The Time of Universal Deceit

Original Material | 7/31/2017 | By Laz A. Mataz

[Lazamataz]

In the opening pages of the book "Foundation", written by Isaac Azimov, he describes the beginning of the fall of the Empire. The Empire was a multi-star-system civilization of trillions of people, but it was beginning to rot. One of the key characters observes that a researcher, a pompous Lord of a planet, considered it 'scientific method' to read someone else's work, saying "Why should I travel to another planet? Someone has already written about it." The protagonist thought, "Scientific method, hell. No wonder the galaxy was going to pot."

Azimov was prescient. We find ourselves in a similar time. All the technologic wonders of this era are being challenged by Social Justice Warriors (who, among other things, claim algebra is racist), and by shortcut-taking scientists that purchase or wrangle "peer review" of their scientific work (that is nothing of the sort).

This is the time of universal lying. Consider:

1. Major "news" networks and papers use to have a policy of requiring two sources, preferably identified and credible, before presenting news. That has been discarded, in the effort to depose President Donald Trump. Now you will see articles and editorials based on a single anonymous source, often making incredulous claims. The Washington Post (one of the most egregious practitioners of the policy) even noted the alarming trend back in the year 2013. The release of the utterly-fabricated "Russian Dossier" on President Donald Trump is one of the most prominent examples of the complete collapse of the trustworthiness of major 'news' organizations.
2. The scientific "peer review" system is completely broken. Many journals and organizations are retracting articles based on discovery that they were "peer reviewed" by fraudulent people. From that article: "The practice can occur when researchers submitting a paper for publication suggest reviewers, but supply contact details for them that actually route requests for review back to the researchers themselves." Several journals even 'peer reviewed' nonsense based on Star Wars pseudo-science, and those papers survived the review process.
3. Social Justice Warriors have acted to remove algebra -- one of the simplist forms of abstract math -- from student curriculums, claiming that it is discriminatory to certain minorities. Eloy Ortiz Oakley, the chancellor of California’s community college system said he wants to abolish the college algebra requirement and called it a “civil rights issue”.
4. The public confidence in major 'news' organs was as low as 32% in 2016, and may have sunk lower than that. Alternative media has filled some of the information gap -- news that the major organs simply will not cover, such as the possible spying scandal of politico Wasserman-Shultz and the Pakistani Awan Brothers -- but alternative media has its own credibility problems.
5. Various 'fact checking organizations', such as Snopes, have been demonstrated to be politically-aligned and unable to operate impartially.

Where does this leave us, when the organs of news no longer adhere to time-honored standards; when science is poorly peer-reviewed; when the fact-checkers need their facts checked?

It leaves us in a time of universal deceit, and as George Orwell once famously said, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." America must be based in its entirety on truth. Truth must exist in science and in news, both print and broadcast. Thomas Jefferson warned us, in an 1816 letter, that "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

[Fast Moving Angel]

Social Justice Warriors (who, among other things, claim algebra is racist),

Algebra is sexist too. I'm a linear thinker and don't think abstractly (if that's a word); therefore, because I can't do algebra it obviously must be sexist. /s

[GizmosAndGadgets]

How was your flight?
Pretty good, but hot. They made me put my clothes back on.

I thought you were kidding, until I saw that you made it on Drudge ;-) Officials: Flight in Vegas delayed by naked passenger

[fuzzylogic]

I’ve said to many people, ‘we live in an age of deceit’. They don’t seem to realize.

I read a paper articulating that even in scientific journals, half of the information turns out to be false. If that’s the output of “peer reviewed” work, what level of trust should I put into every day journalism. ...although if this is the case, maybe I shouldn’t trust that paper either then ;p

The internet enabled an explosion of false information, literally creating alternate universes for different people. More and more I hear people that are just, from my view of the world, COMPLETELY disconnected from reality. If your real world is based on the virtual world, this is what happens.

[GOPJ]

The key is the MSM - without it, their influence over our culture would vanish quickly.

You're right - the MSM teams with corrupt politicians... birthing totalitarian hellholes.

[poconopundit]

Nassim Taleb is a great story teller. I once travelled two hours to New Jersey to hear him speak.

He told the story of the old Babylonians.

They had a way of setting responsibility in the old Hammerabi law.

Whenever an architect built a bridge, he and his family were required to live under that bridge. So if it ever came crashing down, he and family would be the first to die.

It occurs to me that Trump living in his own Tower in New York is an example of that law.

More than that. If a big fire or any major structural flaw was discovered in a Trump building, the Trump empire might just come crashing down. Thus a man like Trump learned to be quite careful in his work. So when you think Trump is acting or saying something rashly, he's probably not.

You need to be a very calculating and careful person to be in the Skyscraper business... and the Deep State demolition business as well :- )

An Architectural & Business Masterpiece: Trump Tower in Chicago

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks! You have given me an excellent new word! Sometimes, there is nothing new re the evil of mankind. kakistocracy: A kakistocracy (English pronunciation: /kækɪsˈtɑkɹəsi/) is a state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. The word was coined as early as the 1600s. It was also used by English author Thomas Love Peacock in 1829. Kakistocracy - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakistocracy Thanks to Disambiguator for introducing Kakistocract to me!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks! You have given me an excellent new word! Sometimes, there is nothing new re the evil of mankind. kakistocracy: A kakistocracy (English pronunciation: /kækɪsˈtɑkɹəsi/) is a state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. The word was coined as early as the 1600s. It was also used by English author Thomas Love Peacock in 1829. Kakistocracy - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakistocracy Thanks to Disambiguator for introducing Kakistocracy to me!

