Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
Now that America has been transformed from a high-trust social order into a low-trust social order, there’s no going back.
The birth of financialization in the early 1980s was morning in America because finance– the collateralization of previously low-risk assets and the resulting explosion of credit and leverage–gooses demand and asset valuations.
Now that we’ve at long last reached the demise of financialization, it’s mourning in America as the hyper-stimulation has reached its zenith and is beginning its inevitable end-game of uncontrolled implosion. The hyper-financialization of American life has fatally distorted the nation’s production, politics, values and social order.
Regardless of our political persuasion, we’re all mourning for what’s been lost to either decay or erosion, both of which are so gradual that we cannot discern the full extent of the damage. We sense it, though, and this fuels the nation’s distemper.
The decay, erosion and distemper remind me of a quote from French author Michel Houellebecq:
“I have the impression of being caught up in a network of complicated, minute, stupid rules, and I have the impression of being herded towards a uniform kind of happiness, toward a kind of happiness that doesn’t really make me happy.”
Substitute con for happiness and we have an insight into the source of mourning in America: we’re being conned 24/7, on every level and in every nook and cranny of the economy and society.
The key to any good con is to persuade the mark (victim) that it’s not a con. The most direct approach is to claim the con is true, factual, etc. Once this claim starts unraveling, then the con switches to an alternative reality that has enough shreds of credibility to be plausible.
This is why so many confuse the con and propaganda. Both are self-serving, of course, as the goal of propaganda is to generate compliance and conformity in the populace by constructing an emotionally compelling context that is both appealing and plausible. Those spewing the propaganda do so to secure their power and further their own self-serving agenda.
For example, that we’re all enjoying unprecedented prosperity in the best of all possible worlds. Look at all the low-quality rusting junk we can buy from manufacturers in totalitarian nations at low, low prices–wow! It doesn’t get any better than this. Stainless Steal (February 26, 2023).
The difference is that those spewing propaganda can be true believers in whatever cause is being pushed. In most cases, propaganda is issued by cynical, manipulative sociopaths who are merely hired guns for whomever seeks all the advantages of persuading people that enriching and empowering the few at the expense of the many is not only allowable, it’s the right thing, the only option, etc. But propaganda works best when it converts the previously uncommitted or apathetic into true believers, much like a religious conversion.
A con, on the other hand, is a swindle, a fraud, a bezzle, that takes advantage of the mark’s naive trust. This trust might be in a blood relative, a friend, an enterprise, an organization or an institution. The con exploits this trust to defraud or break the mark into an unknowing patsy.
The fundamentals of the con are:
1. The gains are guaranteed, i.e. low risk.
2. The benefits are exaggerated while the costs and consequences are left unsaid.
Here’s the metaphor the con presents: I’m leading you to a glorious fruit tree loaded with ripe fruit. All you have to do is harvest as much as you want.
Since we’re all still hunter-gatherers in Wetware 1.0, this greatly appeals to us. We’re inherently risk-averse and greedy to exploit windfalls, and the con promises us near-zero risk and one windfall to stripmine after another. It’s irresistible.
The con always has an end date, when the mark discovers they’ve been fleeced. Trust is destroyed, and the mark, bitterly enlightened to their own credulity, laziness and greed, vows to never fall for such a con again.
The higher-order con never lets trust be completely destroyed. Instead, the con-man either rushes to console the mark and apologize for the unexpected loss, (Jeez, this never happened before–it must have been a glitch in the Matrix), or the con-man brazenly blames the victim for misjudging the situation and failing to take advantage of the unbeatable deal.
You blew it, pal, I can’t help you with that. But hey, since I’m such a nice guy, and you’re deserving of a second chance, I’m gonna let you in on another deal, not quite as good as the one you blew, but still a gem.
This is America in a nutshell: a continuous cacophony of cons. This is why trust in institutions such as the media, corporations, political interest groups, government and education are in free-fall, along with social trust in our fellow Americans. Every node of power is dominated by people out to maximize their personal gains at the expense of the public, customers, voters, members, students, etc.
