How Did We Get Here?

“Dividing and mutating at the same time?” – The Andromeda Strain

Two guys stole a calendar and divided it equally. They each got six months.

I think it’s fair to look around and ask a very simple question:

How did we get here?

Certainly, the United States is in a heck of a mess in almost any way one can look at it. When it comes to cohesion, half of the country is like dad sitting on his easy chair after a hard day working at the PEZ® mines. The other half just wants to pester him because he doesn’t care enough about The Current Thing. They have been careful to not make dad put the paper down. Yet. Because that’s when the spanking hand comes out.

The ability of our economy to manufacture critical goods has been outsourced around the world, because, let’s face it, no one is better at sewing up a soccer ball than an 8-year-old Pakistani kid. And if we took the time to teach them and spent the money to build the factories, no one is better at making iPhones™ than Chinese women who are locked in those factories who have to put up nets to keep people from actually killing themselves when they try to jump off that same factory roof. I think the Chinese even charge the women an “amusement park ride fee” when they jump.

So, how did we get here?

The United States has always had an ornery streak. I think Andrew Jackson would have happily had every single central banker in the United States executed – of course, the central bankers retaliated by putting his face on the $20 bill, but I assure you they waited until they were certain he was dead.

And, despite what Biden thinks, Andrew was not a member of the Jackson 5.

How, then, do you take a country that has divided in a massive War Between The States, been brought back (mostly) together, and divide the nation again? In many ways the three items I’ll bring up are intertwined and feed off of each other, but I’ll take each one in turn.

Propaganda. The first part is to skew the definition of America. America was a nation even up into the 1960s, where most (85%-90%) of people had a common ancestry in northwestern Europe, with Great Britain having the largest contribution. Scots may have had problems with the Irish, and the Irish with the English, they might have been neutral about the Swiss, and all of them might have been irritated by the French and Germans, but the common bounds of country and culture were there.

What changed? The idea that if you came to America, it would be expected that you would assimilate to America. Sure, your name might have been Giuseppe, but your grandkid’s name might be Colin, or Brandon, or Brayden. You left that old world behind and consciously gave it up for the new culture. The American culture.

“9 or 10? Let ‘em in! 3 or 4? Here’s the door.” will be my presidential campaign slogan.

The first lie is the lie that there is no American culture. I can understand that from the point of view of most of the world. How would a fish know about water when he’s swimming in it? American culture (with due credit to Great Britain for kickstarting it) became the most pervasive in the world, spinning off ideas and music and clothes and food at an amazing rate.

Now, of course, propaganda would tell us that we have no culture, and it is evil for us to expect people who come to our country to learn our language, and respect our culture first. No, that’s inverted. It does no good to a person who would divide a country for that to happen. Instead? It’s evil to ask people to learn English. If they kill chickens to sacrifice to Gorbo and marry off their eight-year-old kids to 32-year-old first cousins? We are expected to celebrate that.

No. That’s an inversion. They came here. If they can’t assimilate into American culture and American norms? Out. And take the chickens.

A friend told me he made a voodoo doll of me. I said, “You’re pulling my leg!”

Other ways that propaganda has hurt America are numerous, probably enough for a book. One that’s still hurting us is the idea that nuclear power is evil. It isn’t. It’s funny that all the Green® power seems to be either more polluting or require those 8-year-old kids in Pakistan to learn how to mine lithium rather than sew up soccer balls to make batteries for cars fueled on pure Hopium. No, if you don’t like oil and gas, the only real solution is either condemning the country to an unending abject poverty or to build nuclear power plants.

The warfare culture post 9/11 has also been difficult. What, exactly, were we doing in Afghanistan after Osama Bin Laden assumed ocean temperature? Don’t know. Why did we go into Iraq? Don’t know. Why did we overthrow governments in Libya, Syria, and Ukraine?

Don’t know. But the propaganda that accompanied all of those divided the country, though it’s not nearly as bad as the race grievance industry that’s been in full tilt in the last two decades – but I’ll save that for a future post.

