‘Liberal Creationism,’ Revisited

Posted on | January 29, 2022 | Comments Off on ‘Liberal Creationism,’ Revisited

William Saletan marks his 25-year anniversary at Slate-dot-com with a column discussing what he’s learned, about himself and the online audience, during his quarter-century at the original Internet magazine. Among other things, he laments the rise of Twitter warfare and the way centrifugal forces seem to be driving both Left and Right toward tribalism, with no possibility of moderation or compromise or even rational discussion. These are conditions not conducive to the kind of elitist neoliberal punditry that is Saletan’s specialty. During the same 25 years that Saletan has been at Slate (originally a property of Microsoft, since purchased by the former owners of the Washington Post), I’ve gone from working for the Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune to spending more than 10 years at The Washington Times to being an independent blogger and American Spectator correspondent (while also recently being employed in a day job I never talk about). While I’ve been swimming along with the surging current of populism — I was populist before populism was cool — Saletan has attempted to resist the tide and, consequently, has become nearly irrelevant. Elitist neoliberalism matters a lot to the elite, but it doesn’t swing much weight with the masses, and if anybody’s sitting around breathlessly awaiting William Saletan’s next column, I can’t imagine why. This doesn’t make Saletan a villain, and I have no desire to celebrate his unfortunate situation, but I am dumbfounded by this paragraph in Saletan’s farewell column at Slate:

My worst mistake was in 2007, when I wrote about race and IQ. To this day, the subject makes me feel almost physically ill. In addition to a basic scientific error — you can’t use data about the heritability of traits within a population to draw inferences between populations — I was spectacularly obtuse to the social context in which I was writing. I thought statistical averages within groups should make no difference in how individuals are perceived. And it would be lovely if we lived in that world. But we don’t.

Saletan thereby repudiates and apologizes (again) for his 2007 column, “Liberal Creationism,” which was one of the most important and controversial things he ever wrote — and thus does the neoliberal surrender to the mob. In so doing, however, he draws attention to the heresy he has recanted, giving the rest of us an opportunity to examine his arguments and interrogate his reasons for abandoning them.

What prompted Saletan’s column was a newsworthy event:

Last month [i.e., October 2007], James Watson, the legendary biologist, was condemned and forced into retirement after claiming that African intelligence wasn’t “the same as ours.” “Racist, vicious and unsupported by science,” said the Federation of American Scientists. “Utterly unsupported by scientific evidence,” declared the U.S. government’s supervisor of genetic research. The New York Times told readers that when Watson implied “that black Africans are less intelligent than whites, he hadn’t a scientific leg to stand on.”

These denunciations of Watson’s claims were contrary to the facts. That is to say, Watson’s claim was not “unsupported by scientific evidence,” even if there was (and is) controversy about what the evidence means, both within the narrow confines of anthropology and in the larger context of societal and political issues. The real point, as explained by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray in their monumental 1994 book The Bell Curve, can be summarized in three words — average group differences.

Insofar as human beings can be categorized as members of groups, there will be measurable differences between such groups — otherwise the categories are meaningless — so that when studying these groups from a behavioral or sociological perspective, what matters is the difference between group averages. This is a point Herrnstein and Murray emphasized sufficiently in their book for any honest and intelligent reader to grasp, but alas the Left is not populated by such people, so that The Bell Curve was greeted by an insane hysteria. Herrnstein (whose scientific credentials were impeccable) had died of cancer by the time the book was published, so that Murray (an economist by training) was left alone to defend their argument against malicious accusations that their intention was to justify some sort of latter-day Nazi eugenics program.

Those of us old enough to recall this mid-1990s controversy should understand it as a prelude to today’s “cancel culture” issues. The malicious slander directed at Murray (and posthumously also toward Herrnstein) was not intended to enlighten the public about the issues involved; rather, this was a journalistic lynch mob engaged in character assassination as part of an effort to suppress the facts and prevent any debate over what The Bell Curve might suggest in terms of public policy.

We can disagree as to why average group differences exist, or what sort of policies could be implemented in dealing with such differences, but what we cannot do — if we wish to be intellectually responsible — is to engage in a make-believe game where we pretend that these differences don’t exist, and then try to sustain our make-believe game by screaming “RAAAAACIST!” at anyone who raises the issue.

