You’re not imagining that the world has gone mad.
Healthy debate has been replaced by activist hysterics. Speech is declared violence, while violence is excused as speech. Masculinity is condemned as regressive, while men in skirts and heels are celebrated in the public square.
It’s easy to laugh at these outbursts as the ravings of a small but vocal minority, but the compromised health of our body politic is not a trivial concern. A strange, new pattern of psychological dysfunction has infiltrated our most prestigious institutions, our corporate bureaucracies, and the highest offices in the land.
In short, we’re sick. Our society is out of balance. We’ve been consumed by a cluster of disorder that appeals to our worst instincts and deranges our most important social functions.
We need to recover our sanity. But to do so, we must first know exactly what we’re dealing with: the emergence of a Cluster B Society.
This video is sponsored by Manhattan Institute.
I can testify as someone who had many opportunities to watch closely how activists in many institutions/organizations operate (luckily from a safe distance, most of the time) that this is definitely true.
Many organizations purporting to be about justice and positive goals are in reality led by highly disordered individuals and stirred by mentality infected with disordered patterns of reasoning and emotion. These people gravitate toward positions of power and influence, and if there aren’t any, they’d generate ones and proceed to push unhinged agendas behind the scenes, without accountability.
The wider public needs to get wiser and understand this dynamic, as many of these people generate a huge amount of false advertising of what they’re actually doing – often they’re so delusional that they don’t see how disordered and damaging their behaviors are. Just because someone claims to be fighting for justice, human rights, or charitable causes doesn’t mean that this is what’s actually happening. There needs to be much more transparency and, hopefully, a way of reporting, monitoring, and holding people accountable for these activities, just as would be expected with elected representatives. No more carte blanche based on abstract declarations of positive goals.
True. Too many have been naive. It might even be a delusional feature of a too secular society - believing that people will naturally gravitate towards good morals and a sensible understanding of the world. This has never been the case. The vices and sirens are often/usually more seductive, especially if cloaked in deceptive language.
Yes. Also, I think that ordinary people often simply don't understand why someone would act like that, invest so much time/energy in certain goals, etc., if they weren't good and rational ones. Contrary to the perception often there isn't much money involved either. The reality is, however, that the motivations of many activists are influenced by personality disorders.
That’s interesting and totally makes sense of why we (presumably balanced people) ascribe benign motivations to people who aren’t balanced and whose motivations might be anything but benign. We simply dont think alike.
Yes, the old "ye shall be as gods," promise. False promise, that is.
Yes, exactly. It's right there - from the beginning.
Yasss the political elite in red and blue states allowing it based on manipulated information usually by the activist bureaucracy that absolutely includes activist judges and magistrates. The destruction of the family is something that's been done and being done to every demographic with the use of the saturated industrial complex and process manipulation as well. Michael Volpe has been covering it. What's been happening to real women with family values is abhorrent. It's a manufactured cluster b society for sure. Maybe the AI insta model deep fakes will get sick of it too 🤣 wait why do that in the first place? Lol World gone mad for sure. Bad is good and good is bad. I'm not saying that in a glib 80s hip hop quoting way but the way the Apostle Paul did.
https://youtu.be/lu22nG7CN8Q?si=2M-Ofjy3JFj2IBAi
David Starkey describes how our constitutional changes introduced by Tony Blair’s New Labour created spaces for Cluster B people to garner influence and power.
I don't agree with DeSantis much just because I want a Trump/Vivek ticket feeling like he left those of us Floridians who had voted him in before the pandemic but he is correct about the woke mind virus.
If there's a Trump/Vivek ticket, they're going to assassinate Trump to install Vivek. The VP must be genuine; Vivek is not.
I disagree. Trump likes Vivek and Vivek or anyone else running can't beat Trump. Vivek is speaking up for those millenials like myself who essentially were made to be Conservatives in the closet based on our values. It finally got to the point where I just absolutely can not even pretend that any of what's happening is in any way,shape or form ok and what exactly are our kids going to be left with. I think he's very genuine.
I have been wondering what to think of Vivek - can you share more on why you say this? thanks
Yep. It won't be long before all the women's rights orgs in the States, for example, are run by trans-identified men.
And they are so "passionate" that they intimidate all their colleagues and friends and family.
I think perhaps the greatest degenerative element of our Western social psychology over the last 60 years has been the displacement of a mentality of "we are all sinners" (all of us mixtures of good and bad impulses) by a narcissistic mentality of maximal "self esteem". Once you are encouraged to view yourself as axiomatically personally blameless, the next step is to look for someone (or something) else to blame for each and every one of your discontents. Re-cast your wonderful self as a 'Victim'....ooow that feels nice....now where's my therapist....and who needs to be cancelled?.....https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/invasion-of-the-virtue-signallers
A missionary to Haiti in the 1960's and 1970's wrote of how Haitian culture had evolved to exteriorize evil. He gave many interesting examples. Your comment reminds me of his essays; and we can all see what happens in a culture that maximizes that idea by looking at that island nation back then, and now.
Also, James Sire said in his book, "The Universe Next Door", that Existentialism is Nihilism wearing a mask called 'value' that is stripped away at death. This Cluster B personality seems to me to be a rather malignant form of existentialism.
These essays sound fascinating. You don’t happen to remember the name of the missionary?
William H Hodges. “A Philosophy of Christian Missions”. 1978.
Written from the Hospital le Bon Samaritan in Limbe, Haiti.
Thank you!
The booklet I have looks self published, so I am not sure it is obtainable. Good luck and if you can’t find it let me know.
True. A plain definition of Intellectual Hubris and Pride, the root of Sin, and warned against for millennia in cultures across the globe. We live in embarrassing times.
I once tried the '3% do 21%' argument on an acquaintance of mine when he was drunk. I could almost hear the electrons moving through the sub-routines before they arrived at the acceptable answer "that's because of racism". It's always someone else's fault.
However, how do you square that which you've said with the white (Anglo) response of 'it's all my fault because we are/my ancestors were racist'?
Good question. I think the answer is that white (Anglo) guilt-tripping is always PROXY guilt. Not "it's all MY fault" rather "it's all my 'deplorable' fellow whites' fault." (I talk a lot about the crucial subconscious aspects of the psychology underlying progressivism on my own Substack). By the way, out of interest, what specifically is the 3% do 21% ?
OK I think that works. Very few engage in significant acts of penance, they might read some stupid book about race that's doing the rounds but none will sell their house. Words are cheap too of course. I have noticed that a few lunatics are actively handing power to incompetent blacks but this seems more to be subordinates paying the price e.g. in Brit adverts huge numbers of the actors are black. The casting directors who make these decisions will be white, but it's the middling white actor who is now out of a job.
3% of the population of Britain is black, and they commit 21% of the murders: proportionately worse than American blacks.
You're the first person I've come across, other than me, to pick up on the breathtaking and nauseating creepiness of the mental universe of British advertising 'creatives'. I talk about this - and the also nauseating virtue-signalling script-writer tick boxes in UK tv dramas - in this post which I think you'll find interesting: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/non-binary-sibling-is-entertaining
There are a number of dramatisations that I really wanted to watch which have been ruined by casting incompetent coloured women in male roles. The most recent was 'Foundation' which I've read several times but there are others which I can't remember off the top of my head. It's just never-ending and becomes almost sinister, the reluctance to show the native population of my country in its own programmes. Jesus, the country's even called 'Angle-land' for fuck's sake.
