After 100 years and 100 million needless graves, Dinesh D’Souza on the C21 “revival” of “Socialism”

_{kairosfocus

July 27, 2020

Control vs Anarchy, Defending our Civilization, Geo-strategic issues, rhetoric}

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Thirty years ago, “Socialism” collapsed in utter disgrace. What lies behind the seeming resurgence in C21? (Apart from Alinsky style “community organisers” beavering away, Frankfurt School “Critical theory” and linked “Deconstructionism,” all tied to the smear that those who seriously challenge Marxist notions and linked policy agendas are crypto-fascists at best?)

Here is a Prager U video discussion with Ms Candace Owen:

(Here’s hoping it does not get mysteriously deplatformed.)

I again point to a framework for understanding political dynamics:

. . . thus, a re-thinking on political spectra:

With a warning on Red Guards:

Let me add (July 31), given the comment by BR on a victim of a Stalinist show trial, a telegram from Albert Einstein on the behalf of the judicially murdered Czech politician, lawyer and patriot, Milada Horáková (née Králová, 25 December 1901 – 27 June 1950), pleading fruitlessly for her life after a Stalinist show trial:

Video:

Let me further add, from how Wikipedia is forced to admit the truth:

Milada Horakova of Czechoslovakia, face of a falsely accused,heartlessly and cruelly judicially murdered martyr

Milada Horáková (née Králová, 25 December 1901 – 27 June 1950) was a Czech politician and a member of underground resistance movement during World War II. She was a victim of judicial murder committed by the communist party on fabricated charges of conspiracy and treason.[2] Many prominent figures in the West, including Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill, petitioned for her life.
She was executed at Prague’s Pankrác Prison using a primitive variant of execution by hanging. She died after being strangled for more than 13 minutes.[3][4] Her remains were never found.[4]
The verdict of her trial was annulled in 1968, and she was fully rehabilitated in the 1990s and posthumously received the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1st Class) and Order of the White Double Cross (1st Class).[5][6]

For shame!

U/D, Aug 2: Here is a reaction to a Twitter discussion of a Bible burning incident in front of the Court House in Portland, Oregon [as is discussed below]:

In reply, let us note first that already, the Church in Lafayette Park, across from the White House was targetted for arson and statues of Christian saints have also been targetted, this is not isolated. This comment in the same discussion, sadly, has a point about evading responsibility:

To correct the slander that Christians are in effect Nazis, let us next throw a spotlight on the Anti-Christ blasphemy of Nazism, seen in this Nazi poster that echoes and blasphemously twists Jesus’ baptism and the descent of the Spirit in the form of a dove of peace, not a demonic bomber-bird as the political messiah leads an army of the deluded . . . while carrying a banner based on what, visually, is also a twisted, broken cross (never overlook the suggestions- by- symbol of the wicked):

(The truth is, it is easily shown that Nazism and Fascism were of the same Left that has been identifiable for over 200 years. Similarly, that Hitler was anti-Christ, not Christian. Note here, the theses of the 1934 Barmen Declaration. Yes, in the long history of Christianity-influenced civilisation there have been too many shameful moments, but Nazism is not one of them and it is utterly wicked, slanderous hate speech to project Nazism as the defining essence of “Conservative” Christianity. That this is so commonly done almost as a matter of course shows the horrible rot at work in our civilisation.)

We need to seriously reconsider where we are taking our civilisation:

Trying to recover from having fallen over a cliff is very hard to do. END

Comments

Q, the truth is, we need a full blooded spiritual reformation, with widespread revivals blazing across the world. A major block to that in North America and W Europe, is de-Christianisation (which is often dressed up in a lab coat). Never mind, that there is excellent evidence pointing to the reality of God as root of all worlds and that if soberly examined, the gospel has solid warrant. That is of little avail, in the face of narrative dominance and hostility; people often insist on living out of Rom 1. Beyond a certain point, only terrible pain corrects, and there are those who not even pain will correct; it is notorious that history repeats or rhymes because we refuse to learn sound lessons bought with blood and tears. I frankly fear, we may have come to the edge of a civilisational cliff yet again and are dancing heedlessly even as it begins to crumble underfoot. And that includes the tragedy of the black male working class youth, from Lagos to London to LA. Black culture is by and large open to the gospel, but our family disintegration (only partly explicable on slavery etc) and educational breakdown have come back to haunt us. My ray of hope is, as we go through the storm, we will look to rays of hope; one of which is, the rise of digital, multimedia technologies that can vastly amplify the rapidity of reach of sound messages, especially sound spiritual and general education. But to discern that message and discredit the many siren songs -- so far as I can see right now -- is going to take shattering pain. For this, my reference is Luke's answer to Plato's Ship of State, Ac 27. One of the scriptures that haunts me is Eph 4, which describes how sound church leadership helps to build mature churches, with discernment as one result, leading to a gospel ethics and gospel truth shaped counter-culture that becomes the proverbial shining city on a hill in the face of vast darkness around:
Eph 4:14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ . . . . 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self,6 which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. [ESV]
A terrible time is obviously upon us, one that will show the difference between the manipulative narratives and voices money can buy and voices of truth, even, voices of truth wearing shackles. So, in the end, lies fail as they are ruinous. But, when lies prosper, truth may be in shackles or rags. Quite the dilemma and soul-test. Which is exactly what say Ac 17 points to, kairos is a test of our souls and our civilisation is patently at kairos. This is one place where W/pedia is actually helpful:
Kairos (Ancient Greek: ??????) is an Ancient Greek word meaning the right, critical, or opportune moment.[1] The ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos (??????) and kairos. The former refers to chronological or sequential time, while the latter signifies a proper or opportune time for action. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature.[2] Kairos also means weather in Modern Greek. The plural, ?????? (kairoi (Ancient and Modern Greek)) means the times. Kairos is a term, idea, and practice that has been applied in several fields including classical rhetoric, modern rhetoric, digital media, Christian theology, and science.
These, are such times as try men's souls. KFkairosfocus_{July 31, 2020
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Milada Horakova was an outspoken critic of Hitler before the National Socialists ever stepped foot in Czechoslovakia. She and her husband were arrested and both sent to camps. When the communists took over, her positions remained unchanged and was arrested and tortured for weeks until she signed a confession and was executed in 1950. Her husband managed to escape to Germany and eventually made his way to the United States. It took him 20 years to get his daughter out of Czechoslovakia. Holding the same position in regards to the Nazis and communists resulted in arrest. The Nazis initially gave her the death penalty, but got a new trial due to lack of evidence. It was changed to 8 years. The communists held her without any evidence and there were no initial charges brought. She was not an easy woman to break, but eventually everyone breaks. She was forced to sign a confession and had a show trial. Telegrams from all over the world asked for leniency, which was denied.BobRyan_{July 31, 2020
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Wow, what gut-wrenching and deeply saddening statistics! From what we've seen, the riots and its crime wave has been destroying black lives. Black lives are only consequential to the press when it serves their ideological message, which seems to be entirely partisan. However, missing from Heather MacDonald's presentation are the sources of the disproportionate level of criminal behavior in young black males (something like 13 times the homicide rate than in the rest of the nation). From my experiences, I believe the primary reason for higher crime in young people is absent fathers. Other factors include gross educational malpractice in many cities, constant victim-mentality propaganda, poor media stereotypes, drugs, limited employment opportunities for the poorly educated, and covert racism. Broken families rose dramatically under the well-meaning "Great Society" and "War on Poverty" programs, which have significant culpability. Politicians have hypocritically and successfully used black suffering as a means to get power and maintain power for decades. As noted by the NAACP there has been an overwhelming amount of promises contrasting an almost total lack of action for the interests of the community they try to represent. There certainly needs to be reform. I believe the areas of reform include education reform, prison reform, immigration reform, farmworker employment reform, much stronger prosecution and penalties for political corruption, journalistic reform, and de facto political censorship in the media, on-campus, and online. And I've probably missed a few. None of these reforms occurred in Republican or Democrat dominated administrations. None. Sadly, most political and union organizations and their contributors are adamantly opposed to these reforms and work diligently and tirelessly to make sure any potential reforms are given only lip service. In my opinion, our elected representatives have chosen to become polarized to the point of hatefulness and paralysis. And wealthy. This is not what they were elected to do and we should start recalling them. So, now we hear the sweet promises of a socialist worker's paradise--what we've all been taught in schools and colleges for decades. And when this once again ends in poverty, hunger, and genocide under a brutal dictatorship, we'll once again be assured by clueless academics and journalists with the words: "But that wasn't true socialism." Yes, it was. -QQuerius_{July 30, 2020
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Heather MacDonald speaks, with details https://youtu.be/qbMkYZGFVw0 She is a serious scholar and needs to be heard, whether or not you agree. I gather YT tried a takedown already. KFkairosfocus_{July 30, 2020
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Eugene, He has misread key matters, though the lead does summarise the warped view being promoted. A first clue as to the folly involved is the gross blunder that fascism is a "right wing" phenomenon. I take up where he speaks in his own voice:
this isn’t just the usual Portlandia silliness. This White Black Nationalist Color Revolution has been in the works for the last four years. Since the moment Trump won the Republican nomination, the global capitalist ruling classes have been fomenting racialized polarization, Putin-Nazi paranoia, and other forms of mass hysteria, in anticipation of the events of this summer. The propaganda has remained consistent. Both the liberal corporate media and the alternative left media have been predicting that Trump is going to go full-Hitler, impose martial law, proclaim himself Führer, and perpetrate some sort of racialized holocaust … for reasons they’ve never quite been able to explain. He hasn’t, of course, so the global capitalist ruling classes had no choice but to unleash a [SNIP]storm of civil unrest to goad him into overreacting … which, no surprise, he was stupid enough to do. Ordering the goon squads into the streets might delight his hardcore right-wing base, but it will alienate the majority of “normal” Americans, who aren’t especially fond of goon squads (unless they’re doing their thing in some faraway country). Most importantly, it will motivate all those non-Clinton-voting Obama voters to go out and vote for “Slappy” Joe Biden, or whichever corporate puppet the Democrats have replaced him with by November 3. That seems to be the general strategy
There simply are no goon squads, though it is very hard to avert that projection in the face of a hostile media looking to wave the bloody shirt. A capital example is how in NY, an arrest of an activist who has been destroying surveillance cameras, surrounded by a ring of obvious bicycle police was perceived and projected as a kidnapping. Defund/abolish the police is a reckless policy, one that hands the community over to the mob. That a major party would endorse such -- however they may now try to spin it -- is fatal. Similarly, the ugly inquisition of an AG that tried (incompetently) to enmesh him in perjury traps, badgered him with complex, loaded accusation laced questions then deliberately, consistently cut him off from answering is a revelation on the lawfare and injudicious mindset at work. Connecting the two was refusal to correct rioting. We now know who are at least enabling. That is suggestive as to where to look for backers of the Red Guards. And Foundation money is only a small part of that picture. Where there are Red Guards, there is a lawless Mao who hates the culture and sees that creating a year zero mob based coup opens up doors to unrestrained power.. And that will be a key part of why the election is likely to be a defeat for the party that has clearly become captive to destructive "progressive" radicalism. It is too late to recover, it will almost certainly go into the wilderness, as it deserves. But that will simply ramp up the chaos, a 4G civil war is in progress. As a result the next 6 - 18 months will be decisive, though I expect the Red Guards and their backers to lose. The problem is, even more permanent damage will be done to the geostrategic centre of our civilisation and that cumulative damage is liable to have very bad global consequences. Marches of folly have consequences. KFkairosfocus_{July 30, 2020
