Image 01 Image 03

Reader: “It is so overwhelming, I am getting too depressed about where our country is heading”

Reader: “It is so overwhelming, I am getting too depressed about where our country is heading”

My hardest Pep Talk yet. Reader on why she was unsubscribing from our Morning Insurrection newsletter: “I need to step away for a bit. It is so overwhelming, I am getting too depressed about where our country is heading.”

Periodically I’m called upon to give a Pep Talk. Too often, because that has been the reality of our political system in the over 14 years since Legal Insurrection was founded.

It’s not easy. I feel what readers feel. While I play therapist, I’m also the patient. It weighs heavily on me. No more so than now.

I received this message from a reader who was unsubscribing from the Morning Insurrection newsletter, explaining why she was leaving:

“I need to step away for a bit. It is so overwhelming, I am getting too depressed about where our country is heading.”

That’s a feeling I have almost daily. It’s a feeling others have expressed to me apart from that reader.

The swiftness and efficiency with which the Biden administration has damaged the country is something to behold, and it’s built on a generation of institutional capture. I could run a list, but you know already. The current trajectory cannot be sustained, something has to give.

I wish I had an easy answer. But I don’t.

I do know that there is no choice but to keep fighting back. It’s our nature.

When it became obvious in April 2009 that Democrats in the Senate would be able to pass Obamacare because Arlen Specter switched parties, I wrote:

What history shows us is that a liberal, blame-America-first Democratic President, urged on by a liberal, blame-America-first Democratic Congress, is a prescription for political self-destruction. Leave Democrats to their own devices, and they will screw themselves politically, just when they are at the height of power.

This time the reaction could be far greater. And more sustained. Because now we know what the game plan is. It’s not just higher taxes and more spending. It’s more fundamental. The masks are off.

The people in the country are stronger. The attempts to stoke racial and ethnic division as a means of control are failing. There is a realignment of Americans coming together for Americans. It’s happening. It can’t be stopped unless we let them.

That is the legal insurrection. We’ll know in just over two weeks if it has launched.

DONATE

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.

Comments

Dems are going to find out we are Americans. We will not submit.

    gonzotx in reply to 4fun. | October 23, 2022 at 10:59 pm

    75% of Americans submitted to the shot

      nordic prince in reply to gonzotx. | October 23, 2022 at 11:56 pm

      But less than 4% of “eligible Americans” got the clot shot booster, despite the constant haranguing. So there’s that.

      People are wising up.

        75%

          CommoChief in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 9:57 am

          Why choose to cling to that data point to the exclusion of more recent data points? Let’s say that is accurate; 75% of adults got the jab. So what?

          Here’s another data point. Christians believe 100% of mankind are sinners. Again so what?

          People make all sorts of bad decisions in their lives. Almost everyone is capable of learning from their mistakes and adjusting their future choices.

          MattMusson in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 12:54 pm

          Most got the shot to protect their elders. “Do it for your Big Moma,” said the Surgeon General.

          Gosport in reply to gonzotx. | October 25, 2022 at 3:45 am

          More than a few got the jab because they had aged parents in hospital or retirement homes and weren’t allowed to see them without being able to document jabs and tests.

          When the choice is taking a risky jab which you have conscientious objections to or potentially never seeing your parent alive again…

          Evil Otto in reply to gonzotx. | October 25, 2022 at 5:28 am

          Repeating a bad argument doesn’t transform it into a good argument.

      amwick in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 6:35 am

      Decent people who believed the lies. Breaks my heart.

        Eric R. in reply to amwick. | October 24, 2022 at 7:00 am

        More like decent people who were afraid to challenge the lies, given that the Marxists/Communists now control all behavior through a CCP-style social credit system.

          Tionico in reply to Eric R.. | October 24, 2022 at 6:54 pm

          Not a given, by any means. What, are you a Dem trioll plant, sent to dishearten the rest of us>

          Resistance is alive and well, and growing, in this nation and culture.

          A wise old friend of mine years ago had a “cute” saying. I think it applies these days as it did then.

          “”here’s a word of wisdom as you travel toward life’s goal: keep your eye upon the donut, and NOT upon the hole”

        Whitewall in reply to amwick. | October 24, 2022 at 9:10 am

        Try this: https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/23/will-democracy-die-in-darkness-after-november/

        After November Dems will fear that far from dying, American democracy is alive and well and coming for them.

      BuckFiden2024 in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 8:20 am

      HELP IS COMING
      Do not despair.
      There has been great damage done to our country. Those of us who still believe in American exceptionalism, the Constitution, the rule of law and liberty and freedom for all, will be there to help glue the pieces back together. We will reward fellow Patriots and we will punish the collaborators. Be patient. It’s not over yet.

