Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

[Higgenbotham]

My sister was heavily into QAnon and mostly I let her talk about it without passing judgment on it like the crap you read in HuffPost and other places. I may get back to that later.

It was 2-3 years ago that I started getting cryptic IMs from my sister about what "Q" was saying.

Without trying to find a summary of QAnon beliefs, I will list them to the best of my ability. Some things on this list may come from other sources besides "Q".

1. There is a group of people called the "White Hats" who are "taking out the trash". The trash consists of people who have been deemed by the "White Hats" to be traitors to America. These traitors have either been killed or are in Guantanamo prison. For example, Joe Biden is in this group and he has been replaced by a lookalike double who has been performing his ceremonial duties while one of the "good guys" runs the country behind the scenes. Good guys are people like JFK and JFK Jr. Their deaths were fake and they have been alive all this time waiting to reemerge once the traitors have been removed.

2. Absent fraud, Trump would have won the election. Since the legislative branch was derelict in their duties, the US military is going to step in and declare a state of emergency while suspending the constitution for a brief time to install Trump as president and clean the country up. This will include things like reinstating a gold standard, zeroing out the debt, and taking out the rest of the trash. It will be announced on the public broadcast system and was supposed to take place by April 2021 but for various reason it has been delayed because it is necessary for those making the change to get it right. Conditions have to be almost perfect for this to be done successfully.

3. There is a pedophilia ring being run by prominent people. Many children have disappeared into this. It consists of tunnels under major cities.

15 percent of Americans believe central QAnon theory: poll

BY MARINA PITOFSKY - 05/27/21 10:16 AM ET


Fifteen percent of Americans agree with the central false tenet of the QAnon conspiracy theory: that the government and other entities are controlled by Satan-worshipping pedophiles running a child sex trafficking ring, according to a new poll.

Among Republicans the survey, released Wednesday by the Public Religion Research Institute, found that 23 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “the government, media and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.”

That number declines to 14 percent among independents and 8 percent among Democrats.

The survey also found that 20 percent of Americans believe another central part of the conspiracy theory, that “there is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders.”

Twenty-eight percent of Republicans surveyed agreed with the statement, compared to 18 percent of independents and 14 percent of Democrats.

The poll also found that 15 percent of survey respondents said that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”

Twenty-eight percent of Republicans polled said that they agreed with the statement, along with 13 percent of independents and 7 percent of Democrats.

Approximately 4 in 10 Americans who say that they trust far-right news outlets like OANN and Newsmax said that they believe the false theory that the government and other institutions are controlled by “Satan-worshipping pedophiles.”

White evangelical Protestants, Hispanic Protestants and Mormons are the most likely among religious groups polled to agree with any of the central beliefs of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

The survey was conducted online between March 8 and March 30 among 5,149 adults in the U.S. The margin of error is plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... eory-poll/

Belief in QAnon has strengthened in US since Trump was voted out, study finds
Surveys by the Public Religion Research Institute reveal QAnon believers increased to 17% in September from 14% in March

David Smith in Washington - Thu 24 Feb 2022 00.01 EST


The QAnon conspiracy myth movement continues to thrive in the US and has even strengthened more than a year after Donald Trump left the White House, according to the largest ever study of its followers.

Some 22% of Americans believe that a “storm” is coming, 18% think violence might be necessary to save the country and 16% hold that the government, media and financial worlds are controlled by Satan-worshipping pedophiles, according to four surveys carried out last year by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) think tank.

Each of these baseless and bizarre views is a core tenet of QAnon, an antisemitic internet conspiracy theory which held that Trump was waging a secret battle against a cabal of pedophiles and its “deep state” collaborators – a “storm” that would sweep them out of power.

Yet despite his election defeat by Joe Biden, major social media platforms banning QAnon activity and the disappearance of its leader, “Q”, the movement has not gone away. If anything, it has strengthened.

