Anything I Say Can Be Misused

I know a lot of paranoid people and it is exhausting trying to calm them. Those who seek frequent reassurance wear me down and I distance myself.

I realize there is nothing I say or do that can’t be misinterpreted and misused. When I work with sponsees, I am usually exercising at the time. Because I got out of breath one time (I was either sharing something painful or doing something requiring exertion), he essentially asked me if I was masturbating. I was horrified.

I could recommend to someone that they go for a walk, and they might go for a walk and get mugged or break a leg. I might say you should drink a glass of water and you might drink 20 glasses of water and hurt yourself. I take no responsibility for that. I could recommend to someone that they read a book and it might trigger them into creating a disaster online. I might suggest an assignment and it might lead them to a nervous breakdown. I might say that they should become more visible and they might go out and become more visible in a disastrous way. I take no responsibility for the lives of others because I have no control over them. I do the best I can and then I turn over the results to God. Please use whatever I say in ways that benefit you and others.

With every potential sponsee, I give them a template for our work. This template lists two books that I require sponsees to have available every time we meet so they should get them as e-books available on their phone. And yet 95% of potential sponsees don’t have these books when we start working together.

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Everybody Knows Everything

I try to live my life as if everyone knows everything. I used to try to get away with as much as possible. Now I try to live my life as if every Orthodox Jew in the world knew everything I was saying and writing and that if I misrepresent something about Orthodox Judaism that they will be eager to set me straight. I try to live my life as if every person I deal with knows everything I have said and done in my life.

This helps me lead a more integrated life. I try to comport myself in each sphere of my life as if everyone in every other sphere of my life is aware of what I am saying and doing. I speak on my Youtube show as if everyone I meet knows everything I’ve said and this helps me to try to phrase things in ways that will be most useful to people in general and least likely to trigger them in a destructive way.

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What’s The Reward For Despair?

My premise for this blog post is that we tend to see the world as we are more than as it is.

I notice many Trump supporters are black-pilled about Trump and about the future of the United States. I do not share this sentiment. I do not believe it reflects reality. The stock market, for example, has stayed even and even gone up despite the widespread looting. I agree with Michael Beckley that over the next few decades, America will become an even more dominant super power than it is today (compared to its rivals).

Why do people embrace despair when there is no need?

* Despair for some functions as a narcotic to reduce pain.
* For many, despair is their default mode.
* Many people seek more from pursuits, such as politics, than is appropriate, and when these passions don’t work out, they despair.
* Many people can’t handle setbacks without giving up.
* Some people tend to fluctuate between idealizing others and devaluing others.
* People want to ape their peers.
* People want to look profound and despair always seems more profound than joy.
* People fail at life and can’t help seeing the world through that perspective.
* People have an exaggerated sense of their own importance and of their own ability to influence events and hence social and political setbacks are experienced as personal rejection.
* Publicly displayed despair is often a cry for help and comfort. It is attention-getting. You can feel hetero while acting gay.

A friend says: “I am trying very hard to avoid the news. Prior BLM protests at least had resistance from half of society. Now, it seems like all the dominoes are falling. Police and military siding with the mob foretells imminent disaster for the current regime.”

Are the police and military siding with the mob or are they giving the mob tokens of support to reduce tension? Police officers I know would be willing to take a knee to reduce violence even though they hate taking a knee. I heard a story about a famed Japanese sword master who on several occasions, crawled through the legs of his opponents rather than fight. He could have killed them but he chose not to.

I am not one whit less happy today than I was a week ago or four months ago. I’ve been temporarily knocked off stride at times. I blanked on two appointments and I never do that.

I’ve shared my law and order views on the riots with friends on the left this week and I made them laugh. I don’t think I damaged these friendships. If people are laughing at your jokes, you’re usually connecting rather than offending.

I wonder if these riots are a bit like the Tet Offensive — a major PR victory for the Vietcong and a military defeat.

I don’t think the communists such as BLM will win in the United States. That which defies reality eventually loses.

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America Under Siege

Comments at Steve Sailer:

* George Floyd:-

On fentanyl –

Heart disease-

Used meth-

Hypertension-

Cocaine addict-

Having a heart attack-

Resisted arrest-

Refused to get in the car-

Ambulance called-

Restrained (dangerous due to fentanyl)-

Dies

(Thanks to Stefan Molyneux)

* It’s interesting that all those seemingly crazy things the “gun nuts” said all these years turned out to be 100% accurate. It’s only a matter of time before the thugs come to a suburb near you and you can not count on the government to protect you.

