On the Never-Ending High-Tech Lynching of Justice Thomas

May 12, 2023 | Family, Free Speech, Freedom of Association, Friendship, Isolation, Media, Political Correctness, Politics, Propaganda, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

Over the past 32 years, the anti-freedom brigade in Congress and their allies in the propaganda media have waged a constant war against Justice Clarence Thomas. Clearly, he stands in the way of their agenda to un-do the Constitution, which is why their smears are all discredited and steeped in pure animus. In this post, I want to offer two resources for understanding what’s going on. The first is the phenomenal documentary “Created Equal: Justice Thomas in his Own Words.” Since the propaganda media won’t allow us to see the real man, I hope you will watch this spellbinding film. Here’s the trailer:

Indeed, as Justice Thomas, said, “We knew exactly what was going on: ‘This is the wrong black guy. He has to be destroyed.'”

The current Supreme Court is all that stands in the way of the Left’s quest for total control of every branch of government. They find Justice Thomas a threat because he is so honorable and so courageous a defender of the Constitution. And, of course, because he’s black. if people were allowed to see the man as he really is, he would be admired. So it shouldn’t surprise us that the demonization campaign against Justice Thomas has ramped up — along with an assassination attempt on Justice Kavanaugh, and other forms of harassment outside the homes of members of the Court who dare to defend the Constitution.

Secondly, there is a new and insidious aspect to the current attacks on Justice Thomas, which I wrote about at American Greatness. In my article titled “Targeting Thomas,” I discuss how the manufactured scandal against Justice Thomas and his family accepting hospitality from long-time friends reflects a growing war on friendship. This has never been an issue before, but as I’ll write in the future, the Mass State is preparing to invade private life as never before. I’ll have more on that later. In the meantime, here’s an excerpt from my American Greatness article:

Ultimately, this is a much bigger war than we realize. Demonization of the Thomases is a high-profile battle, but it reflects a deeper conflict—a war against friendship and against independent thought. It is actually a prelude to atomizing all of us, and threatening us with social isolation if we don’t adopt the Left’s anti-thought and dehumanizing agendas. 

New Interview on The Weaponization of Loneliness — with Bill Walton

May 10, 2023 | Books, Conformity, Free Speech, Freedom of Association, Friendship, History, Identity Politics, Isolation, Loneliness, Media, Persuasion, Political Correctness, Politics, Propaganda, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

I love The Bill Walton Show. He and his wife Sarah are so insightful and interesting. They keep important conversations going, bringing light into the chaos of our times. I recommend you subscribe to Bill’s Youtube channel if you’re looking for in-depth discussions of the most critical issues of the day. Bill has interviewed many prominent thinkers, including George Gilder, Naomi Wolf, Arthur Laffer, James Lindsay, and Winsome Sears–to name a very few.

So I was honored to return to Bill’s show, this time for an in-depth conversation about my book The Weaponization of Loneliness. You can watch the discussion below:

We talked about the uses of isolation as a political weapon today, as well as throughout modern history. I’m actually amazed at the many points we covered in one short hour, though there was a lot more we could have said on this topic. My hope is that more Americans become conversant with the dynamics that lead to our self-censorship so that we can overcome that fear of ostracism and start speaking out. Because self-censorship gives a lot of oxygen to destructive agendas. Worse, it opens the door wide for far more punitive forms of top-down censorship.

Bill and I ended on a hopeful note. There is so much even one person can do to overcome the darkness and chaos that surrounds us today. Just one honest conversation with another person can open the door to new ideas and influences that that strengthen civil society. This causes the sort of ripple effect of freedom that tyrants always seek to squash through censorship. We talked about the revival of beauty in the public square. And the revival of comedy! We talked about my book club project on the topic of the Weaponization of Loneliness, and we discussed all of the parallel polises springing up. Please give our conversation a look and a listen! And please subscribe to Bill Walton’s wonderful podcast!

