I was recently accused of constantly looking for the dark side of life. Apparently all I do is see everything from a negative perspective—I see world events this way, I see the news in the Washington Post this way, I see a negative purpose behind things that are presented as good things, things meant to help people, like digital IDs and bank cards inserted under the skin in our hands, or cameras placed everywhere to stop crime, or even masks—I can’t see the good in them, only the bad, only the potential of being not just bad but
It is not being dark to see the world for what it is. Most of my family and friends think I'm Debbie Downer. But as the Dude said, that's... like, your opinion...man. (Big Liebowski)
You have a sound mind and ask good questions and offer helpful information.
As for me, I was an atheist Bernie bro 2 years ago but also a conspiracy realist. Then I saw all the dark agendas being ushered in and eventually turned to the Bible for truth. I won't evangelize here although I would do John Belushi backflips if someone asked for the Bible Way to Heaven verses. I'm sharing here what I've found as Truth and to me the Bible is the only moral standard to expose wickedness and evil in the world, in my opinion.
I've been through 12 step, counseling, pills, yoga, Eckhart Tolle, etc etc and the Bible has given me meaning,etc and pushed down anxiety n depression.
Here are some quotes and verses I use that help make sense of the world:
It's one Big Club and you ain't in it. -George Carlin
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If something happens, you can bet it was planned that way. -FDR
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12
I can't go back and forth copy and pasting w.o. losing what I have. Hopefully someone out there looks these verses up even if they aren't a believer. I believe King James Bible is the preserved Word as promised. The others are New World Order versions. Biblegateway.com is good resource.
Hosea 4:6 result of the lack of knowledge
Job 2:4 satan tells God that humans will give away everything when afraid of dying--freedoms, jobs, childrens' futures, $$, etc. Explains the past two years to me.
The books of Psalms and Proverbs: lots of stuff about the workers of iniquity, wisdom, beautiful, poetic, full range of emotion from depression to triumph.
Matthew 13 The parable of the wheat and tares
The gospel of John (its by far my favorite book)
Acts 5:29 Peter said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
Book of Romans: It's my second favorite book.
Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world...
1 Timothy 6:20 ...keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.
Book of Ecclesiasties: Most of our life is vanity. Strive and thrive in the important stuff.
James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Pride is the deadliest sin. And the Bible teaches flattery causes BIG problems as well.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
Revelation 18:23 ....for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
To me, the most important thing in the End Times is this...Do not be deceived.
Plus the Bible is full of conspiracies plots and even the greatest persons of the Bible made mistakes we can learn from and struggled with doubts, etc.
Last thing that gives comfort is that some get delivered in this world (Daniel from the lion's den) and some don't. Jesus said John the Bsptist was the greatest man who ever lived but he got beheaded at 30 something. The point is that to a believer heaven is going to be an infinitely better place so that instills boldness.
I hope I shared this in a respectful manner with my truther friends here and something shared helps someone to attach themselves to rock as others around them experience the whiplash of the Hegellian dialectic. Being steady in the storm helps others.
Another thing is that the perpetrators running amuck in the world hate Jesus and the Bible. But it's amazing how they stay to the Bible's End Times script of events. Matthew 24, 2 Thes 2 and (book of Revelation, which has tons of violence and death but is very triumphant for believers).
If you're not looking AT darkness right now, you're blind. The criticism you describe frequently comes from those who are the first to cry shrilly when they are exposed to words they disagree with: "Words are violence! Hate speech! Misinformation!" They refuse to fight evil. They fight those who fight evil.