      Mt. Fuji in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 8:36 am

      What worries me is that pandora’s box has been opened, because the human race branched when the shots were taken. We all know that the (synthetic) mRNA causes the body to manufacture a protein not normally found in humans, plus it reverse transcribes into the full genome. so people who have taken the shot are genetically different than those who did not.
      If the 75% number is true, then we are in for a really bad time in the next 4 years or so, because the law of unintended consequences is in play now and the medical experiment forced on people will reveal what it’s true nature is and already is showing.

      dmacleo in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 9:46 am

      and approx 13% of the people in the colonies agreed with the people willing to fight to create a new nation.

      Rabel in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 12:53 pm

      I got the shot. Nobody ordered me to. There was no submission involved.

        txvet2 in reply to Rabel. | October 24, 2022 at 5:18 pm

        That’s fine, and I don’t think there’s anybody here arguing that it wasn’t your right to take an legal, although untested, experimental DNA altering injection if you were so inclined. The big problem and main bone of contention has been government mandating it, despite massive evidence that the shot is far worse, and deadlier, than the virus it doesn’t prevent or cure.

        Sanddog in reply to Rabel. | October 25, 2022 at 12:55 am

        I got it as well, by my own choice. Of course back then, the evidence wasn’t clear that it did not prevent infection or spread. Knowing what I know now, I would have passed on it.

          Sultan in reply to Sanddog. | October 25, 2022 at 10:07 am

          Same here. Got the initial double shots but still came down with a bad case of COVID 4 months later. Came very close to the ICU. I will never know whether the shots saved me from death or were simply ineffective.

          chi towndemrevenuestream in reply to Sanddog. | October 27, 2022 at 2:22 am

          I had to get it to enter Hawaii for vacation ,that’s the only reason my wife and II took it

        Virginia42 in reply to Rabel. | October 25, 2022 at 10:39 am

        As did I, since COVID gave me Congestive Heart Failure. So far, so good, even though I’ve had it two more times it was comparatively mild and did not land me in the hospital like it did in March 2020.

        JohnSmith100 in reply to Rabel. | October 25, 2022 at 9:29 pm

        There was misrepresentation and deception. I got the J&J because I did not trust mRna. My father was 93, I almost completely quarantined for a year so that I could care for him. I have extensive food stockpiled.

        He has passed away; I did not catch COVID until a few months ago.

      gran2ten in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 9:37 pm

      84% of people DO NOT THINK FOR THEMSELVES, THEY ARE FOLLOWERS. They read only the headlines, do NOT THINK ISSUES THROUGH. 16% Left is not a majority. Divide into 1/3rds and we’re still a deficit.

      WashRep in reply to gonzotx. | October 25, 2022 at 11:33 pm

      Proudly I’m one of the 25% who said, “HELL NO, I WON’T GO!”

I’m afraid blacks don’t feel the same way Professor. Many blacks I know who were never publicly vocal about whites being racist , now often make ridiculous comments.
I think White people are tired of it and will coalesce for the most part, suburban women however are a breed of their own, but blacks as a whole and race relations have taken a real beating in my opinion.
Just look at the rampant black on white crime, in daylight, for absolutely no reason but hatred.

    healthguyfsu in reply to gonzotx. | October 23, 2022 at 10:35 pm

    I disagree.

    No race is a monolith and the whites are more variable than all having the biggest bloc.

    Many minorities are waking up to the absolutely ridiculous amount they have to pay for daily staples thanks to this stupid “we will tell you what is best for you” administration.

    Are there mentally ill, stupid, and otherwise violent/broken people? Yes, of all colors.

    And many people of all races are seeing exactly who is just allowing those that cause the violence to run roughshod over the middle class while they sit in their insulated ivory towers.

    I can tell you this….if the red wave doesn’t act in the interests of the middle class this will all be for naught, but if they do, I think they have a chance to pull another Reagan-like sweep to restore normalcy. The average red-blooded American can be there graciously for each other when there is real leadership to galvanize behind with common ground. We certainly DO NOT have that now.

      75% of Americans submitted to the shot

      Disagree all you want,, but it’s true. I have never seen such a divide between races since I was a child, decades ago, but then I wasn’t afraid of other races as I am now of blacks.

        healthguyfsu in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 12:26 am

        Downvote me all you want, but I can guarantee you my sample size with real (not online twits) people is larger than yours.

        Minorities use social media at lower rates than the national average.

          CommoChief in reply to healthguyfsu. | October 24, 2022 at 11:31 am

          One of the things that masks the shift within numbers is the split between males and female. This is particularly so among blacks. The number of black males shifting right is far higher than the number of black females.