“The share of QAnon believers has increased slightly through 2021,” the report by the PRRI states. “In March, 14% of Americans were QAnon believers, compared to 16% in July, 17% in September, and 17% in October.

“The share of QAnon doubters has remained relatively steady (46% in March, 49% in July, 48% in September, and 49% in October), while the share of QAnon rejecters has decreased slightly from 40% in March to 35% in July, 35% in September, and 34% in October.”

These findings are based on 19,399 respondents from four surveys designed and conducted by the PRRI during 2021, using random samples of adults in all 50 states.

Natalie Jackson, research lead, said: “People who are susceptible to believing in these conspiracy theories are found in every demographic. It’s not just restricted to Republicans or the uneducated or those who are in a specific age group. It’s distributed throughout.

“Of course, there are some groups that are more prevalent than others, like there are many more Republicans than Democrats, but we do find that people in every demographic find these wild conspiracies believable.”

Among the discernible patterns, about one in five QAnon believers identify as white evangelical Protestants, and QAnon believers are significantly less likely than all Americans to have college degrees.

Media consumption is the strongest independent predictor of being a QAnon believer. Americans who most trust rightwing news outlets such as the One America News Network and Newsmax are nearly five times more likely than those who most trust mainstream news to be QAnon believers. Those who most trust Fox News are about twice as likely as those who trust mainstream news to be QAnon believers.

They generally have positive views of the Republican party and negative views of Democrats, with 68% agreeing in the October survey that “the Democratic Party has been taken over by socialists”.

Some 26% of QAnon believers have a favorable view of Biden while 69% have unfavorable views of him. About 63% have a favorable opinion of Trump but 31% have an unfavorable view of the former president who once claimed that QAnon followers “love our country” and “like me very much”.

Seven in 10 QAnon believers agree with the false statement that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, including just under half who completely agree. These individuals are also most likely to blame leftwing groups such as antifa for the US Capitol insurrection on 6 January 2021 (there is no organized antifa organization).

Jackson said: “These are people who believe that their culture is under attack, their way of life is under attack, so a lot of them do align with the Trump philosophies. According to those theories, Trump was supposed to be their leader.

“One of the things that’s somewhat impressive is even with Trump out of power, and the fact that January 6 was not ‘the storm’ that they thought it might be, these beliefs have persisted.”

Around eight in 10 QAnon believers agree with the statement that America is in danger of losing its culture and identity. More than seven in 10 say the values of Islam are at odds with American values and way of life, or that the American way of life needs to be protected from foreign influence.

And 32% of QAnon believers agree with the statement that “the idea of America where most people are not white bothers me”.

In late 2021, about one in 10 Americans (9%) agreed it might be necessary to commit an act of violence to save the country. QAnon believers (17%) and QAnon doubters (11%) were more likely than QAnon rejecters (4%) to share this view.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... tudy-finds

[Higgenbotham]

I think there were segments of the population who were late in realizing that the country had already irreversibly collapsed before Trump got in, pretty big segments in fact, and they were sure he could "Make America Great Again". They were excited and hopeful about that and when it didn't happen they put together a scenario in their minds whereby it could. It's part of the denial phase of the mourning process. Upon seeing this, my goal was to move my sister as quickly as possible to the acceptance phase and she is doing a good job of getting there.

The five stages as described by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler Ross are:

Denial and Isolation
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

If this is correct, about 18% of the US population is in the process of moving from what we might call the tenuous denial stage of collapse to the acceptance stage. Given how swiftly events are moving, many of this 18% have likely already reached the acceptance stage. This is a very, very significant group of people relative to the percentage that I believe was at the acceptance stage previously (people like me, for example). Now instead of my sister feeding me information about "Q" or something similar, she asks me questions like, "You've been here (the acceptance stage of collapse) a long time, what do you think about...?"

[aeden]

"It's isolationism surrounded by disconnected thought, demonstrates the lack of understanding the threats we face," 2016

Bio labs in the dozens as gain of function has killed millions while Human Trafficking of whole groups assures, they have no policy
but laundering money.

