S.T.

Welcome to the Sober Thinking Forum.

This is the continuation of the Renewable Revolution Forum, with the same categories and boards arrangement. In order to provide topic thread continuity, this post will be duplicated in frequently viewed topic threads along with selected posts from that topic at the Renewable Revolution Forum. I will gradually, as time permits, copy pertinent articles posted there, update them, and post them here for your convenience.

I have no intention of closing the Renewable Revolution Forum, so any links you have to posts, articles and graphics there are valid for the time being. Nevertheless, I advise you to 🦉 copy and save any posts, articles and graphics that you wish to preserve for posting somewhere else on the internet. I am 75 years old. As long as my spirit hasn't permanently left my body, the Sober Thinking Forum will be kept open.   

Although guests are encouraged to post and become members, this forum is mostly a library reference of important historical information and timeless articles that you are encouraged to pass on, with or without attribution.

In addition, relevant recent news will be posted almost daily, so be sure to 🧐 stop by often.

I have changed the title and the front page background graphic for two reasons:

1. My purpose, nearly a decade ago, of convincing most reality based people everywhere that human civilization, in order to stop and reverse (i.e getting back to 350 PPM of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide is sine qua non) the multiple extinctions causing biosphere degradation (i.e. the Sixth Mass Extinction Event now upon us), must VERY rapidly transition away from Hydrocarbon Energy Sources to Renewable Energy Sources, has been largely achieved. I have been one small voice among many that have made it clear  that clean energy must be made available to everyone, not just the wealthy, if we are to survive Catastrophic Climate Change.

2. Celebrated social theorist and geographer David Harvey asked, "Is there a way to capture what (to the detriment of human civilization) is going on now"?

My answer: YES.

It's the SOCIAL DARWINISM, stupid!

No matter how much progress we make in cleaning up the biosphere, as long as the egocentric, morally bankrupt, empathy deficit disordered, Social Darwinist Ideology continues to be embraced by TPTB, we do not have a snowball's chance in Hell of surviving our Existential Crisis.

Social Darwinists believe that ethics based principles are 'limitations pretending to be virtues'. To them, ethics are 'feel good illusions' that humans invented to pretend our species has empathy. To Social Darwinists, empathy is irrefutable evidence of inexcusable weakness. To them, all who are guided by ethics are deluded fools that should be eliminated from the human 'apex predator' gene pool for the "good" of our species.

The ideology of the Social Darwinist is indistinguishable from the despicable ideology of NAZI Germany, clearly exemplified in their brutally enforced morally bankrupt concentration camp law: “Eat your own bread, and if you can, that of your neighbor.”

Social Darwinism is actually based, not on "survival of the fittest", but on fear of tomorrow, a morally bankrupt excuse for rejecting altruism and empathy and embracing a selfish greed dominated hoarding modus vivendi.

"One who fears tomorrow does not offer his bread to others. But one who is willing to divide his food with a stranger has already shown himself capable of fellowship and faith, the two things from which hope is born." -- Primo Levi, author of Survival in Auschwitz

Social Darwinism is the world view that spawned the profit over people and planet neoliberal ideology. Neoliberal intellectuals like Friedrich von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Milton Friedman were all Social Darwinists long before they renamed laissez-faire liberalism (that had been thoroughly discredited by the Great Depression) with the catchy title of "Neoliberalism".
 
The celebrated social theorist and geographer David Harvey explains that neoliberal ideology serves the following principle:

"There shall be no serious challenge to the absolute power of money to rule absolutely. And that power is to be exercised with one objective: Those possessed of money shall not only be privileged to accumulate wealth endlessly at will, but they shall have the right to inherit the earth, taking either direct or indirect dominion, not only of the land and all the resources and productive capacities that reside therein, but also assume absolute command, directly or indirectly, over the labor and creative capacities of all those others it needs. The rest of humanity shall be deemed disposable."

"In human society, the amount of inequity is directly proportional to the amount of iniquity." -- A. G. Gelbert

Sober Thinking requires that we all recognize the fact that a society that is founded on altruism, not the "invisible hand" of greed, is not optional if we wish to avoid exctinction. Capitalism's "invisible hand" modus operandi is rooted in the ideology of Social Darwinism.