And why is that? What makes someone blind, narcissistic, unable to think critically? It is fascinating how consistent these divisions are...the sheep side are typically far left politically, do not seem capable of making decisions for themselves and require parental guidance, do not seem to have a certain measurement of common sense, are unusually afraid of death. And, as you say, have a tendency toward narcissism. The shrews, us, seem to be opposite in most regards, are more than likely "conservative" politically, believe in God or some "overarching spiritual mind", think critically, do not have a problem dealing with the "tension of the opposites" (i.e., can accept the grey of an argument, willing to listen to all viewpoints without become ballistic), can make decisions on their own, do not need nor want an authoritarian parental government to "save them" or "protect them", do not have an obsessive fear of death (belief in an afterlife? Or just aware that life is inherently dangerous?) ...is this all? Are there other differences? I have two sisters, one an extreme sheep, and one an extreme shrew (see my sheep/shrew article if I am not making sense.) Why? They are both liberals, although the shrew is pulling more to the right in some areas. What makes us a shrew or a sheep? I understand what makes up one or the other, but what makes them to start with? Were we just chosen by god to be one or the other??
Now the blind are mostly “far” left (the actual far left is almost nonexistent in North America) meaning Democrats.
But 20 years ago, the equivalently blind were the conservatives, who became deranged on hearing that the anthrax attacks were a Deep State op to increase tyranny and that 9/11 was also an inside job and one reason that the Bush crime family stole the election.
I talked to many of these cult believers on the right because for a year I wore an 8.5x11 sign saying Oiligarchy as a continuous protest against the Iraq war. It led to many conversations, a few heated.
So I don’t think that Dr. McDonald’s explanation is complete.
Of course there is a much more complex and lengthy history involved here that goes back decades before the pandemic of fear. My main point that I believe is apropos to current times is that the overwhelming drive to control the American population through a a collusion among politicians, corporations, and media is coming largely from the Left, which includes the Democrat party. By definition, this collusion also includes fascistic elements (business and government working together to suppress freedom), but none of it is by any definition conservative.
I believe that it will be up to traditional liberals to unblind themselves to their naive support of the Left--whose values are truly antithetical to both traditional liberal and conservative values--for America to release itself from the death grip of this evil force, which destroys everything it touches, without exception. Until then, it will be conservatives alone with the clear vision adequate to see and speak the truth.
How Left and Right are used nowadays obscures more than explains. For example, it leads to the confusion of calling Obama "left" even though his family was CIA, he was a longtime CIA asset, and the CIA is the muscle for Wall Street.
The actual left fought for free-speech rights before WW1, when the first amendment was just a prohibition on prior restraint rather than a guarantee of free speech. The actual left, like the IWW, won workers the 8-hour day and the weekend.
What we're seeing is instead a fight between two wings of capitalism: the small or frontier capitalists (now called the "right") vs. the monopoly capitalists (now called the "left"). Their war heated up after the Civil War, when big business grew and spread across the newly unified country. The House of Morgan the other robber barons were the monopoly capitalists, and the Populist Revolt was the last gasp of the frontier capitalists.
By the time of the so-called Progressive movement, the inversion was complete. The monopoly capitalists came to Washington pushing for more regulation, in order to use regulation as barriers to entry against the little guy. And today, only the largest drug companies can afford to get a new drug through the regulatory hurdles.
Capitalism, because the rich get richer faster, tends to monopoly. The monopoly capitalists' ideology is against competition and in favor of holism, reflecting the desire to erase any class struggle. Every victor wants peace. In Corona fascism, this holism shows up as slogans like, "We're all in this together."
Meanwhile, the frontier capitalist values dog-eat-dog competition, considering it part of freedom. And the frontier world was more free (except for the Native Americans cleared off to "free" the land) than the feudal, fascist tyranny that the monopoly capitalists are creating.
But, because of the conceptual mess of "left vs. right" that so many conservatives fall into, the conservatives don't I think have a clear enough vision of what we are all up against.
However, even without full clarity, which humans never manage anyway, we all have to fight this tyranny descending upon humanity, whatever one calls it.
You have great points here, thank you. I am actually quite fascinated with the political ramifications here. I agree with you that it is rather easy to categorize sheep and shrews as being left or right, but it almost seems that the parties adjusted to the psychological grouping of the culture rather the other way around...your example of the responses to 9/11 and anthrax is a good indication of what I am saying. I actually am disappointed when politicians use "left vs right" as a tool to encourage derision, because ultimately this all has little to do with partisan politics...
