Lack of Information in the Information Age

By Dom Nozzi

I consider myself to be relatively well-informed on current events, yet when a neighbor told me yesterday he tested positive and I should consider getting tested, it occurred to me that I have no idea how to get tested (and I’ve read countless articles about COVID over the past year or so).

I am also extremely befuddled about the best ways to sign up for vaccination.

If someone like me is so clueless on this, it is scary to think about how many others out there probably have far less knowledge about COVID and vaccines.

My befuddlement exemplifies how pathetic the US has become regarding its ability to inform citizens of important information.

I think a big part of the problem today is that with the internet and TV service providing an almost infinite number of (conflicting) media sources with wildly different levels of accuracy and coverage, our hyper-information age is, ironically, much worse in many ways in conveying information to people.

Consider, say, the Sixties, when pretty much everyone got information from a tiny number of sources: the local newspaper, and one of three TV networks. Today, we get information from tens of thousands of sources.

And yet in many ways, we know less than citizens in the Sixties.

Moderation or Extremism? Moderation in All Things is a Bad Idea

By Dom Nozzi

I don’t think it is true that we should strive for “moderation in all things.”

I don’t think, for example, that we should smoke cigarettes or use heroin or consume trans fats moderately. I also think larger amounts of dietary fat and meat are far more healthy than moderate amounts of those two things. Moderate consumption (or no consumption) of meat and dietary fat almost always leads to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and poor brain health. 　

In addition, by eating more dietary fat and meat, I have moved closer to the diet that humans have had for nearly all of human history. It is those who minimize fat and meat in their diets who are the fringe extremists, historically speaking.  　

And unlike a lot of people I know these days, I am certainly NOT an extremist in politics. One big example is that I am much more bi-partisan than the many extremely partisan people I know and observe.

Such people are partisan “extremists.”

A lot of people I’ve known over the years who were on the political left are now on the extreme zombie/tribal left, whereas I have adopted a number of centrist views pertaining to economics and promoting the outcome of members in minority groups. 　

I admit that many of my views are held and expressed passionately. People (understandably) often confuse that passion with “extremism.” But that has more to do with my Italian heritage (and my father’s crusading personality he passed on to me) than it does with “extremism.” 　 

One last thing: I do admit to loving and writing abundantly (maybe I’m a love and writing “extremist”). And I am a moderate wine and beer and caffeine drinker. I also vote moderately rather than promiscuously (ie, on many issues or offices, I sometimes don’t vote at all).

By contrast, most others seem to vote for everything they can, regardless of how little they know — a form of voting “extremism.”

What If Instead of Mars

By Dom Nozzi

The United States continues to spend enormous sums of public dollars to “explore Mars.”

What if, instead of flushing that colossal amount of money, time and effort down the toilet for the almost zero societal payoff by investigating Mars, we spent all that time, money and effort to address the nearly countless societal issues we suffer from?

*Building a transit system that currently is on life support.

*Reconfiguring our roads, highways and parking lots so they are designed for happy and healthy people and cities, rather than happy cars.

*Finding cures for countless diseases that ravage public health.

*Improving our anemic education system (including paying to significantly increase the number of people who can afford higher ed).

*Restoring to their original condition the countless towns and nations that American Repubs and Dems obliterated in their endless wars of aggression.

*Dramatically increasing research in the medical and other sciences.

*Cleaning up the pollution of our air, water, and soil.

*Building a lot of compact, walkable, traditionally-designed housing and shops.

*Providing health care to the millions who cannot afford it.

Mars (space) exploration (and endless wars) greatly helps explain why we cannot have the fundamental things above. And why we have a much more expensive, painful, unhappy future than we could have had.

The Return of the Authoritarian Crusaders

By Dom Nozzi

A friend of mine was unfairly being censored by the New McCarthy-ites on Facebook recently. He was expressing views that were considered politically incorrect by the tribal “woke” zombies who have emerged with the political Left of the United States.

I have experienced a lot of what he described in my own conversations on Facebook with the Woke Zombies. It is scary and terribly disappointing — disappointing because much of it has come from people I formerly considered to be friends with, and who I had formerly respected intellectually.

