CHICAGOCINEMA.NET

JUST PATIENT.

Especially Philosophy, Physics, and Media Studies.

You take it one sentence at a time and don’t go on until you understand that sentence. Look up any words you don’t understand*. Sometimes reading it aloud helps. If it takes 50 times before you understand it, then so be it.

Don’t feel bad if it takes a long time to get it, this is hard stuff.

The first time I read A Brief History Of Time by Steven Hawking, I could only muster about five pages at a time- and then I’d have to take a nap for an hour or two.

Understanding Media took a year to finish, because every few paragraphs some concept would blow my mind so much I’d have to put the book down and ponder for a few hours or a couple weeks.

Essentially your brain is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets, and the less you do the more it weakens & atrophies. BUT no matter how weak a muscle gets it can always be strengthened through continued exercise. SO ANY LACK OF FORMAL EDUCATION IS NO EXCUSE.

You don’t HAVE to go to a gym to get buff (although it helps to have all those cool machines in one place, along with a bunch of experts/enthusiasts on fitness and health), you just have to commit to spending time every day exercising your body.

And you don’t HAVE to go to a fancy University to get educated, you just have to commit to spending time every day exercising your mind by reading long complex texts and studying big ideas that hurt to get your brain around.

I think it was Confucius who said “It doesn’t matter how slow you go, as long as you don’t stop.” It was him or Lao Tzu, between the two of them they said EVERYTHING. Literally.

Sometime I’ll the story about why I know this for a fact.

*which is MUCH easier to do now that you don’t need a 20 pound Unabridged Dictionary. Juuuuust sayin’ 🙂

The President has advocated Public Suicide and the States with Sane Governors are forced to form coalitions in opposition to his insanity.

America is now in a Cold Civil War, this time over Science and Empirical Reality. It will likely kill even more than the one fought over Human Rights.

Except in this war, the deaths/casualties will be caused by a virus, not bullets. And the States that “seceded” are in the right and will “win.”

But just like the last time, the population decimated will be poor ignorant white people hoodwinked into believing a dangerous lie. And all the innocent non-combatants who will suffer and die needlessly.

The Michael Manifesto:

We’re facing the biggest gaslighting/brainwashing campaign in Human History, and there are few mainstream sources that people can actually trust, especially on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Therefore, I AM DECLARING MYSELF A TRUSTED NEWS/INFORMATION SOURCE.

I will do my best to behave as one and adhere to the best practices guidelines of ethical news organizations.

Many of my future posts will be in essay form, often using analogy, simile, metaphor, allegory, and parables— but the underlying facts and concepts will be based on scholarship and empirical facts. I’ll use incidents from my own life to illustrate concepts (making the personal universal if you will) and demonstrate how mind programming works.

Much of how Media manipulates us is not by lying about the facts themselves, but WHAT THOSE FACTS MEAN, often by framing the facts in misleading ways, so I’ll attempt to cut through the bullshit and obfuscation.

Almost everything in the essays (that isn’t personal narrative) will come from books/articles I’ve read, or classes I’ve taken; or films, videos, websites etc etc. SO ASSUME ANYTHING I SAY IS FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE. My talent is putting ideas together and taking them apart, and I don’t claim to be an “original thinker” (which is a destructive fallacy to begin with).

I’m not defending my Masters Thesis or trying to stake out a piece of academic turf, I’m trying to help regular people understand how they’ve been lied to and manipulated. So don’t look for footnotes.***

These essays will be for EVERYONE, not just Smartypants Academics.

I’ll do my best to present complex ideas in a way understandable to anyone and not use big fancy words, but sometimes the best/only word for a situation is a big fancy one.

So look it up on your phone if you don’t know the word. Words are tools and weapons and the more of them you have, the better you can build/repair things and/or defend yourself.

Sometimes I’ll be sharing books, texts, or articles that you’ll need to read all the way through to understand how media and politics really work and how you’re being manipulated. Most of them will be difficult to understand, especially if you’ve had no (or not much) formal education. I’ll explain certain parts of them as best I can, but you’ll have to meet me halfway by learning to focus and strengthen your mind.

My TONE (something folks love to get snippy about these days) is going to be harsh, much of how we got into this mess is because of our own faults, and know that I’m including myself in any blanket criticisms.

I’m going to sound like a pompous ass who thinks he knows everything, and I apologize in advance, BECAUSE I AM. I was raised in the wilderness by pompous asses, and that permeates my discourse.

For the sake of argument, please bear with me and pretend that I’m an all-knowing super genius who has spent his entire life furiously studying to find a way to save humanity from a horrible fate, BUT DON’T GET CAUGHT UP IN THE CONCEPT. I’m not trying to be worshiped here.

Everybody Has Faults/Blind Spots And I Have Mine (More on Hero Worship Later).

HOWEVER

I AM MAKING A SOLEMN VOW ON ALL I HOLD SACRED (KNOWLEDGE, JUSTICE, HONOR) TO TELL THE TRUTH THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.

Truth is a thorny concept, but everything I say will be as accurate and fact-based as I am capable of as a mortal being. And every life story I tell will be the truth as I saw it and accurate to the best of my recollection.

Sometimes my own prejudices/biases/privileges/ego will shine through, but I will do everything in my power to avoid it. In fact, I’ll be using examples of them and how they have hampered and constrained me to illustrate my points.

And I’ll be depending on others to keep me honest.

While I’ll gladly accept valid good faith criticisms and/or fact checks, I REFUSE to to waste time “debating” the reality of what I say. If you can’t handle what I’m saying, then go away.

Our enemy has countless minions who seek out people speaking the truth and bait them into wasting time debating their bullshit, and I’m not having any of it.

If I’m successful at this endeavor, eventually the Eye Of Sauron will fall upon me and the world will crawl up my ass, and I’m ready for that.

This is the part of The Poseidon Adventure when Gene Hackman (or Kurt Russell) says

“THE BOAT HAS FLIPPED UPSIDE DOWN AND IN ORDER TO ESCAPE WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO TRAVEL UP TO WHAT USED TO BE THE BOTTOM!!!”

Stay where you are and die if you wish.

Or come with me for a journey behind the curtain…

*** THE ONE BIG FOOTNOTE: If you recognize something I’m saying from some course/article/book you’ve read (or if it seems really basic/obvious); CONGRATULATIONS!!! But don’t waste yours and my time by pointing it out to me, especially as some kind of “Gotcha!