And this, really, was the point of Saletan’s 2007 column, i.e., that liberals were playing the part of fundamentalist True Believers, attempting to prohibit discussion of what they regarded as heresy:

Tests do show an IQ deficit, not just for Africans relative to Europeans, but for Europeans relative to Asians. Economic and cultural theories have failed to explain most of the pattern, and there’s strong preliminary evidence that part of it is genetic. It’s time to prepare for the possibility that equality of intelligence, in the sense of racial averages on tests, will turn out not to be true.
If this suggestion makes you angry — if you find the idea of genetic racial advantages outrageous, socially corrosive, and unthinkable — you’re not the first to feel that way. Many Christians are going through a similar struggle over evolution. Their faith in human dignity rests on a literal belief in Genesis. To them, evolution isn’t just another fact; it’s a threat to their whole value system. As William Jennings Bryan put it during the Scopes trial, evolution meant elevating “supposedly superior intellects,” “eliminating the weak,” “paralyzing the hope of reform,” jeopardizing “the doctrine of brotherhood,” and undermining “the sympathetic activities of a civilized society.”
The same values — equality, hope, and brotherhood — are under scientific threat today. But this time, the threat is racial genetics, and the people struggling with it are liberals.

Here, as a Bible-believing Christian, I must defend Bryan and object to Saletan’s implication that Darwinism is a scientific fact and that Genesis is false. Of course, there are (((other))) reasons why Saletan ought to defend Genesis — as a matter of self-interest, I certainly would, if I were him — but what I find really objectionable among Darwin’s fan club is their apparent certainty that our entire universe is one gigantic accident, a random coincidence without transcendent meaning or purpose.

Did I ever mention that I am a traditionalist? My ancestors thought of themselves as pilgrims sojourning in this vale of tears on their way to the Promised Land, and this sense of a missionary purpose to life, which was instilled in me in the pews and classrooms of the Lithia Springs First Baptist Church, has never really left me. Sinful backslider though I am, nevertheless I have never doubted that God has some larger purpose for my life, even if that purpose is a mystery I shall never understand.

We must keep the faith, dear brothers and sisters, even while we endure hardship and doubt, harassed by scoffers and forced to witness the evils of a world lost in sin. Among the rewards for this stewardship is the courage to withstand the attacks of the wicked. Satan is a liar, and his earthly minions habitually traffic in slander, of which I have sometimes been a target. In moments of crisis, when my survival was threatened, I declared, “Never doubt that God answers prayer.” Having fools for enemies is among the greatest blessings I have enjoyed.

Readers will excuse this seeming digression into theological matters, because it only seems irrelevant to William Saletan and his repudiation of his “Liberal Creationism” column. Truth is not to be discovered by plebiscite; facts are not a matter of majority rule. If you have the truth on your side, you ought to be courageous in defending it, even if — and perhaps especially if — it seems everybody is telling you you’re wrong.

The truth may be controversial, but it’s still the truth. This is what we learn from the Book of Job — afflicted by evil, and surrounded by “friends” who told him to curse God and die, Job kept the faith.

When Saletan wrote “Liberal Creationism,” he must have known this would be controversial, so why didn’t he resolve himself to defend the truth at all hazards, to acquit himself with courage in the battle?

One imagines he was afraid of losing his career as a journalist.

To which the proper answer is, “So what?”

In August 1987, I was driving a forklift in a warehouse on Fulton Industrial Boulevard. The warehouse was not air conditioned, the pay was low, and there was certainly no prestige to my labor. I’d walked out of my last newspaper job vowing that I was through with that infernal business, but sweating in that warehouse made me reconsider my vow. That evening, I called my old editor, Chris Barker, and asked him if he knew of any job openings in the newspaper racket. Chris said he’d check around, and called back later to tell me there was an opening for a sports editor at a paper in Calhoun, Georgia.

“Fine,” I said. “Just tell me, where the hell is Calhoun, Georgia?”

Within a week, I was living there, and a couple months later, I walked into the office and met the woman who became my wife, and by summer of 1989, we were married with a little baby daughter. The point of that story is: If all else fails, I could always go back to driving a forklift.

Perhaps that thought never occurred to William Saletan, so that when his liberal friends started screaming “RAAAAACIST!” at him because of his 2007 column, this represented in his mind an existential threat.

