﻿<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Very Slow Thinking]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Global Narrative is fiction. We need to take it back. Truth dies in darkness.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b_ta!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F916bd79f-86e4-4dd3-8ca1-7ce2a14fa78f_640x640.png</url><title>Very Slow Thinking</title><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2026 05:42:52 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[veryslowthinking@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[veryslowthinking@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[veryslowthinking@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[veryslowthinking@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[PSEUDOCOUP: Backtest]]></title><description><![CDATA["Not what I voted for!" is exactly what you voted for.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/pseudocoup-backtest</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/pseudocoup-backtest</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:42:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/529dafb7-5cd8-42b6-bea5-d49f52790003_1168x784.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In July and November 2024, I published two articles outlining the Pseudocoup of American politics, in which I clearly labelled and identified what Trump and his second term Admin was, which guaranteed the events you see today.</p><p>Judge for yourself how accurate the layout was by revisiting the sections on the Trumpian meat puppet show.</p><p>If you feel like you &#8220;got duped&#8221; or were betrayed, read the following and ask yourself why you didn't see the following, which was in plain sight and literally spoon fed to the world, and why you believed a proven pathological liar taking power (again) in an architecture of lies.</p><p>Will you be duped again next election by someone saying what you want to hear, who's likely an outsider celebrity rebel, probably Tucker Carlson?</p><p>Will you stop to ask how on earth this (Manchurian) &#8220;candidate&#8221; number X can possibly be effective given they don't have any experience in government or even large scale power? And will you ask yourself, &#8220;why's this essentially the same set up as Trump in 2016, who couldn't do anything because the state constantly blocked, countered, and outwitted him?&#8221;</p><p>Think about the following, ahead of the 2028 Pseudocoup clown show kayfabe personality reality TV contest of nothingness.</p><h1><a href="https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/pseudocoup-transition-begins?r=y4c74">July 23, 2024</a></h1><blockquote><h1>Trump</h1><p>A genuine assassination attempt was manifested by what looks like the stochastic method but was in fact a FBI led but multiagency domestic terror MO wrapped up in stochasticism at the end. Multiple key strategic parties have created opportunity for an actual plot execution that has people caught up in the superficials as much as if not more than on the obvious Fed level, while all are being stonewalled officially to just slow everything down. Across the investigators, critics and sceptics etc, the struggle to just admit to the persistent horror of deep state corruption that is the fundamental life blood of the US hegemon keeps everyone with any access or power from actually being able to fully and rapidly open Pandora&#8217;s or Schr&#246;dinger&#8217;s boxes. Everyone at some level still has a problem and therefore resistance to admitting to the full scale horror that is manifest. Whether it&#8217;s on grounds of Occam&#8217;s razor, Hanlon&#8217;s razor, their overlap or some other factors, no one really wants to go end to end, full spectrum. The ones who do are citizens who influence nothing and are heard by no one.</p><p>Why was Kim Cheatle able to turn up to a hearing, refuse to answer questions, provide zero data or evidence despite it being demanded days before, and then simply walk out? Why can the state not arrest her on suspicion of involvement or criminal negligence, or perjury in the hearing? She should have been arrested in the hearing.</p><p>Yes she&#8217;s just resigned. So what? Resignation isn&#8217;t punishment, arrest or criminal investigation.</p><p>Why aren&#8217;t any of the state agents involved under arrest and questioning?</p><p>Why hasn&#8217;t Trump demanded the full force of all legal possibilities kick in and be used to investigate? He&#8217;s calmly continuing a role in a soap opera personality contest reality TV show.</p><p>Do you understand? Do you see?</p><p>See what?</p><p>The wilful choice about how to manage mass perception in ways that fit the Problem Reaction Solution paradigm, Cognitive Warfare, Disaster Capitalism and managed theatre concepts. Every side of a weirdly shaped aisle are involved in this but not in some collective conspiracy kinda way, more a by functional design kinda way.</p><p>Except there&#8217;s something else that&#8217;s very tacked on that EVERYONE is on board with but most of them don&#8217;t even realise.</p><p><strong>A known neocon Zionist President</strong> who is almost certainly a shoe-in for the next administration <strong>has now acquired a messianic bent,</strong> having been literally touched by the hand of God. There is not an outsider, outlier, anti narrative critic anywhere in the Truman Show who hasn&#8217;t swallowed this hook, line and sinker and doesn&#8217;t repeat the God angle. Not Ryan Dawson, Scott Ritter, or anyone vaguely similar.</p><p>Do not ignore or underestimate what this can and probably will lead to.</p><h1>Trump Vance</h1><p>Trump Vance is nothing but PNAC neocon Zionism in the open. Vance literally admitted it in exact terms by laying out the Iran, ME, Asia &#8220;strategy&#8221; of war via proxy and vassalage.</p><p>If you are duped by the &#8220;we&#8217;ll end Ukraine&#8221; bullshit, you literally have no idea what the actual facts are in Ukraine now and have been for 2.5 years. Russia is controlling and ending Ukraine on its terms. No one else is getting a say unless Russia fucks up. By the time January rolls around, Ukraine won&#8217;t be what it is today. Nothing anyone in America claimed they would do about Ukraine if they won the presidency is relevant or true. Anyone can say anything now, right up to handover day. See our article on RFK Jr when we pointed this out. If you don&#8217;t understand this, you are dead at the wheel. This may sound arrogant, but we think the majority of people are more dead than they think. The proof of this is that they seem to fail to recognise that they are in PRS loops on a tighter and faster cycle and can only see one, maybe two, when&#8217;s there&#8217;s several plus new ones, and they actually react to the new ones as if they are genuine events that aren&#8217;t part of the PRS process, so they don&#8217;t even detect the triggering and patterning of their own reactions to those events.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>If you react, you are in a PRS cycle. Not reacting but instead analysing, thinking, and being quiet is the way to avoid the PRS cycle. There is zero need for an instantaneous response and opinion, yet look what pours out of every channel instantly. 95% of what is said in the Reaction phase is either junk or wrong, for a reason and by design.</p><p><strong>What next:</strong><em> </em>Trump Vance is literally ushering in what you don&#8217;t want: the totalitarianisation of the putative WEFian technofacist neofeudal governance system of the US hegemon. A current tranche of public MICIMATT tech bros, corporateers and agents have literally rotated the Biden puppet for the Trump puppet on the stage you&#8217;re watching. Trump is on their payroll, doing their bidding, not the other way around. Do you realise that the current pick of prominent and public tech bros you like or are coming to like have themselves been put there on the stage for you to be entertained by?</p><p>Meanwhile, who&#8217;s in the wings and what are they doing? Are you even looking at them or know or remember those faces? Where is Eric Schmitt? Who is the head of Alphabet? Why has Mark Zuckerberg changed his wardrobe, said something about Trump and been called cool by someone on X, in between footage of his city sized yacht and nuclear bunker?</p><p>Unless you make and keep a list of what Trump says he&#8217;s going to do, you won&#8217;t audit his actions and again won&#8217;t realise he will do none of it. What he will do is fully back Zionist genocide while squashing the ICJ and ICC, sell weapon contracts harder than ever (production and delivery is someone else&#8217;s problem), support and invest in the strengthening of the transatlantic digital panopticon, back the federalisation of the EU as a rebrand and consolidation of the vassal continent and NATO, repackage a loss in Ukraine as his win as a peacemaker, use non existent threats in the East as the reason to fully remilitarize the economies of the hegemony and initiate major military recruitment, and implement, admit to and reveal most of what is now called the Fourth Industrial Revolution under the guise of modernising and reinvigorating the domestic civilian economies when all that is is the further, exaggerated hollowing out of them via certain technological approaches. Popular faces and icons will be attached to and front all of this march into not a renaissance and recapture of freedom but glossy totalitarianism with great stage production values and loud music, big smiles and the whitest teeth known to man.</p><p>Imagine living kayfabe while on crack, meth, coke and MDMA to the soundtrack of your life, in a room full of everyone you love, but being unable to stop any of it or leave the lovely, sprawling, well furnished, comfortable but increasingly dirty, smelly room. You can go on the balcony for some &#8220;fresh&#8221;air and smoke a ciggie or a joint. But you can&#8217;t leave. You can still jump off the balcony though, but you&#8217;re forty floors up, there&#8217;s no rope and, now that you look, you&#8217;re naked. In fact, everyone is. And no one knows whose room, balcony, soundstage, lighting, drugs or food this is.</p><p>You will see tiny crumbs thrown onto the floor: a modulation of FDA CDC stuff that looks like change to &#8220;vaccines&#8221; but isn&#8217;t in real material terms if you get into the depths of law and contracts. At best, the USA vaccination schedule will just become totally optional after an 8 year fight. The rackets won&#8217;t be blown apart. DEI will be sidelined and the volume of the ultra minorities and alphabet soupers will get turned down into a general murmur grounded in just equal rights and reversion to normal parent child legal power relationships. All of this maintenance of actual, pre existing normality will be overhyped into smashfest victories over an enemy that was in itself grossly overhyped. All of this is the continuance of a completely confected culture war that is designed to keep you away from the class war you should be thinking about against Trump Vance Biden HRC Obama MICIMATT faceless real power and literally everyone who is part of the visible and invisible power structure gravy train, perhaps with the exception of Thomas Massie. The rectum of political faces on both sides, like AOC, will rise in the next term. The UK has completed its transformation. There is nothing there but sphincters blowing and sucking shit between each other, but people think it&#8217;s changing for the better because there are four neocon Zionists in the House under a brand called Reform, even though they are all totally establishment people on the payroll and the agenda all their lives and completely unrepresentative of any normal UK citizen.</p><p>What&#8217;s a Pseudocoup?</p><p>It&#8217;s the best term that we could invent while this was being written to label:</p></blockquote><blockquote><ul><li><p>a blend of theatrical power management between what are likely real factions;</p></li><li><p>who largely pursue exactly the same big ticket items as each other;</p></li><li><p>while spending exorbitant amounts of time, energy, money and attention on different variations of window dressing;</p></li><li><p>to distract from their theft via the system they built and persist;</p></li><li><p>while getting you to watch and play along with it and even masturbate to it;</p></li><li><p>while telling yourself you don&#8217;t really like it (especially the stuff with the rough or dirty play) even though you keep getting off on it and keep watching it.</p></li></ul><p>What you must admit to yourself is that there is persistent consistency of the highest layers and greatest parts of whatever you&#8217;re living in. They admit it to you. They show you. They tell you. Why do you deny it?</p><ul><li><p>Neoconservatism</p></li><li><p>American exceptionalism</p></li><li><p>Zionism</p></li><li><p>Zionistic supremacy</p></li><li><p>Militarism</p></li><li><p>MICIMATT</p></li><li><p>War economy</p></li><li><p>Fiat dollar reserve</p></li><li><p>Hegemony</p></li><li><p>Genetic engineering</p></li><li><p>Corporate power, corporations as people</p></li><li><p>The global public private partnership structure</p></li></ul><p>Nothing on that list is stopping or changing, no matter who or what is running the show. Not now, not tomorrow, not in January, not in five years time. Not ever. Not in the West.</p><p>That&#8217;s why what you think looks like a possible soft or medically induced/assisted coup is only a <em>pseudocoup</em>.</p><p>Literally no one who could appear to take power or be given it, from any side, from anywhere, is changing or stopping the above list in the West.</p></blockquote><h1><a href="https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/truman-show-pseudocoup-in-motion?r=y4c74">Nov 14, 2024</a></h1><blockquote><p>Trump</p><p>The Uniparty operative who does its bidding in the broad daylight after the ground has been laid through planned narrative.