom. I am a cisgender millennial who has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder,” intones the featured CIA analyst as the camera pans over her diversity awards. “I used to struggle with impostor syndrome, but at 36, I refuse to internalize misguided, patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be.”

In a Cluster B society, psychological disorders are job qualifications rather than problems to be solved; ideology replaces competence as a marker of distinction.

Politics, too, has been compromised. Earlier this year, Nebraska state senator Machaela Cavanaugh exemplified this cultural shift when, instead of offering reasoned debate, she screamed for nearly two minutes on the floor of the state legislature, bringing herself to the point of tears: “We need trans people! We love trans people! Trans people belong here! We need trans people! We love trans people! Trans people belong here!” Senator Cavanaugh’s deranged moral theatrics are a vivid representation of the attention-seeking, black-and-white thinking, and excessive emotionality associated with Cluster B.

In the new pathocratic regime, emotional manipulation, compassion-coded antagonism, and theatrical accusation become the staples of political discourse. The goal is not to arrive at answers but to browbeat opponents and make them feel remorseful for denying left-wing orthodoxy.

Where do these phenomena emerge from? While their specific origins might be obscure, the modern university is the primary replication site for the Cluster B pathologies. On campus, the pathocracy rules.

Journalist and social critic Heather Mac Donald reveals the basic contours of this regime in a 2023 City Journal essay titled “In Loco Masculi,” where she argues that the dramatic rise in the number of female college administrators—who now dominate campus culture—has led to a growing obsession with “safety” and “victimhood.” Rather than prioritize academic achievement and substantive debate, administrators have elevated nebulous, therapeutic concepts such as trauma, white fragility, and systemic injustice. Mac Donald concludes: “When students claim to be felled by ideas that they disagree with, the feminized bureaucracy does not tell them to grow up and get a grip. It validates their self-pity.”

As a result, American college students find themselves in the midst of an unprecedented mental-health crisis. According to the University of Michigan’s Healthy Minds study, more than 60 percent of college students meet the criteria for at least one mental-health problem—a nearly 50 percent increase since 2013. The more we indulge Cluster B-style pathologies, the more we replicate them within our institutions.

Rather than reverse course, university administrators have leaned into this broken model. On campus, students are told that they are always under attack, that their safety is constantly threatened. And rather than strengthen young people for the challenges of life, administrators fight to sanitize the campus environment and shut down any speech deemed “harmful” or “offensive”—the perfect recipe for enabling and encouraging Cluster B-style narcissism and hysteria.

These scenes and sentiments have become ubiquitous: college students screaming and chanting their demands for maternal “care”; young adults rebelling against authority while also demanding that it resolve their “trauma”; a hothouse full of personal resentments flower and bloom under the guise of “social justice.” At Stanford Law School, the dean of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” working in a co-dependent manner with protesting students, disrupted the speech of a federal judge, whom she accused of causing “harm” and making her “uncomfortable”—a preposterous standard, assertable only in an environment already saturated with pathocratic assumptions.

From the university, the culture of Cluster B spreads outward. Taken together, these pathologies have potent powers of transmission. Like a virus leaking from a lab, they have broken containment and are spreading throughout society. The public school, the hospital, and the state bureaucracy—all have succumbed. The messaging of major corporations looks more and more like the celebration of Cluster B-style disorder, whether it’s attempting to normalize gender dysphoria or rewriting the standards of health and beauty so that the grotesque becomes the new ideal.

Social media accelerates these trends. Sites such as TikTok have become a petri dish for incubating mental illness, especially in teenage girls, who mimic the Cluster B behaviors they see online and register skyrocketing rates of anxiety and depression.

The sudden explosion of transgenderism follows the same line of development. Transgender individuals are 30 times more likely to suffer from Cluster B personality disorders compared with the baseline population. And, according to an older study, more than 50 percent of mothers with gender-dysphoric boys suffer from borderline personality disorder themselves—a remarkable transmission rate of psychopathology.

