Section topics:
(1) Comment on “lost paradise/redemption” mythologies;
(2) The transition from animal to human (inherited impulses and validating ideas, what has hindered the full transition to human, what hinders the full liberation from our animal past);
(3) Unconditional as the potent weapon to slay the inherited animal monster;
(4) Climate alarmism is not a scientific narrative;
(5) What lies beneath- the primitive mythology of “apocalyptic millennialism” behind climate alarmism;
(6) Applying the unconditional ideal- its not dogmatic pacifism, it never avoids taking personal responsibility for the consequences of behavior;
(7) Democrats locked in a reality-distorting bubble, the new authoritarianism of Woke racism- US liberalism has become “highly illiberal” by embracing collectivism approaches that deny/ignore individual differences (i.e. viewing people in terms of groups, and condemning entire groups by skin color, and ignoring individual uniqueness and differences);
And more climate news, along with other comment…
Offering better alternatives to shape meta-narratives
This site does not ‘tear down’ without also offering something to build up- i.e. better alternatives to replace the worst stuff that we have inherited from our ancestors. In sections below, I have listed better alternative ideas to the worst pathologies/myths that we have inherited.
Note especially “Explaining reality and life: The worst and best ideas that we have come up with” (i.e. “Inherited bad myths and better alternatives”). This points to the greatest liberation movement ever- the liberation of human consciousness/subconscious at the deepest levels of thought, emotion, motivation, and response/behavior, at the level of embedded archetypes (archetypes as our fundamental impulses and the related ideas/myths that validate the impulses).
The “true state of life on Earth”…
When all is said and done- hope is re-affirmed by the best evidence on the true state of life. Life on Earth is not heading to hell in a handbasket. Contrary to the apocalyptic Declinism mythology that dominates most narratives and many minds today, life is not declining toward something worse. Fundamental human goodness and creativity has lifted humanity out of a dark place and set us on a trajectory of improvement and progress toward a much better future, notably over the past few centuries.
But the threats are everywhere and must be guarded against and responded to. Note one of the greatest threats to human progress today as outlined in this good report on the “disinformation” crusade that is undermining our freedom and liberal democracies- “A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century: Thirteen ways of looking at disinformation” by Jacob Siegel…
See also “Why Renee Diresta Leads The Censorship Industry” by Michael Shellenberger at…
https://public.substack.com/p/why-renee-diresta-leads-the-censorship
Protected individual freedom is most critical to human progress. Protected freedom unleashes the human creative impulse that is driving success and progress. These “disinformation” and censorship advocates have forgotten the most critically important elements to human wellbeing and success today.
Now some further comment on the curse of “lost paradise/redemption” mythologies… also known as “apocalyptic millennialism”, Wendell Krossa
A religious fanaticism movement- the climate alarmism crusade- has possessed many of the nations of the planet. Notably, this fanaticism movement has possessed the political/social/scientific elites of mainly Western nations.
Climate alarmism is the latest version of a “lost paradise/redemption” cult (also known as “apocalyptic millennialism”). Climate alarmism continues to ascend new crescendos of hysteria as the most unhinged and widespread eruption of apocalyptic madness that humanity has experienced in centuries. And the outcomes are shaping up to be more destructive than even the insanity of last century’s two great mass-death apocalyptic millennial movements- Marxism and Nazism. Yes, both embraced the same themes of all apocalyptic millennial movements (see details in the research of historians Arthur Herman, Richard Landes, Arthur Mendel, David Redles, etc.). These profoundly religious movements incite irrational zealotry that leaves many ordinary people shaking their heads in disbelief that normally bright and sane elites can fall for such craziness. But they do, again and again and again…
This site continues to probe the themes behind such movements- i.e. the complex of lost paradise/redemption mythology (or apocalyptic millennialism), why and how such themes arose in the minds of our ancestors, why they continued down through history into major world religions and now into the “secular” ideologies of the modern world, how such themes influence human consciousness/subconscious, emotions, motivations, and responses/behavior, and how to counter such irrational mythology with radically new narrative themes/ideas.
The transition from animal to human: The central point of existing as human, the meaning and purpose of human life/story, Wendell Krossa
A brief overview of some of the main influences on human thought, emotion, motivation, and response/behavior across history. How we became this good/bad mixture that we are today (but mostly good… that is, good in terms of our core self).
Major historical elements in the human story… elements that produce the good/bad mix in humanity.
Basic biological fact: We emerged from an animal past and we have inherited impulses from our animal origin, animal impulses that continue to deform our present existence (confusing our consciousness, inciting our worst emotions/motivations, resulting in the expression of our worst responses/behaviors). Our animal impulses emanate from a core animal brain- mainly the amygdala and limbic system, as per the old tri-partite brain theory (i.e. core reptilian brain in the amygdala, the animal-like limbic system, as contrasted with the cerebral cortex as the more human part of the brain).
Notable inherited animal drives include- (1) the impulse to tribalism (small band exclusion and opposition toward differing others/outsiders, to view differing others as enemies, threats), (2) the alpha impulse to domination of weaker others, and (3) the predatory destruction of differing others/enemies.
Along the way human consciousness also emerged and developed over the millennia and brought with it a new set of impulses- humane impulses. Some trace these more human features as also having emerged far back in animal existence, such as mammalian compassion and care.
Among the human impulses was one particularly unique human feature, the primal impulse for meaning- i.e. to understand and explain life. This impulse drove the uniquely human project to discover and know what it meant to be human and to live as human. The meaning impulse led us to engage something uniquely different from our animal past, to follow an urge, to embrace a quest that would take us on an entirely different trajectory from the basic nature of animal existence, as noted in the above triad of prominent animal features. The meaning impulse would inspire us to overcome the animal triad of impulses and behaviors for a more humane way of existing, a more human way of responding and relating. The meaning impulse, and related urge to live as human, moved early humanity to create societies that would socialize people to counter the base animal impulses with entirely contrary ways of existing/relating.
(Insert: Studies of early societies note that varied humane behaviors were being developed from the beginning, along with the continuation of the baser features of previous more barbaric existence.)
Feeling the impulse for meaning from their developing/emerging consciousness, along with developing thinking and language/expression abilities, early people then began to form ideas, explanations, myths that would explain life to themselves and to others. Their explanations affirmed and validated the old animal impulses along with the new human impulses. That was simply because people at that time still existed as more animal than fully mature humans. They were still at humanity’s childhood stage of development. Still very primitive/animal-like in thought, emotion, and behavior.
Those early ancestors created stories of forces/spirits/gods behind all the elements of the natural world. They believed there were spirits of trees, forces/spirits behind varied animal species (“Animal Master”), spirits/gods behind storms and lightning/thunder, spirits in streams, and so on.
They also believed that the past had been better and that may derive from memories of the warmer climate of the previous Eemian interglacial of some 130,000 to 115,000 years ago. Early people concluded that the better past had been an original “golden age”, a paradise, or perfect beginning. Then they had to explain why life was harder in their colder, more life-threatening era of glaciation. Add to this, the need to explain the other harsh elements of the natural world that they believed were all expressions of divine forces/spirits- i.e. natural disaster, disease, predatory cruelty, and accident. They had to explain the suffering that was consequent to these brutal elements of life.