          There’s a good deal of under the radar movement out there that indicates this trend among black males. Here’s one, the ‘red pill’ in terms of relationships. Many men want a ‘traditional’ woman but can’t find one. Black females seem particularly prone to adopt the modern ‘boss bitch’ persona.

          One MSNBC host even brought up this linkage between the red pill relationship movement and potential voting patterns. She castigated those who had respect for Kevin Samuels as a threat.

          It’s an interesting question as to whether this carries over into elections. Check out content online from Kevin Samuels, who passed away or from Just Pearly Things to see what sort of content on traditional marriage/relationship roles is out there.

          In addition I think we may be underestimating the role of satire sites such as Awaken with JP as well as the many reactors and influencers online who repost and spread the net of their audience.

          All is not lost. IMO, the Biden era is going to be peak woke. The reactionary backlash against the purveyors of decadence is going to surprise everyone on election day.

        I live in a racially diverse neighborhood and my 3 abutting neighbors are black families. Nothing has changed with them. Generally, it’s the emergence of the white entitled karens that I find most disturbing. I certainly avoid the poorer black neighborhoods because, like always, that is where most of the violent crime occcurs. Poll-wise, it sure looks like minority Americans aren’t buying into the racism.

        Be careful surrendering to your fears. They may be unfounded. Fearful disconnected people fearing other fearful disconnected people reacting to hearsay and disinformation is the root of chaos. Keep a cool head and keep your eyes open to the reality around you and not to “what you hear”.

          So often during the Trump administration we heard about “Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS)” … he’d break wind and the left would put on gas masks and claim he was waging a chemical attack on them with the intent to murder them all.

          In Florida, there’s political posturing coming out of DeSantis that has no legislative followup (per a few articles I’ve skimmed – notably at CTH) but still has some on the left torqued up and crying “worse than Trump”, etc.

          I’ve no doubt the left – Biden et al – are using the same psyop tactics to generate BDS (Biden Derangement Syndrome) in the right. Discerning real threats hidden by the never ending smokescreen generated by the admin and media is exhausting.

          In the old days, when we submitted quality assurance reports from the field for inclusion in the weekly management reports, we adopted a ‘summary and detail’ format, where the summary was expected to describe the problem and potential impact in a single sentence. I believe Intelligence reports would call it a threat assessment. In the same way, I could hope articles about this administration differentiated between our daily snark and contempt for liberal lunacy on display, and that which poses a real threat to freedom – least ways that’s the assessment I try to make when reading this site, Epoch Times and CTH.

          Those old quality assurance field reports often precipitated a ‘quality alert’ which contained the cheesy ‘Argus action’ summary to keep our eyes peeled together with direction how to respond. I don’t intend this as criticism of LI, just the observation that we are well informed, but often as a coalition, we lack direction other than “vote the bastards out” and that the wealth of information and punditry can induce “paralysis by analysis” in the readership.

        In 1960’s, I lived on the south side of Chicago in a white neighborhood.

        The location was perfect. It was a 15-minute train ride downtown,

        The neighborhood was a victim of block busting.

        There was black on white crime.

        When my brother was a victim, my family left.

        Now, I suspect that there were some making lots of money.

        Paying fire sale prices to whites.

        Selling home to blacks via contract for deeds. Foreclose. Do again and again.

          JohnSmith100 in reply to ParkRidgeIL. | October 25, 2022 at 10:05 pm

          A side effect of block busting was transfer of large amounts of real estate, where property values dropped to half or less, white people lost all their equity, and black people got a deal which probably exceeded their welfare benefits.

          There was a staggering amount of wealth transferred with the block busting scam, followed by their Trayvon like punks stealing, vandalizing, assaulting and even killing whites who were still there.

          chi towndemrevenuestream in reply to ParkRidgeIL. | October 27, 2022 at 2:27 am

          Englewood?

      gran2ten in reply to healthguyfsu. | October 24, 2022 at 9:39 pm

      Dream on

      JohnSmith100 in reply to healthguyfsu. | October 25, 2022 at 9:44 pm

      Black crime stats make it very clear that they are a huge problem for society. Even more important is that an increasing number very much believe that they are entitled, black belligerence has increased a great deal.

      I love to see people succeed based on merit, I do not like what I see happening in the black community. I do think that blacks are being used, but they are adults and should know better.

      My biggest concern, is that we make sure that good black people are not caught up in the backlash created by a much larger bad group of black people.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to gonzotx. | October 29, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    I am one who is very tired of black BS. I want to everyone who actually earns their way prosper, I and really tired of what is a very high percentage of scheming, lying, lazy, criminal blacks making demands.