“Capitalism is the astounding belief, that the most wickedest of men, will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.” — John Maynard Keynes

 
The main purpose of the Sober Thinking Forum is to convince you, regardless of your religious beliefs or lack of them, to soberly think about these two quotes, embrace altruism, reject greed, and convince as many people as you can that altruism is not optional for human society:

"Look at our world, our country, our interactions with each other……… this is not the mark of a healthy society, and if these are the self-appointed leaders of this flaming meteor…..it’s time to move on to new ideas and new people. Let’s relegate these fools to history. They perpetuate a narrative that it is right to behave in a strictly selfish, exploitative manner towards all. We simply can’t survive it any longer. Things will change because they have to." -- Kathleen Wallace

"Technical knowledge of Carrying Capacity will not save us; Only a Massive Increase in Caring Capacity will." -- A. G. Gelbert

 
Make Nexus Hot News part of your morning: click here to subscribe.

July 13, 2021





The American Conservation Coalition’s campaign to greenwash Republicans exists to generate ‘man bites dog’ type stories, like hits in the Washington Post and Fox News on Monday, about how maybe the GOP isn’t so bad on climate change, since they spout catchphrases like “innovation” and claim to support climate policies (that actually reward polluters), like the Trillion Trees proposal. 

While on the surface the GOP’s trillion trees sound like they might be a great win for the environment and climate, we already know what the reality of this sort of approach would mean: more pollution. We know this is the case because it’s already happening, thanks to a Sequoia-sized loophole in a European Union policy similarly aimed at reducing emissions. 

A recent CNN feature on Enviva’s North Carolina wood pellet production facility (and a major feature by Danielle Purifoy, writing for Scalawag Magazine, Southerly, and Environmental Health News, last fall) make it clear that subsidizing the timber industry is no climate solution. 

It started in 2009, when the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive “classified biomass as a renewable energy source — on par with wind and solar power.” Instead of burning coal, they could burn biomass, and supposedly reduce emissions by making use of waste wood that would otherwise go unused. Unfortunately, though, the policy doesn't require that it has to be waste wood, so now companies are felling forests and sowing plantations across the American Southeast to satisfy European energy demands. (Seriously, the paralells to the slave trade are stark.) As a result, those communities are facing dangerous levels of PM2.5 and other air pollutants, leading to a litany of health complaints. 

CNN spoke with people like Andrea Macklin about symptoms and impacts from the biomass industry, finding issues ranging from a loss of sleep due to the 24/7 noise from the plant, to a majority of residents experiencing high blood pressure, with Macklin’s heart condition forcing the 44-year-old out of work and his wife and son’s asthma being exacerbated by the pollution from Enviva’s plant. “Since the plant started operating,” CNN reported, “his wife and son can’t spend more than five minutes outside without coughing.” 

Adding insult to literal injury? It’s not even actually reducing the levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The only place where levels are dropping are in the record-keeping of the European companies, because the biomass’s carbon emissions are recorded based on where the trees were cut, not where the biomass was actually burned. That classification was made to avoid double-counting when doing scientific calculations and was not intended to be the basis for public policy where all emissions end up in our one shared atmosphere no matter where they’re burned. The climate doesn’t care if the wood pellets processed in Northampton County, North Carolina are burned in Northampton, England. The carbon pollution is going back into the same atmosphere. 

While 🦕😈 🐘 deniers sometimes rail against U.S. climate action by pointing out that it will just push industry out to countries with looser environmental standards, increasing the total amount of pollution on the planet, in this case, the U.S. is that polluter-permitting country whose own citizens are suffering for the illusory benefit of foreign carbon accounting balance sheets.

As usual, the specific people left to suffer with the downsides of industry are those who already face a disproportionate burden . CNN analyzed records on pollution and demographics, because not only is Northampton, home to the Macklins and Enviva’s plant (along with three additional major air pollution sources), is predominately Black, but eight of Enviva’s nine plants are sited “in communities that have higher percentage of Black residents than their states as a whole.” All nine “are in census tracts that have lower median household incomes than their states.” 

Enviva says it takes environmental justice concerns “very seriously” and that they “work closely” with locals “to ensure our operations bring both positive economic and environmental impact,” before writing off the complaints as “generic” and coming from “the same activists we’ve heard from before.”