One great paradox of our modern West is that the 'higher education' that our academia/media complex gives to its media class (and intelligentsia generally) is the enhanced intellectual capacity to hold beliefs that are manifestly absurd.
'Educated into stupidity'. I know this to be true because it happened to me.
The vast expansion of the humanities/social sciences academia sheep-dip is the at the root of Western Liberalism's 21st c. implosion. Heather Mac Donald's 'The Diversity Delusion' is a great on this....I review it here: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/how-diversity-narrows-the-mind
Same! In the Canadian acting world it’s almost impossible to get a job, even in Shakespearean theatre, if you’re white. You need to pretend to be alphabet army to have a chance in an audition. Where would Ian McKellen, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Patrick Stewart be if they were starting their careers today. I went to see Macbeth last season in Canada’s Stratford. Diversity over talent.
Bingo!
Thanks...you might like these other essays too: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/
https://thesunmagazine.org/issues/265/in-defense-of-original-sin
Society, government, institutions is now under the same equivalency as that of being raised by a single mother that is deranged, vindictive, and fully subsidised by the state.
That can’t end well.
There is some truth to this, sadly.
Only the state is our deranged, spiteful single mother. For now, she's living off credit and alimony. But not for long since she has taken a hit out on dad and her cards are being canceled.
FFS. Whining about women is one of the examples of the BS we're dealing with. Quit blaming women for your own problems.
https://youtu.be/A6s8QlIGanA?si=VqHG78mQIv2_G8o9
It's what Lukianoff and Haidt were saying in "The Coddling of the American Mind". We're relying on Great Lies instead of Great Truths (like "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger" became "what doesn't kill me makes me traumatized/weaker for good.")
Yes, although I think they are too coy about what's really happening.
Woke ideology supports and sustains pathological behavior. https://psychskeptics.substack.com/p/when-life-becomes-a-toxic-reality
It definitely does!
Out now, my Munk Debate Podcast where I argue that DEI is a toxic, hypocritical ideology that uses claimed moral superiority in a grift for power and control: https://munkdebates.com/podcasts/dei-workplace-training/
Indeed!
Chris you should talk to Josh Slocum.
Yes.
Seconding this
That we're living in a "Cluster B world" is the thesis of Josh Slocum, whose podcast is focused on that fact: https://rumble.com/c/Disaffected His Substack is here: https://disaffectedpod.substack.com/
Wow, interesting! I hadn’t seen this before.
You've put your finger on the exact problem with our society, Christopher. Thank you.
As the commenter said, this is the thesis of my show launched 2.5 years ago. I connect it to the "domestic" abuse in the home, and child abuse, now exploding onto the public stage. Today's public world is an enlarged version of the home I grew up in, headed by an unstable and violent single mother (and some years of a similar stepfather). My mother has both Borderline and Narcissistic personality disorders, is a feminist leftist, and, well, you can fill in the rest of the picture.
I'd love to connect with you when you have a spare few minutes (ha, I know). Thank you for putting this issue front and center. It's a service to the world.
Thank you for commenting, look forward to checking out your work.
Yeah we already figured out you're carrying a crapload of resentment against women Josh.
Christopher Lasch wrote about this in 1979 with his book, "The Culture of Narcissism," and M. Scott Peck wrote about the issue of cluster B - specifically narcissists among us - in 1983 with his book, "People of the Lie." That we are in a culture dominated by cluster B pathology was foretold in Scripture: 2: Timothy 3: 1-8: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected."
Lasch was a soothsayer.
We are either going to make a stand here and accept the cost, or wait and pay an incalculable cost later.
Truth.
Simple diagnosis: idle hands are the devil’s playground. Our society is technologically advanced enough so that most citizens are idle, looking for amusement and attention. One can analyze incessantly but that won’t repair the underlying problem that most of our citizens are insouciant and lazy with no accountability. The minority of us must continue to insist on civilized standards for any hope of saving our country.
A lot of truth to the idea that boredom, idleness, ennui, and affluence are causes of some of these problems.
Quite right. The final nail in the coffin of Western Civilization would be a Universal Income.
A fair point I used to be a fan as I thought it might allow people the luxury to leave corporate PMC jobs and escape to the country. But seeing the WEF agenda plan, the effects of inflation by increasing the money supply without increasing production, and what you have said I have changed my mind.
Chris, this is absolutely spot on! The sheer number of Cluster B members of society is horrifying. They feed off of each other and seek to control each other and normal citizens at any cost. Couple that with societal power, and we are on a sure path to self-destruction. Undoubtedly, this happened to Ancient Rome and more recently to modern Germany, Japan, and Russia. We need psychiatrists to step up and help us call out these mentally ill members of our political class for what they are, and to help inform voters that they must not choose them or enable their elevation to power. They are truly sick.
unfortunately, the last people we should turn to are psychiatrists who, in my limited experience, are often as "mentally ill"as their patients. One grief therapist I went to with my sister who was grieving over our mother's death, spent all her time telling us about her grief at the death of her cat. Another one told me that all children iie and steal when I was having such problems with my son when he was 8. As an adopted child,. he was acting out over abandonnment issues which the therapist knew nothing about.
My mother had more common sense in her little finger with only a grade school education than all of the PHd's now practicing. The best advice I have ever heard came from the author Norman Finklestein, whose parents were in a concentration camp during the war. When as a teenager he used to complain to this mother that he was bored, she told him to lie on the floor and look at the ceiling until he got over it.
This is not so say that people don't have some real problems and need help getting unstuck. . But in my long years spent talking to a lot of "troubled" people,not as a therapist I hurry to say, i have found that just finding someone to listen to you without judgment and maybe even point you to something transcendent will help more than hours and hours of theraphy.
Yes, I hope it's clear that I'm saying that our *culture* exhibits many of the traits of Cluster B disorders. I'm emphatically not saying that the people who exhibit them are "mentally ill" as individuals, which I am not in a position to judge.
Chris, please don't doubt that we understand your observation. But the Cluster B disorders prevalent in our culture almost looks like an epidemiological condition. And as I mentioned, we are being too polite in society by not calling it what it is: mental illness. One only has to observe how dangerously unhinged and irrational Cluster Bs behave, not only to our detriment, but also to their own. When you absolve yourself of finally judging this toxic behavior for what it is, a blind eye exacerbates the problem. Failure to hold these individuals accountable, either through direct criticism or actual punishment, only serves to condone and embolden them.
In my years as a high school teacher, the only parent who really scared me was a psychiatrist. It was so bad that during parent-teacher conferences, for my safety, I was put together with a male colleague in his classroom rather than alone in mine, as would be normal, so that I would not have to meet with him alone.
Yep. They are master mind-fuckers. And most of them have no one holding them accountable. They believe they are using their powers for good but with no real feedback or accountability some inevitably stray into evil.
I work in an industry that has some overlap with therapy and the priority should always be to steer people towards accountability and agency. 1) Define your goals, 2) explore possible ways to achieve them, and 3) own up to it when you are out of integrity with yourself and/or others in regards to 1) and 2). Anything else is a distraction or rationalization. Any decent parent, like your mother, knows these things intuitively. Unfortunately our society has a dearth of decent parents, which is why people need therapy in the first place.
Thanks for your comment.
Though this is a good analysis, I would NEVER validate modern psychology by using their DSM categories.
My approach would be to see the attacks on our society as resulting in a lowering of emotional tone level across the board, which triggers different behaviors depending on the exact line of experience of each person who succumbs to it.