    Rewarding those who are good citizens is great, giving in to extortion to those who are all around bad citizens is foolish and detrimental to society.

I can relate to this. It’s disheartening to see wrong triumph over right, to see evil people and evil deeds be rewarded, while the good are punished. Injustice seems to rule the day of late. I pray that the pendulum starts to swing the other way, soon. I haven’t lost hope, but I do understand wanting to have some distance from all of this bizarro-world nonsense.

There is also camaraderie to be found in the comment section. I find encouragement in the snark and humor – which to my way of thinking, demonstrates strength of resolve.

I have often thought I need to step away, but even after a few days, when you come back, it’s worse than when you took a time out.

And the next few weeks before the election will be God awful I suspect, and then when they lose( please dear Gods), they will be full metal jacket till Jan.
Why can’t we be civil and have the new politicians take over within 2 weeks? All the damage they will do before hand, hate to even think..

    healthguyfsu in reply to gonzotx. | October 23, 2022 at 10:52 pm

    If you worry all of the time, you will only be right about half of the time.

    Tionico in reply to gonzotx. | October 24, 2022 at 7:05 pm

    That “wait till January” to seat the new officers is a throwback to the days when it could take a few weeks to travel that far. Now we can all hop on a train or airplane, there is no reason the new guys can’t be sworn in within a week or two. Perhaps that is something that shuold change.

    I”ve always thought it made more sense for the Brits to seat their new PM long before the sore losers could manage to DO much of anything. Anyone coming close to thinking they’d win would have his underlings identified before the primaries, if not before theactual election.
    A day or so for the Congress to gather and certify the election, then set up the stages and swear in the new ones. Them make ’em get to work NOW.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to gonzotx. | October 27, 2022 at 9:04 am

    It looks to me like the election will be uplifting as we take back control. When swamp critters are receiving long deserved justice, that will be quite entertaining. And then there is Twitter, where a bunch of arrogant low life are about to lose their jobs. Will they be employable?

“I do know that there is no choice but to keep fighting back.”

I refuse to give up. Though I’m not sure the progressives are going to lose, I’m simply not going to give in to anxiety and uncertainty and give up.

I think of the Brits during the early, dark days of WW-2, the GIs trapped on Bataan/Corregidord, for a couple of months, those who fought on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the soldiers at the Chosin reservoir, our fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I can do no less than fight to the end.

Any feelings I have of defeat are trivial next to what those brave men and women faced.

    Butter4444 in reply to Brian. | October 24, 2022 at 9:31 am

    Inspiring. From a Vietnam vet.

      I was stationed in Okinawa in the mid 60’s and well remember the guys who were transiting to or from Nam. Many wounded in Nam were sent to the Camp Kue hospital.

      The country never came close to appreciating what you guys did or were/are. God bless you.

    DSHornet in reply to Brian. | October 24, 2022 at 9:38 am

    Thank you, thank you, thank you.

    Yours is one of the most encouraging posts I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been on and off message boards for decades. What you say makes me think all the aggravation and irritation was worth the time.
    .

At least the fight back is well underway. Democrats have spent decades taking over institutions to bring this degree of damage. The more we confront them in the open the more they begin to go insane. The 4 years of Trump is testimony to that. All this will take time as evil always has a head start while the good are coming from behind.

Louis K. Bonham | October 23, 2022 at 11:04 pm

To give up is to die, and lose it all. Show some courage!

There are plenty of folks out there fighting the good fight. See, e.g., Rich Lowery, and Judge James Ho. All is not lost; indeed, we may be about to see our Normandy (SCOTUS hearing on Harvard / NC and resultant fallout).

Think Churchill post Dunkirk. Fight on.

I live in Canada. We’re already lost and I’m planning my emigration.

    Eric R. in reply to daniel_ream. | October 24, 2022 at 6:58 am

    Where are you going to go that isn’t leftist totalitarian or close to it? Hungary or Poland?

    Isolden in reply to daniel_ream. | October 25, 2022 at 9:42 pm

    I know we haven’t much to offer here in the US except for totalitarian lite but we do have the constitution. Please come on down. I feel deeply for my canadian brothers and sisters, especially the truckers. I donated. Please get out of there, while you can –
    Dictatorships usually wall off the country so no one can leave, then you are at their mercy.

I recently stepped away from TV news and the internet and email for a whole 30 hours. I kept having the urge to get back to it, but after a full day away, I was refreshed.

    WindyHill in reply to Ira. | October 24, 2022 at 9:05 am

    Self-care is very important. Don’t let anybody try to tell you otherwise.