They concluded, according to their mythical logic, that the spirits behind the harshness of the natural world were angry with them and were punishing them for their imperfection, for their “sins”. Their obviously worsening state of life, at that time, appeared to them as evidence of that punishment. Further, they even concluded that the gods would take ultimate vengeance on them for ruining paradise by bringing all things to a final great punishment in the entire destruction of humanity, and destruction of the world- in an apocalypse. The great Flood myth in the earliest human writing (Sumerian mythology) expresses this idea of ultimate punishment/destruction that was present at the very beginning of human mythmaking. Pre-historians (John Pfeiffer, Jacquetta Hawkes) also add that what we find in the earliest writing, we can assume was believed in the pre-history era.
The idea of gods punishing imperfect people for being bad- i.e. “threat theology”- has been one of the great curses on human consciousness across history. It adds the psychic burden of unnecessary fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, and despair to already unbearable physical suffering.
Threat theology (gods expressing anger and punishment via disease, disaster, death) has long incited and inflamed the human survival impulse. Threat theology, in both religious and contemporary “secular” ideologies, distorts entirely the actual story of human life. It focuses on ever-present human imperfection as something that deserves punishment and destruction. The focus on blaming human badness as responsible for natural world imperfections and threats, and assuming it all points to life becoming something worse, misses the real story of humanity’s incredible rise from barbaric animal existence to gradually become human and more humane in human civilization. Note, for example, James Payne (History of Force) and Stephen Pinker (Better Angels of Our Nature) on our long trajectory of transcending our animal past to become less violent (life and humanity as rising toward something better, not declining toward something worse).
Threat theology then formed the validating basis of the emerging/developing sacrifice industry, another burdensome curse that placed people under the controlling authority of the earliest emerging powerholders- shaman/priests who claimed the authority of insider knowledge, the mystical ability to tell people the secrets of the invisible realm, such as how to appease the angry gods. Shaman/priests would claim to know how to avoid death and destruction, how people could save themselves from natural disaster, disease, predatory cruelty, and death (See John Pfeiffer’s “Explosion: An inquiry into the origins of art and religion” for more detail on these prehistory developments).
Threat theology, by inciting and inflaming the human survival impulse, drove our ancestors to create salvation religions as a response to such divine threat. (Salvationism directly responds to the human survival impulse.)
The subsequently developing salvation industry of shaman/priesthoods would demand sacrifices/payments, mainly offered to priesthoods as intermediaries/representatives of the gods. Note here the ancient practise of bringing all goods/produce to central elevated temples for redistribution.
Further, salvation religions would also make demands to purge some evil, and to suffer punishment as part of the redemptive process (suffering for sin as redemptive). Salvation would demand the purging of “evil enemies” that were believed to be responsible for bringing the anger of the gods on entire societies- i.e. heretics, witches, unbelievers, deniers, sinners (Sodom and Gommorah), greedy affluent people, gays in Jerry Falwell’s America, and on and on. Hence, isolating an evil enemy to be destroyed was vital to salvation. (“Cosmic dualism” beliefs underly this tribal mentality of “fighting righteous battles against evil enemies”, as necessary to salvation systems. A “demonized” evil enemy was critical to this basic dualism element of salvationism.)
Continuing with sacrifice…
Sacrifice was made central in human narratives as the key element to any salvation. This, despite notable religious icons like Historical Jesus rejecting sacrifice as necessary for forgiveness, just as the Old Testament prophets before him had rejected sacrifice. The OT prophets had quoted God as stating that God desired love, kindness, humility, and mercy, and not sacrifice- e.g. Hosea 6:6, Micah 6:6-8, Isaiah 1:11, etc. Further, recent Historical Jesus research now affirms that Jesus actually died for his protest against the sacrifice industry.
Today, “secular” salvation movements still require sacrifice through such things as giving up the good life in modern society to suffer a retreat to some form of primitivism (e.g. low-consumption, low-energy lifestyles). That is the necessary appeasement to the “secular” gods of contemporary belief systems- i.e. “Angry Mother Earth, angry Planet, punitive Universe, payback karma, or vengeful Gaia”. Such are the elements of sacrifice in today’s punitive “de-development” movements that seek to make some form of atonement for humanity’s “sins”. Blame and punish “bad” humanity for all that is wrong in the world.
Ah, there are many elements in the mix of what drives “madness of crowds” eruptions- these “profoundly religious” movements like climate alarmism, apocalyptic hysteria outbreaks that have been so repetitively common across history (endless “end-of-days” eruptions).
Also, don’t discount in the above mix of impulses and validating ideas, the human longing for heroic adventure- to engage some heroic quest to save a maiden, to conquer the threatening dragon, and to then bring salvation to one’s tribe. To do something heroic and legendary, to join a righteous cause. Mix this with the tribal element (to defeat an evil enemy/monster), the alpha domination thing- to possess a true believer’s truth and then seek to convert unbelieving others (the arrogant state of mind of those that view themselves as the “enlightened elite” that know what is best for all others and will coerce differing/denying others to submit to their truth and righteous cause), and on and on. There are many diverse motivating elements in lost paradise/redemption crusades.
The varied elements of salvation mythology were all deemed necessary to salvation- i.e. to the hope for survival and the restoration of the lost paradise, or the attainment of a new utopia/heaven. Far too many among us still believe these primitive “lost paradise/redemption” narratives. The core themes are ceaselessly played out in cults like climate alarmism and, as noted earlier, were played out in Marxism and Nazism. In climate alarmism, we are observing a real-life exhibition of this historical madness in real time today.
The beliefs listed above, from the beginning, became archetypes that were deeply embedded in human consciousness/subconscious, hardwired. Those deeply embedded beliefs affirmed our most fundamental inherited impulses with related validating explanations, ideas, myths. The problem is that the belief systems created by early people then resulted in the mixing and merging of the inherited animal with the new emerging human and that resulted in ongoing confusion in human narratives and life. Good was mixed with bad in early systems of cognitive dissonance. The old primitive animal impulses were validated along with the newer emerging human impulses.
And eventually the beliefs of the ancients, from in their earliest mythologies, were embraced by later world religions, and those belief systems have continued down into the modern world, with little change to the core ideas and themes. Those features continue to operate today to validate the worst impulses in us, along with the best in us.
A critical factor in the mix, one of the worst ‘mistakes’ of our ancestors, has effectively slowed the transition away from our animal past, it has repeatedly short-circuited true human liberation.
The mistake was that early mythmakers projected their animal features onto their gods- humanity’s ultimate ideal and authority- thereby giving those features even more intense divine validation and authority, giving them protection under “the ultimate canopy of the sacred” as unchallengeable divine truth and rightness, features of deity considered eternal/permanent/immutable. Those features lodged in deity still constitute the essential core of religious traditions. The animal-like features have been embedded at the very core of religious belief systems in the god ideas that have long formed the foundational themes of human narratives.
The result has been animal-like gods (see, for example, Hector Garcia’s “Alpha God”). The animal features (again, as per the triad noted above) include (1) gods as tribal or small band deities- favoring true believers/followers as set against excluding unbelievers/outsiders, (2) gods as alpha males/females- i.e. dominating lords, kings, rulers, judges (overruling the freedom, equality, and self-determination of others), and (3) gods as ultimate predators- destroying outsiders/unbelievers in apocalypse, and hells.
