Nov 17, 2023·edited Nov 17, 2023Liked by Cameron M. Bailey
It's difficult to dissect this without getting into political specifics. Not sure what you are talking about as far as "young Americans leaping to the defense of the 9-11 terrorist attacks" as it didn't come across my news feeds and Google isn';t any help..
Regardless, I suggest a different interpretation of events.
The shifts and movements and counter-movements are not really based on ideology or morality, or rational at all. That's just window dressing for more concrete realities of economics and geopolitics.
What we want to read as complex psychosocial forces ultimately are just extrapolations of the human condition under different particular circumstances.
Not saying ideology and values don't matter. I'm just saying we can't blame social trends on such things anywhere as much as we want to assume. Revolutions are most predicted by unemployment of young adults; conservative and voting trends are almost entirely based on population density of the voting district ... I could go on and on.
I believe in our societal and political discourse, simplistic absolutism in thought and expression has become common place, especially in the ideological extremes on the far left and right. Expressions that try to claim that this is definitely “how it is” and definitely not “how that is.” It produces diagnoses and “solutions” that ignores complexity and nuance and demands little actual thinking, just visceral confirmation bias.
As an example was born in North Seattle in the early 1960’s and after living many other place am currently a homeowner and resident in North Seattle. Some will tell you that Seattle currently is a hell scape of crime and destruction. Others will tell you Seattle is a progressive utopia. Based on my daily experience, neither perspective is an accurate description of the reality, but adherents of those extreme perspectives will go to great lengths to push their favored narrative offering nothing practical on how to improve quality of life in Seattle.
Walking past the drug addicts and mentally ill in downtown seattle while going to work may skew perceptions a bit. Being verbally accosted, stepping over the passed out drug addicts, walking around the human feces and vomit, the puddles of piss everywhere...tends to make someone think differently than someone living in shoreline.
Thanks for illustrating my point Brother. The boundary between Seattle & Shoreline is 145th and I live 60 blocks south of that line in Ballard/Crown Hill.
We just got a new Metropolitan Market 5 blocks from our house next to the preexisting Grocery Outlet, Walgreens, and Safeway. There’s many great restaurants walking distance from our home. More restaurants, live music venues, a world class marina, a light rail station, and multiple Masonic buildings with active Lodges a short bus or car ride away.
All of those things you describe can be both found in specific areas of Seattle and avoided in most areas of Seattle. While more must be done, those problems you describe are on the decrease not the increase. As I contemplate those problems I’m reminded of the Masonic principle of charity and “that every human being has a claim upon your kind offices.”
This past week I’ve been out to dinner in Fremont, attended two evening NHL games in Lower Queen Anne (aka “Uptown”), observed a hockey practice in Northgate, and attended a meeting South Lake Union. And each time had a pleasant experience.
I’m in Seattle this morning, enjoying my
morning coffee in my Ballard home, preparing to go to attend a stated communication followed by table lodge in Greenlake and then an installation in the University District.
Where do you live? Odds are I don’t want to live there and yet won’t tell you in person or online that you live in a horrible place.
I do not live in Seattle, I only work there. I can’t afford it on my salary. But working at the UW and commuting via ferries and link light rail, I witness what I wrote every single day. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. And I do know that this issue has spread all over western Washington.
I never said it did not exist Brother. I acknowledged its existence and have seen it. I’m just suggesting your sample size is limited and there’s much more to the Seattle experience than what you find on your work commute. I would also suggest the underlying root causes of the problem are complex and the solutions are not simple. Yet property values increase, construction cranes dot the skyline, and the range of enjoyable experiences that are only available in a large city remain.
One view, is the cycle of generations. First generation fights oppression and poverty, the second works hard for prosperity and family fortune, the third reaps the rewards and becomes lazy, and the forth genertion, takes the inheritance all for granted and pisses it all away.
Nov 17, 2023·edited Nov 18, 2023Liked by Cameron M. Bailey
Nothing really political here, tik tok is a Chinese communist propaganda tool aimed at Western Youth. It works well enough. The main stream press is a propaganda tool of Western communist. It works pretty well also. The purpose of both is to demoralize. If one keeps a level head one can see through it all. Most people do but you won't see them on TV.