Much of the recent left-wing violence, too, has taken on the cast of Cluster B disorders. The 2020 George Floyd riots were distinctive in part for their psychological tone: wild emotional displays, narcissistic identity rituals, victimology manifested in the streets. Individuals with antisocial personalities seemed to flourish during that dreadful season of rioting, wielding left-wing ideology to justify their violence and terror. As psychologists have long known, a clear link exists between violent, narcissistic personalities and attraction to left-wing authoritarianism. The former serves as the desire, the latter as the rationalization.

The mugshots of Antifa foot soldiers that drifted through social media feeds during the George Floyd riots drive home this point. Face tattoos, deranged expressions, unkempt hair: these are not mentally well people. They are, in fact, the hideous face of antisocial violence—the enforcement arm of the modern Left, the political vanguard of our Cluster B society. And they will not stop until they’ve transformed the world in their image.

Some right-wing critics have taken to calling this strange new state of affairs “the Longhouse,” a matriarchal form of society that privileges the values of care, concern, and feminine social strategies. In an essay for First Things, the pseudonymous writer Lomez explains that women now outnumber men in professional-managerial roles and vastly outnumber them in human resources and compliance, which exert outsize influence on professional and cultural norms.

The Left has touted the Longhouse for years. In her presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton confidently declared that “the future is female.” And in a much-discussed 2010 essay for The Atlantic, Hanna Rosin christened this change “The End of Men.”

But while some celebrate this shift, our “female future” has a darker side. Contrary to the messages one gets from elites, biological sex differences are real, and a societal imbalance between the two has negative effects for everyone. Taken too far, overly feminized leadership produces exactly the kind of Cluster B society we observe today: one in which identity is rewarded over merit, victimhood is prized over competence, and antisocial behavior goes unchecked. Moral narcissism becomes the coin of the realm, and political conflicts are settled through blackmail and manipulation.

If we are to find a way out, we must understand the peculiar logic and rationality of the Cluster B society. We must learn how to counter emotional falsification and how to say “no” with a renewed voice of authority. We must find a way to restore balance, order, discipline, sanity. If we do not, we will resign ourselves to a world gone mad. The spontaneous life and beauty that are the fruits of a more balanced society will be snuffed out by grim commissars administering a Cluster B pathocracy. Our self-governing regime would be over. 

© 8.19.2024 by Christopher F. Rufo, "City Journal".

A Day In The Life.

Up at 8a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee and breakfast, took two 50mg Tramadol and a 300mg Gabapentin for various pains, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, had a couple smokes in the HOT garage and checked the leftover errands list. All that is postponed until next week. The forecast is for 98 by 4p, today. I'm staying inside.

It was a delightfully cool 59°/ low 30% humidity outside, headed to 84°. I had some wonderful Kona "Peaberry" Coffee, then scanned the news and weather sites, and missed the entire "Chris Stigall Show LIVE" (CS Show) from 6-9a, also missed part of the "Chris Plante Show LIVE" (CP Show) 9-12noon. I had some condo chores to do, so I tuned into the Rob Carson Show LIVE, from 12-3p, while working.

Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I'll show you a crook.

Sherry arrived at 1p, and we had a great time as usual, until she (sadly) left at 7p. I had some Pulled Pork BBQ and Red Potato Salad, watched Discovery's "Gold Rush" and parts of Trump's Rally in Arizona, until 1a, and bagged it for the night. This Fall-like weather is coming to an end by Monday, as Summer returns with heat and humidity. Swell. It's been said that "politics makes for strange bedfellows", and with RFK Jr's jumping onto Trump's yacht, that rings true. I think RFK can't be trusted -- he's a rabid leftist on many topics -- and that Trump's made a mistake to include the guy in a future cabinet.

Up at 7a on Saturday, I made Kona Coffee, fired-up the HP Desktop Computer, tuned into the "CS Show Podcast" on iHeart Radio, for a couple hours while I scanned the news and weather headlines. Despite 2 carafes of Dark Roast Kona Coffee and an Apple-Raisin Fritter for breakfast, I was still tired and dragging, so I decided that a nap is in order, soon after 1p. I'd gotten all of my errands, chores etc done over the past 2 days, so my afternoon is clear.