Pathological Altruism. If I have a puppy, and it piddles on the floor and everyone laughs and it’s cute, well, when it’s a big dog no one laughs. Then the dog wonders why I’m beating it for something I was laughing about. No one wants to be the bad guy and say, “No, you have to be punished for your actions so you won’t do it again.” Everyone wants to give people another chance.

My friend’s house was also hit by the dessert thief. He takes the cake.

A friend of mine had his house broken into. They were able to catch the criminals, and he attended the trial. Result of them stealing thousands and thousands of dollars of his property? A suspended sentence for one guy (who had multiple prior felony convictions) and two years for the other. What message, exactly, is that sending?

The Hart-Celler Immigration Reform Act of 1965 (plus the amnesties that have followed and will follow) are horrifying in their pathological altruism and use of propaganda. The composition of the country has changed – it’s no longer a nation. Where once there was a central culture, now every viewpoint is expected to be equally valid, and (I’m not making this up) the incoming medical school class pledged to honor “all indigenous ways of healing that have been historically marginalized by western medicine.”

Let’s go kill some chickens, because that will get rid of the gunshot wound. Oh, right, don’t forget the Ouija® board.

Corruption. The United States has always been corrupt, let’s get that out first. But the beauty of the corruption early on is that, mostly, it was limited because the scope of the Federal government was limited. Sure, Sheriff Smith over in Mount Pilot would take bribes, but he’d eventually be caught. And did several members of the state legislature take bribes to get the “right” senator into office?

Sure. That happened, too. Three events ushered in eras of nearly unfettered power for the Federal government: the Civil War, the 16th and 17th Amendments, and the New Deal. The Civil War ended the idea that the Several States were sovereign – they became mere political subdivisions of the United States. The 16th and 17th Amendments made it possible to tax and ended the appointment of Senators. Now, Senators became Representatives with six-year terms, rather than appointed representatives of the Several States – a huge difference.

Fetterman also had a prostate exam the other day – thumbs up!

This level of corruption concentrated power at the Federal level and made the farces we see today where people who are on the Right receive massive sentences at the Federal level for minor crimes, but people on the Left are not even indicted, and almost anyone who has power has a free pass for anything but killing someone on-screen at halftime during the Superbowl™, and that only counts as a delay of game penalty.

I originally had more items here, but had to delete them because otherwise this could become a book. I’m certain, though, that the top three cover it well enough for now. I do think that America is getting ready to get out of the easy chair. And the spanking hand is getting ready.

Author: John

Nobel-Prize Winning, MacArthur Genius Grant Near Recipient writing to you regularly about Fitness, Wealth, and Wisdom - How to be happy and how to be healthy. Oh, and rich.

34 thoughts on “How Did We Get Here?”

  1. The turning point was January 1970. That was when that a*hole federal judge in Charlotte designated forced integration in public schools to commence. 52 years later…well, we now see what is what.

    1. I’ve never (nor have my kids) had to deal with that – for the most part the schools we went to were the only ones in the area where we lived. The 1970s was an absolute disaster due to the implementation of Leftist Pathologically Altruistic ideas. I do know that bussing has not had a positive effect on any community, or any ethnic group (from a statistical standpoint).

  2. Propaganda, altruism, corruption…all of these are something that one person uses to express or obtain an advantage over another, effectively thru some form of misallocation or misdirection. There is a common factor of somehow working in the shadows, behind the scenes. Agreed that all had a role in getting us where we are today.

    Another way of looking at the question is what factors exist solely within ourselves that have led to where we are today. And after winning big followed by giving it all back while distracted watching an awesome Tennessee win ( at long last!), let me share a poker insight.

    Success in poker and nationbuilding comes from successfully balancing fear and greed – both purely internal, individual factors. I submit that we have gotten to where we are by allowing our individual and collective greed to severely overtake our fear.

    Today the mantra in so many areas is do what you want without a worry of consequences. Get your goodies with no risk of jail time. This has led to severe social, economic and political imbalances. Most significantly in the metric of money, which is how we keep score….

    https://blog.raulza.me/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Fig1-USATop1Bottom501970-2015-1024×706.png

    Now everybody has an overriding interest in either overcoming or maintaining the imbalance we find ourselves in, instead of preventing an imbalance from happening in the first place. Democracy and capitalism are at risk of being overthrown by authoritarianism and socialism.