"The main stream press is a propaganda tool of Western communist ..."? Definitely nothing political about this statement...
In my opinion, this attitude is a big part of why the younger generations aren't getting their news from reputable sources and are, instead, turning to whatever information (or more often misinformation and disinformation and conjecture) they encounter from their friends, family, and celebrity idols a la influencers. There has been a campaign targeting reputable news sources for decades now in an attempt to discredit them and this is the aftermath.
I wonder how much this coincides with the intentional defunding of public education systems across the United States over the same time period. It's almost as if it's intentional (and working as desired).
Nov 24, 2023·edited Nov 24, 2023Liked by Cameron M. Bailey
I stand by what I wrote. Written after many decades of observance, the main stream media is wrong more often than not, ill informed when it is informed at all, and has a distinct bias toward the lift, this is by design.
To the delight of Western Communist.
No offense to you Brother, but your riposte' sounds like the bellow of the last mammoth.
Reputable news sources?
"when thou findest one let me know, such a pilgrimage were sweet, yet do not though at next door we might meet. Though she may be true when you met her and last till you write your littler, yet she will be false, err I come to
two,
or
three"
Many thanks to John Donne
As for Public Education, that would be a very good idea!
Nov 24, 2023·edited Nov 25, 2023Liked by Cameron M. Bailey
Brother, in a previous life I would've likely wasted far too much time trying to persuade you as to why I believe you are genuinely mistaken only for you to ignore everything I said and dismiss every source I cite as "a lie" or "wrong" or "a propaganda tool of Western communist" because they also disagree with you. Now, I'm a Mason.
I have not had a lot of time to formulate and organize my thoughts on this, so this may be a bit clumsy. I think that in the particular example of societal change that happens as a result of or in conjunction with a 'viral' phenomenon (i.e., internet based social media, sharing a meme or article from one person to another with q geometric increases in the sharing rate) is the result of our society giving too much value to the information from social media. Social media might be better described as gossip media. It's my opinion that most of the content is intended to result in an emotional reaction, which is then shared thru communities of people. Once this happens the shared emotions become a shared reality. No one asks if the facts are true. People have died from this phenomena in the past decade, and I am sure more will. As Masons we are called to subdue our passions / emotions and I think in these cases of 'viral' phenomenon we need to apply this recommendation, and strong courage others to do the same.
I lead a groundbreaking study for Freedom House and the UNDp in 2012 that sought to answer the question, "Does online hate speech translate to political violence in the street?" In which we studied social media in 3 African countries. The answer was yes. That evidence has continued to pile up. Social Media is gossip, but it's also a lot more. Humans are social animals and communication is key to how we understand our realities and work together. Autocratic governments found it useful to counter democratic governments and corporations found ways to hack our brains for dopamine...heady stuff.
Nov 17, 2023·edited Nov 18, 2023Liked by Cameron M. Bailey
TikTok is a Chinese weapon. Full stop.
What you’re hitting on is a very relevant topic in the future of both our country and the world. The increasing vitriol and rabid foaming at the mouth politics we currently see on full display in our own government and social discourse is a direct symptom of the weaponization of social media. This is a hyper powered version of the old Russian playbook. At its core it is designed to split the two sides and give them each an irreconcilable philosophy that is diametrically opposed to the other. The resulting conflagration is then used to seize power.
Social media has been the forefront of weaponry for some time now ever since the CIA started using sock puppets during the Arab spring. Like I’ve said before we don’t fully understand the magnitude of technology we have unleashed.
TikTok is part of China’s total warfare mentality, they drive the worst content available to the top of the pile. Now we are not blameless in this since our own services such as YouTube, meta,x/twitter they also drive the worst content forward because it is most profitable.
The entire process is designed to undermine the country, to drive a wedge in this country and it is working so well that it scares me.
China, Russia, Iran and KSA all have a huge interest in ending American Hegemony. This is how we end up with a former president who’s rhetoric is in lock step with Russian state media. Russian intelligence forces, along with other from China, from Iran, NK all of em have gotten in on this and they amplify the worst dialogues on both the left and the right. They all know they can’t win a military war, but they can get us so angry at each other that they don’t have to fire a shot.