That early mistake, to sacralize the animal in deity, has still not been corrected in the major religious narratives and belief systems. Hence, the mixed-nature gods of today- part animal, part human.
The early gods were somewhat humanized by including the human features of kindness, mercy, forgiveness, etc. But as with all mixed and merged systems, the darker features often distort and even bury the more human features, rendering them something less than truly human. Note, for example, that many still believe in gods that demand bloody animal meals for satisfaction/appeasement. One theory on the elements that contributed to the origins of sacrifice is that sacrifice was to satiate hungry gods- i.e. the early myth of humans as responsible “to feed the gods”, humans “created to serve the gods” (part of the overall mythology of humans relating to gods in superior/inferior or domination/submission relationships).
Today we understand the origin and development of these ideas and practices, and rightly reject them as consciousness-deforming residues from a barbaric past (See, for example, “Human Sacrifice In History and Today” by Nigel Davies).
Add here that any god that demands full payment/punishment before forgiving, knows nothing about true forgiveness.
The merging and mixing of the animal with the human continues to the confusion of many. We know better today what is animal and what is human and are responsible to clean up our belief systems, narratives, and worldviews.
Central among the humane features for new narratives that will counter the worst of our inherited animal features would include (1) the impulse to universal inclusion of all (understanding the oneness of the human family and rejecting tribal divisions), (2) the impulse to respect the equal freedom and self-determination of others (not dominating/controlling others), (3) the impulse to mercifully forgive the failings of imperfect others (restorative justice approaches that hold all responsible, incarcerate violent offenders, but then treat offenders humanely). These humane features go to the heart of the problem to deal with the worst of our inherited animal features, and enable us to maintain our humanity in the face of continuing animal-incited evil.
Conclusion- The point of this brief review of our history:
Understand where the residual animal in us originated, what exactly is the real nature of its main features (what is animal in contrast with that is human), and understand why the animal persists in our human makeup. Understand our basic impulses, both animal and human, and the varied ideas/beliefs that relate to them- the ideas that incite, inspire, and validate the differing impulses. Understand how all this influences human consciousness, emotion, motivations, and response/behavior.
And then don’t fear going after the animal that has been embedded in the “sacred”, even that which is protected onto God. Don’t be afraid to confront and take the animal out of God, to fully humanize God (meaning- humanize your own God theory). Its about knowing and distinguishing the fundamental nature of being human as contrasted with basic animal features. Good versus evil, if you will. Its about understanding the basic difference between what is primitive, regressive animal and what is more advanced, mature human.
Our fundamental responsibility as human persons is to know what it means to be human, and then to live as fully and truly human, as much as is possible in this life. The supreme issue of every human life and story is to understand what it means to be human. Understanding that will help focus the purpose of living a human story, and how to live one’s life as truly human. This is about understanding the real difference between good and evil. That difference is not fundamentally about religious morality and ethics that have long defined good and evil in terms of human “sinfulness” versus religious morality and lifestyles. Good and evil are better understood in terms of how the animal differs from the human and what is the fundamental nature of each.
Real inner human badness is not some form of religious “sinfulness” as defined by religious morality- i.e. good or righteousness as religious behaviors or lifestyle, contrasted with “worldly” behavior/lifestyle. Yes, such categories and definitions do contain elements of human and animal features. However, bad and good are better understood in terms of residual animal impulses versus our more human impulses- the gradually emerging and endlessly developing human factor. Real inner badness has to do with our animal inheritance (note, for example, “Dark Nature” by Lyall Watson).
And this more clearly focuses the real righteous, heroic battle of life, the great quest of life- i.e. to conquer the monster/enemy inside each of us, the residual animal. That is where we win life’s greatest battles, and become true heroes of our stories, by conquering the real enemy/monster in life. Then we tower in stature as maturely human, succeeding in life’s greatest endeavor- to live as human, and making life’s greatest accomplishments.
Again, to rehash in a summarizing triad, those core animal features (the worst of the worst)- (1) tribal exclusion of differing others, (2) domination of others, and (3) punitive destruction of differing others. The human in us counters the worst of the animal with the best of the human- i.e. (1) the universal inclusion of all based on the fact of the oneness of the human family, (2) respect for the freedom and self-determination of others, and (3) restorative justice for all.
Added notes: Mixing/merging in religious systems of belief- How the animal distorts, defiles, and deforms the human. This relates to Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy’s point that the “diamonds/pearls” of Historical Jesus were distorted and buried in Paul’s New Testament Christ gospel.
Example: Religious love that favors insiders/true believers versus outsiders/unbelievers is not authentic universal love. It is a form of base tribal love that is not authentic love at all. Authentic human love is universal, unconditional. It does not view the differing other as “outsider, enemy”, but as intimate family, as an equal fellow member of the one human family.
The potent counter to the tribal impulse is to embrace the oneness of humanity, as per, for example, the historical fact of the common descent of all modern humans from an African Eve.
Another: What is most essentially our true human self? Wendell Krossa
The essence of being human is love- our highest ideal. Add here some metaphysical speculation- i.e. that we come from a greater Consciousness that is Love, a transcendently unconditional Love. That Love, what humanity has long called God, has incarnated in all humanity and is inseparably related to the human spirit and human consciousness. That Love is our real core self, our most essential nature as humans, our true human selves. Meaning- We are not our animal inheritance or animal brain.
Others emphasize this reality that we are one with God, inseparably united to deity. God is not a reality up above in the skies or up in some religious heaven. God, as “Spirit”, is a reality that is present in all humanity alike (creating, sustaining Source Consciousness). Consequently, its up to us individually to learn how to express that indwelling Love by conquering our worst impulses and habitually expressing our more human impulses.
This insight on deity incarnated in humanity revolutionizes human identity. Meaning- We are most essentially good. Even the worst among us can be understood in this manner. The bad behavior of offenders may be explained as perhaps due to being born with damaged brains (along with childhood trauma). Robert Hare has suggested, for example, that psychopathy itself may be due to inherited genetic defect- i.e. a more purely animal/alien brain that lacks human impulses. And certainly, such people need to be incarcerated to protect the public.
More detail in essay below- “From Retaliation to Unconditional: The human exodus from animal existence”.
More on the overall project context: The potent weapon to slay the monster, Wendell Krossa
This site is oriented to fighting the real monster in life- the residual animal in all of us. That is our real enemy, not other people that we differ from or disagree with. Solzhenitsyn recognized this in his comment that the real battle between good and evil ran down the center of every human heart.
Critical then, recognize our real enemy and find the right weapons to fight, conquer, and slay the enemy/monster.
It is a central point on this site- Unconditional is the potent weapon that slays the inherited animal impulses in all of us. The adjective “unconditional” is the best term that we have come up with to properly define our highest human ideal- love. Unconditional takes us to the real nature of authentic love (Bob Brinsmead- “If its not unconditional love, then its not love”).
Unconditional is then the singular feature that most correctly identifies us as truly human beings/persons. It points us toward what is most authentically human.