Which is not to say that trees aren’t part of the answer. But it’s not just trees, it’s forests. The entire 🌲🌳 forest ecosystem needs to be functional for carbon to be stored long term. As Dogwood Alliance co-founder Danna Smith explained to CNN,”the forestry industry and the wood pellet industry says that trees are renewable, but we aren’t renewing thousand-year-old ecosystems. They’re renewing forests for commercial 💵 production. So you’ll see trees on the landscape that are maybe, you know, 30 years old. That’s not an ecosystem — that’s a fiber farm.”

Still, some conservatives will insist subsidizing the timber industry and further polluting historically excluded communities is an acceptable price to pay to make it look like the GOP is acting on climate. They'll also claim those polluting industries will bring wealth and prosperity to those who live nearby.

As Smith points out, however, “if the wood products industry and biomass were a way of growing strong rural economies in the southeastern region, these rural communities should be some of the wealthiest on the planet. We are in the world’s largest wood producing region. But you don’t see any evidence in these rural communities of thriving rural economies. The opposite is actually true.”

Subsidizing the timber industry in the name of climate action doesn’t help the climate and offers little-to-no real economic benefits to the local communities it floods with air pollution. Anyone buying into the GOP’s trillion trees greenwashing wood do well to reconsider.

September 11, 2023 by Valentina Stackl (Press release also available Spanish and French)



Millions are expected to take to the streets to demand a rapid, just, and equitable end to fossil fuels.

11 September 2023: With less than one week to go, the Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels has registered over 400 actions, marches, rallies, and events around the world. These mobilisations against fossil fuels are coordinated by more than 780 endorsing organizations, and are expected to draw millions of participants between 15-17 September.

The actions are part of a mass global escalation demanding a rapid end to fossil fuels in a just and equitable manner ahead of the UN Climate Ambition Summit on September 20 in New York. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on world leaders to make ambitious commitments to phase out fossil fuels.

This historic global mobilisation renews and reinforces the coordinated efforts focused on ending the era of fossil fuels. The scale of this mobilisation and the urgency of the moment underscore the devastating impacts of recent record-breaking heat, deadly floods, and increased extreme weather events. The mobilisations are expected to draw millions of people and put a spotlight on world leaders who continue to expand oil, gas, and coal. The campaign calls for renewed commitments for a rapid, just, and equitable phase out from fossil fuels and a move towards sustainable renewables. UN Secretary-General António Guterres and millions of people around the globe are putting pressure on world leaders to phase out fossil fuels and oppose the fossil fuel industry, which profits from the oppression of millions.

The science is clear: the world needs a rapid and just transition to an efficient, fair, and universal energy system based on clean energy sources, and produced with respect for nature and the sovereign rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities. The latest data backs up the International Energy Agency finding that no new fossil fuel extraction can be developed under a 1.5°C limit, and shows that over half of existing fields and mines be shut down early while protecting workers and communities. The responsibility lies with the leaders of rich nations with a historical legacy of pollution to deliver a fast and fair phase out of fossil fuels and fund it globally.

David Tong, Global Industry Campaign Manager at Oil Change International:
“It’s unthinkable to approve any new oil, gas, or coal extraction. The science shows that 60% of developed, operating fossil fuel reserves must stay underground to limit global warming to 1.5°C. The reality is that oil and gas companies must stop new exploration and extraction projects immediately, manage the decline of existing reserves to meet shrinking demand, and support workers to transition to other sectors. No major oil and gas company is pledging to do the bare minimum to prevent climate chaos. Our Big Oil Reality Check analysis finds that the climate pledges of BP, Chevron, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Shell, and TotalEnergies are grossly insufficient compared to what is needed to make the world a place where we all breathe clean air, drink pristine water, trust that our homes are safe from unnatural disasters, and live a good life.”

Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network, said:
"July 2023 was the hottest month in recorded climate history. The unparalleled, deadly climate disasters sweeping the world seem to leave polluters unfazed. Historical emitters like Norway, the UK and the USA are announcing new fossil fuel projects even as floods, fires and heatwaves take over our lives. We take inspiration from recent victories in the Yasuni region with the referendum to stop oil drilling. When we the people use our collective power we can win. Let our resistance against fossil fuels in September send a loud message to the fossil fuel industry and their supporters that their time is up."

