- Obi-Wan: Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.
- Luke: You mean it controls your actions?
- Obi-Wan: Partially, but it also obeys your commands.
- [Luke gets shot by the remote sphere]
- Han: [laughs] Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
- Luke: You don't believe in the Force, do you?
- Han: Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. [Kenobi smiles] Anyway, it's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.
- Obi-Wan: [gets up and takes a blast helmet] I suggest you try it again, Luke. Only this time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct. [puts the helmet on Luke, which covers his eyes]
- Luke: But with the blast shield down, I can't even see! How am I supposed to fight?
- Obi-Wan: Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them. [remote sphere shoots Luke] Stretch out with your feelings! [watches Luke succeed in blocking the lasers... just before they fire] You see? You can do it.
- Han: I call it luck.
- Obi-Wan: In my experience, there is no such thing as luck.
- ~From Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
- ...
If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan- ...
- There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. ~George Orwell, 1984
I saw this over the weekend.
Apparently, Trump is willing to go after even longtime conservative stalwarts like Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, simply because judges he got appointed ruled against Trump, presumably because they believe...on some level...that laws actually matter and that things function better when people can reasonably well predict, based on a certain set of variables, such as laws, what the State will do in any given moment or how it will react to any given crisis.
Trump has also...possibly as a function of his dementia...been very openly descending into rabid conspiracy theory madness, simply because it's there, I guess? Like, these fucking people (especially Trump, who was, ya know, the President in 2020) have to know this fucking bullshit is a lie at this point.
But they keep finding gullible idiots and other grifters who'll play along, so they keep doing it. That lying is a Sin does not seem to matter to These Fucking People one damned bit.
Again, "Christians" my ass. And yes, they know exactly what they're doing.
Like, what the fuck are we even doing here, America??
I'm a United States Air Force bomb wing security forces veteran. What the Ukrainians did to the Russians this weekend (by themselves and without our help) is the rough equivalent of somebody taking out Barksdale Air Force Base and the entire 2nd Bomb Wing. Hell, we could retire the B-1B Lancer force now and still be decades ahead of where the Russians are now.
And they cannot replace the aircraft, as only the TU-160M Backfire remains in (very limited) production. Add to that, that Russian battlefield casualties are about to surpass ONE MILLION if they haven't already.
Meanwhile, America is sitting on its ass, basically jerking off and descending into crazy-land for no good reason.
Look here; While the country that was supposed to take 3 days to conquer (Checks Notes: Three and a half years ago now) cheerfully kicks Vladimir Putin's ass again, we're pretty much as a nation getting high, eating Cheetos and engaging in the political equivalent of watching Spongebob while billionaires loot the country and fascists run wild in our streets terrorizing Brown people, again, for no good damn reason.
(And these assholes got mad because the Ukrainians didn't tell them they were going to pull this goddamn beautiful drone operation.) At minimum another country just assured that in case of nuclear war 40 less US cities will get bombed and these fuckers don't even appreciate it.)
People come here, basically, to do the jobs that Americans don't want to do. What exactly does it say about Stephen Miller that he feels threatened by this??
I mean, dude just got his wife stolen by Elon Musk, of all fucking people. Never mind that all three of them look about as attractive to me as a sheet pan full of frozen chicken (white meat, of course) and have about as much personality. Evidently, among themselves, there was some level of manipulation and seduction going on. (Ew.)
So dude overcompensates by trying to accuse Democrats (again, of all the fucking people) and regular people of being terrorists simply for resisting his ethnic-cleansing wank-fest agenda. I mean, come on, dude.
I'd ask, Jesus, just how fucking weak are these fucking people? But, I'm afraid eventually we're going to find out.
Also, since these fucking people have all jacked "Conservative" America this damn hard, finding out that this shit is nothing but vaporware will probably break the damn country. I mean, yeah, the "Oh, hey, we fucked up" is starting to really set in, but not near with enough people yet.
And by the way, even ICE goons and Republicans are very much acting like they know there's going to be an "after" to all this, where they might have to try to hide their participation.
The question is; Where might one get the idea that this bullshit is Okay?
Well, start with the fact that I also saw a whole bunch of stuff this weekend about some kind of Pentecostal rally on Hollywood Boulevard that there was no permit or preparation for, and from what I can tell it was just the standard Unga Bunga stupid bullshit and self-worship that goes with that sort of thing, and the cops were just fine with it as long as they were off the streets by rush hour or some shit.