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Btw, here's a good easy-read summary of current evens by Mr. CJ Hopkins, even with some satirical twist: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/2020-all-marbles-exposing-americas-white-black-nationalist-color-revolution For those who do not like ZeroHedge, here's the original publication: https://consentfactory.org/2020/07/29/the-white-black-nationalist-color-revolution/Eugene_{July 29, 2020
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F/N: On Colour -- and that spelling is used -- Revolutions, W/pedia against interest:
Colour Revolution (sometimes called the Coloured Revolution) is a term that was widely[citation needed][clarification needed] used by worldwide media[1] [--> media amplification and framing] to describe various related movements that developed in several countries of the former Soviet Union, People's Republic of China and the Balkans during the early 2000s. The term has also been applied to a number of revolutions elsewhere, including in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, dating from the 1980s to the 2010s. Some observers (such as Justin Raimondo and Michael Lind) have called the events a revolutionary wave, the origins of which can be traced back to the 1986 People Power Revolution (also known as the Yellow Revolution) in the Philippines.
[--> at the time, a direct comparison was in Haiti and in Jamaica next door, Marxist agitators in colleges sought to turn protests over a "cess" on students into a national revolution consciously echoing those events. A key was a hoped for wave the bloody shirt confrontation with police, in the end that came to blocking a main artery, tear gassing, a platoon volley of blanks on full auto above student heads and a baton charge with arrests of key targetted student leaders]
Participants in the colour revolutions have mostly used nonviolent resistance [--> that depends on definition of what constitutes "violence," "riot" etc, the biases surface here], also called civil resistance[citation needed]. Such methods as demonstrations, strikes and interventions have been intended protest against governments seen as corrupt and/or authoritarian and to advocate democracy and they have also created strong pressure for change. These movements generally adopted a specific colour or flower as their symbol. The colour revolutions are notable for the important role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and particularly student activists in organising creative non-violent resistance[citation needed]. [--> there is a perspective that in many cases they were/are engineered] Such movements have had a measure of success as for example in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Bulldozer Revolution (2000), in Georgia's Rose Revolution (2003) and in Ukraine's Orange Revolution (2004). In most but not all cases, massive street protests followed disputed elections or requests for fair elections and led to the resignation or overthrow of leaders considered by their opponents to be authoritarian[citation needed]. [--> in short these can work, with 1978/9 in Iran as a model too] Some events have been called "colour revolutions", but are different from the above cases in certain basic characteristics. Examples include Lebanon's Cedar Revolution (2005) and Kuwait's Blue Revolution (2005). Government figures in Russia, such as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have claimed that colour revolutions are externally fuelled acts with a clear goal to influence the internal affairs that destabilise the economy,[2] conflict with the law and represent a new form of warfare.[3][4] [--> an aspect of 4th Generation war, and it is not just ooh the Russkies say it] President Vladimir Putin said that Russia must prevent colour revolutions: "We see what tragic consequences the wave of so-called colour revolutions led to. For us this is a lesson and a warning. We should do everything necessary so that nothing similar ever happens in Russia".[5]
This lays out issues. An argument out there is that current events in the US are much the same, with the obvious colour choice being black, with yellow too. We need to ponder serious questions. KFkairosfocus_{July 29, 2020
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F/N: Wiki, on Ukraine, again, take with due cautions:
The Ukrainian Revolution of 2014 (also known as the Euromaidan Revolution, or Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity; Ukrainian: ????????? ????????, Revoliutsiia hidnosti) took place in Ukraine in February 2014, when a series of violent events involving protesters, riot police [--> notice], and unknown shooters [--> snipers, often suggested to be a setup by whoever you wish to find key villain, they may have shot at both obvious sides] in the capital, Kiev, culminated in the ousting of the elected Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, and the overthrow of the Ukrainian Government.[34] [--> notice, street chaos can lead to revolution] Successive Ukrainian governments in the 2000s sought a closer relationship with the European Union (EU).[35][36] The government of Yanukovych had been negotiating an association agreement with the European Union since 2012.[37] Such comprehensive trade agreement with the EU would have impacted Ukraine's trade agreements with Russia, the latter being Ukraine's biggest trade partner at the time.[38] Yanukovych believed that the complications could be addressed, and he said that he intended to enter the agreement,[39] but continued to postpone.[40] This was interpreted as an attempt to back out of signing this agreement, and led to a wave of protests which came to be known as the "Euromaidan" movement.[41] Clashes between the protestors and the riot police became violent, and resulted in deaths of nearly 130 people, including 18 police officers.[42] [--> note, chaotic rioting] As the tensions rose, the personal safety for the president became untenable;[43] on 22 February he fled from Kiev to Russia.[41] The protesters proceeded to take control of the government. [--> takeover] On the same day, the parliament declared that Yanukovych was relieved of duty in a 328-to-0 vote.[44][45][46] Yanukovych said that this vote was illegal and possibly coerced, and asked Russian Federation for assistance.[47] Russia considered the overthrow of Yanukovych to be an illegal coup, and did not recognize the interim government that was put in place by the protesters.[48] Widespread protests against the revolution occurred in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, where Yanukovych received strong support in the 2010 presidential election. These protests escalated into 2014 Crimean status referendum, Russian military intervention,[49][50] and the establishment of de facto independent states in Donetsk and Luhansk. [--> untangling this is hard, but a key is where Russians were concentrated and more or less veiled Russian intervention] The interim government, led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, proceeded to sign the EU association agreement. Petro Poroshenko became the president of Ukraine after a landslide victory in the 2014 presidential elections. The new government restored the 2004 amendments to the Ukrainian constitution that were controversially repealed as unconstitutional in 2010,[51] and initiated a large-scale purge of civil servants who were associated with the overthrown regime.[52][53][54] The Law on Regional Languages, which allowed Ukrainian regions with large cultural minorities to use their own languages in their local administration, was repealed. [--> notice, minority issues] A December 2016 survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology found that 34 percent of respondents in the government-controlled Ukraine regarded the change in power as an "illegal armed coup", while 56 percent regarded it as a "popular revolution".[55]
The accusations of Fascism/Nazism, NATO intervention, Soros, and whatnot make for a murky picture. KFkairosfocus_{July 29, 2020
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Q, there is no need to speculate, the history of radical revolutions since 1789 is clear. Radicals revolutions introduce violence as path to power, delegitimising everyone. This of course creates economic dislocation, which may trigger hostility to those who sell key commodities, especially if they are a readily identifiable minority. Chaos arises due to the unsettled situation, often with infighting and coups. A reign of terror is common. The mob is a factor. A strong man tends to emerge and as a rule external war tends to be involved. The dangers are manifest. More or less this, has been pointed out since Plato's parable of the ship of state; which, we should know a lot more about. KFkairosfocus_{July 29, 2020
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Kairosfocus, Thank you for your insightful and well-informed posts. A lot of the details you presented on the Arab Spring was new to me. I also appreciated your Russian saying, "Dwell on the past, you lose an eye; forget the past and you lose both your eyes." But just focusing on the general historical patterns, I think it's valid to pull out some general principles. * A prerequisite to controlling a population is to make the majority of its citizens subject to unbridled emotion without having the tools of logic or any understanding of history. You can do this through its institutions: journalism, education at all levels, religion, and politics. * Promise the people all the money in the banks and goods in the stores in payment for some aspect of injustice that they have suffered. Promise free food, free healthcare, free housing, etc. You don't actually have to provide these things, you just have to promise them, blaming shortages on subversive elements and political foes. * Never do anything to address legitimate concerns of the population such as police misconduct, high crime, polluted water, massive bureaucracy, impossible immigration, and above all, pervasive corruption. Let the anger build in the population. Corruption is also very useful in controlling various people in positions of power through blackmail. Too many executions disguised as suicides tend to build suspicion, so use these sparingly. * After an obligatory genocidal period where the anger and hatred of the people is exhausted (Jews, Armenians, or other minorities make good traditional targets), take complete power and carefully find ways of eliminating the people who got you there. For example, inquisitions to root out latent racism might be an innovative approach. Make sure you take the moral high ground in such inquisitions to exhibit your righteous anger on behalf of the people. * Despite all the wonderful stated intentions of peace, prosperity, economic equality, social conformity, remember that nature abhors a vacuum, especially a political vacuum. You have to fill that vacuum with as much state power as possible, brutal, ruthless, and arbitrary. This will intimidate anyone who continues with unsanctioned protests. * Once in control, make sure the journalistic institutions publish articles only conveying sweetness and light--how things are so much better now that you're in charge. Political discourse is no longer relevant and should be quickly extinguished. * Demand absolute allegiance from everyone to "The People" (i.e. you and your cronies). Try to suppress any religion on the grounds of mixed loyalty. * And finally, keep the population on the edge of starvation and homelessness. This will keep them in line and you and your cronies in power. Resist any twinges of humanitarianism because it will destabilize the natural state of humanity. There. That's off the top of my head. I'm sure I missed some pointers. :-/ -QQuerius_{July 29, 2020