The emotional tone that is most dangerous is Fear. One mechanism that can occur when a person is triggered is to attempt to adopt the behaviors of some prior "winning" entity. These behaviors, for the most part, mimic the personalities of dominant or winning personalities. Unfortunately the self-knowledge and emotional ability to actually win or dominate is not present in a person who is merely triggered by fear into this defensive reaction.
MacDonald can call this set of behaviors "feminized" because of the Mother archetype that is so common to our collective experience, not because all women actually act like this.
Though social media sites like TikTok are often targeted for spreading these behavior models, we should not overlook "TV" (which now means paid streaming services) which is widely used by children and is full of this stuff.
Rufo also fails to mention the psychopaths, which are the people who tend to be in the driver's seat when it comes to pushing others down into fear and then providing these aberrant behavior models for their victims to embrace.
I don't want this to turn into a New Age witch hunt. Women should not be the target. The proper target is the psychopath, a personality type that has been adequately described by several researchers. And the handling for psychopaths does not involve annihilation or destruction. It does involve proper identification and some degree of restraint - physical if necessary - to prevent such personalities from infecting the general population with their insanity.
Yep. The DSM is basically a Billing Category Key and little else.
"I don't want this to turn into a New Age witch hunt. Women should not be the target."
What is interesting to me is how much the right uses the same strategies that it decries in the left. The left (psycho)babbles on about 'toxic masculinity" so the right matches it with an increasingly loud and virulent "toxic femininity". Not to mention the fact that "feminine" and "masculine" are the same crazed gender stereotypes used by radical trans activists. Witch hunts, real historical ones where real women, lots and lots of them, were burned at the stake, tortured, drowned, etc. started with exactly the kind of finger pointing, blaming, "THEY are responsible for all our troubles" messaging. Oh but you think atrocities like that can't happen in this country. Salem????
Also suggest you read Brendan O'Neill's essay on the way witches were blamed for climate anomalies in the Middle Ages. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/the-modern-day-witch-hunts-led-by-the-climate-change-faithful.
Rufo does the lamentable mirroring of the left in focusing on individual psychopathologies. I am not saying these do not exist but suggest he read Christopher Lasch's "The Culture of Narcissism", written in 1979, to unders tand all the ways in which the economic, educational, political, etc institutions in this country have fostered and encouraged that narcissism.
Lastly, as a former lefty, I can say unequivocally, that Rufo mirrors all of the same self-satisfied, self-righteousness of the left.
Interesting take on the situation.
I think human psychology is an extremely important factor in this whole mess, though. Even if we say that the entire culture has been pushed in certain non-optimum directions, someone was pushing it in those directions. And it is their psychological state driving them to do that, and the psychological state of people in general that results in those pushes gaining popularity (or acceptance).
We have a lot to learn about human psychology, and until we do, it is very hard to sit in the middle of a conflict and not be pulled to one side or the other. Both extremes seem to be motivated by irrational fears (even if there is some historical precedent for those fears) which I think indicates that the Left-Right paradigm is not useful. The more radical factions on "both sides" are operating from a similar place psychologically, but believe in different realities which may both be unrealistic. Even the "sane" people, for the most part, do not see life as it really is.
I did my graduate work in psychology and though they call economics "the dismal science" that nomenclature could be just as easily be applied to psychology...which is, in fact, mostly tarted up to be "science". What you are not taking into account is the power institutions can wield to get people to do as the powerful wish, the most obvious example being take the jab or lose your job. (Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism is important reading here as he does a credible job of explicating the interaction between individual psychology and institutional power.) Furthermore the 'discipline', such as it is, of psychology is increasingly, and quite eagerly, being used by governments and corporations to enforce whatever the dominant narrative happens to be, for example the Nudge Unit of the UK’s Behavioural Science Team or Obama’s White House Social and Behavioral Science Team. And, let us not forget, NIMH (i.e. the government) is the largest funder of research into psychological disorders. More opportunities to trust the “science” peddled by the government? Lastly, one has to ask “Cui bono? Who is served by the idea that all our collective troubles are the result of the disordered mental and emotional lives of huge numbers of individuals?” One obvious answer is the men behind the curtains who don’t want anyone to see who is pulling the levers of power and precisely how those levers are being pulled. In a certain sense I would say the use of the narrative of individual psychopathology is part of the psy-op. It is the reinforcement of the idea that we are weak, sickly, alone and powerless, tortured and held hostage to our inner demons. It is yet another attempt to infantilize the citizenry and to convince us of the impossibility, as well as the undesirability, of collective resistance. Luckily, there are more and more people who understand the game that is being played. The pushback is ever more visible on any number of fronts. Glenn Ellmers of the Claremont Institute believes that conservatives, to their detriment, have very little understanding of how institutional power works. Suggest you might want to read his book “The Narrow Passage: Plato, Foucault and the possibility of political philosophy.”
So, where does the governmental inclination to use physical and emotional duress on its populations come from? Is not this ultimately a choice that is tied to the emotional and spiritual condition of human beings or beings similar to humans?
Read my reply again. I am not saying that individual psychology is absent or that individual responsibility does not exist;, see reference to Lasch. What I am saying, and this appears very difficult for people steeped in binaries to grock, it is BOTH the psychology of the individual AND the power of institutions as those institutions are created and inhabited by individuals. Institutions take on a life of their own in that their existence becomes paramount no matter what individual may be a participant, the deep state being a prime example. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, to put it simply.
OK. I'm not going to read your references. I could tell you to read some of the thousands of references I have read and you wouldn't, either, right?
But in my concept of human psychology, the individual itself is only one aspect of human experience. And the most active and potent force in human psychology IS the group. For most people this is a love-hate relationship that is continuously challenged. For me the dynamics of human groups is part of the study of human psychology and gives the subject its meaning.
What do you think determines the "power of institutions" other than human psychology? You are making a distinction that doesn't make sense to me, that's all. The phenomena of human institutions is all a part of human psychology from my perspective.
Interesting that you make the assumption that I wouldn't read your references.
Gone fishin' ......
Get back to me when you're willing to read someone who has a different view than you do, like Ellers and Lasch.
Goodbye!
Regaining some sanity in a world driven to madness will require much more than any of us are willing to realize. Let it be this generation that is willing to do what must be done so that our childrens children will have peace.
Social media has made everyone afraid to dissent against the madness, for fear of online retribution.
I’m not afraid to speak up but get censored or shadow banned when I do.
The internet effectively spawned the Cluster B Society.
Before the internet, psychotic humans were effectively shunned by real live human populations; they couldn't get any purchase on the culture, because the well-vetted norms of society held too strong a hold in a world controlled by direct human interactions.
Enter the world-wide-web and social media, and suddenly the unwell could "find" one another and develop cohorts--- this at the same time that old-fashioned journalism and media, faced with the competition of "free" news and entertainment on the web, entered their death spirals of chasing click-bait and lowest-common-denominator sensationalism. A PERFECT petri dish for psychotic behavior to thrive.
Meanwhile, grown-up humans were too busy working, studying, saving, paying the bills, raising the kids, to notice that the culture was utterly under siege. Too many still inhabit this space; until they are awakened to reality, they will continue focusing on their productive lives... until it is no longer possible to lead such lives, because the Cluster B's will have destroyed the world that these hardworking people built.
