Ostrich Time

It's one thing to hate the libs, quite another to put one's head in the sand and deny reality.

Just like it's one thing to hate the elites, but quite another to demonize education.

I stopped writing about politics because everybody got the message, everybody became aware of Trump's actions. However, I am troubled that his flood the zone strategy is causing people to tune out. Furthermore, the flip-flopping on tariffs makes one step aside and say they'll wait until the dust settles, allowing Trump to take further actions they are unaware of.

I blame the internet. Not smartphones. Not social media per se. But the internet in general. The internet broadened society. The Republicans seem to know this, but the Democrats do not. The Democrats keep believing in a pyramid, a top-down society that was blown apart decades ago. No one is in charge. No one respects someone further up the totem pole. And no one gets their information from the same sources as you do. Facts may be fungible, but we've got more than Trump to blame. Like I said, it's the internet.

It's right there for you to see, but too many refuse to. They worry about who is in the White House press room, decry the expulsion of the AP and the inclusion of heretofore unknown right wing outlets, but...

They refuse to acknowledge, never mind understand, that vast swaths of the public get their information from said "unknown" right wing news outlets. They're only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more you've never heard of, and people take them as gospel. It's the infrastructure more than the message that should worry those who believe in facts and truth. These systems have been established over years while the Democrats were completely asleep, believing in big time media. Joe Rogan? Yes, the Democrats missed out on the power of podcasts, but even more the power of information online. They believe in a single truth that spreads, nothing could be further from the truth.

Furthermore, Trump harnessed the power of social media, jumping on Twitter long before Elon Musk bought it, and spoke like the man on the street as opposed to some hoity-toity elite. We're experiencing this right now with Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis. We're supposed to stand aside and not talk about his refusal to step down and the new book that delineates his decline and its cover-up. Have you ever been online? Tell me one time the public stood aside for the good of...ANYTHING! The Democrats and those public intellectuals who lord over them are living in the fifties, but that was more than half a century ago.

But time marches on, as does the world. And the United States is falling behind, so far behind it may never catch up.

Did you read that BYD just outsold Tesla in Europe? Now because of tariffs you won't see a BYD car in the U.S. But not only is it not the only electric car made in China, in many ways it's more advanced than a Tesla, than any car designed in Detroit, and Chinese electric car bodies are updated in a year or two, unlike Tesla, which is utilizing essentially the same design.

So GM lobbied for the elimination of California clean air rules, the need to go all electric in a matter of decades. And their message won, Congress just struck down said rules. The only problem is the rest of the world is going electric at an alarmingly fast clip. As a matter of fact, BMW and other European car companies did not want high tariffs on Chinese cars because not only do they sell automobiles in China, they have to compete with these companies. Expect the Detroit auto companies to falter and be consumed by international conglomerates. Happens to all tech companies who don't keep up with the future, who don't push the envelope, they wither and die and are sold for scrap.

And then there's DOGE and the destruction of our weather forecasting.

But forget the dismantling of our national infrastructure and compare us to the rest of the world, which is moving on while we're doing our best to go back to the past, primarily so those in control can own the libs.

Germany and other European nations have switched almost completely to electric power. And in truth, the U.S. is moving in that direction. But all we hear about is the propping up of coal. (Which is akin to the propping up of vinyl, which is a nostalgic fetish... Cutting vinyl for a digital recording is like taking the power steering and brakes out of a fuel-injected automobile.) Sure, the past may have been better in certain ways, but we are moving forward, we're never getting rid of the internet and...

We can debate all day if colleges are pro-Palestinian indoctrination camps, but the money given by the federal government supports scientific and medical breakthroughs. And now there's a brain drain, with these experts going overseas.

Not that many are realizing this, not yet.

Look at Brexit. Nationalistic nincompoops voting to exit from the European Union. In the almost ten year wake of that vote Brits overwhelmingly reject it, they feel it was a mistake. Britain has lost its bargaining power, has been hurt economically and immigration has not slowed. Ignorant people were made to hate the Europeans and the immigrants and the joke was ultimately on them. Hell, right after Brexit jobs could not be filled because they were done by immigrants, just like the cooks at Kid Rock's restaurant. It's one thing to believe in theory, it's quite another to see the results in practice.

