Coming soon- New material to counter the totalitarian’s formula of “Fear=control”, arguably still the single most destructive element in life. How do tyrants use this formula? They construct narratives (i.e. climate alarmism) that exaggerate fear in populations and that incites people’s survival impulse and renders them susceptible to irrational salvation schemes that destroy societies to “save the world”. Religious themes continue to play a critical role in this tyranny, notably in the “secularized” versions of our major ideologies, such as “Declinism”, “the most dominant and influential theme in the modern world” (Arthur Herman in “The Idea of Decline in Western History”).
Some interesting comment in this link by Jordan Peterson on his latest Joe Rogan interview- JRE episode 2308 on YouTube or Spotify. Wendell Krossa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBEZhjnZTks
They engage some interesting discussion on play and how play counters tyranny. And then some good comment on the use of fear and control of others by fear. And how all this works in the online realm and in politics, especially in relation to apocalyptic narratives.
These quotes:
“Psychopaths find a narrative to strike fear into people and justify compulsion. They alley themselves with that belief/narrative then rachet themselves up reputational hierarchies without true validity, riding on fear and power.”
Peterson then makes this summary of earlier comments with Rogan on this:
“The climate apocalypse narrative is a social contagion that’s driven by power-mad psychopaths who are hell-bent on using fear and compulsion to make sure everyone steps in line so they can continue with their acquisition of undeserved power.”
He was referring earlier to Mark Carney who is likely today to win the election in Canada and is a charming, smooth talker who believes (he states this in his book Values) that every decision of every one of us must support his plans for Net Zero. Net Zero, points out Peterson, will devastate the lives of billions of poor people. I am especially impressed that Joe Rogan now also gets all this in regard to climate.
Jordan continues: “They (psychopathic personality types) conjure up a narrative and say we are the only people who can save you. They say that you (citizens) have to change every single thing you do in your life and prioritize our concern above everything else including the well-being of your own children.”
Again, Peterson and Rogan note this will impact the lives of Africans when you ban fossil fuels for them.
They then move on to the “call to adventure in life” in regard to the story of Abraham. The call to adventure is the meaning of life, says Peterson. Having an adventure is the purpose of life and as long as it’s a responsible, romantic adventure then it is a most compelling pathway and it makes suffering justifiable. The adventure of life gives a reason to get up in the morning, even if in pain. He goes on that we have an “instinct”, or it’s the voice of God, a call to expand ourselves, to take opportunities that demand more responsibility. But this instinct calls us to develop. It pulls us out into the world, to follow it and to make sacrifices and thereby get blessings.
And a note on his ARC venture (Alliance For Responsible Citizenship)- They are trying to counter fear and compulsion with “invitation” and “play” in their plans and policies, policies where people can find common ground.
While I would focus more on the great contradiction in the Christian Bible between Historical Jesus and Paul’s Christ myth as summarizing the profound difference between entirely contrary narratives, I do appreciate Peterson’s imaginative and creative drawing of psychological lessons from Bible stories.
More coming on combatting fear, primal fear, finding liberation from apocalyptic panic-mongering and the tyranny that pushes itself to dominance after inciting apocalyptic hysteria (arousing the survival impulse renders people susceptible to manipulation and control)…
I like this apparent “humble” admission of making a “mistake”, Wendell Krossa
I guess it’s a start, even though minimal and not yet willing to take full responsibility. Others are presenting the same equivocal and minimalist admissions of “errors/mistakes” framed with blame of others for being more responsible. Shameful. Note, for example, Jake Tapper’s recent interviews and his coming book. Tapper was front and center in rebuking others for questioning Joe Biden’s mental state and now presents himself as an innocent discoverer of that great media fraud.
No, no, no. It was no mistake that was innocently made by mainstream media. It was the widespread and partisanly zealous commitment of mainstream media to become “The Resistance” against the “Orange monster” that they constructed from the very beginning (2016). They all acted with now undeniable co-ordination, presenting exaggerated reports on everything the man said and did, grotesquely distorting him and his policies with what amounted to outright lies- i.e. “Russian sympathizer/agent, Hitler, Nazi, Racist, fascist, threat to democracy, and more”. So with any who supported the Orange Monster.