Chris is one in a million: He doesn't merely scream at the sky about this real-life Hieronymus Bosch painting, he DOES things about it. Cannot thank him enough!
The internet is an accelerator of these trends, for sure, but the genesis of them predates the internet.
Completely agree, Chris. As you've documented, and as your partner in crime James Lindsay (swords up!) has been explicating for years, it ultimately goes back to the 19th century. But as you trace in the book, things really got rolling in the '60s (a decade I have always despised; even as a child I sensed that the culture began degrading in that ugly era).
I was aware of the concept of The Long March Through the Institutions from reading Allan Bloom back in the late 80s, but never dreamed I'd see it come to fruition in my lifetime. It started to become more real in 2015 with the emergence of stories from academia like the Halloween Costume debacle at Yale (does anyone know what ultimately became of "Shrieking Girl"?).
Then Jordan Peterson was catapulted to fame with the Bill C16 lunacy, and I began to listen to his YouTube channel... then there was the Sokal Squared/Grievance Studies Affair... then there was Evergreen State.... and James Damore.... And then, of course, the horror show that was the year 2020.
I recall at some point in 2016 or 2017 seeing a few YouTube videos that frankly terrified me as James, Peter Boghossian, and Helen Pluckrose discussed Woke as a new religion. I knew deep in my bones they were right, and that this was potentially an existential threat to the United States.
Between James Lindsay and Jordan Peterson, I learned more than I was even comfortable knowing about the origins and goals of this "faith". And I definitely saw that the Internet was, as you say, an accelerant.
What gives me hope is that, just as the internet enabled this massively destructive new religion to spread, it has also helped EXPOSE it. When such unholy tyrannies sprung up in other nations in times past, there was no broad platform available for brave, intelligent souls like yourself to educate the masses to resist. So again I say: THANK YOU. Grazie mille!
Agreed. It's an important insight into human social behavior, that when everything is sped up and virtual, the net result is negative, even though many positive things happen as well.
The expression “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” is often thought to refer to having good intentions that are not fulfilled. Yes, but I think it’s more to do with these Cluster B people virtue signaling their “good intentions” while taking themselves, and us, to hell.
Very informative as always. Thanks Christopher Here is a link to the very articulate Dr. Theodore Dalrymple a doctor of more than 30 years, working in NHS, his summation of how we are, where we are. Although not a Christian he states that the more muscular, sturdy charity that Christianity offers is infinitely preferable to the wishy washy acts of “kindness” steeped in a blather of emotion. He emphasises the need for a more stoic view of life and his data on suicide rates was quite disturbing.
https://youtu.be/7zbkMRI4Fxs?si=OZX0UerNsCkHY_Ya
Dalrymple has been one of my favorite writers for years!
Dorothy, that was a wonderful take, thank you. I can't disagree that many who pursue careers in mental health suffer from a mental illness themselves. I have seen plenty of "marriage and family therapists" who are multiple-time divorcees! And those who seek to practice either use their condition to enhance their authority on mental illness or are merely compensating. As a volunteer at a behavioral health hospital, I've also witnessed clinicians develop mental illness themselves thanks to the constant pressure, exposure, and lack of progress in their patients which reduces their morale. But our society wants to believe "experts" and so who else do we turn to? The worst part of the mental health profession is that they don't make obvious diagnosis, or take a stand in the public arena, even after observing clear patterns of behavior. Who the hell would disagree that Adam Schiff is a psychopath, with all the pathological lying he has verifiably committed over the years? Or that Maxine Waters is a narcissist? Your conclusion is very sound. And if by "something transcendent" you mean Faith in something, that is absolutely correct, thank you.
Among the prominent intellectual theorists and leaders of the modern Feminist movement were women suffering mental disorders, including chronic depression, for which, if memory serves, at least some of them were treated with psychotropic drugs.
The current woke movement certainly seems like one of those crowd delusions that comes around maybe every century, in cultures all over the world. This psychosis might be different, in that it is more widespread than the usual hysterias, which result in wars and social engineering debacles. The New World Order crowd is clearly contaminated, and is doing its best to infect the global population. It is doubtful to take hold in third world countries where trying to live by your emotions and allowing the feminization of government and education leads to suffering, starvation and death. The Cluster-B phenomenon could only happen in places where the populations have it too easy, and have been spoiled for too long. Hopefully this will be a short-lived, albeit tortuous to live through episode in human history.
Seen from the outside, it's remarkable how quickly America has been severely debilitated by this cultural illness, bordering on a psychosis. Many other countries are luckily free from this phenomena, providing a healthy contrast and showing what a sane, normal and calm society can look like.
Hopefully the US will recover soon, but the firehose of brainwash has to stop first. As long as people drown in insidious lies and heavily distorted presentations of reality every day, the patient will only get sicker.
But maybe the Ancient Wisdom traditions can help us here too; the first step to purgation and for healing the soul (also for societies) in a deeper sense is Humility. Which might even be a threshold experience for America as a very young culture and society. Embrace humility, than start examining excessive Pride.
Have you noticed what is happening in the British Commonwealth countries these days? Check out The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters on YouTube if not.
Aside from that.... agree 100% on the humility prescription. I repeat the mantra regularly: Humility and Gratitude. Humility and Gratitude.
The British Commonwealth seems to be in a big centrifuge these days, but it's likely a part of a much bigger Rebirth of the Culture. The forces of Good are growing stronger exponentially.
And love the mantra "Humility and Gratitude". True and Beautiful guiding stars for the Journey of Life.
It's terrifying like it's the end of the world, the end when the rapture has taken place and it feels like we all got left behind and are witnessing the world being possessed by Satan. It's terrifying because soon enough they'll be hunting us sane people down if we don't receive the mark.
The only thing I'd add to this is that these kinds of "cluster-B" dynamics are liable to pop up in just about any large group or mass movement, not just those limited to our time. We can see groups using psychological defenses much as individuals do: splitting (all-good/all-bad, black-and-white thinking), projection and especially projective identification (it's everywhere), denial, primitive idealization/devaluation, regression, etc etc. The details may be different but the themes are the same. People don't really change.
Chris, this is a general comment:
I do agree with most of what you say. But the bigger question is, how do we change the institutions? In general, I think it is more effective, to use less adversarial wording with the opposition, and less demeaning of the opposition, so that we can preserve dialogue. Sooner or later, we all have to work on the team, where we don’t fully agree with our teammates. If we systematically offend people with our choice of words, then often they just don’t hear us at all. Clearly, we need some people who just bluntly state the facts, as you do, without concern for the people we disagree with. But we also need people who can work in the political arena, where some degree of compromise is necessary, and we have to work with people we disagree with. You are very articulate, well informed, and well respected by the conservative side, so I think you will inevitably be thrown into a more political role. In that role, I think you’ll be more effective in promoting your goals, if you present yourself in a less polarizing way. That does not mean you have to abandon your fundamental ideas and position.
Thank you for what you are doing.
Disaffected podcast.
Josh Slocum, who has a podcast called "Disaffected," has been talking about Cluster B and how it has taken over our society for years now. https://disaffectedpod.substack.com
“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
Barack Obama Columbia, Missouri, Oct. 30, 2008
MAYBE that wasn't just political rhetoric? MAYBE he actually meant it, and had a plan to do it?
it angers me to know that we are literally falling from within and that it is intentional. When we see attacks on all sides, from sexual mutilation of children, to gender craziness, to forcing parents out of childrens lives, to money being spent in Ukraine and other parts of the world. It makes me angry at those who pretend to be leaders. We have leaders that are modern day Fausts..who have sold their very souls to satan
Lots of good things in that video, too bad you couldn't resist the urge to blame nearly all of it on women. Divisive and unnecessary. Speaking of skewed perception....