We will no longer surrender this country or its people to the false song of globalism it was said.
That is why they have root kits, and we are led by looters and much worse.

Votes mean nothing. The insourcing is the only viable solution to even start to survive these fools.

We left Christians subject to intense persecution and even genocide.
We have done nothing to help the Christians, nothing, and we should always be ashamed for that, for that lack of action.

At least we took the time to spare some Yazidis just before that massacre.

Yazidi means 'the servant of the creator'.
A vestige of the Yezidis’ Garden of Eden era is reputed to be GobekliTepe,
a recently discovered archaeological excavation in southern Turkey that has been dated to approximately 12,000 BCE.

Yes contacted the White House and they acted in compassion to spare one People.
In my view alone we have waxed cold as they warned us, and we have been spared judgement for now only as the Harbingers
speak true. The Blizzard has been ongoing for many days now and at work to preserve assets so civilization can endure
for now like many others this Christmas Day. Avoid these damned global warning cults and focus on base loads. We have Women and Men who can define what they are.

These words are pragmatic weapons. They discomfit liberals.
They set the stage for disruption down the line when elections don’t go the MAGA way, and even when they do.
https://harpers.org/archive/2023/01/tru ... tradition/
The words also function as a password, letting everyone know who is in the club.

You had been warned what sheep pens produce very early on. Remember we had the keys before you did.
Root kits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou8uLo3Ke6U

[Higgenbotham]

A question one might ponder is whether billionaire Buffett believes that the 2008 bailouts were really for the benefit of 309 million Americans.

Based on my experience, the short answer would be yes, he really does believe that.

I was heading in this direction, but then recalled that John and I had already covered part of this several years ago.

Believe me, Higgie, you're preaching to the choir. It's almost
impossible to believe what's going on. I used to think that
Washington and Wall Street were simply corrupt crooks. They're still
corrupt crooks, but now I fully realize that they don't even realize
that they're crooks. The glib euphoria that I see on tv is not
pretense. They actually believe that things will continue as they are
for years.

They're still corrupt crooks, but now I fully realize that they don't even realize
that they're crooks.

You got it! I used to have the misfortune of interfacing with some top officials of one of the richest corporations and families in America.

And I used to say, regarding them,

"They've been lying so long they don't even know they're lying."

And THAT is the truth.

Or, to put it another way, they've been lying so long, they've come to
believe their own lies.

John's statement that they've been lying so long, they've come to believe their own lies is the most complete way to say it.

As stated recently, there were 3 phases to the dealings I had with the top officials of one of the richest corporations and families in America.

"We go beyond compliance" This was the introductory phase. During this phase, introductions were made, required contractor training courses were taken in the facility, the facility was toured independently, and file material was collected. It was during this phase that the consultant previously mentioned was fired, and the necessary calculations done over by another consultant.

"When we find there's a problem we fix it and we fix it immediately" As I went from process to process within the facility, several issues were found and corrected. When an issue was found, the job was stopped until the issue was solved. This resulted in some delays.

"We hire the best engineers and consultants money can buy and we don't understand why this is happening" (in whispers) It was during this phase that the project died on the vine. An issue was found for which there was no immediate solution. The job was stopped and never formally restarted or concluded. No formal written report was made. I was working on several projects with other companies so it didn't make much difference to me. As to how the issue was resolved it would have been either one of two things. Either a technical solution was eventually found, which I doubt, or the company lobbied the Federal government for changes in the law without admitting they had this problem. I suspect it was the latter because I just noticed in the past couple days that a cabinet member of the Bush Administration is on the company's board of directors. A couple years after I was last in the facility this person had been out at the company doing a dog and pony show which was reported in local media (and probably national to the extent they could).

Once I left the facility, it is probable that the company immediately reverted back to "We go beyond compliance" but I wasn't in a position to pay much attention to what they were doing.