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F/N: Let me put some provocative comparative thoughts on the table, surrounding the Arab Spring uprisings and chaos of a decade ago, which continues in some regards to today. Notice, I am specifically NOT issuing a blanket or even particular, limited endorsement, I am asking us to look at possible patterns: EXHB A: From Global Research: https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-arab-spring-made-in-the-usa/5484950 >> . . . According to Bensaada, the MENA Arab Spring revolutions have four unique features in common: None were spontaneous – all required careful and lengthy (5+ years) planning, by the State Department, CIA pass through foundations, George Soros, and the pro-Israel lobby.1 [--> this reflects the biases involved, there is no way Israel would desire a high risk of getting radical islamist regimes across the ME, esp in the pivotal case, Egypt. See my next comment] All focused exclusively on removing reviled despots without replacing the autocratic power structure that kept them in power. [--> my analysis is that, without generations deep cultural buttresses, stable democracies are impossible, and such buttresses are being undermined in the US and elsewhere. Absent such, the best we can hope for is lawful oligarchy, maybe with some experimental democratic elements] No Arab Spring protests made any reference whatsoever to powerful anti-US sentiment over Palestine and Iraq. [--> involvement of radical islamists implies entrenched intent to destroy Israel, cf Gharqad tree Hadith used by Hamas etc] All the instigators of Arab Spring uprisings were middle class, well educated youth who mysteriously vanished after 2011. Nonviolent Regime Change Bensaada begins by introducing non-violent guru Gene Sharp (see The CIA and Nonviolence), his links with the Pentagon and US intelligence, and his role, as director of the Albert Einstein Institution, in the “color” revolutions.2in Eastern Europe and the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002.)) The US goal in the Arab Spring revolutions was to replace unpopular despotic dictators while taking care to maintain the autocratic US-friendly infrastructure that had brought them to power. [--> in fact, the US had a radical regime itself that was seeking radical restructuring of the globe] All initially followed the nonviolent precepts Sharp outlines in his 1994 book From Dictatorship to Democracy. In Libya, Syria and Yemen, the US and their allies were clearly prepared to introduce paid mercenaries when their Sharpian “revolutions” failed to produce regime change. [--> really . . .] Follow the Money Relying mainly on Wikileaks cables and the websites of key CIA pass through foundations (which he reproduces in the appendix), Bensaada methodically lists every State Department conference and workshop the Arab Spring heroes attended, the dollar amounts spent on them by the State Department and key “democracy” promoting foundations3 [--> much of that would be legitimate investment in democratisation], the specific involvement of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Obama’s 2008 Internet campaign team in training Arab Spring cyperactivists in encryption technologies and social media skills, US embassy visits, and direct encounters with Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, John McCain, Barack Obama and Serbian trainers from CANVAS (the CIA-backed organization that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000) . . . >> Here, we see a more or less plausible model of Web-assisted, mass protest (with violence) driven wave of attempts to overthrow regimes viewed as oligarchic or autocratic and oppressive. I find failure to highlight Islamist radicalism significant but then there are various objections to be made. The point is, we see a way Red Guards riding on popular resentment, backed by web technologies etc, can cause serious disturbances or regime change. Notice, the context of deep, background preparation extending over the course of years. We can safely assume, given the general times, that cultural marxist, critical theory, deconstructionist, Alinsky community organiser elements were and likely are in play. Radical revolutions reliably create autocratic or oligarchic tyrannies and it can be readily inferred that geostrategic aims were to change the people on top, not genuine democracy with cultural buttresses required but absent. We must not be naive. Where, Mao remains the reference yardstick for using Red Guards. EXHB B: A Harvard study on the Egypt case: https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/faq/arab-spring-egypt >> The Arab Spring refers to a period of protests beginning on December 18, 2010 in Tunisia, which quickly spread to numerous other Arab nations and resulted in regime change in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen, and repression and/or violence in Syria, Bahrain, Sudan, and elsewhere. In Egypt, protests and strikes began on January 25, 2011 (National Police Day) and lasted for 18 days, bringing together various opposition groups representing a wide cross section of Egyptian society including secularists, feminists, Islamists, anti-capitalists, and many others. Notably, while the January 25 protests were initiated by a group of opposition activists, the Egyptian Arab Spring did not have a centralized leadership and no single element of the opposition was in control. [--> a more balanced view but do not take as gospel] We Are All Khaled Said While it was the death of Muhammad Bouazizi in Tunisia that sparked the Arab Spring in Tunisia, then elsewhere [--> notice, iconic cases that trigger the blood guilt issue], in Egypt another death proved an important symbolic catalyst for revolution. In 2010, a young man named Khaled Said was beaten to death by two police officers after being dragged out of a cybercafé in in Alexandria. [--> notice, police in a state that was oligarchic, not democratic] Photographs of his disfigured body were shared online. Wael Ghoneim, an Egyptian Google Executive living in Dubai—who would go on to become a prominent Arab Spring youth activist—created a Facebook group called “We Are All Khaled Said,” which quickly drew membership in the hundreds of thousands. [--> web amplification, note, plausibility of key narrative does not pivot on substantial truth or fairness, just it appeals to popular feeling and tendencies] What seemed to have particular impact was the fact that Said had neither been a political dissident nor an Islamic radical, but rather a young Egyptian Everyman victimized by the police. Said’s remembrance was articulated through the lens of religious martyrdom, which has deep historical resonance among Egyptian Muslims and Christians. The Facebook page and other social media sites became public forums for the remembrance of Said and for discourse around what he died for. These issues became fundamental to the outbreak of protests in the coming year. Though police brutality could account for scores of other deaths in Egypt, it was the role of new media that made this death particularly salient. [--> again, media] Police claimed that Said died by suffocation after attempting to swallow a bag of hashish; however, during the trial it became apparent that Said had been targeted by police for posting a video online accusing the police of colluding with drug dealers. Small-scale, local demonstrations took place protesting Said’s death, but it was on Ghoneim’s Facebook page that the announcement for the January 25 protests—held on January 25, National Police Day—was first publicized. Arab Spring Protests Chanting “The People Want to Bring Down Regime” (al-shaab yurid isqat al-nizam), a broad spectrum of protestors, from labor and youth activists to feminists and individual members of the Muslim Brotherhood (there without sanction from the organization),sought political change in the wake of decades of corruption, police brutality, media censorship, unemployment, inflation, and other problems. [--> notice the coalition taking to the streets] The protest took various forms, from the occupation of downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square [--> notice, the mass rape of an American journalist here] , to labor strikes, acts of civil disobedience, clashes with armed forces, and others. Violence between protestors and the police resulted in 846 deaths and several thousand injuries. President Hosni Mubarak—in office since 1981—was deposed on February 11, 2011, [--> 4GW overthrow] after which the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) dissolved the Egyptian Parliament, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the nation’s “emergency laws.” Protestor deaths formed the basis of allegations against Mubarak, for which he was sentenced to life in prison in June, 2012, but was released in August 2013 under the post-coup military government. [--> much else, on the Muslim Brotherhood regime is omitted] >> Notice here, leverage on police brutality. That's another clue, and one that calls for a much more sober assessment of cases, generalised claims and perceptions, media narratives [noting obvious propagandisation of esp the so-called mainstream], and just what is implicit in defund/abolish the police etc. Also, we need to ask pointed questions on the lurid portrayals of an unexpected president in the US who obviously does not fit with the deep state's preferences. We can take it, the deep state of an entrenched establishment is real. They literally took out advertisements in major media, have published op eds and have published books. EXB C: Wikipedia, as usual against interest: >>The Arab Spring (Arabic: ?????? ???????) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in response to oppressive regimes and a low standard of living, starting with protests in Tunisia.