Home » Posts tagged 'truth'

Tag Archives: truth

Olduvai
Click on image to purchase

Olduvai III: Catacylsm
Click on image to purchase

Post categories

Post Archives by Category

Telling the Truth About Our Future

Energy Aware II

Renewable energy is a poor substitute for fossil fuels. That’s because renewables are a diffuse form of energy and produce power only about one-third of the time.

That doesn’t stop renewable energy true-believers from trying to bend the laws of physics to tell a story that’s not true. EROI** (energy returned on energy invested) was used in this way by Murphy et al in 2022 and more recently, by Delannoy et al in late 2023.

Louis Delannoy and twenty-one co-authors proclaimed the good news in November that there is now a consensus that renewable energy is cheaper and more efficient than fossil fuels.

“The EROI of fossil-fueled electricity at point of end use is often found to be lower than those of PV, wind and hydro electricity, even when the latter include the energy inputs for short-term storage technologies.”

Emerging consensus on net energy paves the way for improved integrated assessment modeling

That’s not true. There is great uncertainty about EROI and a range of net energy values for every type of energy source. It’s a blunt instrument at best. It requires knowing an unknowable array of complex inputs and outputs to be anything more than a high-level guess.

First, let’s examine the easy part of their statement—“including storage technologies.” Lazard’s latest data shows that wind and solar are the most expensive forms of electric power once backup storage is included. Cost and EROI are not the same thing but they are related so it’s a red flag that Delannoy et al’s statement may be untrue.

The reference for their claim is a 2020 paper by one of the co-authors about modeling carbon emissions in California that included simulations for future solar PV EROI California is not the world, forward modeling is not historical data, and solar PV is not the renewable universe.

…click on the above link to read the rest…

Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XLIX–Sometimes People Don’t Want to Hear the Truth


Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XLIX

Monte Alban, Mexico (1988) Photo by author

Sometimes People Don’t Want to Hear the Truth

Today’s Contemplation has been prompted by a request to engage someone in ‘an academic lesson’ regarding the maladaptation of pursuing complex technologies in an attempt to ‘solve’ our ‘problem’ of climate change.


As Frederick Nietzsche has been credited with arguing: “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”

‘Facts/truth’ (such as the ecological destructiveness of pursuing non-renewable renewables, or that climate change is a symptom of the predicament of ecological overshoot and not a separate problem that can be ‘solved’ using maladaptive strategies that exacerbate overshoot) mean next to nothing to those captured by the fanatical belief that more technology and human ingenuity can reverse the negative consequences of almost all our technologies and the unprecedented growth they have supported. Such a belief system is difficult if not impossible to change for it is supported by powerful psychological mechanisms that prevent humans from confronting anxiety-provoking thoughts (e.g., the denial/bargaining stages of grieving a significant loss) or that serve to rationalize destructive behaviours (usually to avoid/deflect guilt).

Until someone is ready and/or willing to look in the mirror and honestly deconstruct their core beliefs — and face the evidence/possibility that what they are arguing for is actually the opposite of what is likely required of humanity — attempting to ‘school’ them is very likely pointless, and usually serves to motivate them to ‘double-down’ on their rationalisations/justifications (this is especially true if their career/income/self-image/-worth is tied up with their perspective)[1]. It also does not help in the least that there are powerful monied interests pushing the non-renewable renewable narrative at every opportunity and have captured many well-intentioned groups/individuals, or that relatively recent human history can be argued to demonstrate unending ‘progress’ in certain areas (depending upon one’s interpretation) that is ‘guaranteed’ to continue.

