[Coffee Saigon in Pakse on 4/24/23] In Pakse, I frequent two cafes, for conversations overheard as much as their coffee with condensed milk. People delight in composing language, and hearing the same. Bantering soothe and nourish the soul. Laugh tracks received in the dark are for the insane.
I liked the Ali G show. He played this absurd Eminem type character who mocked everything and everyone by mistaking the meaning of words, like turning euthanasia into youth in Asia, while having conversations with important people who were usually clueless that he was acting. Almost all of them treated him as a special needs person and pointed out the mistakes in his purposely absurd thinking. How these important people got on his show without knowing his shtick or even realizing it while being interviewed makes one wonder just how bright the people that govern us are.
Yes, that is what I observed in the episodes of his series that I saw. I remember a particular episode where an elderly gentleman who represented a particular type of educational system had somehow been inveigled on to his program and how he dealt with the difficulty of being interviewed by this absurd creature. I would never write Sacha Baron Cohen off too easily as a racist, although his creation Ali G. quite plainly is.
Linh, you are on quite a roll. Here in Thailand most Thais still wear masks and many Thais on social media still say they can never imagine going outside again without one. Schools, government and big retail chains still require them. Even private schools mandate masks and tell students that they will die from covid if they don't wear a mask. Depressing to see all the kids steadfastly wear masks even away from school. As one teenager told me, "I am too young to die from Covid."
I never wear one. Neither do the vast majority of whites. I have noticed that it is the working class Thais who are the most likely to go without a mask. I see more and more of them abandoning the face diaper.
The true believers are the middle class especially the women. The middle class liberal women seem to be the most conformist in the US too.
University of Chicago Medical center Monday, eighth floor with my father, mother and anesthesiologist prior to dad's robotic prostate surgery. Everyone masked of course.
Dad's already proudly stated that he's had five vaccines to a nurse before the doctor asks, "Do we have any idea what caused this minor stroke."
Dad, referring to last year's stroke "Not really, they don't know for sure."
It's so ridiculous that some form of laughter, big or little is pretty much required in order to keep going. Much thanks Linh.
Have you tried not masking? I was at the Emory Children's Hospital a week or two ago where there are literally hundreds and thousands of signs everywhere telling you not to do this or that and explaining in long form why you must mask. I just walked in without a mask while everyone else was. No one said anything. Maybe it was because they all had seen where I worked but I'd encourage you to simply ignore the mask instructions. One of the nurses that had a mask pulled down below her chin smiled at me.
Can you imagine going to the doctor when you're a little kid and all the doctors and nurses are masked? It is so dehumanizing and sick.
Yes, I know that it's a head game every time I go inside most medical facilities anymore. I got the feeling that none of the hospital employees really cared if I was wearing a mask or not. I saw a doctor in the family reception area take his mask off and tell the person that he was speaking with to take theirs off. My dad, who was afraid to touch silverware in public in 2020 would have noticed and regardless of our differences, I try to keep the peace. It's sad, I saw dad break his toe with a jackhammer when I was a kid and keep working. Fear can be more crippling than pain.
You're right about the masks Frank. They're unnecessary and frightening. Part and parcel of the whole sick shebang.
Thanks Frank, it is sad and it really gets to me as I'm sure it does many others. Music has been a refuge. I appreciate the song, those darker fuzzy guitar tones always help. Sun of Nothing by Electric Wizard is pretty rough, but the idea of leaving the "war pigs", Covid pigs what have you behind and heading to Space is a pleasant fantasy. Little Seed Big Tree refers to the PSYOP nature it all. I think that's where Linh shines through where a lot of other professional commentators have tucked tail. The malice of the whole affair and most people's willingness to accept a criminal can be difficult to swallow. I think that is how certain types of power have operated, for a long time.
In his book “The Psychology of Totalitarianism” Mattias Desmet offers some fascinating discussion about the digitalization of human society and the manner in which digitalization dehumanizes a conversation. He observes that “science adapts its theory to reality, whereas ideology adapts reality to theory.” We’re seeing a lot of the latter these days in this part of the world.
I thought of Linh when Desmet mentioned poetry in the following quote:
"The synthetic womb is not as far away as we think. The only thing required to persuade a society that is gripped by the mechanistic ideology is a slew of 'experts' daily presenting statistics and data in the media, informing us that artificial wombs protect fetuses a few percentage points better against viruses and pathogens than the not-so-sterile mother's body. Within this logic, anyone who chooses natural pregnancy will be considered unfit as a parent - such people would expose their child to unnecessary risks, even before birth. Whether dissident voices could override such logic remains to be seen. Life itself can be defended only in terms of metaphor and poetry, yet these usually sound less loud than the monotonous droning of mechanistic arguments."
One of the things I enjoy about Linh’s blog posts is the actual, real conversations, few of which I could possibly imaging happening anywhere like Skype or Zoom. In fact, one would never even be presented with the opportunity.
thanks to AI, now people can chat with any celebrity they want. i mentioned to joe b. that they were not testing for dioxin in east palestine and he was schocked. he promised to get to the bottom of that. then i asked him about showering with his daughter and he got a little testy.....
"Boys will be feminist" t-shirt. If that doesn't sum up American/Western current education, what does... Well, perhaps "Boys will be girls" and "Girls will be boys" would be more up to date.
what is normal in one time and place may be unusual and either greatly admired - or alternatively, strongly frowned up - in a different context - what matters is not just what people do, but their reasons for doing it
Hi everyone,
Do check out Kevin Barrett's "Chomsky's Ties to Jeffrey Epstein—and Suspected 9/11 Mastermind Ehud Barak—Exposed"
https://kevinbarrett.substack.com/p/chomskys-ties-to-jeffrey-epsteinand
Linh
I liked the Ali G show. He played this absurd Eminem type character who mocked everything and everyone by mistaking the meaning of words, like turning euthanasia into youth in Asia, while having conversations with important people who were usually clueless that he was acting. Almost all of them treated him as a special needs person and pointed out the mistakes in his purposely absurd thinking. How these important people got on his show without knowing his shtick or even realizing it while being interviewed makes one wonder just how bright the people that govern us are.