Catherine Abreu Founder & Executive Director Destination Zero, Co-chair, Global Gas and Oil Network (GGON) International Policy working group, said:
“Deny, delay, deceive: the desperate tactics used by desperate men to cover up the truth of climate change, crush government action, and convince us to lay the blame for the devastation we're facing somewhere other than where it belongs - squarely at the feet of the fossil fuel industry. The march to end fossil fuels, alongside the UN Secretary General's powerful Acceleration Agenda, is ringing an alarm that will wake the world. International consensus that we need a just and equitable phase-out of all fossil fuels is clearer than ever. It's time our climate treaties name the cause of the crisis - COP28 can and must deliver an agreement to rapidly shift to efficient, safe, renewable energy.”

Lidy Nacpil, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, member organisation of Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, said:
"The world must pursue a rapid, equitable and just phase out of fossil fuels and directly transition to renewable energy. No false solutions, no loopholes, no detours through so called bridge fuels. The world can not afford any delays to reaching real zero emissions by 2050. An equitable and just phase out requires the full delivery of climate finance obligations of wealthy countries to the Global South. They must pay reparations for their responsibility for the climate crisis. The biggest emitters have been failing to meet their fair shares of climate actions, including their climate finance obligations. Fossil fuel corporations are expanding rather than phasing out. Governments and corporations are committing the gravest injustices to people all over the world, especially the Global South."

Additional quotes from global and national/local leaders

Highlighted events:

Asia:
Pakistan: More than three thousand people are expected to join the Pakistan Climate March organized with the Asian People's Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and Hari Jedojehad Committee (Peasant’s Struggle Committee). The march will be held in the southern province of Sindh and seeks to highlight the losses and damages from last year’s catastrophic flooding. A quarter of Sindh’s population of about 50 million were affected by the floods and parts of Sindh remain under water to this day.

Farooq Tariq, Secretary General of Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC), said:
“We demand a phaseout of fossil fuels now. The fossil fuel industry and its supporters bear responsibility for the climate crisis and perpetuate a predatory and destructive economic system that harms both people and the planet. We call upon developed countries, the big emitters, to fulfill the $10 billion they promised to Pakistan immediately and to pay reparations for the loss and damage,” said Tariq.

APMDD is also organizing a climate march in the Philippines with Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), multisectoral coalition Sanlakas, Oriang Women’s Movement, union of agricultural workers Aniban ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (AMA) and militant labor unions federation Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP). More than three thousand are expected to join the march, which will be held in Manila, near the Malacañang Palace, the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the Philippines.

Africa:
Abuja, Nigeria: As a part of the ongoing Fossil Free Nigeria and a Fossil Free World Campaign in Nigeria, Fridays for Future Nigeria and Climate Live Nigeria will march in the Federal Capital territory of Nigeria (Abuja), the seat of the Federal Government of Nigeria. Around 100, 000 participants are expected. For more information, visit the Fridays For Future Nigeria Instagram.

Kingsley Odogwu, National Coordinator & Country Rep. Fridays For Future Nigeria & Climate Live Nigeria, said:
“What we need now is a major structural shift in our energy system. In the past this would have included the shifts from biomass to coal and then to oil. Today’s transition is primarily driven by the need to manage climate change and decarbonise our fossil-based economies with sustainable sources of energy, such as wind and solar. Every sector that generates, transports, or consumes energy will be impacted.

“To meet the 1.5C global warming target set after the Paris Agreement and avoid the worst climate impacts, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will first need to drop by half by 2030, then reach net-zero around mid-century. Therefore, a transition needs to happen fast and A Fossil Fuel non-proliferation treaty is the beginning of that transition that every Country should embrace now.”

Europe:
Germany:Around 200 climate strikes, marches, and rallies have been registered in Germany alone with civil society, ForFuture groups, NGOs, religious groups, and the public service labor unions. Additional actions are planned against a new LNG terminal in Rügen (Baltic Sea) by Ende Gelände, Sept 22-24, and GreenFaith Germany. Numerous climate action will also take place on September 16 in Bonn, host city of the UN Climate Secretariat, including at the SDG festival, BeFuture Festival (for constructive journalism),  and through public climate artivism. Earlier this month, Scientists4Future issued a statement, signed by more than 400 scientists, calling on German politicians to set partisanship aside to address the climate crisis.