This growth in Zombie-ism exemplifies how societies in history have descended into murderous, cult-like, mob-like, tribal behavior and thinking. Salem witch hunting. Soviet-ism. The rise of Nazi Germany. The medieval Crusades. The Drug War. The War on Terrorism. The Red Scare. And on and on.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the woke/Social Justice Warrior/antifa tribalism is that this new authoritarianism is coming from the political Left – which has historically been where anti-authoritarian advocacy has been most prominent.

This form of secular religious zealotry is both destroying individuals and institutions. Those who have joined this crusade will — if they have any sense or any sense of shame — will one day regret having bought into this ruinous authoritarian ideology.

Advocacy for Vegetarian Diets is Often Misleading

By Dom Nozzi

The vegetarian, plant-based diet — a very recent fad in human history — has been pushed by nearly everyone associated with medicine and nutrition for at least 60 years.

The result?

After meat consumption started going down and vegetarian diets became more common, the US is now experiencing epidemics in obesity, heart disease, dementia, and diabetes.

These epidemics are largely due to carbohydrate/sugar consumption went through the roof and dietary fat went way down. One consequence is the alarming milestone that the youngest generation is the first one in human history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

After being on a meat-based low-carb and high-fat diet for almost three years, I have lost 30 pounds, have seen my blood pressure go back to normal levels, and all of my blood tests are positively trending. Also, I have never had a better memory. And I am enjoying being able to think more clearly than ever.

Vegetarianism crusaders – fueled mostly by ethical concerns about mistreatment of animals and inaccurate claims about the environmental impacts of a meat-based diet – continue to pump out misleading, flawed reports singing the supposed merits of a plant-based diet. For example, each year we see a report ranking low-carb, high fat diets near the bottom of healthy diets. Many of these reports are then trumpeted by the corrupted major media sources as a way to promote vegetarian diets and vilify meat-based diets.

Why does the media push vegetarian diets? In part, it’s because scary claims about meat “causing cancer” or “destroying rainforests” is a money-maker for the media. In addition, the food industry makes FAR more money when people overconsume carb/sugar and under-consume meat/fat. Furthermore, the medical community “coincidentally” makes massive amounts of money when high-carb Americans end up being fat, sick and demented.

Many of these “scientific” studies purport to show that plant-based diets are healthy and meat-based diets are unhealthy.

Here is an important reason why many of these studies are flawed.

Many tend to fail to eliminate confounding factors that make their findings worthless. For example, nearly every medical and nutrition advocate has been bombarding us with the “vegetarian diet is good” message for almost 60 years. Those who continue to eat meat despite that overwhelming message for the past 60 years also strongly correlate to those who also ignore other health advice. Such people, in other words, tend to smoke and drink too much and don’t tend to exercise. “Scientific” studies tend to make the mistake of assuming it is only the meat and not the smoking or drinking or lack of exercise which led to poor health outcomes. That failure makes their findings useless.

Tellingly, some of these flawed studies are conducted by the American Heart Association, which is corrupt and notorious for supporting flawed studies and pushing ideas for decades that are very bad for heart health.

Oops.

Republicans Get It Right in Many Ways

By Dom Nozzi

The year 2020 was – politically — particularly tumultuous in America. I joined many others in observing many on the political left become cult-like fundamentalist zombies. This was highly disappointing and worrisome to me, as I’ve always considered myself (and still do) strongly on the political left on many issues. I am disgusted that many on the political left have become ideological right-wing zealots in their pursuit of achieving “justice.” For example, the “woke” (or zombie) political left tribe now champions the following measures more so than the political right:

*Censorship. Some speech should be considered “violence” or “counter-revolutionary.”

*Cruel means are justified by “glorious” ends.

*McCarthyism (ie, baiting someone as a “Nazi” or “misogynist” or “racist”).

*Militarism.

*”Safe spaces” on a university campus or workplace.

*Science is unreliable because it is “white male” or “western.”

*Free parking and free roads (“poor” people cannot afford tolls or parking charges).

*Identity is more important for voting or hiring or appointing or rewarding than merit or competency.

*The mainstream media (except Fox), the FBI, and the CIA are all reliable sources of information.

*Unfairness and double standards are useful tools in our crusade.

*Politically correct speech.

*Counterproductive bleeding heart concern for the “oppressed.”

*Divisiveness and hyper-partisanship.

*Black and white rather than shades of grey. It is easy and vital to classify “us” and “them.”

*Defamation (or “canceling” people).

*Domestic citizen surveillance.