Yes, that is what I observed in the episodes of his series that I saw. I remember a particular episode where an elderly gentleman who represented a particular type of educational system had somehow been inveigled on to his program and how he dealt with the difficulty of being interviewed by this absurd creature. I would never write Sacha Baron Cohen off too easily as a racist, although his creation Ali G. quite plainly is.
I found this in, of all places, The Daily Mail which is still combing through Epstein's visitor logs. Thanks for the reference and I'll go there now.
Linh, you are on quite a roll. Here in Thailand most Thais still wear masks and many Thais on social media still say they can never imagine going outside again without one. Schools, government and big retail chains still require them. Even private schools mandate masks and tell students that they will die from covid if they don't wear a mask. Depressing to see all the kids steadfastly wear masks even away from school. As one teenager told me, "I am too young to die from Covid."
I never wear one. Neither do the vast majority of whites. I have noticed that it is the working class Thais who are the most likely to go without a mask. I see more and more of them abandoning the face diaper.
The true believers are the middle class especially the women. The middle class liberal women seem to be the most conformist in the US too.
University of Chicago Medical center Monday, eighth floor with my father, mother and anesthesiologist prior to dad's robotic prostate surgery. Everyone masked of course.
Dad's already proudly stated that he's had five vaccines to a nurse before the doctor asks, "Do we have any idea what caused this minor stroke."
Dad, referring to last year's stroke "Not really, they don't know for sure."
It's so ridiculous that some form of laughter, big or little is pretty much required in order to keep going. Much thanks Linh.
Have you tried not masking? I was at the Emory Children's Hospital a week or two ago where there are literally hundreds and thousands of signs everywhere telling you not to do this or that and explaining in long form why you must mask. I just walked in without a mask while everyone else was. No one said anything. Maybe it was because they all had seen where I worked but I'd encourage you to simply ignore the mask instructions. One of the nurses that had a mask pulled down below her chin smiled at me.
Can you imagine going to the doctor when you're a little kid and all the doctors and nurses are masked? It is so dehumanizing and sick.
Yes, I know that it's a head game every time I go inside most medical facilities anymore. I got the feeling that none of the hospital employees really cared if I was wearing a mask or not. I saw a doctor in the family reception area take his mask off and tell the person that he was speaking with to take theirs off. My dad, who was afraid to touch silverware in public in 2020 would have noticed and regardless of our differences, I try to keep the peace. It's sad, I saw dad break his toe with a jackhammer when I was a kid and keep working. Fear can be more crippling than pain.
You're right about the masks Frank. They're unnecessary and frightening. Part and parcel of the whole sick shebang.
That anecdote about your father is very depressing. Sad to see what they've done to a man.
I take comfort in Ian Brown's Little Seed Big Tree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOHn6KurHE0
Thanks Frank, it is sad and it really gets to me as I'm sure it does many others. Music has been a refuge. I appreciate the song, those darker fuzzy guitar tones always help. Sun of Nothing by Electric Wizard is pretty rough, but the idea of leaving the "war pigs", Covid pigs what have you behind and heading to Space is a pleasant fantasy. Little Seed Big Tree refers to the PSYOP nature it all. I think that's where Linh shines through where a lot of other professional commentators have tucked tail. The malice of the whole affair and most people's willingness to accept a criminal can be difficult to swallow. I think that is how certain types of power have operated, for a long time.
In his book “The Psychology of Totalitarianism” Mattias Desmet offers some fascinating discussion about the digitalization of human society and the manner in which digitalization dehumanizes a conversation. He observes that “science adapts its theory to reality, whereas ideology adapts reality to theory.” We’re seeing a lot of the latter these days in this part of the world.
I thought of Linh when Desmet mentioned poetry in the following quote:
"The synthetic womb is not as far away as we think. The only thing required to persuade a society that is gripped by the mechanistic ideology is a slew of 'experts' daily presenting statistics and data in the media, informing us that artificial wombs protect fetuses a few percentage points better against viruses and pathogens than the not-so-sterile mother's body. Within this logic, anyone who chooses natural pregnancy will be considered unfit as a parent - such people would expose their child to unnecessary risks, even before birth. Whether dissident voices could override such logic remains to be seen. Life itself can be defended only in terms of metaphor and poetry, yet these usually sound less loud than the monotonous droning of mechanistic arguments."
One of the things I enjoy about Linh’s blog posts is the actual, real conversations, few of which I could possibly imaging happening anywhere like Skype or Zoom. In fact, one would never even be presented with the opportunity.
Hard to overhear conversations here in Sacramento because most people are staring at their phones, even if with other people. So sad.
thanks to AI, now people can chat with any celebrity they want. i mentioned to joe b. that they were not testing for dioxin in east palestine and he was schocked. he promised to get to the bottom of that. then i asked him about showering with his daughter and he got a little testy.....
"Boys will be feminist" t-shirt. If that doesn't sum up American/Western current education, what does... Well, perhaps "Boys will be girls" and "Girls will be boys" would be more up to date.
what is normal in one time and place may be unusual and either greatly admired - or alternatively, strongly frowned up - in a different context - what matters is not just what people do, but their reasons for doing it