Sandra Prüfer from Parents For Future Germany, said:
“We, as parents, cannot remain silent as the fossil fuel industry robs our children of a livable future. Yet the fossil fuel juggernaut continues on like a runaway train with our children’s futures on the track. This is why we joined the growing call on governments to negotiate and implement a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. A clear, global plan to phase out fossil fuels is the first part of a better story for all children.”

Latin America:
Yasuní National Park, Ecuador: Declared a “biosphere reserve” by UNESCO, Yasuní National Park is one of the most biodiverse places on earth. In a popular consultation in  August, Ecuadorians decided to stop oil drilling within Yasuní National Park. Yasunidos, the collective which pushed for the referendum a decade, is remaining vigilant for the result to be enforced. On September 15th, groups are organizing an event and press conference to launch a monitoring commission to enforce compliance of the decision.

Yvonne Yanez, co-founder of Acción Ecológica, said:
“On August 20, Ecuadorians voted to keep oil in the ground in Ecuadorian Amazonia. This is a declaration from the people that we want to be a post oil economy. This is a great victory, but we haven't won yet, because oil companies and Government don't want to adhere to the vote. What the Yasuni movement gives us is an opportunity. An opportunity to really consider what ecojustice, and a just transition really looks like, and to demand for that future. We need to be alert, be inspired but be active and not let this victory be stripped away. Be #FastFairForever and Furious. Ending the extraction of fossil fuels is essential. Ecuador's popular decision is an example to the world that with will it is possible to move towards oil-free communities.”

North America:
New York, New York: The March to End Fossil Fuels mobilization will be on September 17 in New York City. Groups including the NAACP, Sierra Club, and Sunrise Movement have signed on to support the march and its demands for President Biden to take bold action on fossil fuels in the wake of a deadly, record-breaking summer of extreme heat and climate disasters. In addition to the 500 groups supporting the march, nationally recognized leaders including Sen. Ed Markey, Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Jamaal Bowman, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson, Jane Fonda, Naomi Klein, Mark Ruffalo, and Bill McKibben are backing the march. More than 10,000 people from across the country are expected to attend.

Jean Su, Energy Justice Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, Board Chair of Climate Action Network International, and co-coordinator of the NYC March to End Fossil Fuels, said:
“The hottest summer on record is galvanizing people across the globe like never before to cry out for lifesaving climate action. Biden and world leaders need to answer those cries by ending the era of fossil fuels. As leader of the world’s largest oil and gas producer and the greatest historic climate polluter, Biden has power like no one else to lead the world off the fossil fuels poisoning our planet and communities. It’s time he starts using them to become the climate leader we need.”

An interactive map of all events is available here.

Notes:

1. Additional quotes from global and national/local leaders

2. For a full list of endorsers click here (780+)

֍ 1. Endorsing groups include:International groups: 350.org, Climate Action Network,
Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. Friends of the Earth. Greenpeace, Oil
Change International, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, XR, and many
more!

֍ 2. National and local groups across the globe, including: Cayman Eco (Cayman Island), ClimateFast (Canada), Farmers Action Committee Shikarpur Sindh Pakistan (Pakistan), For a Better Bayou (US), Fundación Esfera Azul Colombia (Colombia), Movimiento Ciudadano frente al Cambio Climatico (Peru), Rinascimento Green (Italy), Tanzania Wote Equality Alliance - TAWEA (Tanzania), Unis Pour Le Climat et l, Biodiversité (France), Voice of The Vulnerable (Nigeria), and many more!

3. An interactive map of all events is available here.

֍ 1. Additional highlights include: A meditation action protesting at Barclays investment in fossil fuels organized by Extinction Rebellion Budhists in London, UK; Art4climate: A raising awareness workshop in organized by GreenSociety, an Environmental Arts Festival in Cali, Colombia; End fossil finance student march in Bujumburi, Burundi; a candlelight vigil in British Columbia, Canada and Canada is Burning! Action organized by a senior climate group along students and labor leaders in Ottawa, Canada; Student speakout against fossil fuels, in Melbourne, Australia; Students against Eacop will deliver a petition to the Parliament of Uganda against investment into the East African crude Oil pipeline and all fossil fuel projects in the country in Kampala, Uganda, and many more.