*Open borders.

*NAFTA, TPP, and similar world economic agreements are beneficial.

*Discrimination based on gender or race is ethical and forever necessary.

*Two wrongs make a right.

Despite all of these inexcusable, shameful measures now passionately urged by the Democratic Party and most of its voters, I proudly remain on the political left (although I am now a registered Independent rather than a Democrat). For example, I continue to hold the following positions:

*Supporting a drastic reduction in military spending and ending all wars.

*Supporting equal opportunity, fairness, and civil rights for all, regardless of race or gender.

*Supporting merit or competency rather than identity.

*Supporting an end of tax exemption for churches.

*Supporting free speech, regardless of how much I hate the speech or how “hurtful” it is.

*Supporting environmental protection and restoration.

*Supporting increased education funding and research.

*Supporting increased funding for transit and drastically reduced funding for private motor vehicles.

*Supporting affordable housing through land use and transportation reforms.

*Supporting Medicare for all.

*Supporting free college.

*Regulating Wall Street and the large mortgage lenders.

*Supporting campaign finance reform.

*Ending subsidies for Big Ag.

*Ending support for the apartheid Israeli government.

*Ending highway widening.

*Ending subsidies for free parking.

*Significantly stiffening gun regulation.

*Strongly supporting abortion and gay rights.

*Opposing the death penalty.

*Supporting a “FAIR” tax.

*Reforming nutrition guidelines.

*Supporting a drastic reduction in police and fire department funding by cities.

*Supporting rehabilitation rather than retribution for prisons.

My disgust for many of the anti-democratic, counterproductive measures many Democrats now strongly support led me to – for the first time — spend time reading and listening to books, essays, and speeches by those on the political right (ie, I stepped outside of the political “bubble” I had always been in). The result is that I now believe the Republican Party is far better than the Democratic Party when it comes to the following. Each of these is an epiphany for me, as up until recently, I have always believed the Democratic Party was far better than the Republican Party on each of the following items:

*Affirmative Action.

*Minimum wage.

*Gender gap.

*Welfare.

*Gentrification.

*Tolling roads.

*School choice (vouchers and charter schools).

*Promoting advances by black Americans and reducing problems faced by black Americans.

*Free speech.

*Regulating mortgage lenders.

*Regulating “herbal” products.

*Getting America out of wars.

*Responsibility, accountability, stronger families, and civil behavior.

*Crime reduction.

*Financial and job health for cities.

*Compact, mixed-use development in cities.

*Controlling American borders and reducing illegal immigration.

Given the above, I feel nothing but shame and disgust for the Democratic Party.

Why the Rise in Right Wing Violence?

By Dom Nozzi

I had a conversation with someone about the protest at the Federal Capitol building in DC in January 2021. He said that the event was a “shock to the system of democracy by the action of ‘insurgents,’ and we need to take a close look at why and how the event happened, to prevent it from happening again.”

He asked how I felt about it.

I told him that I believe the media, as it always does, created mass hysteria way beyond what was justified for the protest in DC. Millions of Americans, as a result, now falsely believe that the US government nearly collapsed or was nearly taken over by “American Nazis.”

There was never even the smallest chance that there was any threat to the Federal government due to that protest. Had it been Black Lives Matter or Antifa activists, the media would have either praised it or ignored it. Neither CNN, MSNBC, NYT, or the Washington Post would have told us it was an “insurrection” if those groups had done something similar. For example, I did not even know until a few weeks ago that Black Lives Matter activists engaged in violent protests in DC several months ago.

Once again, an extreme double standard.

“Shock to the system of democracy”? “Insurgents”? Hearing my friend use these terms, I had to wonder which news source he was quoting? CNN? MSNBC? NYT? Washington Post?

Why do I think the protest happened? How do we prevent it from happening again?

I am certain that no Democrat will have even the faintest clue about knowing why it happened or how to prevent right-wing radicalism. Why will the Democratic Party members have no clue? Because one of the reasons membership in Proud Boys, white supremacy groups, Nazi groups, alt-right groups, etc. is exploding (and why Trump won in 2016 and nearly won again in November) is that the wokesters and Social Justice Warriors and Antifa and many in the Democratic Party have spent several years unfairly vilifying or punishing or imprisoning or convicting or ruining white males.

What is the inevitable result of this disgusting Ends-Justify-the-Means game?