Whether or not Saletan’s job at Slate was in jeopardy, a liberal pundit’s career opportunities might be severely limited by the accusation of racism, and so Saletan followed up with a series of articles backing down from what he’d written in “Liberal Creationism” and now, nearly 15 years later, he feels compelled to renounce that column as his “worst mistake.”

Well, let me tell you something, Bill: I’d go back to driving a forklift before I’d belly-crawl in front of a mob like that. Your cowardice only incited the mob to further aggression, with the consequence that we are now surrounded by mobs who think they can bully people into silence.

Now let me offer you the best refutation possible of the slanderous accusation that it is “racist” to discuss average group differences: If you are smart enough to read and understand The Bell Curve, obviously you are a person of superior intelligence, no matter what your ethnic heritage.

It so happens that I, as a white Southerner, belong to a below-average group — Yankees, on average, are actually smarter. Well, what does that mean for me as an individual? “Stupid is as stupid does,” to quote the great Alabama philosopher Forrest Gump, and if I do not wish to be regarded as inferior, it behooves me to take care how I conduct myself.

Grant that at times I may have said or done stupid things that would lend aid and comfort to my enemies, giving credence to their dismissal of me as a stereotypical dumb hillbilly, but on the whole, I think no honest critic would describe me as ignorant, and thereby I refute the slander of my enemies and uphold the dignity of my people. It would seem to me that others ought to emulate this example if they are likewise members of groups whose average might give rise to accusations of inferiority.

Try not to be a stereotype, is what I’m saying here. Say, for example, if you’re a pointy-headed intellectual, learn how to park your bicycle.

If you get that joke, don’t let on. They’ll ban you forever.

Patience is a virtue. We must learn to endure life in a world where truth is trodden under foot by peddlers of lies, and where those who ought to be courageous in defense of truth instead surrender to the mob. My ancestors were not wrong in thinking of themselves as sojourners in the vale of tears, and knowing what dreadful hardships they endured gives me courage to maintain my dignity amid whatever minor difficulties might afflict my own circumstances. You have not yet seen me bowing before any mobs, the way the gutless Saletan has done, and I don’t anticipate you’ll see this in the future because, unlike Saletan, I know: I could always go back to driving a forklift. Deo vindice.

Category: Intellectuals, Media Bias, Racism

In The Mailbox: 01.28.22

Posted on | January 29, 2022 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

We had some stragglers from Everybody Blog About Mass Formation Psychosis Day, and I’ve included them with the rest of the links.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Unsolicited Dick pic.

OVER THE TRANSOM
A View From The Beach: In a Fit Of Mass Formation Psychosis
357 Magnum: Happy Belated Birthday EVH, also, The Heckler’s Veto & Higher Education
McGee’s Tally Book: It No Longer Swings To & Fro
EBL: Evangeline Lilly – Resisting Mass Formation Psychosis
Twitchy: “And Then The Intern Took Another Bong Hit”
Louder With Crowder: WV Gov. Justice Invites Bette Midler To Kiss His Dog’s Butt, also, Elon Musk Comes Out In Support Of Canadian Truckers
Vox Popoli: Sowing The Seeds Of Evil, also, You ARE A Third World Country
According To Hoyt: Round The Bend, also, When Tolerance Kills
Monster Hunter Nation: Let’s Play Privilege Bingo! also, “Dead Acre” Review (Free Novella On Audible)