    Don’t successfully maintain the balance of fear and greed as individuals and as a society? Just look where that gets ya.

    Next truism we gotta deal with? Actions have consequences.

    2. And remember, Jeffrey Epstein only went to jail because of the public uproar. The guy who founded Silk Road was sentenced to more time than Jeffrey was.

  3. John – The modern United States is almost unique in the world that the expectation (now, anyway) is that you will not adapt to the culture. Virtually everywhere else in the world, the expectation is that you adapt to the country you have chosen as your new home. Were I to move to Japan or Costa Rica or Iceland (not likely as The Ravishing Mrs. TB hates cold but hey, let us dream), the expectation is that I would learn to live by the culture and mores of that country. Sure, we could always have our weird homeland traditions (I have had Thanksgiving in other countries, and trying to explain the concept and practice is hilarious – almost like trying to explain PEZ candy), but those are the exception, not the rule.

    As for corruption – As you say, the size and scale of government and its continued growth and authoritarian impulses (“Why get power if you cannot use it?”) has exacerbated the problem. At some level, I assume all government above the level of my friend group is corrupt. It is just the size of the corruption.

    1. But Japan, Costa Rica, and Iceland aren’t the US. You can’t move to Japan and become Japanese, unless you already were. That is the fundamental difference between a nation and a country.

  4. This is the natural outcome of so few kids having full brothers and sisters.
    Let me explain: a step- or half- sib will be defended by the parent that is NOT yours. The resentment against the interloper will be strong, and the lesson learned is that you have to have a connection to overcome that tribal conection, and get what you deserve.
    The actual parents of that not-quite sibling will ALWAYS take their side. This encourages the traditions common in extended families – tribal alliances trump justice. For foreigners/immigrants, this is normal.
    For Americans, this is not. We are used to standing on the rights guaranteed by the Written Constitution. No amount of special unearned favor can, or should, overcome those rights.
    Children customarily wheedle Mom to overlook what they are entitled to, and grant them special privileges. Dads generally don’t. That is yet another value to having Dads in the house. They lead children to understand the American Way of Justice.
    Now, your full brothers and sisters can’t depend on tribal preferences; they may get their way because of age, but they will also outgrow that privilege. The fully sibling world also teaches kids that “Mom won’t always be around, kid”, and uses sneaky means to even the score. NOT by asking/demanding special privileges from a parent, but by learning how to function within the system.
    Foreigners come – mostly – from cultures where your family/kin alliances are all that keep you from being overrun by the state. No one would go to court demanding their rights in these countries, instead, they call upon someone who can be persuaded to throw their weight into the decision.
    America is deteriorating into 3rd World Justice.

    1. Yups. Moms are caring, Pop is the law.

      There’s a lot more to write about civilizations where some groups are merit-based, and others are family/kin based.

  5. “How, then, do you take a country that has divided in a massive War Between The States, been brought back (mostly) together, and divide the nation again?”

    Speaking as a Southroner (not necessarily speaking for the South), I’d change the word “brought” to “forced” in the above sentence. I’d further contend that we had been divided from the beginning of the republic (see also the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debates prior and the Whiskey Rebellion immediately subsequent) and that the War for Southron Suppression of 1861-65 merely made reconciliation irrevocable, best attempts by the serfs on both sides notwithstanding.

    1. Very fair correction, though I think there was a real desire on many Northerners to make Southerners feel like brothers again. In some cases it took lifetimes. (To be fair, in some cases, it still isn’t there.)

  6. “With a Pair of Caesars” ?

    ‘Seezores’ is the politically correct, preferred term. IF Ebonics don’t Cut it.

    Pick. And Choose.

    Pick? (What we do in the Fields) It’s NOT just for Cotton. Anymore.

    Choose? (What we wear on our feet)

    Ebonics?