Unconditional enables us to most effectively slay our animal passions, as concerns the major inherited impulses. Unconditional urges us to engage the unlimited inclusion of all people as intimate family, thereby countering the tribal impulse, the small-band animal impulse that has long oriented us to view differing others as outsiders/enemies and long primed us to oppose those differing others as threats.
Unconditional counters the animal alpha impulse in us by inspiring us to respect the freedom and self-determination of all others. Unconditional leads us to reject subhuman approaches that control or coerce others. Yes, we rightly persuade one another through vigorous debate, argument, discussion, and reasoning. And the more diverse and robust our opinions and positions, the better the options for human survival and progress (e.g. openness to diverse creative options has always been critical to the progress of science). We do not enhance human freedom and progress by influencing one another through threat, intimidation, or coercion. That is more animal than human.
And unconditional urges us to treat all with restorative justice approaches, to not dehumanize and destroy offending others. Even the worst among us deserve restorative justice and that is how we maintain our own humanity in the face of evil. Not falling back into cyclical patterns of retaliatory response- i.e. hurt for hurt, punishment for punishment, pain for pain, destruction for destruction. As Simon Wiesenthal argued, “Justice, Not Vengeance”.
Unconditional liberates us from our enslavement to the animal monster inside us, our main enemy in life that is within us. Unconditional liberates us to experience truly human existence and a more human future.
A necessary repeated qualifier– Common perceptions of unconditional see it as some form of mushy, weak, “turn the other cheek” pacifism. Not at all. There is simply no better adjective than unconditional to describe the humane response (i.e. restorative justice) that is critical to maintaining our own humanity in the face of the evil that we confront in this life.
Here’s an example of the unhinged lunacy of cultic obsession with a profoundly mythical narrative. See the links above (“co2coalition.org”, “Wattsupwiththat.com”, etc.) for sound counter evidence to the exaggerated apocalyptic claims made by this hysterical UN climate change report- “We are doomed”…
Hence, my repeated contention that apocalyptic mythology makes fools of normally bright people. “Madness of crowds” has been the very apt description of these hysterically-panicked apocalyptic movements across history.
Always the fundamental climate issue- The physics of CO2 tell us that there is no “climate emergency”.
When you probe the most fundamental science behind climate change- i.e. the actual influence of CO2 on climate, the actual physics of CO2- you will realize that there is no sound scientific basis for taxing carbon or decarbonizing our societies. The widespread suffering that has now been caused by Net Zero policies has no credible scientific basis (i.e. unnecessary suffering caused by blocked fossil fuel development, consequent rising energy costs, and that impact on inflation elsewhere, impacts that hurt the most vulnerable people the most).
“Atmospheric Physicist Richard Lindzen says climate change isn’t “particularly dangerous” as climate alarmism and eco-anxiety continues to escalate.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/23/climate-change-isnt-particularly-dangerous-richard-lindzen/
Some true “wokeness” (as in waking up to factual reality)- Wendell Krossa
In light of the actual “physics of CO2”, I would note that too many politicians, and others, will cautiously suggest that rushed decarbonization is not good, but then they will unquestioningly pivot to affirm with climate alarmists that “we still must do something” in respond to “dangerous climate change”. Meaning, they continue to agree with the basic assumptions of the alarmist’s exaggerated narrative on climate change- i.e. that human emissions of CO2 (human use of fossil fuels) is mainly responsible for climate change and the change will be catastrophic if we pass 1-2 degrees C more warming.
Climate alarmists have propagated a “profoundly religious apocalyptic narrative” regarding the natural climate change that we have observed over past decades, and, in endless bouts of cultic obsessiveness, they endlessly prophesy the “end-of-days” over more mild warming in a sub-normally cold world.
From Linnea Lueken, March 28, 2023, “Multiple Outlets Admit ‘Catastrophe’ Narrative is Counterproductive”. Climate facts/graphs to calm the spirit…
Linnea notes a variety of articles that propagate the catastrophism narrative of climate alarmism.
Quotes:
“All of the articles still mistakenly insist that extreme weather is getting worse, and that billions will suffer and starve if the earth reaches 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. There is simply no scientific evidence, not even in the IPCC reports, that this is the case…
“Not only is there no tipping point for climate catastrophe, as these stories admit, there is also no evidence climate change is making the world worse for the planet or humanity.”
Another note on the recent new bout of panic-mongering from the UN:
And Al Gore’s recent unhinged rant on “boiling oceans”…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pReLPjXgBs
Ah, we hear such nonsense endlessly, even from people identifying as “scientists”….
Be woke on this point- Climate alarmism is certainly not a scientific narrative, despite endless claims to “listen to the science”.
My three-part response to the politicians that repeatedly affirm the unproven and exaggerated assumptions of climate alarmism- No, no, and no. We don’t need to do anything, except adapt just as we have always done (contrary to “mitigation” policies like decarbonization that do more harm than good). And successful adaptation requires the continuing use of plentiful fossil fuels to create the wealth that we require to properly adapt.
We need more courageous, clear voices that will fearlessly and publicly set forth the basics of CO2 science and then call out the “madness of crowds” hysteria that has tsunamied across our societies, the unhinged hysteria over a mild 1 degree C warming over the past century. That mild warming has been significantly beneficial in a world where 10 times more people still die every year from cold than die from warmth. (Increasing global warming has resulted in a notable decline in deaths from cold even though there has been some increase in deaths from warming. The critical point- Far more lives are saved by warming than are lost from increased heat deaths.)
Placing our current climate in its larger historical context, a couple of Instagram commentators stated that we are just 1 degree C above the coldest that its been in the last 10,000 years (still emerging out of the bitter cold of the Little Ice Age of 1645-1715). And we are about 2 degrees C below the warmest that its been in the last 10,000 years. The warmest time of our Holocene interglacial was the Holocene Optimum of about 10,000 to 6,000 years ago. That was the time when great civilizations emerged, along with agriculture, and flourished.
They added that the last interglacial- the Eemian- was about 6 degrees C warmer than today and even England during that time was a tropical-like paradise. They concluded that humanity is very much a tropical species.
We need to hear more voices that will also point out the huge benefits to all life from more of the basic food of plant life in the atmosphere (rising CO2 levels), notably, the amazing benefit of a 15% increase in green vegetation across the world since 1980. Starving plant life is once again flourishing with more of its basic food. Further beneficial results have been more food for animals and increased crop production for humanity.
https://co2coalition.org/facts/current-co2-levels-are-near-record-lows-we-are-co2-impoverished/
https://co2coalition.org/facts/water-vapor-is-the-primary-greenhouse-gas-2/
Where are the Greens to help us celebrate the astounding greening of the Earth over past decades? True “wokeness” would embrace the actual physics of CO2, acknowledge CO2’s very minor influence on climate, an influence that is now “saturated” in physics terms. True wokeness will “listen to the science” that tells us more CO2 in the atmosphere will contribute very little to any possible further warming. True wokeness will celebrate the mild and beneficial warming that has actually occurred over past decades, and true wokeness will celebrate the beneficial increase in basic plant food during an ongoing era of “CO2 starvation”. And anyone truly “woke” will recognize the fact that there is no evidence of any looming “climate crisis”, except in the minds of Chicken Little alarmists possessed by the religious myth of apocalypse.