With everything done, I closed the condo down, and grabbed a 2½hr nap. Turning dusk when I got up, I made a BBQ Sandwich for an earl;y evening snack, watched the FNC News, and switched to Discovery's "Expedition X" for the evening. Lights out at 1a.

Up at 9:15a on a beautiful Sunday morning, 73°, sunny, rising humidity, I made coffee, had a smoke in the warm garage and scanned the news and weather sites. After some breakfast, I did 2 loads of laundry, and attacked the growing pile of paperwork until mid-afternoon. I did some minor condo chores -- and again put-off 2 major ones until next week -- had a short snooze on the LR couch, some dinner and watched TV until 12midnight, and unplugged. Uneventful, nice weather day. Hey, today's the 15th Anniversary of Ted Kennedy's Sobriety! Heh.

Up at 7:15a on Monday, a sunny, blue sky, 73°, very humid morning, with 91° forecast. I made coffee, had a couple smokes in the garage, fed the squirrels (9) and bluejays (13), tuned into the "CS Show LIVE" from 6-9, and then to the "CP Show LIVE" from 9-12. With only 1 errand to get done down south of York, I hope to be inside by 2p as the day's heat/humidity hits the area. I left at 12:30p, and was back by 1:30, due to road construction delays/detours and heavy traffic. I had Blackened Salmon w/ Rice, Green Beans & Sliced Peaches for lunch, re-scanned the news headlines on several sites, and hit the LR couch for a short 2hr snooze.

I was just up, having coffee, when Sherry called to chat, and we had to reschedule our Wednesday get-together to Friday, due to a conflict on her schedule. I forgot to call over the weekend; my bad. After some dinner, I missed the news, but watched MotorTrend's "Iron Resurrection" until 11, and unplugged.

Up at 7a on Tuesday, to a wonderful 55°, sun just rising, morning, forecast to hit 92° -- worse day at 98° tomorrow -- I made coffee, tuned into the "CS Show LIVE", had a couple smokes in the garage, and relaxed, wishing I didn't have a Dr's morning app't, and could have just slept-in. Meh. A ***HEAT WARNING*** is posted for tomorrow; natch. I scanned the news sites' headlines. Big laugh for the morning: lowlife, dirtbag, socialist, Marxist, fascist scumsucker "Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter on Monday that his company, Facebook, was pressured by the Biden-Harris administration to censor Americans, particularly regarding COVID-19 content". What a joke that pathetic punk is.

Succinctly put, MAGA is a nation brimming with vitality, with a can-do spirit, with hope and a belief in itself. It was an America that was beginning to confront its darker shadows, could acknowledge the injustice in its past and present, yet at the same time could celebrate its successes. It's a nation of broad prosperity, the world’s most vibrant middle class, and a idealistic belief (though not consistently applied) in freedom, justice, and democracy. It was a nation that led the world in innovation, productivity, and technology, and it was the healthiest country in the world.

This shit got my blood boiling: vandalism at the hallowed ground of the Gettysburg Battlefield National Military Park. And much more here. Find the leftist criminals and KILL THEM!

I left at 10:30 for my 11:15 Dr's app't, and was finished by 11:45. On the way home, I detoured to Hallam, to Flinchbaugh's Orchard & Farm Market, for some amazing fruit and Apple Fritters. Home by 1:30p, the lawnmower crew had the dust storm underway, trying to mow any green grass, of which there wasn't much remaining, due to 12+ weeks of drought. I made an Olive Loaf Sandwich & Chips for lunch, checked the day's eMail so far, LOTS, so far.

Today's the 3rd Anniversary of the US' disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, where we lost 13 Service Troops, and NO ONE'S IN CHARGE IN THE WHITE HOUSE! Our Shit-for-Brains LunchBucket Corruptnik Joe Bidet just ended 1 week in Santa Barbara and flew to Delaware for 2 weeks of vacation. The Endless Summer. And Dipshit ♪ ♫ ♬ Kama-lama-ding-dong, woo-hoo! ♪ ♫ ♬ is "somewhere", but not in DC, not taking any questions, but NOT taking care of business. The CCP's Xi is ready to attack Taiwan and America is NOWHERE.