[1][2] From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, where either the ruler was deposed (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, and Ali Abdullah Saleh) or major uprisings and social violence occurred, including riots, civil wars or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Iranian Khuzestan,[citation needed] Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Sudan, and The United States of America. Minor protests occurred in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.[3] A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-sha?b yur?d isq?? an-ni??m ("the people want to bring down the regime").[4] The importance of external factors versus internal factors to the protests' spread and success is contested.[5] Social media is one way governments try to inhibit protests. In many countries, governments shut down certain sites or blocked Internet service entirely, especially in the times preceding a major rally.[6] Governments also accused content creators of unrelated crimes or shutting down communication on specific sites or groups, such as Facebook.[7] In the news, social media has been heralded as the driving force behind the swift spread of revolution throughout the world, as new protests appear in response to success stories shared from those taking place in other countries. The wave of initial revolutions and protests faded by mid-2012, as many Arab Spring demonstrations met with violent responses from authorities,[8][9][10] as well as from pro-government militias, counter-demonstrators and militaries. These attacks were answered with violence from protesters in some cases.[11][12][13] Large-scale conflicts resulted: the Syrian Civil War;[14][15] the rise of ISIL, insurgency in Iraq and the following civil war;[16] the Egyptian Crisis, coup, and subsequent unrest and insurgency;[17] the Libyan Civil War; and the Yemeni Crisis and following civil war.[18] Regimes that lacked major oil wealth and hereditary succession arrangements were more likely to undergo regime change.[19] A power struggle continued after the immediate response to the Arab Spring. While leadership changed and regimes were held accountable, power vacuums opened across the Arab world. Ultimately, it resulted in a contentious battle between a consolidation of power by religious elites and the growing support for democracy in many Muslim-majority states.>> If that happened in relatively weak states with populations not likely to be as resistant as say the US hinterlands, what would likely happen if the US spins utterly out of control into high kinetic 4GW? We need to open our eyes and minds, asking some pretty pointed questions. KFkairosfocus_{July 29, 2020
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Socialism and communism always lead to mass suffering whenever it has been tried, which includes the Venezuelans today. The problem with socialism is the belief that the idea has greater merit than the people. National Socialism believed all one needed to be was a good Aryan, which originated in India. The Soviets believed all one needed to be was a good communist and the Chinese a good Chinese communist. Belief does not make for good farmers, as the Cambodians discovered and did what other socialists and communists have done. They committed mass murder, which resulted in a third of the Cambodian population losing their lives. Socialist and communists will never accept that socialism and communism never work. It is always the people who fail the idea or some country(ies) who brought about the failure.BobRyan_{July 29, 2020
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Eugene, that is interesting, including on a more sophisticated view of the notoriously antisemitic protocols. My own view is, a strategic competitor, much less an enemy, will have an agenda. Where, in simple terms, from the beginning, the Devil was a con artist, conspirator, liar, thief and murderer. So, it is unsurprising to see his disciples engaging in evil, destructive conspiracies. The White Rose martyrs were right, and not just about Hitler. For me, a glance at rapist of Africa, Cecil Rhodes early will was eye-opening, ranging from the scholarship his fortune funded to the diamond cartel headed by De Beers, to the way big international thinktanks and organisations or foundations established through fortunes operate. The rise of so called critical theory speaks, as does re-emergence of iconoclastic Red Guards after a decade of repeated uprisings on a similar template since the so called Arab Spring. KFkairosfocus_{July 29, 2020
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DavidP, Winds of a tropical storm woke me up, and I am stirred to speak to the issue of battling "narratives." "Narrative," in the relevant sense, is a "simple" word for worldview, cultural/policy agenda and thus implies also ideology. There is also a hint in it of the post-/ultra- modernist sneer at "totalising metanarratives." Let's start here, with several clips on the table, with of course Wikipedia testifying against interest in pole position:
W/pedia: A metanarrative (also meta-narrative and grand narrative; French: métarécit) in critical theory and particularly in postmodernism is a narrative about narratives of historical meaning, experience, or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (as yet unrealized) master idea . . . Literariness dot org: The postmodern as “the incredulity towards metanarratives” By Nasrullah Mambrol on April 3, 2016 • ( 6 ) Jean Francois Lyotard, in The Postmodern Condition famously described Postmodernism as the “incredulity towards metanarratives”. Postmodernism attacks specific notions of monolithic universals and encourages fractured, fluid and multiple perspectives. Lyotard observes that modernism relies on metanarratives or grand recits — the grand overarching stories that a. culture tells itself, hiding several contradictions and inconsistencies inherent in the social order. Postmodernism criticises and disbelieves in metanarratives and focuses on mini/local narratives or petit recits. Lyotard also emphasised on postmodernism’s view of language as incapable of representing reality, owing to the endless chain of signifiers without a signified . . . NWE, a counter to W/pedia: Metanarrative or grand narrative or mater narrative is a term developed by Jean-François Lyotard to mean a theory that tries to give a totalizing, comprehensive account to various historical events, experiences, and social, cultural phenomena based upon the appeal to universal truth or universal values. In this context, the narrative is a story that functions to legitimize power, authority, and social customs. A grand narrative or metanarrative is one that claims to explain various events in history, gives meaning by connecting disperse events and phenomena by appealing to some kind of universal knowledge or schema. The term grand narratives can be applied to a wide range of thoughts which includes Marxism, religious doctrines, belief in progress, universal reason, and others. The concept was criticized by Jean-François Lyotard in his work, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979). In this text, Lyotard refers to what he describes as the postmodern condition, which he characterized as increasing skepticism toward the totalizing nature of "metanarratives" or "grand narratives." According to John Stephens it "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience." The prefix meta means "beyond" and is here used to mean "about," and a narrative is a story. Therefore, a metanarrative is a story about a story, encompassing and explaining other 'little stories' within totalizing a schema.
Immediately, W/pedia gives the game away, this is an expression of critical theories, with obvious further influences from deconstructionism. That, by now, is only to be expected. The other two sources expose the inherent incoherence of the post-/ultra- modernist selective hyperskepticism being espoused. It cannot be a prime truth that "language [is] incapable of representing reality, " whether by dint of "the endless chain of signifiers without a signified" or on any other grounds, as there can then be no prime truth, no accurate description of reality. This is self-defeating core incoherence and self-falsification. A long time ago now, I saw a discussion of the post-/ultra- modernist's error through the lens of the celebrated tale of the six blind men of Hindustan encountering the elephant and each projecting to a grand story his partial encounter. This is effective in relativising our partial perspectives, but, subtly, Narrator implies omniscience in relativising and dismissing the partial views. Just so, self-referentiality is a key challenge for the post-/ultra-modernist who would dismiss the views of others. In that context, we then see that we are fundamentally debating worldviews and cultural/policy agendas thus ideologies they support. Where, worldviews are precisely attempts to comprehend the world as a whole, thus involving stories and truth claims about narrower stories and truth claims. They involve warrant and as neither infinite regress nor question begging can stand, where also worldviews bristle with difficulties, we are forced to have finitely remote first plausibles that frame our views. Some of these will be self evident first truths and duties, but no cluster of such will ever be enough to fully frame a worldview. Instead, they help us to test key beliefs, e.g. through the issue of self-referential incoherence we just saw in action. The result is, we are forced to use comparative difficulties analysis, pivoting in key part on factual adequacy, coherence and balanced explanatory power, neither an ad hoc patchwork nor simplistic. Let me add, in this context, some self evident, universal first truths and duties -- so, universal truths of moral character -- that I suspect will be a bit hard for Post-/Ultra- modernists with rheir radically relativist metanarratives to object to without implicitly relying on what they would oppose, with an onward challenge on the reality root:
We can readily identify at least seven inescapable first duties of reason. Inescapable, as they are so antecedent to reasoning that even the objector implicitly appeals to them; i.e. they are self-evident. Duties, to truth, to right reason, to prudence, to sound conscience, to neighbour, so also to fairness and justice etc. Such built in law is not invented by parliaments or courts, nor can these principles and duties be abolished by such. (Cf. Cicero in De Legibus, c. 50 BC.) Indeed, it is on this framework that we can set out to soundly understand and duly balance rights, freedoms and duties; which is justice. The legitimate main task of government, then, is to uphold and defend the civil peace of justice through sound community order reflecting the built in, intelligible law of our nature. Where, as my right implies your duty a true right is a binding moral claim to be respected in life, liberty, honestly aquired property, innocent reputation etc. To so justly claim a right, one must therefore demonstrably be in the right. Thus, too, we may compose sound civil law informed by that built-in law of our responsibly, rationally free morally governed nature; from such, we may identify what is unsound or false thus to be reformed or replaced even though enacted under the colour and solemn ceremonies of law. These duties, also, are a framework for understanding and articulating the corpus of built-in law of our morally governed nature, antecedent to civil laws and manifesting our roots in the Supreme Law-giver, the inherently good, utterly wise and just creator-God.