The downside for the entire world is what happens afterwards. The fall of the Roman Empire led to the dark ages.
Nov 18, 2023·edited Nov 18, 2023Liked by Cameron M. Bailey
Travis states below that TikTok is a Chinese weapon. **It is.** And I am here as a Dept of Homeland Security trained, licensed, certified, White Hat Cyber Spook, and Br. Master Mason, to back up that claim. This is **NOT** politics. This is outright war like aggression on the part of the Chinese. These are FACTS: There are **ENTIRE** Military divisions in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) such as Unit 061398 which is state sponsored cyber terrorism. Period. That Unit created TikTok and marketed it under the fictitious name of Douyin under the corporate umbrella of ByteDance. A Chinese racketeering shell corporation used by the PLA to disguise their efforts. The Chinese are hell bent to see the destruction of the USA as just much as Russia, Iran, NK, or anyone else. They are driving economies to switch to the yuan, away from using the dollar. They are placing military bases around the world, in international waters, collaborating with African countries for economic superiority, and establishing Chinese military bases within those countries as mafia "protection" with draconian terms to those countries! They are militarily posturing in open international waters, challenging our airborne fighters and escorts within international airspace! They **WANT** WAR! Thus the pressure to transform our youth into marauding revolutionaries fighting for Chinese Communism. The Chinese cyber channels are feeding this misinformation, and vitriol at our kids, and young people addicted to their damned screens with the full intention of tearing down Western Society. It's working. Shoving their communist approach to young and impressionable minds, no different than the 1960's and the Che Guevara movements, but with INSTANT access, acclaim and reward. TikTok is nothing more than a Psi-Ops Cyber weapon! The legal fight to end TikTok is NOT unwarranted. Because of just this treasonous trash they are disseminating among our young people. Personally I am so committed to seeing MY teen child safe, I have a third generation Extended Deep packet inspection firewall on my home network to prevent ANY TikTok or Chinese IP address access. Of ANY kind.
The Enlightenment idea of liberty, anthropology has recently found, came not from Rousseau et al, but rather from the Algonkian and Mi'kmaw peoples of North America and had been practised for thousands of years. That said...yes, Brother, we are in a time of societal shift. Not unexpectedly. It's cyclical, yet no less destructive and dangerous. The moral philosophy of Freemasonry is incredibly important at a time like this. Much of these movements are the results of various sociocultural systems coming up against each other, Revitalisation Movements like Christian Nationalism (which isn't at all Christian), Islamic Fundamentalism (not very Islamic either), Techno-Optimists and so on. The pot is coming to a boil. The challenge is to turn the heat down. Revolutions are slow cooking. Until they aren't. Toss in geopolitical shifts, mass migrations, climate change and dark capitalism and well, that's a rather heady mix.
As I drive through Seattle, I look at the massive glass towers, and marvel at the wealth that must be created to build and support those structures. It can give me optimism that the promised day of prosperity for all must be close at hand.
But, then I look at the tents put up by people with nowhere else to go, tents in the shadows of those glass towers, and I despair for a society that thinks it is OK to leave people living in such misery.
Quite literally the wealthiest men in the world live and work within sight of people who live on sidewalks in tents. A society in which that happens, can't be sustainable.
But, I don't know how we fix it.
The ideals of Freemasonry, if they were accepted, could help to fix it, but I don't know how to effectively promote those ideals, so I write about them, and hope.
As for the Algonkian and Mi'kmaw peoples ideas about liberty, I'd be interested in reading more about that. Is there something you can point me towards?
I've had similar reflections where I live in Halifax, on the other side of the continent. A city that never saw tents since the late 1700's when it was first settled. A prosperous Canadian port city, not like Seattle (a lovely city) with tents now everywhere and a housing crisis...I would recommend the book "The Dawn of Everything" by David Graeber & David Wengrow which explores the issue of just how much Rousseau and other Enlightenment thinkers adapted First Peoples ideas of liberty and freedom.
