divide and conquer

Open Thread - 02-28-25 - The Pit and the Pendulum

There have been many great societal changes down through history. I think it's inarguable that we are in one of those great changes at the present. How we got here is debatable, but I note a pattern to the trajectory, an oscillation, a swing from one extreme to another, like a pendulum.

Instead of rushing headlong into a rapid change, we're being marched incrementally to whatever it is that's been long planned for us. To me, it's been obvious the last few election cycles as we bounce from one amplitude of the pendulum to the next, ala Edgar Allan Poe's tale of a massive blade that's lowered ever so slightly upon each swing back and forth until society is broken and divided.

Pit.and_.the_.Pendulum.jpg
Attribution: Screenshot from the 1961 movie The Pit and the Pendulum

Open Thread - 01-27-23 - Angry Eyes

These old tired eyes have seen a lot. Never did I dream I'd see the things that I've seen the last three years. You know what I mean? I bet you do. The crazy has no limit, so it seems. It's as if the matrix software has been toggled to insane mode and we're living in some crazed oligarch's head.

We, the people, have been divided on so many levels, by design. If we agree on one thing, there's dozens of other things to disagree about. The dividers have had centuries to hone their skills. Divide and conquer has always been the tactic of those that wish to rule you and I and with the advances in technology and psychological manipulation it's a wonder that we still have any modicum of civility left in us. The division has gone much deeper than the left/right dichotomy with both sides being subdivided into multiple facets of hatred, diverging from the macro, to the molecular, to the atomic and sub-atomic. The divisions run deep. It seems like every day a new way to divide us is contrived.

politics.jpeg

A Community of Misfits...I l Like It.

Over the last day or so we've been arguing over which generation sucks more. But reading this particular comment from Pluto's Republic got me to thinking....

You will never pass for a Boomer, no matter how hard you try.

@gulfgal98

You're nothing like them. You would never fit in. So why try to identify as one?

We don't have any Boomers at c99. Not a single one. You can find plenty of them in DC.

Interrupting the 1 percent's 5 Billion Dollar Spectacle - some thoughts about #BLM and progressives

As the brewhaha about #BLM interrupting Bernie, Hillary and now even Jeb has been going on, I've been thinking about #BLM's tactics and considering that it is time for the pr