Woke = Anti-Thought

April 6, 2023 | Brainwashing, Conformity, Cults, Identity Politics, Media, Political Correctness, Propaganda, Society, Transgender, Weaponization of Loneliness

Human Events recently ran my column in which I offer a new synonym for the term “woke.” My candidate is “anti-thought.” The essay is here: “The True Definition of ‘Woke’ is ‘Anti-Thought.'”

“Wokeness” adds up to nothing more than mob- and media-enforced group think. For example, mobs such as the Stanford Law mob that I wrote about in my last post had no interest in reason or conversation. They certainly have no interest in the cross-pollination of ideas. And I doubt that they even believe in the slogans they spew because they don’t seem to have the capacity to even think them through. They’ve merely been conditioned and programmed to behave that way. After all, mobs don’t think. They can’t.

Another example is below: the violent treatment of a woman who simply wants to express her concerns about the current erasure of women by the transgender ideology. A couple of weeks ago, Kelly-Jay Keen
(whose Twitter handle is @theposieparker ) went to speak in New Zealand at a rally called “Let Women Speak.” She was violently assaulted by a totally feral mob for doing so. Check it out:

This is a clear case of mass hysteria, as Michael Schellenberger points out.  No different from the Salem witch hunts, or any other mass delusion in human history.  The destructive passions of a mob–whipped up through academia, the media, Big Tech and many other of our corrupted institutions– will stop at nothing to silence and destroy anyone who might speak against their ideology.  Indeed, to destroy anyone who thinks a coherent thought.  The woke– or the anti-thought brigades– seek to enforce nothing but ignorance and fear.  Like the Borg, they just want to absorb you into their darkness.

So our ONLY HOPE is to courageously speak out freely and often against the mobs.  This might seem scary, but it’s far better than being absorbed into their insanity.  Indeed, the mob has made it very clear that speaking truth is the one thing that it cannot abide.  So speak up!

“The Line” is a Dystopian Hellscape — Presented as Utopian, of course

February 4, 2023 | Community, Conformity, Culture, Isolation, Loneliness, Media, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

Several months ago I heard about this bizarre architectural endeavor called “The Line.” I recently saw the weird ad for it again and decided I ought to post something on it. Sane people need to hear about this because it illustrates just how power-crazed today’s billionaire class of globalists has become. Only then can we understand how critical it is to regain a sense of sanity. Check it out:

So you cram nine million people into a 100-mile long LINE that’s about 170 stories tall and just 650 feet wide. But it’s all supposed to be good because you don’t need cars. As best as I can figure out from the narrator, there are transports that can take you from end to end covering 100 miles in about 20 minutes. And it’s all good because it’s all divided into “neighborhoods” whereby you can get everything you need within a 5-minute walk. Or something like that. This is what they call “community.”

Seems likely the residents would be administered some form of “soma” — the drug used to keep people docile in Brave New World. But just think of the opportunities for surveillance when people are all herded together in such a vault. This one is pictured in the isolation of the Arabian desert. No escape! I’m sure there are some folks who find this appealing as a cool futuristic existence. But any thoughtful person can see that it’s all about dysfunction and loneliness and alienation.

How the Metaverse Would Serve to Atomize and Dehumanize Us

February 1, 2023 | Books, Community, Culture, Free Speech, Freedom of Association, History, Isolation, Loneliness, Media, Politics, Propaganda, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness

I was honored to speak to the great Laura Ingraham recently about my book The Weaponization of Loneliness. She focused on a chilling development at the World Economic Forum in Davos. One of the WEF speakers promoted everyone’s participation in the virtual reality of the “Metaverse.” The Metaverse offers a repertoire of such experiences in 3-D. It was promoted at Davos under the guise of “equity” since it allows us all access to the same experiences. Except for the fact that they aren’t real experiences.

In the Metaverse you can travel and meet others and buy and sell, no matter your location or status. The catch is that you’re basically all alone when you do it. You don’t have any real mobility, because your travel essentially takes place in your mind. Nothing there is tangible, though the sense of reality can be “augmented” through various accessories.