</p><p>Admit government&#8217;s full of criminals</p><p>Declare total neocon ideology</p><p>Declare total Zionism &amp; genocide</p><p>Install Zionist neocons</p><p>Install oligarchs</p><p>THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN THE MASK COMES OFF.</p><p>These are Uniparty agenda big ticket items.</p><p>There&#8217;s no difference either side.</p><p>Meanwhile, you&#8217;re distracted by DEI/trans micro issues that are deliberate shiny distractions from THE BIG OBVIOUS STUFF.</p><p>&#8220;Hurray! We&#8217;ve beaten the trans thing! It&#8217;s rolling back because Trump!&#8221;</p><p>It was rolling back anyway because it is a non viable, illogical schema. It was being rejected by people commercially and at the local level (BDS Bud Light, schools etc), it was also always an ultra minority issue amplified up into something bigger than it was by the media, and the gender definition and change aspects have been exposed as legally and medically flawed/baseless.</p><p>This was all before Nov 5th, 2024.</p><p>Also, most of the world doesn&#8217;t go along with this agenda anyway. Only a minority of developed nations are using it as a political device. This means that it&#8217;s not &#8220;true&#8221; but a completely confected unreality that is not grounded in broad scale, cross cultural common sense and shared human experience.</p><p>What it shows (again) is the pliability of the individuals who went along with the top down instruction to &#8220;believe and repeat this&#8221;, the control between the government and corporations, institutions etc, and that there exists a mixed set of incentives that cover ideology, control &amp; money through which power acts (see fascism).</p><p>Both DEI &amp; the trans agenda have been deliberately created and/or co-opted &amp; corrupted as tools of power for purposes that are not as described. They served a purpose of confusion, distraction, division, identification, programming and reinforcement within the population.</p><p>This is another version of the mechanisms involved in Covid.</p><p>Trump did not defeat any of this. One year ago he made a platform that combined his pick of populist positions to take. Anti-DEI &amp; anti-trans are two easy, common sense positions to take. Meritocracy and reduced focus on divisive race identity, and the non-trans position of almost all of human history are the gross majority view. </p><p>Easy populist maths = the safest political bet.</p><p>Democracy = populism</p><p>If he&#8217;d taken the other position, he&#8217;d not look different to the Democratic Party. You must look different, have contrast, and &#8220;fight&#8221; against the enemy you identify.</p><p>Elections must be combative.</p><p>Easy populist maths + contrast = combative stance = convincing political theatre</p><p>Yes, you can also genuinely stand for the principles that might be labelled &#8220;anti-trans&#8221; or conservative or whatever. There&#8217;s also a lot of levels in the trans rights &#8220;movement&#8221; that become increasingly granular and extreme from basic equal rights at the bottom to, say, drag queen children doing strip shows in the street during Pride while naked adults urinate on each other in public etc etc, and the stuffing of school libraries and curricula with pornographic (any flavour) material that is orders of magnitude beyond for sex education.</p><p>Of course, manufactured political discourse manipulates people into false binaries, pits them against each other and limits complex discussions.</p><p>What is already proven is that the trans agenda isn&#8217;t organic, has been force driven, and is repeatedly shown to be internally corrupt by people within the agenda itself. That&#8217;s why it is doomed but serves a political purpose. Its damage has been done.</p><p>Pending Christian US Secretary of Defence lays out:</p><ul><li><p>Total subservience to Jewish Third Temple Movement</p></li><li><p>Settler colonial strategy to occupy territory and thereby dominate, steal property &amp; land and impose will through changing &#8220;facts and reality on the ground&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Intent to violate international law, recognised borders of Palestine and recognised rights of Palestinians</p></li></ul><h1>Exposing the USA Uniparty</h1><p>Likely: Hunter Biden will be pardoned for gun crimes by Joe.</p><p>Hunter committed far more crimes than those in scope of his guilty plea, documented in his own laptop &amp; emails.</p><p>Guaranteed: Trump admin WILL NOT pursue Bidens for any other crimes.</p><p>Possible crimes include: human sex trafficking; drug possession, use &amp; supply; fraud; embezzlement; FARA violation; money laundering; RICO.</p><p>By not touching the Bidens for any of this (including Ukrainian corruption) the Uniparty of the USA will be exposed again, just like the non prosecution of HRC, illegal persecution, torture &amp; plotted murder of @JulianAssange_ &amp; constant pursuit of the same major US imperial agendas no matter who is in office.</p><p>People cannot identify reality. They will deny watching kayfabe personality contests.</p><p>One reason people refuse to believe that politics isn&#8217;t real is because if you accept it&#8217;s largely managed theatre/kayfabe, your world view explodes.</p><p>You face the fact that you have nowhere else to run to. There&#8217;s no other side. No one is coming to help.</p><p>Accepting that you&#8217;re being politically conned means that you&#8217;re on your own.</p><p>You have to then work out how to help yourself. How to organise &amp; build.</p><p>Literally, you have to work out how to do &#8220;politics&#8221;.</p><p>Yep... That thing you&#8217;ve outsourced to a Uniparty your whole life.</p><p>Most people aren&#8217;t ready, willing and capable of taking on the burden &amp; responsibility of doing politics.</p><p>That&#8217;s why they&#8217;re ruled.</p><p>Their mass abrogation of their political responsibilities is the basic reason why they&#8217;re ruled by a toxic, destructive, inhumane kayfabe.</p><p>The way Trump admin treats Hunter Biden and family re their crimes tells you what the system is and that it exists.</p><p>This is exactly the same as with the Clintons.</p><p>Kayfabe&#8217;s already been proven.</p><p>Everyone still goes along with kayfabe.</p><p>Any journalist who didn&#8217;t identify Joe Biden as demented and senile &amp; then adjusted all their output to reflect that is engaging in kayfabe, no matter what side they&#8217;re on.</p><p>That&#8217;s all the political body &amp; all the media (msm &amp; alt) feeding you fundamental kayfabe.</p><p>Trump is now empowered to go after Bidens &amp; Clintons.</p><p>He won&#8217;t. Even after he said to HRC &#8220;you&#8217;d be in jail.&#8221;</p><p>Even after Joe Biden&#8217;s document crimes (&#8221;too old to be tried&#8221;) and all the Biden lawfare against Trump.</p><p>SIDEQUEST: Don&#8217;t even bother asking yourself if Biden&#8217;s dementia is real or just a way to escape trial for a litany of crimes all documented in his son&#8217;s laptop.</p><p>The fundamental issue is there&#8217;ll be no investigation, no arrests, no trials.</p><p>KAYFABE.</p><p>Trump will not pardon Julian Assange, Snowden</p></blockquote>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[USIS-Iran War: Truths of Humanity]]></title><description><![CDATA[This war&#8217;s real value is its truth value.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/usis-iran-war-truths-of-humanity</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/usis-iran-war-truths-of-humanity</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:04:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/youtube/w_728,c_limit/7hZFkWvUnuc" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This war&#8217;s real value is its truth value. I cannot overstate how valuable it is, though I expect almost no one will agree. It will likely be called nihilism. It is not.</p><h1>COVID &#8220;Truth&#8221; was fabricated</h1><p>Covid was an entirely manufactured set of circumstances, rules, perceptions, and behaviours. Nothing done meaningfully stopped the spread of what was called a virus &#8212; data built on profoundly flawed testing. What was truthful was what it showed: how you and everyone else thought, reasoned, and behaved under pressure. It exposed whose principles held when the crisis moved on.</p><p>Deprivation was artificial and reversible. Essential goods were never truly scarce at source. Interruptions were temporary inventions that ultimately meant nothing.</p><p>The USIS-Iran War is not Covid. The truth it reveals cuts deeper.</p><h1>The truth in being choked</h1><p>This is an illegal war of aggression &#8212; the highest crime. A criminal war of choice. It was never necessary and can be ended almost immediately. It continues because a tiny number of unaccountable people profit from it while lying about it. But that is the truth of all wars. The system that births them is structurally corrupt and permanently incentivised.</p><p>The most valuable truth here is undeniable and material: you are being actively, physically choked.</p><p>Energy supply is strangled. Prices for every type of fuel are rising sharply, no matter where you live. Even energy-exporting nations feel it faster. On top of that comes undetectable price gouging across all goods and services. Rising energy costs inflate everything. This is not cacao making chocolate expensive. This is the everything thing blowing up.</p><p>The war&#8217;s controllers knew this would happen. They exploit every citizen on the planet in direct, material terms &#8212; on all sides. Trump has already lied and gaslit about a war he helped start. Iran isn&#8217;t lying: it warns exactly how much worse it will make things for everyone if the attacks continue, and it has made good on those warnings. Despite that, the attacks go on.</p><p>This war&#8217;s greatest truth lies in:</p><ul><li><p>The physical destruction of energy and primary manufacturing infrastructure</p></li><li><p>The direct hit on every dependent supply chain</p></li><li><p>Iran&#8217;s control of the Strait of Hormuz &#8212; its tolls, selective passage, and the spiralling choices that follow</p></li><li><p>The material, systemic impacts that reach every individual</p></li><li><p>The observable effects on daily life</p></li></ul><p>We are now seeing what real fuel shortages do to society. Food and goods shortages are coming. Inflation will spread poverty from the bottom up.</p><p>If you are American, Israeli, British, or European, your governments are knowingly strangling you. They are complicit. Governments saying &#8220;we don&#8217;t support this war&#8221; means nothing without severing the actual connections &#8212; arms, bases, finances, operations.</p><p>You can object to Iran&#8217;s methods all you want. You can believe it deserved attack, that the narrative justifying this war is righteous, or vice versa.</p><p>Wherever you stand: tough shit.</p><p>You don&#8217;t matter. Your life doesn&#8217;t matter. Your circumstances don&#8217;t matter. You are irrelevant to those with the power to start or stop this elective war. Yet your life, health, and wealth are the fuel stolen every second to feed the warfare economy.</p><p>These are the truths this war forces into the open.</p><p>Covid had no real material limits &#8212; its constraints were legislative fabrications that people largely complied with out of fear or convenience. This war has crossed irreversible physical red lines. Destroyed infrastructure and chokepoints will take years to repair. Their costs are now permanent and compounding.</p><p>This is global destruction that has only just begun.</p><p>No one knows how long it will last or how far it will spread. The controllers think they know. They don&#8217;t. Their knowledge is limited, unstable, and daily exposed. Iran has endured 47 years of strangulation. Now it shows the world its power by choking back &#8212; forcing reciprocal pain on those whose governments strangled it first.</p><p>You probably had nothing personal to do with any of this. Tough shit. We have always been complicit. We believed our societies gave us voice and choice. This war proves that false. You are a price taker. The controllers are price makers.</p><p>That is the truth.</p><p>How much pain must be taken before people learn this basic fact? How long until they understand their real choices and the power of their most fundamental one?</p><p>Price makers feel powerful because they set the terms. Price takers feel powerless. That is the biggest con in any transaction. Without the taker, there is no deal. Collective refusal &#8212; simply refusing to transact for long enough &#8212; can collapse the market and strip the maker of power. That is asymmetric reversal.</p><p>That power sits in every citizen&#8217;s hands.</p><p>Understanding this paradigm, especially in the context of this war and its fallout, is the source of real empowerment. How much pain it takes for people to relearn that power is this war&#8217;s deepest potential truth.</p><p>This is a war of choice. You didn&#8217;t choose it. But its controllers are forcing inflated prices and inflicted pain on you to serve their objectives.</p><p>Learn that truth.</p><p>Learn that resistance is an active choice. Your ability to resist is what makes you matter. How you resist is what registers to others that you do matter. Your resistance empowers others.</p><p>Learn that you must resist. If you do not, no one else will.</p><p>Do not let liars, thieves and murderers choke you to death.</p><div id="youtube2-7hZFkWvUnuc" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;7hZFkWvUnuc&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/7hZFkWvUnuc?