Added notes:
Links to Wall Street Journal articles on “Environmentalism as religion”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304510004575186343555831322
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-climate-change-religion-1429832149
Arctic news note:
The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world which is exactly what the “Sun-Climate Effect: Winter Gatekeeper hypothesis” predicts (extra tropical heat energy conveyed to polar regions by natural “meridional transport”- the main influence on climate change). Faster Arctic warming is a normal response to a generally warming world and is beneficial to all life, resulting in extended habitats for more diverse life forms, both plant and animal. Arctic warming is a natural part of the overall return to the much warmer world (3-6 degrees C warmer than today) that was the norm for most of the history of life, when all life flourished with much higher average temperatures and much higher levels of CO2. Some polar species may suffer, most will adapt, and many more will benefit from further warming. An entirely tropical world, including the polar regions, is a normal, healthy, optimal world for all life. It was the norm for most of the history of life (the 500 million years of the Phanerozoic era).
And this on the endless failed predictions of the end of the world…
Physicist Henrik Svensmark’s latest on the cosmic ray-climate correlation…
https://phys.org/news/2023-03-persistent-supernovae-biodiversity.html
Abandoning science for ideological correctness
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/29/shining-light-on-science-educations-dark-age/
Quotes from this link:
“The “National Science Teacher’s Association” bureaucracy (NSTA) is driving climate education into an unquestioning adherence to unscientific methodology. The cost will be measured in students without facility for the more than 400-year-old scientific method and lacking the critical thinking necessary for sustaining civilization and advancing humankind.
“The NSTA’s Position Statement on Climate Change promotes the education of students through indoctrination instead of critical thinking skills and the scientific method. Throughout the document, promotion of “consensus” is advanced, while all dissenting scientific facts are censored or derided….
“Richard Feynman summarized it best, saying:
““I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.””
Some very good comment from Jordan Peterson on the trans “social contagion” movement.
“Trans activism is sexist and delusional”, March 28, 2023
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/27/trans-activism-sexist-delusional/
And J. K. Rowling responds to criticisms levelled against her about transphobia and bigotry…
“JK Rowling confronted by critics over past trans comments, asks her opponents: ‘What if you’re wrong?’”
“’I genuinely think that we are watching one of the worst medical scandals in a century’, Rowling said”.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/jk-rowling-confronted-critics-past-trans-comments
And this critically important news from Matt Taibbi. Taibbi, along with Glen Greenwald, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, and others are exposing the contents of the Twitter files and the information is stunning- the attack on fundamental freedom in a democracy. They show that US government agencies (FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, etc.) along with Democrats, have been censoring opponents on social media forums. Mainstream media go along with this censoring. For more detail also see the latest Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify, where he interviews Michael Shellenberger. This is all something you would expect from China or Russia, not the US.
https://www.racket.news/p/tablets-grand-opus-on-the-anti-disinformation
Project: What lies beneath? Wendell Krossa
This site probes the core themes/myths behind prominent public narratives, whether in religious traditions or in “secular/ideological” belief systems. Both religious and secular traditions have embraced the same complex of primitive themes/ideas- i.e. the complex of “lost paradise/redemption” myths, also known as “apocalyptic millennialism”.
These meta-narrative complexes of archetypal themes have profoundly distorted people’s view of life, due primarily to the focus on the myth of apocalyptic Declinism- i.e. the belief that life is declining toward something worse, toward some great catastrophic collapse and ending (an apocalypse). That pathological and consciousness-distorting mythology prevents people from seeing the amazing progress of life, the fact that, over the long-term, life rises and improves toward something ever better, an endless progressive rise that has become even more evident over recent centuries due to the creative input of essentially good humanity. To the contrary, Declinism narratives present humanity as fundamentally corrupt, evil, and deserving to be purged from the world for destroying nature.
Apocalyptic Declinism is most prominently evident today in the climate alarmism cult, a “profoundly religious crusade”. This cultic end-of-the-world movement has influenced political leaders across the world to embrace a “salvation” scheme (“save the world”) that is destroying societies with anti-fossil fuel policies- i.e. the Net Zero decarbonization crusade. Decarbonization is very much a crusade to “save the world” by destroying it.
Decarbonization has been promoted in recent years as part of the larger “de-development” crusade of environmental alarmists, and that ties in with broader anti-capitalism, anti-industrial society movements, as in Marxist movements.
The climate alarmism crusade has demonized the food of all life- CO2- as a dangerous threat to life. Based on that profound distortion, climate alarmism is propelling the West toward disastrous anti-development outcomes by intentionally restricting fossil fuel energy development. The consequence has already been severe in rising energy costs and fuel poverty that harms the most vulnerable people the most (Note the daily “Net Zero Watch” newsletters with reports on Germany and Britain). Western decarbonization also subjects the West to excessive influence/domination by totalitarian regimes.
Add to the harmful outcomes, the destructive impact of apocalyptic Declinism on human personality as detailed by psychologists like Harold Ellens and Zenon Lotufo. They note how threat theology, as in the myth of a punitive Force/God threatening apocalyptic destruction of the world, deforms human personality with fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, fatalism and resignation, despair, and depression, even violence.
And we wonder why such high rates of children suffer today from eco-anxiety, depression, and related drug abuse. Note this Australian report from Wattsupwiththat.com.
Further correlating evidence on the widespread embrace of Declinist ideology (i.e. Historian Arthur Herman’s statement that Declinism is the most dominant and influential theme in society today). The world survey noted in Ten Global Trends by Tupy and Bailey, that a majority of the world population believe “the world is getting worse”.
Further note the evidence from the World Religion Survey that showed some 85% of humanity still affiliate with a world religion, religions that embrace apocalyptic mythologies. The belief in the decline of life toward something worse, toward apocalyptic ending, is a fundamental feature of apocalyptic mythology.
Carefully observe the alarmist patterns that are repeatedly played out in our societies, patterns related to and incited by apocalyptic Declinism mythology: Wendell Krossa
First, apocalyptic prophets- e.g. Paul Ehrlich, Al Gore, James Hansen, John Holdren, and varied others- alarm people with hysterically exaggerated scenarios of the decline of life toward looming catastrophe. Commonly now, the apocalyptic prophets promote their message, via panic-obsessed news media, with claims that extreme weather events (i.e. rain, floods, heat, wildfires, storms, etc.) have become more frequent and intense. Every extreme weather event becomes the latest indicator that the end is nigh, again and again and….
Evidence on extreme weather trends show such events are not becoming worse, and in some cases they have even become less frequent, less intense.
Further, paleoclimate evidence shows that extreme climate changes were far worse across distant past history. Note the graph of the last 55,000 years in Ian Plimer’s “Heaven And Earth” (p.33) showing that climate change has moderated significantly since the beginning of our Holocene interglacial some 20,000 years ago.
The panic-mongering over historically ‘normal’ weather events then incites people’s natural survival fear and that leads to the widespread abandonment of rationality. Populations are then susceptible to embracing the most irrational salvation schemes of alarmists.