In short--engagement with reality. Everything that gets in the way of that, such as virtual reality, urban living, government subsidies, social media, academia, leads to sheep conversion.
Fascinating! I have been telling my patients something similar for years…”the culture” I would say, cell phones, video games, pornography, the broken family, the consumerism, the loss of “something bigger” (God?) on and on. I also believe it is a disconnection with nature. But I have never called it “engagement with reality”…I LOVE THAT…can I use it with my patients? I will give you credit!!!
I've often thought about why I seem to be different than almost everyone else around me. The conclusion I've come to is that I was raised in an alcoholic household where my parents often didn't know and didn't care where I was or what I was up to. So I learned that I couldn't rely on anyone else and I needed to be sharply focused on opportunities and threats.
So over the years I have learned to easily recognise things that seemed off and to seek out a variety of sources of information that I could do further research.
But I also came to the realisation that it was pointless to discuss any of these things in detail with those who had closed minds.
Sometimes this has been a blessing but these days I'm starting to wonder if it is more of a curse. I wonder what it must be like to be blissfully ignorant. Because sometimes you catch these things so early and you have a good idea how things are going to play out but it takes so long and you go through such anguish waiting for the inevitable to happen. And you can't warn people or have any interesting discussions because the sheep don't want to hear any of that.
As Tom Petty sang "The waiting is the hardest part ..."
Thanks Todd and all who leave comments here for letting me know I am not alone.
Mike...this is so very well put. I have heard a similar story from some of my clients...one believing that being bullied as a child makes him hypersensitive to "governmental bullying" now as an adult. I certainly can see the "hypervigilance" kicking in with people who have suffered from childhood trauma. I think I have a bit of this myself. I read situations differently, and am indeed, unconsciously at least, "looking" for something that COULD go wrong. Still, I find it odd that people don't see, just from everyday non traumatic life, that not EVERYONE or EVERYTHING that comes into their experience should be accepted without at least a bit of examination. Whatever happened to the not too distant days when a second opinion from a doctor was without question the path to take, or getting an opinion from an independent mechanic before purchasing a used car. All of that "healthy" skepticism seems to have gone out the window. Thanks again for commenting!!
Kudos on the hypnosis comic strip!!
It is not being dark to see the world for what it is. Most of my family and friends think I'm Debbie Downer. But as the Dude said, that's... like, your opinion...man. (Big Liebowski)
You have a sound mind and ask good questions and offer helpful information.
As for me, I was an atheist Bernie bro 2 years ago but also a conspiracy realist. Then I saw all the dark agendas being ushered in and eventually turned to the Bible for truth. I won't evangelize here although I would do John Belushi backflips if someone asked for the Bible Way to Heaven verses. I'm sharing here what I've found as Truth and to me the Bible is the only moral standard to expose wickedness and evil in the world, in my opinion.
I've been through 12 step, counseling, pills, yoga, Eckhart Tolle, etc etc and the Bible has given me meaning,etc and pushed down anxiety n depression.
Here are some quotes and verses I use that help make sense of the world:
It's one Big Club and you ain't in it. -George Carlin
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If something happens, you can bet it was planned that way. -FDR
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12
I can't go back and forth copy and pasting w.o. losing what I have. Hopefully someone out there looks these verses up even if they aren't a believer. I believe King James Bible is the preserved Word as promised. The others are New World Order versions. Biblegateway.com is good resource.
Hosea 4:6 result of the lack of knowledge
Job 2:4 satan tells God that humans will give away everything when afraid of dying--freedoms, jobs, childrens' futures, $$, etc. Explains the past two years to me.
The books of Psalms and Proverbs: lots of stuff about the workers of iniquity, wisdom, beautiful, poetic, full range of emotion from depression to triumph.
Matthew 13 The parable of the wheat and tares
The gospel of John (its by far my favorite book)
Acts 5:29 Peter said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
Book of Romans: It's my second favorite book.
Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world...
1 Timothy 6:20 ...keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.
Book of Ecclesiasties: Most of our life is vanity. Strive and thrive in the important stuff.
