Taboos and Lies
I've been thinking about the things we don't talk about (in the USA). We can talk about many things here. There are no rules forbidding it. But even here, some of these subjects are hot potatoes. And if there is an official story, parts of it are likely to be defended. It is as if we live lies, which must not be challenged.
Some of the things we don't talk about are the questioning of what really happened on 9/11, though few people believe the official story is the truth, and all of the truth.
JFK's assassination is another one, though there have been several books published questioning the official story about that.
We don't talk about the 2000 election. It is mentioned in "lefty" circles, but rarely elsewhere. Despite the obvious election fraud and election rigging this year, people go silent if one mentions it. And that includes some former Bernie supporters. It's not okay to talk about that. We are all still supposed to pretend it didn't/hasn't happened. And that is even with people who get their news from supposedly lefty sources.
We do not talk about serious mental illness except in a very superficial way. Yet many of us have a relative somewhere in our extended family with a serious mental illness, schizophrenia, bi-polar or severe depression. One of my cousins was murdered by his mentally ill son several years ago, and still not one of the relatives on that side of the family will say that word. What about in your circle of family and friends? How can we figure out the right ways to help and make that help available if we can't even admit there is a problem?
Homelessness. We don't ask why there are so many homeless people, with the numbers growing. What the police is doing to them, where they are camping--those are talked about. How many people, in our society at large, even knows who they are--that they are families, some of whom used to be middle class, that many of the homeless are veterans. And of course, some are people with a mental illness. Mention any of these things, and you'll get silence again, and then a change of subject.
Another taboo is racism. That is discussed only superficially, for the most part. And it may be that in some circles, that subject is discussed in more depth. Obviously people of color live it every hour of every day. My close extended family is fairly diverse on both sides. And still we don't talk about racism. What about your family? People ever talk about their attitudes, the things they have learned that changed some attitudes?
How many people know that when the human genome was mapped, there was not one thing in the genome that distinguished Asians from African Americans, from Caucasians, from First Nation peoples?
These are a few of the unspoken taboos I am aware of. There are probably others. And I'm not prepared to defend this list. Other people will have a different perspective. We are influenced to some extent by the media. It has been used to limit what we know and shape what we think for a lot of years. I believe it is important to consider that and to discuss the things we aren't supposed to talk about.
I am not a writer or a deep thinker, don't even pretend to be one. This has been on my mind, and I wondered if this is a subject some people here might have mused over also.
Comments
(No subject)
You want a real taboo topic?
Try talking about UFOs. Just start with sightings - like the "Phoenix lights" - and see how far anyone gets before the ridicule sets in.
For seconds, try to have an open, honest discussion of ghosts.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
LOL. You're right.
I'll look up the Phoenix lights.
Yeah but the Marfa Lights are real. (I think)(I hope)
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Looked up the Marfa Lights.
Wikipedia has a really weak article chock-a-block full of seriously piss-poor "scientific" debunking of the lights, first reported by cowboys in the 1800s, as being people really seeing automobile headlights. Uh-huh.
Have you seen them? I'd really like to read a first-hand account.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
My wife & I have visited Big Bend Natl Pk 4 times and spent a
week or so each time. Twice we drove to Marfa to look for the lights but did not have an "Oh wow" moment so any lights we saw were probably not the famous lights. My answer is No.
I lived in the SW for 12 years & heard of the lights and knew they were reported well before electricity and cars. I didn't get to go there when I lived in SW Utah & Colorado but went back west on vacations.
Living in the mountains of SW Virginia I was made aware of the Brown Mountain lights of North Carolina. I spoke with people I worked with who had seen them. These lights also had been reported before cars and electricity. My one attempt to see the Brown Mtn lights also netted nothing.
I think these are real and are an electric phenomenon generated by underground rocks under stress. It's a fact that earthquakes generate strange lights often so this makes sense to me.
Sorry I didn't see the real thing but I do think they are a real thing.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
UFOs are hard to believe in.
I firmly believe there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. There are at least a billion trillion stars. It's pure human hubris to think we're so special that we're the only life in existence.
