Seventeen Ways In Which Americans Have Turned Into Irrational 'Tribes'

 Oddly....started a irrational voting 'path'....where the specific policy has clear negative data (crime rates, housing costs, test scores).

Irrationally started to treat political opponents as morally evil rather than people with different information, priorities, or incentives.

Irrationally started dismissing statistical patterns on crime, family structure, or academic outcomes in favor of single-cause narratives.

Irrationally started to support "defund the police" or reduced prosecution....while living in or near areas that later saw measurable crime increases.

Irrationally started to make-believe or identity-based credibility selectively rather than by evidence.

Irrationally came up with the idea of canceling or deplatforming people for past statements....while ignoring context, satire, or changed views.

Irrationally came up prioritizing diversity metrics......over competence in hiring, admissions, or promotions.  Later....acted irrationally surprised at performance gaps.

Irrationally insisting biological sex is a spectrum or socially constructed in policy (sports, prisons, shelters).....despite consistent physiological and performance data showing large average male advantages post-puberty.

Irrationally went to medicalizing rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents with weak long-term evidence.

Irrationally started allowing biological males in female sports/categories.....then expressing surprise at dominance or safety issues.

Irrationally started redefining basic words ("woman," "mother") for ideological consistency while complaining that communication has become confusing.

Irrationally started  to attribute virtually all group outcome gaps to systemic discrimination.....while downplaying culture, behavior, family structure, and cognitive distributions backed by decades of data.

Irrationally started to support policies that demonstrably reduce housing supply (strict zoning, rent control).....while decrying high rents and homelessness.

Irrationally started expecting open borders or very high immigration levels without serious planning for assimilation, fiscal costs, or cultural cohesion data.

Irrationally  started to believe stricter gun control would disarm criminals who already ignore existing laws.

Irrationally started to romanticize socialism or heavy state control despite repeated 20th-century examples of economic failure and authoritarianism.

Irrationally started to judge historical figures solely by 21st-century standards without technological or cultural context.

Orchestrated Politics

When you go digging through history....you can find orchestrated fake episodes which the news media helped to funnel to the public, and shape public opinion to a particular conclusion.  So there's the bonus-Army episode of 1932....which I will explain in detail.

For decades in American history, it was common to offer up a bonus to people who would sign to help fight in some American war.  Typically, you got land or property, for a set period of time. By the end of the Civil War, it was becoming apparent that there was a limit on open land left and this idea of land-grants for military service....had to come to an end.  In the case of the Spanish-American War....luckily, it only last about one-hundred days and no incentive was required.

However, as you come to WW I....we had a slightly different case building up.  In this episode....the entry of the US didn't occur until early 1917 (note, after the November 1916 election, where President Wilson campaigned to stay out of the war)....that the US entered the brief war, and spent barely eighteen months in the engagement.

A bonus deal?  It's an odd thing....the war actually ended and folks went home.  Wilson's term would end in early 1920, with President Coolidge entering office.  Four years go by....a GOP-led Senate (figure near 60 Republicans, with a majority)....set up legislative matters to hand out a Army-bonus for WW I (having ended five years prior).

All of this comes up early in 1924, and is passed by the House and Senate.  Coolidge?  He vetoes the bill....but the vote comes up in the Senate and they overturn his veto.  Imagine that.

The deal?  Well....every guy who spent time in service for the war received a dollar for each day of service, with a limit of $500 maximum.  If you did overseas service (actually in France), then you got $1.25 for each day....but there was a $625 limit on that.  Amazingly enough....anyone who had very limited time and had fifty dollars or less owed....they got paid immediately.  Everyone else?  They got this certificate which they could hold and would be paid out in twenty years....1944.  In truth....the government had some money sitting there and could afford the group owed the $50 or less.  The rest?  They simply didn't have the money, and this was a debt that would be invented out of thin air in 1944.

There were a minimum of three million certificates created for this, and the debt listed was between three and four billion dollars.  If you did this by 2017 numbers....it was roughly fifty-billion dollars to be paid out.

No one says much between 1924 and 1929 over the deal.  But you have this odd episode of the Wall Street crash, and depression setting in.

So around by 1930, there some hyped-up nature over the bonus deal.  Some folks want the bonus open to a loan out....so you could walk in and get a partial payment (a loan).  This starts out at the twenty-percent level, and later....there's talk of a fifty-percent loan-out.  It goes nowhere.  Why?  The House and Senate sit there....in the midst of a depression....talking about finding money which doesn't exist, and suggesting higher taxes to pay out the bonus money.  No one wants higher taxes.

By January of 1932 (an election year), there are marches conducted on Washington by disgruntled former Army members.  Protests are set up in Washington DC....with approximately 25,000 folks there in the spring period....coming and going. By July, it's suggested that ten-thousand protesters are now in a camp atmosphere (intending to stay long-term).

As July arrives....the political atmosphere in DC is charged up.  Protests are common.  Some people think that anarchy could be on the verge of occurring.  So President Hoover (the GOP guy) orders the Defense Department to take action.  Note, there's virtually no real cop presence in the city to handle this type of mess.

On 28 July 1932....a brief one-day episode unfolds.  US Army versus ten-thousand former Army members....on the far east side of Washington DC.  The print-media at the time lays out the whole episode, and a massive amount of blame gets dumped on President Hoover for the way that this was handled.  Four months later, the election shift has occurred....one of the worst election defeats for a sitting President occurs....all going back to the Bonus-Army riot.

Oddly enough....in 1936...the topic of the bonus money came up through Congress again....passing through both House and Senate, with FDR vetoing the pay-out.  This time?  They voted again and overrode the veto....paying out roughly 2-billion dollars of bonus money.  Taxes?  No one says much....it was simply debt added to more debt and everyone looked the other way.  Who passed the bill?  It was a massive Democratic House and Senate that had taken over in 1932 and 1934.