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Middle East Meltdown: WW3 is Holy War]]></title><description><![CDATA[What started in 2014 is escalating, expanding and is now a religious conflict that the West is hiding from its citizens.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/middle-east-meltdown-ww3-is-holy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/middle-east-meltdown-ww3-is-holy</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 03:30:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2cee462e-461c-4afd-a0ac-7fb68ad85a27_1168x784.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What you are seeing that&#8217;s notionally labelled the Iran War, is not that.</p><p>USIS ground forces are not being moved to the region to &#8220;take Kharg&#8221; or &#8220;open the SoH&#8221;. Both of those operations are beyond the USIS capabilities against present Axis of Resistance set up, and this scenario has long been known to be suicidal with current force levels. If such operations are attempted, prevailing and pre-existing military analysis forecasts Western defeat, no matter what the timeline. The truth of SoH is that USIS can secondarily control it by attacking traffic itself, thereby exerting its own counter force on Iran. That amplification is important, although superficially worse to most of the world, given that closure is the notional problem.</p><p>Troop build up provides optionality inside a complex, multi-front theatre.</p><ol><li><p>Theatrical threat to &#8220;encourage&#8221; communications with Iran. This will continue to fail. Iran won&#8217;t shift its stance or demands unless it is militarily losing.</p></li><li><p>It&#8217;s the start of wider build up that should&#8217;ve happened before USIS started the war. Being behind the curve and drip feeding troops in is a tactical mistake in some senses, but force staging is always visible. Axis of Resistance will ultimately fire on these troops&#8217; staging points and vessels, prior to them assaulting.</p></li><li><p>These troops act as tripwire forces. Getting hit will result in USIS initializing mobilisation, national emergency etc to initiate sweeping internal policy shifts that go way beyond this war, in line with long standing totalitarian domestic policy objectives (there are suggestions USA military recruitment standards have been lowered and max age raised). EU/UK domestic military policies were being readied for remilitarization two plus years ago. Conscription will return to multiple NATO nations under Russian and now Iranian fake invasion threats.</p></li><li><p>These troops will also form direct ground forces that will ultimately enter, reinforce, guard and fight in and for Israeli territory and the territory that USIS seeks to further steal in pursuit of the Greater Israel project/vision/objective (Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria).</p></li><li><p>Israel is losing against Iran, cannot defend itself and is militarily overstretched now compared to its current fronts and ambitions. It is being reinforced by USA, ahead of any possible AoR ground forces advance from Lebanon, Yemen or Iran (even though geography &amp; politics&#8212;Iranian/ Yemeni forces would have to &#8220;invade&#8221;/cross USIS vassal territories&#8212;makes this difficult now). USA forces will, if necessary, reinforce the Lebanese front and possibly inside Gaza, secretly, in addition to whatever merc, SpecOps and CIA forces are already on the ground.</p></li><li><p>Iranian missiles are the Iranian Air Force, only far, far more efficient, affordable and durable. The West is completely in denial about this. Iran can strike anywhere in the region with no risk to its personnel, no training lead time, no specialist skills beyond munition production and operation. This makes a mockery of what is required to run an air force, for essentially the same purpose: kinetic strike delivery. Trump claiming that Iran is militarily destroyed, has no air force, no navy, nothing, are deliberate, propagandistic lies to mislead citizens&#8217; understanding of the AoR's ethos and capability, compared to the managerial choices made by USIS in fighting that enemy. Trump is simply lying and is clearly out of his depth and surrounded by low competence ideologues who likely filter his reality.</p></li><li><p>Iran has regional fire superiority. It can hit what it wants, even if it must absorb hits (this will always be the case). Until ammo and launch capability is impinged, it is regionally ahead. Air defence still exists, may not have been fully deployed and could be directly resupplied. The true tests of Iranian AD are yet to come.</p></li><li><p>Iran will increasingly provide direct fire support to Lebanese and Palestinian fronts, suppressing, destroying and routing USIS forces there ahead of formal USA troop insertion into Israel. This fire doesn&#8217;t need to be perfectly precise with real time corrections; it only needs to provide area coverage and denial to radically affect IOF infantry and armour units. Thermobaric and multi-submunition warheads will increasingly feature in performance of these tasks in areas free of civilian concentrations (see Ukraine theatre).</p></li><li><p>Gaza is destroyed so Iranian fire isn&#8217;t worsening Gaza infrastructure damage. Targeting IOF entry points, supply/operations routes is enough to seriously damage IOF forces and cut off those deeper inside Gaza, where remaining Hamas fighters may be able to engage. Similar tactics could apply to Lebanon, with Hezbollah having likely better force state, comms etc.</p></li><li><p>This USIS-Iran War isn&#8217;t what the West wants its docile populous to think it is. It isn&#8217;t what the Trumpian administration seem to think it is, based on their inadequate execution in conventional terms. It is what all sides seek to make the war, in aggregate. That means all participants get a vote and &#8220;might makes right&#8221;. For AoR, it is: i. a dynamic opportunity to exert increasing force across the region to directly re-engineer political realities for two or more generations; ii. a fight grounded in religious, cultural morality, hence why there is a profound difference between Shi&#8217;a Islam leadership (the main anti-genocide actor) and Sunni Islam leadership (vassalised Muslim states who are coparticipants in regional genocide and Greater Israel); iii escalating into what&#8217;ll eventually openly be understood &amp; labelled in the West as a Holy War between AoR Islamic forces and Zionism; iv For AoR &amp; Iran, it's now a multiphase operation that will expand in line with Iran&#8217;s &amp; AoR achievements &amp; capabilities. <strong>This is what Hamas triggered, even though it is unlikely that they knew how things would play out.</strong></p></li></ol><p>What you are looking at is the collision of strategy.</p><p>The strategy of USIS Empire versus the Shi&#8217;a Islamic Strategy of Sacrifice.</p><p>USIS hasn't fought under circumstances similar to this since Vietnam. It is already behind on the logistics, political, domestic support, troop level and weapons technology curves. It is attempting expeditionary war with grossly inadequate logistics, against an OpFor that's permanently dug in. Its motivation for these wars is deeply corrupt and entirely disconnected from notions of service of interests of its own populations or mankind in general. Its genocidal nature proves this.</p><p>USIS is now attempting at scale what Ukraine tried in 2023 when it executed offensives against the Russian Surovikin line. Iran is a <strong>nation</strong> constructed on similar, longer standing principles. It's hard to believe that US military commanders will fully commit to war on these terms, given the known modelling of nuclear escalation, and the Strait of Hormuz, Kharg Island and general Invade Iran scenarios. USIS simply doesn't have the manpower or materiel to conventionally &#8220;win&#8221; anything at sensible costs. This would suggest that the troop build up therefore errs towards being a theatrical force backing up demands to negotiate. However, no one should ignore or underestimate the options these forces provide and their how their presence changes USIS calculus once they arrive. Equally, their deployment dynamically affects AoR tactics, strategy and objectives. Overall cost and risk is changing, which moves nuclear calculus. Do not underestimate the toxification of decision making processes in political leadership. Even if the US military told the administration not to execute war, the decision to launch war occurred, triggering a raft of fully known costs and consequences (Iran's reactive actions were all pre-declared).</p><p>Many commentators/pundits are stuck in the semi-rational surface layer of political and military manoeuvre. Most will remain there for months to come. The subsurface drivers, motivations and discernable real objectives, which are officially stated but not adequately reported in English, tell a different story. That difference exposes both the insanity and hypocrisy of the USIS hegemony but also the profound suppression of truth across the West.</p><p>Those in power don't have to be competent at any or every level. Incompetent power can wield sub-forms of competent force and power e.g. a schizoid administration deploying a capable army into straegically pointless conflict instead of more effective diplomatic and political options.</p><p>This is what the edge of the abyss looks like. We didn't get here necessarily because of a perfect, step-by-step plan, but we have been effectively moved along a well understood Western trajectory of interlocking objectives towards hegemonic dominance and expansion, set against the backdrop of shifting financial/monetary systemic architecture.</p><p>This is the third <strong>kinetic</strong> phase of World War 3 (1. Ukraine 2. Gaza 3. Iran/ME region). The material phase - national &amp; international markets, domestic and international policy - is ongoing and ever pervasive. AoR forces now prove they have disproportionate power in that material phase as well. This present stage of WW3 is literally destroying life in the West at the individual and social policy level. This damage is irreversible because it is based around opportunity cost.</p><p>The full truth of this is knowable now, predictable, and yet not understood by Western citizens. If they truly understood what their rulers are doing and seeking to achieve, they would be in open revolt. The energy situation alone, since the US-sponsored Nord Stream terrorist sabotage, is the reason why populations of Western Europe should revolt, but they've done nothing to protect themselves from their own insane rulers for 4 years. This is a hard metric of their total inability, which will not change at an adequate rate.</p><p>The revolution will not be televised. It will not be effective. It will not be timely. It will be pitiful, misguided and laughably late, surveilled, infiltrated and subverted by agents of the state.</p><p>Tyranny took control decades ago. The US Constitution lives in the minds of men before it manifests as anything else. To enact the Second Amendment requires conscious thought, analysis, recognition, and decisions about how to direct those powers and against whom.</p><p>It is the very minds of citizens that have been disabled, circumvented and overridden. That is the nature of true power, and it is mostly invisible. The enemy has always been within and variously disguised.</p><p>Christian and Judaic Zionist Supremacy and American Exceptionalism are the modern day equivalent of WW2 Nazi ideology. None of them have real validity beyond being force-backed assertions used to wield oppressive power over internal and external populations. Belief in being &#8220;chosen&#8221;, superior, Supreme or entitled somehow are simply beliefs that can be materially and kinetically challenged.</p><p>There are many others who disagree enough to challenge these assertions on the global stage. To underestimate them and their strategic competence is the kind of mistake that ends civilisations.</p><p>We are what evolved from Nazi Germany, atomic power-backed unipolar dominance, corruption of power and increasingly elitist megalomaniacal visions that co-opt religion to legitimise, protect and grow themselves.</p><p>We are the Fourth Reich, We are ruled by elites who directly, openly state:</p><ul><li><p>Israeli and Judaic Zionist Supremacy is the notional top of the pecking order, which is why law is tilted against speech, criticism and scrutiny against it.</p></li><li><p>Other faiths are inferior and subservient to Judaism in general - &#8220;Jews are God's Chosen People.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Power relationships are legitimately established, operated and maintained by traceable and not opaque funding through theocratic, supremacist lobby groups e.g. AIPAC being the most obvious.</p></li><li><p>Disproportionate acceptance of and tolerance to Zionist supremacist lobby e.g. UK &amp; USA total political penetration by Friends of Israel/AIPAC type lobby and money, and declared fealty to or actual belonging to those ideologies or identities.</p></li></ul><p>Consider what Fourth Reich can mean as a polemic analogy:</p><p>&#8220;Fourth Reich&#8221; can accuse a modern state, alliance, ideology, or ruling class of behaving in ways they regard as Nazi-like: militaristic, expansionist, supremacist, propagandistic, authoritarian, or genocidal. In that usage, the speaker usually does not mean &#8220;this is literally a restored Nazi state&#8221;. They mean &#8220;this system reproduces core Nazi logics under a new banner&#8221;.</p><p>Now consider these high level concepts and whether they exist at scale in our societies/nations:</p><ul><li><p>One-party or dictator rule (Uniparty appearing as a theatrical/kayfabe duopoly).</p></li><li><p>(Racial) hierarchy as state doctrine (exceptionalism, supremacy, actual racial policy or stance).