Listen, kid, you’re gonna be on Easy Street if you go borrow $120,000 and give it to us for a college diploma. You’ll be set for life, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel once you pony up the dough and we give you the paper. Don’t be a chump, kid, you gotta look out for yourself, and we’re trying to help you here.
This medication is safe and non-addictive, you’re gonna feel a lot better as soon as you start taking it. Here’s ten pages of side-effects, but don’t worry about all that, it’s just boiler-plate. We’re here to help you, pal, and the $27,000 a month cost is mostly on the government, so it’s a slam-dunk win for you.
Gee, I’d like to answer your questions about the district budget, employee salaries and overtime, it must be in this 293-page annual statement somewhere. You can buy a copy for only $25.
And so on, in an endless profusion of self-serving cons. Ernest academics ponder this decay and propose all sorts of scholarly possibilities, while never mentioning the obvious source: every node of power in America is hopelessly corrupt, covering its cons with tsunamis of propaganda aimed at “trust-building” among “stakeholders,” whipping up the conned faithful, cherry-picking evidence to string along the marks just a little longer, and pointing to the long history of the institution as trustworthy–a reputation that is being pillaged to benefit the few at the expense of the many.
The most successful cons divert attention from the con-men to some other group of marks / victims. You got fleeced because of them. The fact that everyone outside the nodes of power has been fleeced is left unsaid, as this realization might generate a common cause of the marks against those benefiting so richly from the cons.
It was fun while it lasted, exploiting the supercharged-cons of hyper-financialization and hyper-globalization, but those cons have been tapped out and there are no replacements.
It’s tough recognizing that we’ve been credulous, naively trusting, and greedy for low-risk riches. Every one of the countless skims, scams and cons has exploited our willingness to trust and our self-interest in easy wealth.
Now that America has been transformed from a high-trust social order into a low-trust social order, there’s no going back.
This is why it’s mourning in America. Trust can only be rebuilt slowly, first by opting out of all the self-serving cons and then re-establishing trust at the local level.
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We’re long since gone from Kansas and clicking our heels together 3 times ain’t gonna take us back.
‘Cause the heels are now on men named Dorothy.
good one
And “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”, either, folks…
I like Charley hughsmitty, but he’s wayyyy late to the game…
I’ve been mourning America for at least the last 15 years…
Since the 1964 Affirmative Action Quotas Reconstruction Act II or before then when TPTB banned school and public prayers…about 80 years.
Ruby slippers. Perhaps the Pentagram will make this a mandatory uniform item because readiness.
The play on words for the Pentagon was a nice touch.
‘ Don’t treat your friends like marks , Kid ‘ – Paul Newman The Sting
Words to live by.
” The most successful cons divert attention away from the con men ”
“The key to any good con is to persuade the mark (victim) that it’s not a con.”
Twitter is now a broken dumpster fire as screwed up as a football bat , but finding this it fits well here and should be repeated often.
BioClandestine.substack.com – Feb 9 , 2023
@WarClandestine
For those who are scared about the possibility of escalation with Russia:
Putin has publicly stated he has no quarrels with the American People, but rather with “Western Oligarchs”.
Putin made it known that he wants the “Globalists”. That’s it.
Putin is just another con man serving the globalist owners by participating in the charade of international politics.
And which tribe does a (((low trust society))) benefit? The one that sticks together while every other tribe disintegrates.
Maybe if we had silver slippers….
Pretty hard to do a lot of the stuff they try today were we on a Gold Standard. When they say show me the money, a pile of Gold is more convincing than a 200 page “report” showing everything as an asset, including unplayable debt.
Does anyone have the back story on why the movie changed the Silver slippers to Ruby?
Yes Sir , they don’t call our currency “de -based ” fer nuthin .