We could go on much more, and I do that at 101 level here. However, for present purposes, that is enough. It should now be readily apparent that D'Souza was speaking in a compressed, highly simplified "for public consumption" fashion when he spoke of facts and narratives. I/L/O the need for comparative difficulties analysis, he is quite right that a challenge regarding points of fact is grossly inadequate to challenge a culturally dominant worldview and its ideological programme. One must have an alternative and context for comparative difficulties analysis. Which, in this context, requires considerable familiarity with recent, modern and deep history of our civilisation. Precisely, what is being violently attacked by the Red Guards on the streets. Which is itself a sign that those who back them know that their agenda cannot stand up to comparative difficulties analysis informed by sound history. Here, the history of Socialism, its economic and policy failures and its trail of 100 million graves becomes a crucial consideration. Doubtless, you are familiar with the hyperskeptical dismissal that history is victory propaganda. Again, an ill-founded, self-defeating historical claim (as this is an historical truth claim itself). A counter to that comes from the pain of the Russians: dwell on the past, you lose an eye; forget the past and you lose both your eyes. Instead, sound history was bought with blood and tears, those who ignore, dismiss or resist it doom themselves to pay the same coin over and over and over again. That raises the issue of soundness and the priority of painful, costly truth. History, honest, balanced, sound history is a challenge indeed, but it is one we must take up. Where, good journalism is a first, rough draft of history (and contemporary newspaper or equivalent reports are often primary, eyewitness or eyewitness summary source documents). So, yes, one cannot counter a newly dominant radical narrative by merely objecting to particular points of fact, one needs a more comprehensive comparative difficulties assessment and a linked alternative that is demonstrably sounder and better balanced. That should have been obvious after a century of bloodily failed ideologies and fashionable but fallacious dominant scientific theories. The latter manifestly including origins theories riddled with a priori evolutionary materialistic scientism. By that, I mean to make a direct connexion to the core focus of this blog. The design inference is manifestly sound once valid signs of design are present, but notoriously this has been selectively hyperskeptically dismissed and marginalised, often using utterly indefensibly immoral tactics. That is because it challenges a core cluster of claims in one of those culturally dominant narratives, this one dressed up in the holy lab coat. There is need for a counter narrative. Here, the discoveries of cybernetics, communications and controls, with computing, dating back to Babbage. In context, by 1948, John von Neumann was putting forward his kinematic self replicator model for a self replicating automaton, predicting its key elements on an essentially mathematical analysis. Then, starting five years later, 1953 (and for what, 20 years following) we saw a string of Nobel Prize winning discoveries on molecular biology that cumulatively fulfilled von Neumann's predictions. The same, whose computer architecture has been dominant since the 1940's. As a result, those who are willing can recognise that in the living cell, based on molecular nanotech, we have alphanumeric code, algorithms and associated execution machinery. Thus, language and goal directed processes with fine tuned, mutually adapted devices using highly sophisticated technologies we can only drool over. The design debate is over, the SETI search is over, we have direct design and sophisticated messages right there in the cells of our bodies. What, 3 billion base pairs worth, with 6 billion bits worth of raw storage capacity. All of this, in a cosmos that from just the first most abundant elements, is fine tuned for C-chemistry, aqueous medium, cell based life on terrestrial planets in circumstellar and galactic habitable zones. This points to extra-cosmic design towards life. Of course, THIS story is most unwelcome and marginalised. A familiar tale. The point is, in a world dominated by deeply fallacious but agenda driven worldviews and cultural/policy agendas, a sounder understanding faces an uphill battle and will find itself under persistent, often willfully deceitful and slanderous attack. Another familiar tale. So, coming back to immediate considerations, the L/R narrative with L as centre of gravity of politics, history and policy is fundamentally incoherent and fallacious. In particular, the idea that what objects to the dominant L narrative at a given time is therefore R, is false. That for example means that a sound understanding of Fascism and Nazism will reveal that these are variant form socialistic ideologies from an age where even the most conservative believed in the ultimate triumph of Socialism, which they saw as deplorable and to be delayed as long as possible. I mean here, people like Churchill or C S Lewis. As one clue, Nazi, expanded, is National Socialist German Workers' Party. And, they meant the S, as can be demonstrated. In this context, the slander that objection to radical fundamentally Marxist agendas is fascist, is a fallacy and for many cases a slanderous lie by way of speaking towards hoped for advantage with willful disregard to fairly readily accessible truth. A lie, in disregard to the basic right of innocent reputation and of course honestly acquired property. I have already remarked on the way the current pandemic has been mishandled and have noted that the sudden reversal of insistence on lockfown in the face of favoured protesters and rioters even as say churches and businesses faced continued lockdown utterly discredited the narrative. That is why, for cause, the credibility of the technocrats is being sharply challenged. Likewise, the gold standard fallacy and built to fail studies that sought to discredit HCQ+ cocktails in the teeth of adequate evidence of utility is severely discrediting, raising issues of responsibility for significant needless loss of life. I add that in particular the Tuskegee syphilis studies and scandals have sharp lessons regarding tendencies to turn control studies based on deliberately mislabelled sugar pills or the like into ethically and epistemologically challenged gold standard fallacies in the face of fast moving deadly pandemic. Much more can be said but this is enough to start with. KFkairosfocus_{July 29, 2020
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KF @45, I have mostly given up on attempts to educate or "enlighten" anyone, even close friends. All the information is "out there", it is not even censored that much, yet it still requires a will to find, read and process it and it requires both IQ and open mind to accept the level of cynicism being used in "Realpolitik". My observation is that most people simply cannot accept that their betters can possibly be this evil or conspiring. For those looking, there are plenty of published papers and revealing quotes from our friends at "The Trilateral Commission" and other similar institutions, and then there is always the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", which if one ignores the repeated references to one specific race there, are literally an instruction manual for subverting existing social order. It is out in the open for at least 100 years now, there is no requirement for being of a specific race to use the technique, and it has been written by a human mind, hence this is what a human mind is capable of devising. Quoting H. Ford, "they constitute an education in the way the masses are turned about like sheep by influences which they do not understand". ...But one has to first jump through the Wikipedia "fabricated antisemitic text" designation when looking for it, and a lot of people will just stop right there. ...Anyway, this is a long and blackpilled subject, The people will most likely be led where the Controllers want them to, it is just the way it has always been. Assuming the majority of people can be successfully convinced that they will be better off as part of an "Open Society", being guided by the new age Philosopher Kings, then let them. As I understand, we have always had people who thought they had to be the Philosopher Kings. This must be just another round of it.Eugene_{July 28, 2020
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Eugene, even better, could you give us a few pointers. KFkairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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To KF@32 > Eugene, aren’t you from Yugoslavia? I am from the former USSR :) We had to study Marxism-Leninism in school there... and then in the evening I had to tune my shortwave radio to BBC to get a different perspective on what was going on. Here and now all it takes is just a few mouse clicks to get educated, yet very few people bother to - I guess life's generally been too good for too long. I am afraid this is now about to change.Eugene_{July 28, 2020
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Doctor: Hydroxychloroquine actually shows significant benefit when administered as part of a treatment early enough in a Covid-19 infection. Social Justice Warrior: Aha! You're just a racist Trump supporter aren't you! I want a different doctor! Doctor: But you just tested positive and I think . . . Social Justice Warrior: I won't even consider a White Supremacist drug meant to control the masses! Don't you have any socially acceptable progressive drugs? Doctor: What if we call it "Marxychloroquine?" Social Justice Warrior: Yeah, finally. I knew there would be a better treatment! ;-) -QQuerius_{July 28, 2020
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WJM, okay, looks like you bet the right way on some investments. Gold hit a peak yesterday, I haven't seen my Jeweller, for whose business, Gold is a raw material. That's cool. KFkairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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Kairosfocus, The only effect the so-called "pandemic" has had on my life is putting a few extra bucks into my bank account and, earlier this month when I went to the clinic for my yearly, they made me wear a mask. Well, I do find the hysteria amusing, but then there's always something amusing going on. I'm blessed to live in the most interesting of times.William J Murray_{July 28, 2020