Examples of such behaviours abound. Academics/economists who rationalise the creation and distribution of fiat currency by a small cabal of elite, arguing that the infinite growth paradigm is not only possible on a finite planet but that it is the only way to ensure prosperity and equality for all — ignoring or denigrating countervailing evidence that such an approach is not only resource-/energy-/ecologically-blind, but guarantees our own destruction and that of most of the rest of the planet’s inhabitants; and most certainly ignores the inflationary price consequences of their actions and the inequality it creates, or the impossibility of controlling/predicting complex systems. Mainstream media that parrots without much self-reflection or critical evaluation the narratives of governments — ostracising, censoring, or eradicating those who challenge the ruling class’s edicts/machinations (think Julian Assange or Edward Snowden). An education system (and pretty well every societal institution) that continues to market the narrative that electoral systems of representative democracies provide important agency/input into sociopolitical decision-making (rather than serving to provide cover to those at the top of our power/wealth structures and their overwhelming and significant influences). Challenges/counterfactual evidence to these narratives are never the result of the ruling class’s policies/actions, instead the finger is always pointed elsewhere/anywhere[2].

I could go on but the point is as the Nietzsche quote I opened this contemplation with shows, we humans are story-telling primates that create our own ‘reality’ through complex belief systems that avoid strongly the evidence that runs contrary to our perspectives.

As this article on ecological overshoot and the impediments to a future of non-renewable renewables by Megan Seibert and William E. Rees points out: “We begin with a reminder that humans are storytellers by nature. We socially construct complex sets of facts, beliefs, and values that guide how we operate in the world. Indeed, humans act out of their socially constructed narratives as if they were real. All political ideologies, religious doctrines, economic paradigms, cultural narratives — even scientific theories — are socially constructed “stories” that may or may not accurately reflect any aspect of reality they purport to represent. Once a particular construct has taken hold, its adherents are likely to treat it more seriously than opposing evidence from an alternate conceptual framework.”

I am becoming less inclined to engage in a discussion with someone that exists in an alternate belief system surrounding our existential predicament as I am increasingly perceiving it is a waste of my time and energy (and can too often make one the focus of ad hominem rhetoric, or worse) — something that is quickly becoming more dear to me as I age and get closer to the end of my journey on this planet.

As I have outlined in the last couple of my contemplations, I am choosing to focus my diminishing energy/time on activities to help my family (and eventually community) increase its self-reliance/-resilience, and less time engaged in social media and its increasing divisiveness.

I am more motivated nowadays by: the seedlings I experimented with in a hydroponic system for the first time growing in a far more robust fashion than any of my attempts in the past at starting plants from seeds; the peas and lettuce seeds I put in the ground a couple of weeks ago beginning to pop up through the winter leaf cover; and the progress I am making in replacing rotting garden ties with concrete block terraces in our growing food gardens.

These personally gratifying things will do nothing to change the perspective of a true believer in human ingenuity and technological ‘advancement’, but neither likely will my sharing counterfactual evidence. We all believe what we want to believe, ‘facts/truth’ be damned.


If you’re still ‘on the fence’ with respect to our plight, I suggest the following texts to broaden your knowledge. Read some/all and then decide where your time/energy should be focused.

Bernays, E..
Propaganda. iG Publishing, 1928. (ISBN 0–9703125–9–8).

Catton, Jr., W.R..
Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change. University of Illinois Press, 1980. (ISBN 978–0–252–00988–4)

Chomsky, N..
Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies. Anansi Press, 2003. (ISBN 978–0–88784–574–1)
Clark, W.R..

Diamond, J..
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Penguin Books, 2005/2011. (ISBN 978–0–14–311700–1)

Greer, J.M..
The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age. New Society Publishers, 2008. (ISBN 978–0–86571–609–4)

Griffen. G.E..
The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve, 4th Edition. American Media, 2002. (ISBN 978–0–912986–39–5)

Heinberg, R..
Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines. New Society Publishers, 2010. (ISBN 978–0–86571–645–2)

Kunstler, J. H..
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century. Grove Press, 2009/2006/2005. (ISBN 978–0–8021–4249–8)

Martenson, C..
The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. 2011. (ISBN 978–0–470–92764–9)

Meadows, D..
Thinking In Systems: A Primer. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008. (ISBN 978–1–60358–055–7)