The trans movement, the worst example of Cluster B Society, is driven by narcissistic men. Plenty of women foot soldiers, but the men are most definitely in charge. They are also the primary drivers behind the aggressive victimhood and crybullying we've been seeing. You've only noticed it recently, but trans have been gaslighting leftists/academics for nearly 20 years with those tactics. Which victims have turned around and mimicked their tactics with others. It now dominates the entire Left, except for the radical feminists, who have been fighting the trans for the last 10 years, and some of the more hardcore Communists, who can recognize an all-consuming monster when they see one.
The sickness you talk about is what Gods word calls sin. We all have it because it is our nature. We have fallen short of Gods Glory. Jermiah 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick" . The cure for sin is Jesus (John 3:16-21). Our founding forefathers new that. Alexander Hamilton remarks upon the "folly and wickedness of mankind". Only God thru Jesus Christ can change our hearts. Christs purpose for coming and sacrificing His life, was to forgive our sins.To take us from darkness to light and from the power of satan to God(Acts 26:17-18). We have stopped Glorifying God and become futile in our thoughts, and our foolish hearts are darkened(Romans 1: 16-32).Lets repent of our sin ,turn our lives over to Christ, and shine His light so that many more maybe saved from the wrath to come.
I am really glad that you are making the connection between left-wing ideology and Cluster B mental disorders. That is also the direction that my thinking has been going. Such a perspective would have been useful in your recent book, which I otherwise enjoyed.
I have come to believe that Critical theory (and most other radical ideologies) are the ideas of very smart people with Anti-social Disorder whose goal is to cause harm to society.
The theorists have crafted Critical theory to:
1) Manipulate the white male liberals who dominate most American institutions through guilt and shame.
2) Antagonize those with Cluster B disorder to encourage them to lash out against society rather than seek treatment.
3) Provide a social camouflage of “social justice” to prevent law enforcement and our institutions from punishing anti-social behavior.
4) Seduce relatively naïve people, particularly young women, who just want to be perceived as nice and compassionate.
I do not think that we can win this battle against Critical theory until the majority of people come to understand the very dangerous psychological impulses that it is based upon.
Keep up the good work.
The image of Hawley looking on incredulously is just gold - a stand-in for many.
As a person whose loyalty to Socrates carries with it the implications of which he warned, I find all of this very hard to understand; I have family members whom I regard as unbalanced and obtrusively emotional who behave this way and from whom I maintain a polite distance and with whom I maintain semi-silence (they never ask about my life unprompted - and I prefer that they not know), and I married a woman who is rational to a near-fault - family taught me to never live under the same roof with disordered people.
This conduct seems both cause and symptom, as do the "causes" they involve themselves in.
This used to be called axis 2 diagnosis. You nailed it brilliantly and perfectly. The mentally ill can not be allowed to set policy
I posted before but got too wordy. In short, it's not people we should be labeling or diagnosing as mentally unhealthy, it's ideas and beliefs. We have to direct our efforts to the best in people, not label them with pathologies. This is important, otherwise we go down a bad road ourselves.
"Our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but rather with pernicious ideas. " (loose translation of Ephesians 6:12 but that is exactly what it means translated into today's world)
This is EXCELLENT! I will be shocked if 1% of the people on our FB page bother to listen to this. How do you educate people that refuse to learn?
Many in 'social justice' organizations are there for companionship, socializing and having a purpose in life.
When a leader leads them to an extremist direction they do not want to speak up because then they would lose the social aspects of that organizations and lose their purpose in life.
Following means they don't have to think.
Some go through life blaming others for their problems instead of looking in the mirror for the cause and solution to their problems.
Changing is hard work so it's easier to go through life blaming others for anything that goes wrong in their life.
Here's a short story I've written, depicting Cluster B behavior by university faculty. Purely fictional, of course.
https://josephhmanson.com/2023/08/03/whats-in-a-chimpanzees-name-plenty/
Many of us do not, ever, listen to podcasts or watch videocasts. We are a large number of visual learners, hard-of-hearing, and those without literally 100 hours a day to watch/listen to all of the potentially deserving casts thrust our way. Luckily, autotranscribers are cheap/free and amazingly good. (Not perfect, but no worse than the distortions often in listening to begin with.)
It would allow you to involve MANY more users if you transcribed anything that is not already written and posted that with the casts. Those of us who only read want to make sure we are involved and up to date, too. Luckily, the technology to do that is available to you. Please and thank you.
This has become so plainly true that I intend to go back and look more carefully at what Carl Jung says about it - he wrote on the subject more than once. What is cause and affect? As we disintegrate as a society, more will be pressured past their tolerance and exhibit dysfunction. Where does this start, and how does it become widespread?
Analogously and closely related, we witness a collapse in public and private rationality and sense-making; how much of this is a reflection of underlying dysfunction, and how much terrible beliefs which are finally having disintegrating effects on the individual soul and the public body?
This is the most comprehensive review of our times. Bravo! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! 😱
This powerful video is a must watch even if you have to close your office door
I blame it all on the lesbians.
I blamed it all on high financiers. They like to destroy things/cities/countries/societies in order to loan money for reconstruction.
I'd rather not have that person screaming in my face forever, thanks.
I work at an abortion nonprofit and from the minute I started I noticed this sanctioned behavior from the top that I started calling “institutionalized cluster B behavior” to myself. This video is like reading my mind. How do I contact you?
This essay, although a year old, still provides a measure of comfort, albeit cold, when one goes about one's day in deep contemplation of whether one might meet another with the capacity to apprehend and contemplate another. Most of those one runs into are engrossed with the aims and ends of the self, rendering them somewhat dangerous, for they must have what they must have, or else take it. To top it off, they are bores beyond peradventure.
"Pathocracy" is a brilliant word but a lackluster (at best) world to live in.
It's ruining great artworks - I've always enjoyed the cinema, theatre but now it's just so tiresome. I ought to try to look past it but it's as though there's a pin on my seat, I could probably ignore it but why turn art into an endurance competition?
Eugine- You should check the trajectory of the successful pushback of this in the UK, from self-ID to medicalizing kids. Liberal women and LGB people of various opinions are the main reasons why, not conservatives. I'm LGB, but don't identify as a liberal anymore (have a range of opinions) The health professions have been telling the world "trans people are dying," and they are saving lives by offering "lifesaving, gender affirming care." Who doesn't want to save lives? There is a major brainwashing problem on the left generally. And most LGBs are on the left. Why? Because of outspoken lack of support on the right in the US for integrating us into society. But there is a lot of blame to go around for this (including a lot of complicit gay people, and the dumbest people on the planet, lesbians who support the trans movement), but also including very conservative, celebrity trans-moms, who are openly homophobic, transing their kids and turning them into activists. Lots of blame to go around.
This is very intresting, thank you! It would be great if you could cite the papers that you reference. Where can i find the paper on maternal health and gender disphoric boys?
Personally, I'm more relaxed about things.
In Romans 1.18-32, Paul locates the root, the source of all of this.
And,bad as Rome and Corinth might have been? They don't compare to what we are seeing.
China and Islam know this too, and won't need to fight for what remains of our society.