The strangest thing I saw in this facility was they had some kind of underground soil bed that they had developed and had been trying to use to mitigate VOC emissions. I went through the file material in detail and figured out that it had never worked. Company officials would point to this thing as one of the reasons that they went beyond compliance, as if it worked. When we were taken on the initial tour of the facility, I think they pointed this out. I've seen similar things in other corporations where one department will sell another department and company management on something they are doing, then never tell anyone when it fails to work. It appeared that was what happened here too. But to present it that way to outsiders and promote it as a working marvel without checking their claims was something I haven't seen any company do.

[Higgenbotham]

Another thing that relates to that is there is a moral code in rural areas versus a moral code in urban areas. I witnessed this conflict as I grew up. My grandparents spent their entire lives in a rural area; my parents spent until age 18 in a rural area and 34 working years in a city. They couldn't wait to get the hell out. As kids, my sister and I went back to their home every year and were immersed in rural culture for a week. I think part of the huge divide in this country has to do with the fact that more and more families have spent several generations in the city and have not been exposed to rural culture in any meaningful way at all, as my sister and I were.

Now instead of my sister feeding me information about "Q" or something similar, she asks me questions like, "You've been here (the acceptance stage of collapse) a long time, what do you think about...?"

When someone moves along from denial to acceptance of collapse, I think it is natural to start looking at the quality of connections around them. A couple months ago, my sister asked me why I thought she didn't have any true friends. Previously, she had only said that people she knew had changed and she had lost contact.

I said there are two opposite modes of living in the United States. The first is an expectation that you will spend your entire life in one area with other people who will spend their entire lives in that area. The second is an expectation that you will go to high school in one place, college in another place, then career in several places (no longer at one company) with sole focus on that. Everything else is something in between. The first mode engenders real connections while the second mode engenders transactional relationships. An example of a transactional relationship would be something like, "I have a buddy who is also 420 friendly. He finds me really good dope cheap and I fix all his computers." The best example of a transactional encounter I can think of is prostitution. Also, in a big city, encounters are briefer. That's not to say there isn't some overlap.

I told her in the second mode of living, people are taught from an early age to look to the next step in their progression and to primarily engage in transactional relationships as a means to get to that next step. A high school kid might be told to be friendly to the teachers because they will be writing college recommendations or whatever. They would not be encouraged to be friendly to teachers they genuinely like and not be friendly to teachers they genuinely do not like. And so on when the kid gets to college. I should add as an aside that girls are better at that than boys. I told her that while coping with the stress of getting from step to step, people who find themselves in the same boat will bond somewhat. But they know those bonds are likely temporary and will be broken when they get to the next step unless there is a practical reason to keep them. I also told her that people who have lived in transactional relationship mode for several generations do not even know how to live differently and can't. Many do not understand what a real connection is.

I would also add that high tech is making people more and more into transactions versus customers. Google is the best example I can think of.

[Higgenbotham]

The Christmas Light Indicator

Tonight while I was driving through my apartment complex, which I would characterize as lower middle class, it didn't take too long to realize that something seemed off this year. As the years have gone by here, I've noticed there are fewer and fewer Christmas displays on the apartment balconies, but it was always comforting to notice at least some. Being a week before Christmas and having been reminded repeatedly today that this is the Christmas season, I realized there was not a single one in sight. Besides the security lights, which are kind of dim anyway, the whole place was pitch black as far as the eye could see. Not even a lit Christmas tree could be seen through a window. So I decided to go off my usual path. I didn't cover the whole complex of 400 some apartments, but went out of my way to see if there was anything at all. I found 3. They weren't ostentatious but nonetheless there were signs of life. I've been here 17 plus years and would estimate that this same drive 17 years ago would have netted 20 or 25 displays, some beautifully done. Last year maybe 5 to 7. The numbers seem to steadily go down as the years have passed. I've also noticed this on July 4th and New Year's Eve. As the years have gone by, there are fewer and fewer indications of anybody celebrating with firecrackers or what have you. Finally, a year or two ago, I heard nothing on one of those holidays except dead silence.