</p></li><li><p>Eliminationist antisemitism inverted. Jews/Israelis/Zionists are now the dominant, ideological superiors and &#8220;antisemitism&#8221; is disproportionately and immediately weaponised on a blanket basis to destroy anyone or anything who opposes or questions these &#8220;superiors&#8221;.</p></li><li><p>Suspension of law in favour of executive power.</p></li><li><p>Territorial expansion as a core mission.</p></li><li><p>Mass political repression.</p></li><li><p>Propaganda fused with mythic national destiny.</p></li></ul><p>Literally all of it is fundamental to the interlock of USIS hegemony and Five Eyes network power.</p><p>One caveat: effective, persistent power does whatever is required to remain in power. It shifts form. It is likely a fundamental mistake to believe that &#8220;Zionism&#8221;, even in the broadest sense, is the true pinnacle of power in the West or wider. If that were true, destroying it and excising it from power would result in radically different systems and outcomes. It won't.</p><p>Zionism and the Abrahamic faiths are the skin suits that effective power competently (enough) wears and co-opts to control populations. The notional pitting of  Christianity and Judaism against Islam is, ultimately, confected and amplified by true power for its own ends. While it is likely wise to oppose Zionism for what it obviously is and declares itself to be, it is not the end game. It is a current skin suit of power.</p><p>You are being told to look at Zionism now. You are being told by your elites to accept it as the dominant ruling ideology, even though nothing in your political systems legitimizes this assertion. You are also being told by minority objectors to realise it should be resisted.</p><p>Zionism has committed the biggest, open and ongoing genocide in this century. It defends the &#8220;rights&#8221; of Israeli citizens to violently and fatally rape victims within its sphere of control, including men, women and children; it actively legitimizes rape as a means of supremacist domination. These two things alone are grounds to reject it regardless of other issues.</p><p>The entire Western political system has declared subservience to and domination by Christian and Judaic Zionism.</p><p>Recognise tyranny for what it is.</p><p>An archive of proof of genocide:</p><p><a href="http://Www.watermeloncrimes.com">watermeloncrimes.com</a></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[USIS: Self-inflicted failure at high speed]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is laughably ridiculous.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/usis-self-inflicted-failure-at-high</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/usis-self-inflicted-failure-at-high</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 12:31:42 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>USIS has just committed another act of self-harm with this contradictory, reverse ferret abandonment of the 48-hour demand threat:</p><blockquote><p>I AM PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WITCH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP</p></blockquote><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg" width="681" height="807" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:807,&quot;width&quot;:681,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:118258,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/i/191855396?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ws80!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe42a32ef-c8eb-467c-bf50-c0bf28f57f3e_681x807.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Iran simply needs to say &#8220;no communications have taken place,&#8221; in order to land another political defeat, even if communications did take place. That Trump has backed down is admission of failure, which is admission that Iran has adequate power and threat, which is leverage. If Iran did talk but trolls Trump by denying any comms, this forces Trump to either soak up the humiliation and keep acting in line with this statement, or reverse away from this statement and go back on the offensive argumentatively and/or kinetically. This is all unstable. Being able to troll Trump is a proof of leverage and a form of attack by luring Trump into a talk, getting him to commit a public position involving climbdown, then screwing him over with a denial and then forcing him to choose to either keep pursuing what could be achievable in talks or go back to kinetic escalation.</p><p>Why is the message in all caps? What's with the spelling error (&#8220;WITCH&#8221;)? It's all comedically garbage melodrama for smoothbrained mouthbreathers.</p><p>The message doesn't reference any agreed restrictions on Iran's strikes, so it should just keep launching missiles at Israel.</p><p>While I'm tempted to think that the biggest mistake Iran could make is to quit too soon, it has to genuinely assess and balance the probability of either part of USIS launching nukes for various reasons. Israel  can get there with existentialism, eschatology and megalomania. Trump can get there via narcissism, megalomania, eschatology, peer pressure, being manipulated/psyopped (which he already has been, more than once).</p><p>As i write this, Marandi (who is high accuracy) states:</p><blockquote><p>There are no direct or indirect talks taking place with the Trump regime.</p></blockquote><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg" width="1080" height="586" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eWxw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78f9ad13-7bf3-4ac2-860f-4b186ad6e3de_1080x586.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>This now just requires a formal statement to that effect by Iran and I bet Trump will reverse position and issue new threats, which he will then have to act on.</p><p>USIS is self-harming on the world stage and it's extremely funny to watch.</p><p>Similar to how people's conformance with Covid narrative insanity signalled that they were lacking independent thought, anyone claiming there's credibility in the Trumpian administration has a serious cognition and self-delusion problem.</p><p>I can't wait for the Marine Expeditionary Units and the 82nd Airborne to arrive in theatre, then sit on their thumbs out of range, running out of supplies and endurance while achieving nothing of value.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[DARWINIAN COUNTDOWN TO COMEDY ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Playing God in front of a warped mirror while isolated by other psychopathic narcissists.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/darwinian-countdown-to-comedy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/darwinian-countdown-to-comedy</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:51:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Caveat: the following has been partially validated by events occurring during its writing, notably initial but unconfirmed reports of possible Israeli attacks on Iranian &#8220;infrastructure&#8221; ahead of the 48-hour deadline. Iran has reportedly also issued a list of regional reciprocal targets it will strike if USIS hits Iranian powerplants.</p><div><hr></div><p>A useful hard deadline has been set via a comedically schizoid political outburst issued from a set of Cluster B personalities.</p><blockquote><p>If Iran doesn&#8217;t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST. Thank you for your attention in this matter. - President DONALD J. TRUMP</p><p>21/03/26 19:44 Washington DC</p></blockquote><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg" width="1150" height="596" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:596,&quot;width&quot;:1150,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:82826,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/i/191728386?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!O9CF!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa616110a-f289-4f26-a656-41f65aec2a45_1150x596.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>I mark that message as the first rung on the ladder of Darwinian escalation, which is separate from the Doomsday Clock.</p><p>The USA has just done something totally pointless. In one sense, it has reduced its political options down to a binary that it doesn't have any control over. It has issued a set of specific threats (destroy power plants) and timeframe, with a demand. The demand entirely contradicts ALL previously issued Trumpian statements about the Strait of Hormuz (open, openable, other countries&#8217; problem, not necessary, must be opened); it only entirely collapses the Trumpian administration's credibility, trustworthiness and political skill, amplifies the schizoid, frenetic, unstable messaging, and its contrast with provable reality.</p><p>Failure to make good on the threat is military political failure. Executing the threat is a polarizing escalation that's likely to be predominantly unpopular compared to other political options, could add to the list of war crimes and might cause major regional environmental disaster and mass casualties.</p><p>Having issued this statement, all control now shifts directly to Iran, which long ago issued clear warnings then statements about what it would do, had done and why. Iran has remained consistent to its own statements. It has never bluffed. Its capabilities matched or exceeded its claims. It has deliberately remained the lagging reactionary party in the war, not the initiator of escalation.</p><p>Iran will not comply with these nonsense demands. This will force USIS to reveal its core, who must then either either fold or attack. A fold will be the biggest self-inflicted political wound of the war so far. An attack will be the biggest self-inflicted political and kinetic wound of the war so far. USIS cannot win anything from this position, which is why issuing this timebound threat demand is pointless. It has effectively abandoned tactical and strategic ambiguity. It is now directly measurable against its own specific demand threats, which exist in a guaranteed escalatory pathway that scales across the entire Middle East region. USIS has just given a green light to Iran to destroy USIS and allied powerplants anywhere in its range, as soon as USIS hits any such target in Iran. Iran will only issue reactionary fire.</p><p>USIS has just declared intent, timing and targets. This means that the statement is <strong>also</strong> a diversionary move to shift focus onto that timeline and those targets, which has been a key tactic employed by USIS in all dealings with Iran since the JCPOA was cancelled by Trump in order to pave the way to initiating kinetic war on Iran, in line with the published USIS strategic plan, Path to Persia (2009).</p><p>Telling your enemy which targets are gong to be hit and when isn't a rational or credible combat tactic when you always had the ability and intent to strike those targets. It only performs psychological influence if the enemy is susceptible to capitulation. Iran is not susceptible because it is engaged in maximal, existential, calculated reactionarily escalating warfare that pursues an independent strategy that has done more damage to USIS (and GCC vassal states) since Vietnam.</p><p>Any powerplant target USIS hits gives Iran reactionary justification to hit any allied powerplants anywhere, under they logic of tactical defensive reciprocation.</p><h1>What does this threat demand change for Iran?</h1><p>Literally nothing.</p><p>All of its powerplants are potential targets in war time against murderers. Defence system allocations are already resourced and unlikely to be radically shifted about because the enemy has just publicly threatened targets.</p><p>All other potential military political targets remain at the same risk of strike and cover of defence. USIS strike methods remain the same unless new weapon systems and tactics are introduced, which&#8212;if possible&#8212;could happen at any time anyway (see Iran's constant increase in missile capabilities irrespective of what USIS has done).</p><p>All that USIS is threatening is this:</p><blockquote><p>If you don't do the thing we are incapable of making you do (open Hormuz), we will continue to attack you within the parameters of our in-theatre capabilities, most&#8212;perhaps all&#8212;of which are presently known and depleting.</p></blockquote><h1>Immediate expectations</h1><p>The demand threat will have no effect on ending the war on USIS terms or bringing Iran to the table because USIS doesn't have adequate leverage. It is not winning and its actions and statements are tactical or strategic lossmaking endeavours. Under these circumstances, it makes no sense for Iran to give up any advantage, strength or capabilities in any way. There is zero basis for trust of USIS and this is likely unrecoverable.</p><p>USIS is in a corner because of the demand threat. This is now a critical inflection point that will go badly. The Trumpian element of USIS cannot back down, admit failure, error or defeat because of a) cluster B personalities heavily featuring grandiose narcissism; b) clear disconnection from on-the-ground material realities via a corrupted information chain toxified by vested and Israeli-dominant interests, and illustrated by repeatedly irrational, ineffective decisions at the strategic and tactical level that starts with materially inadequate strategic planning and logistics provision for any kind of expeditionary and invasive war. Iran is not going to publicly give USIS an off-ramp. It will continue striking targets if USIS declares &#8220;victory&#8221; and withdraws. It will not enter talks. It will not soften its demands any time soon. These circumstances force USIS towards having to make good on its threats and strike Iranian powerplants. This is an escalatory trap of its own making. Backing down without a corroborating position from the other side is just failure.