That said, good people and thinkers like you and us? We can get out the popcorn, stand away from the Gadarene Clowncar that they are going over in?
But rebuild our moral character with those that didn't bow to Baal in 2016 ,or in 2020.
Graham Cunningham has many insightful and intriguing essays at his Slouching Towards Bethlehem site. On this particular comment here, I have to respectfully disagree. One of the most noxious doctrines in the history of civilization is the notion of original sin. Babies and children grow up believing they are immersed in sin, and spend the rest of their lives trying, unsuccessfully, to expiate their guilt. This enabled priests and ministers to lord it over them, and in a secular age the power to crack that whip was seized by new priesthoods that sprang up to fill the spiritual vacuum. Thus the prophets of environmental doom, the covidians, the proliferating gender cults all took their cuts of the guilt pie. They can still be observed, forcing their adherents and anyone else subject to their intimidation and and manipulation, to jump through endless hoops to prove they are not guilty of the sins they are accused of. Hence the plague of virtue-signaling that even oligarchs and political 'leaders' feel obliged to display. Less guilt, not more, is what Western civilization desperately needs.
This is bullshit. There’s no such thing as a personality disorder because there’s no accepted model of what personality means, nor is it fixed. There are psychopathologies which can be identified by lack of empathy, sadistic traits and neurological evidence bears this out. The line between good and evil goes through every human heart. Framing it this way only exacerbates the problem. Blaming the cluster B people who blame others sounds a little cluster b-ish itself. It dehumanises by classification and that is kryptonite for your own empathy. Describing people as disordered personalities tells you nothing really except that you are unable to see their perspective so the problem must be that they are a lower moral, less rational and fundamentally flawed person who you therefore aren’t required to accept as a fellow human like yourself. They are different. It never ends well.
I think it's no accident that today's zeitgeist is so Cluster B. The liberation movements of the 60s have largely been successful, yet the quest for more and more liberation continues, so now we are at the end stage, which is pure anarchic nihilism, all predicted and hoped for by the post-modernists. Once you imagine yourself as perfect, like the CIA candidate, you become a god and no one has the right to say no to you. And thus we have the story of The Fall at the start of the human story. I thought the movie Jesus Revolution illustrated that so well. The only remedy I can see is that we have to restore a moral order, with both punishment and reward, even if we don't believe in a God who demands this of us. Human nature is lost without it.
https://pd1000.substack.com/p/jesus-revolution
The Cluster B Society does not look like an accident or a natural path of social progress. It looks like another variant of the Cloward-Piven Strategy, which I wish Rufo would report on more. The Cloward-Piven Strategy basically aims at destroying our free society by overloading first our welfare system and then the rest of our human inclination to help the less fortunate.
Strategy is always driven by people, and the solution to evil strategies like this one starts with publicly exposing who the strategists are behind the scenes. There has been VIRTUALLY NO investigative reporting, for example, on who Biden's handlers are, why border gates were welded permanently open under the guise of flood control to allow in unrestricted illegal immigrant flow, why the CDC is covering up the latest VAERS results from the Covid shots, or the many unanswered questions about the Hawaii fire and its cleanup. Other readers surely could supply many more examples of surreptitious manipulation in high places.
The upcoming Presidential election will certainly involve more of this manipulation, exposure of it by some brave reporters, and censoring of those reporters to replace truth with propaganda. In the end, the well-funded globalists who can buy politicians and elections will determine our fate unless there is a massive, effective counter-revolution by the people - which itself would require strategy and the right leaders behind it - i.e. people who understand and can reverse the Marxist Long March Through the Institutions. But who is there to do that job?
The Cluster B Society does not look like an accident or a natural path of social progress. It looks like another variant of the Cloward-Piven Strategy, which I wish Rufo would report on more. The Cloward-Piven Strategy basically aims at destroying our free society by overloading first our welfare system and then the rest of our human inclination to help the less fortunate.
Strategy is always driven by people, and the solution to evil strategies like this one starts with publicly exposing who the strategists are behind the scenes. There has been VIRTUALLY NO investigative reporting, for example, on who Biden's handlers are, why border gates were welded permanently open under the guise of flood control to allow in unrestricted illegal immigrant flow, why the CDC is covering up the latest VAERS results from the Covid shots, or the many unanswered questions about the Hawaii fire and its cleanup. Other readers surely could supply many more examples of surreptitious manipulation in high places.
The upcoming Presidential election will certainly involve more of this manipulation, exposure of it by some brave reporters, and censoring of those reporters to replace truth with propaganda. In the end, the well-funded globalists who can buy politicians and elections will determine our fate unless there is a massive, effective counter-revolution by the people - which itself would require strategy and the right leaders behind it - i.e. people who understand and can reverse the Marxist Long March Through the Institutions. But who is there to do that job?
Fantastic analysis; thank you!
In the "Comments on the Cluster B Society" that followed on September 27, "Larry" pointed to the importance of recognizing the psychopath* factor in all this pathology. Indeed, and given that, it is worth noting that 'hysteria' is a variant of psychopathy with prevalence among women.
* - I prefer the more descriptive but equivalent term sociopathy for the syndrome, the key to which is an absence of conscience.
Left wing liberals + QAnon cult = Paranoia Schizophrenia
Left wing liberals + QAnon cult = Paranoia Schizophrenia
Liberals/Left Wing Cult + QANON/ MAGA = Paranoia Schizophrenia
‘But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,’
II Timothy 3:1-4 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/2ti.3.1-4.NKJV
Great video. Would be useful to have a transcription if available.
Overall, good video, except I disagree with the ending that makes this a female problem. Men get Cluster B personality disorders too, though they are more likely to be antisocial or narcissistic - see https://wholistic.substack.com/p/poll-can-cluster-b-people-be-cured
I would like to suggest that some of the insanity is iatrogenic i.e. our medical and moral systems are making us unwell.
Speaking as some medically employed it is true that a large number of people are on SSRIs and many are the type you would expect. Not as many as I thought however! Quite a number of young, neurotic women of course but also middle-aged women whose children have left the house as well as young mothers ('mother's little helper'). In addition to this we almost automatically give young girls the contraceptive pill almost as soon as they reach menarche. As far as I know there is no research into the long-term effects of these drugs despite the fact that they are being dished out at an almost societal level.
In American there is much conversation about the poor-quality food that is eaten but luckily this is (somewhat) less-so in Britain. I think however that the drug problem is greater, especially for psychiatric medication. It is enormously difficult to say this to a patient but sometimes being miserable for a period is a normal consequence of life and is actually good for us.
Christopher, I am impressed by your work and your articles. I am hoping you will offer me transcripts - I do not have the time for videos. an 11 minute video wastes 11 minutes. a transcript takes just a few minutes. there are 5,256,000 minutes in a decade. So I have lived for about 40,000,000 minutes to my age of 79 but I have only about 10,000,000 minutes left IF I live to 100. So I am getting stingy with my time. You will, too when you reach 79.
Excellent! Beautifully summarized and enhanced presentation, packing into just 12 minutes what Josh Slocum has been spending hundreds of hours explaining on his podcasts since 2021.
e.g. "Joshua Slocum: We're Living in a Cluster B World" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNQFu82cdLA from 2 years ago.
I was with you right up until the end when you blamed women in positions of power as the reason for all this. I'll try to write up my analysis in the next week or so as to why that's wrong and how as a message it's very counterproductive. But for starters, these forces are not new, and Mao, Stalin, and almost all past tyrants were not women yet played on emotional dysfunction to gain power. Otherwise, I agree with much of the video.