The alarmists then appeal to another primal human impulse- i.e. the impulse to make a sacrifice and voluntarily suffer some punishment for sin (the belief in and acceptance of suffering as redemptive). Many people will then readily embrace calls to make some sacrifice to pay for their sin, as in the calls to give up the good life in modern society, to repent of the “sin” of enjoying life and abundance too much (using too much energy, consuming too much of nature’s resources). Remember, we are dealing with a “profoundly religious” movement in climate alarmism.
Further in alarmist patterns- All people possess the fundamental impulse to engage a heroic battle against an evil enemy, to be on the side of good against some evil. Alarmists distort this fundamental impulse in their demonization of humanity enjoying the good life as the “enemy” of nature. Alarmists portray people as the corrupt destroyers of the world in human civilization, humanity as a “cancer or virus” on Earth.
Fleshing out this argument- alarmists have lasered in on CO2 as the main indicator today of human evil. They state that CO2 is the main indicator of human excessive consumption, the leading indicator of how corrupt humanity is destroying life.
With that distortion of CO2 as a threat to life, climate alarmism has profoundly deformed the natural human impulse to engage a heroic battle against evil. Alarmists have created a new enemy for the modern world, claiming that humanity’s success in lifting many out of poverty over the past two centuries to enjoy an immensely improved human condition- this is the great evil to be fought today. Add here the Ecological Footprint input that claims too many people consuming too much of Earth’s resources is leading to environmental collapse. Alarmists see themselves as heroically defending pure, innocent nature, and her limited resources, from human greed and plunder. Here is Bjorn Lomborg’s assessment of the Ecological Footprint…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bjornlomborg/2017/08/02/one-planet-is-enough/?sh=a25dc0b32631
The alarmist call to righteous battle against evil enemies also incites the innate human tribal impulse, the primal impulse to embrace the dualism of “good people fighting bad people”, heroes fighting and conquering some monster or enemy.
Include also in the alarmist call to heroic battle against evil enemies, the specific project to “purge” the evil from life, the thing that threatens life. This involves the demand to use “coercive purification” to get rid of your purported threat. The purging of the threat, according to alarmists, must be accomplished with coercion because regular democratic processes (open debate, questioning, dissent, challenge to dogmas) are too slow to deal with the threat that alarmists always claim is “imminent”- a claim they back with end-of-world dates always set just up ahead a few years or decades. Democratic delay is deadly and threatens life itself, the alarmists claim. Hence, liberal democratic freedom be damned. (Note: See Arthur Mendel’s treatment of “coercive purification” and “instantaneous transformation” in his book on apocalyptic millennialism- “Vision and Violence”)
Alarmists view dissenters/questioners as “deniers/unbelievers” of the truth that they alone see clearly- the “truth” of their apocalyptic narrative. Add here the “true believers” delusion that they, as the enlightened elite, know what is best for all others.
And finally in alarmist patterns, note the element of hope that is offered in the promised restoration of a lost paradise or the installation of a new utopia, as in the carbon-free future of the alarmist narrative (life purged of the “pollutant or poison” that is CO2, a world with far fewer corrupt people plundering the natural world).
Further note: Watch the element of irrational insanity in apocalyptic declinism crusades. This is most notably evident today in the claim of alarmists that the food of all life- CO2- is now the main threat to life. This basic plant food has been in desperately short supply for the past millions of years. With the minor recovery of CO2 levels that Earth has experienced, 15% more green vegetation has been added to Earth just over the past 40 years. Earth would benefit even more from CO2 levels returning to the multiple-thousands of ppm that were common over most of the history of life. So also, all life would benefit from a recovery of temperatures to the 3-6 degrees C warmer climate that was the average for most of the history of life.
Qualifier note: The application of a difficult thing, Wendell Krossa
Note carefully: An emphatically repeated point on this site- We are responsible to maintain our own humanity in this life and that is most successfully accomplished by treating all others unconditionally (e.g. restorative approaches in criminal justice systems).
An unconditional approach toward others is not about dogmatic pacifist responses to human criminality (e.g. “turn the other cheek”). Maintaining our humanity is not about abandoning common sense in an imperfect and often violent world.
Dangerous, violent offenders must be forcefully restrained/incarcerated to protect the public. They should be dealt with in criminal justice systems, and even permanently incarcerated where rehabilitation is not possible (i.e. in cases of psychopathy). Criminal offenders should also be held responsible to make restitution to victims.
An unconditional approach, in situations of criminal offense (also international aggression), is directly related to how we maintain our own humanity. Unconditional is about how we treat criminal offenders once they are incarcerated and how that relates to reducing recidivism rates (reducing future victims) in order to protect the public (e.g. as per the evidence from the Norwegian criminal justice approach).
Unconditional treatment of offenders has a lot to do with love as the “intention” to do the humane thing, not primarily as emotion. We are naturally and rightly enraged at human criminality/offense but then we are best advised to respond as human by breaking patterns of hurt for hurt, pain for pain, etc., as in avoiding punitive justice approaches that dehumanize us.
Simon Wiesenthal (“Justice, Not Vengeance”) and others have wrestled with this struggle between punitive and restorative approaches. See also Karl Menninger’s “The Crime of Punishment”. Netflix has done documentaries on this- comparing the Norwegian restorative justice approach with punitive-oriented criminal justice that operates in prisons like Attica.
This site argues that unconditional is absolute for defining theology- meaning, God is love as in the stunningly inexpressible wonder of unconditional love. Defining deity with unconditional means there is no such divine reality as in the “threat theology” that still dominates the major world religions and similar “secular/ideological” belief systems (i.e. “Angry God, Vengeful Gaia, angry Planet/Mother Earth, punitive Universe, or payback karma”).
Threat theology has long been a primal fallacy, a pathology in human minds, a damaging mythology that has long deformed human consciousness and life. Threat theology has been most commonly expressed through myths of deity punishing human sin through the natural world (natural disasters, disease, accident, predatory cruelty), threat of apocalyptic destruction, and threat of after-life harm in hell.
Further, defining deity with unconditional means that there has never been any such reality as a tribal God that favors true believers but rejects and excludes unbelievers. Tribal thinking and opposition is very much the offspring of cosmic dualism mythology- i.e. the myth of a great Good deity opposing and fighting a great evil Force/Spirit.
Also, unconditional deity means that there has never been any such reality as a dominating God (God as king, lord, ruler, judge), a deity that lords over humanity through dominating priesthoods or other forms of domination (i.e. the divine right of kings or other leadership positions). Humanity does not relate to deity in a domination/submission relationship (i.e. the fallacy of “humanity created to serve the gods”).
And unconditional deity means that there has never been a destroying God as in the mythical fallacies of apocalyptic destruction of the world and after-life harm myths (e.g. hell).
One of the more stunning insights on the unconditional nature of deity was presented in the central theology and message of Historical Jesus. He continued the anti-sacrifice theme of the Old Testament prophets, the theology of a God who desired mercy not sacrifices, a God that forgave all sin without demanding prerequisite sacrifice or payment (note the Prodigal Father story in this regard). More historians/theologians recognize today that Jesus was actually put to death for his public protest against sacrifice mythology and practice.
In part, I base my conclusion that unconditional is critical to maintaining our humanity on the profound breakthrough insights of the Historical Jesus that deity was an unconditional reality and that ultimate ideal/authority inspired similar unconditional ethics. Historical Jesus was a person quite entirely opposite to Christian “Jesus Christ”.