* We don’t know that Chauvin’s knee killed Floyd. The city coroner in fact found no evidence of traumatic asphyxiation or strangulation.

Floyd could have died from the fentanyl that was in his system. He could have died of a heart attack from the struggle of resisting arrest. He could have died from police pressure on his torso. But you don’t know how much pressure was being applied and in any case police officers have a right to pin a suspect who is resisting arrest.

You don’t know what police procedures there are, and you don’t know all the circumstances of the arrest, so you aren’t in a good position to judge competence.

You don’t know whether the officers intended to harm Floyd. In fact, most of the evidence indicates that they did not.

What did Minneapolis police guidelines allow for? (They permit neck restraints in some circumstances.). Was pressure on his neck the cause of death? How much pressure was there and on what part? If the knee was hurting Floyd, was the officer aware of it? What considerations did the officers weigh in deciding whether to pin Floyd?

* If the Democrats think they can overthrow Trump with these protests, they’ll run into a couple problems.

First, mass rioting, crime, and violence will alienate many Whites and even quite a few immigrants. However, Biden will be under a lot of pressure to sympathize with the rioters. So a “tough on crime” Republican would have an advantage in such an atmosphere.

Second, if there’s mass COVID spread after this, Trump can blame the protesters.

* These inchoate protests are not the foothills of a coup d’etat. No one is trying to take over radio stations, no police force or military unit has defected to the other side. The protest movement holds no territory and is defending no no-go areas. Trump is most unlikely to share the fate of Gaddafi.

There is hardly even a coherent agenda to reform police training or police immunity laws.

The Democratic Party has no need to foster a coup, because it is very likely to win in a landslide in the November election, in spite of failing to persuade enough Republican senator members of the jury to jump ship in the recent impeachment trial.

* The Democratic party has more than just one black tail wagging the white liberal dog. They now have every non straight-white-male identity group demanding that their interests are promoted and if they are not they are prepared to throw a fit. This has left them with nowhere to go but attack whitey.

If the Democrats are to get 51%, of the vote and gain power they cannot afford to lose even one identity group which means that they are hostages to even the most whimsical or unreasonable demand which is why the rhetoric is getting more strident. They have no room to negotiate with the Republicans. Worse, when your livelihood revolves around government largess, the risk of losing concentrates the mind.

Get used to this. It is more than the coalition of malcontents. It is structural. The sooner the white and Jewish elites in the Democratic party are toppled, the sooner we can see this for what it really is.

* There are a number of unique factors in the current riot scenarios.

–Young people who make up most if not all rioters have been cooped up for months

— No sports either live or on TV, radio, no concerts, shows, nightclubs, dances, bar hopping, movies

— Socially mandated (or legally) mask wearing; normally this is considered illegal in public, especially in protest situations. psychologically wearing masks/disguises makes the wearer feel more powerful and anonymous, thus free from inhibitions and lessens punishment

— Extremely emotional video trigger. The specific facts tend not to matter in these

— Warmer weather draws out night people; colder, wet weather keeps them inside

— Public applause for “protests” turns into tacit approval for looting, at least from a distance

— Normal political campaigning has been short circuited by the Pandemic shutdowns, so the video inflamed passions are the primary emotional outlet

— Generic frustration and pessimism caused by the Pandemic and endless lockdowns/depression advocacy have left a lot of the public in an emotional vacuum. Striking out randomly or cheer-leading rioting creates a sense of “doing something.”

— Ultimately the political effect will be very mixed. Fear tends to drive voters to be more conservative. Who will be the safe choice? Will being pro-black/anti cop simply mean pro criminal?

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Rod Dreher: Language, Memory, & Soft Totalitarianism

Rod writes: “A professor pointed out to me today that one theme of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four that’s becoming quite relevant today is how the most oppressive regime of control does not apply to the proles, but to members of the Party. The more elite you are, the more coercive the system is. It’s true in hard totalitarianism, and it’s especially true in soft totalitarianism. Said the professor, “If you’re a plumber or a fast-food worker, you aren’t likely to pay any consequences for not playing the PC game, but the higher you are in the elite, the more danger you’re in.””

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