</p><p>USIS will enable Iran to legitimately destroy regional desalination and powerplants in reciprocation. This is tactically a powerful move for Iran but one that requires it absorb more damage from USIS. From my cursory research, only 1% of Iran's water supply comes from desalination. Regional nations including Israel are predominantly dependent upon desalination (80%+ in some cases), which requires substantial energy to operate. Simultaneously killing power and water creates multiple crippling failure chains in each nation that will net degrade their abilities to engage in reactive kinetic war themselves. The effects on the populace in terms of support for Iran versus their own governments remains to be seen under such extremes. Iran's messaging will remain simply truthful: &#8220;You attacked us first, we told you the consequences of your actions. Reap what ye sow.&#8221; This situation will pull through to further degradation of regional oil production and general economic contraction in the GCCs. I expect Iran to judiciously play this carte blanche. It should focus fire on Israeli targets to overload it first and further limit its net ability to project any force regionally by air, sea or land. Then, it should carefully weigh which GCC is the greatest threat and the greatest ROI. Iran is clearly employing moral calculus in line with its Islamic staffers and it is trying to ideologically win over both leadership and citizens on that basis. Doing too much damage too soon to infrastructure that will indiscriminately hurt massive numbers of citizens lowers its support and the potential fit citizen revolts against GCC elites, under the banner of Islamic unity (this is a key strategic and tactical feature in Iranian operations).</p><p>Mistakenly, the majority of GCCs will continue to make the wrong bet. Their ruling elite will increasingly publicly side with USIS because:</p><ol><li><p>Islam isn't what these elites truly observe or care about, as shown by the very nature of their values, lifestyles, structures and known transgressions;</p></li><li><p>They lack the genuine political skill required to successfully navigate a post USIS ME environment where negotiation with Iran and each other is essential to determine a coherent, stable future that includes regional security,  rebalancing and rebuilding of economies, and power redesign to contain dissident citizens.</p></li><li><p>USIS is the hopeful bet on the status quo of existing vassalage.</p></li></ol><p>This is the notionally easier but wrong option. It is self-serving to remain aligned to the model that delivers all wealth and power to the tiny few while the architecture of that power delivery system is being blown up by a regional neighbour, and when key religious icons are being destroyed by the USIS hegemon that is now on the back foot and exposed as weak, irrational, apocalyptic, and publicly diametrically opposed to the existence of Islam.</p><p>USIS exacerbates the above choice by executing multiple false flag attacks against GCCs using Shahed drone copies in order to frame Iran and trigger this partisan decision making in favour of USIS. However, the false flags are at total odds with Iran's consistent positions that precede this war (multiple proposals for regional co-operation with reducing USA influence) and run through it (clear declaration of targets, reasons, and direct denials of these strikes, which make no tactical sense for Iran).</p><p>It's only in Iran's interests to attack GCC assets when:</p><ol><li><p>They are USIS assets that enable the war;</p></li><li><p>That GCC is actively hostile or participatory against Iran;</p></li><li><p>There is a reciprocal basis to strike them, including keeping that GCC out of active warfare by generating internal overload.</p></li><li><p>The ability to escalate on the greatest ROI ratio serves Iran's interests. While it has ammo and firing capabilities, it will always be able to do this, until nuclear weapons are employed.</p></li></ol><p>Given the above, I expect USIS to escalate attacks to seem to make good on its threats (this may have begun ahead of deadline), using mostly standoff ammo and may generate more aerial shoot down opportunities for Iran. Iran will then immediately execute reciprocal infrastructure strikes at disproportionate scale to exploit military, political and regional economic aspects of the strike package, which will humiliate USIS and push it further into the corner, triggering more schizoid output from the White House that contains material lies about all actions, pushes blame onto Israel, and overplays damage done to Iran.</p><p>USA doesn't have a clear plan of near term operations, as proven by the lack of necessary, precedent logistics. It has now created a drip feed of force into theatre, most of which has visible lead times and limited endurance. Destruction of regional bases has materially, negatively affected the logistics chain: air power reach and endurance is curtailed (so air supremacy is likely impossible to establish for the time being if at all); naval forces have to rearm and reload further away e.g. Diego Garcia. Allies are not providing effective back up, or refusing to get involved, triggering more schizophrenic White House output (&#8220;weak&#8221;, &#8220;cowards&#8221;, &#8220;don't need them&#8221;, &#8220;Hormuz is their responsibility&#8221;). This is generating a positive feedback cycle of increasingly incoherent military operations, feeds (MEUs, 82nd Airborne) and gibberish Western media reconditioning (attacking Kharg Island). USIS's superficial propaganda layer is already in a spin. It's even abandoned the most simple, effective war strategy of simply saying nothing to both maintain maximum ambiguity and deniability, both of which limit communications errors.</p><p>After one wave of escalation, Trump will be further exposed by lying about what USIS achieved and what Iran did in response. After that, more Iranian oil infrastructure will be hit and Trump will justify it along the lines of &#8220;it's the only language they understand, it doesn't have to happen if they agree to stop, Israel did it but we agree this time because I gave Iran a chance, and they threw it in my face,&#8221; all of which will again contradict previous White House statements. Iran will be up to wave 80-something of Operation True Promise 4 by this time, directly contradicting White House claims that it's been totally destroyed.</p><p>All of the above escalates towards nuclear weapon use by Israel, which will not be telegraphed. I don't know what the chance is, but it's not zero; likely minimum 20% chance is my guess. Israel is a deeply troubled society run by dark tetrads. This is evident from its public actions, statements and its own press reporting. It is pathologically hypocritical: it now cites international law and war crimes against it, despite what it does in Gaza and what it said at U.N. meetings. This is the most open view of societal madness I've ever seen in my lifetime. This doesn't get sorted out easily, quickly, rationally, or peacefully. This is so deeply embedded in the fabric of global power that the existential violence is only going to increase as Israel and Zionism is put under more and more pressure and exposure. The degree of saturation of US society isn't going away. This doesn't end with an election cycle.</p><p>Israel is likely to have committed a false flag at the Al Aqsa Mosque site. I expect in less than a month, Israel will strike the Mosque properly, blame Iran, take the whole site, accelerate ethnic cleaning of Jerusalem and the West Bank, then declare full intent to build the Third Temple. It needs the this war to cover the destruction of the Mosque. It likely believes that GCC populations are adequately cowed and GCC governments adequately vassalised to not practically object given the events post October 7th. Sunni Islam is simply allowing Israel to desecrate the Islamic footprint in the West Bank unopposed. Israel may as well go for this eschatological win before it gets fully crushed by Iran. This is the overt trigger for regional war between Islamic nations and against Israel, but this chaos and and times apocalypse plays into and serves Zionist eschatology. That's a circular trap.</p><p>Iran's extremely careful, tolerant strategy of forebearance now gives it justification to effectively decimate Israel and wreck it, similar to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. What that will truly involve and exactly where and how it ends is unknown but fundamentally depends upon Iran's ammo stocks and firing capabilities. The war will not shrink or end soon. It will expand because both sides:</p><ol><li><p>Are tactically committed to expansion via a positive feedback cycle;</p></li><li><p>Benefit from expansion effects in multiple political, military and economic ways that can justify what they have to tolerate/endure, separate from the wider world;</p></li><li><p>Are separated by a rational mismatch. USIS isn't operating rationally for numerous reasons, including fundamental personality and skill failings at the administrative staff level;</p></li><li><p>Harbour regional scale plans that are furthered or set up by expansive violence, with precedents established (USIS regional strategy post 9/11).</p></li></ol><p>All of this is a Darwinian escalatory test. The truth of such a test is, in my opinion, now necessary or even essential for the progression of mankind. Personally, I seek truth. There is a lot of truth waiting to be revealed via this escalating war.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Brainwashing by slogans: MAGA defined!]]></title><description><![CDATA[By none other than the God King]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/brainwashing-by-slogans-maga-defined</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/brainwashing-by-slogans-maga-defined</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 23:47:21 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Let it not be said that God King Donald J. Trump does not heed the prayers of those heathens and non-believers outside the flock.</p><p>Less than two days after I posed the challenge of MAGA lacking any meaningful definition and the almighty God King intercede and answers, providing clarity, shedding light into the dark places of my ignorance and unbelievingness.</p><p>&#8220;MAGA&#8221; literally is God King Donald J. Trump.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-1" href="#footnote-1" target="_self">1</a></p><p>And, by the way, you are to believe that someone called Mark Levin is THE GREAT ONE. Mark may also be in direct control of God King Donald J. Trump's social media accounts.</p><p>MAGA is not a cult, even if God King Donald J. Trump tells you it is because he is MAGA. Just like he told you at the beginning and all the way through since 2015, MAGA &amp; He was always about:</p><ul><li><p>Castigating people who speak ill of Mark Levin;</p></li><li><p>Preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon it has never tried to acquire;</p></li><li><p>Preventing Iran from blowing up the USA, the Middle East and the rest of the world, which it has never tried to do.</p></li></ul><p>These specific definitional points have ALWAYS been what MAGA is. It's not just become that because the God King TruthSocial account (under the control of THE GREAT ONE, Mark Levin) just declared it today.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg" width="1134" height="1134" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1134,&quot;width&quot;:1134,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:264805,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/i/191197088?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zijF!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d1283b-3534-446f-82c2-0aa9e1561378_1134x1134.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-1" href="#footnote-anchor-1" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">1</a><div class="footnote-content"><p>Donald J. Trump<br>@realDonaldTrump</p><p>Mark Levin, a truly Great American Patriot, is somewhat under siege by other people with far less Intellect, Capability, and Love for our Country. Mark is Tough, Strong, and Brilliant, hence the nickname, &#8220;THE GREAT ONE,&#8221; conceived by our MAGA friend, the wonderful Sean Hannity, after years of dealing with Mark in Legal, Media, and other capacities. Mark would often do Sean&#8217;s show, speaking as a lawyer, and Sean realized then, as did others, that he was special. Mark Levin was not looking to do Television, Radio, or anything else, but he was drafted by very smart people who understood that there are few like him. He is a true Conservative, and Intellect, far smarter than those who criticize him but, above all, he is a man of Great Wisdom and Common Sense who truly loves our Country. When you hear others unfairly attack Mark, remember that they are jealous and angry Human Beings, whose &#8220;sway&#8221; is much less than the Public understands, and will, now that they know where I stand, rapidly diminish. Other than for his wonderful wife and family, Mark Levin only cares and wants one thing, GREATNESS AND SUCCESS FOR AMERICA! Those that speak ill of Mark will quickly fall by the wayside, as do the people whose ideas, policies, and footings are not sound. THEY ARE NOT MAGA, I AM, and MAGA includes not allowing Iran, a Sick, Demented, and Violent Terrorist Regime, to have a Nuclear Weapon to blow up the United States of America, the Middle East and, ultimately, the rest of the World. MAGA is about stopping them cold, and that is exactly what we are doing. GOD BLESS OUR GREAT MILITARY, WHICH I HAVE REBUILT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF MY FIRST TERM, TO ACHIEVE EVERLASTING PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP</p><p>4.91k ReTruths 18.5k Likes<br>Mar 15, 2026, 7:30 PM</p></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Opinions]]></title><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/opinions</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/opinions</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 10:08:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg" width="1229" height="1639" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!97BI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F68e7b38b-094c-4be5-8195-5ba206123bf9_1229x1639.