It's difficult to dissect this without getting into political specifics. Not sure what you are talking about as far as "young Americans leaping to the defense of the 9-11 terrorist attacks" as it didn't come across my news feeds and Google isn';t any help..
Regardless, I suggest a different interpretation of events.
The shifts and movements and counter-movements are not really based on ideology or morality, or rational at all. That's just window dressing for more concrete realities of economics and geopolitics.
What we want to read as complex psychosocial forces ultimately are just extrapolations of the human condition under different particular circumstances.
Not saying ideology and values don't matter. I'm just saying we can't blame social trends on such things anywhere as much as we want to assume. Revolutions are most predicted by unemployment of young adults; conservative and voting trends are almost entirely based on population density of the voting district ... I could go on and on.
I believe in our societal and political discourse, simplistic absolutism in thought and expression has become common place, especially in the ideological extremes on the far left and right. Expressions that try to claim that this is definitely “how it is” and definitely not “how that is.” It produces diagnoses and “solutions” that ignores complexity and nuance and demands little actual thinking, just visceral confirmation bias.
As an example was born in North Seattle in the early 1960’s and after living many other place am currently a homeowner and resident in North Seattle. Some will tell you that Seattle currently is a hell scape of crime and destruction. Others will tell you Seattle is a progressive utopia. Based on my daily experience, neither perspective is an accurate description of the reality, but adherents of those extreme perspectives will go to great lengths to push their favored narrative offering nothing practical on how to improve quality of life in Seattle.
Walking past the drug addicts and mentally ill in downtown seattle while going to work may skew perceptions a bit. Being verbally accosted, stepping over the passed out drug addicts, walking around the human feces and vomit, the puddles of piss everywhere...tends to make someone think differently than someone living in shoreline.
Thanks for illustrating my point Brother. The boundary between Seattle & Shoreline is 145th and I live 60 blocks south of that line in Ballard/Crown Hill.
We just got a new Metropolitan Market 5 blocks from our house next to the preexisting Grocery Outlet, Walgreens, and Safeway. There’s many great restaurants walking distance from our home. More restaurants, live music venues, a world class marina, a light rail station, and multiple Masonic buildings with active Lodges a short bus or car ride away.
All of those things you describe can be both found in specific areas of Seattle and avoided in most areas of Seattle. While more must be done, those problems you describe are on the decrease not the increase. As I contemplate those problems I’m reminded of the Masonic principle of charity and “that every human being has a claim upon your kind offices.”
This past week I’ve been out to dinner in Fremont, attended two evening NHL games in Lower Queen Anne (aka “Uptown”), observed a hockey practice in Northgate, and attended a meeting South Lake Union. And each time had a pleasant experience.
I’m in Seattle this morning, enjoying my
morning coffee in my Ballard home, preparing to go to attend a stated communication followed by table lodge in Greenlake and then an installation in the University District.
Where do you live? Odds are I don’t want to live there and yet won’t tell you in person or online that you live in a horrible place.
I do not live in Seattle, I only work there. I can’t afford it on my salary. But working at the UW and commuting via ferries and link light rail, I witness what I wrote every single day. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. And I do know that this issue has spread all over western Washington.
I never said it did not exist Brother. I acknowledged its existence and have seen it. I’m just suggesting your sample size is limited and there’s much more to the Seattle experience than what you find on your work commute. I would also suggest the underlying root causes of the problem are complex and the solutions are not simple. Yet property values increase, construction cranes dot the skyline, and the range of enjoyable experiences that are only available in a large city remain.
Businesses are making big bets in downtown Seattle, despite it all
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/businesses-are-making-big-bets-in-downtown-seattle-despite-it-all/
Also in the Sunday Seattle Times today https://www.seattletimes.com/business/downtown-seattles-retail-recovery-or-lack-thereof-by-the-numbers/
One view, is the cycle of generations. First generation fights oppression and poverty, the second works hard for prosperity and family fortune, the third reaps the rewards and becomes lazy, and the forth genertion, takes the inheritance all for granted and pisses it all away.