Meadows, D., J. Randers, & D. Meadows.
Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004. (ISBN 978–1–931498–58–6)

Orlov, D..
The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivor’s Toolkit. New Society Publishers, 2013. (ISBN 978–0–86571–736–7)

Rothbard, M..
Anatomy of the State. Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009. (ISBN 978–80–87888–43–8)

Rubin, J..
Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller. Vintage Canada, 2009. (ISBN 978–0–307–35752–6)

Ruppert, M..
Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Oil World. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009. (ISBN 978–1–60358–164–3)

Smil, V..
Energy Myths and Realities: Brining Science to the Energy Policy Debate. AEI Press, 2010. (ISBN 98–0–8447–4328–3)

Tainter, J.A..
The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge University Press, 1988. (ISBN 978–0–521–38673–9)

[1] It is not lost on me as a retired educator that one of the more important tasks of a teacher is to help students evaluate and rethink faulty beliefs. This is, of course, a much easier thing to do with those in the early stages of developing belief systems than with those that have entrenched ones that are entwined with other aspects of their life, like careers/salary.

[2] Apparently, challenges to our monetary/financial systems, media narratives, and democracy are all the fault of Vladimir Putin at the moment…

We Must Have The Truth

We Must Have The Truth

In an understatement of the century, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky recently summed up her agency’s role in promoting distrust in science by stating that they did not “reliably meet expectations.”

I am always happy to welcome new content from The Brownstone Institute, one of the last few beacons of common sense left in the world of actual journalism.

This week they published a new piece on Covid and our response to it, called We Must Have The Truth. I reached out to the publication last year and requested permission to share their content when I enjoy it, in full, with my readers, which they kindly granted. If you’re interested in the topic – or simply just having a grasp on the objective truth – I believe it is a “must read”.

The article is written by Pat Fidopiastis, who is a Professor of Microbiology at California Polytechnic State University.


On April 2, 2020, a paddle boarder was chased by authorities and taken into custody. This event should have caused unanimous outrage over the absurdity of what happened – law enforcement arrested a lone paddle boarder on Santa Monica Bay for the crime of “flouting coronavirus closures.”

Traditional voices that could have questioned unscientific authoritarian policy instead provided cover. The Los Angeles Times justified law enforcement’s ridiculous response by quoting a scientist who made the claim (presumably with a straight face): “..[SARS-CoV-2] could enter coastal waters and transfer back into the air.” Setting aside the absurdity of this and every other justification for closing beaches, hiking trails, and parks, think of the narrative it perpetuated — the virus is so insidious that even those who dared to paddle board alone on the ocean might somehow spread it to the rest of us.

…click on the above link to read the rest…

It’s Not a Lie If You Believe It

IT’S NOT A LIE IF YOU BELIEVE IT

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” – George Orwell, 1984

It's not a lie if you believe it – Seinfeld Memes

“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

I wish I could go through a day without having to reference Orwell and Huxley when observing how the ruling class is able to manipulate, subjugate, and propagandize the willfully ignorant masses through lies, deceptions, disinformation, and fear. But here we are, living through a dystopian nightmare blending the worst aspects of Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World.

It’s as if O’Brien and Mustapha Mond are running the show, using behavioral conditioning, restricting freedom of speech, adhering to a strict caste system, surveilling everything we say or do, using our fears to control us, utilizing propaganda to produce false narratives, and ultimately threatening to stomp a boot on our faces forever if we do not obey and conform. Virtually everything we are told by politicians, government bureaucrats, military brass, “esteemed” journalists, medical “experts”, bankers, and corporate executives is lies. They do not believe their lies, but they know it benefits themselves financially to lie, and as long as they work together, they know the ignorant masses will believe them.

