The Serial Thinker Blog

Thinking Aloud - Tuesday Morning

Today is the 75th day of the Biden Kakistocracy. Has the Stumbler-In-Chief visited the Southern Border? Has he delivered a State of the Union Address? Has he conducted meaningful meetings with other world leaders? Has he done anything even remotely resembling leadership?
____________________________________________

If a straight White male drives a Trans-Am is he guilty of cultural appropriation?
____________________________________________

Texas for the Win: Governor Abbot stands up for Texans and America and bans vaccine passports.
_____________________________________________

As long as the Chicoms are running our country anyway, it seems that they would offer US citizens discount coupons for Panda Express.
______________________________________________

Do you want to see real hate? Talk to a conservative BIPOC about how they are treated by members of their own community on social media. 
_______________________________________________

________________________________________

Let me get this straight: the MLB moved the All-Star Game from a city with a 51% black population to a city with a 9.1% black population and removed a $100M economic investment in largely black-owned businesses ...

All in the name of "fighting systemic racism?"
__________________________________________

International Women’s Day

Today is International Women's Day...

How can the left celebrate #InternationalWomensDay when gender is a spectrum? Are women with penises celebrated? What about trans-men who used to be women? What about trans-women who used to be men? What about people who are kind of in between? What even is a woman these days? If anyone can claim that identity, what makes being a woman special and worth celebrating?

Guns and the Pitbull Fallacy

A lot of people are scared shitless of guns. Why? Because they've fallen prey to what I call the "Pitbull Fallacy". If you ask a typical suburbanite what they think of pitbulls, they are likely to say that they hate them, that they are dangerous, vicious beasts, and they would not want one anywhere near themselves or anyone they care about. Which is pretty much their opinion of guns too.

 

Yet...

They have never owned one.

They do not know anyone who has owned one.

They have not spent any meaningful time around one.

 

The only time they hear about them is when they do something horrible and their entire opinion about them is formed by these exposures - not the millions of encounters that people have with them every day when they do no harm at all. Their fear is irrational, but it is visceral, and their response is a desire to eliminate the world of them.

 

Neither pitbulls nor firearms are bad. It is the people who handle them that make them so.

I Survived The Pre-Nerf Generation

I lived in the Pre-Nerf generation.... and survived.

Remember those orange rubber playground balls? When it would get cold they would really sting when you got hit playing dodgeball or whatever game was going on? It made you more agile and a better dodgeball player because there was a genuine incentive not to get hit by the ball. Nowadays, dodgeball has been banned by most schools because it is 'violent' and 'predatory', but if it weren't it wouldn't matter because the playground balls have been replaced by these squishy foam rubber balls (like Nerf balls covered by a nylon skin). What's the incentive to get out of the way? It's not going to hurt if you get hit by these things, even at close range. The kids are willing to wipe each other out on video games, but have little physical resilience in the real world. We should bring back old school playground games and stop making wimps of the next generation.

Elon On Wokeness

Blue Suburb America

When a woke member of the cancel culture encounters two kids with a corner lemonade stand....

The leftist activist asks the kids how long they work at their stand. "A few hours a day," the kids reply.

Activist, "Uh-huh, and do you have any LGBTQ friends or kids of different races or nationalities working at your lemonade stands?"

Kids, "What does that mean?"

The activist now takes out their phone to video the conversation, "And what is the ratio of female to male employees and do you pay all of your staff the mandatory state and federal minimum wage?"

Kids, "We sell lemonade, that's all. And sometimes brownies and cookies if it's not too hot."

Activist, "Do you offer products that are cruelty free, gluten free, vegan, Halal, and fair trade?"

The kids look at each other confused.

Outraged, the activist posts the video of the lemonade stand on social media calling it a "Hate Stand" which attracts an angry mob that scares the kids away.

With the kids gone, the mob burns the stand down, hangs an effigy of Trump in its place, and claims a great moral victory for 'the people".

“Ladies And Gentlemen” Is Over

The era of ladies and gentlemen is over. I'm not even sure if it's men and women. I think, now, it's an undefined continuum of gender identities, all of which are considered to be equal. If that's the case, and I think that it is, then no one can seek protection behind their gender. It is no longer valid to say, "Don't pick on the girls". It is no longer valid to say, "Don't hit the girls". It is no longer to reasonable to self-censor in deference to mixed company. If you would say or do something amongst the boys then you should say or do it anywhere.

Maybe.

The dichotomy is that as much as some people say that they want to be treated as equals, they really don't. They want the benefits of equality, but they don't want the challenges of equality. They say that they want to be treated in exactly the same ways, but then complain when they hear things that they don't like. They say that they want to compete for the same jobs, but complain when they don't get them. They don't want to compete on equal terms, they demand a modification of the rules and call it equity.

This disconnect is being played out in real time on our national political stage. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her leftist colleagues are aggressively trying to advance their socialist agenda. Fine, that's their right. However, when they get push-back from their own caucus and from the President of the United States they cower and hide behind the "You can't yell at me, I'm a girl of color" trope. Sorry, you can't have it both ways. If you want to get up on the big stage and claim the national media spotlight, you have to have the fortitude to take the criticism that goes with it; whatever that criticism may look like.

Otherwise, go back to tending bar and herding goats.

Sheepdogs Aren’t Sheep

A retired sheep dog now lives with the flock he used to protect. He used to stand against danger, willing to fight and, if need be, die for the flock. He lived to provide for the flock’s safety and that is what drove him. Drove him to eat, drove him to sleep, drove him to fight. But now, he doesn’t go out to fight the wolves anymore. He doesn’t stand guard at night with the other sheep dogs, watching vigilantly for the lurking enemy. Now he’s expected to live quietly among the sheep, following the commands of the shepherd, given to the flock. Sure, there are a few other retired sheep dogs like him amongst the flock, but they mostly keep to themselves. The sheep start to get scared if the old dogs spend too much time together. So, he spends most days alone, under the suspicious eyes of the flock, who, not understanding him, are always wary that he may pose a threat to them, despite the fact that not so long ago he would have willingly died for them. He’s not a threat to them, but they don’t realize that. They see his scars and his sharp teeth and they are worried by them. They worry that he might snap and hurt them, so they keep their distance. This distance causes him to isolate himself and to resent the sheep. What is his purpose now? Why is he here?

And so it is with the veteran...

Shared from a Ranger Brother

Communication Strategy

You can't respond intellectually to an emotional argument. It's the Republican/Conservative/Libertarian's worst debating mistake, and a large reason why our side doesn't connect with the younger voters. You have to respond to an emotional argument from a moral position (not an intellectual one) that exposes the hypocrisy and vacuousness of their side. It isn't natural for us, but we have to become better at it or lose the debate forever.

If You Hate America Today...

I've seen a number of threads that have the theme, "I am embarrassed to be an American." Here's what I have to say to the people who might write this:

Cuba is only 90 miles away. You can walk across the southern border and renounce your citizenship at any time. Ukraine is looking for some good people. If you like electric cars, you could mine rare earth minerals in Congo. If solar power is your thing, there are factories in Southern China that are hiring and you can learn a lot about the Uyghur culture there as well.The options are plentiful and you would be done with this horrible country forever.

Best Wishes on your expedited departure.

From Atlas Shrugged...

"I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years ago,” said Dr. Hendricks. “Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything – except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the ‘welfare’ of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only ‘to serve.’ That a man who’s willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards – never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind – yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of a man who resents it – and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn’t." | Atlas Shrugged