Nothing really political here, tik tok is a Chinese communist propaganda tool aimed at Western Youth. It works well enough. The main stream press is a propaganda tool of Western communist. It works pretty well also. The purpose of both is to demoralize. If one keeps a level head one can see through it all. Most people do but you won't see them on TV.
"The main stream press is a propaganda tool of Western communist ..."? Definitely nothing political about this statement...
In my opinion, this attitude is a big part of why the younger generations aren't getting their news from reputable sources and are, instead, turning to whatever information (or more often misinformation and disinformation and conjecture) they encounter from their friends, family, and celebrity idols a la influencers. There has been a campaign targeting reputable news sources for decades now in an attempt to discredit them and this is the aftermath.
I wonder how much this coincides with the intentional defunding of public education systems across the United States over the same time period. It's almost as if it's intentional (and working as desired).
I stand by what I wrote. Written after many decades of observance, the main stream media is wrong more often than not, ill informed when it is informed at all, and has a distinct bias toward the lift, this is by design.
To the delight of Western Communist.
No offense to you Brother, but your riposte' sounds like the bellow of the last mammoth.
Reputable news sources?
"when thou findest one let me know, such a pilgrimage were sweet, yet do not though at next door we might meet. Though she may be true when you met her and last till you write your littler, yet she will be false, err I come to
two,
or
three"
Many thanks to John Donne
As for Public Education, that would be a very good idea!
Brother, in a previous life I would've likely wasted far too much time trying to persuade you as to why I believe you are genuinely mistaken only for you to ignore everything I said and dismiss every source I cite as "a lie" or "wrong" or "a propaganda tool of Western communist" because they also disagree with you. Now, I'm a Mason.
I am pleased.
I have not had a lot of time to formulate and organize my thoughts on this, so this may be a bit clumsy. I think that in the particular example of societal change that happens as a result of or in conjunction with a 'viral' phenomenon (i.e., internet based social media, sharing a meme or article from one person to another with q geometric increases in the sharing rate) is the result of our society giving too much value to the information from social media. Social media might be better described as gossip media. It's my opinion that most of the content is intended to result in an emotional reaction, which is then shared thru communities of people. Once this happens the shared emotions become a shared reality. No one asks if the facts are true. People have died from this phenomena in the past decade, and I am sure more will. As Masons we are called to subdue our passions / emotions and I think in these cases of 'viral' phenomenon we need to apply this recommendation, and strong courage others to do the same.
I lead a groundbreaking study for Freedom House and the UNDp in 2012 that sought to answer the question, "Does online hate speech translate to political violence in the street?" In which we studied social media in 3 African countries. The answer was yes. That evidence has continued to pile up. Social Media is gossip, but it's also a lot more. Humans are social animals and communication is key to how we understand our realities and work together. Autocratic governments found it useful to counter democratic governments and corporations found ways to hack our brains for dopamine...heady stuff.
TikTok is a Chinese weapon. Full stop.
What you’re hitting on is a very relevant topic in the future of both our country and the world. The increasing vitriol and rabid foaming at the mouth politics we currently see on full display in our own government and social discourse is a direct symptom of the weaponization of social media. This is a hyper powered version of the old Russian playbook. At its core it is designed to split the two sides and give them each an irreconcilable philosophy that is diametrically opposed to the other. The resulting conflagration is then used to seize power.
Social media has been the forefront of weaponry for some time now ever since the CIA started using sock puppets during the Arab spring. Like I’ve said before we don’t fully understand the magnitude of technology we have unleashed.
TikTok is part of China’s total warfare mentality, they drive the worst content available to the top of the pile. Now we are not blameless in this since our own services such as YouTube, meta,x/twitter they also drive the worst content forward because it is most profitable.
The entire process is designed to undermine the country, to drive a wedge in this country and it is working so well that it scares me.
China, Russia, Iran and KSA all have a huge interest in ending American Hegemony. This is how we end up with a former president who’s rhetoric is in lock step with Russian state media. Russian intelligence forces, along with other from China, from Iran, NK all of em have gotten in on this and they amplify the worst dialogues on both the left and the right. They all know they can’t win a military war, but they can get us so angry at each other that they don’t have to fire a shot.