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Brainwashing by slogans: MAGA]]></title><description><![CDATA[Zero meaning. Zero questions about its lack of meaning.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/brainwashing-by-slogans-maga</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/brainwashing-by-slogans-maga</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 14 Mar 2026 21:44:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/66fd5908-9601-40e3-b2cd-05eb67d3e0f9_832x1104.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Where is the slogan, &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221;, defined in terms of:</p><ul><li><p>Meaning</p></li><li><p>Scope</p></li><li><p>Duration/temporality</p></li><li><p>End point/metrics by which Greatness can be judged to have been (re)achieved?</p></li></ul><p>Like &#8220;feminism&#8221;, asking people what MAGA means will result in meaninglessly individual and inconsistent answers. Unlike &#8220;feminism&#8221; MAGA doesn't have moderately consistent definitions in text sources e.g. English dictionaries (which makes people's inability to define &#8216;feminism&#8217; a bigger personal failing).</p><p>If Trumpian election campaign material was built around MAGA, then surely both manifestos should contain or represent definitions of MAGA.</p><p>Of course, they don&#8217;t define it.</p><p>In fact, Agenda 47 has been entirely abandoned as it was guaranteed to be. Therefore no Greatness can be found in it or come from it now that it is defunct and nothing in it is being pursued or is achievable.</p><p>The above is self-evident from the moment the nothing slogan was uttered without question, then peddled blindly by people across the IQ spectrum.</p><p>What's the difference between:</p><ul><li><p>Make America Great Again</p></li><li><p>Two weeks to flatten the curve</p></li><li><p>Trust the science</p></li><li><p>Trust the plan</p></li><li><p>Yes we can</p></li><li><p>Hope for change</p></li></ul><p>There is no difference. They all mean nothing, have no definitional stability or source, do not relate to reality and are deliberately reliant on the individual to project personalised meaning into the statements to give them meaning at the individual level, that may be entirely at odds with any other individual&#8217;s projected meaning.</p><p>Therefore, repetition of &#8220;MAGA&#8221; is simply an admission of brainwashing and failure to critically identify then assess the use of a meaningless slogan to induce conformance to wider behavioural propaganda and programming via a hollow slogan.</p><p>I don't care who you are, what you &#8220;stand for&#8221; or believe or do. If you have gone along with &#8220;MAGA&#8221;, you have been brainwashed and propagandised. You cannot in any way prove that America has been returned to Greatness or not by any given point in time, most notably by the end of Trump's second term.</p><p>MAGA is vapourware laced with the lowest quality, lowest dose fentanyl for the purposes of zombifying crowds in the same way crowds are always zombified.</p><p>People who claim to &#8220;be awake&#8221; because of [insert mask-off event here] who say &#8220;MAGA&#8221; are deeply self-delusional.</p><p>This applies across the board to literally anyone, anywhere, who repeated this slogan that none of them can define or find a meaningful, uniform definition of.</p><p>The only way MAGA could've meant anything was if it had been a SMART objective. That no one seems to demand such things from their political leadership is a massive indictment of the masses. Manifestos are toilet paper. Humans propagandise each other and themselves through slogans of nothing. This is utterly laughable.</p><p>The solution?</p><p>Find the next talking head who says something in the moment that you like and that matches the zeitgeist, who repeats slogans and pushes concepts once they become safe and easy to, after all the hard work has been done by others. These talking heads will set boundaries, limit targets and court &#8220;conflict&#8221; and controversy that isn't real. They are Overton Window gatekeepers.</p><p>You will know these talking heads are the &#8220;right ones&#8221; because they will be allowed coverage, and not subjected to the maximum force of control via de-banking, cancel culture, platform deletion/exclusion, lawfare and literal arrest by the state.</p><p>Once you've found those heads, wait for them to deliver you the new slogan, then you know it's safe to bark it in between your demands for them to become the next President.</p><p>Somehow, some way, they're different, it's different this time around, and they know what's really going on and they are really trustworthy and immune from the effects of true power. In no way can Your Next Saviour Hero be a liar, a grifter, a shill, a Manchurian candidate, inept, clueless or otherwise incapable of delivering anything they claim. And they certainly cannot be simply controlled by money, power or elements of their own background, by those with power, knowledge and control over resources.</p><p>MAGA's utility has ended. &#8220;America First&#8221; is the interim slogan that means just as little. After midterms, talking heads will begin programming you with a fresh selection of slogans, none of which will be defined or attached to SMART objectives. They will solidify into election campaign banners.</p><p>And you will pick one you like, you will repeat it and you will tribalise via it, just like every other time. You will not know what they mean, you will not declare that lack of meaning, you will not demand meaning or definition. You will not analyse a manifesto and you will not question its immediate contradictions, impossibilities or immediate abandonment post election.</p><p>The barrel doesn't have a bottom. The race down can always plumb new depths.</p><p>Anyone, anywhere, who claimed Trump was a peace candidate because he said he was, is politically inept. They simply cannot determine that political candidates and politicians are inveterate liars with zero accountability to meaningless claims, slogans and manifestos.</p><p>In 2027 a raft of such people who once repeated MAGA and &#8220;vote Trump coz peace&#8221; will be served to you on a tray. The smell of rotting shit will envelop you and, between gags, you will do what you have done each time before. Afterwards, what happened before will happen again.</p><p>Thus, you prove your own insanity, sat in a theatre with no roof that reeks of rotting shit, watching an ever-cheapening pantomime. And you'll have paid for the tickets. And you'll have brought your whole family. You will all cheer. By the end of the show, you will know one thing: who or what the next &#8220;enemy&#8221; is, against whom or what the next &#8220;war&#8221; will be waged. You will adopt a sense of tribal identity around the slogan and the enemy. You will believe this connects you meaningfully into a large, righteous tribe who know and deal in truth. In reality, the opposite will be true. You will have no genuine relationship to anyone uttering the slogan or screaming &#8220;hate!&#8221; at the new enemy. At no time will you simply invert the slogans, messages and targets and ask, &#8220;is this the real instruction?&#8221;</p><p>Vapourware. Fentanyl. Rotting shit.</p><p>They are the ingredients for political brainwashing and propaganda.</p><p>Underneath everything, you will eventually discover that everything you thought you rejected last time was simply rebranded into the thing you now support. Whatever you thought got destroyed in a small but meaningful win for the little guy was simply a crumb thrown from the table, a limited hangout, a miniscule fall guy, a containment exercise.</p><p>At that point, you'll then be served the next talking head and new slogan.</p><p>You will beg for a new saviour because you are poorer and have fewer choices, freedoms and rights. You will immediately latch on to the sloganeer who serves you the slogan that emotionally lands and allows you to project your own meaning and pain into it.</p><p>Is there no bottom to the barrel, or are you just swimming in circles?</p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Murder-Based Order: USIS-Iran War Week 1]]></title><description><![CDATA[Observations, backtests, predictions]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/murder-based-order-usis-iran-war</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/murder-based-order-usis-iran-war</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 06:00:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/33329a59-8595-46c0-a62f-9e203cc272b0_713x500.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>USIS War Justification</h1><p>Causal reasoning is irreversibly unstable and contradictory, but features a full admission of what VST has always posited as ground floor reality: International Humanitarian Law represents zero constraint to USIS in any action. USIS has formally, publicly declared this again:</p><blockquote><p>Our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be. Thus far, Operation Epic Fury has delivered twice the air power of shock and awe of Iraq in 2003, minus Paul Bremer and the Nation Building.</p><p>In fact, yesterday in the Indian Ocean, and we'll play it on the screen there, an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo, quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.</p><p><a href="https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4421037/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-and-chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-gen-dan/">Pete Hegseth, 04/03/26</a></p></blockquote><p>These two paragraphs abandon IHL and admit to war crimes on the open seas, as defined in IHL. Whatever USIS RoE are remain publicly undefined so cannot be determined to align with IHL. The USIS attack against the unarmed and non-offensive Iranian frigate, IRIS Dena, was an illegal attack and an abandonment of responsibilities following the attack.</p><p>Furthermore, that attack in particular highlights the USIS schizophrenia. If it is not at war, it cannot attack that frigate. If it is at war, it technically remains legally bound by IHL for to its ongoing legal commitments to the U.N. Charter etc.</p><p>What, in fact, USIS has attempted to do is bilaterally act outside of U.N. Charter etc, while after-the-fact attempting to emulate Russia's &#8220;Special Military Operation&#8221; categorisation. In both cases, legal semantics are employed in order to bypass IHL and domestic laws, in various ways. However, USIS&#8217;s glaring ineptitude and self-contradiction upfront has undermined itself in an extremely amateur way.</p><p>Regardless, the USIS &#8220;justification&#8221; is irrelevant because IHL does not exist. It will not be held accountable under IHL, only in combat.</p><h2>Tell tale signs of low internal competence</h2><ol><li><p>Inconsistency of message/objective</p></li><li><p>Internal contradictions between parties</p></li><li><p>Vague use of language/terms</p></li><li><p>Reactive actions/statements</p></li><li><p>Propensity for angry/violent outburst</p></li><li><p>Vindictive action towards questioners/opposition</p></li><li><p>Abandonment of established norms</p></li></ol><p>PREDICTION: No member of the USIS administration or militaries will ever be held to account for any actions taken in this war, other than by death or injury on the battlefield. There is literally no mechanism by which to do so, regardless of what anyone says, wants, or calls for.</p><p>Resignation is not punishment, it is escape to freedom. Psychopaths have no shame.</p><p>Impeachment is a process that requires a 2/3 majority vote at the last stage, making it unlikely to be achievable if Trump is achieved and the process up to that point just a show without real consequence. This isn't punishment for genocide, illegal acts of war and other war crimes.</p><h1>USA Congressional &amp; Senatorial Statements</h1><p>Any statements given by any USA politician regarding lack of imminent threat, inadequate justification, failure to follow USA constitutional or legal processes etc are totally disingenuous, fake, performative, theatrical statements. There was no imminent threat, no justification for war, no legal argument, sure. But saying that publicly then failing to maximally act against an administration acting illegally is co-participation in the resulting acts.</p><p>No one attempted to build pre-emptive opposition ahead of an impending use of military force that was telegraphed by asset positioning, USIS statements and threats issued publicly and repetitively to Iran by the administration. After war was initiated, the Senate rejected a War Powers Resolution to require congressional approval for further US military action against Iran by 48-52 . This lets operations continue without new authorization. This is a fundamental indicator of the agenda in play. &#8220;Right/wrong&#8221;, &#8220;legal/illegal&#8221; as those labels apply only to executive power versus constitutional law (irrespective of what the action actually is), are not valued by the majority. When it comes to the highest form of crime - illegal war - those voting No are actively coparticipant endorsers of such actions and are completely immune from any form of meaningful consequences. Further, I continue to argue that this is performative politics anyway. Likely, many in the Yes camp vote Yes to give the illusion of legal process knowing the outcome will always favour No. The Senate has  now admitted it is on-board with constitutional abandonment and the total perversion, corruption and undermining of US domestic law. This is a declaration of a long known reality. This is irreversible by any means. No future administration will reverse away from this position because there's no need to and because this is the actual way in which military force has been continuously used since Vietnam.