On the other hand, I think we are so uninteresting a species that aliens wouldn't waste their time visiting or studying or kidnapping us, so it seems doubtful that UFOs have ever been here or would ever come here.
You're right, edg,
I believe there is intelligent life elsewhere 'cause there Certainly ain't none down here!
Nice post, granma, we Don't talk about a lot of issues and when we do talk about them we talk about them in a wrong way(blaming the messenger).
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
edg, I think you're confusing
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) with "aliens" or extraterrestrial life. There's quite a leap between the two, at least in my world. Unexplained visual phenomena in the skies hardly have to be extraterrestrial, or have anything to do with extraterrestrial life, intelligent or otherwise.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
People only believe only if they've seen one
themselves.
I was with 6 other people on Whidbey Island, WA which has a Naval Air Base. I was with a woman whose father was an Air Force man. What we saw was seen by many. No jets flying that night. No idea what it was. But you KNOW when what you are seeing just can't be explained.
It was 30 minutes long - the sighting. Big, huge diamond shape light. Then three little red lights came out of it, two on one side, 1 on the other and they zoomed off. The big light then just took off straight without any sound. It was crazy.
I don't care what people think. I saw it with so many others... we all saw it.
I still remember us all saying, "that can't be one of ours and if it isn't - we are really fucked."
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
I enjoyed reading this
essay, and then the funny thing is, I saw us live up to the taboo, we are carrying it out ourselves.
What I mean by that, is that she wrote an article talking about how people refuse to mention things which effect their lives, like the fact that more people are homeless, that the 2000 election was stolen. That's some scary stuff. Some of you may think of yourselves as being safe, but I bet that some of the people who read this story will find themselves homeless someday.
When that happens to them, they are going to find out what it's like when everyone in your life walks away from you. People who used to care about you, stop talking about you. They stop bringing you up in polite conversations.
From there, somebody mentioned UFOs. I'm not discounting UFOs you understand, but we just moved from talking about something important that will have a profound effect on our lives, to something that is at least less tangible.
That right there is how the taboo works.
I say in casual conversation, "Did you guys know that Rob's unemployment ran out and he lost his apartment? He's out in the street. He wanted to stay with me, but I couldn't let him stay with me. I feel really bad about it."
The response. "That's too bad." Then a few moments hesitation. "Say did you hear about what Trump said the other day?"
I didn't just make up that conversation, it happened.
You hit the nail right on the head.
I wrote about things that affect us us all, things we are programmed not to talk about. Few people wanted to discuss those things, even here.
And a lot of responders changed the subject. It is fine with me if others want to talk about UFOs, ghosts, etc. Those are apparently "safe" subjects, at least compared to the things I mentioned.
Unspoken taboos.
hunger and poverty
are every day conversations in our lives.
Three out of the four in my home go out each week and feed the hungry. Food bank preps and meals on wheels.
so that's kinda normal discussion at my home and in our circles
and I promise not to talk about anything taboo or off the subject.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
excellent piece, Granma
There are quite a number of things we are not allowed to acknowledge in polite company. Mold is another good one - I gotta run to a meeting.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
We're trained not to talk about certain things.
"In 2013 Professor Lance Dehaven-Smith in a peer-reviewed book published by the University of Texas Press showed that the term “conspiracy theory” was developed by the CIA as a means of undercutting critics of the Warren Commission’s report that President Kennedy was killed by Oswald. The use of this term was heavily promoted in the media by the CIA."
https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Theory-America-Discovering/dp/02927576...
There are plenty of people on the left who are vehemently against CT, I've seen opposition on here. To me just using the term as a means of denigration or even separation shows the level of conditioning someone has achieved.
The fifteen year anniversary of 9/11 is coming up. The corporate media, our government and the two presidential candidates are going to be hot and heavy on it. The propaganda and lies will be sickening for those that understand the truth. As I said earlier about this flag thing with Kaepernick and the narrative that the flag represents the military who have fought for this country, those that know better need to challenge these narratives or they'll never die.