    #1) Hold the Pistol Sideways…
    #2) DO NOT Lash Out vehemently MORE on Father’s Day. It WAS NOT his FAULT! Yo Mamma’s funding would be Curtailed STOPPED with a Father Present in the Home.
    #3)…

  7. If you’re going to correctly parse the corruption and metastasis of federal government, you have to include all four of the Tentpoles of Progressivist Rot:
    The 16th
    17th
    18th
    and 19th Amendments to the Constitution.

    The 16th Amendment allowed Congress the unhindered authority to directly tax every citizen. Now endlessly, and perpetually. Before that, such taxes were flatly illegal, and ruled as such. The only direct fee one generally paid to Uncle before that time was for postage stamps.

    The 17th Amendment removed the appointment of senators from the purview of the states’ legislatures, giving them a thumb on the scale in DC and requiring anything proposed to pass muster with the whole state, rather than be run by the cabal of the most populous cities within one. It instituted the foremost object of The Founders’ fear and loathing in Washington: it made the Senate subject to direct democracy, and the whims of the mob, rather than being the federal body the states controlled. For reference, if the 17th amendment were repealed tomorrow, Republicans would have 64 senators right this minute, and Democrats would have 36. With those numbers, the most liberal justice appointed to the Supreme Court since 1915 would have been Ann Coulter. If the Dems lost a single state, the most liberal SCOTUS or federal judge pick would have been Judge Judy, Joe Arpaio, or Ted Nugent. And justices like Scalia and Thomas would be considered moderates.
    Most of the rest would bear more resemblance to “hanging” judges from somewhere around 1870.
    Just for openers.
    Ditto for the Cabinet, and all ambassadors.

    The 18th Amendment was the Grand Experiment to pretend alcohol was never fermented, and the only Amendment to date so doomed to failure it was repealed a few years later, but only after it single-handedly corrupted every level of politics, and jump-started the Mob and criminal gangs from a few scattered ghetto bosses and the occasional corruptocrat city, to national and international prominence. Well-played, @$$holes.

    The 19th amendment gave women the right to vote.
    Rather disastrously, as we shall point out.
    Without the votes of women, the last Democrat elected to occupy the White House would have been Woodrow Wilson, in 1916.
    You can piss and moan back and forth about whether or not women should have ever been given the franchise, but you cannot argue that on the whole, every calamity that has befallen the country since they got it has been directly traceable to the exact candidates they elected, by providing the margin of victory, in every election since 1920.
    Just for openers, the mothers of America gave us four terms of FDR, prolonged the Depression greatly, and gave us the isolationism that made WWII inevitable, then piled on with Harry Truman, and let communism run rampant around the world for another 40 years, and we’re still dealing with the fallout (literal and metaphorical) from all that stupidity. That’s before we dig into the nonsense behind 60 years of unhindered Democrat congresses (which gave you that exact Wide-Open Immigration Act of 1965, and ever more liberal-activist SCOTUS rulings), plus JFK, LBJ, Carter, Clinton, Obozo, and now Emperor Stumblef**k Poopypants I, first installed dictator of the American Dumbocommunist Empire, courtesy of generational millions of Karens, and their archdeaconesses, Rachel Madcow, and that coven of brujas on The Spew.
    QED

    Repeal three more progressive Amendments, and you can probably get your country back, after 50 years of diligent effort, and a few volleys of grapeshot.

    Just saying.

    As it is, it’s going to take trainloads of that grapeshot first, which isn’t wholly unhealthy in the long run, but it’s pretty hard on the furniture in the short-term.

    1. ” would have been Ann Coulter. ”

      Wry am i speechless?

      Don’t believe i’ve had the distinct pleasure. Of reading Your Thoughts/Spot-On Observations @ TBP? Purty urbane Crowd, absolutely brimming with decorum among other things. Rarefied, esoteric environment to say the least, by and large.

      Mr. Wilder did grant permission once to use a passage of His, upon asking. Poem of some sort, IIRC. John did ask for attribution. NOT a problem. AT ALL. Grateful. CERTAINLY was timely, Well Received.

      Your Contribution to The Cause du jour? VERY succinct assessment of a few Amendments.

      @ TBP, a Current Feature Post.
      https://www.theburningplatform.com/2022/10/17/the-convention-of-states-project-a-bad-idea/

      Granted. A tough crowd. Prolly why You are hesitant to post there.