    LukeHandCool in reply to Ira. | October 24, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    Yep. No need to cancel Morning Insurrection. When the insanity of our current times gets to be too much and it starts to affect your mood, it’s best to stay away from the news until you feel better. More and more I take breaks ranging from a few days to a few weeks. I’ll just watch uplifting movies and read inspiring books. I check Legal Insurrection every day, but if the news has me down, I’ll just look at the post titles to have a general sense of what’s going on out there and I won’t read the details. When I feel good, I get into the battle again.

Paul In Sweden | October 24, 2022 at 2:33 am

We all get overwhelmed and must find our own way of dealing with it because only Liberals can live in their own dystopian world.

    TY Paul… My favorite 4 minutes on TV are the weekend opening on Fox and Friends. They show viewer “patriotic” pics, while the Star Spangled Banner plays in the background. Call it corny,, but it moves me every time.. and I know it is legit.. I sent in a pic myself,, and saw it the next Saturday on the show’s opening. Those two minutes raise my spirits, I can see that our national pride is not dead.

      tx2stpr in reply to amwick. | October 24, 2022 at 9:27 am

      Our local Fox station has The Pledge of Allegiance on twice each weekday morning. It is so refreshing to watch real patriotism.

      Paul In Sweden in reply to amwick. | October 24, 2022 at 2:36 pm

      Well I too turn to books. In the spring I make it a point to re-read books from my US colonial and revolution era shelf and make it a point to read new ones. Every once in awhile taking a head rest from the absurdity of politics is a good thing in my case as I do not watch any traditional sport and consider my interest in politics as a sport and a hobby.

There is really only pessimism. The USA as a whole cannot be saved. The differences between Free America and Marxist America are even greater than between North and South in 1860. We can’t even agree on what a woman is!

Given the radical left’s capture of all institutions, the only way now for freedom lovers to create their own viable counter institutions is within the framework of a separate country.

The ensuing civil war WILL BE bloody. The ruling Marxists will not let us go without a fight because they are genocidal, sociopathic totalitarians who see Orwell’s Airstrip One as a Utopia, not a Dystopia.

The alternative is that the Marxists consolidate their power, and shove us by the tens of millions into boxcars, gulags and mass graves.

It’s the dynamics of the 19th amendment combined with a soap opera news business.

    WindyHill in reply to rhhardin. | October 24, 2022 at 9:08 am

    19th amendment? Really? How so?

      CommoChief in reply to WindyHill. | October 24, 2022 at 1:18 pm

      Voting patterns among females. The basic theory is that allowing females the vote provided a built in structural advantage for more leftist candidates. That doesn’t mean every female voter but just a majority of them. Exit polling on voter choices broken down by gender does seem to back this theory.

      Have you heard the phrase that r are the Daddy party and d/prog are the Mommy party? Stereotypically Dad is usually is the disciplinarian who whips that ass while Mom gives hugs, kisses and unearned praise.

I’m not discouraged. I’m just making sure my powder’s dry and waiting for the fight to get started. If you want to do something really impactful, prepare to vote against many, many GOP incumbents in primaries. As bad as Democrats have been, I place a lot of blame on GOP elected officials who did nothing meaningful to push back when they had the power and opportunity (like not pulling out Obamacare “root and branch.”).

    The primaries are over.

      CommoChief in reply to Fuzzy Slippers. | October 24, 2022 at 1:22 pm

      I think they meant in 2024 primaries because the folks we send to DC won’t follow through on campaign promises. IOW, as soon as these jacklegs we send to Congress start circling the wagons around establishment ideals v delivering maximum carnage to the failed and foolish polices of our political opposition go find a primary challenger as punishment.

    Close The Fed in reply to Jounulz. | October 25, 2022 at 3:29 pm

    Totally agree. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO VOTE OUT THE GOP INCUMBENT IN EVERY PRIMARY.

    THEY ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS. THEY JUST WANT YOU TO THINK THEY ARE, SO THE GRAVY TRAIN KEEPS RUNNING.

Here’s what will make me feel better:

– Win the House back convincingly

– Win the Senate by any margin but beating the stroke victim layabout socialist a must

– Win one big, unexpected race in a Blue state – Governor of NY as an example

Short of that it is hard not to feel somewhat despondent. If we cannot win races under the current circumstances (raging inflation, highest threat of WW3 in 60 years, a literal dementia patient in the WH…) then I am concerned that we have lost the battle.

    I’ll only start feeling better if the GOP actually does something, for once, to push back hard on the leftwing extremists. Something substantive. And then continues to push, over and over again, never letting up.

    Given their track record and the GOPe McClellan style ‘leadership’ at the top, I’m not optimistic.