Chris, Josh Slocum a writer here on Substack has been talking about this for a couple of years now.
https://disaffectedpod.substack.com/
If you have been influenced by his thought it would behoove you to acknowledge his ideas. Thanks for all the good work you are doing spreading this important idea.
Good stuff! I'm writing about Cluster B, politics and culture here https://gingercoy.substack.com
Authoritarian California: Why I left my heart in San Francisco and it broke it https://gingercoy.substack.com/p/authoritarian-california
Narcissistic Wokeism: When Incoherent and Pathological Ideology Rules the Day: A contemplation of narcissism as a dis-organizing principle that endangers civilization https://gingercoy.substack.com/publish/post/110870903
The Cluster B Blondes. A new entitled generation.
This may be simplistic, but nevertheless, I believe this truth, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop”. And by that I mean this; if all these mentally lost Cluster B’s had no choice but to physically work - and work HARD - outdoors in sunlight, and fresh air, far from screens, meanderings and false realities, breaking a sweat, aching their bones and strengthening their muscles, for at least 10-12 hours per day just in order to feed themselves and pay their basics - I wonder how long before all the clustering and B tendencies would melt into oblivion and reality came into sharp, clear focus. My father always said, “Life is all about survival, everything else is bulls…” Hard stop.
This is really great, Chris. I don’t talk politics much with my normie friends because the knowledge divide has become so great and the topics so polarized, I don’t even know where to start. But this film, I shared. It’s short enough and entertaining enough that I don’t feel like I’m giving out a homework assignment by asking them to watch it and giving me their thoughts on it.
Let’s see what they come back to me with.
I have known socialists use the criminally insane for Bolshevik revolutions. They’re uncooperative, loyal to no one and they enforce disorder to clear the runway for the real sociopaths to anchor down onto
power structures and leverage a paranoid and insecure economic future for whomever is unfortunate enough to be ruled by them. I disagree with Rufo’s oddball ‘femenization’ as a cultural indictment. Women can be dark abusive bosses, but a lot of men are terrible and abusive as well for similar reason. You just swap “safety” paranoia for “security” paranoia and voila! You have masculinized a cultural trope that lays fault at no policy ideology for being flawed, as well. Longhouse is something of an anonymized hit & run from a writer “pulling native girls hair”. Neat video. It’s not all the thinking women’s fault, but crazy is still crazy.
Female HR. This is the Nexus of Evil. Women in control means bitches to the fore, passive aggression and ZERO healthy outcomes. For Women, the journey must be agony until I agree with them. Never going to happen. 👏
There are a number of traditionally feminine traits that our society lacks. Humility, patience, gentleness, kindness, mercy. Toxic femininity is what has taken over. I think of wicked queens and witches from fairy tales.
Thank you for brining Political Ponerology to your audience, Christopher! And for doing it so well.
In your title "The Cluster B Society" you were far too civilized. You need to replace the 'B' with..."
Fantastic analysis. I spent 20 years as an audio recording / mix engineer at 3 major Hollywood studios and watched this mania creep in slowly until I left behind the madness in 2020. There is no easy fix to this cultural disaster.
I don't mean not noticing or not resisting. We should do both with all our strength. Nor should we negotiate the unnegotiable. And you are right, people aren't necessarily reasonable, because their emotions get in the way. (We all have tendencies in that direction.) But I'm not sure where demonizing and pathologizing the "woke" (many of whom are our relatives, friends and neighbors) is going to get us. Mass conversions to our point of view? Will they slink off in shame? Greater opportunity for the "righteous" and "mentally healthy" to point the finger at others? (And people LOVE to do this, for all sorts of not-so-good reasons.) From where I sit, this strategy doesn’t bode well. I don’t think we should pathologize people, but rather look at the effects of pernicious ideas.
Isn’t there something between aggression and submission or weak efforts to oppose? . Can’t we think of assertive, creative and effective strategies instead? Chris Rufo has already participated in some of these. (revamped Florida university). I also liked the Daily Wire’s “What is a Woman?” documentary. No rancor, no accusations, just simple questions… Wow. Jesus did. (Remember the woman caught in adultery? Master stroke on Jesus’ part!) Martin Luther King did, Gandhi did, the anti-apartheid movement did. Courage and creativity, please! It takes more effort, but it’s more effective.
So true.
Well done video. Griping!
The video is presented in very strong, hyperbolic terms, increasing the polarization of dialogue in our society.
We must work within the rule of law and the political forum, and a more moderate tone is needed. We need the support of the moderate middle ground.
Not we. Not me. They.
See Joshua Slocum on "Disaffected." This is his thesis (as well). "We're living in a Cluster B world."
Both parties have gone insane. Democrats believe in open borders that destroy cities (says the mayor of NYC) and working class wages, that people can change their sex that destroys the rights of women to privacy and fair sports competition and encourage the sterilization of children as “gender affirming care”, they tolerate homelessness and crime, and discriminate against Asians seeking education.
Republicans deny the climate change that threatens humanity, refuse the vaccines that stop disease, believe that this ( . ) is a baby which destroys women's rights, and support a sociopath for president.
A pox on both their houses, I am a political atheist.
Will you stop spamming the the same both-sides BS.
Eugene: As opposed to what? Which side did you pick and why?
I addressed your BS the previous time you posted it, multiple times. Since you, nevertheless, keep posting the same comment verbatim, I see you are not interested in actually learning anything.
Note: for the benefit of those following along at home here is the last example: https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-debunker-debunked/comment/40343999
Ah, the climate change denier.
So care to account for why your "global warming" theory keeps getting falsified? And for why it's proponents' response is to quietly move the date of the predicted disaster forward and hope nobody notices?
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-announces-summer-2023-hottest-on-record
Sure. Now, answer my question, because that link doesn't address any of the failed predictions.
https://x.com/us_stormwatch/status/1704611211567079867?s=46&t=U7laPY1hHEa798qtlcpDpA
That doesn't address the failed prediction either. Perhaps you have a reading comprehension problem.
I appreciate the research and insightful information concerning the Cluster B Society! This egregious culture war, that is present dairy will continue in a forthright direction, unless God shall intervene, or American citizens increase their knowledge and skills, along with prayers and being forthright against this empty, emotional sickness!
Josh Slocum has been saying this since at least 2017.
And this is another example of how liberal women and LGB people of all political persuasions have been the most critical of out of control gender identity activism, long before Rufo, Walsh, Shapiro, or Owens. There is just a full-on media blackout on liberal and gay dissent, because this movement, and the left generally, need to use gays as a shield for their extremist agendas and getting Democrats elected.
Josh's show "Disaffected" on Rumble and Youtube is worth a listen for quality and entertaining firebrand takes. He's on Substack.
hear,hear! as a gay dissenter!
B dissenter, married to an L and am involved in doing what I can on the medical/queer theory watchdogging side (see Gender Health Query).
> And this is another example of how liberal women and LGB people of all political persuasions have been the most critical of out of control gender identity activism,
Um, they were people most actively pushing it. Not surprising since they were the ones whose rhetoric made this possible:
Feminism: men and women are interchangeable at work.
Gay: men and women are interchangeable in the bedroom.
Trans: men and women are generally interchangeable.
There's a small but growing number of gays who are waking up to reality. I'm one of them. I used to be the person you're describing, and you're right that that is most of that set. I hope more homosexuals will come to see the reality of what our political project has done.