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Saving Small Farms
American Greatness: The Needle & The Damage Done, also, Meet The Capitol Police’s New Spy Chief
American Power: “I’m a Public School Teacher. The Kids Aren’t All Right”, also, The Left’s Culture War As Class War
American Thinker: The Democrat Party’s Application Of Mass Formation Psychosis, also, Tribal Morality – The Difference Between Election Fraud & Voter Suppression
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five University Sheep News
Babalu Blog: Cuban Dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer Leads Protest In Prison – Family Fears For His Life, Everything Looks Calm To Cuba’s Sock Puppet “President”, and Forget Neil Young – Next To His Former Partners, He’s A Brilliant Freedom Lover
Baldilocks: The Plan & The Push
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For January 28
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, A Red Chinese Space Plane? and Will SpaceX Recover Superheavy On Land Or At Sea?
Cafe Hayek: Quotation Of The Day
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: Hall Of Fame Talk – Who Belongs In, Just About Half Of Democrats Embrace Abject COVID Tyranny, and Ready for The Blizzard Of 2022? Thank A Bunch of Dead White Men
Don Surber: NYT Finally Opposes Harvard’s Racism, also, Frampton Comes A-Cropper
First Street Journal: What Good Are Gun Control Laws When Larry Krasner Won’t Enforce Them?
Gates Of Vienna: The Mean Streets Of Little Mogadishu In Borlänge, “You Will Not Escape Your Just Punishment”, and Cui Bono?
The Geller Report: Court Rules Pa. Mail In Voting Law Unconstitutional, Canadians Furious After PM Zoolander Calls Trucker Convoy “Fringe Minority”, and YouTube Permab& Dan Bongino
Hogewash: Comet Leonard, Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, and Democracy Dies In Derpness
Hollywood In Toto: Cowardly Stern Is Destroying His Legacy In Real Time
The Lid: Massive Truck Convoy Opposing Jab Mandates Heads To Ottawa, And PM Zoolander Goes Into Hiding
Legal Insurrection: LA DA Gascon Allows Child Molester To Be Housed In Juvenile Detention, George Soros Gives Democrat PAC $125 Million For Midterms, and State Legislators Making A Stand Against “Critical Theory’s Long March”
Nebraska Energy Observer: Scattershot Friday
Outkick: Seventeen NBA Players Make Millions Off Shoes Made With Red Chinese Slave Labor, Buck No! Troy Aikman May Be Leaving Longtime Partner Joe Buck, and Sexist Stephen A. Smith Calls Jeff Garcia Sexist For Questioning Mina Kimes
Power Line: Felony Murder In A Good Cause – FOX News Edition, Voters Don’t Like SCOTUS Set-Aside, and Is Joe Biden In The CCP’s Pocket?
Shark Tank: DeSantis Will Help Farmers If Freezing Temperatures Kill Crops
Shot In The Dark: Not Approved By Avery Librelle, Help Me Decide, and Accountability
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday – NATO & European Security
This Ain’t Hell: Former Ship’s Captain Goes To Prison, Valor Friday, and Slain Officer’s Wife – The System Has Failed Us
Transterrestrial Musings: How The GOP Can Block Breyer’s Replacement, The Inevitable, and A Dying Nation
Victory Girls: Cat Announcement Shows White House Desperation
Volokh Conspiracy: Dragging Out Protesters Disrupting City Council Meeting Isn’t Excessive Force
Weasel Zippers: Imbecile Who Raised Prices On Insulin Whines That People Can’t Afford It, CNN – 55% Disapprove Of Biden, Only 30% Think He’s Concerned With Their Economic Well-Being, and “This Is What ‘America’s Back’ Means?”
The Federalist: Ga. School District Published Plans To Teach CRT – Then Hid Them, Girls – It’s OK To Be Beautiful, and Facebook & Reddit Ban Pro-Police Comic That Broke No Platform Rules
Mark Steyn: Truckin’ Through Trudeaupia, also, Rock Me Gently, Investigate Me Slowly

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

A Death in New Jersey

Posted on | January 28, 2022 | 1 Comment

“Daniel J. Ackley, age 33 of Millville, passed away suddenly on January 4, 2022,” according to his obituary, a masterpiece of understatement. The muzzle velocity of a standard 9-mm pistol is about 1,250 feet per second, which is pretty doggone sudden. The late Daniel Ackley was armed with a large knife — so large that responding police officers thought it was a machete — at a trailer home in Millville when a female relative called 911:

In the first call, a woman describing the situation says Ackley has a history of getting angry and uncontrollable and he doesn’t really know why — to which the dispatcher asks if he needs the police or an ambulance to take him to a facility. The woman agrees. . . .
A second call is then made, saying that Ackley has now gone outside and is holding a knife.

The headline calls Ackley a “Troubled Iraq Veteran,” as if threatening people with knives were more common among Iraq veterans than among, for example, Philadelphia residents. We don’t know if Ackley’s military service had anything to do with his final outburst of knife-wielding craziness, although 30 seconds before he got shot, he helpfully informed the officers, “I’ve been to Iraq, bitch!” When one of the officers said, “I don’t want to shoot you,” Ackley showed a high level of political awareness by responding, “I’m not black enough to be shot?”