James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Pride is the deadliest sin. And the Bible teaches flattery causes BIG problems as well.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
Revelation 18:23 ....for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
To me, the most important thing in the End Times is this...Do not be deceived.
Plus the Bible is full of conspiracies plots and even the greatest persons of the Bible made mistakes we can learn from and struggled with doubts, etc.
Last thing that gives comfort is that some get delivered in this world (Daniel from the lion's den) and some don't. Jesus said John the Bsptist was the greatest man who ever lived but he got beheaded at 30 something. The point is that to a believer heaven is going to be an infinitely better place so that instills boldness.
I hope I shared this in a respectful manner with my truther friends here and something shared helps someone to attach themselves to rock as others around them experience the whiplash of the Hegellian dialectic. Being steady in the storm helps others.
Another thing is that the perpetrators running amuck in the world hate Jesus and the Bible. But it's amazing how they stay to the Bible's End Times script of events. Matthew 24, 2 Thes 2 and (book of Revelation, which has tons of violence and death but is very triumphant for believers).
If you're not looking AT darkness right now, you're blind. The criticism you describe frequently comes from those who are the first to cry shrilly when they are exposed to words they disagree with: "Words are violence! Hate speech! Misinformation!" They refuse to fight evil. They fight those who fight evil.
And why is that? What makes someone blind, narcissistic, unable to think critically? It is fascinating how consistent these divisions are...the sheep side are typically far left politically, do not seem capable of making decisions for themselves and require parental guidance, do not seem to have a certain measurement of common sense, are unusually afraid of death. And, as you say, have a tendency toward narcissism. The shrews, us, seem to be opposite in most regards, are more than likely "conservative" politically, believe in God or some "overarching spiritual mind", think critically, do not have a problem dealing with the "tension of the opposites" (i.e., can accept the grey of an argument, willing to listen to all viewpoints without become ballistic), can make decisions on their own, do not need nor want an authoritarian parental government to "save them" or "protect them", do not have an obsessive fear of death (belief in an afterlife? Or just aware that life is inherently dangerous?) ...is this all? Are there other differences? I have two sisters, one an extreme sheep, and one an extreme shrew (see my sheep/shrew article if I am not making sense.) Why? They are both liberals, although the shrew is pulling more to the right in some areas. What makes us a shrew or a sheep? I understand what makes up one or the other, but what makes them to start with? Were we just chosen by god to be one or the other??
Now the blind are mostly “far” left (the actual far left is almost nonexistent in North America) meaning Democrats.
But 20 years ago, the equivalently blind were the conservatives, who became deranged on hearing that the anthrax attacks were a Deep State op to increase tyranny and that 9/11 was also an inside job and one reason that the Bush crime family stole the election.
I talked to many of these cult believers on the right because for a year I wore an 8.5x11 sign saying Oiligarchy as a continuous protest against the Iraq war. It led to many conversations, a few heated.
So I don’t think that Dr. McDonald’s explanation is complete.
I appreciate your thoughtful comments, Sanjoy.
Of course there is a much more complex and lengthy history involved here that goes back decades before the pandemic of fear. My main point that I believe is apropos to current times is that the overwhelming drive to control the American population through a a collusion among politicians, corporations, and media is coming largely from the Left, which includes the Democrat party. By definition, this collusion also includes fascistic elements (business and government working together to suppress freedom), but none of it is by any definition conservative.
I believe that it will be up to traditional liberals to unblind themselves to their naive support of the Left--whose values are truly antithetical to both traditional liberal and conservative values--for America to release itself from the death grip of this evil force, which destroys everything it touches, without exception. Until then, it will be conservatives alone with the clear vision adequate to see and speak the truth.
How Left and Right are used nowadays obscures more than explains. For example, it leads to the confusion of calling Obama "left" even though his family was CIA, he was a longtime CIA asset, and the CIA is the muscle for Wall Street.
The actual left fought for free-speech rights before WW1, when the first amendment was just a prohibition on prior restraint rather than a guarantee of free speech. The actual left, like the IWW, won workers the 8-hour day and the weekend.