[Liz]

Nice counterpoint....from skyscraper builder to demolishing the Deep State.

[Grampa Dave]

“I’ve said to many people, ‘we live in an age of deceit’. They don’t seem to realize.

I read a paper articulating that even in scientific journals, half of the information turns out to be false. If that’s the output of “peer reviewed” work, what level of trust should I put into every day journalism. ...although if this is the case, maybe I shouldn’t trust that paper either then!”

This link will take you to an oped, about Intellectuals Yet Idiots that confirms your observations about so called peer review.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-16/nassim-taleb-exposes-worlds-intellectual-yet-idiot-class

[Disambiguator]

This is what I do. :^)

[Big Red Badger]

...going to pot!

Yup.

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the post.

There has always been deceit. An example is the basis of the heart health (lipid) theory going back to Ancel Keys. His motivation to crusade against fat was based on an equally fallacious study of rabbits fed saturated fats (Russia 1957).

This was the beginning of the government technological state picking "scientific" winners over real science. The only losers then were the scientists who were cut out of the government grant process for not confirming to the state's requirements.

This was bad in itself, however we have moved to an entirely different level in the corporatist state. Now the totalitarian powers are calling for the active destruction of dissent. We need to only look at the AGW religion and the ongoing human destruction fraught by the lipid theory to see the spread of the deceit cancer. The deceit cancer has metastasized into the SJW movement. This is a far more deadly cancer now. The SJW cancer is now the post-modernist army created to cleanse the world of reason in the quest of their animist religions.

Post-modernism is not enlightenment. Post-modernism is the deconstruction of all institutions that lent stability and cohesion to a society. This stability was necessary to create real progress and real progress required science and not scientism. Scientism is one of the tenets of animist religions resulting in the destruction of actual science and reason.

Over a half century ago (1961), President Eisenhower tried to warn us of the dangers ahead.

Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation

Many cherry picked his speech to focus only on the threat of the military industrial complex. President Eisenhower knew this was a threat, however it was a necessary evil in the modern technological world. The threat was far greater with the mixing of science, technology and government in every other aspect of American society:

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system – ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

We failed to heed his warning or did we? President Trump was the American peoples response to the totalitarian state and the cancer of deceit. I just hope we are not too late.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks! I just sent this to a couple of younger relatives and some old goats like me:

A kakistocracy (English pronunciation: is a state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. The word was coined as early as the 1600s.

It was also used by English author Thomas Love Peacock in 1829.

Kakistocracy - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakistocracy

As you noted in your reply to me: kakistocracy describes in a few words, what the Intellectuals Yet Idiots have done to America and other Western countries/cultures.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for sharing this story with me. My wife was an RN for all of her adult life. She left hospitals because of their intellectual yet idiot RNs who told the RNs what to do. She spent the last 35 years of her nursing life as the head RN for a large family practice group. She was a real nurse who helped to care for 30 to 40 patients a day. Reality and knowledge of her patients were her world, where she learned and applied new skills with her old ones.

Her theory of how to handle these people Intellectual Yet Idiot nurses, was that they had to work at least 2 days a week as a floor nurse or critical care nurse under their edicts. Then, they could see how good or how bad their edicts/advise was.

Nassim Taleb is a great story teller. I once travelled two hours to New Jersey to hear him speak.

He told the story of the old Babylonians.

They had a way of setting responsibility in the old Hammerabi law.

Whenever an architect built a bridge, he and his family were required to live under that bridge. So if it ever came crashing down, he and family would be the first to die.

It occurs to me that Trump living in his own Tower in New York is an example of that law.

More than that. If a big fire or any major structural flaw was discovered in a Trump building, the Trump empire might just come crashing down. Thus a man like Trump learned to be quite careful in his work. So when you think Trump is acting or saying something rashly, he’s probably not.

You need to be a very calculating and careful person to be in the Skyscraper business... and the Deep State demolition business as well :- )

[HLPhat]

>>It’s time for...

Or we could shut down Rotwang’s bullshyte generator on holodeck 3...

https://youtu.be/Q0NzALRJifI?t=1h22m48s

...and see what reboots.

[originalbuckeye]

Try arguing that with a hard core Leftist. My sister-in-law and I don’t discuss the matter anymore. And my niece has a best friend who is gay and happily babysits their 3 year old son. My S-i-L gets angry when confronted with the truth about this matter. Trying to keep peace on the family is not easy, when half the extended family blindly follows whatever the Left tells them is the truth. And the Left continues to say there is a gay gene. Truth doesn’t matter to Leftist propagandists.

[Mears]

” Trying to keep peace on the family is not easy, “

—

You’ve got that right-——in my case it’s the daughters,the sons are on our side.

,

[tuffydoodle]

Anyone who lets a man, gay or straight, babysit their kids needs their head examined. And letting a homosexual man babysit a little boy is criminal. No good will come of that one.

[HLPhat]

>>My S-i-L gets angry when confronted with the truth about this matter.

Part of the conditioned response:

Here is our progressive, "spiritual", tolerant, inclusive, opinion

- now you shut up and agree to disagree...

you nazis!

[IDIOTS REACT TO MAN WITH SIGN]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL0tRHvBlQQ

 

[The Architects of Western Decline: A Study on the Frankfurt School and Cultural Marxism]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTmNWY0ZPfM&t=18m 

 

[Pajamajan]

Excellent Must-Read BUMP!