Turns out there are limits to “white privilege” in New Jersey.

Nobody looted Best Buy. No statues were toppled. White guys get shot by cops all the time, and CNN never seems to notice.

Category: Crime

In The Mailbox: 01.27.22

Posted on | January 28, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.27.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

“If you talk about mass formation psychosis, you must be crazy!” THEY say.

EVERYBODY BLOG ABOUT MASS FORMATION PSYCHOSIS DAY
McG’s Tally Book: Today Is Everybody Blog About Mass Formation Psychosis Day
Daily Dose Of Vitamin Fred: MFP And We!
Nebraska Energy Observer: We Must Make Today Everybody Blog About Mass Formation Psychosis Day
EBL: COVID-19 Indoctrination Song
Da Tech Guy: A $10 Word For Something That’s Not New
Hogewash: Everybody Blog About Mass Formation Psychosis Day

OVER THE TRANSOM
Twitchy: Dean Obeidallah Is Simping For Joy Reid, also, USA TODAY Says It’s Downright Dangerous That Americans Don’t Trust Their Public Health Officials
Louder With Crowder: Ron DeSantis Releases Ad Sure To Cause Another Fauci Meltdown, also, Marvel Actress Comes Out Against The Jab, Shares Common Sense Message From Washington DC Protest
Vox Popoli: Of Pearls & Swine

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Mr. President, Stay Out Of Ukraine
American Greatness: Polls Show Popular Support For Canadian Trucker Convoy Despite PM Zoolander’s Assertion That It Represents “Fringe Minority”, also, Awakening From The Biden Slumber
American Power: Putin Seeks To Revise Post-Cold War Settlement In Europe
American Thinker: The Pandemic Endgame – Is There One? also, The Rise Of Blockchain Republics
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Brain Implant News
Babalu Blog: 11J – A Turning Point In The Repression Of Cuban Evangelicals, also, The Democrats Get Silly About Threats To Democracy
Baldilocks: A Spinster’s Tale, Part 1
BattleSwarm: Joe Rogan, Neil Young, & Rock’s Eternal Now
Behind The Black: Pushback – Blacklisted Doctors Opposing Biden/CDC/FDA Policies Testify To Congress, Red China Tests Space Junk Removal Robot In Geosynch Orbit, and ABL Test Explosion To Delay First Launch By Three Months
Cafe Hayek: More On The Late, Great Walter Williams
CDR Salamander: What Did You Do In Your First Five Years After Commissioning?
Don Surber: Is Breyer Retiring? also, Even NYT Admits Biden Can’t Walk & Chew Gum
First Street Journal: The Lexington Herald-Journal & Journalistic Ethics
Gates Of Vienna: Afghans, Afghans Everywhere!, That WAYCIST Cross, and Mrs. Green Goes To Moscow
The Geller Report: Soros DA Found Guilty On 141 Counts, also, “If It Gets Out…The Government Is Betraying The American People”
Hollywood In Toto: Unorthodox Casting Pays Off In Cyrano, also, Here’s What You’re Missing About The Spotify/Neil Young Battle
The Lid: The Rabbi Who Was Silent About The Holocaust
Legal Insurrection: Remember When Law Profs Said VP Can’t Cast Tiebreaking Vote On SCOTUS Nominations? The Murder Turtle Does, ASU Cancels Fundraising Event Featuring Two GOP Congressmen, and UIC Law Prof Sues After School Tried To Force Him Into Humiliating Racial Reeducation Program
Outkick: Tennessee Playing With New Attitude On The Court, MLB Minor Leaguers Not Required To Be Jabbed For 2022, and NBA Subjects Fans Attending Clippers/Wizards Game To Video Message From Chinese Ambassador
Power Line: Betraying The American People, A Day In The Life, and Why Do Democrats Hate Children?
Shark Tank: Eskamani Considering Run For Congress?
Shot In The Dark: “Welcome To Potemkin’s!”, Dismantle, and Casualty Of Not-Quite-War Yet
STUMP: 2021 January-June Cause Of Death Ranking Table
The Political Hat: Modern Education – Secret Indoctrination, BLM Guiding Principles, & Brainwashing In 21 Days
This Ain’t Hell: Thursday FGS, Fat Leonard Takes Down Another Navy Officer, and Washington State Citizens Upset That SEALS Use Their State Parks For “Wargames”
Transterrestrial Musings: A Doctor’s Perspective, also, Apollo 1
Victory Girls: NYT Blames GOP Infighting For Ukraine Response Confusion, also, DHS Makes Excuses While “Betraying The American People”
Volokh Conspiracy: Settlement In Firing Of Professor Over Tweets – $70K & Attorneys’ Fees
Weasel Zippers: Soros-Funded DAs Now Facing Recalls, Cop Murdered By Illegal Immigrant On Felony Probation, and This Is A Utah Elementary School Teacher
The Federalist: Blame Aaron Sorkin For How Leftists Argue, Catholics For Choice – Just Another Left-Wing Front To Encourage Killing Babies, and Dallas Private School Lies To Parents About Teaching Racism
Mark Steyn: Kernels Of Freedom, also, Chinese Virus, Chinese Masks, Chinese Freedoms