</p><h1>Presidential Impeachment</h1><p>The notion/assumption that Trump will be impeached at some point must be qualified:</p><ol><li><p>Why - for what political purpose</p></li><li><p>For what specific actions</p></li><li><p>What impeachable actions will be suppressed/excluded</p></li><li><p>By whom</p></li><li><p>When</p></li></ol><p>Impeachment is entirely politically theatrical, and will have nothing to do with stopping the specific, actual criminality.</p><p>The moment Trump's second term began the administration became a coparticipant in genocide&#8212;an impeachable offence. No one ever tried to impeach him for this because:</p><p>I. Across the Uniparty board, Palestinian genocide is a strategic USIS objective and almost every politician is on-board with this in real terms;</p><p>II. To impeach Trump for genocide is to then have to admit that Biden was guilty of the same crime, which is an admission of the Uniparty strategic objective of genocide in pursuit of the USIS Greater Israel and Middle Eastern Israeli-centric USIS hegemony, of which the post 9/11 illegal wars were all a part.</p><p>Impeachment is initiated in the House by introducing articles of impeachment. This can occur through several mechanisms:</p><ul><li><p>Resolution introduced by a House member</p></li><li><p>A Representative submits a resolution containing articles of impeachment.</p></li><li><p>Referral to the House Judiciary Committee</p></li><li><p>The resolution is typically referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which investigates and drafts articles.</p></li></ul><p>No Member of Congress will introduce a resolution based on the Palestinian genocide, including Rep. Thomas Massie who nominally objects to actions in Palestine, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who explicitly said:</p><blockquote><p>The horrors unfolding in northern Gaza are the result of a completely unrestrained Netanyahu gov, fully armed by the Biden admin while food aid is blocked and patients are bombed in hospitals.</p><p>This is a genocide of Palestinians. The US must stop enabling it. Arms embargo now.</p><p><a href="https://x.com/i/status/1845915520098267299">AOCIA 14/10/24</a></p></blockquote><p>This means that their objection is meaningless and therefore performative. They should initiate the impeachment process for genocide, and pursue it as far as possible, even though it will fail in subsequent stages.</p><p>The above means that the notion that some of Congress are truly opposed to Trump entirely is untrue, otherwise they would attempt impeachment for genocide and try to label him a  genocidaire. At least, avoiding the cross contamination to the Biden era is more important than taking down Trump, which means there's no real opposition to Trump.</p><p>After genocide, any act that is illegal/unconstitutional and confined to this administration should be fair game. Examples may include the illegal imposition of tariffs that the Supreme Court has recently ruled on, and now the initiation of the illegal war on Iran.</p><p>HYPOTHESIS &amp; PREDICTION: Factional Uniparty politics are in play. War on Iran is a USIS strategic, Uniparty objective. Trump is the bagman for the success or failure of that objective and will be unimpeded in its pursuit. The midterms will partially reflect sentiment towards the actions and then status of the war come November 2026. Democrats will performatively campaign citing tariffs and Iran, while not impeaching him for either. After the midterms, Democrats may try to impeach him for whatever reasons in order to performatively claim the &#8220;high ground&#8221; in advance of 2028</p><p></p><p> elections, while making him the nominal bagman for the Iran War's costs. This approach maximally exploits his political public utility (attacking Iran) and permits the theatre of a two party system that doesn't really exist (&#8220;we impeached him because we oppose illegal war, just don't ask us how long it took or why we abandoned the Senate challenge on the War Powers Act etc&#8221;). The reason why Trump might be eventually impeached will not be because he did something wrong and the man must be punished in order to structurally fix the position of President on a permanent basis. It will occur only as a theatrical damage containment exercise that pins short term blame onto Trump for theatrical reasons. Nothing structural will be fixed or changed with regards to the wielding of administrative power. Pursuit of USIS strategic objectives will not be materially impeded by any actions against the administration.</p><h1>Oil, Water, Fertilizer, Food, Transport, General Inflation</h1><p>With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed to most traffic, a set of corollaries must follow. Oil should exceed $150/bl within two more weeks, possibly exceeding $200/bl at an unknown rate if further oil production facilities are damaged (at time of writing, USIS struck three Iranian oil production/storage facilities, with responses and escalation pending).</p><p>USIS has also bombed an Iranian water desalination plant serving 30 urban centres, response/escalation pending. This means scope for regional desalination capacity to be degraded exists if:</p><ul><li><p>Iran reciprocates against Israeli desalination facilities (against IHL);</p></li><li><p>Iran determines to attack other countries&#8217; desalination facilities (against IHL);</p></li><li><p>USIS attacks more Iranian desalination facilities and/or that of other countries (on covert or false flag grounds to frame Iran and trigger reciprocity).</p></li></ul><p>Oil isn&#8217;t the primary fulcrum. Water desalination is. 4 days without water results in death. This situation escalates reciprocally and rapidly. Iran faces toughening choices about targeting: mirror USIS tactics on water attacks or stick to IHL. Because USIS doesn&#8217;t follow IHL it has a psychopathic combat advantage unless and until Iran meets it on its level.</p><p>PREDICTION: USIS will strike all Iranian desalination facilities within a month of the war's start. This will see no significant political and media attention in USIS, and the United Nations will practically ignore it. If Iran reciprocates against any facilities, USIS and the U.N. will highlight those strikes on a biased, partisan basis against Iran.</p><p>Fertilizer production depends on oil and energy as feedstock so, on a lagging basis rising oil prices and the prevention of fertilizer shipping from the Middle East through the Strait of Hormuz impacts food supply and prices in all time frames.</p><p>The rising oil price and shut down of critical transport nodes ( e.g. Dubai) raise the cost of all transport. The first squeeze will apply to air transport and freight. That industry will initiate  similar strategies seen in Covid to crush their internal personnel costs using fear techniques and exploitative policies that unions will also enable, as per Covid.</p><p>All of the above will drive massive general inflation that will sustain because of mixed temporal pull through i.e. deep, complex lagging effects, and because there will be mass exploitation of price gouging behaviours. Prices will rise over the real underlying inflation simply because they can, as has already been seen post Covid. Corporate margins will grow, instead of remaining stable or shrink. Shrinkflation in all forms will reach ludicrous proportions.</p><h1>USIS is a single, degenerate entity. Enshittification is endemic</h1><p>It is now obvious that the USA and Israel operate as a single entity to all practical extents. Arguing whether the tail wags the dog is to miss the obvious truth:</p><p><em>You&#8217;re looking at a dog, and talking about a dog; the dog has a tail.</em></p><p>Try focusing on what the entire dog is doing. It has a mouth &amp; teeth, bites, and is dangerous. All of that&#8217;s more critical than whether the control is in the brain or somewhere else. No one has an effective means to contain the dog, let alone perform tail removal surgery. In the case of the USIS dog, removing its tail would require removing parts of every other structure and tissue type because the two nations are fully integrated at every level.</p><p>Observing the USIS public presentation of anything governmental should reveal the following:</p><ul><li><p>There's no difference between the narrative style, cadence, construction or execution of communications and policies of USA or Israel.</p></li><li><p>The techniques either country applies externally to their enemies (and friends) are applied internally against society at all levels. What was once exported as foreign policy and technique has come home to roost.</p></li><li><p>The intellectual level of everything has collapsed. You are looking at massive intellectual degeneracy across the information sphere. This is what politics as reality TV on fentanyl, pitched at retards, funded by massive budgets&#8212;of which only 5% goes on the actual content&#8212;looks like. This is also manifest in the total, constant lying of governments within themselves and publicly. This is patently obvious in real time across Five Eyes, EU and NATO blocs and has been for decades, but it is at peak now and will simply increase.</p></li></ul><h1>Iranian Air Defence: basic metrics</h1><p>Air Defence exists to defend critical targets. If those targets are critically hit, AD either:</p><ol><li><p>Didn&#8217;t exist there;</p></li><li><p>Was defeated.</p></li></ol><p>Both of these outcomes feed intel back into the attacker&#8217;s understanding of the defender&#8217;s AD network's weak points and critical paths, informing subsequent attacks. Standoff weapons e.g. Tomahawks and attack aircraft fly complex paths based on the attacker's knowledge of the defender's AD network.</p><p>Alastair Crooke's claims that Iran's AD and defensive capabilities are bolstered by Chinese and/or Russian systems may be inaccurate. The hits on Iran's oil facilities could indicate this. The limitations of ammo and system capability apply to all sides, but unlike the visuals of active AD in Israel and GCCs, Iranian footage doesn't depict active AD, only strikes, but this isn't enough to form hard conclusions about Iran&#8217;s overall AD capabilities..</p><p>The damage to the oil facilities could each represent single strikes that got through an air defence shield, or a lack of air defence.</p><h1>Standoff vs Air Supremacy</h1><p>Hegseth claimed air supremacy would be achieved within a week. This hasn't been proven to have happened. Strikes appear to concentrate across the west of Iran and in Tehran, consistent with standoff weapons and possibly B2 strikes.  USIS hasn't shown independent proof of air supremacy. Iran claims to have downed circa 82 large attack and surveillance drones and other, smaller air threats.</p><p>Iran's true AD capabilities and performance remains unclear. It absorbs attacks for now while claiming to be downing air threats within range. USIS has been showing strike footage that actually includes depictions of striking decoys and false targets.</p><p>If Iran is judicious in its reveal and use of AD, waits for targets to optimally close and absorbs strikes adequately, then USIS may not be able to effectively prosecute SEAD/DEAD strikes to fully degrade AD.</p><p>USIS Air Supremacy is only provable with fatal risk to air forces by them entering to deliver non-standoff strikes. Iran could be holding back AD for that scenario, but risks tolerating strikes in the interim.</p><p>However, it may not have the AD network and effectiveness Crooke has suggested. Only ongoing combat and USIS range closure will prove this one way or the other.</p><h1>Impending truth &amp; reality test: Carriers</h1><p>Iran has officially claimed to have hit a carrier with drones, but no visual proof is available and no USIS confirmation has been given.</p><p>Within 24 hours, USS Gerald Ford's naval formation will be in close range of Yemen/Houthi weapons. A consequential test of truth &amp; reality will ensue. Whatever the results, they will be profound.</p><p>Yemen has no other targets at present and has declared full engagement in support of Iran. If that's true, two things should happen:</p><ol><li><p>Ford should take defensive measures once in range, including appropriate airborne operations, which will impact its subsequent operations against Iran if it significantly expands fuel and ammunition.</p></li><li><p>Yemen must maximally engage the fleet. It has demonstrated adequate capability to strike moving ships and threaten aircraft. If it is genuinely engaged in war, it should be seeking to kill ships and force the fleet to deplete any and all resources while it is in its range. The techniques required to do this effectively with a combination of drones and missiles isn't complicated. Combinations of saturation (swarming) and multi directional attack to overload and split defensive fire, and trigger heavy expenditure of  missile and air defence magazines are within Yemen's capabilities.</p></li></ol><p>The fleet must move through the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandab Strait,  and the Gulf of Aden. That is inside the range of Shahed and Geran drones, and every anti-ship missile in the known Yemeni arsenal. Yemen has the ability to launch anti ship attacks at ranges up to 900 and possibly 2000 km. The Ford is vulnerable to attack in the Red Sea (now) until well past Yemen. Failure to attack the fleet is an indicator that the Yemen narrative is false.