Every single election cycle, the GOP invents a new scapegoat. Sometimes there is an underlying true fact (trans surgery for prisoners - approved under Trump!), sometimes it's pure lies (eating cats and dogs). We should go back each cycle and document each scapegoat- in the 2022 NY races it was prisoners released because we ended cash bail.
If we did this exercise, our takeaway wouldn't be to argue over each year's scapegoat - it would be to anticipate each year's scapegoat and counter-attack immediately, effectively and as hard as we can. And by counter-attack I don't mean saying "It's Not True!" - instead we attack the underlying strategy that drives it, which is scapegoating.
The rules have changed, as in — there are none. By failing to recognize that, you cannot adapt to deal with it. All of America is trying to plow through problems when you should be going around them (think asymmetrical “warfare”). Conventional means have no chance of breaching the envelope of intransigence around armies of unreachables in the trench warfare of our times. But integrate those same tools into an unconventional framework for honest debate — and now you’ve got something.
How do we make people realize they’ve been lied to? You have to knock down one small pillar that’s easier to reach. I’ve got the perfect pillar — on the biggest and most costly lie in modern history (which shaped everything you see today). A student wrote of her psychology professor: “Tim Wilson taught me the importance of breaking problems down into more manageable pieces.” At the bedrock of my idea is exactly that. The 11th edition of Social Psychology has the domino effect on the cover. They’ve got an image of an idea — I’ve got the idea.
Hear me out and all will become clear. Start with this fiasco for the ages:
By Design: America Remains Mired in the Murky. What does it say to you: That on evidence claimed as components to build a nuclear bomb — the “debate” was hijacked by 10-second sound bites? Shouldn’t any debate establish what the debate is actually about? What does it say about a country that can’t even establish that much on a matter of this magnitude? As I said in my doc:
All the sarin gas shells in the world would have no bearing on the aluminum tubes and other intel, but loyalists to logical fallacies are not burdened by the inconvenience of FACT. They will nitpick over pebbles while refusing to even glance at the mountain of evidence that crushes their “convictions.”
— Richard W. Memmer: Act V
For the sake of argument: Let’s say Saddam had full-blown active WMD programs on chemical & biological weapons. The tubes would still be a lie — whether the war would have been justified in that scenario or not. I’ll go one further: Let’s say he had a uranium enrichment program in operation as well, but that the rotors were carbon fiber — not aluminum. Once again, the tubes would still be a lie. Getting lucky in finding something you didn’t know about — does not absolve you from a case that was woven out of whole cloth.
The road to reality is blocked by detours designed to keep you going in circles. Purveyors of poppycock reroute you with narratives that avoid detail like Black Death. The way out is to start with an inconsistency or two that’s narrow in scope and take the trail where it leads. To ascertain the truth on any topic: If you’ve got something concrete to go on — that’s your point of entry. By all means, keep the door open in every direction. But by nailing down the definitive first, it paves a clearer path to all the rest.
This country does the exact opposite on everything (lumping it all together and never even approaching where you should have started in the first place):
DOE’s standard is to spin a tube at 20% above 90,000 RPM before failure — so 48,000 short is a pretty loose definition of “rough indication.” . . . Out of 31 tubes in subsequent testing, only one was successfully spun to 90,000 RPM for 65 minutes — which the CIA seized on as evidence in their favor.
One DOE analyst offered a superb analogy of that contorted conclusion: “Running your car up to 6,500 RPM briefly does not prove that you can run your car at 6,500 RPM cross country. It just doesn’t. Your car’s not going to make it.”
In an industry where fractions of a millimeter matter, these guys were playing horseshoes with centrifuge physics . . .
— Richard W. Memmer: Act II
Fiasco for the Ages: Obliterating the Biggest & Most Costly Lie in Modern History
Every single election cycle, the GOP invents a new scapegoat. Sometimes there is an underlying true fact (trans surgery for prisoners - approved under Trump!), sometimes it's pure lies (eating cats and dogs). We should go back each cycle and document each scapegoat- in the 2022 NY races it was prisoners released because we ended cash bail.