I think the run-up to the 15th anniversary of 9/11
is an excellent time for us to discuss the "inconvenient truth(s)" that the Deep State has gone to such lengths to label CTs.
As for those insisting on their pet versions of today's Science Men's accepted physics, we can always introduce them to hecate.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
I think we'll start tomorrow :)
I agree, damn. It's like Trump vs. Clinton and the opportunity that presented us to challenge this farce of a political system. We're letting that go by.
Fifteen years of war we can't let by. It's like, Come on Man! What's up!
Hard to believe.
We sure are.
Please do write that diary.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Someone posted a video recently that started out with the
Kennedy assassination. I started watching it, but it's 3 hours long.
If whoever posted it or if anyone knows which essay it was in, please let me know.i spent over an hour looking for it last night.
I have never believed the official 9/11 explanation because of the scene at the pentagon. There wasn't any evidence of a plane crash that one usually sees and why did federal officials gather up all the videos from has stations or anywhere else?
There are a lot more reasons for why I don't believe it.
Edit to add
On 9/10/2001 Rumsfeld told us that the pentagon had misplaced $2.3 trillion dollars and the part where the records where kept was the area where the 'plane' hit the pentagon.
I don't believe that there was only one place where they would store that information, but I never heard another word about the missing funds.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Vader and Rummy needed
a Pearl Harbor to launch their perpetual war. They got one. Still amazing that those buildings came down so quickly. That had to surprise ol' Binny Boy his self. The History Channel soon will have wall to wall coverage.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
I've read in more than one book
about the use of the word Homeland by government officials before 9/11. Now that may only be a word, but the timing of that made me wonder a little, just seems a little too coincidental. I think James Risen is where I read that, cant remember which book though.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Snoopy
The video sounds familiar, but I didn't watch or bookmark it. Think I intended to go back to it later on. The link may have been posted in a comment instead of in the body of an essay. I hope you find it.
Yes it was in a comment
If i find it I will let you know if you are interested in it.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
I am interested. Thank you.
Yes. We are trained
And I have a feeling if we aren't supposed to talk about it, that is what we need to talk about. I have taped TV coverage that disproves a couple of lies about 9/11.
The official government story of 9/11 is so full of holes
you can drive a fleet of trucks thru it. There are many who purposely steer the discussion into certain directions, like whether the steel was hot enough or whether a plane really did hit the Pentagon to try to obfuscate but when if you look at the overall picture, to me, it's clear this was a false flag event.
9/11 changed everything. The thing is, if 9/11 really was a false flag, that REALLY changes everything. I suppose if we REALLY want to change things, we might want start with the government story of 9/11.
Course, we could say the same thing about JFK but look how long that's been. It's like most people just don't want to know or they don't think it matters. It does matter.
Our government had already considered doing this
with Operation Northwoods in order for the people to get behind the war with Cuba.
And this is what is going on with all the talk about Russia hacking the DNC and voter registration rolls.
Never mind that the war with Russia is already being planned and troops being put in over 20 countries that surround Russia.
Notice how Hillary and her supporters are discussing Trump's ties with Russia, but it is okay that Hillary helped Boeing sell Russia their jets and helped Russia get a contact for 20% of our uranium.
Propaganda works because people won't question the government.
The Iraqi army are throwing babies out of incubators
ETA that t removal of Saddam was already being planned because the folks who wrote PNAC tried to get Clinton to remove him, but he was too busy with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, but he lobbed a few missle into Iraq and people accused him of trying to distract from the impeachment hearings.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
To me, the most telling
thing about 9/11 is that anyone who had ever seen a video of a controlled demolition, (the Seattle King dome for instance) initially seeing TV coverage of the towers coming down assumed explosives. What amazes me is so many decided to deny their own eyes and brains later on. Many didn't of course, but an awful lot of people keep quiet about that event other than to say how terrible it was.
I agree with you about the JFK assassination and investigation. But a lot of people who might have known something about it have died because it was so long ago.