I had a short, 1hr nap, which was nice. After a kitchen clean-up from lunch stuff, I reheated some morning Kona Coffee, watched the 6p news and switched over to History's "Ancient Aliens Special Presentation" for the rest of the evening. Lights out at 1a. Or so it appeared...

I laid awake most of the night and morning, occasionally drifting-off, but always waking-up. I stayed in bed until 6a, made Kona Coffee, and poured it directly into my eyes. Sucks to be me. It was an overcast, 69°, already a warm and humid morning, looking like rain (which we could seriously use). A ***SEVERE HEAT WARNING*** was posted, advising a 99° temp/ 105° Heat Index (BS), with all kinds of precautions for youngsters and elderly. I had one errand, but will reschedule it to tomorow, after the 1:30p Therapeutic Massage. I'll just stay home, out of the oppressive heat/humidity, and do the final load of laundry. I had calls to make to get app'ts set-up for on-site tech support on my condo's security system.

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★★★ Severe Heat Advisory! ★★★

• WHAT: Heat index values up to 105 expected.

• WHEN: From 11 AM to 8 PM EDT Wednesday.

• WHERE: A portion of central Pennsylvania.

• IMPACTS: Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses. Drink plenty of fluids, stay out of the sun, and stay in an air-conditioned room. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. This is especially true during hot weather when car interiors can reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes. LOOK BEFORE YOU LOCK. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Review heat safety and preparedness information at weather.gov/safety/heat. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

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I listened to the 2 usual morning radio shows, had breakfast and drove over to Rite Aid to p/u a just-completed, very important (for my COPD) Rx. WOW! The last 14 Rxs have been FREE -- no co-pays -- as I've passed the "donut hole" on my deductible. OK, nothing's "FREE", and I pay for it, in one way or another.

By 1p, it was 94° on my back patio in the shade, and the humidity was so thick I could cut it with a dull, butter knife. I started the last load of laundry, and had some wonderful peaches and cantaloupe. I just can't eat heavy food in this weather. After the 6p news, I watched Discovery's "Expedition X" until 10, and bagged it for the day.

Up at 8:30a on Thursday, to an overcast, warm and sticky 79° morning. I made coffee, scanned the news headlines, tuned into the "CP Show LIVE", and checked the calendar. 1:30p therapeutic massage today, and Sweet Sherry tomorrow. It's Labor Day Weekend, and the traffic's likely already building for many folks. After the usual morning radio shows, I had paperwork to do, and leave at 1:15p for the 1:30 appt, just ¾ miles south.

Great therapeutic massage (!) and I was home by 2:30, with 2 gigantic BK Texas Toast Dbl Cheeseburger Whoppers and 2 Lg Fries (A BK's on the way). Chad called and shows-up to do some front garden water faucet repairs, after which I finished-up some paperwork, and grabbed 2hrs on the LR couch. T-storms, rain and cooler, mid-60 temps moved thru the York area. I called Sherry and we had a nice chat; she'll be here tomorrow. Still full from luch, I skipped a later snack, watched the late news updates, and unplugged for the night.

Tomorrow startes a new week here in the "Journal", and other than JoAnne's 2 week visit to clean the condo, and a tech vsit from my security company, it's a clear week. The weather looks decent, too.

Biden's Impeachable Crimes: Biden Family Made Millions in Global Influence Peddling Racket.

President Biden "knew about, participated in, and benefited from" his family's involvement in a global influence-peddling conspiracy, according to a Majority Staff Impeachment Inquiry Report, published by three key congressional committees on Aug. 19. The report conclusively states that Biden "monetize[d] his office of public trust to enrich his family," making his actions impeachable offenses. The Biden family sold the "'Biden brand' around the world," none of which would have happened "but for Joe Biden's official position in the United States government."



In an Aug. 18, 2024, press release from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Chairman James Comer (R-KY) asserts the inquiry makes "the strongest [ever] case for impeachment of a sitting president." Comer stated:

© 8.22.2024 by Wendi Strauch Mahoney, "UNCOVERDC".

Everyone Hates Fascism Except The Government.