A game where zombie activists employ cruel, blatantly unfair “identity politics” tactics – tactics that throw away merit or competence in favor of giving preference to black people simply because of their skin color or women simply because of their gender? A game where demands are issued to punish all white males, regardless of their guilt or innocence?

I will tell you.

This form of group guilt – practiced by the Soviets when they targeted the wealthy as Enemies of the People – inevitably and understandably results in extreme resentment. Who would not be resentful if they worked hard for much of their life and developed superior skills, only to see themselves passed over by less competent people in the name of a useless concept such as “diversity”?

We should not be surprised, then, to see a rise in violence by resentful white males who have started joining right-wing groups, and started voting for people like Trump and those like him.

A leading cause of the ruinous group guilt totalitarianism by zombies on the political left is adopting the “Cultural Marxism” ideology. Cultural Marxism is the idea that revolutionary progress requires that we split society into two groups: The Oppressed, and The Oppressors. The former group (largely blacks, women, low-income people, and sexual minorities) must be rewarded and promoted regardless of merit. The latter group (largely or exclusively white males) must be punished and disparaged regardless of guilt.

Similarly, “identity politics” lead society to punish or reward based not on merit but on whether you have the “correct” skin color or gender, or are “correctly” low income. We must thank Democrats and such opinion leaders as university professors for being the cause of a big jump in popularity in far right groups who push for and have adopted unfair policies to create “diversity” and affirmative action.

In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King stated that “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Today, Cultural Marxists have adopted the reverse of King’s inspirational and highly equitable statement, because they push the idea that we should judge people based on the color of their skin (or their gender or sexual orientation or income level). We should — these Cultural Marxists insist — discriminate based on skin color and gender and income and sexual orientation. We should, in other words, let the glorious ends justify unfair means. We should believe that two wrongs make a right.

“Race hustlers” are people who project themselves into the media spotlight as spokespersons whenever there is an alleged racial incident that involves their race. They expliot a racial situation to serve their own interests, rather than sincerely dedicating themselves to advances of the racial group.  Race hustlers promote a form of Cultural Marxism by advocating that America oppresses black people due to “systemic racism,” even though there is no meaningful evidence of such a thing in American society. Indeed, a strong case can be made today that there is quite a bit of reverse discrimination (which again breeds resentment for white males).

Race hustler activists have mostly abandoned the idea of having blacks focus – as individuals — on improving quality of their character, as called for by King and Booker T. Washington. How is character improved? By promoting education rather than disparaging it. By promoting a healthy and assimilating culture rather than pushing separatism (or “redneck” culture, as Thomas Sowell has put it – a concept I will describe later in this book).

These character improvements are known to be effective ways to achieve a successful adult life.

Instead, the race hustler activists largely call for political agitation and confrontation, along the lines of Malcom X, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and W.E.B. Du Bois.

In sum, how do we reduce the membership in these far right groups? Or reduce violence from the right? Or reduce the number of people who engage in “protest” voting for people like Trump?

Very simple: Bring back fairness. Bring back preference based on merit. Eliminate “diversity” efforts. Eliminate affirmative action. Get rid of Identity Politics. Stop hiring or promoting or electing or selecting people simply because they have black skin or female gender or politically correct sexual orientation.

What did new president Joe Biden do in his first few weeks as president in 2020? He appointed a large number of blacks and women and sexual minorities to top Federal posts. Only the naïve or partisan can believe that these appointments were more based on competence rather than identity.

Will fairness and merit return our society to where it was before our society lurched into Cultural Marxism? No, because each of these unfair, ends-justify-the-means tactics are powerful vote-getting tools for the Democratic Party.

Coincidentally, I just picked up a book at the library today. The author – Jason Riley — is a black man and his book is titled: “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed.”

I am proud to learn, on occasion, that some consider my views “extreme.” We live in an age with a very large population of wokesters and Social Justice Warriors and Black Lives Matter activists and Antifa zombies.

Those are the real “extremists.”

Since when is it “extremist” to insist on fairness and merit? It seems to me that the “extremists” are the cult-like, tribal left-wing fundamentalists who are today assigning all people to one of two groups: Oppressors and the Oppressed.

Like in the Soviet Union, that can only lead to a big rise in violence, divisiveness, purging, and misery.

But it will be done “heroically.”