What we're seeing is instead a fight between two wings of capitalism: the small or frontier capitalists (now called the "right") vs. the monopoly capitalists (now called the "left"). Their war heated up after the Civil War, when big business grew and spread across the newly unified country. The House of Morgan the other robber barons were the monopoly capitalists, and the Populist Revolt was the last gasp of the frontier capitalists.
By the time of the so-called Progressive movement, the inversion was complete. The monopoly capitalists came to Washington pushing for more regulation, in order to use regulation as barriers to entry against the little guy. And today, only the largest drug companies can afford to get a new drug through the regulatory hurdles.
Capitalism, because the rich get richer faster, tends to monopoly. The monopoly capitalists' ideology is against competition and in favor of holism, reflecting the desire to erase any class struggle. Every victor wants peace. In Corona fascism, this holism shows up as slogans like, "We're all in this together."
Meanwhile, the frontier capitalist values dog-eat-dog competition, considering it part of freedom. And the frontier world was more free (except for the Native Americans cleared off to "free" the land) than the feudal, fascist tyranny that the monopoly capitalists are creating.
But, because of the conceptual mess of "left vs. right" that so many conservatives fall into, the conservatives don't I think have a clear enough vision of what we are all up against.
However, even without full clarity, which humans never manage anyway, we all have to fight this tyranny descending upon humanity, whatever one calls it.
You have great points here, thank you. I am actually quite fascinated with the political ramifications here. I agree with you that it is rather easy to categorize sheep and shrews as being left or right, but it almost seems that the parties adjusted to the psychological grouping of the culture rather the other way around...your example of the responses to 9/11 and anthrax is a good indication of what I am saying. I actually am disappointed when politicians use "left vs right" as a tool to encourage derision, because ultimately this all has little to do with partisan politics...
In short--engagement with reality. Everything that gets in the way of that, such as virtual reality, urban living, government subsidies, social media, academia, leads to sheep conversion.
Fascinating! I have been telling my patients something similar for years…”the culture” I would say, cell phones, video games, pornography, the broken family, the consumerism, the loss of “something bigger” (God?) on and on. I also believe it is a disconnection with nature. But I have never called it “engagement with reality”…I LOVE THAT…can I use it with my patients? I will give you credit!!!
I've often thought about why I seem to be different than almost everyone else around me. The conclusion I've come to is that I was raised in an alcoholic household where my parents often didn't know and didn't care where I was or what I was up to. So I learned that I couldn't rely on anyone else and I needed to be sharply focused on opportunities and threats.
So over the years I have learned to easily recognise things that seemed off and to seek out a variety of sources of information that I could do further research.
But I also came to the realisation that it was pointless to discuss any of these things in detail with those who had closed minds.
Sometimes this has been a blessing but these days I'm starting to wonder if it is more of a curse. I wonder what it must be like to be blissfully ignorant. Because sometimes you catch these things so early and you have a good idea how things are going to play out but it takes so long and you go through such anguish waiting for the inevitable to happen. And you can't warn people or have any interesting discussions because the sheep don't want to hear any of that.
As Tom Petty sang "The waiting is the hardest part ..."
Thanks Todd and all who leave comments here for letting me know I am not alone.
Mike...this is so very well put. I have heard a similar story from some of my clients...one believing that being bullied as a child makes him hypersensitive to "governmental bullying" now as an adult. I certainly can see the "hypervigilance" kicking in with people who have suffered from childhood trauma. I think I have a bit of this myself. I read situations differently, and am indeed, unconsciously at least, "looking" for something that COULD go wrong. Still, I find it odd that people don't see, just from everyday non traumatic life, that not EVERYONE or EVERYTHING that comes into their experience should be accepted without at least a bit of examination. Whatever happened to the not too distant days when a second opinion from a doctor was without question the path to take, or getting an opinion from an independent mechanic before purchasing a used car. All of that "healthy" skepticism seems to have gone out the window. Thanks again for commenting!!