    2022 will put the breaks on the Left. Though I fully expect McConnell and McCarthy to make at least one or two deals with the Dems. As per usual. As the GOPe always does.

    2024 is the election that could make a difference. 2024 is when MAGA cleans house in the GOP or goes the way of the Tea Party. Hopefully, after 2024 whatever GOPe politicians are left will either announce retirement, become Dems, or will tow the new MAGA led GOP line. They need to be more afraid of MAGA GOP leadership than they are of the Dems and their media slander and propaganda and machine.

      Close The Fed in reply to JHogan. | October 25, 2022 at 3:32 pm

      This. EXCEPT, the gop and dem parties are STRUCTURALLY built into our laws. We must have officeholders who will begin sponsoring bills to REMOVE the structural advantages of these two parties.

      Nigel Farage made great progress with a new party in a couple of years. STRUCTURALLY that cannot be done here.

First, every day we wake up still alive is a gift. It’s a blessing. Don’t ever forget that. We each only get so many; don’t waste this surprising gift. You just won the lottery.

Second, given the situation you are in, how will you make the most of it? Don’t waste time, effort, and especially sanity wishing it were different or that others had done things differently in past. Instead, think what actual thing you can do with this opportunity, because that’s what is is, an opportunity. If you win $100 in the lottery, don’t spend your time fretting that you didn’t win the $100 million grand prize.

Third, keep in mind that your primary job is to run *your* life, not the world. That’s the task you were assigned when you arrived here. Make sure that’s what you are most focused on and you’re doing it as best you can, and supporting those around you in doing it. We all have limited knowledge, even about ourselves, and the farther away from ourselves the question and the bigger the scale, the less we understand the full picture. The news is often bleak but it is just a little slice of what’s happening. It’s surely no random sample. Don’t decide you know the future, because you don’t, whether you predict it to be sunny or bleak. You don’t know, so don’t fret, and do what you can.

Corollaries:
1. Behave and act so that at the end of the day the world is better than if you had not been it it.

2. Stay informed but don’t focus on doom, not the scale of the problems you read about.

3. If you need a break from news, take it.

4. Stay in touch with like minded people who encourage and support each other, especially when one or the other of you is down.

That fourth one is extremely important – I’m connected with maybe a dozen people across the country; each of us was pressured at one point or other to submit to the Wuflu vaxx, some really heavily threatened. Having everyone else encourage and give advice made all the difference, not a single one of us submitted. Having just that little bit of support is a world of difference from being alone.

LI is one of my go-to’s because I think Prof. Jacobson and his crew embody the ideas above.

First off, I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in a man, woman, or supersentience in the sky.

That being said, I understand Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem, and from that accept that there are in fact impenetrable mysteries – and certainly within that mystery you could fit any number of religions.

So when I say that right now we are fighting a battle for our souls, it’s not scriptural dogma – the battle happening is a metaphorical truth that I believe transcends and incorporates all spiritual concepts of the soul.

Since the rise of the #AttentionEconomy, we’ve fallen victim to the second and third order effects of it – as primates, we particularly pay attention to things we fear, and things we hate. This innate tendency, combined with the free market, has created a system which, by its very nature, will maximize fear and hatred to get attention.

Sadly, we can’t use #AttentionEconomy tools to fight against #AttentionEconomy effects – hate and fear are emergent properties of that entire system.

The tools we do have to fight this battle over our soul are slower, deeper, and while durable, definitely take more time. The religious practices developed over the span of humanity, which specifically reduce resentment and increase gratitude, seem to be the only real antidote to the fear and hatred our #AttentionEconomy drives us to.

So while I understand voluntarily exiting the #AttentionEconomy, and avoiding the system that increases fear and hate, I think that to be a soldier in that system, with all of its emergent flaws, requires us, in our own lives, to fight for our own souls, with whatever spiritual and religious communities we can be a part of. I happened to choose the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (mormons to the normies), and even as an atheist, I benefit from going to sunday sacrament meetings, and being a part of the church family.

For those still isolated in the secular world, searching for a way to fight against the fear and hatred we are being driven to, I highly suggest finding a local, in-person, religious community to participate in. Judge the religious community by how good a job they do in reducing resentment, and increasing gratitude, and keep looking until you find a good one.