George tells Jerry “It’s not a lie if you believe it” as he is going to take a lie detector test. I wonder how Fauci, Biden, Hillary, Obama, Comey, Wray, Pelosi, and the slew of other Deep State coup conspirators would fare on a lie detector test about Russiagate, Covidgate, J6 Insurrectiongate, and Vaccinegate. Based on the titanic volume of lies they have spewed over the last several years, I’m sure the machine would overheat and explode if hooked up to any of this traitorous vile scum.

…click on the above link to read the rest…

Chris Hedges: Imminent Mass Extinction

Chris Hedges: Imminent Mass Extinction

Telling the ‘Truth’

The ‘Truth’ will always vary depending on your perspective. Many people in Pakistan and Africa are fully aware that global ecological collapse is well underway and is already challenging their ability to comfortably survive. Whereas most people in Europe and the USA would be surprised to learn this, most people in the affluent countries are unaware of this collapse, because the media do not dwell on this uncomfortable truth.

Global ecological collapse is a result of ecocidal growth economics, and the most developed countries are by far the biggest culprits. Environmental scientists agree that the ecological footprint for an individual person can be roughly calculated as a product of their affluence, and the technology that they use (I=PAT). One can easily see how the pursuit of GDP growth has now become ecocidal, for we are continually striving to increase our wealth and technology. The Preface in this paper elaborates this case.

The ongoing ecological collapse can never be fully arrested, because numerous tipping points are now past, and climate breakdown is changing the local weather patterns; the biodiversity within ecosystems will have to adjust very rapidly, and in many cases that may not happen. This is the ‘Truth’ of which many scientists are currently aware, we are already a long way down the slippery slope of ecological collapse.

In 2019 Extinction Rebellion (XR) raised my awareness about tipping-points with their Heading for Extinction talk. At a very early XR meeting, I got talking with a lovely gentleman called John Guillebaud, who is an Emeritus Professor in reproductive health, it was he who made me aware of the insights of the I=PAT equation and the organisation Population Matters.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Cascade of Consequences

CASCADE OF CONSEQUENCES

“There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” – George Orwell 1984

Image

“People will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people’s minds.” – Frank Zappa

Orwell and Zappa’s words of wisdom have never been truer than they are today. The level of untruth proliferated by the government, mainstream media, central bankers, military leaders, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Corp., and billionaire oligarchs has reached prolific heights. We are lost in a whirlwind of lies, destined to grow into a tornado of tragedy and ultimately result in a cascade of consequences.

Since the installation of the illegitimate dementia patient as president of this dying empire of debt by the Deep State (billionaire oligarchs, surveillance state agencies, military industrial complex, Silicon Valley censorship tyrants, corrupt bought off state politicians, Soros installed bureaucrats, and their propaganda arm – fake news media outlets), the country has further fractured into warring factions.

It has been driven by political party, moral vs. immoral, black vs. white, criminals vs. police, normal vs. abnormal, capitalists vs. communists, Federal Reserve vs. the people, vaxxer sheep vs. natural immunity realists, authoritarians vs. freedom fighters, critical thinkers vs. non-thinking believers, privileged elite vs. common men and women, citizens vs. traitors, powerful vs. powerless, and evil versus good.

As Zappa realized, people believe the narrative they have been conditioned to believe, and no quantity of facts, data or rational arguments will change their minds. Arguing on twitter or facebook is not going to change the mind of those you are arguing against..

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Earth and Humanity: Myth and Reality

Earth and Humanity: Myth and Reality

 

Earth and Humanity

Earth and Humanity

Every year, Nate Hagens produces a video for Earth Day. Nate is someone I cannot admire enough. These videos normally last about an hour, but this year one of his University colleagues told him it was about time he stopped pussy footing around and tell it like is. So this year’s effort runs for almost three hours…… and it’s Nate’s tour de force…! You probably won’t learn much if you’ve been lurking on this blog long enough, but you won’t be disappointed, and you should certainly share the hell out of it, because it’s fast becoming urgent for the ignorant masses to find out the truth….