In his central message, as per Matthew 5:38-48 and Luke 6:27-36, Historical Jesus had argued for the radical overturning of all historically previous understanding of ultimate reality, of humanity’s ultimate ideal and authority- deity.
I have repeatedly noted, for example, James Robinson’s statement that Historical Jesus introduced the “Stunning new theology of a non-retaliatory God”. That breakthrough insight was then subsequently rejected by Paul who gave us, in direct contradiction to the theology of Jesus, his Christ myth that re-enforced the primitive themes of a tribally-oriented deity (favoring believers over excluded unbelievers), a dominating Christ (supreme Lord, King), and a retaliatory God (ultimate retaliation in apocalypse and hell).
Most contradictory- Paul turned the anti-sacrifice Jesus into the ultimate icon of sacrifice- the demanded sacrifice of the cosmic Christ as punishment/payment for the sins of all humanity, as necessary for forgiveness and salvation. Paul rejected the unconditional God of Jesus for his highly conditional Christ religion- i.e. (1) the demand for sacrifice/payment to appease a wrathful God (see Romans), (2) the required belief in his Christ as necessary to access forgiveness and salvation, (3) along with the conditions of fulfilling Christian rituals and living a Christian lifestyle as identity markers of membership in his Christian religion.
Unfortunately, Paul’s “Christ”-ianity has shaped the dominating narratives of Western civilization for the past two millennia. His Christ myth has been mainly responsible for validating punitive justice approaches, for the ongoing tribalism of dualism theologies/mythologies (a cosmic Good against cosmic Evil with demand for people to engage similarly tribal battles), and worst of all- for maintaining the destructive myth of apocalypse in Western consciousness and narratives.
The central themes of Historical Jesus were about rejecting retaliatory, punitive responses to others, rejecting tribalism, and rejecting apocalyptic panic-mongering.
We need to restore and re-affirm the breakthrough insights of Jesus on unconditional reality and overturn the last two millennia of consciousness-deforming Christ mythology.
Liberalism is now “illiberalism”, Wendell Krossa
As someone positioned mainly on the liberal side of society for over the past 40-plus years, I had become accustomed to viewing those on the right side of society as more fringe religious extremists and assorted other nutcases (such were the common perspectives voiced by the liberal side in public media). But over the past 5-10 years I have had to readjust my spectacles and now see the left side as more the religious nutcases, that have, for example, embraced the “profoundly religious” climate alarm cult that emphasizes the most lunatic-fringe myth of all- apocalyptic.
Sheesh, Alice was right- black is now white and white is now black. It’s a topsy turvy world. Meaning, as leftist, liberal Jimmy Dore says, liberals have now become highly “illiberal”. (My own position over past years has become more Classic Liberal, or independent- sort of libertarianish. Mainly to the liberal side on social issues, somewhat conservative on economic issues. Floating like a butterfly- alighting where there is good nectar but not dogmatically affiliated with or excessively loyal to anything that overrides the oneness of the human family.)
The upside downness has permeated all through contemporary liberalism. Western liberals once stood for tolerance, acceptance and promotion of diversity, defense of free speech, and other basic principles of liberal democracy. Now many on that side have abandoned those basics to become the leading proponents of censorship, banning diversity of opinion and speech, silencing dissent, urging intolerance of diversity, promoting outright cancellation of differing others, even advocating the criminalization of opponents (Obama’s AG, Loretta Lynch in 2016), and more. Carefully note the evidence produced almost daily by independent journalists Glen Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and others, warning us of the anti-democratic policies that are pushed by today’s “Democrats/liberals”.
So who’s your fringe nutcases now? Here is some illustration of what has happened…
Democrats locked in a bubble, Wendell Krossa
Dems have locked themselves into a mentally-limiting cul de sac position, a serious distortion of reality that many on the left appear to have become trapped within. You see this in statements made regularly on mainstream media- references to all on the other side as evil in some manner. Usually, the differing others are smeared as “racists, white extremists, fascists, threats to democracy, promoters of hate speech, purveyors of dangerous misinformation/disinformation, threatening violence, etc.”. That is the generalizing of all who disagree in terms of varied forms of extremism. We hear this generalizing extrapolation (all on the other side as “evil’) in the Democrat’s defensive validation of their censorship crusade that is now being exposed by journalists like Glen Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberg, and others (The Twitter files thing).
(Insert note: Both sides of the political/social divide practise this distorting “collectivist” projection- extrapolating the extremist elements on the other side out to demonize the entire differing other side. Its just that this “generalizing of threat from all on the other side” has become more notably a problem that emanates today from the Democrat/liberal side. Again, note the work of the journalists listed above. And note the Woke Progressive domination in higher education, Hollywood, mainstream media, Big Tech/social media corporations, etc.)
Dems/liberals repeatedly point to right-wing extremists such as White Supremacists, and so on, as potentially dangerous threats, and they are. No one disagrees with that, including many on the right. But then Dems cross the line and claim that such extremism on the right characterizes the entire other side- it defines all conservatives/Republicans, all that disagree with the Woke Progressive position which now dominates the Left/liberalism. That Woke Progressivism has itself become a form of extremism.
Dems have taken the fundamentally “collectivist” approach in claiming that all on the other side can be reduced to the extremist positions of “Nazis, racists, fascists, threats to democracy… etc.” (Example: Michael Moore, among others, stated that all who voted for Trump in 2016 were racists- https://variety.com/2017/legit/news/michael-moore-cnn-interview-trump-racist-1202529456/). Hence, all Republicans are threats to democracy, purveyors of disinformation/misinformation, dangerous, and therefore it is valid to censor their dangerous, threatening comments and positions.
That focus on the minority extremists on the other side, and then extrapolating that minority extremist element out to characterize all on the other side, is actually the essence of racism. To view all those in some group, in terms of a collective, as “bad” in some manner (i.e. “all whites are oppressors”), to demonize all in some group as evil in some way, is a form of racism (see, for example, “Woke Racism” by John McWhorter).
Marxist Robin DiAngelo in “White Fragility” also takes this position- ignoring the uniqueness and difference among individuals for collectivist generalizations (you are either, and only “oppressor or oppressed”). She then states that there is no form of being white that is good.
Added notes on generalizing about entire groups:
Here are some applicable points from author and scholar Douglas Murray (The War on the West), commenting on Robin DiAngelo’s arguments in “White Fragility”.
DiAngelo’s reasoning, says Murray, takes you into the logical trap of the witch-dunkers of the Middle Ages- If a woman drowns, she is innocent. If she floats, then she is a witch and must be burned. Wow. DiAngelo does this in claiming that white people are all racist and if they object to being labelled racist then that proves they are. You can’t win with such logic.
White people are stained with this original sin (Black scholar John McWhorter notes the same- the irremovable stain and sin of just being white). Murray adds that DiAngelo knew that what she was doing was wrong but she didn’t mind and admitted it, saying, “I am breaking a cardinal rule of individualism- I am generalizing”. That is the essence of racism- to generalize about an entire group of people in some negative way. Yet she gloats about doing that and believes that she can get away with that because it is against white people, says Murray.
