CHICAGOCINEMA.NET

The Reason Trump Says Crazy Stupid Shit:

Other than the fact he IS a crazy stupid shit, is tactical.

Notice how all the 24/7 channels and TV pundits are “debating” the benefits of Huffing Lysol or a Clorox Enema instead of discussing the fact that

HE’S STEALING PPE AND OTHER LIFE SAVING SUPPLIES FROM AMERICAN CITIZENS TO GIVE TO HIS CRONIES TO SELL AT HUGE PROFIT

AND HOARDING THEM TO USE AS EXTORTION LEVERAGE AGAINST GOVERNORS.

And how all the “OH, so smart and well-educated” progressives/liberals/leftists on Twitter, Facebook, and Instafuckingeverywhere are TOTALLY taking the bait and wasting time spinning their wheels over it and trying to outdo each other with clever jokes.

So PLEASE resist the temptation to waste time making snarky jokes about how dumb he is (you KNOW I’m including myself in this) or debating other moot points and concentrate on the real issues as you interact with people.

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’ 🙂

Sometimes I’ll say something deadly serious to people as a warning about something awful to come and (especially if it’s at a party) the room will burst out laughing.

It used to really piss me off, but eventually I realized that the statements themselves sound pretty funny, especially if you have a sardonic sense of humor.

The problem is, that since most everybody laughed at the statement, many of the people present (especially those a bit slow on the uptake) will think what I’ve said was just a joke.

SO—- What I’m about to say will probably make you laugh, but it is a Deadly Serious Statement of Historical Fact:

This Wouldn’t Be The First Time A Highly Advanced Civilization Was Destroyed Because Members Of An Insane Death Cult Took Power.

The Deserts And Jungles Of The World Are Filled With Their Ruins.

And Many Times The Final Unraveling Was Due To Poor Public Response To An Epidemic.

MORE ABOUT WHAT I’M TRYING TO DO HERE

And what I ask of you.


The world/internet is full of people who call themselves Citizen Journalists and they do great work. (more about them in the future)


They adhere (more than most “real” journalists) to high standards of accuracy and do their best to act as if they’re being employed by the NYT or Washington Post.


I intend to be a Citizen Pundit and counter all the BULLSHIT spewed forth by the legion of Blathering Turds in the Corporate Media.


My job is much easier than Citizen Journalists, because THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO QUALIFICATIONS OR STANDARDS FOR PUNDITS.


Not a single fucking one. Go check if you want.


All you have to do is be hired by some Network, who puts the title PUNDIT under your yammering head on the TV screen.


Basically, you just declare yourself a Pundit and go from there.


If you effectively speak enough lies and half-truths and spin corporate bullshit (and have some connections) you get to be on Big Time TV.


I intend to be The People’s Pundit and won’t just speak truth to Power, I’m gonna speak it to EVERYONE.


Some of you folks who actually know me in the “real” world (such as it is anymore) will have either been in my life during or perhaps directly witnessed/participated in some of the stories I will recount.


Don’t freak out and think that I’m ever going to try and make you look bad or try and make myself the hero of every story.


I’ve been a selfish boorish asshole my entire life and am PAINFULLY aware of that fact- and I’ll be raking myself over the coals harder than anyone.



You’ll see that soon enough.


But if I miss a crucial fact of a story, or forget to put it in an important detail, or if you have something *constructive* to add to or say about the story I tell- I’m relying on you to tell me.


However, I won’t debate the particulars of the actual events themselves. They happened. Deal with it. I have.

I’ll NEVER use real names (or any names at all if I can help it) and I’ll die before I reveal the names of the Innocent (Dragnet time). That’s a blood oath, my friends.

As for the rest of you: Good Pundits (kind of a theoretical concept these days) get popular because lots of people enjoy their insights and share their columns with others.

So please, MAKE ME FAMOUS. I’ll take it from there.

If you do, a World Of Shit will fall upon me. But I am ready for it.

It won’t have been the first time.

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING

As I continue to advocate for the reality that we shall need to to remain at home for at least another two or three months, a thought occurred to me.

Some of you may wonder (especially those who have known me for a long time) if I am doing this just because I like hanging out at home and want an excuse not to go back to work.

While I’m the first to admit that my default setting is introvert hermit and that I’ve strategically avoided conventional employment throughout my life, let me make one thing absolutely clear:

When this lockdown hit I was preparing to kick my life into high gear.

The Open Stage that Stann Champion and I had been doing for over 6 years was finally getting some recognition and hit the groove that he and I had been striving for since the beginning.

I was working full time in an office, at a fairly complicated sociological research job that I enjoyed a great deal. I was busting ass and crushing it every day, working much harder than I needed to in order to get my research/scholarly chops back, with an eye to entering Grad School, perhaps even Law School.

My harmonica playing was hitting yet another level, and I was going to spend 2020 getting out and showing the music scene what the last 3 years of hard woodshedding had done for me. And finally take the next step toward fronting my own band.

I’d finally found a Theater Company composed of talented musicians and singers who might have an interest (and more importantly the training and skills) to help me actualize a Gilbert & Sullivan-esque Musical that I’ve been kicking around for several years.

And most importantly, I’d finally gotten the PTSD-related depression/anxiety problems that had been hampering me for 20 years under control, and was remembering what it was like to actually feel good about life and myself.

SO DON’T THINK FOR A SECOND THAT I’M STAYING AT HOME BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO.

I just have accepted the reality that this extreme personal sacrifice is what I need to do— for myself, for the people I love, and (drum roll) for the good of society.

People used to gladly make sacrifices for the good of society all the time, but the practice has fallen out of favor in the last few decades.

And that’s pretty much the central reason we are in this mess.

So SUCK IT UP, Pilgrims.

Pretend you’re Sonny Rollins on the Williamsburg Bridge. A chrysalis waiting to emerge as a beautiful butterfly. A rocket waiting to be launched.

Eat right, keep active, learn and grow. Work toward becoming your best self.

Because when it’s safe for us to emerge, we’ll have a whole society to rebuild- in one way or another.

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!