And then followed the media promotion of censorship as exposed in the Twitter files (affirmed by 70% support from Democrats). Mainstream media shifted to openly partisan one-sided reporting that ignored anything negative about the Democrats but harangued and scolded all day over the perceived failures on the other side (Republicans, conservatives). They endlessly promoted narratives of the exaggerated monstrosity of differing others. “News” became all-day discrediting, demonizing, and dehumanizing of opponents to the press’s narrative of support for Woke Progressive extremism.
We all watched the public corruption of mainstream media in their commitment to help the Democrats overthrow a democratically-elected government in 2016, as they all screamed “save democracy”. Then followed years of promoting the Russiagate lie. The corruption of democracy continued with media intervening in an election by pushing the Hunter Biden laptop coverup, along with intelligence community leaders. Add to that the media promotion of Covid lies and threats to any dissenters to lockdowns and masks, etc. And then media advocated the lawfare attacks on a political opponent.
Further, add the refusal of media to acknowledge the broken border mess, or the rising crime from Progressive crime policies (i.e. de-carceration, no cash bail, etc.), policies that “pacifist-like” released violent offenders back into communities to re-offend. Add the damage to democracy from Woke Progressive DEI and discrimination (i.e. the hysterical promotion of a new Woke Racism where everything, everything is reduced to race). And then the projection of blame onto the Right for being divisive. And yes, the Right is not without blame for its own contribution to tribal divisiveness.
Media furthered its undermining of democracy by affirming the battle of state elites against “populism”, and on and on. They took up the Biden administration’s denial of the inflation that was caused by their unrestrained spending policies, and the consequent suffering caused to average citizens by that inflation. There was constant distortion of factual economic reality and nonstop lying based on media’s commitment to an ideologically partisan worldview.
Add some more to this litany of “mistakes”:
The media commitment to neo-collectivism that has been unleashed in the continued shift of US Progressivism to the far-left. And don’t forget the media’s longer-term commitment to climate lies and climate alarmism, while refusing to cover the contrary evidence on that file that shows that “there is no climate crisis”. As Gaia creator James Lovelock admitted, after years of pushing climate alarmism, in his confession that he was wrong, “Climate is doing what climate always does (naturally)”. I’ve add the “naturally” to his statement because that is what most good evidence has shown. Natural factors show stronger correlations to the climate change that we have experienced over past decades. Lovelock admitted this factual evidence.
The coverup of Biden’s decline is just one of a consistent habitual pattern in media, not of “mistakes” but of intentional commitment to fight democracy with lies and to serve wholeheartedly and intentionally as the tribal partisan propaganda machine for one party. And what about the more recent favoring of Palestinian issues over Jews? The support for war in Ukraine?
Where does it end and will any in media really take responsibility for such zealous commitment to the corruption of democracy? Not likely. It’s all just “a mistake or two.”
Add also, the Frank Church element that exposed the infiltration and control of media by the CIA. After that pushback against state elite and CIA shenanigans (for a few years) by the Church Committee (1970s), the CIA found a way to get right back to its dirty tricks and control of media on behalf of whoever those elites are. And as someone noted, all those former intelligence agency officials move right into roles as mainstream media commentators/advisors after leaving agencies like the CIA.
https://www.levin-center.org/frank-church-and-the-church-committee/
Again, Mike Benz in his Rogan interview has exposed the profound corruption of liberal democracies in the West by agencies like the CIA acting on behalf of power-mad state elites, often acting through behind-the-scenes control of state agencies/bureaucracies, making a sham of democracy and freedom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPPc8OVNngg
Added note:
Dave Rubin (Rubin Report) notes that mainstream media people all repeat the very same words, terms, phrases/messages as the propagandize for the Democrats and extreme leftist positions, policies that are a complete abandonment of common sense. Others note how this happens immediately as though coordinated from behind-the-scenes. Sparks a big “Hmmm”.