One of the few interesting things about America’s highly choreographed political conventions is the gathering of people outside these events.  Supporters and protesters show up to yell at the top of their lungs for days.  What kinds of taunts do these opposing groups scream at each other?  Remarkably, they accuse each other of similar transgressions.  Probably the most common insults being lobbed from each side of the political spectrum are accusations that the other side is full of “fascists,” “Nazis,” and “racists.”  

It’s enough to make an observer wonder whether an awkward kumbaya truce could spontaneously break out, in which antagonistic foes raise a curious eyebrow and timidly ask, “You mean, you’re against fascism and racism, too?” before taking off their masks, throwing down their cardboard signs, and apprehensively shaking hands.  Of course, that never happens, so very angry Americans continue to denounce one another in nearly identical terms.

The whole thing would be funny if it were not so serious.  And it’s serious because the resulting confusion leaves Americans who might otherwise agree about an awful lot instead reaching for one another’s throats.  The more time they waste fighting, the easier it is for their real enemies to get away with all kinds of mischief without anyone noticing.  Who are their “real enemies”?  Well, regardless of any American’s particular ideological beliefs, those who most affect their lives (outside their families and friends) are almost certainly people with wealth and power — and not the vast majority of their working-class neighbors just trying to earn a living.  Because wealth and power remain in the hands of a small collection of political and financial “elites,” they benefit when citizens with neither wealth nor power choose to attack one another.  

Another way to think of this is to ask a simple question: what is the greatest threat to any political system?  Is it the threat of foreign invasion?  Economic depression?  Disease?  Of course not.  It is the possibility that those controlled by the system will overthrow those doing the controlling.  Every government in the world — communist dictatorship, theocratic regime, or so-called constitutional republic — claims to be working for the people.  But when the “elites” of those governments speak behind closed doors, their efforts are directed toward subduing the people.  Governments invest in the illusion that their power is limitless and that the people have no other choice but to obey.  Whenever common people recognize that they are the ones with inherent power, the government’s illusion of control is shattered, the system is upended, and a new era with novel organizing principles arrives.  

Seen through this lens, it is easy to understand why governments have a vested interest in stirring up domestic conflict.  A peaceful and well mannered society might engage in respectful debate and start asking serious questions, such as: why should private central banks be allowed to print money and devalue personal savings?  Why should America be financially squeezed by a bunch of multinational corporations that use cheap labor overseas and bully small businesses into bankruptcy here at home?  Why should foreign investment houses own so much land and property in America when fewer Americans than ever before can afford to own a home?  When government authorities use outside companies to censor Americans’ speech and spy on their private activities, do such workarounds really trump the Bill of Rights?  When corporations work hand in glove with government bureaucrats to track and police citizens, hasn’t our system of government transformed into something we would have once recognized as classically fascist?  

These important questions and others might lead common citizens to think more clearly about their government’s priorities before arriving at another uncomfortable question: does the government really represent the people’s interests, or does it represent the interests of its corporate partners?  Such discussions threaten to shatter any government’s well-guarded illusion of control. 

The political system can’t have that, so the corporate news media blast out daily reminders that “racism” and “extremism” are the real threats to peace and prosperity.  On television and on social media sites, the message is clear: trust the government but distrust your neighbors.  If everybody is more worried about Donald Trump’s personality or Taylor Swift’s political endorsements, nobody has time to wonder how we’ve reached the point when the federal government’s fiscal burden consumes 93% of America’s total accumulated wealth since its founding or how global debt now exceeds $315 trillion.  The wealthiest and most powerful people in the West take from everyone else and then set society on fire with engineered division and hate.  They are civil arsonists committed to destroying the evidence of all the damage they’ve wrought.

You can tell that financial and political “elites” are becoming desperate in their attempts to maintain power because they resort to little more than childish name-calling these days.  The great bugbear this decade is the “far right.”  Nobody explains why the “far right” should be feared more than the “far left,” when the theft and mass murder perpetrated by communist regimes over the last century dwarf the atrocities committed by all other ideologies in human history.  Nobody explains how the “far right” socialists of Hitler’s Germany can be distinguished from Venezuela’s “far left” socialists today.  Rather inexplicably, corporate news organs and academic institutions lump everyone who believes in limited government, national borders, self-determination, and personal liberty into the same category of WWII fascists who promoted totalitarianism, empire, dictatorship, and subjugation to the State.  Most citizens who are mislabeled “far right” distrust government and despise the notion of corporate control over society.  How that makes them “fascist” is a linguistic mystery.