Stepping away is not an option. The country is being attacked – literally, from within. While you can minimize your time spent reading about it, there are things you can actively do to fight against it.
1. PRAY, without ceasing
2. SPEAK OUT, to friends and loved ones, or even strangers to make them aware of what is occurring and the what kind of a future they’ll be looking at if they don’t join the fight.
3. VOTE, in person. While there is most assuredly going to be attempts by the Left to screw with the election, there’s no reason to make it easier for them.
4. WRITE your elected officials and keep their feet to fire to stop, thwart and reverse the edicts of the Left that are corrupting and corroding our country.
5. GET INVOLVED in your local and State going’s on: go to school boards meetings, town meetings, and let your voice be heard.
The Left is not only coming for you, they’re coming for your kids and grandkids! What would you not do, what lengths would you not go to, in order to protect them from this evil onslaught?
6. KEEP PRAYING. Like a Warrior.
It is overwhelming what they are doing in every nook and cranny of life, And I am tempted every day to just shut it out, but that is not an option. The stakes are FAR too great, We fight now to the bitter and hopefully brighter end. Or we lose it all.

    WindyHill in reply to DelightLaw1. | October 24, 2022 at 9:21 am

    I agree with all of your suggested actions – but disagree with your assertion that “stepping away is not an option”.

    Self-care is critical, if we are to keep up the fight. To deny yourself the opportunity to re-group and refresh is to invite burn-out and possibly physical and/or mental health issues. Soldiers get temporary leave, workers get days off – even God rested on the 7th day.

      Perhaps I should have phrased it as “giving up” is not an option. You can do all of what I listed, or even some of it, without suffering “burn out”.
      To me, having at least tried to do something is more beneficial to one’s mental health in the long run than having done nothing at all. You don’t have to fanatical- just do what you can, when you can, but never give up.

    Close The Fed in reply to DelightLaw1. | October 25, 2022 at 3:34 pm

    AND RUN FOR OFFICE. AS A GOPER OR A DEM, IF YOU CAN.

I completely agree with the sentiment expressed by your subscriber. Erick Erickson said it well – you will be made to feel as the “other” and that you’re the outlier. Even Epictetus got the blues now and then so it’s natural we do so as well.

I have a slightly different take, however. I’m removing myself (finally) from social media like Facebook (never was on Instagram or Tiktok so that’s easier to ween from). Too many people on there I would like to continue thinking highly of spreading mis- and dis-information. Just don’t want to spend all my time arguing with people online. So I quit FB and will continue to shed time sucks like it. Life is way too short to spend so much time getting pissed off about the worldview of others.

Not saying, btw, to disengage from society or support what you believe. Just saying to not do so any longer in the black hole that is social media. Mike Adams used to say you need to constantly fight back on social media but that’s probably the only area in which I disagree with him.

freedom–the right to choose, the right to decide, the right to be left alone–would not want to live this life without freedom–along with life itself, freedom was a gift bestowed upon us at a terrible cost / sacrifice by literally millions of our countrymen who would not live to see this day–for our own sake and for those who will live after us, we must protect and preserve our freedom–by conventional means if possible or by unconventionaal means if necessary

Frodo: “I wish this burden had not fallen to me.”
Gandalf: “So wish all who live to see such times.”

    Dolce Far Niente in reply to drednicolson. | October 24, 2022 at 12:39 pm

    Tolkien was good friends with C.S. Lewis, the most understandable Christian apologist of modern times.

    Reading Lewis, one would think he was writing today.

Constant news cycles flowing into your world are like sewer pipes to your soul.

The wife had a conversation with like minded people who aren’t in a position to home school. They are not loving it and can’t understand how the school district can be so tone deaf when parents are pulling their kids out. The VOTERS here are in favor of it. It was a reminder of how far gone our state is.

Ironically, the conservative movement (despite it being derided by some on the right lately) is in a better position to fight the radical left more than ever before. It may seem not seem that way because much of societies ablative armor is gone, but post-WWII there was no real opposition to the major precepts of the Left, but now there are. We not only understand the Left but have principles and ideas developed to oppose them, for you can not stop something with nothing.

Yes, societal damage has finally breached that ablative armor of society, but that that damage was inflicted primarily back in the “good old days” when people could still enjoy their sense of normalcy, and we are now only seeing the consequences.

Just as long as we don’t run around like headless chickens and demand we blow everything up (which is exactly what the Left wants), but instead dedicate ourselves to our own long game, things will work out. But it’ll take time and no, you can’t just have everything you want right now. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you.

    Close The Fed in reply to The Political Hat. | October 25, 2022 at 3:38 pm

    Quite frankly, anyone with a cheery outlook I cannot comprehend. Demography is destiny and the establishment is determined that Americans lose that battle and become south America, Africa, whatever peoples they can lure here that they can control and cost them less.