I thought I was going to be completely on board with the authors thesis but I actually found it too light on the substance of the social aspects of economics . See , I’ve been promoting a near identical theory where all the “easy money” has quite literally caused the great a- moral middle to take leave of their senses. Its probably been underway for longer like 1913 but really started to gather steam around 1971 when the dollar was removed from the last vestiges of the gold standard . I dont know how old you are but I am old enough to have had a front row seat to the really unbeleivable social and economic changes that have transpired in the last 50 years and so much of it is directly related to our attitudes about money / wealth / standards of living and so on . It really is unbeleivable if you think about how much our perceptions and the market place have changed for the worse . What made it all possible ? Debt , in reality . We have a long long way to fall when one considers just how high a house of cards we have erected for ourselves . I wish I were capable of going into more detail but my lack of ability as a writer precludes it .
So you blame everybody for it. 🤔
Uh not really , there are a small cadre of folk at the very top of the ponzi pyramid scheme who ” wittingly ” embarked on this course and continued to do so over the course of fifty years despite the fact that they are possesed of” second order thinking ” abilities . The rest are just exersizing that most basic aspect of human nature called ” self interest ” within the narrow confines of their particular “incentive bubbles ” . I’m prepared to be wrong so if you see something that can be substantively disregarded here I’m all ears bro .
Hollyweird changed it when they made the movie from the book.
They made the slippers Ruby because it showed off the, then new, technology of Technocolor.
we should have stayed on the yellow brick road ( gold) and left the power in the hands of the farmers ( scarecrow) and manufacturers of actual products ( tinman) and thrown the “man behind the curtain” ( banksters) in jail. Great and powerful Oz was and continues to be the ultimate con.
As Henry Ford said– paraphrased- it’s a crime that men who never turn a single shovel of dirt have claim to 25% of the profit of our labor”
Population Control And The American Way Of Life
principia-scientific.com/population-control-and-the-american-way-of-life/
” To begin – migration is not a “human right.” Property laws and nation states exist for a reason. To assert otherwise is to assert that there is a one world government which is in control of migration. Another usurpation of authority by the UN and the WEF.
This nation’s rules and regulations, our very constitution do not apply to non-citizens. This is by design. Let’s abide by our Constitution and Bill or Rights, not UN agreements, such as Agenda 2030, which was signed by a US president and never ratified by the Senate.”
And yet still they persist.
This week, Kamala Harris specifically stated that a reduced population was key to children being able to breath and drink clean water. This is not the first time she has asserted this false narrative.”
Nation states exist solely as a front for the real owners/rulers of the entire system, and to divide the sheep. Can’t allow to have the slaves to be united against the owners.
MOCK THEM UNTIL THEY CRY , then mock them for crying.
Students list ‘Apache attack helicopter’ as gender on ‘engineering culture’ survey, angering scholars
thecollegefix.com/students-list-apache-attack-helicopter-as-gender-on-engineering-culture-survey-angering-scholars/
HAHA!
Until you stop ignoring the racial foundation of these changes, you have absolutely no hope of changing things.
Race is *the* North American issue. It always has been, ever since one of Columbus’ sailors shot the first Indian with a crude matchlock musket back in 1492. Every problem that America faces today, every crisis of the economy or of the spirit, is in some form or another eventually traceable back to the problem of race. Every civilization, every culture, every major historical achievement of mankind is the product of the racial personality of those who created that civilization. Destroy a race and not only living beings are destroyed, but an immense hole is ripped in the entire fabric of this planet’s existence. Destroy the most intelligent and creative and dynamic race of all mankind, the Aryan, and damage has been inflicted on the human species that can never be recovered or repaired.
The racial issue can be boiled down to one very simple question: Who does the world belong to? More immediately, who does the continent of North America belong to? Does it belong to the Aryan peoples of Europe who settled this land after braving a perilous ocean voyage to reach it, tilled its soil and grew crops, built homes and communities here, created its legal and social and political institutions, created everything we recognize today as America? Or does it belong to the various black and brown races of the Third World, who have contributed nothing except sporadic physical labor? Whose sole claim to the land is the mere fact that they happen to be here, and who have caused immense damage through their anti-social behavior?
The idea that we are supposed to share this land in some kind of grotesque, squalid, multi-racial Babylon is simply stupid. The mud races have done nothing to earn citizenship or rights of residence here that is in any way compensatory for the immense damage they have caused. The black man in particular has contributed very little to America except physical labor. His contribution is on the level with that of the horse. In light of their unending mindless violence against us, there is no moral or economic or social justification for keeping the black man around any longer, and many pressing reasons for his removal. The same goes for the masses of Third World immigrants. They are contributing nothing at all that we really need, except cheap labor for multinational corporations, which keeps white wages low.