More on the battle for liberal democracy against totalitarian assaults…
Free Press- “The explosion in funding for US universities”, Bari Weiss, April 28, 2025
https://www.thefp.com/p/explosion-in-foreign-funding-for-american-universities
Weiss asks: “Why have toxic, anti-American ideas prevailed at our most storied American universities?”
She says, “The answer, in a word, is tenure. Tenure allowed postmodernist, postcolonial, post-nationalist, post-structuralist professors lifetime job security, and empowered them to hire their intellectual facsimiles. Repeat that process beginning in the 1960s and you’ll look around and notice that a morally relativist, anti-American, anti-Western worldview is not the fringe but the norm on the most prestigious college campuses.”
She adds, “Another answer… if you’re an investor of the likes of China or Qatar, it’s hard to imagine a better bang for your buck than investing in institutions that are already educating the American elite against their own country.”
And this…
“Qatar and China are pouring billions into elite American universities: Foreign countries such as China and Qatar have poured $29 billion into campuses over the past few years. ‘Hostile powers are buying influence on American campuses at an industrial scale”, Frannie Block, Maya Sulkin, April 28, 2025
https://www.thefp.com/p/qatar-and-china-us-college-funding
Latest Taibbi and Kirn
“America This Week: Globalism Tells The Truth About The Future For Once: A Canadian advisory committee predicts mayhem, the end of the nuclear family, and subsistence hunting and farming, echoing WEF language”, Matt Taibbi, Walter Kirn, April 26, 2025
https://www.racket.news/p/transcript-america-this-week-apr-430
These two delve into why and how elites are predicting a gloomy vision of societal breakdown as many citizens of countries like Canada grow increasingly disillusioned because they will not be able to own homes or experience the same dream of their parents to upward social mobility. Hence, elites are worried about how to protect themselves and their advantages in the face of that predicted societal collapse. In response, they are proposing solutions where they control states more completely (i.e. Plato’s “philosopher kings”, “experts” who alone claim to be qualified to rule others). Alarmed elites are pushing to manage narratives more (i.e. censoring dissent) and thereby control the angry masses in order to offset the coming revolution.
This from a Canadian government document that predicts the breakdown: “People may reject systems they believe have failed them… If such scapegoating (i.e. of varied groups as responsible for social instability) becomes widespread, it could generate serious social or political conflicts.”
“Walter Kirn: The emptiness, emptiness of this World Economic Forum sensibility and project is just a howling void at this point. They have rhetoric from one wall to another. Stakeholders, equity and so on. Those aren’t solutions to anything. If they have solutions, they’re not telling us what they are, because aside from textured meat protein and maybe 15-minute cities, they’re not being candid about what they are really tacitly arguing for, which is control of the population must be instituted rather quickly before two things: before they unseat us, go crazy, start fighting and/or pitchfork, lapse into a absolutely unproductive state of torpor and despair. So behind every one of these things is really an argument for things like digital currency-
“Matt Taibbi: Power consolidation.
“Walter Kirn: … surveillance, censorship.
“Matt Taibbi: Surveillance, censorship.
“Walter Kirn: The answer to anger is censorship. The answer to anger is control, police, maybe automatic policing through machines and phones…”
And…
“Taibbi: With everything falling apart, we can reshape the world in ways we couldn’t before, ways that better address so many of the challenges we face. And that’s why so many are calling for a great reset. A great reset? That sounds more like buzzword bingo masking some nefarious plan for world domination. Hands up. This kind of slogan hasn’t gone down well.
“Matt Taibbi: I don’t buy it though. What I think is they’re creating this pessimistic vision of the future, because they want people to accept that.