The downside for the entire world is what happens afterwards. The fall of the Roman Empire led to the dark ages.
Travis states below that TikTok is a Chinese weapon. **It is.** And I am here as a Dept of Homeland Security trained, licensed, certified, White Hat Cyber Spook, and Br. Master Mason, to back up that claim. This is **NOT** politics. This is outright war like aggression on the part of the Chinese. These are FACTS: There are **ENTIRE** Military divisions in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) such as Unit 061398 which is state sponsored cyber terrorism. Period. That Unit created TikTok and marketed it under the fictitious name of Douyin under the corporate umbrella of ByteDance. A Chinese racketeering shell corporation used by the PLA to disguise their efforts. The Chinese are hell bent to see the destruction of the USA as just much as Russia, Iran, NK, or anyone else. They are driving economies to switch to the yuan, away from using the dollar. They are placing military bases around the world, in international waters, collaborating with African countries for economic superiority, and establishing Chinese military bases within those countries as mafia "protection" with draconian terms to those countries! They are militarily posturing in open international waters, challenging our airborne fighters and escorts within international airspace! They **WANT** WAR! Thus the pressure to transform our youth into marauding revolutionaries fighting for Chinese Communism. The Chinese cyber channels are feeding this misinformation, and vitriol at our kids, and young people addicted to their damned screens with the full intention of tearing down Western Society. It's working. Shoving their communist approach to young and impressionable minds, no different than the 1960's and the Che Guevara movements, but with INSTANT access, acclaim and reward. TikTok is nothing more than a Psi-Ops Cyber weapon! The legal fight to end TikTok is NOT unwarranted. Because of just this treasonous trash they are disseminating among our young people. Personally I am so committed to seeing MY teen child safe, I have a third generation Extended Deep packet inspection firewall on my home network to prevent ANY TikTok or Chinese IP address access. Of ANY kind.
An interesting perspective on the TikTok events I noted:
https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/osama-bin-ladens-tiktok-popularity
The Enlightenment idea of liberty, anthropology has recently found, came not from Rousseau et al, but rather from the Algonkian and Mi'kmaw peoples of North America and had been practised for thousands of years. That said...yes, Brother, we are in a time of societal shift. Not unexpectedly. It's cyclical, yet no less destructive and dangerous. The moral philosophy of Freemasonry is incredibly important at a time like this. Much of these movements are the results of various sociocultural systems coming up against each other, Revitalisation Movements like Christian Nationalism (which isn't at all Christian), Islamic Fundamentalism (not very Islamic either), Techno-Optimists and so on. The pot is coming to a boil. The challenge is to turn the heat down. Revolutions are slow cooking. Until they aren't. Toss in geopolitical shifts, mass migrations, climate change and dark capitalism and well, that's a rather heady mix.
As I drive through Seattle, I look at the massive glass towers, and marvel at the wealth that must be created to build and support those structures. It can give me optimism that the promised day of prosperity for all must be close at hand.
But, then I look at the tents put up by people with nowhere else to go, tents in the shadows of those glass towers, and I despair for a society that thinks it is OK to leave people living in such misery.
Quite literally the wealthiest men in the world live and work within sight of people who live on sidewalks in tents. A society in which that happens, can't be sustainable.
But, I don't know how we fix it.
The ideals of Freemasonry, if they were accepted, could help to fix it, but I don't know how to effectively promote those ideals, so I write about them, and hope.
As for the Algonkian and Mi'kmaw peoples ideas about liberty, I'd be interested in reading more about that. Is there something you can point me towards?
I've had similar reflections where I live in Halifax, on the other side of the continent. A city that never saw tents since the late 1700's when it was first settled. A prosperous Canadian port city, not like Seattle (a lovely city) with tents now everywhere and a housing crisis...I would recommend the book "The Dawn of Everything" by David Graeber & David Wengrow which explores the issue of just how much Rousseau and other Enlightenment thinkers adapted First Peoples ideas of liberty and freedom.
Thank you for the book recommendation! I appreciate it!
Another perspective:
https://americandreaming.substack.com/p/letter-to-young-americans