 

The Stock Market, Fatally Wounded by the Truth, Will Stumble and Crash

The Stock Market, Fatally Wounded by the Truth, Will Stumble and Crash

It didn’t have to be this way, but this is the reality we must now face: truth is fatal to fraud, and our entire financial-political system is a fraud.

The stock market has just been punctured by the thin blades of truth. It is fatally wounded but nobody dares notice. The wounds are barely visible, but the internal damage is mortal. The stock market is already stumbling and will soon crash.

The banquet’s participants ignore the faltering market because the rules are we never reveal the truth, or acknowledge it, or discuss it, no matter how obvious, because truth is fatal to fraud. So the stock market’s vital signs are in freefall but the conversation remains upbeat and light: stimulus, rapid growth in the second half, etc., all the patter of a carefully constructed illusion that fraud is forever as long as the truth never comes out.

Alas, the truth has emerged from the shadows, despite the silence of the insiders and the financial media. Here are the truths that have emerged like karmic genies:

1. The stock market is nothing but one giant fraud. The entire market is corrupt and rigged from the ground up. The fraud is systemic, designed into every tendril of the market. It was a useful deception to blame it all on “bad players,” but now the truth has been revealed: the market is nothing but a rigged game enriching insiders.

2. The Fed is a fraud. All the Federal Reserve has accomplished in 13 years of goosing the stock market is unprecedented wealth and income inequality as the fraud of the Fed has boosted the fraud of the market, which has fatally undermined America’s social and economic orders. Please read this short paragraph and let it sink in. Monopoly Versus Democracy (Foreign Affairs):

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

War On Truth

Welcome.

Maybe you got here because you followed a link from YouTube, or Twitter, or Facebook.  Or maybe you’re already a long-time reader, in which case welcome back.

Below, once you are signed into this site (which requires registration for all newcomers) you will be able to access (for free, of course) today’s video which builds upon and goes further than the one posted to YouTube.

Why are we doing this?  Because we cannot risk being deplatformed.  We already have had one video taken down by YouTube for our strictly scientific coverage of a review paper of Ivermectin (IVM) put out by some of the most accomplished critical care medical doctors in the world.

It’s nothing personal, their own video of Dr Kory’s testimony to the US Senate was taken down and deleted by YouTube.

But chilling nonetheless.   It sucks, and here we are.

Our response?  Put relatively benign, non-objectionable content out on YouTube but then put what we actually want to say here, on our own site, and behind a soft wall (registration required).

Why the soft wall?  Because our biggest foes are scammers, spammers, bots, and Google’s prying eyes and spiders which will scrape our content and potentially misuse it against us.

Are we over-reacting?  No, in fact we may be underreacting.  Behind the scenes we are having daily conversations with other content creators who are battling their own waves of censorship that lack both any defensible rationale and a party you could actually talk to on the other end of the social giant machinery.

So what’s down there that’s worth your time?  Today I discuss:

  • Ivermectin and the war against it.
  • The various strategies in play to confuse the public’s perception of IVM
  • Provide direct actions you can take to inform your doctor about IVM

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Bravery Is…

Bravery Is…

Having trouble interpreting what’s really going on in the world? JP Sears and his fellow ‘thinkers’ explain what the media would like you to think…

Of course you can always trust the media to lead the way to the promised land of truth.

Chris Hedges: The Ruling Elite’s War on Truth

Chris Hedges: The Ruling Elite’s War on Truth

American political leaders display a widening disconnect from reality intended to mask their complicity in the seizure of power by global corporations and billionaires.

Original illustration by Mr. Fish. (Scheerpost)

Joe Biden’s victory instantly obliterated the Democratic Party’s longstanding charge that Russia was hijacking and compromising U.S. elections. The Biden victory, the Democratic Party leaders and their courtiers in the media now insist, is evidence that the democratic process is strong and untainted, that the system works. The elections ratified the will of the people.