Five miles down the road, there is a subdivision that has unique and beautiful million dollar plus homes. It would be interesting to go over there and take a look. My guess would be that there are the same number and quality of Christmas light displays as there were 17 years ago.

Christmas night, 6:30 pm, right to left overlapping.

[Higgenbotham]

I said there are two opposite modes of living in the United States. The first is an expectation that you will spend your entire life in one area with other people who will spend their entire lives in that area. The second is an expectation that you will go to high school in one place, college in another place, then career in several places (no longer at one company) with sole focus on that. Everything else is something in between. The first mode engenders real connections while the second mode engenders transactional relationships. An example of a transactional relationship would be something like, "I have a buddy who is also 420 friendly. He finds me really good dope cheap and I fix all his computers." The best example of a transactional encounter I can think of is prostitution. Also, in a big city, encounters are briefer. That's not to say there isn't some overlap.

I told her in the second mode of living, people are taught from an early age to look to the next step in their progression and to primarily engage in transactional relationships as a means to get to that next step. A high school kid might be told to be friendly to the teachers because they will be writing college recommendations or whatever. They would not be encouraged to be friendly to teachers they genuinely like and not be friendly to teachers they genuinely do not like. And so on when the kid gets to college. I should add as an aside that girls are better at that than boys. I told her that while coping with the stress of getting from step to step, people who find themselves in the same boat will bond somewhat. But they know those bonds are likely temporary and will be broken when they get to the next step unless there is a practical reason to keep them. I also told her that people who have lived in transactional relationship mode for several generations do not even know how to live differently and can't. Many do not understand what a real connection is.

I would also add that high tech is making people more and more into transactions versus customers. Google is the best example I can think of.

I now want to describe what this second mode of living typically leads to by specific example. I have known this person since we were 5 years old.

His second mode of living profile is as follows:

1. Grew up in a suburb of a city. Father was a PhD research scientist at a corporation.
2. Moved to another city in the same state to go to college.
3. Moved to another state to go to graduate school and got a PhD in chemistry.
4. Moved to yet another state to work for a drug company (Boston suburb).
5. Moved to yet another state to work for a different drug company.
6. Moved to yet another state to work for the same drug company (Chicago suburb).

From his twitter account (he is on linkedin too):

Dale is an awesome scientist and a better human being!
#scienceRocks#EndtheNeglect

This refers to a coworker who joined a committee at the Gates Foundation. This tweet is what I call a transaction.

Also from his twitter account:

Oct 7, 2020
Kamala with the uppercut…

Nov 27, 2020
#DiaperDon needs a nap.

...a few dozen similar tweets and retweets...followed by the latest just 12 hours ago...

12h
Indeed

Alteño
@zwiitt
13h
Mike Pence has a greater chance of getting a blowjob than winning the presidency

His tweets also indicate support for Colin Kaepernick, BLM, etc.

My theory is that people who have adopted this second mode of living and engage in transactional relationships, particularly those who have done so for several generations, still have an innate need for real human connection and, in my opinion, are attempting to fill that void by voicing support for liberal causes and political candidates which ultimately get paid for out of funds that the government can no longer afford to provide. By doing so, they are continuing to engage in transactional relationships, which is all they know how to do.

That void would be better filled by finding individuals who are suffering and helping them directly (real human connection).

This will all end when the welfare state collapses.

[Higgenbotham]

Warren Buffett is the King of Transactional Relationships and this story below was put out today by the cheerleaders at CNBC, quoting Buffett's sidekick Charlie Munger.

What Munger seems to be saying to people is that, even if they couldn't put Christmas lights up this year when they could have and maybe did in recent years, they should be happy about that because nobody could put up Christmas lights in years in the distant past before they were born. That's not how it works. People compare their current positions to their recent experience and their immediate future prospects, which are both negative.