History demonstrates quite clearly that multi-racial empires do not prosper, and in the long run do not survive. Every society that has ever attempted the multi-racial or even multi-ethnic experiment has failed miserably, from ancient Rome down through the Hapsburg monarchy of Austria-Hungary, to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia of the last century. America will not survive the curse of multi-racialism any more than those other societies did. There is no magical law of the universe exempting North America from the basic principles of human biopolitics. One of those basic principles is that racial purity strengthens a society; whereas diversity weakens and eventually destroys it. Look at the few remaining stable and prosperous countries that exist today: Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. All of them are racially homogenous, not “diverse.”
No nation is born diverse. Diversity is indeed the antithesis of nationhood. Nations arise in large part from their very racial, religious, and cultural unity and uniqueness. Diversity is an unnatural as well as an unhealthy condition that can only afflict states in national decline. The multicultural and especially the multiracial state, carries in its makeup the seeds of certain national destruction. All multicultural nations must by definition be in a state of political, moral, economic and social decay. Greed and corruption invariably characterize the government of the multiracial state, coupled with oppressive measures directed against its citizens to keep them in the harness with unnatural partners. Lies and deceit are the stock in trade of multicultural media, politicians and educational institutions. Democracy, a flawed system to begin with, is perverted into an instrument of disastrous cultural and biological leveling. From democracy steps forth the cruelest of tyrants.
In modern times diversity is instituted from the top down as an élitist ruling-class tool used to play one or more racial or ethnic groups against one another. The ensuing cultural melée serves the political designs, economic goals and power needs of the élitist rulers and their sponsors while destroying everything worthwhile in the affected society. In the twenty-first century, multiculturalism is being used as a hammer to forge an artificially created, unintelligent, compliant brown-skinned people who will compose the obedient state of the New World Order. As a weapon of post-modern political warfare, multiculturalism has few equals, which explains its use currently against all of Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Deliberate fragmentation of these nations into racially diverse, politically disharmonious elements and special interest groups, and the resultant loss of national identity and purpose, are requirements of the New World Order.
Who will compose that New World Order? An Anglo-Zionist ruling class, extensively Jewish and discreetly homosexual, consisting of an economic hierarchy of wealth and conformity that replaces the natural hierarchy of talent, courage, and virtue. A force that views countries and the people who live in them first as economic targets to be exploited, and second as military targets to be destroyed and gutted of assets if they resist. The mere fact that the black and brown races happen to be in North America, through whatever accident of history or violation of immigration law that came about, does not give them the right to a free ride on the white man’s back for their entire lives. Yet this is, essentially, the demand of the multicultural idea, that people with dark skins be given goods, services, benefits, and advantages that they have not only done nothing to earn, but that they do not know how to use properly and will only destroy and contaminate. The leveling in a multicultural, diverse society is never upward, always downward. Racial integration is like mixing horse manure and ice cream: It does nothing to improve the manure, but it completely ruins the ice cream.
We have been taught by our lords and masters to view “racism” as evil and wrong. It is not. Racism is in fact the purest expression of patriotism. We live today in a world where old ideas of geopolitics are being replaced by biopolitics. Racism is right because racism is the will of Nature. Racists are doing the work of Nature. They are aiding Nature by helping to protect the most important of Nature’s creations: the different races that Nature has evolved over many millennia. Racism is Nature’s way of trying to protect her own creations. Thus racism aids and encourages further evolution — that is, it aids the development of the separate races that exist. The truth about so-called antiracism is that it is unnatural, unhealthy and dangerous. Antiracism actively encourages the destruction of Nature. It is retrogressive and anti-evolutionary. The society that is based upon such stupid ideas is an unnatural, unhealthy society doomed sooner or later to be destroyed, because such a society will destroy Nature itself. We human beings are Nature made manifest, and we are subject to its laws just as much as are other forms of life. If we forget this truth and continue with our race-mixing, we shall perish.
Your assesment is very narrow minded, based on prejudice, and the false theory of evolution. You are being played by TPTB.
The fact is that this “nation”was first started by stealing, plundering, and murdering the native population. Then it was built on the backs of slaves and waves of immigrants who were brought in to be exploited for their labor. For many decades,the ruling class that owns the entire world, has impoverished many countries to ensure themselves of a constant supply of immigrants to be exploited for cheap labor.
The owners, who are not human, created us as a slave class, and have used the psychopaths and sociopaths among us as their henchmen throughout history.
What we’re seeing now is an effort on their part to further divide the world and create chaos within western countries by allowing in hordes of immigrants from third world countries. They are dividing us like never before and through many different means, because they know that the slaves are waking up. This too, is the reason why they are conducting a worldwide depopulation program. A smaller population is much easier to control.
Religious, racial, and patriotic fervor are other tools they have used throughout history to fool and divide the masses. It’s time to wake up! Don’t allow yourselves to continue being used and abused by the evil ruling class. Stop playing their game.
Prejudice means to judge something absent experience.
prejudice
prĕj′ə-dĭs
noun
The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions.
An adverse judgment or opinion formed unfairly or without knowledge of the facts.
Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular social group, such as a race or the adherents of a religion.
You’re better off sticking to farming.
You just restated what he said, using more words.
By your own definition, racism isn’t prejudice, you complete moron, because it meets none of those conditions.
My patience for Whites that deny race realism is exhausted.
You’re as stupid as the niggers you worship.
I don’t worship anyone ASSHOLE! It’s not my definition, it’s the dictionary’s. RACISM is prejudice!
“Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular social group, such as RACE or the adherents of a religion”.
In reality there is only one race, the HUMAN RACE. The only differences are in skin color and other physical characteristics, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to interbreed, Einstein. The same blood runs through our veins and we all age and die the same way. Just like all breeds of dogs are dogs and all breeds of cats are cats. No difference!
But of course I wouldn’t expect a bigot like you to understand any of this.
Sure, throw around more words you don’t understand.
No, retard, it isn’t. It does not meet the requirements you posted in the definition you posted but don’t understand. You’re too stupid to comprehend it.
Nope. Unsurprisingly, you’re wrong about that, too.
Your beloved niggers literally aren’t even human.
Have been a sponsor/contributor to CHS for 10+ years. He saw the low trust momentum and moved from CA to HI; his community there is quite high trust. And can raise all his food, sans meat.
But Italy’s having a micro-Renaissance:
.
And Trump, who didn’t do much of what he said last time, says:
.
Yes, societies are built on trust and truth. America has neither, thus it is not a society. It is at best a legal arrangement for involuntary participation.
Trust at a local level , NOT GOING TO HAPPEN !
The corruption and malfeasance is so ingrained in “THE SYSTEM” as to appear normal !
Government people elected , appointed and hired are all in the cloud of subterfuge . Some may actually believe the bull shit while most just go along for fear of being tossed off the GRAVY TRAIN !
Fact is total collapse is unavoidable from Local , State and Federal levels besides being completely bankrupt and corrupt at all levels the BIG CLUB have run out of people to victimize !
As huge numbers increase pissing , shitting and living on the streets , Party is over out of the pool !
Business too. I bought a gun from Heritage and it wouldn’t shoot so I sent it back. They fixed it but won’t reimburse me the $35 shipping. I bought the Lifetime Warranty for it from Bud’s Gun Shop for $9 but they won’t reimburse me the shipping either. Crooks own and incompetents run American companies now.
Did the warranty say they would cover shipping if it needed to be sent in for repair? If so, you have a case. If not, you are responsible for the shipping charges.
aaaaahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha
And drain the swamp, and lock her up. and build a wall, and yada yada yada. If you believe anything this chameleon says then you are the problem, believing ANY of these lying sacks of shyte is WHY the US is in the position it is today. But vote harder… we’ll get them this time boiz
Deep Shekels is a mass murder machine.