America’s Far-Right movements

Posted on October 15, 2025 by The Old Wolf

This video by Ronan Farrow clearly delineates the main far-right movements current in America. There are others, but these are the dominant ones infesting our society, and it helps to understand them.

Below you will find the transcript of his remarks:

“In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination there has been a lot of discussion about the “far right” movement he was part of. But the “far right” is a spectrum of different movements, and understanding them might help you understand what is happening in America.

First, Christian Nationalism. This group’s leaders, like Kirk and Marjarie Taylor Greene, tap into valid frustrations with broken systems, but also exploit xenophobia and racism. They believe that the US was founded as, and must be restored to a Christian State. For many of them, that means white dominance and nonwhite immigration and multiculturalism are threats. Kirk himself said, “You cannot have liberty if you do not have a Christian population” and called the Civil Rights Act a “huge mistake.”

The movement works within the system, and its leaders don’t openly call for violence, but their rage baiting rhetoric has inspired it, with adherents participating in the January 6th attack.

A different strain is the Techno-authoritariarian or Dark Enlightenment movement, pushed by Curtis Yarvin and Silicon Valley billionaire supporters like Peter Thiel.

They hold that democracy has failed, and want an authoritarian society run like a corporation, by an unelected CEO-monarch and enforcing a stratified racial hierarchy based on pseudoscience.

Finally, a view gaining ground across the far right is accelerationism. That’s the belief that society is byond saving and its collapse needs to be hastened.

This view is held by many within the Groyper movement, which is led by Nick Fuentes and seeks to establish a white, Christian, anti-Semitic, authoritarian state.

It’s named after its racist meme toad mascot. Fuentes avoids direct calls to violence, but his followers rely on online harassment, including threats of violence against political opponents and minorities. Some were also charged for their rôle on January 6th.

The Boogaloo movement on the other hand explicitly calls for violence against the government. Its name drawn from memes about the ’80s movie “Breaking 2, Electric Boogaloo” is a reference to a second civil war. Self-described ‘boogaloo bois” have been convicted of domestic terrorism plots and murders of government officials.

A more personal nihilism is embodied in the Black Pill worldview, which cuts across these movements. Its adherents often identify as incels and they want to destroy the progressive society that empowered women to reject them. The name comes from The Matrix, which is ironic. Since that film’s directors have said that the pills were a trans allegory.¹ Black pill followers are mainly misogynistic, but they have a lot of natural overlap with white supremacists

Most are passive, but the philosophy has inspired several mass murders.

People in this country are hurting. They are frustrated with systems that are rigged against them. You can see how those anxieties are exploited in these groups and their visions from building an authoritarian state to just watching the world burn.

Footnotes:

¹ I never knew this, but yeah, it’s a thing.

A message to my evangelical brothers and sisters

Posted on October 8, 2025 by The Old Wolf

Written by a mainstream Christian, Kate Penney Howard on Facebook. I am immeasurably grateful for this post.

“In recent weeks, I’ve watched a troubling pattern emerge online. Whenever a news story mentions the horrific attack in Grand Blanc, there’s an inevitable chorus of voices “correcting” the record: “Actually, Mormons aren’t Christians.”
Let me be clear: This is gatekeeping, and it needs to stop.
One of the most dangerous temptations of religious life is the urge to define who’s “in” and who’s “out.” When we appoint ourselves as arbiters of authentic faith, we’re not protecting orthodoxy. We’re playing God.
The Latter-day Saints call themselves Christians. They center their faith on Jesus Christ. It’s literally in the name of their church. They believe Jesus is the Son of God, that he died and was resurrected, and that salvation comes through him. They read the Bible, gather for worship, sing hymns, pray to God, and seek to follow Christ’s teachings about love, service, and redemption.
I know a LOT of LDS folk and I have to say, they give me a run for my money in the being kind and graceful department.
Do they have different theological perspectives than me? Absolutely. So do Quakers. So do Catholics. So do Methodists and Presbyterians and Episcopalians. So do Catholics and Orthodox Christians. So do Pentecostals. So do Seventh-Day Adventists. So do Unitarians. The body of Christ has always contained multitudes.
Exclusion has consequences.
We cannot talk about denying Latter-day Saints the label “Christian” without acknowledging the violent history behind such rhetoric. In the 19th century, largely at the urging of preachers in the Restoration Movement (that’s us, my DoC friends), and Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists, Mormons were driven from state to state, their homes burned, their communities terrorized, and sometimes killed. Missouri’s governor issued an extermination order against them in 1838. Joseph Smith was murdered by a mob.
And throughout this persecution, one of the accusations hurled at them was that they weren’t “real Christians,” that they were dangerous heretics who deserved what they got.
When we casually exclude LDS individuals today, we echo that violent history. We may think we’re making a theological point, but we’re perpetuating a legacy of exclusion that has caused real harm to real people.
Rather than obsessing over differences, let’s consider what Latter-day Saints share with the wider Christian tradition:
We worship the same God and proclaim the same savior.
We share sacred scripture in the Bible
We practice baptism and communion
We value prayer, worship, and community as essential to faith
We believe in serving others and caring for those in need
We affirm that Christ’s resurrection offers hope and new life
We gather to worship and encourage one another
We seek to follow Christ’s example of love and compassion
These aren’t minor overlaps. These are the heart of Christian faith.
Do I think they are perfect? No, I do not. However, neither is my tradition and neither is yours.
Here’s what troubles me most about the “Mormons aren’t Christians” crowd: the stunning confidence that their interpretation of Christianity is the only valid one. As if two thousand years of Christian diversity, debate, and development can be boiled down to a checklist, and anyone who doesn’t tick every box gets expelled.
The early church argued about whether Gentiles could be Christians without first becoming Jewish. They debated the nature of Christ for centuries. They split over the filioque and papal authority. We built this country on religious freedom. Why do we think it’s suddenly our job to kick people out?
I’m not suggesting all theological distinctions are meaningless. I’m not saying differences don’t matter. I’m saying that deciding who gets to claim the name “Christian” isn’t our call to make.
If someone says, “I follow Jesus Christ,” who am I to say they don’t? What profound arrogance would that require?
Instead, let’s practice some humility. Let’s recognize that God is bigger than our theological boxes. Let’s acknowledge that throughout history, the people who were absolutely certain about who was “in” and who was “out” have often been on the wrong side of justice.
The Latter-day Saints have been our neighbors, our colleagues, our fellow seekers of truth. They have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and loved their neighbors. They have raised families, built communities, and tried to live out their faith with integrity.
They call themselves Christians. That’s enough for me.
But, Pastor Kate. We know you. We know you have strong feelings about some things, like the ordination of women and the safety of LGBTQIA believers. I do. I do have those strong feelings. And I also know that several LDS folk, including a Bishop, have kindly asked me if I would be open to talking to them about these two issues. And I did. And I could tell their ears were hearing me. I think there’s hope that we’ll agree on more things.
Maybe instead of asking “Are Mormons really Christians?” we should ask: “What kind of Christians are we being when we spend our energy excluding others instead of living out Christ’s radical love?”
Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). He didn’t say, “Everyone will know you’re my disciples if you have perfect theology.” He didn’t say, “Prove your faith by drawing the boundaries tightly.”
He said: Love one another.
The tent of God’s love is bigger than we imagine. Let’s stop trying to make it smaller.”