Ultimately, the WEF stands behind a future in which we are completely dependent upon a centralized globalist oligarchy for anything real. In the meantime, we can be subdued through the Metaverse which can act as an addiction. It is both dehumanizing and atomizing. You’ll find a clip of the interview above. But you need to subscribe to Laura Ingraham’s podcast on Quake media to hear it in full around the halfway mark at this link: https://quakemedia.com/episode/the-laura-ingraham-show-episode-194-featuring-stella-morabito/?type=show

You Can’t Fight Disinformation without Fighting Censorship

April 18, 2022 | Free Speech, Isolation, Media, Politics, Propaganda, Society

Our Orwellian elitists have developed an ass-backwards argument as a propaganda ploy. They claim that disinformation is a threat to democracy, and therefore they should have total control over the public square to protect it. As we’ve seen time and again with the record of faceless “fact-checkers” in the media and Big Tech, the obvious goal is to censor any idea that doesn’t line up with their narrative. They even hosted an event at the University of Chicago, promoted by President Obama, to make the case.

This is nuts. No society can function in the grip of the such political censorship. In fact, it destroys democracy.

In my Federalist piece today, I explore the effects of suppressing free speech. It’s mentally isolating. It can even lead to mass delusion. There’s no shortage of historical examples. Take a look at this clip from North Korea to get an idea of what happens to a population that’s stuck in one narrative and totally cut off from any other ideas:

Indeed, the only solution to disinformation is free speech. Lots of it. And let’s not forget that political censorship causes disinformation.

You can read the whole essay here: The Only way to Fight Disinformation is to Fight Political Censorship

We can’t have fair elections until we get rid of the chaos now embedded in the electoral process

October 31, 2021 | Bureaucracy, Community, Media, Politics, Propaganda, Society
This is a must read if you want to live in a free society.

A lot of eyes are on Virginia’s off-year gubernatorial election coming up on Tuesday because many see it as a bellwether for next year’s midterms. I ask “bellwether” for what? That’s because it’s harder than ever to determine “winners” and “losers” because the entire process has become so riddled with irregularities and weirdness. In a word, fraud. And by design.

If by chance there are tallies that show Dem Candidate Terry McAuliffe behind or having lost, you can bet his campaign would not ever accept the results. They would keep “counting” votes at least until Friday or until they can concoct a win. That’s just the way it is these days.

For a general look at how corrupt our electoral process has become, read Joy Pullmann’s excellent wrap-up: https://thefederalist.com/2021/10/29/7-insane-things-i-just-learned-about-how-u-s-elections-are-rigged/

Pullmann shares some of the shocking back stories in Mollie Hemingway’s bestseller Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections.

I published two pieces in the Federalist last week that relate directly as well as indirectly to this coming Tuesday’s gubernatorial election in Virginia. I hesitate to use the word “election” since there are now so many ways to hide fraud. Worse, there are many ways to render elections unverifiable and unauditable.


Ironically, those who push for chaos-by-design—such as the mass mailing of official ballots and no photo ID requirement–claim that such things make elections “free and fair.” Here’s a link to the first piece In which I address that folly:
https://thefederalist.com/2021/10/28/democrats-claim-free-and-fair-election-in-virginia-while-rigging-it-again/

If we ever get out of this mess, it will because we finally realized that the only way to secure free and fair elections is to guarantee that all voters have the right to vote in person, at their local precinct (not a clearinghouse early voting center,) and in secret. And no state or local (and certainly not federal) government has the right to take that away from people by forcing universal mail-in balloting. There is really no other way to protect freedom of conscience in elections. I’ve therefore concluded that voting securely–in person, in a local precinct, and in secret–should be a constitutional right. Here’s the second piece that sums up what a truly free and fair election should look like:

https://thefederalist.com/2021/10/29/4-indispensable-conditions-for-a-truly-free-and-fair-election/

Do you Know of Films that Highlight the Effects of Social Isolation?

October 4, 2020 | Isolation, Loneliness, Media, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness
Ingrid Bergman in “Gas Light” (Wikipedia Commons)

I’m looking for suggestions from my readers! I’m currently working on compiling a multi-media bibliography on the theme of social isolation. As you know if you read this blog, I am interested in how the fear of social rejection causes people to conform and comply with bad policies led by bad actors.  In particular: how social isolation — and the threat of it — is used as a weapon to control people. Such dynamics are evident in every level of life: in our personal lives, professional lives, and in the socio-political landscape.