I've done a lot of research and reading about 9/11 over the years, but a couple of computer crashes have taken my saved information. There is solid, reliable information out there, but it takes a little digging. And there is deliberately planted fake conspiracy theory stuff about it too. So it takes some time and effort to sift and think.
You are right. It is important and because it changed so many things. Clearing out the lies about it, even if we cannot get to all of the truth would change a lot.
It is only people in the USA that won't talk about it. The world watched it on their TVs, and have probably had a lot of conversations about it.
I think it's pretty much been proven what happened to
JFK, why and by who. Records were released after 50 years which spurred new research and new books that prove the government story is false. I think part of it is that it becomes too complicated for most people to want to deal with, to put all the details into a big picture. Same thing with 9/11. Plus, it's like, so what, what are we going to do about it? Which is true, what are we going to do about it.
Our government is like the bully who does whatever he wants and tells those that don't like it, "what are you going to do about it". So nobody does anything.
My experience with 9/11 research
Was initial shock. I had to think about it, go back and read some more, rinse repeat. It was not an easy thing to accept. It took a little time. It makes me angry that people know the official story is a lie, but are unwilling to look at that. They turn away from it it because they don't want to face up to what that means.
But it has been 15 years. That is time enough to get used to that bit of truth and look for more of it.
Here is an article about Bandar Bush and his roll in
funding the Saudi terrorists along with his wife.
And does this picture look like Condi, George or Dick were concerned about the 3,000 people who had died 2 days ago?
If explosives were planted in the towers, one article I read was that they would have been planted in the 2 or 20 levels that Citi bank owned. People said that two weeks before 9/11, the offices were closed for construction.
I think that is where they would have planted the explosives on the pillars.
Part 1
http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/08/20/russ-baker-saudi-911-coverup-part-ii/
Part 2
http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/08/14/russ-baker-saudi-911-coverup/
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Both JFK's assassination
and 9/11 were (very clearly to my mind) inside jobs, and both involved massive, well-coordinated, officially-sanctioned cover-ups. What really surprises me, and shocks me, is how successful both disinformation campaigns have been. This success indicates a degree of "deep State" penetration of, and control over major US public institutions that is quite literally Orwellian in its extent.
The 9/11 affair is particularly problematic, in that to recognize (to admit) what really happened, would be to question the legitimacy and veracity of the entire top tier of the US government, and all or most of its media subsidiaries. Very few critics have been willing to publicly go that far, for fear of jeapordizing the security of the State itself. In a very real way, 9/11 was a crime that actually has been "too big to prosecute". Far too big. The utter callousness, ruthlessness, and premeditated savagery of these acts... it boggles the American imagination. We, as a people, are most certainly not accustomed to thinking our own government as being capable of such hideous behavior. How could we be?
And even though a very large percentage of the American public (50% or so?) does not believe the official version of 9/11, most people are nonetheless willing to let it stand as revealed "truth', and to allow this anniversary to be celebrated as such, without too much protest. It's very sad really, not particularly brave, and not at all free.
native
Yes
The problem with letting these things stand as accepted is that it makes it easier for more, possibly worse things to be done. I don't want that to happen.
Those of us of a certain age saw Oswald shot on TV.
Second murder of the week. We never got over that hump. And they continued. Now I do not watch TV. Odd?
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I was old enough to have watched
Oswald's being shot - and definitely have a memory of it seared, in black-and-white, into my memory. But I only remember the shooting and the scuffle that followed. No other context for the memory. Does anyone know if TV in those days did replays of the shooting, or was it only shown live on TV once?
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Yes, it was replayed
The assassinations of both JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald were repeatedly replayed in the news media.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
I saw it too.
Was shocked speechless. I rarely watch TV either. I think it is more sensible than odd to not watch TV.
Here's a good story that starts with the Bernie and Trump story
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/31/playing-the-lesser-evil-game-to-t...
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Playing the lesser evil to the hilt
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
It's a perfect picture
As to being about the only route for which the anointed one could be anointed, though I would need to scour through all the emails to find that smoking gun. -s-
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
What a great diary.
Thanks for writing it.
