Assembling the Truth

The truth is in itself, and not in the thinking of any one person.

Sadly, this makes it devilishly hard to ferret out too.  The technique of relying on one good smart and honest person simply doesn't work.  That person is going to be wrong at least some of the time, if not most of the time.  And it's so limiting.

OTOH, I would think I'd pretty much summarily rule out following anyone who denies Anthropogenic Climate Change is one of the most serious threats faced by humanity as a whole.

And yet, it appears a number of sources I follow very respectfully on the War in Ukraine are either at or close to that.  This also upsets Roger Boyd, who is with me on ACC, and some geopolitics, but it looks like little else (so I score him 2/5 or something like that).

Likewise, I have little sympathy for those who defend Trump in almost any way.

(The only good argument about Trump is we might have avoided a confrontation with Russia during his term which might otherwise have happened under Hillary--as it materialized quickly under Biden and there does seem to be a difference between the Trump and Hillary (and Democrats mostly)  in their belligerence towards Russia.  But that's not only very limited data, it's speculation, and not fully founded either because he also did--after threatened with impeachment because he was not withholding weapons on principle but for political purposes--send weapons to Ukraine which Obama had not done--on principle, thereby taking the first next step after Obama...and we can assume all sorts of CIA/etc work in Ukraine was ongoing during his term as well, etc.  In the end, while I think this argument is ligitimate it is wrong, in every case, starting with Ukraine--it was simply not ready yet for the big push to re-take DPR and LPR and Crimea which was to begin in March 2022.  Most likely, the Empire simply rolled on under Trump as it would have rolled on under Hillary, and there is no reason to believe the future will be any different--under candidate with a chance of winning, or perhaps any at all.)

And any claim that his speech on January 6th was not incitement of an insurrection (actually even worse, a coup).

Any claim that this is unimportant because America is not a Democracy.  A republic is about as fine as humanity has gotten to at this point.  A republic is worth keeping under most circumstances, present ones included.

 Any claim that Trump's free speech rights were violated because of banning or censorship on social media.  (Given what Trump did on January 6th, in my view he abrogated any claim for protected speech.  But anyway, social media is inherently not bound to follow what may be within an individual's protected speech rights in society at large, because social media is a publisher and may rightfully sometimes need to be responsive to government censorship requests--though when this is unjustifiable or unfairly done it is worthy of being reported as a scandal as Taibi does.)

Any claim that COVID was not an actual pandemic, that masking or vaccinations were useless or even counterproductive.

Any claim that it is right and proper to restrict people's bodily freedom, the Rights to Privacy the Warren Court inferred as being demanded by the US Constitution.  So any prohibition of abortion is unacceptable in my view.

But also any absolute prohibition of sex change, or claim that this is somehow immoral or unnatural.  Some regulation and/or cultural sensitivity may be suitable for democratic settlement (eg bathrooms).

Any claim that there is something immoral about homosexuality, Drag Queens, or that bringing children to watch such presentations is grooming.

*****

It is very troubling to me that so many sources I regard as being close-to-factual about Vladimir Putin, Russia, the War in Ukraine, China, and the progressing World War to Save US Hegemony are so wrong, and often very wrong, about Trump, free speech rights, sexual issues, COVID, and often ACC as well.

It's almost as if the nut jobs on MSNBC were right about Putin pushing all these things in order to de-stablize the USA.  (With the qualification that some of the controlled opposition mix these things up a little).

(My take is it's not a grand Putin manipulation, but the natural alignment of people of views in ways that have as much to do with the path that led to present circumstances as much as anything.  The Russian Bolshevik government was the first to make open homosexuality legal.  Sadly Lenin didn't live long, and his successor had other ideas.  So today, Vladimir Putin holds obsolete ideas about the nature of sex and gender.  So people who also hold those views would tend, on average, to have a higher idea of him.  I regard Putin as one of the greatest world leaders of all time, not perfect, mainly for his work at pulling Russia back together from the brink.  His views of sex and gender are 'representative' of the Russian population as a whole.  That's sad, but I see it as a local issue.  Meanwhile, in Russia, there is National Healthcare and no restriction on abortion.  Much better than much of USA now.  Homosexuality is legal--just not promoting it to minors, but there is no restriction of discrimination either.  Sex changes are legal for adults.)

I'd prefer to look at the closer side of US manipulation.  The government of the USA (and especially through it's covert operations) literally weaponizes the (sometimes and in some places) greater sexual freedoms enjoyed by Americans.  Liberals and gays in enemy countries are obvious potential assets useful in things like Color Revolutions.  True, that's not the fault of the times and places that have greater sexual freedom.  But it's also an invitation for pushback at all levels.  In general, a person should not want to mix these things up.  I'd prefer not to have my organization supported by a foreign power, and especially, not by western intelligence services.  In doing such a thing, one is being used.

There are only a few things that stand above saving your Republic.  Those things are 1) avoiding nuclear holocaust, 2) surviving and/or solving global heating, and 3) Communism (Workers of the World Unite).