This is so comprehensive and well-written that it defies theological dispute.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

The Katie Johnson (Jane Doe) Interview

Posted on September 30, 2025 by The Old Wolf

What follows is the transcript (auto generated) of the interview with Katie Johnson regarding Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. It has not been edited except to remove the time stamps. Because of auto-generation of captions, there may be some small discrepancies between the text and what was actually said.

Warning: Graphic description of sexual abuse of children

The video is here: https://youtu.be/TRZa_cVshcI Katie Johnson’s Full Testimony of 2 11 16

Edit: There is no conclusive evidence proving the video is real or that the woman depicted is genuinely “Katie Johnson” from the lawsuit. The testimony matches the language in a now-dismissed legal complaint but has not been independently authenticated by credible news outlets, fact-checkers, or investigators. The veracity of both the accuser’s identity and her allegations against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein remains unproven and highly disputed. This transcript and the link to the video are presented here as a part of the whole.

I came to this interview on my free will
no there was nothing promised to me for
doing this interview excellent yes
everything that I say at this interview
will be the truth um I met Donald Trump
um at some parties I attend um that I
was working um for Mr Jeffrey
Epstein um there was about three or four
times that I um had encounters with
Donald Trump I was 13
the first time that I met Donald Trump
uh was at uh a party at Jeffrey
Epstein's um
Mansion uh we
were he was there was a um an orgy going
on and he
was kind of watching off in the distance
um
and and he basically asked
um if I could come over
and give him um give him a hand job and
at first I wasn't very comfortable with
it this was like my first you know first
party and I I didn't you know I didn't
think that that was my
responsibility uh but my recruiter told
me that I needed to do it um so I agreed
to and um then he you know I said I
began to sorry this is um a little
difficult but um
before I gave him a hand job he kind of
slapped my hand away and said um you
need to use a glove and the recruiter
ran over and handed me a glove and said
no one touches Mr Trump's penis without
a glove so I needed to use a glove I um
gave him a hand job and then um
immediately after you know he had an
orgasm he left and I didn't see him
again at that party Jeffrey Epstein um
is a billionaire friend of Donald
Trump's that um was responsible for
throwing the sex parties um there was um
I originally um came to New York trying
to be a model and um in my travels I met
a girl named Tiffany there um who um was
very interested in me and said that you
know she that's what she did is that she
helped girls you know get what they
wanted and and and she could help me get
get into modeling that she knew a lot of
um people that were that were higher ups
and that it would be no problem um and
so that's why you know she but I would
just basically have to come model um at
a couple of events and meet some people
there would be no sweat so um of course
I went you know that sounded like no big
deal um and she was recruiting the girls
to come to these
parties um and and they all looked I
mean most of them were you know my age
there was you know maybe a couple girls
that were maybe 14 or 15 but it seemed
to me like we were all very young so
okay um Jeffrey Epstein knew that I was
um 13 years old uh when he interviewed
me um he asked me to get um down to my
BR my just my panties and I thought that
was weird but I mean modeling maybe it
was something about my figure um and he
asked that I give him a massage so
he then he asked me my age he asked me
and I told him you know told him that I
was 13 I told him why I was there um and
and he basically said well you'll do you
know I'm sure that you'll you'll fit
pretty nicely here and then he he tried
to uh basically um slip himself inside
of me and I I pushed him away and I said
you know I'm I'm cuz at that point in
time I still believed that there was
models and then there was the girls that
did that like I thought there was a sep
ation so um I I told him that I wasn't
interested in that but he said that I
would do um and as far as Donald Trump
um he knew that I was 13 and I believe
that Tiffany told him he seemed to take
a liking to me because I was a I was so
young um and um I was also a virgin so I
don't know he's it seemed like he wasn't
really into having um having girls that
that were liked by the other guys he
kind of you know the whole glove he kind
of liked things to be his first you know
that for lack of you know a better term
but he was the one who
wanted to um get to get to a girl before
everyone else did Donald Trump knew that
I was 13 um because the first the first
night that I was there uh Tiffany
actually suggested that and she had a
whole bunch of different wigs and I
express interest in them you know I
always told her that I would love to
walk around with blue hair and so I
tried some on and um there was a blonde
wig that that that she said that looked
great on me so I wore that wig um and
Donald Trump had specifically asked
about me because I remind him of his
daughter and she said well she's 13 as
well so he knew the first time that he
saw me but he took a liking to me
because I look like his daughter
the reason I'm coming out now um is when
it happened originally I just wanted to
forget about the whole incident uh and
when I saw that he was running for
president um I felt it was my
responsibility to come out and tell our
country um what kind of man this person
is um I don't think that he should even
be the dog catcher let alone running uh
the greatest country in the world after
I met Tiffany at the bus station um
she took me to basically went to her
house her apartment and got ready um I
put on a blonde wig because it seemed
fun to pretend to be someone different
but uh we went to the party that that I
was basically inter interviewing for um
and Jeffrey Epstein was the one that was
running the party um he had a quick
meeting with everyone that was um
employed there and then um he had um a
private interview with me the first time
that I met Jeffrey Epstein um he did try
to force
himself um inside of me without getting
to go ahead or anything um and then um
on the it
was probably about the third or fourth
party is when um he basically
um uh forced was it was another massage
and it was basically like it wasn't sex
um but it was there was penetration and
I told him that I didn't want that but
um he kind of got a little irritated so
I don't know there was something about
him that
um I guess I kind of um held him like I
held a lot of resentment towards him by
that time that that happened I I kind of
already started catching on that maybe I
wasn't there for modeling and maybe I
was just getting used for things and I
felt that kind of held him
responsible um I did receive money to go
to these parties after every um party um
I was paid by Mr Mr
Epstein there
wasn't out of all the girls that were
there with me I never I've most of them
were 13 14 I think the oldest one might
have
been 16 just but just turned 16 um and
she'd been there for a
while um it was actually it was Tiffany
um he
was it he was he he liked to watch other
people have sex I I I it was must and he
he's a germ doesn't like germs so he
rather than partaking he just watches so
um and Tiffany had informed him that I
was the Virgin um and
so he was I was
basically um
sorry I I I so it was Tiffany who
introduced us
okay second time that I saw Mr Trump um
was same scenario he was uh on looking
some at an orgy and uh Tiffany came over
to me and said that Donald Donald Trump
had requested that I perform oral sex on
him um and and never I'd never done
something like that with anybody so I
was a little nervous um so I walked up
to him uh and and he was standing
sitting there very proud like and I just
kind of moved in that direction and he
kind of slapped me away and said what
are you doing you know you need to put a
condom on like I was some like dirty
filter or something without a condom and
Tiffany ran over um and handed him a you
know me a condom and apologized you know
profusely and said that would never
happen again um that that and she looked
at me and and scolded me basically like
a child and said that that's not how you
know Donald Trump always you know any
time you touch his penis it needs to
have a condom on or glove you know you
owe and especially when it comes
performing oral sex so um I apologized
and then um I performed oral sex on him
and once again once he was done he
hopped up and that's the last I saw of
him at that party it's like once he's
done out so okay okay sometimes before
the I some of the things that I noticed
that were weird with him was sometimes
before the parties he would come over um
and him Jeffrey Epstein and himself
would kind of banter back and forth and
he was very uh Donald Trump was very
racist he said a lot of racist things
like there was uh there was a lot of
comments um towards Mr Epstein about you
know being Jewish um and you called him
a Jew bastard you know so that he was
Chap and there was some words I didn't
even understand something about um his
his P you know the shape of his penis um
being directly related to his mole or I
mean I'm I'm not too familiar with the
Jew you know the Jewish tradition so but
I'm pretty sure that whatever he was
saying wasn't very nice um also referred
to you know people of Hispanic or you
know Hispanic n they called him spicks
um was that was around the first time
that the World Trade Center had gotten
the bombed in the in the '90s um and he
was you know talking about the towel
heads and how you know we would just be
better off if we you know uh didn't let
him in or you know basically got rid of
everyone every single one that was
already here and I thought I just that
it made me really uncomfortable really
really uncomfortable he also loved to to
call black people um
 [ __ ] and he um Arabic people he
called sand
 [ __ ] um the only time that um that he
tried to give me some money was the last
our last encounter
together um where he acted out of rape
fantasy um it just
um I was forced to I was forced to give
that money back because
uh Jeffrey Epstein paid us um after the
party so but he just gave me the money I
I don't even know why he gave it to me
maybe to make me feel more cheap but it
was um it was a pretty I it was a rap
fantasy to him but I I wasn't playing so
there was those there was those two
times um and then there was after the
next the next thing that was that
Tiffany approaching with was that he had
a fantasy where he walked in on his maid
um Maids basically making out and that
he it was some type of fantasy for him
so she asked I mean I was at that point
I was like I don't want to be involved
with anything that has to do with him
but she's like you were just basically
the the other one so there's nothing
that you will have to do just don't you
know just he wants he's requesting you
to be involved so um I
reluctantly I mean I don't I I felt like
I didn't have a choice there but
um it was basically he's walking in his
two Maids I was one of the maids I was
the white maid and there was um a
Spanish girl U Maria who was the
Hispanic maid and we were making out and
he walks in and he gets really angry and
threatens to send call Immigration on
Maria if she doesn't come over and make
things right and give him a
 [ __ ] so
while she is over there giving him a
 [ __ ] I am just look trying to you
know I'm supposed to look scared like oh
oh no you know and you cleaning try to
cleaning up things and pretending like
I'm trying to go back to my job as a
maid um and then he he's being so rude
to Maria I felt so bad for her um even
though I guess it just didn't seem like
a fantasy it didn't it didn't seem like
it it's the weirdest fantasy
as far as that you know he was
threatening he was threatening to call
Immigration on her you know so that she
didn't know how to you know she went to
she wasn't even near going down to give
him um perform oral sex on him before he
slapped her away and said you know what
are you doing you know you need to put a
condom on and and she's trying to M you
know I'm so sorry and he's like you
can't even can't even understand what
you're saying you know just you speak
English you know called her derogatory
um comments um and then he's like you
know what you don't know what you're
doing have her come over and show you
how it's done and
so I
again I said that I didn't you know I
had to go over there or else he was
going to call Immigration on Maria I
didn't know if it was true or not but I
felt that you know he said that if I
wasn't if I didn't show her how to
perform oral sex on him then he was
going to
um call Immigration on her and then get
rid of us
both you know it was anything that was
in relation to him getting off or being
satisfied or happy had to do with him
being in power but extreme power and
it's it's very
um it's very hard to even it was it was
always intimidating when he was like
that it was always you didn't really
know if it is true or I mean like if you
refuse to play along would he really
call Immigration on Maria would he
really get rid of us both and I didn't
even want to know what that meant you
know I always didn't it wasn't a
game it just felt like it wasn't a game
yeah the one night that I had the blonde
wig on um he mentioned that I looked
like you know I looked like to you know
that I reminded him of his daughter um
and actually the the the maid
fantasy I didn't have a blonde wig on I
was trying to stay away from blonde wigs
since the time but he actually requested
told Tiffany that that's what he wanted
me to wear like he wanted it and he's
and anytime I put it on anytime I had it
on and he'd see me he would say oh man
you look just and it wasn't like a oh
you remind me of my daughter it was this
sick evil like H you remind me of my
daughter it was just this weird pleasure
sick smile like I I don't even want to
know what he was thinking about I I
could imagine what he was thinking about
after the parties would end uh we were
to report to Mr Epstein and basically
tell him everything that happened uh
with who um what they liked what they
disliked if there was any requests if
there was any um talk about anything uh
that's what you know we told Mr abstein
everything and then he paid us and then
we got to go home and most with me you
know I would either you know I normally
got
taken taken to the airport you know so
to go back home the fact that Trump has
a chance to be the next president makes
me feel disgusting inside I've always
been proud to be an American I think we
live in a beautiful
country but I just see him ruining
everything he's a horrible what he
portrays on the outside isn't even that
great but people don't even know the
half of how evil how sick and twisted
that man is I have a friend that's been
my
friend ever since the school year that I
stopped going you know the the eighth
grade I confided her and she knows all
about it she knows everything I mean I I
destroyed everything of like you know
any planes to I didn't I couldn't risk
my my dad finding out um and now I think
I'm old enough to
where I think I don't think you I at
that point I didn't want to not be his
little girl you know I
didn't want to lose my dad basically I I
any I would never uh as far as keeping
proof of any of the trips um the only
person I never told my parents you know
I there would be no happy you know there
would be no good outcome of telling my
parents you know they would have
grounded me
um I would have never been allowed of
the house you know my my father would
have come unglued um I did tell a friend
my best she's still my best friend of
this day she knows everything she knows
it all I'm prepared to do whatever it
takes to
save the country that I believe that we
have I know what he does behind P like
closed doors like if it if that's all
I'm willing to sacrifice my life to put
our country back to in the right like
going maybe in some type of positive
direction not even there's no right or
wrong but a positive direction this
guy's not going to take us anywhere
positive you know as far as um my life
changing by coming out with this
information I've thought long and hard
about um whether or not I should uh and
I've gone back and forth um but I think
that I I can't I think that the American
people need to know what kind of man
this person is
um and if my life changes because of
that then so be it but the American
people need to know what they're dealing
with if I had the chance to talk to
Donald Trump I would run the other way
I'm scared of him like I've never been
scared of any anything else in my entire
life I I I can't I can't explain it to
you but I just the fear of him even
being in the Next Room
make I have a panic I would have I have
a panic
attack um the last encounter that I had
with Donald Trump um Tiffany approached
me about um a rape scene that was
supposed to be played out and
I didn't like I didn't like the sound of
that at all but um Tiffany prom ured me
that it wasn't going to be if I if it
was anything I wasn't comfortable with
we could stop um that she would be right
there and that um it would it wouldn't
get out of it wouldn't get out of hand
and that um it was just it was a fantasy
like it wasn't really going to happen um
and so she I told her that I would uh
she she basically I mean Tiffany was
always nice to me she wasn't that I felt
I trusted her else I you know and I
wouldn't always trusted her or done what
she asked me to but um she was there
and uh he came in and I was basically
tied to a bed um with panty
hose uh
and he tied him there were so tied I
could it hurt to even like lay there and
I tried to you know triy to say
something and it was like you know he's
just you know shut up you shut up [ __ ]
you know this is was basically like he
was he was being really really rough and
and I understand I don't I mean just
didn't seem like a fantasy um and I
started to get scared and and he was you
know basically like ripping my clothes
off and and I was actually really I
started I got freaked out and um I told
him that I didn't want to do this I was
you know I screamed over for Tiffany you
she was like Mr Trump she's only you
know she's not she's this is scaring her
and he's like oh you shut up too he just
turned into this animal it was like a
completely
different um completely compl different
person um it was like everyone in the
room was scared of him and uh I was um
it was like I
uh I couldn't do anything about
it
and he ripped off all my clothes
and
he started to basically have sex with me
and I screaming cuz I'd never had sex
before it was my first time and Tiffany
was yelling at him too she she was
saying I was a virgin and he told us to
just shut the [ __ ] up and just
basically took my virginity while I was
crying and telling him to stop and
that's basically begging for him to just
stop
uh and I don't I Tiffany
was didn't know what else to do either
she no one was there to help us or
me
um and
 [Music]
so so after the fact he he he basically
finishes it you know didn't it didn't
take that long um at all I mean it but
it was just it felt like it was like 5
and 1 half hours like it was a eternity
like I don't even know how long it was
but um he was done and I was crying and
Tiffany was Consulting me and she was
you know apologizing she told me that
she would never she
didn't she just never put me in that
situation again but uh he comes over mad
because I was crying and so that I
should be thankful that someone like
Donald Trump took my virginity but he
basically didn't say took my virginity
he said I should be glad that someone
like Donald Trump popped my cherry and
not some pimply little
14-year-old and I just was like What if
I I I said what if I get pregnant not
even talking to him I didn't want to
talk to him I was talking to Tiffany and
he said well you'll get an abortion then
 [ __ ] and then just walked away
um and I I I asked I I I went I told
Tiffany I needed to go home I never went
back again
I guess
um I guess it's for you to decide you
know I mean if I don't have any kids
myself um because I'm afraid to have
kids because I who knows what kind of
damage they can get into but if you have
a 13-year-old daughter and you're I mean
would you be okay with the person person
who's running our country doing that to
your little
girl and I
just I don't know I just want people to
know I think that I I have I have a
faith in our in our society that we'll
make the right
choice he seemed to be taking uh great
pleasure and like dominance and control
and and just the more I screamed the
more I got scared the more he was
enraged and like
power enraged with power and and it was
like he was just charged with it it was
scary my experience um with Donald Trump
and has made it to where um
I
I can't be in a healthy relationship
much less I can't be in a relationship
without um without myself sabotaging it
I don't um I don't do
well I I mean I I've I've been in I've
been in a couple of relationships I mean
they never of interest to me normally
but one in particular that was a a
wonderful he was a wonderful man and I
completely knowing I I I I had like
subconsciously it I couldn't even
control myself it was like I had to get
him out of my life because you know I
don't I don't know why it was like
anytime anyone loves me I don't feel
worth it or you know um
I've I mean
i' I don't even know how to explain it
like I can't friends I can have
acquaintance that guys that are
acquaintances but I just you know
anytime it's maybe someone express any
else besides that I
can't I take some type of pleasure not
some type of I don't take pleasure in it
but
subconsciously whether I mean to or not
sometimes I've meant to it's like i' i'
I've purposely hurt their feelings um
just so they'll never talk to me again
like I make sure that it's not ever a
possibility and Donald Trump Donald
Trump destroyed my feeling of selfworth
and my self-esteem when it was still
like when it was when it just bloomed it
hadn't even had a chance to experience
anything
um I have I have only spoken to to one
therapist about this just recently
actually
um I for the long time I just really
just tried to forget about it just tried
very hard but um I've been to counseling
for other things um and I went to
counseling for a previous the previous
relationship that I was sabotaging and
my counselor said something has happened
to you that where you were just you need
to deal with that that's actually what
kind of was like hm he knew that there
was something that had happened where I
was self self Saab you know sabotaging
these
relationships but you know he said that
it was my responsibility to deal with it
of
course uh this the situation with Donald
Trump has has left it destroyed my
self-esteem and and it's made it to
where I feel like it's destroyed part of
my life um I haven't the only he healthy
relationship I've completely
demolished um and I love to choose the
dysfunctional ones that I know I can
just push away uh
he after what happened with him
I can't trust a man ever
again
I thinking about it just makes
me sick to my
stomach someone when something so
traumatic happens to someone that's so
young you never ever really get over it

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Release the Epstein Files.

The Old Wolf has spoken, but Katie has spoken more loudly, and her words need to reverberate around the world until these child rapists are brought to justice.

The Double Standard and Selective Outrage

Posted on September 13, 2025 by The Old Wolf

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This amazingly on-target video was created by Instagram user @somethingblackmade. It’s fairly long, so if you prefer to read instead of watching, here’s a full transcript of what he says.

It’s a challenge to the alt-right to really think about what they’re saying when they call for the death of anyone who disrespects the murder of Charlie Kirk.

Note: I do not condone political violence of any sort against any person. Civil disobedience, resisting, and protesting are not political violence.

White Conservatives, I get you now.

The double standard and selective outrage.

I understand it, now I get it.

Y’all can’t stand the mirror that’s been put in front of your face.

All of the [censored] that y’all have been serving for the last few decades now against minority communities, y’all can’t stand having to look at it when it affects you.

See that’s the thing, I finally get it. It took me a lot of time because I’m thinking, “Why are people reacting so violently to this?” And it reminds me of the very first event that I had when I was escaping the alt-right pipeline and changing my mindset of that; [it] was that anger and violence. Because here’s the thing, here’s the thing you really don’t understand because you refuse to put yourself in other people’s shoes and actually be empathetic to other people’s situations.

How do y’all think the Black community has felt for the last five years¹ since George Floyd has died? All the memes y’all shared about that? How do you think they felt about all the memes about Breanna Taylor – you know, the woman who was gunned down in her sleep during a no-knock raid?

How do you think the Latino community has felt with y’all cheering Trump for his deportation efforts and buying merch for Alligator Alcatraz and egging it on that human suffering is a great thing for this country?

How do you think that the gay community felt with all the jokes y’all made about the Pulse nightclub shooting a few years back in Orlando that killed 50+ people in like a predominantly gay club?
You are truly experiencing for the first time how it tastes.

The hatred you have been spilling out of your guts for years finally comes back at you and that’s the thing you don’t like.

But you know what the funny thing about all of it is? Where’s the black community calling for war with how you’ve treated them? Where’s the Latino community going up in arms and calling for war – and no, fighting off ICE and protesting, that is not war, that is civil disobedience – and that is our First Amendment right. But calling for the death of innocent civilians because they make jokes about a dead man who spent his entire political career actively making these communities worse with his rhetoric, and their situations worse, where’s their calls for war?

See, you’re just now kind of coming out of the illusion that your hatred and bigotry, that you claim is “free speech,” is free of consequences from the actions of what you just said because you only ever say it online, because when you do say it to someone’s face you almost always outnumber them five to one; you almost always catch people in situations where they are at a disadvantage, so when you say these things you’re protected.

But now with Charlie and his situation you’re having to come to reality for the first time of the vile and awful things that you believe in, and you don’t like it. You’re having to eat that. You’re having to stare that in the face. And what’s your first response? To be violent and angry to innocent people. Because you scream that “everyone’s entitled to their opinion.” You love dark humor but the second you see people making jokes about Charlie Kirk being gone, “Oh, that’s too far!” Oh, that’s too far?

The Hallowe’en costumes of George Floyd being strangled to death? Let’s not even glaze over the fact that I’m seeing a bunch of posts saying “Congratulations George Floyd for being five years sober.” Because he’s dead. But now you want us to care. You’re now noticing just how little actual emotion, like how little actual empathy and sympathy exist amongst your own ranks. Because the funniest thing about this entire situation is the fact that it was one of your own that killed him.

It was a 22-year-old white kid from Utah who came from a conservative GOP family that love Trump, and he was a registered Republican. [Fact Check: the shooter himself was not affiliated with either party, and did not participate in the last two elections, but his family did glorify firearms.]

So if you really, really, really think you want war or bloodshed with innocent people, how about you look in a mirror, and won’t you sit there for a few days and actually digest and break down your beliefs? Because I’m sure it’s screaming at you from the inside. I remember feeling that a long when I was younger and in the alt-right. When there’s this interior voice that is screaming at the things you are saying and doing are wrong, but you don’t care because it’s getting you brownie points with the people around you because you’ve surrounded yourself with hateful people.

How about you actually – actually think – for a few days on your politics and your beliefs. Because at the moment, y’all are disgusting. Y’all call us disgusting for celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death, well, we think you’re disgusting because really Charlie Kirk is no different than any child that has been shot in school for the last [censored] two decades. [Emphasis mine]

The things we have been trying to prevent, the things we’ve been trying to stop, the pain that these incidents cause families, how about you think about which side you’ve been fighting on that for a while.

Charlie Kirk was a human being with a family and friends and loved ones, and they are understandably sad and angry and outraged about their loss. I have nothing but condolences for them. But it must be remembered that Charlie Kirk preached, publicly and repeatedly, some terrible things. Things that a true follower of Christ would never espouse, things that a compassionate person would repudiate entirely, and in the end, those things came back to bite him.

Here’s a collection of some of the things Charlie Kirk said in public or on record, and some fact-checking along with it: https://generik.substack.com/p/fact-checking-charlie-kirks-awfulness

MAGA have found a martyr for their cause, and they will politicize his death to the utter hilt… but God forbid any liberal should do the same. The sad fact remains that if there is political violence in this country, the vast, vast majority of it has been perpetrated by the right wing of the Republican Party. And you wonder why?

View post on imgur.com

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Footnotes

¹ More like the last 400 years, if we’re being accurate.

Bad Business Decisions: True or Urban Legend?

Posted on August 17, 2025 by The Old Wolf

A number of lists of these great “quotes” have been circulating ever since the days of fax machines, even before “forwards from Grandma.” They’re funny and great to read, but is there any truth to any of them? Let’s explore.

The most famous one that I know of has been thoroughly debunked:

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” – Bill Gates

An analysis at Quote Investigator ended with “Since Gates has denied the quotation and the evidence is not compelling I would not attribute it to him at this time. Thanks for this difficult interesting question.“

During the early days of computing, programs were often written in Assembly Language, producing very tight code that could run in minimal spaces. The original Wang v.2 word processor was designed to run on workstations with 32K of memory, even though later workstations had a standard 64K.

If you want apocrypha, here’s a good one. This story was told to me by a Wang Laboratories internal employee, and I can’t verify its authenticity, but having worked with Wang software and hardware for around 10 years back in the ’80s and ’90s, I would be willing to bet a steak dinner that it is true.

The Wang Word Processor, version 2, was – as mentioned above – written in Assembly language. The source code was kept on these 300MB swappable disk packs which at the time were very convenient for changing storage media.

*Disk Drive for use with removable packs*

As the tale goes, somehow an entire rack of those disk packs got knocked over, destroying both the source code (in Assembly Language) and the backups for that impressively small and fast piece of software. It was for this reason that WP+, the next generation word processor from Wang, was entirely re-written in a slower, larger, higher level language. It emulated many features of the original and added others, but it was cumbersome and inelegant by comparison. Again, I can’t verify this 100%, but it came to me from what I consider a reliable source.

Western Union’s opinion of the telephone

This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” — Purported Western Union internal memo, 1876.

Telegrams were pretty much the way to get a message from one place to another rapidly. Prior to the development of the electric telegraph system designed by Samuel Morse, optical telegraphy which used visual signals seen at a distance was one of the earliest methods of long-distance communication.

Wikipedia reports that “The smoke signal is one of the oldest forms of long-distance communication. It is a form of visual communication used over a long distance. In general smoke signals are used to transmit news, signal danger, or to gather people to a common area.” The use of smoke signals by the indigenous peoples of North America are probably the most familiar to Americans thanks to the popularization of western history in published and broadcast media.

*Frederic S. Remington (1861-1909); The Smoke Signal; 1905; Oil on canvas; Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas; 1961.250*

This method of communication has been the basis for much humor as well:

*Lucky Luke – “La Diligence”* (Dargaud, 1968 series) #32 by Morris and Goscinny

The joke here is that a single puff of smoke or one beat of a drum can communicate large quantities of information, which of course is not the case.

One of the most stirring cinematographic representations of optical telegraphy can be found in Peter Jackson’s version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Two Towers,” where the beacons of Gondor – signal fires strategically placed on mountaintops – played a crucial role in summoning Rohan’s forces to help Gondor.

Once electricity came on the scene, the electrical telegraph, augmented by Morse Code, became the dominant method of rapid long-distance communication, and was the underpinning of the telegram system for which Western Union became so famous.

Telegrams – about which I have written elsewhere – were used for everything where information had to be transmitted rapidly, from business meetings, to military applications, to notifications of death, to congratulations on Broadway, and countless other uses.

*Telegram sent to my mother from ANTA (American National Theater and Academy) wishing her good luck in “For Heaven’s Sake, Mother” on November 16, 1948*. *Sadly, the play only ran for four* *days*.

So when the telephone made its debut on the world stage, Western Union supposedly turned up its nose and sniffed loftily that it was not anything worthy of consideration. While the invention of the telephone, followed by the modern Internet and the proliferation of smartphones, ultimately doomed the telegram to the vaults of history, at the time concern about the new technology was real. The supposed internal memo at Western Union, however, was not. A lovely article at Wondermark discusses the origins of this urban legend in great detail and is worth the read if such things interest you.

Be aware, however, that even the telegraph itself was met with skepticism by shortsighted individuals:

“I watched his face (Samuel F.B. Morse) closely to see if he was not deranged, and was assured by other Senators as we left the room that they had no confidence in it either.”
-Senator Oliver Smith of indiana, 1842, after witnessing a first demonstration of the telegraph

The Radio

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” — David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

David Sarnoff was an early pioneer in the promotion of wireless radio as a new technology. I asked Perplexity about the supposed response from investors, and it had this to say:

In summary, although the quote closely reflects real skepticism Sarnoff faced, there is no documented evidence that an investor sent this precise message to him—the wording appears to be apocryphal or retrospective, encapsulating broader contemporary attitudes

Obviously, “fear of the new, from those with a vested interest in the old” (from the Wondermark article linked above) didn’t keep the radio from becoming immensely popular.

The March of Technology

“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” attributed to Popular Mechanics from 1949

This is a true quote, but is often quoted out of context, unlike the quote in the image above. Popular Mechanics was making a forecast based on the technology of that time, suggesting computers could shrink significantly but still be very large by modern standards. This reflected an era when computers were massive and used vacuum tubes. The prediction was reasonable then but didn’t foresee transistor and integrated circuit breakthroughs that led to much smaller, lighter computers. You don’t know what you don’t know.

More about Computers

Once more, this quote is a misinterpretation; a very good background is found here. The short explanation is:

From a question on the history of IBM on their website, “Did Thomas Watson say in the 1950s that he foresaw a market potential for only five electronic computers?” IBM offers the following explanation:

We believe the statement that you attribute to Thomas Watson is a misunderstanding of remarks made at IBM’s annual stockholders meeting on April 28, 1953. In referring specifically and only to the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine — which had been introduced the year before as the company’s first production computer designed for scientific calculations — Thomas Watson, Jr., told stockholders that “IBM had developed a paper plan for such a machine and took this paper plan across the country to some 20 concerns that we thought could use such a machine. I would like to tell you that the machine rents for between $12,000 and $18,000 a month, so it was not the type of thing that could be sold from place to place. But, as a result of our trip, on which we expected to get orders for five machines, we came home with orders for 18.”

You don’t know what you don’t know

“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.”
-The Editor in Charge of Business Books for Prentice Hall, 1957

“But what … is it good for?“
-Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
-Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

The three quotes above are not examples of obtuseness or stupidity, but rather the inability to predict the incredible rush of innovation that the computer industry would experience. I have written about the incredible shrinking data storage elsewhere, and even that article is now outdated; SanDisk has introduced a 4TB MicroSD card, whether or not something of this nature is even needed.

There’s nothing new under the sun

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
–Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

This archived article written by Dennis Crouch explores the legend, and decides that the quote was based on a joke published in Punch in 1899:

Silence Please

According to Quote Investigator, Warner probably said this but more confirmation would be useful. The linked article provides some interesting background about resistence to the inclusion of sound and voice in films, which up until that time were entirely silent.

There are many more “boneheaded quotes” out there, but the above dive into some of the most famous is an indication that each one deserves to be investigated for accuracy before spreading them around as 100% accurate.

As Abraham Lincoln famously said:

The Old Wolf has spoken.

“20 and odd Negroes,” or, The beginning of Enslavement in America

Posted on July 28, 2025 by The Old Wolf

This post was spawned by one of Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American” which was also posted on Facebook.

She wrote about the tragic 1955 murder of Emmett Till, an innocent 14-year-old boy, and about the hateful and unrepentant attitude of J. W. Milam, one of Till’s two killers.

“What else could we do?” Milam said. “He was hopeless. I’m no bully. I never hurt a n* in my life. I like n*s, in their place (emphasis mine). I know how to work ’em. But I just decided it was time a few people got put on notice. As long as I live and can do anything about it, n*s are gonna stay in their place.”

Milam’s attitude had it roots in 1620 when a Dutch man-of-war traded “20 and odd Negroes” for “victualle,” according to a letter from Virginia Colony secretary John Rolfe to Sir Edwin Sandys. From there, it evolved into a system of utter oppression and cruelty by whites, who used the principle of human bondage to treat their unfree laborers as less than cattle for their own petty satisfaction. These attitudes and the economy which arose as a result – largely the growing of cotton in the South – were officially and legally repudiated by the Civil War and subsequent amendments to the Constitution which guaranteed “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to all citizens, and not just wealthy white landowners – but the attitudes in the hearts of many in the South clearly did not die, as witnessed by the conditions that Blacks dealt with prior to the Civil Rights area, predominantly in the South.

While thinking about John Rolfe’s letter, I kept having flashbacks to elementary school, and of vague memories of learning about the arrival of the Dutch ship in Jamestown. I could have sworn that the text was recorded as “20. and odd negars,” (at that time the word was simply a corruption of the Portuguese word for “black,” and had not yet become the hateful slur of later times). So I started doing some digging, and was intrigued to find that I was not the only one who remembered things erroneously.

The following websites commemorating the 400th anniversary of the beginning of human bondage in America quote that passage from Rolfe’s letter in that manner:

https://cbc.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2097
News from The Congressional Black Caucus, 9/11/2019: “Congressional Ceremony Marks 400 Years Of Slavery In America”

https://www.wm.edu/as/history/news/news-archive/2019-20-archive/1619-2019-from-trauma-to-triumph.php
William and Mary news archive 23 August 2019, “1619-2019: From Trauma to Triumph”

https://wydaily.com/latest/local/2019/02/08/researchers-seek-fuller-picture-of-first-africans-in-america/
Williamsburg Yorktown Daily, February 8, 2019, “Researchers seek fuller picture of first Africans in America”

https://asalh.org/commemorating-400-years-of-black-history-in-hampton-virginia/
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) – Commemorating 400 years Of Black History In Hampton, Virginia, August 27, 2019

https://www.voanews.com/a/researchers-seek-fuller-picture-of-first-africans-in-america/4777243.html
Voice of America, “Researchers Seek Fuller Picture of First Africans in America,” 7 February 2019

https://web.archive.org/web/20190920233856/www.bet.com/news/features/1619/400-years-since-beginning-of-american-slavery.html
1619-2019: From Trauma to Triumph (www.bet.com, retrieved from the Internet Archive)

These are all respected institutions, and it made me even more curious as to how the discrepancy in nomenclature arose.

In The Encyclopedia Virginia, a partial transcript of John Rolfe’s letter is presented, along with transcription, in “Records of the Virginia Company, Volume 3, Page 241“.

Here is plainly transcribed “20. and odd Negroes.” If you were not sure about the accuracy of the transcription, below we can see a scan of the original letter:

Having been unsuccessful in finding any explanations on the Internet for the discrepancy, I turned to Perplexity, an AI search engine which provides references with everything it is able to find. What I asked:

“The first arrival of African slaves in America is recorded in a letter by Virginia colony secretary John Rolfe, in which he recounted – according to some – that a Dutch Man o’ War traded “20 and odd Negars” for “victuals.” But a scan of the letter itself shows that the word Rolfe used was “negroes,” and the Encyclopedia of Virginia provides an accurate transcript of the letter from Rolfe to Sir Edwin Sandys. Even a report from the Congressional Black Congress in 2019 uses the phrase “20 and odd Negars.” I want to know how Rolfe’s “negroes” was changed to “negars” in some reports.”

I was not unhappy with the result [emphasis added to the salient parts]:

John Rolfe’s 1619 letter documenting the first arrival of Africans in Virginia describes the sale of “20. and odd Negroes.” This exact phrase—using “Negroes”—is confirmed by direct transcripts from reputable sources such as the Encyclopedia of Virginia and republished excerpts of the letter, all of which indicate Rolfe wrote “Negroes” and not “Negars”.

The origin of the spelling “Negars” or its substitution for “Negroes” in some later reports seems to trace to evolving English usage and to historical misreadings or reinterpretations over time. Several factors contribute to this confusion:

The early 17th-century English language was not standardized, and words referring to people of African descent included a range of spellings—such as “negroes,” “negers,” “negars,” and, later, “[n-word]” — all derived from the Spanish and Portuguese “negro” (meaning black), and ultimately from the Latin “niger”.
The spelling “negars” appears in several 18th and 19th-century works, and was sometimes used interchangeably with “negroes” or as an early variant in American English, especially in regions influenced by Dutch or non-standard English dialects .
Some secondary sources and later historical writings incorrectly retrojected¹ these variant spellings into the context of 1619, perhaps due to faulty transcription practices, unfamiliarity with the original manuscript, or confusion regarding the shifting terminology used to describe African-descended people in colonial records.

In summary, John Rolfe’s original letter used the word “Negroes,” but through later historical reinterpretations, variances in early English spelling, and repeated citation errors, the term “Negars” emerged in certain secondary sources and reports. But direct examination of Rolfe’s correspondence confirms that “Negroes” was his actual word choice in the context of the 1619 arrival .

Sources:

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/africans-virginias-first/

https://www.vfpress.news/articles/top-stories/in-1619 20-and-odd-negroes-arrived-in-jamestown-and-were-just-now-realizing-the-full-breadth-of-their-impact/

https://library.schlagergroup.com/chapter/9781961844087-book-part-002

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/teachers/huck/section1_2.html

https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=hst_facpubs

At least, at this point, I know that my original memory from my grade-school days was not imagined up, and have a good idea of what happened between John Rolfe’s penning his letter and subsequent reporting.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Footnotes

¹ I love the word “retrojected,” to project into the past.

The Psychology of Trump Voters

Posted on June 30, 2025 by The Old Wolf

Keen and on-point video discussion about the psychology of Trump voters by “jayneconverse3,” self-described “Political junkie, history teacher, disgusted American.” The original video is here, in case you’d like to listen to her.

I’ve been dying to dig into this. I’ve been asking myself why Trump’s followers can’t see reality. So I did my research, and I’m going to share it with you.

Let’s talk about the psychology behind the Trump Cult, because that’s what it is. It’s not a normal political movement anymore, it’s a cult of peronality and if we want to fight it, we have to understand it. So, let’s break it down.

First, Trump doesn’t offer policies, he offers identity. He’s not popular because of what he does, but because of what he represents. To many of his followers, he’s a walking, talking middle finger to a system they believe has failed them.¹

They see him as “their guy,” not because he’s honest, not because he helps them, but because he talks like them, rages like them, and punches the people they’ve been told to blame for everything.²

In psychology, there’s a term for this: “Identity fusion.” It’s when your personal identity becomes fused with your group or leader. That’s why criticism of Trump feels like a personal attack to his supporters. It’s not just “he’s being criticized,” it’s “I’m being criticized.”

Second, he offers revenge, not solutions. He doesn’t promise to fix healthcare, or raise wages, or protect your rights; he promises to go after “them.” Whether it’s immigrants, the press, Black activists, LGBTQ people, liberals, college students, elites, anyone outside the tribe… that’s classic authoritarianism.

Give people a sense of loss, tell them who stole it, then promise to make them pay. And to some people, that rage, that promise of vengeance is more emotionally satisfying than actual policy. It doesn’t fix their problems, but it feels like power.

Third: People crave order, and Trump promises strength. When institutions fail, when you don’t trust the media, the courts, elections, schools³, you start to look for a savior: Someone who says, “Only I can fix it.” That’s why Trump acts like a strong man. He creates the crisis, then sells himself as the only one tough enough to stop it. He’s done that over and over and over again. He’s not leading a movement, he’s leading a dependency.

Fourth: His follwers are trapped in an information bubble. They don’t just believe lies, they live inside them. Fox News, MAGA influencers, far-right churches, Trump’s own app Truth Social is a closed-loop ecosystem that tells them every day, “The elites hate you, the media lies, only Trump tells the truth.” ⁴ This is called “epistemic closure.” It’s cult logic. If Trump says it, it’s true. If the world says otherwise, the world is lying.

And then fifth: Shame is too powerful, so they double down, just like Trump does. Some Trump supporters know deep down that they’ve been conned. They’ve seen the cruelty, the corruption, the chaos, but they’ve already invested years of their identity into defending him.⁵ To walk away now would mean confronting shame, losing their community, admitting they were wrong, and that’s terrifying to them, so instead they dig in deeper.

And finally, and this one matters, Trump makes them feel seen. He tells them, “They’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just in the way.” That line is emotional manipulation, but it works… because for millions of people who feel ignored, dismissed, mocked by elites, Trump says, “You matter. You’re not crazy, they are.” He gives them belonging, and in a country where loneliness is rising and inequality is everywhere, belonging is everything.

So when people ask, “Why do people love him? Why would they follow him off a cliff?” it’s not just politics, it’s psychology, it’s identity, and it’s fear. This is deliberate. Trump didn’t create the cult, he just saw the cracks in our society and weaponized them.

But here’s the thing: not everyone in that cult is unreachable. Some are too far gone, but others are on the edge, quiet, doubting, hurting. We don’t get them back with facts, we get them back by offering something Trump never will: real community, real care, and real solutions. Because people don’t join cults when they are happy and secure. They join when they are scared, isolated, and desperate for meaning.

So here’s your call to action: Keep speaking truth, keep exposing the con, and when you can, offer people a way out that doesn’t begin with shame, but with dignity. This fight isn’t just about defeating Trump, it’s about breaking the spell and building something better in it’s place. That’s how we get them in, that’s how we get them to abandon him.

Let’s do it.

There is one other thing I would like to add to this salient analysis, and that’s a mini-essay by someone who goes by the handle “xenophonsXyphos.” It dovetails nicely with what Ms. Jayne has said above, and really should be considered if we want to understand the mentality of the MAGA cult. Their statement has been mildly censored for a family-friendly audience:

You all don’t get it. I live in Trump country, in the Ozarks in southern Missouri, one of the last places where the KKK still has a relatively strong established presence. They don’t care what he does. He’s just something to rally around and hate liberals, that’s it, period. He absolutely realizes that and plays it up, they love it, he knows they love it, and the fact that people act like it’s anything other than that just proves that liberals are idiots, all the more reason for high fives all around.

If you keep getting caught up in why do they not realize blah blah blah and how can they still back him after blah blah blah, you are not understanding what is the underlying motivating factor of his support. It’s much it. 🤬 liberals, that’s pretty much it.

Have you noticed he can do pretty much anything imaginable and they’ll explain some way that rationalizes it that makes zero logical sense? Because they’re not even keeping track of any logical narrative, it’s irrelevant, 🤬 liberals is the only relevant thing, trust me, I know first hand what I’m talking about. That’s why they just laugh at it all, because you all don’t even realize they really truly don’t give a 🤬 about whatever the conversation is about, it’s just a side-mission story that doesn’t really matter anyways. That’s all just trivial details the economy, health care, whatever. 🤬 liberals.

Look at the thing with not wearing the masks. I can tell you what that’s about. It’s about exposing fear. They’re playing chicken with nature and whoever flinches just moved down their internal pecking order, one step closer to being a liberal.

You gotta understand the one core value that they hold above all others is hatred for what they consider weakness, because that’s what they believe strength is, hatred for weakness. And I mean passionate, sadistic hatred. And I’m not exaggerating. Believe me. Sadistic, passionate hatred, and that’s what proves they’re strong, their passionate hatred for weakness. Sometimes they lump in vulnerability, a compromised circumstance, or an overwhelming circumstance in their with weakness, too, because people tend to start humbling themselves when they’re in those circumstances and that’s an obvious sign of weakness.

Kindness = weakness. Honesty = weakness. Compromise = weakness. They consider their very existence to be superior every way to anyone who doesn’t hate weakness as much as they do. They consider liberals to be weak people that are inferior, almost a different species, and the fact that liberals are so weak is why they have to unite in large numbers, which they find disgusting, but it’s that disgust that is a true expression of their natural superiority.

Go ahead and try to have a logical, rational conversation with them though. Just keep in mind what I said here and think about it.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Footnotes

¹ Much of that belief stems from 60 years of GOP disinformation and jingoism from people like Nixon, Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, and others.

² From a New York Times article on Jackson County Florida: “A few miles away, another prison employee, Crystal Minton, accompanied her fiancé to a friend’s house to help clear the remnants of a metal roof mangled by the hurricane. Ms. Minton, a 38-year-old secretary, said she had obtained permission from the warden to put off her Mississippi duty until early February because she is a single mother caring for disabled parents. Her fiancé plans to take vacation days to look after Ms. Minton’s 7-year-old twins once she has to go to work.The shutdown on top of the hurricane has caused Ms. Minton to rethink a lot of things.”I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this,” she said of Mr. Trump. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

This is representative of the mindset of many Trump voters: He needs to hurt Democrats and Liberals.

³ See Footnote 1

⁴ This meme has been circulating for some time, but it says basically the same thing.

⁵ In Economics, this is called the “sunk cost fallacy.”

The Political Correction of Sesame Street

Posted on February 2, 2025 by The Old Wolf

Cross-posted from LiveJournal, originally posted 11/4/2009. Still valid today.

I read today an interesting and disturbing article about the evolution of Sesame Street over the last 4 decades, written to coincide with the show’s 40th anniversary. According to Katie McLaughlin of CNN, “In the early days of “Sesame Street” — that is, B.E. (Before Elmo) — Sesame Street was a pretty grimy place.” It was designed that way, in order to reach inner-city kids and bring both facts and a thirst for learning into a milieu that they could relate to.

The Cookie Monster smoked a pipe, which he ate on occasion, along with anything else that he hallucinated looked like a cookie; Oscar was a mean S.O.B., kids rode bicycles without helmets, and kindly neighbors invited little girls into their apartments for milk and cookies.

The only way to re-live the Sesame Street of the 60’s is on DVD, where the episodes are preceded by some mealy-mouthed attorney’s caveat: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.” By Mogg’s adamantium claws, that is so disingenuous it makes me want to puke myself.

Miss Katie goes on to say, “For better or worse, today’s preschooler is very different from the 1969 version. And children’s television programming simply has to reflect that.”

Horsehockey.

Today’s preschooler is exactly the same as those of 40 years ago, or those in the 1890’s, or those in 1492. What has changed is the hypersensitivity of the liberal media to anything that might offend anyone, and the capitulation of society in general to the whims of attorneys hungry for billable hours.

In my day, kids fell off of jungle gyms and out of tree houses regularly, suffered black eyes and broken arms, and nobody got sued. Watch E.T. again, and see how many of the wicked boys in that movie wore helmets as they ripped and tore around the hills on their BMX bikes. S̶e̶x̶ ̶e̶d̶u̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶a̶m̶m̶a̶r̶ ̶s̶c̶h̶o̶o̶l̶ ̶c̶u̶r̶r̶i̶c̶u̶l̶u̶m̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶g̶n̶a̶n̶c̶y̶ ̶r̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶r̶a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶d̶a̶y̶. [I have been corrected regarding this claim] Kids who used bad language or were disrespectful to their elders developed a severe drug problem: they were ‘drug’ to the woodshed, or ‘drug’ to the bathroom to have their mouths washed out with soap.

No, it’s not the preschoolers who have changed, but the society around them. And if you ask me, having a show as freshly original as Sesame Street (designed for those who needed it most and had access to the very least) “power washed” to conform to the sensibilities of the toffee-nosed elite is a sin, a shame, and a crime.

SECTION I: THE PREAMBLE