      One CAN post ‘Anonymously’, there as well.

      Would You…

      1) Please consider posting Your Reply Here, There? In Reference to the above link? Have NOT even read it yet. Long, erratic days, primarily when i have time to myself. Easy to get lost in the weeds, PRIME time for EZ pickins of…
      https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/physalis/pubescens/‘. Just turned 60 in Sept. and had NO IDEA such an amazingly tasty morsel was just layin’ there until 5 SHORT Yrs. ago. ENTIRE Plant is poisonous, ‘cept for the RIPE fruit. PLUS, ‘Work’ has been crazy for this time of Year.

      Before i go off on yet another tangent…

      2) In lieu of that? i fully recognize that You are rather…Oh, how shall i say?…Timid.

      Would You perchance GRANT me permission to post same? FULL attribution, HOWEVER You specify.

      If You have the Time/Inclination to reply. It would be an HONOR on many levels.

      Thank You, willy in WV

      P.S. i don’t USUALLY stoop to such pusillanimous and obsequious levels, but desperate times call for desperate measures. After all, IT IS for “The Common Good” AND “For The Children”.

      i anxiously await Your reply, Sir.

    2. America is KareNation. Has been for many decades. Conservatives now are schooled by outlets like Breitbart to cheer and embrace the latest butch-haired female GOP candidate . . . because she yabbles a few trad talking points and looks cute. Once she’s in office it’s straight back to the lib-feminist agenda, hardly different than the Demoncrapic Party.

      Behold! the American male, forging his own chains, heaping praise on them! lol

      If the United Sisterhood repealed the Nineteenth and apologized to Jehovah for it, the place might survive. Mebbe. Even with that, lots of cockroach-stomping would be required. Be a messy business.

    3. Very, very true – each and every word. As I looked on the list of Amendments that took away freedoms, I was tempted to pop more in there, but then realized that I could be writing for weeks and weeks just on that.

      Thankfully, we can get more furniture.

      Ted Nugent on the Supreme Court. Wang Dang!

  8. Timid. Moi? Anything but. But thanks for the unintentional humor factor.I have no problems posting at TBP. My only small gripe is when I find an entire post from my blog adopted as a guest post. But I don’t post a blog for anonymity, so as I said, it’s a small gripe. And tough crowd? Pfft.The audience at my own blog is tougher, I’ll bet. Click on my name for the link.

    1. A belated Thank You.

      i waited the alloted/permitted time for a response. And then? Just posted a link to this article @ TBP, in the aforementioned ‘Spot’, afore i had ta leave. Mentioned ‘You’, Suggested ‘Remarks’ reading, clear and concise ‘Highlights’ of Our ‘History’ or something to that effect. Of Course, i didn’t mention myself. SOMEONE there may recognize my Screen Name. COMPLETELY Clueless myself!

      One of the main reasons i started posting here, (Other than the EXCEPTIONAL Humor. WHAT drew me ‘Here’ ta begin with) instead of just reading. Those People can be BIG Meanies…and i’m kinda TIMID and defenseless myself. prolly readily apparent, not the brightest Tool in the Shed.

      Always a GREAT personal struggle. In an Amazing fit of https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-irony-and-coincidence/…?

      You can surely appreciate my surprise, when i took your advice, (Your screen name ‘link’ suggestion) and ultimately ended up @…http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/

      One of my nascent bookmarks, Quite a Few ‘Technical’; MANY subjects, previously. When i 1st started wondering/wandering the ‘WHY’s And Wherefores’ of WHAT i was ‘SEEING’. In Earnest. ‘Branching Out’ as it were.

      Truthfully? No IDEA how i stumbled across ‘You’. i may have been looking for a (real or imagined) long lost twin…prolly entered “Used to be conceited. Now Perfect”

      Coulda been my vivid imagination, read there quite a bit at that juncture, but the Blog seemed to have a slightly…not sure what word(s) ta choose.

      You See, i was in the middle of…

      ” Find something you love to do.”