But imagine if Donald Trump had been reelected. Would the Democrats and pundits at The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC pay homage to a fair electoral process? Or, having spent four years trying to impugn the integrity of the 2016 presidential race, would they once again haul out the blunt instrument of Russian interference to paint Trump as Vladimir Putin’s Manchurian candidate?

Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani are vulgar and buffoonish, but they play the same slimy game as their Democratic opponents. The Republicans scapegoat the deep state, communists and now, bizarrely, Venezuela; the Democrats scapegoat Russia. The widening disconnect from reality by the ruling elite is intended to mask their complicity in the seizure of power by predatory global corporations and billionaires.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2019. (Gage Skidmore, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

“This is a disgraceful thing that was done in this country,” Giuliani said at his recent bad-hair-day press conference. “Probably not much more disgraceful than the things these people did in office, which you didn’t and don’t bother to cover and you conceal from the American people, but we let this happen, we use largely a Venezuelan voting machine in essence to count our vote…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

MSM Promotes Yet Another CIA Press Release As News

MSM Promotes Yet Another CIA Press Release As News

The Washington Post, whose sole owner is a CIA contractor, has published yet another anonymously sourced CIA press release disguised as a news report which just so happens to facilitate longstanding CIA foreign policy.

In an article titled “Secret CIA assessment: Putin ‘probably directing’ influence operation to denigrate Biden“, WaPo’s virulent neoconservative war pig Josh Rogin describes what was told to him by unnamed sources about the contents of a “secret” CIA document which alleges that Vladimir Putin is “probably” overseeing an interference operation in America’s presidential election.

True to form, at no point does WaPo follow standard journalistic protocol and disclose its blatant financial conflict of interest with the CIA when promoting an unproven CIA narrative which happens to serve the consent-manufacturing agendas of the CIA for its new cold war with Russia.

And somehow in our crazy, propaganda-addled society, this is accepted as “news”.

The CIA has had a hard-on for the collapse of the Russian Federation for many years, and preventing the rise of another multipolar world at all cost has been an open agenda of US imperialism since the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed it is clear that the escalations we’ve been watching unfold against Russia were in fact planned well in advance of 2016, and it is only by propaganda narratives like this one that consent has been manufactured for a new cold war which imperils the life of every organism on this planet.

There is no excuse for a prominent news outlet publishing a CIA press release disguised as news in facilitation of these CIA agendas. It is still more inexcusable to merely publish anonymous assertions about the contents of that CIA press release.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

On Covid-19 And Authoritarian Abuses

On Covid-19 And Authoritarian Abuses

Over the last few months there’s been a clique of indie media who’ve been urging their respective followings to bully and cajole other indie media into focusing on Covid-19, lockdowns, mask laws and Covid-related authoritarian agendas in their coverage of world events.

I personally find the idea of fighting with indie media in a world that is dominated by murderous globe-spanning power structures absurd, so I won’t make this about them, but since their attacks are getting more heated now I’m going to try to spell out my own position on the matter here as clearly as possible. I don’t expect this essay to have any effect on this online mobbing behavior’s primary drivers, who appear to operating in bad faith; this is more for my longtime readers who’ve been expressing bafflement that I haven’t made Covid-related abuses a primary focus of my writing.

To sum up the gist of my position in a paragraph: I’ve said from the beginning that “the fears that the ruling class will seize this opportunity to advance preexisting authoritarian agendas are well-founded”, and I’ve repeatedly written entire essays about this. Unless people want me to re-write more or less the same essays over and over again, there hasn’t been much more for me to add to the discussion. The information ecosystem is still too polluted and muddied to see clearly enough to provide a comprehensive, lucid, big-picture understanding of what’s actually going on, so I’ve just been watching and patiently gathering information.

That is what someone who is interested in telling the truth does: they wait until they have enough information about something before they attempt to elucidate their understanding of it. I haven’t been writing about my clear, big-picture understanding of what’s going on with this virus because I simply do not have one, and frankly I don’t believe anyone else does either.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress