If a patient cured is a customer lost, then a war ended is two customers lost.
When a massively polarising, shocking event occurs, we have the opportunity to practice emotional self-restraint. Our common tendency is to spontaneously react to convincing narratives and emotionally fix our loyalty to one side (as defined by the narrative). This is what psychological warfare aims to exploit; once we learn to resist being polarised by real events, we become immune to being polarised by manufactured illusions and deceptions too.
The degree of polarisation generated over the last few days is unprecedented, worse than at any time during Covid. This suggests that the system is energising humanity for unprecedented carnage.
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
I do not believe that the leaderships of China and the USA/NATO are opposed to each other’s interests. They seem to use engineered antagonism to advance the objectives of the global ruling class. The only political conflict that I know is real is between the global ruling class (including but not limited to the global banking cartel) and the exploited people in every nation, whose perceptions must be carefully managed to perpetuate their covert exploitation. It is not unthinkable that the ruling class actually believe they are bringing about some kind of salvation to the humankind. I guess at some point money is not enough; one wants to be God. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuBe93FMiJc
YouTube
Ned Beatty's NETWORK speech-by Paddy Chayefsky
As true now as it was in 1976.
Atrocity propaganda is morally wrong irrespective of whether the atrocity is real or fabricated. Its aim is to provoke the most primitive tribal instincts among the victims, to incite ethnic hatred and revenge, which is guaranteed to produce more reciprocal atrocities. When atrocities against 'our people' are used as a political currency, both sides have a utilitarian motive to commit them.
BREAKING NEWS: The Australian Electoral Commission has issued an urgent clarification on the eve of the Voice Referendum, in regard to informal votes. The Commissioner clarified, in the interest of fairness and electoral integrity, that any mistakes or deviations from the required format, including the requirement for cyan ink and the exact thickness of the lines (1.000 mm), shall be counted as YES votes;)
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
There is no such thing as ‘collective agency’ or ‘group action’ for the greater good. Humanity does not go to jail when it is accused of ‘collectively’ killing some humans for the benefit of the majority; only those who use the pretext of ‘collective agency’ for killing others do. The victims did not kill themselves by ‘collective action’.
It is a lethal mistake to consume only the war propaganda disseminated by your own rulers and their supporters. It is imperative to regard propaganda from both sides of every conflict on equal footing, and thus gain unbiased perspective on the provocations and the emotional manipulation that motivates people to kill one another. A crucial point to remember it that YOU are the target of your rulers’ propaganda, not your designated enemy.
All information disseminated by the government and the mass media should be regarded as propaganda.
All information disseminated by the government and the mass media should be regarded as propaganda.
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
I propose a new Acknowledgement of Original Owners ceremony, otherwise know as 'Welcome to Reality', that should be conducted before every public event, performance or community meeting:
We acknowledge the Original Owners of the Earth on which we are standing, the Human kind of which we are all representatives. We all share the same ancient ancestors. We are all related. Reason unites us.
Join NORMAL
We acknowledge the Original Owners of the Earth on which we are standing, the Human kind of which we are all representatives. We all share the same ancient ancestors. We are all related. Reason unites us.
Join NORMAL
💥Now that referendum voting is over, use this simple DIY test ✨to find out whether you are a crypto-Nazi 🌞: https://michaelkowalik.substack.com/p/open-letter-to-government-regarding
Michael Kowalik’s Newsletter
Open Letter to Government regarding ‘Welcome to Country’ (the acknowledgement of Original People)
I submit that the concept of Original Ownership, or any statement implying that Aboriginal Australians as a race or ethnicity have a superior social status or value to other Australians, is an expression of nativist supremacism, a core feature of Nazi ideology.…
Thou shalt not mourn the dead from only thy own side, but count all human victims of war as thy own.
It is not possible to reconcile with people for whom equality is not enough. Before reconciliation is possible, people have to come to the understanding, by argument or experience, that equality is their best possible option, and this of itself is already reconciliation.
I suspect that most ‘black’ Aboriginal people would agree that all humans share the same ancient ancestors, that we are all related, that we are all the original owners of the Earth. I think they would be relieved by this knowledge, instantly freed from the frustration of inconsistent aims. Most of them are oblivious to our common roots because from the cradle to the grave they are immersed in nativist supremacist rhetoric. We must reach out to them, not to the ‘white’ Aboriginal managers who manipulate and exploit them, but to the ‘black’ Aboriginal people who are employed to unwittingly do the bidding of their corporate masters. We must speak to Aboriginal people at the grass roots level, let them know that we are one family, that nobody was first, because there is only one kind of us that morally matters.
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How the War on Terror works.