I have a pretty comprehensive list of books and articles, but I’d really like to expand my list of movies and documentaries on this theme. 

BIG QUESTION: Can you think of some movies or documentaries that are good candidates for the theme of social isolation and how isolation affects us? If so, I invite you to please send your ideas through the contact form on this blog so that I can consider adding them to my list.

To give you an idea of what I have in mind, let me provide a sample list below.  As you will see, there are a variety of genres that appeal to a variety of audiences.  You can suggest popular movies as well as classics or scholarly documentaries. The main thing is that the theme should really stand out. Here’s a brief list:

The Experimenter – 2015 movie about psychologist Stanley Milgram’s “shock” experiments in the 1960’s, which he later wrote about in his book “Obedience to Authority.” He was astonished to discover how often ordinary people were willing to harm others when directed to do so by an authority figure.

Marty – won Best Picture Oscar in 1952.  Tells the story of two lonely people who become smitten with one another. But the main character feels socially pressured to dump his newfound love because his gang of buddies deride her as a “dog.”

Angi Vera, Hungarian Film by Pal Gabor (1978) with English subtitles – After communism was imposed on Hungary in 1948, the leadership made sure that all institutions were run only by those loyal to the party line.  The film takes you into an education camp in which future leaders are trained to replace those from the “old order.” We see “struggle sessions” and the psychology of snitch culture emerging.

The Children’s Story, by James Clavell – Short television movie (1980) which shows how a class of second grade children are emotionally manipulated to get with a program of promoting a new communist order and hating America.

The Wave — dramatization of social experiment at a Palo Alto High School by history teacher Ron Jones. When his students learned about the Holocaust, they could not understand how the German population would stand by and allow it to happen.  Jones’s students agreed to re-enact the basics of social conformity and compliance – and they actually lived through the process. It’s a fascinating look into how good people very often let bad things happen when they are motivated by the fear of social isolation. There is a German version of “The Wave” with English subtitles.

Mean Girls (Lindsay Lohan) 2004 – provides a picture of clique culture in a mega high school whereby meddlesome queen bees dictate all relationships and label everyone for either social survival or social death.  Key lines:  “You can’t sit with us.”  “The rules aren’t real.”

Gaslight (starring Ingrid Bergman) 1944.  This is the film that brought the psychological term “gas lighting” into psychological parlance.  The term is now embedded in social media.  Officially it means the sort of psychological abuse that causes a person to think they’re crazy.

The Lives of Others, 2006 (Academy Award for Best Foreign Film) A look at private life under the control of the surveillance state of communist East Germany. Psychological warfare writ large. (William F. Buckley stated that he thought it was the best movie he had ever seen.)

If you’d like to add to the list, please let me know!

Weaponization of Loneliness is a Specialty of Cults. Does BLM employ it?

June 13, 2020 | Brainwashing, Cults, Freedom of Association, History, Media, Political Correctness, Politics, Society, Weaponization of Loneliness
Struggle session - Wikipedia
The photo above reflects what people are afraid of, and why they submit to false narratives. This photo is of a “struggle session” in Maoist China during the Cultural Revolution. The victim is accused of ideological impurity. In today’s BLM parlance, the shaming and social isolation would be for perceived racism. It is not based on reality, but only on identity politics. (Source: Wikipedia Commons)

In this post I will continue to refer to the item I posted the other day on the suburban mass confession of “white guilt” that took place in Bethesda, Maryland. It was a creepy incident of initiation in which you can see four truths revealed about cults and cult activity. We owe it to ourselves to ask first if the participants are behaving like cult recruits. And then we have to ask if the organization to which they are pledging is behaving like a cult. Below I note four hard similarities.