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WJM, good to see you, trust pandemic has been well-weathered. I think, guarding life is a virtue, and it was reasonable to hear the technocrats. But beyond a certain point things began to unravel. KFkairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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F/N: From an epidemiologist, as background. https://www.newsweek.com/key-defeating-covid-19-already-exists-we-need-start-using-it-opinion-1519535 >>The Key to Defeating COVID-19 Already Exists. We Need to Start Using It | Opinion Harvey A. Risch, MD, PhD , Professor of Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health On 7/23/20 at 7:00 AM EDT As professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, I have authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and currently hold senior positions on the editorial boards of several leading journals. I am usually accustomed to advocating for positions within the mainstream of medicine, so have been flummoxed to find that, in the midst of a crisis, I am fighting for a treatment that the data fully support but which, for reasons having nothing to do with a correct understanding of the science, has been pushed to the sidelines. As a result, tens of thousands of patients with COVID-19 are dying unnecessarily. Fortunately, the situation can be reversed easily and quickly. I am referring, of course, to the medication hydroxychloroquine. When this inexpensive oral medication is given very early in the course of illness, before the virus has had time to multiply beyond control, it has shown to be highly effective, especially when given in combination with the antibiotics azithromycin or doxycycline and the nutritional supplement zinc. On May 27, I published an article in the American Journal of Epidemiology (AJE) entitled, “Early Outpatient Treatment of Symptomatic, High-Risk COVID-19 Patients that Should be Ramped-Up Immediately as Key to the Pandemic Crisis.” That article, published in the world’s leading epidemiology journal, analyzed five studies, demonstrating clear-cut and significant benefits to treated patients, plus other very large studies that showed the medication safety. Physicians who have been using these medications in the face of widespread skepticism have been truly heroic. They have done what the science shows is best for their patients, often at great personal risk. I myself know of two doctors who have saved the lives of hundreds of patients with these medications, but are now fighting state medical boards to save their licenses and reputations. The cases against them are completely without scientific merit. Since publication of my May 27 article, seven more studies have demonstrated similar benefit. In a lengthy follow-up letter, also published by AJE, I discuss these seven studies and renew my call for the immediate early use of hydroxychloroquine in high-risk patients. These seven studies include: an additional 400 high-risk patients treated by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, with zero deaths; four studies totaling almost 500 high-risk patients treated in nursing homes and clinics across the U.S., with no deaths; a controlled trial of more than 700 high-risk patients in Brazil, with significantly reduced risk of hospitalization and two deaths among 334 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine; and another study of 398 matched patients in France, also with significantly reduced hospitalization risk. Since my letter was published, even more doctors have reported to me their completely successful use . . . . Beyond these studies of individual patients, we have seen what happens in large populations when these drugs are used. These have been “natural experiments.” In the northern Brazil state of Pará, COVID-19 deaths were increasing exponentially. On April 6, the public hospital network purchased 75,000 doses of azithromycin and 90,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine. Over the next few weeks, authorities began distributing these medications to infected individuals. Even though new cases continued to occur, on May 22 the death rate started to plummet and is now about one-eighth what it was at the peak. A reverse natural experiment happened in Switzerland. On May 27, the Swiss national government banned outpatient use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. Around June 10, COVID-19 deaths increased four-fold and remained elevated. On June 11, the Swiss government revoked the ban, and on June 23 the death rate reverted to what it had been beforehand. People who die from COVID-19 live about three to five weeks from the start of symptoms, which makes the evidence of a causal relation in these experiments strong. Both episodes suggest that a combination of hydroxychloroquine and its companion medications reduces mortality and should be immediately adopted as the new standard of care in high-risk patients .>> What is being drowned out. And, again: >>Why has hydroxychloroquine been disregarded? First, as all know, the medication has become highly politicized. For many, it is viewed as a marker of political identity, on both sides of the political spectrum. Nobody needs me to remind them that this is not how medicine should proceed. We must judge this medication strictly on the science. When doctors graduate from medical school, they formally promise to make the health and life of the patient their first consideration, without biases of race, religion, nationality, social standing—or political affiliation. Lives must come first. Second, the drug has not been used properly in many studies. Hydroxychloroquine has shown major success when used early in high-risk people but, as one would expect for an antiviral, much less success when used late in the disease course. Even so, it has demonstrated significant benefit in large hospital studies in Michigan and New York City when started within the first 24 to 48 hours after admission. In fact, as inexpensive, oral and widely available medications, and a nutritional supplement, the combination of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin or doxycycline, and zinc are well-suited for early treatment in the outpatient setting. The combination should be prescribed in high-risk patients immediately upon clinical suspicion of COVID-19 disease, without waiting for results of testing. Delays in waiting before starting the medications can reduce their efficacy. Third, concerns have been raised by the FDA and others about risks of cardiac arrhythmia, especially when hydroxychloroquine is given in combination with azithromycin. The FDA based its comments on data in its FDA Adverse Event Reporting System. This reporting system captured up to a thousand cases of arrhythmias attributed to hydroxychloroquine use. In fact, the number is likely higher than that, since the reporting system, which requires physicians or patients to initiate contact with the FDA, appreciably undercounts drug side effects. But what the FDA did not announce is that these adverse events were generated from tens of millions of patient uses of hydroxychloroquine for long periods of time, often for the chronic treatment of lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. Even if the true rates of arrhythmia are ten-fold higher than those reported, the harms would be minuscule compared to the mortality occurring right now in inadequately treated high-risk COVID-19 patients. This fact is proven by an Oxford University study of more than 320,000 older patients taking both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, who had arrhythmia excess death rates of less than 9/100,000 users, as I discuss in my May 27 paper cited above. A new paper in the American Journal of Medicine by established cardiologists around the world fully agrees with this. In the future, I believe this misbegotten episode regarding hydroxychloroquine will be studied by sociologists of medicine as a classic example of how extra-scientific factors overrode clear-cut medical evidence. But for now, reality demands a clear, scientific eye on the evidence and where it points . . . >> I think there are a few questions to be asked and answered. The May 27, 2020 paper: >> Am J Epidemiol . 2020 May 27;kwaa093. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwaa093. Online ahead of print. Early Outpatient Treatment of Symptomatic, High-Risk Covid-19 Patients that Should be Ramped-Up Immediately as Key to the Pandemic Crisis Harvey A Risch 1 Affiliations PMID: 32458969 DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwaa093 Abstract More than 1.6 million Americans have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and GT 10 times that number carry antibodies to it. High-risk patients presenting with progressing symptomatic disease have only hospitalization treatment with its high mortality. An outpatient treatment that prevents hospitalization is desperately needed. Two candidate medications have been widely discussed: remdesivir, and hydroxychloroquine+azithromycin. Remdesivir has shown mild effectiveness in hospitalized inpatients, but no trials have been registered in outpatients. Hydroxychloroquine+azithromycin has been widely misrepresented in both clinical reports and public media, and outpatient trials results are not expected until September. Early outpatient illness is very different than later hospitalized florid disease and the treatments differ. Evidence about use of hydroxychloroquine alone, or of hydroxychloroquine+azithromycin in inpatients, is irrelevant concerning efficacy of the pair in early high-risk outpatient disease. Five studies, including two controlled clinical trials, have demonstrated significant major outpatient treatment efficacy. Hydroxychloroquine+azithromycin has been used as standard-of-care in more than 300,000 older adults with multicomorbidities, with estimated proportion diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmias attributable to the medications 47/100,000 users, of which estimated mortality is LT 20%, 9/100,000 users, compared to the 10,000 Americans now dying each week. These medications need to be widely available and promoted immediately for physicians to prescribe. >> It is time to face responsibility for needless politicisation and polarisation of discussion over a manifestly effective treatment and needless deaths by at least tens of thousands. There will be a day of reckoning over such culpable irresponsibility. KFkairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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DavidP, really. That