"The Darker Ages"
A new age of brutality, subjugation and
stupidity for the WrongThinking masses...
by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman
Baltimore, Maryland - "If this is really the beginning of a long, dark period of rising yields and falling asset prices, the markets still haven’t gotten the message. The Dow closed on Friday over 36,000 – near an all-time record (still, with an inflation adjusted loss of about 20%). Gold is hitting a record high. And Bitcoin is once again trading over 42,000. Bloomberg:
"The biggest cryptocurrency rose as much as 6.1% to reach $42,144 as of 11 a.m. on Monday in London. Bitcoin was last at these levels in April 2022, before the TerraUSD stablecoin collapse that accelerated a $2 trillion rout in digital assets. It’s on track for the biggest annual gain since 2020."
Of course, we could be wrong. Maybe the economy really is healthy. Maybe stocks and bonds really are going up in price, reflecting the general prosperity of our time. Maybe…but more likely we are still in that transition stage from one major trend to another. We’ve left behind one period (marked by ultra-low interest rates without much inflation); we have not fully entered another (where the threat of higher inflation hangs over Fed policy). In the meantime, anything can happen. But last week, we were looking at something else…deeper and more dangerous – the revolt of the masses.
A Superficial Understanding: We’ve seen that immigration is a hot button. It was Donald Trump’s ticket to the White House. So it was Geert Wilders’ winning formula. Trump is now counting on it to give him an encore. Other Republican contenders are trying to rouse the rabble by appealing to animosity towards immigrants, but also towards Mexicans, Russians, Chinese, Iranians, Muslims, Democrats, trannies or others. Immigration is a ‘cultural issue.’ Very visible. Easy to understand…at least superficially.
[Extended parenthetical: Some of our Dearest Readers insist that immigrants are destroying the country. But most of our adult life has been spent in countries other than our own. We don’t like anyone telling us where to live; we return the favor.
In a perfectly free world, people would go where they wanted…with neither aid nor hindrance from the government. But we don’t live in that world. In our world, immigration is a political issue…connected to labor rates, housing, welfare systems, crime and other matters. And like all political issues…it is a mess of lies and propaganda.]
Immigration benefits the ruling, asset-owning classes. They get higher sales, lower wage costs, and more voters to do their bidding. So they continue to shove it down the public’s throat, whether the voters like it or not. Immigration may be the key to protecting Americans’ social security system too. The whole program is a ponzi scheme. It needs an influx of new contributors to keep it solvent. New immigrants could help pay the pensions of old, native-born retirees. Whether it is worth the social problems it brings, we don’t know.
Canceled, Fined, Jailed - Apart from immigration, elites champion a series of other issues that the masses find hard to swallow. Sex change operations, for example, even in the military. The plain people don’t much care for ‘trans’ women competing at sports with real women either. And they don’t like being told what pronoun to use when addressing or referring to others. They think it is faddish nonsense.
Speech has become another battleground between the elites and the masses. Most people think they should be able to say whatever they want without fear of being labeled, censored, canceled, fined or jailed. “Free speech” is in the US Constitution, after all. But the elites want to control the masses’ thoughts…and they begin by controlling who can say what to whom.
The most recent example is in the widespread use of the epithet – ‘antisemite.’ A decent person might disapprove of both sides in the Hamas/Israeli slaughter. And since at least 10 Palestinians are killed for every 1 Israeli, he might begin to wonder about who will suffer the judgment of Heaven. He could condemn the Palestinians and feel very satisfied with himself. But woe to those who accuse the Israelis of mass murder. They are called “antisemitic.’ Then, they lose their jobs. Their advertisers leave them. Their speaking fees vanish. Their book contracts are withdrawn. In short, they are ‘disappeared’ from the elite classes.
Whatever the subject, elites believe they have the final truth. Vaccines, climate change, EVs, windmills, race relations, sex, marriage, politics – you name it. And the mainstream press backs them up. They “condemn” alternative opinions… ‘call out’ incorrect views…and ‘school’ anyone suspected of WrongThink.
Antisemitism, Racism, Nazism - Their aim is to make sure you never have a wrong thought…and never come in contact with one. That’s the convenience of sloppy slurs such as ‘antisemite’ or ‘racist.’ No need to discuss the issues. Just label opponents; as everyone knows, ‘you can’t argue with a Nazi!’
So too is the accusation of ‘racism’ slung so often it has lost its sting. The common White man is meant to believe he is a racist…(most likely a white supremacist and patriarchal SOB too!). What can he do? He must ask for forgiveness…and sign up for an anti-racist course taught by racism profiteers.
The majority of level-headed citizens have a hard time taking this claptrap seriously. The common man wants to ‘save the planet’ as much as anyone, but he suspects that the Green Agenda may be a scam. He believes in treating his fellow man with the respect he deserves…but he’ll decide for himself how much respect is suitable.
As for ‘racist,’ the greater danger is that he might begin to believe it. Then, he asks: Why not act like one? ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ was engraved on Moses’s tablet. We don’t recall the qualifier: ‘unless you have a good reason.’ But if your thoughts are pure, approved by the New York Times, why not? Therein lies the final abomination. Once you decide that it is thoughts that matter, rather than acts, you can get away with murder."
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Joel’s Note: Meanwhile, down here at the fin del mundo, it appears they may have turned a different corner. After 75 dark years of ignorance, stupidity and brutality – on the part of the government – the Argentine voters finally saw fit to throw off their chains and elect a libertarian president.
Now, we have no idea if Sr. Javier Milei will stick to his guns… or cave to the demands of the corrupt, entrenched interests of the political establishment, but he sure talked a big game ahead of the election. One of the key points he hammered during the campaign was his firm stance as “anti-woke.” That is to say, Sr. Milei has no time for empty virtue signaling and cheap political correctness… and he suspected most ordinary people don’t, either. He was right. Not only did the poor and working class swing heavily in his favor, even the youth responded to his plain talking and denouncement of so-called “social justice.”
Not that this should come as a surprise… Argentina’s “backwardness” – that is, its stubborn rejection of political correctness – is one of its charms.
Here in the Downside-Up capital, local, independent supermarkets – run largely by the city’s Asian population – are still called “chinos.” People call each other, affectionately, nicknames like “gordo” (fatty), “flaca” (skinny) and even “loco” (crazy). And, contrary to what progressives in the English speaking world would have you believe, Latinos largely despise the cringeworthy “Latinx” mutilation of their elegantly gendered language.
In fact, a 2020 Pew Research poll found that, while a quarter of Hispanics in the US had heard of the gender-neutral term, only 3% actually used it themselves. Outside the US, that figure quickly approaches zero. Turns out, Spanish speakers don’t appreciate self-righteous virtue signalers (many of whom do not even speak Spanish) colonizing their language and rewriting the rules. Go figure!
So while the some in the “civilized west” continue down the path of political correctness DEI and social justice nonsense, it’s nice to know there’s a place in the world where you can still think and say what you want… and you may even get elected for doing so!"
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