Love this site! First time commenting. Jesus Christ is the answer, and I’ll give you two reasons:
#1 Believing in Him gives you the peace that surpasses all understanding. I was a non-believer for my first 50 years, so I can say this with all personal authority haha. I agree that the news is and has been depressing basically since Obama was first elected in 2008. (I actually cried when he was re-elected in 2012.) But that peace gets you through even the most impossible trials in life.
#2 God is in control of everything in the world, universe, etc. Everything. So if we would just repent of our human nature and admit we can’t get into heaven on our own and ask Him into our hearts, He will heal our land. (Please see 2 Chronicles 7:13-14.) I believe He blessed America at its founding because America blessed Him. It’s not rocket science. Gradually over the decades, He has blessed us less and less because we have turned away from Him more and more. It’s supernatural and Jesus is an equal-opportunity Savior! Today is the first day of the rest of your life. How will you choose to spend it? At peace in your heart? Or troubled by all the things happening all around you?????

BierceAmbrose | October 24, 2022 at 4:15 pm

It’s a struggle to be born, but life is better.

It’s a struggle through childhood, to learn, and grow, and survive, but better to be able to call some of your own shots, eventually.

It’s a struggle to build your skills, get a credential if you need one, build the grown-up life you think you want, but now you have a life of your own.

It’s a struggle to lose friends, or family, or a future you thought would come, or parts of yourself, but if you survive, there’s more life to be had, and you’re tougher and wily like you weren’t before. You’ve won.

It’s a struggle inside yourself to learn that there are people who wish you ill; worse that some wish you ill for its own sake vs. any other gain to themselves; worse still that some of those are “supposed to” want the best for you; and worst of all to realize that you believed them.

But, now you know, and you’re still here. You won.

You got this far not knowing that this was the game being played against you. What can you do now, knowing this much more of the game? They coultn’t take you when you were tiny, helpless, isolated, and ignorant. What now? You won.

You can’t make me quit — I’ve already won. You can’t contain me in your game that I can only lose — I’ve already won. You can’t stop me without killing me — I just took another breath: I’ve already won. You can’t choose for me among the options I have — I’m gonna win some more.

“Everything not compulsory is forbidden.”(1) is the arbitrary arbitrators fever dream. They can’t stand a world outside their imaginings — they’re too weak.

Their problem is we aren’t livestock; neither are they. With knowing we’re alive comes co-creating ourselves and the world. They’re so weak, they’re gonna try to organize the world around them to avoid the terrible reality that they can co-create much, but not all.

“That’s sophomoric. I don’t need your help with my human problems.”(2) I can live in the world as it is: I’ve won.

Yesterday, serendipity brought me notes and hellos from a parade of people who simply like me around, wish me well; living their lives themselves not as parasites on me, nor me on them. Yesterday, I did a list of things for people I care about, with my own hands, with my own skills I chose to build, needing nobody’s permission. Yesterday, I mainly had to plan which of the things this week to pick off, and how much room to leave for serendipity.

My life is plenty good right now, because I made it that way; way better than plenty of people who would tell me or force me to do their thing; some tried to actually stop me; plenty I beat at their rigged game along the way, and yes, I take unseemly joy in that.

Try again. I’m not sick of winning yet.

1 — From The Book of Merlin, by T H White; collection of excised and related stuff around The Once and Future King

2 — From God Emperor of Dune, by Frank Herbert. The speaker is Rev Mother Anteac, responding like a grown-up human to one of the God Emperor’s provocations. Off this, he asked her to join him. She almost did. They ended up working together, but autonomously on a particular problem, to the benefit of them both, each in their own terms.

Political commentator, Dick Morris, is not as comfortable about Republican prospects as others. He believes that Republicans have not learned the execution lesson of the 2020 election, that getting out the vote through mail-in voting matters. He says that Dems have a vast lead in mail-in voting so far this year. If he is right, polling will understate Democrats’ prospects, because they are delivering better turnout. Hopefully he is wrong.

    artichoke in reply to jb4. | October 25, 2022 at 1:04 am

    Democrat Dick Morris is seeking to explain the cheating when Dems come up with just enough mail-in votes to win various races. Same old …

    If judges want to allow this, fine, let their country and system turn to dust. Fight, how? Sure, vote, but don’t expose yourself to real risk. The J6 political prisoners did that.

At a popular level, we’ve won a lot. A few years ago BLM demonstrations were tearing up our cities and nobody could touch them. Now they don’t even try anymore.

The chaos and communistic mob pushing for lefty transformations has not gone as they had hoped. This is major, even if the cheating succeeds in blunting our election victories in November.

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

– Thomas Paine, Dec. 23, 1776

I am one who is very tired of black BS. I want to everyone who actually earns their way prosper, I and really tired of what is a very high percentage of scheming, lying, lazy, criminal blacks making demands.

Rewarding those who are good citizens is great, giving in to extortion to those who are all around bad citizens is foolish and detrimental to society.