is projection. Perhaps, it has not fully registered: Red Guards are roaming the streets, more cultured voices are promoting an ideology with 100 million graves in its wake. Culture form marxism through the above and through critical theories, deconstructionism, agit prop, subversion, media amplification, lawfare and corruption of major cultural institutions seeks to shatter and remake civilisation as they will, regardless of our concerns. That is enough to take a serious stand in and of itself. Especially, for this contributor as one whose homeland was wrecked by the same ideology, right before my eyes. As for protesting, that is a lie: rioting is what our "lyin' eyes" tell us. Rioting serving a Red Guards agenda.Remember, once you block streets and mob people going about ordinary business of life etc you are no more protesting but rioting. Similarly, trying to erase foundational elements of civilisation and to abolish lawful policing -- what defund clearly means and as is outright sometimes said -- is not about objecting to abuses, it is about radical overthrow. Talk of class warfare and dictatorship of the proletariat, in that context, tell us some big things, and we have a right to object to trying to reimpose the most destructive ideology ever. Besides, as the Town Clerk of Ephesus pointed out in Ac 19, 2000 years ago, if genuine grievances and reforms were the point, there are many effective and non-violent means. We are in advanced democracies, that doubly holds, there is no excuse for rioting, arson, looting, attacking police and ordinary people, seeking to cancel the credibility of the most liberating and genuinely progressive civilisation in history. To replace it with the radicalism that in 100 years cost 100 millions their lives through reversion to oligarchies and autocratic tyrannies. The means and the lies tell us the true ends, sorry, we refuse to go there. KF PS: You seem to desire blending in issues on CV19. This stream of threads is not for that, but I can summarise. Once CV 19 escaped containment, large death tolls were inevitable. We tried a novel approach, global lockdown. That implied a dismal tradeoff as that is artificially induced recession, with danger of depression, with the huge damage and loss including life, that that threatens. So, there is need to take a reasonable balance and perhaps we can justify initial stages but not prolongation. In context, it is always dangerous to cede power to any elite including a technocratic one. In this case, two things were fatal. First, when protests broke the lockdown and turned into riots and more, we did not see the same objection . . . even while there is pressure to lock down everything else. Likewise, there is cumulatively decisive evidence of a cost effective treatment that somehow stirred the ire of the technocrats, which is being smeared on every hand; it is reasonable to conclude that at least tens of thousands of needless casualties have come from that phalanx of opposition and attempted discredit. Then, that is compounded by the flip flop on value of masks, tied to admission of lying. That utterly discredits the technocrats. In that context, for cause, many will conclude that a more traditional response to pandemic is in order and are fighting to re open economy and society. Some, as Mr D'Souza, will draw the point that the situation may well be in part taken opportunistically, never let a crisis go to waste style . . . a standard Marxist technique. Here, desensitisation to stringent government controls on life, e.g. church lockdowns at the same time rioters are enabled to roam freely. I think some rethinking is in order.kairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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Uncommondescent.com should change its tagline from serving the intelligent design community to serving Donald Trump. Around the 12 minute mark he says "...a good was to think about it is..". When indoctrinating people you are not supposed to say that part out loud. Later he says facts don't dispute a narrative and it is up to us to push a counter narrative. Textbook indoctrination. Step one in the video, don't let people define their own philosophy. Define it for them otherwise their ideas might actually make sense. Step two, be sure to associate negative labels with them. Pseudoscience doesn't work in politics so apply labels like slavery or communist. Step three, bedazzle them with nonsense. BLM isn't about eliminating racism, it is about making more racism. Step four, suppress commonsense ideas and supplant your own. They said every 4 year old might see Robin Hood as a hero but he is actually the WORST villain. (Disney had Hades as a villain). If this site is going to push right wing propoganda, they should own the good as well as the bad. Trump sent federal troops to snatch people off the street and violate their due process. The left is protesting police violence while the right actually commit acts of tyranny. But this video would have you believe social distancing in stores is tyranny. No more than obeying traffic laws.David P_{July 28, 2020
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It's interesting to me that, as you say, so many so-called "conservatives" in politics and public life succumb to the fear of COVID-19 and the mobs. Conservatives usually believe in life after death, so what exactly are they afraid of? Perhaps they fear being cancelled, or feeling like they've lost credibility by being maligned by people on twitter and the media? Why live a life in fear of such things when there is so much more beyond this short period of time?William J Murray_{July 28, 2020
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PS: A reminder on Red Guards https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/remember-the-red-guards-before-you-cheer-the-woke-mobs/kairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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PS: Notice, no objector has touched on Mr D'Souza's warning in any substantial fashion. If they could, they would have. KFkairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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BR, in 1989 - 91, Socialism collapsed. It utterly discredited itself; indeed at one point the former USSR banned the Communist party. Chaos led to the strong man, fmr KGB light Col, Putin. It is only places like China, where a regime is too entrenched [and is clever enough to use controlled market freedom with Party domination], or North Korea, or Cuba, or Venezuela that regimes continue. In utter folly, some are trying to bring it back, using the one proved expertise of that ideology, subversion and power grabs. Which is doubtless why it is being fronted. I am confident it will fail, but the problem is the cost/ damage, especially if the US goes over a cliff. KFkairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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Eugene, aren't you from Yugoslavia? Please, give an in a nutshell. They refuse to learn from Jamaica's folly and utterly needless tragedy (my sainted Dad, as a key policy advisor, warned them in writing with Fourier Transform based econometric analysis and in council, as others did, I remember a leaked cabinet submission -- whistleblowing -- being read on radio with my Dad and me listening . . . he expected that warning to fail; it did). I have added a warning vid from Yugoslavia to the OP. And of course what you call neo-feudalism is precisely what socialist states become, oligarchies with the ordinary man under the power of ruthless overlords -- the nomenklatura. All, on a promise of utopia that can never be delivered. KFkairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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MMT & Seversky, I have spoken from life experience of seeing the ruin of my native land. They have allowed me to understand 4GW, subversive strategies and how they piggyback on genuine grievances to lead on to attempted seizure of power. Where, one of the keys to agit prop and modern military operations alike is the same psychology of distraction and disorientation that lies behind stage magic. You may wish to look up the OODA loop. In that context, in the 4GW context, many well meaning people will normally be in that disoriented, distracted state. They will miss signs and trends of peril and a cliff ahead, as I illustrated in the OP. In this context, one lodestar is that the US is a reasonably functional democracy; there is NEVER an excuse to riot, loot, burn, destroy, etc. As the town clerk of Ephesus pointed out 2,000 years ago, there are too many responsible alternatives. So, those who carry out, excuse or enable such are automatically in grave error and wrong. A second clue is to see the sudden fashionability of the most murderous ideology in history, an ideology that publicly and decisively failed 30 years ago. A third clue is to see targetting of pivotal cultural institutions by Red Guard -- yes, direct parallel as can readily be documented -- mobs, here including not only demand to abolish [not reform, not merely renegotiate budget priorities, DEFUND, abolish] the lawful police, erase responsible court verdicts and sentences across the board on a basis of skin colour, trying to rewrite and discredit the breakthrough of modern democracy 1776 etc. The family, sexual identity and education are of course also targeted and much more. Such anti-civilisational folly is patently ruinous. The extent of want of discernment or consultation with sound history speaks volumes and tells us all that the geostrategic centre of gravity of our civilisation is in existential peril. Where, that imperils the whole world. That is why we have a say too, terrible global consequences loom, and the patent failure of huge swaths of American leadership is itself a terrible warning sign. But then, for years now, too many have scoffed when I warned of coming peril. It is here, and the next 6 - 18 months will be decisive. I suggest, wake up, real fast. KF PS: The old, year zero reset, Socialism 1.0 -- xns were not "real" socialism but xns+1 will be wonderful trick is old, and utterly discredited. I have already showed why the policies universally fail. The OP also shows why modern democracy was a breakthrough and why it needs cultural buttresses to be sustainable. Triggering anarchic chaos -- as is going on -- predictably triggers a rebound to oligarchic and/or autocratic tyranny. That sad story has played out any number of times since the French Revolution ended up with Napoleon as "rescuer." Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat its worst chapters. I think that is effectively Santayana's version. Marx himself is the one who spoke of repeating as tragedy then as farce.kairosfocus_{July 28, 2020
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