One can look back at 1924 and how a bunch of politicians screwed up....how Hoover screwed up with the handling of the protesters....and how the Democrats made everyone happy in 1936 over the bonus...all neatly created or orchestrated.

Watching Caleb Hammer

 I've reached a point this summer....where I watch about 90 minutes a week of Caleb Hammer's podcast (being honest, it's the most I can handle).

Describing it?

Well...Caleb is a financial audit guy, and he brings on couples (straight, gay, whatever)....who are deep into a mess, and he digs into what went WRONG.  I'd describe the WRONG-moment (my index of 1-to-10) as mostly '10' moments.

The couples....in most all cases....are losers (to the 9th degree), and I can't see the marriage  surviving more than a year or so....after doing the show.

My thrill?  Well....in about half the cases....you have some wife who has purple-hair, or forty-odd piercings....who seems to be a die-hard socialist...showing a bizarre behavior as a nut-case, and the guy seems really stuck on this type of gal.

I paused over this....frankly....if this were my wife, and she was this dimwitted and trampy-to-the-9th-degree....I might stick around a while (for the fun).

The sad thing?  They are all deep into debt (bad enough that they ought to be placed into a jail).

Testosterone Story

 Pentagon has ordered new testosterone-deficiency screenings for members over the age of 30.  The expectation?  A percentage (probably 10-percent minimum) will have low T-deficiency numbers (my bet).

So, I'll tell this story.

In the early 1990s....the Air Force went in a massive way toward fitness/'the-look'/exercise.  About six  months into this....you started to notice several trends.

Folks had sleep issues....guys seemed overly tired (especially the over-35 age group) in the afternoons.....probably one out of three guys in the older age bracket had mood swings, which unsettled marriages/relationships.

I knew two guys in this period....who accidentally got some Air Force doctor curious....who tested them on testosterone....finding them low.   One of them just said 'finished' and ended up medically-discharged over the problem/treatment. 

The sleep-issues crowd?  By the time I retired in 1999....probably 5-percent of folks  I knew....were on some sort of treatment. 

What I expect out of the Pentagon?  By 2030....they come to admit the current fitness program and fitness expectation....is causing health issues. 

Eleven Irrational Behaviors With Technology

Heavy phone/social media addiction....while people crave for 'it'....showing mental problems. 

Irrational privacy complaints....while showing wiliness to share vast personal data.

Irrational fear of AI job loss.....while quickly adopting to AI tools.

Irrational trust based on 'facts', while showing marginal-to-no track record.

Irrational minor rule-breaking....while expecting others to follow the norms.

Irrationally expecting experts to be infallible on politicized topics....then seeming to ignore expert failures (COVID origins, economic forecasts, etc.).

Irrationally accusing the each other of "misinformation" while spreading their own selective framing.

Irrationally short-term emotional decision-making on long-term issues (retirement, health, family, national debt).....over and over.

Irrationally showing tribal loyalty to brands, sports teams, or subcultures.....that seem to have zero to no real evidence.

Irrationally expecting society to accommodate every individual preference without some type of trade-off.

Irrational pattern of knowing better (data on health, money, relationships, policy) yet acting against that knowledge due to emotion, status, convenience, or group belonging.

On the Subject of Meetings

At some point in the early-1990s....I moved from a player-mode to a manager-mode, and then came the realization that you had to go and attend meetings.  Some were a mere fifteen minutes long and drilled quickly down into the issue, and were worthwhile as a meeting.  Some were 90 minutes long, and basically accomplished next to nothing.  I came to value most meetings as worthless.

At some point around 2002 to 2004....I probably was wasting four hours a week in meetings.  In 2010 to 2013.....as a manager within the Pentagon empire, I was lucky to get myself down to 180 minutes per week.  The only enjoyable meeting each week in that last year was the building custodian meeting where all kinds of building renovation or history came out from the chief of the Pentagon building.

I brought this up years ago with a older guy who could remember the 1970s era, and how there were rarely meetings.  In his mind, when the internet and computer era arrived....meetings increased.  As he pointed out.....more people wanted 'stock' ownership in decisions made, and success from meeting decisions rarely paid dividends.

At some point about fifteen years ago....I worked with a female who had a husband who had a degree in business management (the master's degree), and he had weekly meetings with his staff (the wife, and the two kids).  One of the kids was a teenager and had become anti-meeting....thus causing friction in the household.  The wife tried to explain to the husband that these meetings were not of much value, and instead got lectured on the necessity of a 'focused-team'.  I asked the co-worker how would this all end, and she felt the kid would be out the door as soon as she graduated from high-school.

As much as I hate to suggest it....meetings have turned into some kind of rocket-science.

Why Iran Keeps Adding Layers Of More 'WAR'

 As a kid....I noted that probably 3 or 4 dimwits existed in my class, and it didn't matter how things were explained....they just didn't 'get it'.  We'd go to a second details-explained situation....a third details-explanation situation, and even a fourth details-explanation situation.

Years later....I would associate this to a low IQ.

Iran simply runs....as a nation....with authorities mostly geared toward a 75-IQ, and if you said something would occur tomorrow....to cut-off power/electricity for 6 weeks....they wouldn't see a big deal.

If you said all gas stations would only sell 10 liters of gas per week....again, no big deal.

The problem here....they've had 50 years to built the nation into a land run by the Three Stooges.  Trump calls up, and it's either Curly, Larry, or Moe answering the phone.

The funny thing?  Persia....before Mohammad came along....probably was the most advanced country on the face of the Earth.