4. The coalition recently hosted a webinar, Power Up to #EndFossilFuels #FastFairForever, with the following speakers. Webinar recording .
https://priceofoil.org/2023/09/11/400-actions-to-end-fossil-fuels/

AGelbert COMMENT:
May God Bless all these people of good will who valiantly advocate for responsible human stewardship of our biosphere. We need fossil fuels like a dog needs ticks.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. ~ Matthew 5:6

June 10, 1963 John F. Kennedy:
“Finally, my fellow Americans, let us examine our attitude toward peace and freedom here at home. The quality and spirit of our own society must justify and support our efforts abroad. We must show it in the dedication of our own lives — as many of you who are graduating today will have a unique opportunity to do, by serving without pay in the Peace Corps abroad or in the proposed National Service Corps here at home.
But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because the freedom is incomplete.

It is the responsibility of the executive branch at all levels of government — local, State, and National — to provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within their authority. It is the responsibility of the legislative branch at all levels, wherever that authority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And it is the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of this country to respect the rights of all others and to respect the law of the land.

All this is not unrelated to world peace. “When one’s ways please the Lord,” the Scriptures tell us, “they maketh even their enemies to be at peace with them.” And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights — the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation — the right to breathe air as nature provided it — the right of future generations to a healthy existence?

While we proceed to safeguard our national interests, let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both.”

The Class Struggle

Friday, December 1, 2023



AGelbert COMMENT: My take on this erudite piece is welcoming the fact that, though rather briefly, it correctly sheds light (SEE: any port in the storm) on the root cause of the present social decay and destruction:

"Explicit and outspoken prejudices of this kind are no longer acceptable in many circles, yet social Darwinism lurks everywhere and remains the ugly cornerstone of most mainstream political thought. And it continues to underwrite the racisms and neocolonialism of our present era."

I hasten to add that Social Darwinism continues to underwrite a lot more than racisms and neocoloniaism. The Hydrocarbon Fuels Based Corporations are in-our-faces examples of Social Darwinist "Apex Predators" in action. Their "circles" are QUITE ACCEPTING (i.e. 'You ain't gonna work here if ya ain't FULLY into dis.') of the Social Darwinist modus operandi:



December 2, 2023


Despite the above blatant example of how PERVASIVE Social Darwinist Ideology is at present, I have become convinced that, because this morally bankrupt ideology is so entrenched in the default conscious and subconscious worldview of most humans, any attempt to point at Social Darwinism as the ROOT cause of social decay and destruction touches the REJECT BUTTON NERVE on most, otherwise rational, people of good will. 🥺

No, I am not kidding. All of us, whether highly educated or not, are not now, or ever, completely free from the prejudices implanted in us by our 🙊🙉🙈 edumacation system. No matter how much we pride ourselves in critical thinking skills, we all have those sacred cows that we defend to the hilt. To many here, my "Sacred Cow" is Monotheism in general, and Christianity in particular. Most here might think, but are (mostly) too polite to say openly, "Matthew 7:12 is all well and good, but only when you leave your god sacred cow out of it, can we can support it.".

Well, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Too many people, including most religious AND non-religious Americans, cannot bring themselves to accept that the cancer of Social Darwinism is what is eating our civilization alive, always opting to single out some other, of several 'pick your poison ones' out there, socially destructive isms. I contend that the reason all those isms, which I firmly believe are actually downstream byproducts of Social Darwinism, are consistently and studiously opted for instead of fingering Social Darwinist Ideology, is because there is a little voice in their head that says 'might really does equal right'.

That voice, unlike the altruistic impulse we have, though many have managed to pretend their dog ate it, is part of our dog eat dog baser instincts, and was there thousands of years before Darwin wrote his Evolution Theory Book.

However, Darwin's Theory of Evolution, taught as unquestionable scientific truth, from the time people are knee high to grasshoppers until, and after, graduate school, implanted a megaphone app on that voice in every person's head. Most reading this would argue till the cows come home that said Theory is certainly NOT, as I "quixotically claim" pseudo-scientific speculation.

No, I'm not going to bore you with DNA information, precise energy constants and so on. How life got started is not the issue I wish discuss.

What I am doing here is pointing out that the ENTRENCHED belief that human BEHAVIOR is the result of Evolution Theory based random undirected processes is what inhibts seeing Social Darwinism as the scourge that MUST be ELIMINATED from acceptance, at ANY LEVEL of human society, if we are to survive.


As long as people can point to this, that, or the other Ism as "the problem", Social Darwinism WILL CONTINUE to motivate "JUSTIFICATION" for the "My Way of the Highway" socially destructive modus operandi/vivendi.    