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

Mass Formation Psychosis: What Is It and Why Is Everybody Talking About It Now?

Posted on | January 27, 2022 | 2 Comments

Have you ever heard of “The Streisand Effect”? It’s what happens on the Internet when someone tries to suppress the truth:

Barbra Streisand . . . in 2003 had sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia[dot]com for violation of privacy. The US$50 million lawsuit endeavored to remove an aerial photograph of Streisand’s mansion from the publicly available collection of 12,000 California coastline photographs. Adelman photographed the beachfront property to document coastal erosion as part of the California Coastal Records Project, which was intended to influence government policymakers. Before Streisand filed her lawsuit, “Image 3850” had been downloaded from Adelman’s website only six times; two of those downloads were by Streisand’s attorneys. As a result of the case, public knowledge of the picture increased greatly; more than 420,000 people visited the site over the following month. The lawsuit was dismissed and Streisand was ordered to pay Adelman’s legal fees, which amounted to $155,567.

In a free society, such censorship efforts always fail, if citizens understand what is at stake. Today was Everybody Blog About Mass Formation Psychosis Day, an effort to bring attention to a dangerous censorship effort. Last month, William Jacobson blogged about Mass Formation Psychosis and linked to this short primer on the subject:

A brief overview of Mass Formation, which was developed by Dr. Mattias Desmet. He is a psychologist and a statistician. He is at the University of Ghent in Belgium. I think Dr. Mattias is onto something about what is happening and he calls this phenomena:
MASS FORMATION PSYCHOSIS
So, when he says “mass” formation, you can think of this as equivalent to “crowd” formation. One can think of this as:
CROWD PSYCHOSIS
The conditions to set up mass formation psychosis include lack of social connectedness and sensemaking as well as large amounts of latent anxiety and passive aggression. When people are inundated with a narrative that presents a plausible “object of anxiety” and strategy for coping with it, then many individuals group together to battle the object with a collective singlemindedness. This allows people to stop focusing on their own problems, avoiding personal mental anguish. Instead, they focus all their thought and energy on this new object.
As mass formation progresses, the group becomes increasingly bonded and connected. Their field of attention is narrowed and they become unable to consider alternative points of view. Leaders of the movement are revered, unable to do no wrong.
Left unabated, a society under the spell of mass formation will support a totalitarian governance structure capable of otherwise unthinkable atrocities in order to maintain compliance. A note: mass formation is different from group think. There are easy ways to fix group think by just bringing in dissenting voices and making sure you give them platforms. It isn’t so easy with mass formation. Even when the narrative falls apart, cracks in the strategy clearly aren’t solving the issue, the hypnotized crowd can’t break free of the narrative. This is what appears to be happening now with COVID-19. The solution for those in control of the narrative is to produce bigger and bigger lies to prop up the solution. Those being controlled by mass formation no longer are able to use reason to break free of the group narrative.

Do you grasp the significance of this concept in our current situation? Guess what happens if you tell the truth in a world where major institutions are devoted to promoting official lies?

Twitter on [Dec. 29] suspended the account operated by Dr. Robert Malone, a U.S.-based virologist, and immunologist credited for significantly contributing to the invention of the mRNA technology, the foundation of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against Covid-19.
The ban came just hours after the AP posted a controversial “fact check” report claiming Malone “misled” people by claiming the vaccines are failing against the Omicron variant.