If we did this exercise, our takeaway wouldn't be to argue over each year's scapegoat - it would be to anticipate each year's scapegoat and counter-attack immediately, effectively and as hard as we can. And by counter-attack I don't mean saying "It's Not True!" - instead we attack the underlying strategy that drives it, which is scapegoating.
The rules have changed, as in — there are none. By failing to recognize that, you cannot adapt to deal with it. All of America is trying to plow through problems when you should be going around them (think asymmetrical “warfare”). Conventional means have no chance of breaching the envelope of intransigence around armies of unreachables in the trench warfare of our times. But integrate those same tools into an unconventional framework for honest debate — and now you’ve got something.
How do we make people realize they’ve been lied to? You have to knock down one small pillar that’s easier to reach. I’ve got the perfect pillar — on the biggest and most costly lie in modern history (which shaped everything you see today). A student wrote of her psychology professor: “Tim Wilson taught me the importance of breaking problems down into more manageable pieces.” At the bedrock of my idea is exactly that. The 11th edition of Social Psychology has the domino effect on the cover. They’ve got an image of an idea — I’ve got the idea.
Hear me out and all will become clear. Start with this fiasco for the ages:
By Design: America Remains Mired in the Murky. What does it say to you: That on evidence claimed as components to build a nuclear bomb — the “debate” was hijacked by 10-second sound bites? Shouldn’t any debate establish what the debate is actually about? What does it say about a country that can’t even establish that much on a matter of this magnitude? As I said in my doc:
All the sarin gas shells in the world would have no bearing on the aluminum tubes and other intel, but loyalists to logical fallacies are not burdened by the inconvenience of FACT. They will nitpick over pebbles while refusing to even glance at the mountain of evidence that crushes their “convictions.”
— Richard W. Memmer: Act V
For the sake of argument: Let’s say Saddam had full-blown active WMD programs on chemical & biological weapons. The tubes would still be a lie — whether the war would have been justified in that scenario or not. I’ll go one further: Let’s say he had a uranium enrichment program in operation as well, but that the rotors were carbon fiber — not aluminum. Once again, the tubes would still be a lie. Getting lucky in finding something you didn’t know about — does not absolve you from a case that was woven out of whole cloth.
The road to reality is blocked by detours designed to keep you going in circles. Purveyors of poppycock reroute you with narratives that avoid detail like Black Death. The way out is to start with an inconsistency or two that’s narrow in scope and take the trail where it leads. To ascertain the truth on any topic: If you’ve got something concrete to go on — that’s your point of entry. By all means, keep the door open in every direction. But by nailing down the definitive first, it paves a clearer path to all the rest.
This country does the exact opposite on everything (lumping it all together and never even approaching where you should have started in the first place):
DOE’s standard is to spin a tube at 20% above 90,000 RPM before failure — so 48,000 short is a pretty loose definition of “rough indication.” . . . Out of 31 tubes in subsequent testing, only one was successfully spun to 90,000 RPM for 65 minutes — which the CIA seized on as evidence in their favor.
One DOE analyst offered a superb analogy of that contorted conclusion: “Running your car up to 6,500 RPM briefly does not prove that you can run your car at 6,500 RPM cross country. It just doesn’t. Your car’s not going to make it.”
In an industry where fractions of a millimeter matter, these guys were playing horseshoes with centrifuge physics . . .
— Richard W. Memmer: Act II
Fiasco for the Ages: Obliterating the Biggest & Most Costly Lie in Modern History
https://centurionoftheseed.substack.com/p/fiasco-for-the-ages-obliterating
Meaningless Majority: How the CIA Rigged the NIE Vote to Take Us to War in Iraq:
https://centurionoftheseed.substack.com/p/meaningless-majority-how-the-cia
Oh, How Birds of a Feather Flock Together! What’s Wrong With This Picture?
https://centurionoftheseed.substack.com/p/oh-how-birds-of-a-feather-flock-together