Team A:
1. We must eliminate the terrorists (Team B) at any cost, or 'our people' will never be free of terror.
2. 'Any cost' includes killing civilians, women, children, the sick and the elderly who happen to be in the way. We may have to kill everyone over there to liquidate the terrorists among them.
3. We know that killing civilians, women, children, the sick and the elderly will motivate a new generation of terrorists.
4. This way we invest in future terror attacks against 'our people'.
Go back to 1.
Team B:
1. We must eliminate the terrorists (Team A) at any cost, or 'our people' will never be free of terror.
2. 'Any cost' includes killing civilians, women, children, the sick and the elderly who happen to be in the way. We may have to kill everyone over there to liquidate the terrorists among them.
3. We know that killing civilians, women, children, the sick and the elderly will motivate a new generation of terrorists.
4. This way we invest in future terror attacks against 'our people'.
Go back to 1. (It is a business model)
Team A:
1. We must eliminate the terrorists (Team B) at any cost, or 'our people' will never be free of terror.
2. 'Any cost' includes killing civilians, women, children, the sick and the elderly who happen to be in the way. We may have to kill everyone over there to liquidate the terrorists among them.
3. We know that killing civilians, women, children, the sick and the elderly will motivate a new generation of terrorists.
4. This way we invest in future terror attacks against 'our people'.
Go back to 1.
Team B:
1. We must eliminate the terrorists (Team A) at any cost, or 'our people' will never be free of terror.
2. 'Any cost' includes killing civilians, women, children, the sick and the elderly who happen to be in the way. We may have to kill everyone over there to liquidate the terrorists among them.
3. We know that killing civilians, women, children, the sick and the elderly will motivate a new generation of terrorists.
4. This way we invest in future terror attacks against 'our people'.
Go back to 1. (It is a business model)
Paul Offit deleted my comment:) at least he knows WHAT he deleted and where he stands in the hierarchy of right vs wrong. https://michaelkowalik.substack.com/p/why-vaccine-mandates-are-unethical
Last week, this comment was uncontroversial. This week, ‘they did it to themselves’ echoes on both sides of the Wall. https://t.iss.one/NormalParty/3308
Telegram
Normal
There is no such thing as ‘collective agency’ or ‘group action’ for the greater good. Humanity does not go to jail when it is accused of ‘collectively’ killing some humans for the benefit of the majority; only those who use the pretext of ‘collective agency’…
If “trans women” cannot safely use men’s toilets because males are dangerous to women, then “trans women” must not be allowed in women’s toilets because males are dangerous to women.
Forwarded from Normal (Michael Kowalik)
Ethical Realism
The value of human life consists in our self-reflexive capacity for intentional action. By discriminating between more of less valuable actions and choosing to act in a particular way we unconditionally affirm the value of being a rational agent. The commitment to the value of being a rational agent is a necessary condition of all other value-commitments, including the belief in God. It follows uncontroversially that without the capacity for rational discernment and intentional action there can be no awareness of value, therefore any life-form that does not possess this capacity can have no meaning or value to itself. This is a crucial insight for ethics, as it presents us with an objective reference point with respect to which we can asses the value of any human action. If ethics stems from the awareness of the value of rational consciousness, and the value of all actions derives from this common source, then any action can be assessed as either Right or Wrong on the basis of enhancement vs. diminishing of rational consciousness. Moreover, if rational consciousness is not individually self-sufficient but requires (reflexive) social relations to construct meaning and therefore rationality, then our relationship to other beings of the same kind is subject to objective ethical criteria that can be discovered.
https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3737433
The value of human life consists in our self-reflexive capacity for intentional action. By discriminating between more of less valuable actions and choosing to act in a particular way we unconditionally affirm the value of being a rational agent. The commitment to the value of being a rational agent is a necessary condition of all other value-commitments, including the belief in God. It follows uncontroversially that without the capacity for rational discernment and intentional action there can be no awareness of value, therefore any life-form that does not possess this capacity can have no meaning or value to itself. This is a crucial insight for ethics, as it presents us with an objective reference point with respect to which we can asses the value of any human action. If ethics stems from the awareness of the value of rational consciousness, and the value of all actions derives from this common source, then any action can be assessed as either Right or Wrong on the basis of enhancement vs. diminishing of rational consciousness. Moreover, if rational consciousness is not individually self-sufficient but requires (reflexive) social relations to construct meaning and therefore rationality, then our relationship to other beings of the same kind is subject to objective ethical criteria that can be discovered.
https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3737433
Ssrn
Ontological-Transcendental Defence of Metanormative Realism
If there is something (P) that every possible agent is committed to value, and certain actions or attitudes either enhance or diminish P, then normative claims