Her generalizing about entire groups affirms her Marxism, a form of collectivism that sees people as members of either the oppressors group or victims group. The claim that blacks are subjects of endless victimhood is also dealt with by black scholar McWhorter who says that such ideology is harming blacks and is simply not true any more except in isolated cases. Blacks today have amazing opportunities for advancement and many have taken advantage of such opportunities.
Murray adds- DiAngelo makes the strongest claims without evidence- stating “white identity is inherently racist”.
In a Christiane Amanpour interview DiAngelo made such extreme claims without evidence and a black guest, Michel Martin, tried to pin her down, asking “You’re a scholar. Where’s your data? What makes you say that?” She had no evidence to back up her generalizations. She also made other assertions like, “There’s a glee in the White collective when Black bodies are punished”. Another generalization that is not true. Pretty shoddy scholarship, said Murray.
Murray says later in his book that no amount of anti-racism will ever be enough for DiAngelo. She promotes the Woke Racism that McWhorter writes about that is making life worse for all groups as it advocates new forms of racism.
Murray then repeats the story of a life-long liberal, Jody Shaw of Smith College in Massachusetts, where white staff were constantly berated in diversity and inclusion initiatives. In her resignation statement Shaw said, “I asked Smith College to stop reducing my personhood to a racial category. Stop telling me what I must think and feel about myself. Stop presuming to know who I am or what my culture is, based upon my skin color. Stop asking me to project stereotypes and assumptions onto others based on their skin color”.
As more and more black people are also arguing now- this new Woke Racism is not what Martin Luther King advocated- that we stop judging one another based on skin color but rather judge one another on our individual character. The new Woke Racism is all about judging others as an entire group, based on their skin color, no matter how different each individual may be.
And “systemic racism”? What about US surveys showing that almost 100% of the US population approves of mixed marriages, mixed neighborhoods, mixed everything. What does that say? It shows amazing progress on this issue. Unfortunately, people like DiAngelo deny that progress and continue to divide groups over race.
Also notable: Movements like BLM start with wide acceptance by the public. But then, unfortunately, extremists tend to get involved and take movements off in extremist directions, like DiAngelo, and that shift to extremes turns many people off, including many blacks who are now protesting against Critical Race Theory which leans toward DiAngelo’s assumptions and distortions.
Both sides need to return to a more discerning approach that views people on any side in terms of their individualism- individual differences and uniqueness. And then we ought to affirm the commonalities that most on all sides share. As presidential candidate Nikki Haley wisely said in an interview:
Interviewer: You’ve spoken out against identity politics, and yet in your campaign announcement, you emphasized your identity as a minority woman, as the daughter of Indian immigrants. In that same announcement, you emphasized your femininity: “When you kick back,” you said, “it hurts them more when you’re wearing heels.” To me, it’s a kind of Lean in, you go, girl play that’s typically reserved for Democrats. How central is your identity as a woman, and particularly a woman of South Asian descent, to your candidacy? Do you draw a line between a sort of inclusive identity politics and exclusionary identity politics?
Nikki Haley: When I was bullied, when I was younger, my mom would say to me, “Your job is not to show them how you’re different; your job is to show them how you’re similar.” I think that’s a lesson for all Americans. Don’t let people divide you based on what you look like. Instead, show them how similar you are to them.
I think it also helps people understand me more when I talk about being a woman. I’m proud of being a woman. I’m a feminine girl. I love that. I don’t deny what people can see, which is that I’m a brown woman. That’s fine. I have fun with it. If you’re going to criticize me for those things anyway, I’m going to lean into it and have fun. It’s not identity politics; it’s just loving who you are. I love being a woman. I love my heritage. I love how I was raised, and I love how it has made me who I am today.
Identity politics are when you divide people based on what you are. I’m not dividing people based on what I am. I’m trying to show people that we are all more similar than we are different.
More on the generalizing of the other side as all evil in terms of the minority extremists on that side…
Its more than unsettling, the apparent lack of self-awareness among many identifying as liberals today. Out of their zealous struggle to “protect democracy” against threats from the other side, there has emerged a dangerous authoritarianism that sees no danger in censorship, silencing dissent and free speech, banning others from public spaces (notable in university campus rioting and refusing to allow conservatives to speak), even criminalizing differing others (again, for example, Obama’s AG, Loretta Lynch, proposing to criminalize skeptical science on climate in 2016). These behaviors have traditionally been emanations of the totalitarian impulse, more forms of extreme Leftist tyranny than any form of true liberalism.
Liberals need to ask themselves- What self-delusional arguments are validating this dangerous new authoritarianism? What liberals are doing in censoring others who disagree is undermining the very fundamentals of liberal democracy, of freedom in general.
I repeat, as noted previously above- Be careful of building features into your perspective that are distorting your ability to see reality clearly and objectively. I refer to the common liberal tendency today to see extremists on the other side (the tiny minority of racists, White Supremacists, fascists) and then to extrapolate the disgusting positions of those lunatic fringe people out to characterize all on the other side- i.e. thereby demonizing all conservatives/Republicans, even demonizing center Right and center Left moderates who disagree with your Woke Progressivism.
That extrapolating of extremist positions out to characterize all who disagree with you, then validates your sense of engaging a “righteous battle against evil enemies” and provides the justification for your own descent into further leftist extremism in feeling righteous when censoring, silencing, banning, and criminalizing all who disagree with you.
We hear this justification when varied public “liberals” defend their crusades to censor and ban “misinformation/disinformation” that they claim is a “threat to democracy… racist, fascism, violent extremism…” and more. Again, they point to the minority of actual extremists on the other side with the assumption those few represent all on the other side. Notably public figures that have done this- Joy Reid of MSNBC, the ladies on The View (particularly Sonny Hostin arguing all voting Republican are racists), Michael Moore, and others.
One liberal commentator took all this a step further when he argued, during Trump’s presidency, that liberal violence against those on the other side was legitimate violence. He said, if they are all Nazis (and he affirmed that they were), then our violence, he argued, to stop them is like the Allies fighting Hitler during WW2. It is legitimate violence. Such logic advocated in public ought to be a wake-up call to many true liberals on the left side.
Another example:
https://news.yahoo.com/prof-suspended-post-saying-admirable-000425889.html?
All sides need to pull back from these dangerous excesses.
And an interesting essay on “respectable authoritarianism” (validating your totalitarianism as “good”, versus the other side’s totalitarianism as “evil”)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/12/27/joe-biden-and-the-rise-of-respectable-authoritarianism/
Energy poverty is harming the most vulnerable people, and this poverty is spreading in Germany, Britain, and US. Energy poverty is the result of governments intentionally blocking fossil fuel development and committing insane amounts of public funding (subsidies) to intermittent and unreliable renewables (Net Zero decarbonization). This fiasco is caused by elitists (climate alarmists) using public funding and that increases the cost of all energy/electricity. Add that carbon taxes also increase energy costs unnecessarily.
Energy inflation costs are downloaded on average citizens, all without an open, vigorous debate about the complete picture of climate science. The big picture on climate demolishes the alarmist narrative and crusade against fossil fuels (the narrative that climate change is mainly caused by human emissions of CO2).
Canadian carbon tax contributing more to inflation