You want to start dealing with the rest of America's problems? Start addressing the narcissism, start doing something about the fact that so much of America's religion not only is a self-reverential wank-fest (and has been for a generation, trust me, I was there.) I remember when we used to laugh at these kind of people in my church. Well, about a decade later, it was the standard-conservative, Fundamentalist-adjacent churches like I went to, not to mention more Fundamentalist types, that were in retreat and the Prosperity Gospel nonsense that was ascendant.
Now, this sort of thing isn't always blatant self-worship and narcissistic acting-out with a thin coating of Jesus-paint, but it very often is exactly that, and then some, and it ends up being damaging to people's faith.
And it's getting so, outside of major denominations that didn't let that crap in the door in the first place, it's all that's left. I watched my old association get taken over by this bullshit and I watched everybody who cared leave, because it's what they could even do and keep their sanity. Trust me, I get it.
Now, personally, I no longer have any issues with Pentecostals overall...so long as they leave me alone and mind their own business...but there's a large sub-sect of them that does exactly the opposite of that and does shit like shut down Hollywood Boulevard for an afternoon
(and somehow, that's Okay with the LAPD?? What??)Sorry, and I say this knowing that a substantial portion of American Christianity is very fucked in the head. But what the hell are these nuts even on??
The thing is, it can get worse.
What's worse is, if you think we're cooked...check out how bad of a case of far-right brain-worms Liz Truss has gotten herself into.
And it's worth noting here that the UK is one hell of a lot more atheistic of a country than the United States, that American-style Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christianity isn't really much of a thing outside of Northern Ireland, and that (in my experience, anyway) the typical devout Pentecostal in the UK is more likely to be Nigerian or some other African immigrant and politically basically a socialist. The church I used to live by downstate had a fair-sized contingent of these kind of people, most of whom had come via Canada or the UK, and they were mostly alright.
There's a certain level of religious fuckery that's almost uniquely American. The trouble is every once in awhile, you get somebody from somewhere else who wants to try to keep up.
So, it's unlikely to spread very far...that's until you realize that in the British political class, it doesn't have to. There's a lot fewer of them and it's more of a closed system that starts in prep school and shit.
We're supposed to be like, THE world-leader, WE should, theoretically, be the ones out there fucking up the Russians with the Ukrainians as some sort of proxy, but it's not that, anymore, is it?? Because half of America wants to keep feeling "Special" and making money to the absolute exclusion of all else, and it's killing us. We have basically become a nation of fucking addicts seeking Wealth Without Work.
And whether it's Dopamine or Ketamine, the shit is getting out of control.
Literally.
And until we address this national narcissism and start fucking fixing it, narcissism is the only thing we're going to lead the world in.
Freedom is hard, I understand that.
Well, guess what? It's even harder when you're insane.
And the problem with a lot of this crap (take it from somebody who has actual mental issues) is that a lot of this insanity is apparently voluntary and self-programmed and a lot of it is grounded in bigotry that most of us know is wrong, but too many of us want to keep doing anyway.
If we don't start reintroducing concepts like consequences for bad behavior, shame and social sanction, if we can't call crazy out as CRAZY, if we can't make words have meaning again, we're fucked.
As long as decency or truth is optional, there will be people who refuse to have either.
You either believe in freedom or you don't.
It really is that simple.
The Ukrainians get it.
Why don't we??
Did America get too comfortable, or what??
'Cause I see that evaporating real quick, at the rate things are going.
But there's some people who get so high off following this Antichrist bullshit that I don't think they'll ever stop.
And if we can't fix it, if this country splits up, writ large we're still going to have the same problems even if a majority of the successor-states drift or force-march back towards a reality-based worldview, because there will likewise be some that don't.
And they will likely only get worse as they see the rest of the world reject their bullshit.
Note: The most important part is it's their bullshit.
Look, I don't care how "Special" you think you are, you ain't God.
Maybe it's time to grow the fuck up and start acting like it.
We can tear down the Golden Image, or we can be torn down by it.
Слава Україна!
- Simon Adebisi: See, we are all of us bad men, even you. I know you have come to destroy me.
- Kareem Said: Simon, I don't want to destroy you. I want to help you change.
- Simon Adebisi: That is what would destroy me.
- ~From the HBO series Oz, S4.E8 "You Bet Your Life."
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; ~Exodus 20:2-5
Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
~Daniel 3:14-18
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