I will give you an example of an ISM that has Social Darwinism at its ROOT: It is Zionism, though most people, due to that voice in their head, do not want to go there.

Capitalism and Liberalism are two other, not so obvious, examples.

Hitler's National Socialism was unapologetically Social Darwinist to the core.

 
The U.S. Duopoly and for profit corporations in the USA (and most, if not all, of the world) are run by and for Social Darwinists. What is "Perception Management" mendacious corporate propaganda if not Social Darwinism based legerdemain?   

Even Game Theory, when stripped of the "competitive advantages and disadvantages" jargon, is Social Darwinism based Kafkaesque survival olympics in thought, word and deed.

But back to Zionism, I am posting the following comment thread from War Is Not Abstracted by Caitlin Johnstone in the hope, forlorn as it is, that I can get past that Darwinian Homo Sapiens "reality" voice in your head:


S.L. Writes S.L.’s Substack
See... this was the whole problem with Gaza. They didn't take enough time to manufacture consent!

Bibi thought that by using the 9/11 playbook, people would globally and immediately side with Israel against Gaza. The problem was that the attack simply wasn't flashy enough. On 9/11, we allowed a major religious building to be hit (the US official religion is commerce, after all - and what better representation that the two tallest buildings of commerce in the US?) - it was photographically spectacular.

The attack on the settlements was not photographed until it was too late. No big rockets bombing a landmark; no people falling from buildings; no images of weeping fire-fighters covered in ash... really, as far as manufacturing consent goes, the mission was an utter failure.

When will they learn? You either need to keep things hidden (Yemen, Africa), pump out a few years of propaganda and false flag ops* (Syria, Iran, Afghanistan). It's not enough to just arm the 'terrorists' and then use 'terrorism' as an excuse anymore. You need to run a years long campaign from all sides declaring that your opponents are 'commies' and of being 'Hitler' (Russia, China) - that's how you manufacture sufficient consent!

You can't just allow a few small townships to be attacked and then expect full-bodied global blood-thirst! Bibi and his pals just didn't think this through.

AGelbert > S.L.
Yes, the Social Darwinists 'R' US playbook has its morally bankrupt, but far too effective, perception management "rules".

Another reason 9/11 was so "effective" at its impact on the propagandized masses is that PNAC, way back in 1998, decided that the fascist takeover agenda for the USA needed another "Pearl Harbor" in order to be successful. They KNEW 9/11 was going to happen, at least 6 months before it happened, because of YEARS of careful planning for the sequence of destructive events, including that "airliner" that magically shrunk to the size of a missle when it hit the Pentagon, the military drone versions of airliners to crash into the two tallest WTC towers (NOTE: they KNEW that the military drone versions of airliners would be unable to bring the WTC towers down - the airliners were for propaganda optics), AND obtaining the services of Netanyahu's tight lipped Zionist Team of explosive demolition experts to rig WTC 1, 2 AND 7 for explosive demolition. By a strange coincidence, Netanyahu was in NYC on 9/11, the same day the dancing Israelis were filmed joyously filming the burning WTC towers....


Perhaps Gore would have delayed their MIC Fascist Dream Come True for a few years, but I doubt that because the MIC has owned the Duopoly for at least half a century, if not more. At any rate, as soon as Bush and Cheney took office. The BIG GREEN LIGHT for the "New Pearl Harbor" to take place was given.


See below, irrefutable evidence that 9/11 was an inside job:



It's the Social Darwinism, stupid!
Les Writes Les’s GeoPolitical Essays - Age…
On Social Darwinism and its origins ->
   
AGelbert > Les
Good, but rather long article.

🤠 So, let me summarize:
📢 Social Darwinist Ideology is the pseudo-scientific exercise in the erudite, but mendacious, defense of the morally bankrupt modus operandi/vivendi commonly known as, 'Might Equals Right'.

Of course this socially destructive worldview is as old as humanity, but it was Darwin's "PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE" legerdemain that convinced ethics challenged Academia into accepting it as, not only the privilege, but the "Evolution Theory based Obligation" of we-the-apex-predators to do our BEST to 😈 "rid the world of the lesser" races.

Netanyahu, a member in good standing of the Social Darwinists 'R' US, knows his MORALLY BANKRUPT "Darwinian Duty"....