What makes more sense is that Western governments fear the emergence of liberty movements not because they will one day be marching under the Arc de Triomphe, but rather because they represent a renewed public rejection of centralized power.  The more centralized the governing authority (e.g., the U.S. federal government, the E.U., and the U.N.), the more worried it has become that common people will reclaim sovereignty over their personal lives.  Consequently, the mouthpieces for the axis of corporate and government power in Western capitals — which is socialist in spirit and fascist in principle — slander citizens who are opposed to Big Government as somehow being the ideological descendants of Hitler’s Nazi Party.  It’s horse pucky.

Those who are nonsensically labeled as “far right” do have all too frequent encounters with fascism.  It’s just that those experiences come in the form of corporate-government beatings from the same people and institutions claiming to “protect democracy.”  During the Reign of COVID Terror, social media companies threatened and censored citizens who questioned the government’s monopoly on scientific debate, the need for school closures and economic lockdowns, or the efficacy of the pharmaceutical industry’s experimental “vaccines.”  Fascist tyrants such as Justin Trudeau used his partnership with banking institutions to seize citizens’ savings and mortgaged properties when they protested against his COVID authoritarianism.  Cellular companies kept track of citizens’ movements and reported those violating house arrest to the police.

This kind of corporate-government fascism has become commonplace.  European governments dedicate enormous resources to monitoring citizens’ online speech and punishing those who express unapproved opinions, and tech companies are quick to assist these bureaucratic bullies in their hunt for “offensive speech.”  A UK man was recently arrested for engaging in “anti-Establishment rhetoric” in a social media post.  Google openly admits to manipulating search results in ways that promote the talking points of their government partners while hiding dissenting voices.  Big Tech, Big Banks, and Big Pharma don’t operate independently of Big Government.  They are one and the same.

It turns out that everyone hates fascism except for Western governments and their corporate friends.  That’s why they demonize citizens who cherish liberty.

© 8.25.2024 by J.B. Shurk, "American Thinker".

Is America Reaching a Suicidal Level of Complacency?

The worst president in modern history has passed the baton to an even worse candidate, Kamala Harris. Harris is calling for government control of all commerce -- though she calls her plan “price controls” rather than communism. Her running mate, Tim Walz, is considerably less nuanced. He endorses communism as “people sharing with each other.”

Kamala Harris has failed at every job she has held. She was the top law enforcement officer in San Francisco. It’s now a cesspool of crime, drug abuse, and homelessness. Then she took her San Fransisco policies statewide as the California Attorney General. Now one of the most naturally blessed states in the country is experiencing a mass exodus of its most productive people. As the Vice President, Harris was appointed by Joe Biden to be the border czar. Under her supervision, enough illegal aliens entered the country to populate Los Angeles three times over. Yet in this year’s election, Kamala Harris will undoubtedly get over 70 million votes. How is it that someone as unaccomplished as Harris is even competitive?

About one third of voters are concerned that we’re losing our self-governed republic, and vote for the candidates least likely to undermine our Constitution -- Republicans. Another third of voting age citizens don’t bother to vote. They’re the complacent, who either don’t care about our future, or have given up. The remaining third of adult citizens votes for the party openly undermining the Constitution -- Democrats. Only a tiny portion of that third are true radicals who think our Constitution is obsolete, and wish our federated republic to be replaced with a system of centralized control. Most Democrat voters are those who vote their feelings. The non-voters and the “feelings” voters comprise the complacent gullible segment of Americans.

The MSM propaganda machinery is determined to sell the socialist narrative to the gullible. It does so by playing to their feelings. Socialism is described as “neighborliness.” Government seizure and redistribution is simply “spreading the wealth around.” The government picking commercial winners and losers is “saving the planet.” The propagandists hope the gullible find blind acceptance of the narrative less troublesome than observation and analysis.

The narrative asks us to sacrifice our freedom because...