The way the 2000 election has been rewritten is horrible to me. Even on the "left" there's the belief, somehow, that Nader caused the problem and election fraud is just a little unfortunate footnote.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Thanks
I think letting them get away with the 2000 election fraud made TPTB bolder. Letting that go by, has made more and bolder election fraud inevitable. How much are we as a nation going to tolerate?
My middle daughter, when she was young,
would come home with some story and it always sounded plausible until about the middle of the tale when it would become clear there was some plumping up of what really did happen.
Same with CTs. I look at some sites and I get partway through it and even though it has grains of truth the plumping is very noticeable. And I can recognize the taking in of propaganda in myself because when I get to that point I go mentally "ewww" and drop it without going any further and without checking it for accuracy. But I do believe there is a perverse delight in all of us in conspiracy speculations. And occasionally I get a "that sounds plausible" feeling when reading some theories. (And some texts I get a feeling of totally not buying it as well which is also satisfying.)
But I think the insistence that CTs cannot be discussed at all is ridiculous. Just look at the voting in the primaries this year for a prime example of why there looks to BE an actual conspiracy by the democratic party in those elections. By claiming "CT CT CT" over and over in the attempt to whitewash it one can clearly see not just programming of our little psyches in the past but in the present as well.
glitterscale
The Primaries
well the DNC's theory is it was the Russians and nothing will ever be done because the Russians. So 2000 will be Nader and no matter what happens 2016 will be the Russians. Just a theory!
Granma, I think you may have
hit a gold mine here. If this is our very own Free Speech Zone, then I think we could do worse than use it to talk about all the things we've been trained/brainwashed/ridiculed into not speaking about. It would certainly be a nice break from the Never-Ending Electoral Spectacle.
Perhaps you could start a list of topics. One more I've thought of is near-death experiences, or NDEs.
Do you or anyone else have topics to add to the list?
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Creaks and groans from the house? CT enough?
My house is only 30 a creaks much, especially at night. I do not think it's dead architect-husband haunting, so there is that.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Call me weird, or whatever, but
I have always thought that houses have spirits, especially older ones made of "real" wood. Best I've come up with is a half-formed theory that wood somehow carries memories of what has transpired near/within it, for good, ill, and unexplained.
I think a topic of House Spirits could generate some interesting stories, even brick-and-mortar and especially stone houses.
I, for one, would love to read about your "creaks and groans" house, riverlover. When do they happen, is there a pattern? Lots of territory for stories, tales, even CTs here.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
I agree with you, rabbit
I think that my first house had a malevolent entity in it. Whenever I was going to open a closed door it felt like someone was on the other side of it and was going to harm me. This went on for 5 years until I moved out.
No where else I have lived gave me that feeling.
My friends thought I was nuts, but it was very scary.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
I did list a few topics
That I would like us to talk about seriously. It is fine with me for you or others to add to that list.
Does anyone remember the video I am looking for?
It was 3 hours long and started with the Kennedy assassination
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
seeking recent 3-hour video that began with JFK
assassination for snoopy. Can anyone help?
Sorry I can't, snoopy, but thought a descriptive headline might help.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
That's the problem. I can't remember the headline
I just finished looking back through 5 pages of essays looking for it, but didn't find it.
I was hoping that the person who posted it saw my comment.
Maybe I will find it on my other computer's history.
Thanks, dr.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
One more suggestion.
Rather than get a jumble of UFO, election fraud, 9/11, and what-all CTs thrown into one diary with a bazillion comments, how about we split the topics into separate diaries?
Since a significant 9/11 anniversay is nigh upon us and Big Al has already volunteered (I think) to kick off a diary on that tomorrow (with more to follow by others as the anniversary approaches?), we can start with that.
Then we could do something like
- Ghost Tuesdays
- UFO Thursdays
- JFK Fridays
I'm sure lots of people have stories and theories to share that could keep us going for quite a while.
Are you up to scheduling this, Granma? Would you need help?
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
9/11 is a great place to begin, I think.
I would prefer to see conversations about things that need action. I'm not opposed to someone discussing UFOs, ghosts, etc. But those are not things we can do anything about or necessarily need to.