Somehow the Luddites have taken control. And convinced many that the old days were better. And sure, I lament the loss of some stuff from the past, but it's never coming back. Best to jump into the fire of the future and present. You can turn off your smartphone, but believe me, almost no one else is. Only baby boomers who believe they know better who end up ignorant.

We live in an information economy and he or she who knows the most wins.

Unfortunately, much of the information is inaccurate, and there's no way to police it.

Ignorant people love to pontificate and falsehood becomes truth.

Trump has the government say Covid started in a lab when every day more science is revealed that undercuts that theory. Don't believe me? Read this:

"Genetic Study Retraces the Origins of Coronaviruses in Bats - As China and the United States trade charges of a lab leak, researchers contend in a new paper that the Covid pandemic got its start, like a previous one, in the wildlife trade."

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/science/covid-coronavirus-bats-genetics.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JE8.2euS.qNRRqrwH36ms&smid=url-share

Oh, it can't be true, it's in the NEW YORK TIMES! And not only the right that decries the paper of record, but so do many on the left. Because emotion has replaced truth. Because it's all about pissing on the big guy. But sometimes the big guy has it right.

It's not only soft power we are losing, but raw power. Even in Iggy's world of entertainment. Chinese movies outgross those from America on the mainland today, which was unheard of in the past. And the story in the music business is about local repertoire, America and England don't dominate anymore. And if you think the argument is about Spotify payments, you're missing the point. And don't know that a lot of acts around the world you've never heard of are making bank. In addition, one reason Spotify dominates streaming is because it keeps opening in foreign territories and innovating, whereas its competitors are asleep and follow in Spotify's footsteps at best. And your hankering for the old days isn't going to change this, never ever.

But a lot of what I write above doesn't reach the public at large, because everybody is in their silo reading stuff that aligns with their already established beliefs or tribe. Everybody has stuck their head in the ground and in many cases denied reality.

mRNA vaccines have been studied for years and are safe. And you may believe your body is inviolate but measles neither knows that nor cares.

It's like America has turned into a sport, with two teams competing for the trophy of control and the truth be damned. The right obfuscates, but so does the left. Biden? All I keep hearing is we've got to forget about Joe and look to Trump and the future. The same people saying this are the educated who studied history in school. What's the cliché, you've got to study history to avoid repeating it?

So this is a 50,000 foot view. On some level the specifics are irrelevant. It's that we're putting up barriers and denying truth, happily living in ignorance as the world evolves. You can't beat global warming by ignoring it. But that seems to be the government's strategy, scrubbing it from the books.

So just consider this a heads-up. You may think you know what is going on, but unless you delve into the world, the head of others, you truly don't. Most Democrats hate Trump voters so much that they refuse to enter their brains and analyze their thoughts and reasoning. Which in some cases is false, but why is it false? Why do they believe untrue information?

You're best off reading mainstream news (and not TV, which does almost no reporting) than blogs and listening to biased podcasts, but this doesn't align with people's feelings. They want to feel powerful, in control, and they do this by excoriating institutions and coming up with their own beliefs, however cockamamie they might be. The anti-vax movement took hold first with the educated left and then spread to the right. These people were sick of being dictated to, they were angry with doctors and science, and they came up with their own beliefs. They feel bedside manner is more important than skill. I mean how many times do you see the surgeon anyway?

But everybody in America is right. And they've got many sites and tribe members to confirm it. This denial of truth knows no bonds. And it's ensuring that America becomes a second class society. You don't win by excising yourself from the game, but by competing. And to compete you need to study your competitors. Sports teams just don't declare opponents bad, they send scouts, they look at the data. But in regular life everybody cocoons and believes they know better.

Forget that elected officials are bought and sold and out for themselves, never mind weak on both sides of the political fence.

It's a hunt for truth, a full time job, and it's your responsibility as a citizen. Not only for yourself, but society at large.

But the past is more comfortable. It's easier to blame an enemy. When in truth it's your own damn fault.

Rust never sleeps, even though you might.

STAY AWAKE!


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