It is self-evident that vaccines haven’t stopped the Omicron variant, which produced a surge of “breakthrough” COVID-19 infections in vaccinated patients, even those who had gotten “booster” shots. Yet not only did Twitter ban Dr. Malone for “misinformation,” but because popular podcaster Joe Rogan hosted Dr. Malone on his program, everybody is now trying to ban Rogan:

Biden-appointed U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Silicon Valley tech companies have an “important role to play” in preventing the spread of alleged coronavirus “misinformation.” His comments came during an MSNBC interview that specifically mentioned Joe Rogan.
Murthy made the comments during an appearance on MSNBC, in which host Mika Brzezinski asked Murthy what should be done about alleged misinformation from Joe Rogan and social media posts.
“What do you think are the best ways to push back on misinformation about COVID that continues to be aggressively pushed, whether it be Joe Rogan’s podcast or all over Facebook?” asked Brzezinski.
“We can have the best science available, we can have the best public health expertise available. It won’t help people if they don’t have access to accurate information,” responded Murthy. “People have the right to make their own decisions, but they also have the right to have accurate information to make that decision with.”
The Biden-appointed health official went on to urge private companies to use their power to limit the spread of alleged misinformation.
“This is about companies and individuals recognizing that the only way we get past misinformation is if we are careful about what we say and use the power that we have to limit the spread of misinformation,” said Murthy.
With an average of 11 million listeners per episode, Joe Rogan is arguably the most popular pundit in the western world.

The “surgeon general” @vivek_murthy: “Critical part of how we get through this pandemic” is “limiting the spread of misinformation” from shows like @joerogan pic.twitter.com/xexarsaNDN

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 25, 2022

Do you see the point? If indeed our “leaders” are trying to hypnotize the masses, the one thing they can’t allow is for anyone to tell the masses, “Hey, they’re hypnotizing you.” So the silencing of dissent is essential to the propaganda campaign that fuels Mass Formation Psychosis.

Everybody Blog About Mass Formation Psychosis Day @PatriarchTree @donsurber @BattleSwarmBlog @AaronWorthing @MsEBL @DaTechGuyblog @PolitiBunny @GrizzlyJoeShow https://t.co/oHtygnrD6b

— The WJJ Hoge (@wjjhoge) January 27, 2022

Mass formation psychosis: 68% of those who are triple-vaxxed are 'somewhat' or 'very' worried about getting sick from covid. pic.twitter.com/NZ1VblaYTX

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) January 26, 2022

Category: Media Bias, Science

In The Mailbox: 01.26.22 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | January 26, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.26.22 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I’m giving serious thought to having a special post (or maybe just additional section for this post) in honor of “Blog About Mass Formation Psychosis Day”. If you have a post on the topic, send me the link and I’ll hook you up.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

Neil Young gets an answer from Spotify.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1609
357 Magnum: New Music Sucks – That Seems To Be The Consensus
EBL: Civilisation – Romance & Reality
Twitchy: Virginia Rep Nick Freitas Torches Democrats Whose Kneejerk Reaction To Disagreement Is To Cry “Racist” Or “Sexist”
Louder With Crowder: Kid Rock Unleashes New Anti-Fauci Anti-Biden Banger “We The People” With “Let’s Go Brandon” Chorus
Vox Popoli: Diversifying Ukraine, also, And Here…We…Go

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Gamma Strike, also, We’re Not For Sale
American Conservative: Our Sinking Ship In Europe, also, Joe Biden’s Low-Energy Blunder
American Greatness: Donald Trump & The Future Of MAGA, also, Gov. Youngkin (R-Va.) Opens Tip Line For Parents To Report Teachers Teaching Critical Race Theory
American Power: Media Got Its NPC Update – Biden Wasn’t Snapping At Doocy
American Thinker: I Regret Getting The COVID Vaccine
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Cuban Peso In Free Fall Against US$ While Inflation In Cuba Hits 300-500%, also, The History Of Spanish-Language Radio In Miami & The Democrats’ Attempt To Shut It Down
Baldilocks: Fewer Bugs, More Features
BattleSwarm: Is The Bloom Off The Bush?
Behind The Black: Pushback – Class Action Suit Against NY’s Racially Discriminatory COVID Policy, Today’s Blacklisted American, and Planetary Scientists Fight Back – “Pluto Is A Planet!”
Cafe Hayek: What Of The Photo Of The Space-Helmeted Woman? also, Bill Walton Talks With George Will & Some Other Guests
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Da Tech Guy: P-5 Days And Counting – Conditional Blogging Note, also, No Heart For You!
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First Street Journal: The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch Is Horrified That Some Democrats Actually Want To Fight Crime
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Category: Linkagery