      ” I swore as a student I’d never be one of the bitter old burnouts I met who hate everyone, and suck Excel at the job. But remember, some people need compassion manifested as tough love, not as fluffy bunnies.”

      Emphatically, even MORE surprised to discover, at the same behest … http://shepherdofthegurneys.blogspot.com/ Where i read…

      “Find something you love to do.”

      “I swore as a student I’d never be one of the bitter old burnouts I met who hate everyone, and suck at the job. But remember, some people need compassion manifested as tough love, not as fluffy bunnies.”

      We MIGHT BE Long-Lost Brothers After ALL! Who’s Your Daddy?

      Did You contemplate being a Lawyer? Too?

      All well and good. Can ONLY speak for myself, predisposed B.S.er, Au naturel.
      But after ya Shaft All the denizens? Politics is about your ONLY option. Get outa Town while ya still can! (Coming soon to a ‘Theater’ Near You)

      But a Politician? Please. Ya Ask ’em a simple question.

      THEY will dance all around it. And direct one elsewhere.

      “But thanks for the unintentional humor factor.”

  9. Propaganda has little effect if those subjected to it are informed. Considering the current time period has the greatest source of information, and the most affected by propaganda, an honest form of education is most needed.

    1. Absolutely. In fact, when you have learned, nothing sticks out more than propaganda, and it becomes offensive.

  10. How did we get here? We are here as a result of a plan that the criminal left has been implementing by at first small subtle steps and more recently large blatant leaps. It’s been an ongoing journey the commie left began implementing at the end of WWII. It was conceived before that and put in play in the late 40’s.

    1. “..began implementing at the end of WWII” ?

      IMHO? Not very long at All. AFTER King George III Stole, or ‘Asked for’ MORE than the ‘Usual and Customary’ 10%.

      Indubitably, EVEN brandon knows THAT score. 1791 was A Biggie an interesting Year as well, multiple fronts.

      Somewhere along the line, WE even purchased a chunk of The Virgin Islands for the paltry sum of $25,000,000 (sorry, don’t no how ta spell mealyun). In Cold, hard, ‘Something Fishy in Denmark’ gold.

      But conveniently, NOT before we fomented Civil War in Columbia, but hey, WE eventually gained possession of the panama Canal. And then again the Origin of the term ‘Banana Republic’ came into being somewhere roundabout then. NOT ‘Formalized’ as solely ‘American’ AND SS Co. ’til 1927. Why i always failed History Class, how was i supposed ta know ’bout stuff that happened afore i was born?. No Idea that Clothing Store had been around for quite so long a period of time.

      ‘Fishy in Denmark’? Suppose that’s what “Going Dutch” means.

      1. Google “Zimmerman Telegram”, and “Lusitania”.

        We’ll tolerate a lot, but not conniving with Mexico to invade the U.S.

        Germany got grabby and uppity, and it was time to put them in their proper place.
        Which was good training for both Patton, and the Marines.

        The mistake was not breaking them up into smaller sub-bits the first time (Germany proper should have been made into five sub-bits right off), and then the crushing demands for reparations.

        1. Well, remember the second line of the Zimmerman Telegram was “We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral.”

          It was then followed by, “In the event of this not succeeding, . . .” and I’m sure that we have plans to invade Canada. I’m just hoping it’s called “Operation Leafblower.”

          And Lusitania? It was hit by a torpedo, which did not sink it. It was hundreds of tons of explosives in the secondary explosion that took it down faster than Monica on a date. It was (even by the rules of war at the time) a legit target – we’d absolutely do the same in a heartbeat if the pesky French were sending weapons to the Canadians during Operation Leafblower.

          That being said, if you’re in a war, you fight to win. But imagine Europe without us intervening . . .

    1. Kirby, I believe that the Geneva Convention has created an entire war crime section for Concentrated Wilder.

      Seriously, I’ve thought about it. Heck, I even have a title picked out. Drop me a line and I’ll share. Now, the only thing missing is a subject . . .

      1. You could free yourself from the bonds of Concentrated Wilder. Just add 36 fl oz cold water, stir or shake, and bam, Wilder From Concentrate. Free at last!

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