  1. Cult operations always cover up an appetite for raw power with a cover story that sounds very uncontroversial.  Deception is always cover for a power grab. Is that the case with the organization that calls itself “Black Live Matter?” Well, just go to its website and you’ll soon figure out that hardcore socialism, or Marxism, is its actual, avowed agenda. Ultimately, socialism is about one thing: too much power in the hands of too few people. Marxists in America have made no secret of their determination to undermine the individual rights inherent in the Constitution. So when you see huge agendas on the BLM website that are traditionally communist — like “sustainable transformation” and defunding the police and even its goal of replacing the family with collectivist forms of childrearing — well, its veil gets a lot thinner.
  2. Cult  mechanics always involve psychological manipulation. Coercive thought reform is at work in the Bethesda video. It uses a hypnotic chant, as well as guilt and shaming and the weaponization of loneliness to conjure up the illusion of majority support. The recruits have set themselves up for ostracism by the movement if they dare to re-think anything. There is no respect for the principle of free thought or any exchange of ideas.  The movement is highly manipulative and emotionally coercive.
  3. The recruit is ordered to become a deployable agent for the cult by promising to bring others in to it. When the Bethesdans took their pledge, part of it was “to do everything in my power to educate my community.” That’s a pledge to proselytize. This assignment is essential to cults. It grows the mass/mob and empowers the cult’s totalitarian leaders. It always happens under the guise of something that sounds reasonable. Their behavior also brings to mind one of Saul Alinsky’s callous “Rules for Radicals:” to use people’s goodwill against them.
  4. We see the cultic practice of predatory alienation: forcing people to disavow loved ones. The New York Times recently published an op-ed telling white “allies” of BLM that they must prove their loyalty by texting “relatives and loved ones telling them you will not be visiting them or answering phone calls until they take significant action in supporting black lives either through protest or financial contributions.”  This is emotional blackmail, meant to isolate people and meddle in personal relationships. That’s a common pattern in socialism as well.

Here’s a Try at some 2020 Foresight — on Human Interaction

December 31, 2019 | Community, Culture, Friendship, Loneliness, Media, Political Correctness, Society

Hi. I’m back.  I thought I’d write one post just before 2019 bites the dust.  Yes, it’s been a long hiatus since I posted the video of Marshall McLuhan explaining how “the medium IS the message.” Maybe I’ll explain the hiatus in a future post.

In the meantime, going into 2020, I’d like to pick up on where I left off with McLuhan.  Consider his amazing insight: that we are shaped more by the environment a medium creates than by the content within the medium itself.

So here’s a little thought experiment. Imagine you cross paths with someone you know to be a nasty troll on Twitter, but the person doesn’t know you know that. You strike up a friendly conversation. Maybe you just ask a question about something local, perhaps the parking situation outside the coffee shop or store you’re in.

The person might still be “off.” But I think your face-to-face experience would be very different and likely more positive than any experience contaminated by the environment of social media. 

Why is that?  McLuhan might say that it is because media — especially electronic media — take us out of our natural human context. Media environments set us up more easily for deception too, because they conceal parts of the big picture of whole human interaction.  For example, when someone’s on an audio phone call, they can roll their eyes without offending the listener no matter who it is. And people driving down the highway feel freer to honk (or worse) showing annoyance with other drivers. This is not news, of course. We treat people differently in environments that provide more anonymity than we do face to face.  Even simple written communication causes a lot of human context to get lost, including texting. We lose the big picture: mood, tone, eye contact, body language, nuances, true intent.

So it’s no wonder Twitter is such a cesspit.  There are no real rules of decorum and a lot of anonymity, which is a nasty combination. (Twitter’s censorship policies are, of course, purely political and not about maintaining any sort of decorum)

Anonymity can be a good thing, just as privacy is.  But anonymity does not make for the building of personal relationships.  Or community.  So the foresight going into 2020 is that a better world depends in large part on the health of our personal associations. Which in turn depends on more direct communication. A big key is to understand that loneliness — or fear of social rejection — is often the root of a lot of negative behavior in people.

Maybe you feel as much as I do that 2020 will be a pivotal year with some strong headwinds ahead. If so, one resolution might be to cut back on the digital stuff and increase more direct communication with others. And let’s all resolve to have a happy new year.