Crazy People Are Dangerous

Posted on | January 26, 2022 | Comments Off on Crazy People Are Dangerous

Say hello to 24-year-old Zachary Lucas Olivar of Snellville, Georgia, who (a) has a “history of mental illness,” and (b) shot a sheriff’s deputy in Jones County. Before we go any further with this story, permit to ask this question: Why is it that we never hear about the mental health of such people until after they shoot a cop? Or get shot by the cops, as the case may be. In Philadelphia, for example, they had a full-scale race riot in October 2020 after Walter Wallace Jr., who had “mental health problems,” and was brandishing a large butcher knife when he charged a police officer and got shot. Wallace’s “mental health problems” weren’t front-page news until after he got shot (and everybody started looting because “social justice”). You might think there’d be some kind of early-warning system in place, so that all the locals would know who the crazy people were, and then when they got shot by cops, everybody would be like, “Oh, it was that one. Had to happen sooner or later.”

Olivar’s family had been dealing with his craziness for weeks in Snellville, which is a suburb of Atlanta in Gwinnett County. What is not explained in any of the news articles I’ve read is why Olivar was in rural Jones County, about 70 miles south of Snellville, down near Macon. Perhaps he was a rhythm-and-blues fan, hoping to visit the Otis Redding “Big O” Ranch just south of Round Oak. Olivar was in that vicinity, on State Route 11 between Round Oak and Wayside, when he was spotted driving erratically by Deputy John Kile:

Olivar puts his hands out of the driver’s side window, as if surrendering. However, he refuses repeated requests to exit the car.
“This is my home, sir. This is my home,” Olivar says repeatedly.
It’s around the 4-minute mark that something appears in Olivar’s hand, prompting the deputy to ask: “What you got?”
Seconds later, a gun wrapped in a towel is thrust out the window and a flash point is seen.
Kile grunts from the impact of a bullet, but doesn’t fall. Instead, the camera shows his feet running to his patrol car, as he screams “Shots fired, shots fired” into his radio.
Video recorded from the perspective of the patrol car shows Kile was standing just a few feet from the gun, and he is seen grabbing his chest as he runs back to his vehicle.
The video concludes with Olivar captured six minutes later, after his vehicle is forced off the road. Kile was among the pursuing officers, despite his injuries, officials said.
Olivar, who lives in Snellville, is being held without bond at the Jones County Sheriff’s Office “facing aggravated assault charges,” officials said.
Jones County Sheriff R.N. “Butch” Reece says investigators have learned Olivar has a “history of mental illness,” which is why he decided to release the video.
“We have received reports that he has been having issues for the past week, with several attempts made by his family to get him help,” Reece wrote on Facebook.
“Families are struggling to get help for loved ones with mental health issues; however, it seems all too often that these individuals fall through the cracks. Unfortunately it sometimes takes an incident like this one to show how important accessibility to mental health care really is. Our jails are not designed to be mental health treatment facilities.”
Reece concluded his post by saying he hopes the incident helps bring “a much needed change in the mental health system” with the help of state legislative action.

Before I post the video, perhaps I should warn you that Deputy Kile is apparently a fan of country music classics, and was actually listening to “Wildwood Flower” on his radio when he blue-lighted Olivar:

Deputy Kile was wearing a bulletproof vest, which saved his life, and Sheriff Reece praised the restraint shown by his deputies in arresting Olivar because, let’s face, he was this close to being a “suicide by cop.”

As far as I’m concerned, you shoot a cop, you should die in a hail of gunfire, and I don’t want to hear about your “mental health problems.” There’s a big difference between regular crazy and shoot-a-cop crazy.

Category: Crime, Georgia