Stop complaining, says billionaire investor Charlie Munger: 'Everybody's five times better off than they used to be'

Story by Tom Huddleston Jr. • 1h ago


Billionaire Charlie Munger thinks we should all be a lot happier.

Munger, the longtime investment partner and friend of fellow billionaire Warren Buffett, says he doesn't understand why people today aren't more content with what they have, especially compared to harder times throughout history.

"People are less happy about the state of affairs than they were when things were way tougher," Munger said earlier this year at the annual meeting of the Daily Journal, the newspaper company where he's a director.

The 98-year-old noted that he came of age in the 1930s, when Americans everywhere were struggling: "It's weird for somebody my age, because I was in the middle of the Great Depression when the hardship was unbelievable."

During that annual meeting, Munger complained that envy is a driving factor for too many people today. Prior to the early 1800s, there were thousands of years where "life was pretty brutal, short, limited and what have you. [There was] no printing press, no air conditioning, no modern medicine," he said.

If nothing else, Munger's sense of widespread envy in today's world might be right on the money: Recent studies show that roughly 75% of people are envious of someone else in any given year.

Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are especially effective at sparking feelings of envy or jealousy, often connecting us with people who only offer highly-curated peeks into the positive developments in their lives.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 2ea3bee744

[Higgenbotham]

I think there were segments of the population who were late in realizing that the country had already irreversibly collapsed before Trump got in, pretty big segments in fact, and they were sure he could "Make America Great Again". They were excited and hopeful about that and when it didn't happen they put together a scenario in their minds whereby it could. It's part of the denial phase of the mourning process.

The five stages as described by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler Ross are:

Denial and Isolation
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

This obviously is not how the people who are in control of the debate in this country would interpret the situation. They clearly believe that what Trump supporters are mourning is not the loss of their country, but the loss of the election. They would tell you that once the Trump supporters move from denial that Joe Biden won the election to acceptance that he is and will be the rightful President for at least one term, then we can all "move on" past this "speed bump". They would also tell you that once the Trump supporters "follow the science" and get on board with the vax, we can all "move on" past that "speed bump" also (in fact, they have said that). And so on. They have made this all about Donald Trump. But it never was about Donald Trump. Trump himself said so. Trump said he was just the person who had been put in the position of representing the movement. Whether Trump is involved or not, at least 18% of the country is still looking for their rightful leader.

The writing in this old post is a bit dense (I sometimes find that when rereading my old posts) but I think it fits well with what is being discussed in that, on both sides, perception has not caught up to reality but, in my opinion, the Trump side or whatever it really should be called is closer to perceiving the big picture reality, as strange as that may seem to many.

During a period of decline, before the arrival of a dark age proper, the processes of disintegration, disorganisation and discohesion, which have already occurred in reality, begin filtering through into perceptions. As perceptions catch up with the reality, people comment on their problems at length and many of them may deplore the direction in which they see things moving.

The situation the US finds itself in is that the US potentially collapsed in 2008 but it was not a done deal. Generally, it was believed that the US had not potentially collapsed and it was believed that weak and inappropriate counter measures could be taken to get over the perceived little speed bump on the road to greater progress. In 2008, had the perception been more in line with reality, it would have been understood that a potential collapse had occurred and the correct counter measures would have been taken; for example, the rule of law would have been applied and criminals would have gone to prison. Since the correct counter measures were not taken, the collapse has gone from being a potential collapse to being a real, irreversible collapse. The real, irreversible collapse will become a dark age when perceptions line up with reality, which is inevitable because the collapse has become irreversible.

I would say that the people in control of the debate in this country are in "deep denial" whereas Trump supporters are (were in some cases) in "tenuous denial".

[Higgenbotham]

Link to the pdf download for The Phoenix Principle and the Coming Dark Age by Marc Widdowson

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzPQ2 ... QEgivJKRRA

I first read this book around 2004. My thought was that we weren't there yet but kept it in mind as things unraveled. I think this and Tainter are the best books on collapse.