“Walter Kirn (on elites pushing a vision of societal collapse): They want people to accept it, because it is great for them. An apathetic, demoralized, unambitious population that is increasingly content with soporific antidotes to its distress. It is called, “The Peasants are Quiet.” It’s a colonial master’s dream to sit up at the main house and look out and say, “Oh. Tonight they’re just cooped up, 10 to a cabin, listening to their music, telling their folk tales, not expecting much, eating the slop.” Meanwhile, back at ‘eyes wide shut’ house…”
And more at the link above.
Post to discussion group: Wendell Krossa
Some interesting thoughts in the link below on Carl Jung’s dark night of the psyche. He argues for embracing the emptiness when joy disappears, viewing it as a new stage of development, the beginning of a real self now emerging. Our response to darkness/depression should not be chasing stimulation or joy but listening to what our soul is trying to say. It’s a new self that is trying to be born. Grief is part of the process toward the new, because part of us is dying but another part is trying to be born.
It looks like depression, it feels like emptiness, but it is a profound psychological rebirth. Don’t resist, don’t wait for the old excitement to come back, don’t try to revive the old that is dying. Welcome the discomfort and see what it tells you. It’s terrifying but its liberation, the paradox of transformation.
Be curious- What is this feeling trying to teach me? Look for meaning not happiness. Don’t seek pleasure but awakening. There is no quick fix so let yourself be in the fog as what comes will be worth it. Don’t try to go back to the old joys. You are being asked to evolve, not seek what excites but what enlivens.
You are not failing but being initiated, not collapsing but crossing to the true you. Its not how do I feel better but what is my soul asking for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKrHPSbjOdQ
This news on the collapse of Spain’s national electrical grid, a product of the Net Zero push for renewables as the main base source of power.
https://www.public.news/p/over-reliance-on-renewables-behind
“Over-Reliance On Renewables Behind Catastrophic Blackouts in Spain: Excess solar resulted in too little “inertia,” making the whole system vulnerable”, Michael Shellenberger, April 28, 2025
Shellenberger says that “Six days ago, the media celebrated a significant milestone: Spain’s national grid operated entirely on renewable energy for the first time during a weekday.
“At 12:35 pm today local time, the lights went out across Spain and Portugal, and parts of France. Although power was quickly restored in France, it could take a week to fully restore power in Spain and Portugal… Tens of millions of people instantly plunged into chaos, confusion, and darkness. People got stuck in elevators. Subways stopped between stations. Gas stations couldn’t pump fuel. Grocery stores couldn’t process payments. Air traffic controllers scrambled as systems failed and planes were diverted. In hospitals, backup generators sputtered on, but in many cases could not meet full demand. Cell towers collapsed under surges and outages.”
He says, “It was the exact failure that many of us have been, repeatedly, warning lawmakers about for years — warnings that Europe’s political leaders systematically chose to ignore.
Spain’s national grid operator stated that the “cause of the blackout was a “very strong oscillation in the electrical network” that forced Spain’s grid to disconnect from the broader European system, leading to the collapse of the Iberian Peninsula’s power supply at 12:38 p.m.
Shellenberger adds that traditional grids are dominated by heavy spinning machines in coal, gas, and nuclear power plants and small disturbances are “absorbed and smoothed out by the sheer physical inertia of the system. The heavy rotating mass of the generators acts like a shock absorber, resisting rapid changes in frequency and stabilizing the grid.”
But, he says, in a grid that is dominated by solar panels, wind turbines and inverters there is almost no physical inertia, not mechanical rotation hence little stabilizing force. So when a disturbance hits such a grid there is too little heavy machinery to dampen oscillations that grow rapidly, shaking the grid apart.
And the physics behind this had been understood for years, says Shellenberger, “and the specific vulnerabilities had been spelled out repeatedly in technical warnings that policymakers ignored.”
He notes a 2017 study that warned renewables generation would create grid destabilizing oscillations and cascading failures across Europe.
Hence, “Spain’s blackout wasn’t just a technical failure. It was a political and strategic failure. It was the predictable result of ignoring clear, repeated warnings about how fragile the modern grid was becoming.”