• Carbon dioxide is killing us -- even though it’s essential for life
• Speech is violence -- but actual violence requires context
• Killing the unborn is a fundamental right -- but defending ourselves is not, and
• All races are equal -- but some are incapable of achievement without government intervention.

The narrative is designed to make the gullible “feel good” about sacrificing their rights for centralized control.

Shortly before his death, I watched a Charles Krauthammer interview on Fox News in which he shared his accumulated wisdom (unfortunately I can’t find the link). He said that he didn’t think our civilization would end because of a meteor impact, or an extinction level pandemic. He suspected that mankind would die quietly as we stop caring enough to survive. We would give up on producing food, maintaining the infrastructure, and enforcing standards of civilized behavior. Krauthammer predicted that civilization would stop facing life’s challenges, and wither away from complacency. One need only take a tour through Kamala’s home state of California to see the beginning of that decline.

How did that happen?

During the 20th century, the government undertook a massive change of mission. It transitioned from being our protector, to being our provider. Our founder’s vision (as codified in the Constitution) was that the federal government exists to protect our inalienable rights, secure us from threats, and maintain civil order. But it has morphed into a leviathan that protects us from...

• Loss of income with bailouts and unemployment compensation,
• Economic downturns with stimulus,
• Ethnic disparities with quotas, and
• Personal offense with censorship.

The gullible naively expect tomorrow to be just like today -- if not better -- due to the government’s benevolent oversight. The party of FDR, LBJ, and Kamala Harris offers us a world free of consequences, in exchange for our freedom. A disturbing number of voters will accept that deal.

But a world without consequences is a world without accountability -- failure costs nothing. But when failure is free, it is also abundant. That abundance applies equally to us, and to the government functionaries which the gullible trust as their caregivers, even though it has become obvious that such trust is misplaced. Those entrusted with our welfare, are totally unconcerned with our wellbeing. Do the TSA agents at the airport seem at all concerned about our travel experience? That indifference infects our entire government.

The Department of Homeland Security has lost track of 320,000 illegal immigrant children released into the country. Yet there hasn’t been a mass mobilization of law enforcement to find them. Our federal bureaucrats are apparently indifferent that those children may now be slaves or sex workers. Ahh… complacency is such a peaceful state of mind.

Just one month after an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, a Secret Service agent guarding him left her post without permission to breast feed. Yet she’s still on the job because she lives in a consequence-free world, in which there is no consequence for prioritizing her convenience over the life of her protectee.

Our military is the best trained and funded in the world. Yet it lost a 20-year war to an 80,000-man, poorly trained and equipped army. Despite such an epic failure, nobody in leadership has been fired, disciplined, or even suffered loss of advancement. It’s easy focusing on social engineering when there are no consequences for military failure.

NASA sent two astronauts on a one-week mission. They’ve now been marooned in orbit for months. Yet there hasn’t been any agency “full court press” such as was done for the Apollo 13 accident. The complacent NASA leadership is saying: maybe we’ll get the astronauts back later this month, or maybe next year -- depending on schedules.

Freedom from consequences has made those maintaining our government complacent, and the safety net it promised is rotting -- even as the net’s load is increasing.

We are approaching a suicidal level of complacency because...

• Corporations are too big to fail,
• Oaths of office aren’t binding promises,
• Professional expertise has been replaced by intersectionality,
• Failure has become victimhood, and
• Government incompetence is justification for government growth.

Eventually the net will fail and an unprepared people will be met with the consequence of avoiding the realities of life for years. It will be because the party of Obama, Biden, Harris, and Walz assured us that they could deliver a utopian world free of consequences. Most Harris voters will be those who chose to live as naïve children, not realizing that they are entrusting their welfare to other indifferent children.

The contrasts between Trump/Vance and Harris/Walz gives us a clear choice in November. Will we choose to be coddled like children -- blissfully unaware that the consequence of today’s “feel good” is tomorrow’s downfall? Or will we choose to be self-reliant adults -- securing the future, by accepting accountability today? I pray the disaster that has been the Biden administration has moved a few people out of the “gullible” column.

© 8.27.2024 by John Green, "American Thinker".