Hello, how are you? I am fine, mostly. It has been awhile so I wanted to pop in and see how everyone is doing. Like most of you I have been dealing with the Trump-19, er, Covid-19 epidemic and all the other madness (the descent into fascism, the devastated economy, dogs and cats living together, etc etc).
I have been fortunate in that I’ve retained my job. I’m the Exec chef of a non-profit, and despite having little cheffing to do I have been retained at my full salary and doing my regular job (such as it is) and helping with other duties. Nowadays I’m living in the mountains of SW Montana, a long story I guess. It’s not a bad place to be, the Last Best Place. My family is well and working from home, so I guess that’s a blessing at a time when so many are out of work. And we did just legalize weed here, so there’s that I guess.
Overall I am fine, but I got whacked with Bell’s Palsy a couple weeks ago. While I generally hate to whine it truly sucks! Generally it’s temporary, lasting from 3 weeks to a couple months. Fortunately it wasn’t a stroke or tumor, and I guess as I get older I really can’t take it for granted that the next ache or pain isn’t the beginning of my demise.
Do I still love philosophy? I’ll confess that I’m more and more struck by the futility of wisdom in a world that seems to have no use for it. Still, I suppose I still do.
Perhaps it’s vanity that anyone here remembers me, as it has been a while. Is Gamer still about? Is De’Troph out of jail yet? Does PavlovianModel146 still come around on occasion? Is Tab still around? Or Tentative? Is Old Gobbo still obsessed with Organite and conspiracy theories? Is Peter Kropotkin still kicking about these boards?
Well, I hope my message finds you well. Happy Holidays and I hope you’re all surviving the pandemic, my old friends of ILP!
An old familiar face/name! Greetings, MagsJ! The Bell’s is irritating but not life threatening at all. Worst thing is that my right eye gets really dry and it’s nearly impossible to drive after a few hours. I had Thanksgiving plans but given the pandemic maybe I will use this as a graceful way to avoid travel this time around.
I feel like I’ve kind of lost track of myself this last year. Nothing unusual there, I’m sure most of you are in the same boat. As much as I like to think of myself as a rock, a lone wolf, a self contained unit, the isolation has been hard for me (probably because I am a bit aloof). A big part of my identity has always been wrapped up in my job as a chef, a real ego-investment job in normal times. What am I when I’m not that? Luckily I have a deep passion for the outdoors and I live on the edge of a pretty vast tract of wilderness/forest not far from Jellystone Natl Park.
My forum usage is a bit sporadic but since there’s a lot of down time I do make the rounds. Aside from ILP I’m active on a couple of forums dedicated to audio equipment, bushcraft/outdoors and old school RPGs (think white box Dungeons and Dragons, 1E AD&D, etc). It’s nice to see some of the old familiar posters are still around.
Years ago, Gobbo’s thinking was fringe, now it’s mainstream.
Even the left is doing it.
It’s not so much a question of do you believe in conspiracy theories, as it is which cluster of conspiracy theories do you believe in?
Do you believe the conspiracy theory that Trump is a fascist and conspired with Russia to steal the election in 2016, or that Biden is a communist and conspired with China to steal the election in 2020?
For me and millions, perhaps billions of others, Covid-1984 and Marxist terrorists Antifa and BLM, which the dems conspired with to burn and loot America’s cities and tear down its monuments, is communism, and such policies must be resisted by any means necessary.
Yes Phaedrus, I am still here… and I am glad you are too…
as for me, I am still trying to wake up people around here to their possibilities…
I am working on my grand tour of philosophy… its year 5…and into modern philosophy,
Heidegger to be exact… I hope to be of service to you if need be…
Then again, the left always had their conspiracy theories.
Many progressives, and some libertarians too were accusing George W of invading Afghanistan and Iraq for the respective opium and oil, that they made up the story about Saddam having ties with Al Qaeda and WMDs as pretext.
Both the right and left always had their conspiracy theories, it’s just now that they’re diverging more on policy, the conspiratorial thinking has gone mainstream.
Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: “Accuse your opponent of what you are doing, to create confusion and to inculcate voters against evidence of your own guilt”
A game of global battleships… similar to the game of ILP battleships currently being played, but instead of claiming flags or resources, they’re claiming ILP accounts.
That’s easy, just put the same amount of aluminum, bleach, formaldehyde, mercury and roundup in it that you put in other vaccines, or more, the more the merrier.
K: now, you do throw out a lot of names, but did you connect them to the “deep state?”
I have no idea if these people are actually members of the “deep state”… what is the
connection between these people and the “deep state”? how would one describe
being within the “deep state”?
for example, you mentioned the “Trilateral Commission” ok, great, start there…
how does the “Trilateral commission” work as part of the “deep state”? or how does
the “Bilderberg” work as part of the “deep state”? It is easy to just throw out a bunch
of names and say, hay, look, they are part of the “deep state”… but you have to
connect the dots… and all I see are a list of names… but nothing connected to
be part of the “deep state”…
Generally it’s temporary, lasting from 3 weeks to a couple months. Fortunately it wasn’t a stroke or tumor, and I guess as I get older I really can’t take it for granted that the next ache or pain isn’t the beginning of my demise. 