Eugine- You should check the trajectory of the successful pushback of this in the UK, from self-ID to medicalizing kids. Liberal women and LGB people of various opinions are the main reasons why, not conservatives. I'm LGB, but don't identify as a liberal anymore (have a range of opinions). The health professions have been telling the world "trans people are dying," and they are saving lives by offering "lifesaving, gender affirming care." Who doesn't want to save lives? There is a major brainwashing problem on the left, generally. And most LGBs are on the left. Why? Because of outspoken lack of support on the right in the US for integrating us into society. But there is a lot of blame to go around for this (including a lot of complicit gay people, and the dumbest people on the planet, lesbians who support the trans movement), but also including very conservative, celebrity trans-moms, who are openly homophobic, transing their kids and turning them into activists. Lots of blame to go around.
> Liberal women and LGB people of various opinions are the main reasons why, not conservatives.
Because all three major UK parties have been left-wing for decades.
Compared to here, I guess that would be true. I'm just not an expert. I do know the right/left political polarization is a huge part of the problem in the US, and I never realized how dishonest, tyrannical and manipulative leftists could be until watching this gender issue unfold. Really opened my eyes to a lot of things.
Chris, I admire your work and think you are spot on in so many things. And one of the things I most object to in critical theory and critical pedagogy which has gained dominance in education and other institutions is that it doesn't foster psychological, mental or spiritual health. It, like many ideologies, appeals to the unhealthier aspects of human nature, to which we are all susceptible. Yes, many people have fallen for this semi-new ideology, which is reminiscent of other bad ideologies (communism, nazism) which did the same. But I don't think it's a good idea to pathologize other people, label them, diagnose them, i.e. our ideological opponents. We go down a dangerous road that way. It becomes us vs. them. (the good vs the evil and pathological) This is not a good look, nor a good practice. Let us instead hold to what is good, beautiful and true (which most people deep down are aware of). This is my experience as a teacher and a prison chaplain. There are unhealthy psychological ideas, and pathological evil beliefs, not (in the main) evil, pathological people. The pathological ideas are our beef. Not people. We want to support people's best selves. That is where we want to keep our eyes fixed, that is what we want to address.
Nope. This is real. Christopher is right. "Not pathologizing" is another way of saying "Don't notice. Don't say what you can see. Always give the benefit of the doubt. All people are reasonable underneath. All people can be negotiated with."
Another term for this stance is "co-dependent abuse enabler". I know this because I was once an enabler. And it nearly killed me.
Stay with the people with the nice, diffident, "civil" approach, if you like. But wear Kevlar. Others of us won't stand around to get taken down the way I fear will happen to you.
There are bad people. There are people with bad character who mean you harm and who cannot be "helped." Mommying won't save you.
> It becomes us vs. them.
It's already us vs. them. The only thing new is that now we are also fighting.
This response is a perfect example of the improper education of an entire planet on the subject of human psychology and the larger human condition. People in high places, including MDs and psychiatrists, have worked tirelessly to prevent a proper education from occurring. They are complicit in the situation that exists today. And even they, for the most part, don't understand it.
Modern psychology, with its DSM, does tend to "demonize" the mentally ill. This is partly because the don't have the slightest clue what mental illness really is or what to do about it. So the only choice is to lock them up somewhere. And to justify that, they must be demonized. This is nothing but a confession of their own ignorance of their own subject!
We are gifted here on Earth to have some more useful information than what any of us have had in the recent past. We now have a chance. But the most troubled among us don't want that to happen. We can make it happen anyway. It will require us getting trained to do things right, instead of how they have been done.
Chris points out that previously, these cluster B types were relegated to the margins of society as at best antisocial and at worst criminals in need of incarceration. That they now are assuming ever more prominence in institutions and everyday life is directly desired by the engineers of social transformation, as the incentive structures put in place by government and bureaucracies in institutions reward them. Eventually, these people will be liquidated along with the other enemies and functionaries who have outlived their usefulness. The Great Reset is nothing if not remorseless. And the narrative will demand that development, just as it now pounds on the threats to "our democracy".
Western civilization has moderated male misbehavior for centuries, female antisocial behavior was handled within the family. So there will have to be some formal regulation of female subversion, lying, 'baiting into hazard'; emphasis on demonstrated responsibility, less reliance on credentialism.
But that could be difficult ... "I don't think the right knows how to formulate an intolerance that it can execute."
https://twitter.com/Outsideness/status/1696898402942890058?t=8pJzT9SCW3bPt88Njlg07w&s=19
1000 percent
Great piece. Today in Canada an event to protect children.
https://millionmarch4children.squarespace.com/. However... https://tnc.news/2023/09/18/alshow-unions-vs-parents/
Thank you for this article and video presentation. Excellent work. Only question, what is the answer to restore sanity back? Clearly the old systems no longer exist. Sadly I wonder, is there an answer?
For me the answer is to turn to our Holy Father, the foundation of Christian Faith. For God is Judge to those whom have abandoned Him, he has given them over to a reprobate mind. God have mercy on their souls (Romans 1:28). I pray for our nation daily.
I would posit that the hysteria in colleges was illustrated by the Evergreen College treatment of Bret Weinstein which, since this was the first example of such behavior I had seen, was truly shocking. That was followed by the Yale outburst which was even worse.
I do wonder if this hysteria infects ALL colleges? From the examples usually shown, it appears that it is only the Ivy's, and other very liberal colleges such as Evergreen that are the most affected There are hundreds of smaller very good schools - such as Hillsboro and several other "christian" schools that are academically excellent and which may not have the Cluster B profile illuminated here. It is hard to tell since as I say, all of the examples given are of the most entitled students on the planet.
The current approach of College For Everyone brings onto campus the weak-minded and the mentally disordered, both unfit for higher education and life among others.
Very few students get admitted to Yale or Stanford law school, but even they are mentally disordered, as illustrated by their expelling a judge who came to give a talk.
That's quite true.
Complacency is tempting because in everyday situations it seems prudent to avoid disharmonious confrontations.
Do we choose a safe career path, or a contentious one with greater social influence? Keep our heads down, or rebut the HR department's foolishness? Write the University Trustees about what's being taught, or just keep one's own classes safely neutral? Correct your wayward child, or practice only rewards and never punishments? Kick your husband's shin under the table when he speaks up, or join him in tactfully countering ignorant statements?
The question for me is, what is complacent? Is speaking up in front of friends and family not enough? If there is more, what does it look like? Some people would get more involved, I think, (note, I said some)if they knew what to do and where to start.
Thanks...these are helpful. I pulled our youngest out of the classroom when they 'taught' sex education. He was the only one in a classroom of 25. He was embarrassed but I explained that he already knew what they were going to teach because he heard it from me first. I am already a poll worker although with compromised ballots and outcomes, I don't know how much that helps. We have done and continue to refuse to buy from those who hate us to the extent those companies have been uncovered. I literally ran away from CNN in airports. I compliment people who wear or display declarations of being a proud American. My biggest sadness is having our family drift away politically. My courage is strong with some friends and strangers. It is much less so with family. I have told at least one member of the family that if they want to shun me, they can do that. I will not be shamed into compliance. 😔
The majority is also insufficiently trained in the basics of human psychology to know what to do about the problem. And the psychologists of today are not doing the job, as they are largely ignorant, and some among them have helped to cause the problem. It is a very sorry situation.