When we discuss racism, for instance, we can learn and change our own attitudes and behaviors, and hopefully, those of some of the people around us.
I'm facinated by conspiracy theories
in general. Ranging as they do from the ridiculous to the sublime, I pay at least some attention to all of them. One need not be a believer to be a sympathetic listener, and people who think way outside the box can sometimes have original and creative perceptual abilities. Theories and hypotheses, no matter how outlandish, are the very stuff from which revelation emerges.
The problem with talking about CTs, is that people tend to get so passionate about them. Like, if you can't see that the Earth is obviously flat, and the moon landing was a staged hoax, you must be a brainwashed idiot. Or if you are skeptical of UFO sightings, then you have simply not been paying attention. And so on. There are a lot of closed minds on both sides of the border between fact and fantasy. But conventional wisdom has been proven wrong so often, and so regularly in the course of human history, that it can hardly be regarded as absolute.
native
Flat earthers have never been on a ship in big water
or the discomfort of an airplane. From above, the curvature is clear. I wonder how they reconcile such details as time zones?
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
voltaire was right
those who make you believe absurdities will make you commit atrocities.
bygorry
Trivia, did you know that Voltaire was a nom de plume
for François-Marie Arouet?
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
did not, but not surprised
veiled identities often favored by tellers of inconvenient truths.
bygorry
I never heard
that, but I did wonder why one word was used to refer to someone. He seemed a little like "the artist formerly known as Prince." It makes sense that he would use such a thing.
From what I remember of his life, there were several occasions where he was chased out of France by noblemen and their supporters. So he really would need a pseudonym.
How about the Bermuda Triangle?
Anyone have anything questions about it?
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Nah. Not that one.
We need a scale of probability and credibility, one to ten. I'd put the Bermuda Triangle at about 1.5, and ET visitors at around 4 or 5. Of course that's just me. But for 9/11 being an inside job I'd rate that as at least a 9. JFK as a solid 10.
native
I hope we can have some essays on mental health.
Perhaps it's less of a stigma than in my childhood, but not enough yet. I believe that its stigma, as well as big pharma's power, is why we haven't explored the effects of lifestyle changes on mental health. For instance from my own experience, I'm a big believer in getting regular sleep, and plenty of it, with naps when regular sleep is interrupted. My son, on the other hand, has discovered that the root of most of his ailments, including not being able to sleep well, is not drinking enough water. These are just two of many possible lifestyle changes which could make a major difference for some people.
Also, I think that people don't have a clue if there's anything that can help PTSD. I think people with post-traumatic stress need to share whatever tactics have helped them cope better, no matter how trivial they may seem. My father, never properly diagnosed for his from WWII, would sit by himself in the dark, "because it's peaceful." I was a very little girl and I knew that my big brother was afraid of the dark, and everyone seemed to expect that I was also. But I wasn't sure yet if I was; I hadn't made up my mind yet. One day when my dad was sitting alone in the dark, I went into the room and asked him if he was afraid of the dark, and why he sat in the dark. I kept thinking about what he said and then made a conscious decision that I was not afraid of the dark.
My mother who loved Biology was the one who taught me not to be afraid of spiders or snakes. So one day in the playground in school, the girls were talking about their fears and admitting aloud to each other what they feared most. When I was asked about the two fears that everyone else agreed on, snakes & the dark, I had to say I had no fear of them. They pressed me hard to come up with something I was afraid of. Finally, I had it: I was afraid of the dentist. BTW my childhood dentist's name will probably be familiar to all of you politically savvy people: Sheldon Silver. I detested him. Yes, he was the father of NY's former majority leader, who is now in jail for fraud. But I digress.
I believe that mental health is understandably fragile for so many of us because our world is run by very successful sociopaths.
I would add sfern that many of us have not nice times
and take them out on others. Some are more sensitive to that meanness or incivility. Then there are cities, which I find very impersonal and scary, even Ithaca's upward downtown growth is off-putting to me. And don't get me started on seminars locally to teach people how to use on-street parking meters!
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.