</p><h1>US Hormuz Insurance Test</h1><p>Any insured ship is guaranteed to be attacked &amp; hit with any missile/drone by Iran, as already demonstrated at least three times. The same goes for escort ships. Cheap drone swarms (Shahed, Geran) can flood and strike both, while other drones attack in mixed volumes from other directions, and anti ship missiles attack at different speeds and on differing profiles.</p><p>Insurance is guaranteed to be claimed, unless &#8220;transit under fire&#8221; is excluded. 100% claim probability isn&#8217;t workable. Insurance that's guaranteed to pay out is unsustainable. It is also useless if the real objective is for ships to get through the Strait adequately intact: being insured neither increases those chances nor reduces damage. Further, suicidal crews are required to perform the journey. Insurance doesn't mitigate that. Escorts face the same risk. If USS Abraham Lincoln provides escort elements and isn't maximally attacked, which should certainly result in critical strikes, there's something wrong with that narrative.</p><p>The US claim to provide insurance will be revealed to be a scam: non-existent and utterly meaningless.</p><h1>Russia: strategic win via gas supply</h1><p>The EU said it would cut all Russian energy purchases by 2027, helped blow up Nord Stream, and openly labels Russia an active enemy. Hungary and other countries are dependent on Russian energy pipelines.</p><p>Since the USIS-Iran War, the EU is now in a self-induced energy suicide pact. Now, Russia has formally brought forward the EU's cut off of Russian energy supplies. It is finding new customers in the east and will cut gas supplies to the EU. This is a major strategic win for Russia against the entirety of the EU and NATO, without any form of combat or kinetic risk.</p><p>The UK and EU are the biggest group of dumb, suicidal people on Earth. They cut themselves off from almost all their energy, on purpose, by free choice. 600m people vs ~2000 politicians. All of them in a suicide pact. These humans are collectively stupid. See Covid. This is Darwinism and Dunning Kruger in practise.</p><p>PREDICTION: What should be happening by now is the mass uprising of these populations against their governments because the energy supply issue is entirely falsely constructed and is the root cause of all other symptomatic problems facing citizens outside of financial and political system issues and corruption. However, no such uprisings that have any effect will occur because the total control system governing these citizens is far more effective than any one of them understands or admits, even though much of it is opposable with numbers, non-compliance, open contests, and sustained but focused violence, all of which these populations are fully capable of because of the sheer scale of numbers and the uniformity of the root problems. These populations are literally suicidal and will not act in their interests.</p><h1>Backtest</h1><p>Here is the list of the predictive claims from VST's last article.</p><p>1. The strait of Hormuz should close soon.</p><p>Iran made good on its claims to i. effectively close the Strait, though it now states only USIS traffic will be actively denied and traffic is &#8220;naturally&#8221; stopped; ii. attack USIS maximally, under existential threat.</p><p>2. USIS has initiated the war on false pretexts and asserts that the war will conclude in days.</p><p>This is multiply correct, proven by sequence of actions and USIS unstable and incredible statements of &#8220;reasoning&#8221; and justifications. This is laughable. Isis and its vassals demonstrate their intellectual, moral and ethical degeneracy and their citizens tolerate it and variously lap it up. Meanwhile, the war of intensifying, proving again that Trump is a pathological liar.</p><p>3. The same propaganda/information warfare profile observed in the Ukraine conflict will be followed in this war (noting that it has already begun).</p><p>This is, IMO, correct. Compare the style and content of White House output with that of the Israelis post October 7 and its the same: declarative, false, polarised, intentional, psychopathic and imbecilic. This output is an indictment of the audiences across the USIS hegemony. Then compare it to Western reporting of Ukraine from Feb 2022. It's broadly the same: fabulist propaganda that dissolves after weeks or days.</p><p>4. Within two weeks to a month, Iran&#8217;s capabilities, willingness, and competence will become clear; if the pattern of the &#8220;12 Day War&#8221; holds, USIS may deploy a nuclear weapon.</p><p>Initial Iranian capabilities are impressive. Half of USIS global THAAD batteries are destroyed. The radars between Iran and Israel are gone. All USIS bases immediately west of Iran have been struck to some extent. USIS reporting blackout/censorship is indicative of heavier than admitted losses. Limited footage from Israel depicts penetration of AD and strikes landing. Iranian citizens appear to still be massing outside while USIS strikes occur, suggesting strike volume and dispersion doesn't preclude these gatherings. Iranian AD capabilities are unclear. Iran is sustaining increased damage and USIS is striking civilian targets and infrastructure, as well as some decoys and indeterminate amounts of legitimate military targets.</p><p>I maintain that a tactical nuclear strike is possible, but will explain in another article.</p><p>5. Russia, China, and Pakistan are expected to issue formal warnings to all nations against nuclear weapon use to preserve balance of power during the conflict.</p><p>This hasn't happened yet.</p><p>6. The next month will reveal significant truths to the world about the nature of power and humanity.</p><p>Some truths and deep ironies are already apparent, others remain to be seen and tested. I'll save this for next time.</p><p></p><p>  </p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Murder-Based Order: Iran vs. Zionism]]></title><description><![CDATA[Iran has been existentially threatened multiple times and has been illegally attacked again by the most violent nations on the planet, driven by Judaic and Christian Zionist ideology.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/murder-based-order-iran-vs-zionism</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/murder-based-order-iran-vs-zionism</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2026 12:07:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/dada535f-a654-451e-8984-58494e2c83d0_986x725.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Iran has been existentially threatened multiple times and has been illegally attacked again by the most violent nations on the planet, driven by Judaic and Christian Zionist ideology.</p><p>In the run up to the 12 Day War, Iran was actively misled into engaging with negotiations that were later admitted to be false, in order to distract it from impending attack. Multiple members of its military and governance structure were attacked and murdered by USIS, all outside of any declared states of war.</p><p>This Zionist plan has been repeated.</p><p>The question is, has Iran finally learned the necessary lessons about being targeted by dark tetrad, mass murderers?</p><p>After the 12 Day War, USIS claimed to have &#8220;obliterated&#8221; Iran&#8217;s nuclear programme. Now, it has reversed this claim and states that Iran is still a nuclear threat. This renders its previous claim to have obliterated Iran&#8217;s nuclear capabilities as lies, and directly contradicts the USA&#8217;s own official threat assessments. Additionally, invasion pressure includes Israeli claims that Iran&#8217;s non nuclear arsenal constitutes adequate reason to invade it. All of this is both unstable and self-contradictory, rendering it even more likely to be lies. In no way does it comport with reality as reported by US intelligence or with any international legal structures.</p><p>VST flagged that Iran&#8217;s relationship with allies&#8212;most obviously Russia and China&#8212;would be key to dealing with the next impending attack, which I believed was guaranteed as a matter of USIS policy. Since the 12 Day War, Iran&#8217;s lack of mutual defence treaties with Russia has been explicitly reported, with Russia stating that it was Iran that set those limits.</p><p>As of this week, former British Diplomat and MI6 Officer, Alastair Crooke, claims that military intelligence and technical support from both China and Russia has increased to the point that Iran now operates Chinese long range radars capable of detecting US stealth aircraft at ranges of 700 km, and integrated battlefield Command &amp; Control systems based off China&#8217;s Beidou network. Iran may be in possession of greater numbers of air defence batteries from Russia, with possible immediate air power supplementation by Russia, according to Stanislav Krapivnik. Any air power additions on modern types will be flown by the supplying allied nations, most likely. On the other hand, USIS has initiated external economic damage via currency manipulation and claims to have exacerbated the resulting internal dissent. Scott Ritter presently believes that USIS capabilities and pre-planning are underestimated, which will lead to major damage being inflicted upon Iran if it waited to be attacked in USIS terms, with unpredictable outcomes that could lead to Iranian combat underperformance and collapse of the Iranian government via internal subversion and corruption.</p><p>Given the collapse of Syria as a result of years of induced civil war against USIS terrorist proxies, Western financial destruction, and seemingly inadequate force-based counters available to the Assad government, it&#8217;s easy to entertain the notion that USIS believes that Iran is as weak now as it&#8217;s ever been, despite whatever conventional weapons arsenal it holds. The level of USIS &amp; vassal force assembling was not to back negotiations. As was the prevailing opinion across serious alt media commentators and analysts, war with Iran is a Zionist objective that is nothing to do with false claims of nuclear weapons.</p><h1>Ritter: Article 51 pre-emptive self defence and strategic initiative</h1><p>USIS has effectively declared its repetitive intention to illegally attack Iran, without evidence basis, and no regard for international legal processes.</p><p>In conversation with Consortium News, Scott Ritter makes a point I agree with: Iran could have made a legal case for Article 51 pre-emptive self defence and could have considered initiating attacks in order to deprive USIS of the initiative. Allowing USIS to commence a war on its terms gives it the advantage and puts Iran on the reactionary defensive, once all USIS assets are in place. That time has passed , so Ritter&#8217;s theory about USIS having an initial advantage is being tested.</p><p>Iran has waited to be attacked while nominally fully engaging with diplomacy and negotiations. It holds the high ground, which appears to be strategically deliberate.</p><h1>Existential threat and maximalism</h1><p>Iran made repetitive, clear statements that any strike against it would be considered an existential attack and trigger maximalist responses against regional and US targets. Already, it has immediately responded to USIS strikes by hitting US bases in Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and locations in Israel. Reports claim Hezbollah and Ansar Allah are activating in accordance with Iran&#8217;s previous statements. The strait of Hormuz should close soon.</p><p>Meanwhile, USIS has started the war on utterly false claims and stated that the war will be over in days. Pahlavi was activated a few hours before the strikes, calling for internal revolution.</p><p>What should be noted here is the similarity to the USEUNATO-UKRO vs Russian comms and war strategy. Russia&#8217;s information strategy throughout the SMO has been based around consistent and largely provably true statements combined with steady operational focus. USEUNATO has employed constantly insane and pitifully thin propaganda, second only to the madness and inversion pumped out by Ukraine. I anticipate the exact same profile will be followed (it&#8217;s already started) in this war.</p><p>Iran must operate at maximal capability in order to reverse shock-and-awe USIS. It must annihilate air bases, carriers and command nodes. Initial target reports point towards that focus. I would also argue that any known Israeli nuclear installations should be destroyed in order to minimise the possibility of Israel using such weapons while under increasing, wider attacks. International humanitarian law forbids attacks on nuclear facilities. I believe there is no place for international law in this conflict because USIS in no way abides by it, so for Iran to follow it simply hampers its ability to defend itself. Furthermore, P5 vetoes protect Iran from UNSC motions against it.</p><p>There will never be a better time, chance or reason to destroy some of Israel&#8217;s illegal nuclear arsenal. Carefully placed strikes on Dimona itself will overstress Israeli infrastructure and containment abilities without necessarily causing a reactor breach, similar to the escalation recently employed by Russia in Ukraine. Successful strikes on US aircraft carriers will add nuclear reactor containment threats into the mix on top of impacts to US air power. These are simple realities of this war that will have massive ramifications not just for the Middle East but also for the Mediterranean, given that the USS Gerald Ford is parked off Haifa. The toxicity of sunken US ships and ammo will be phenomenal and will potentially ruin the waters around each fleet, impacting Israel, Palestine, the Greater Israel and Gaza Theft plans. These are massive cost magnifiers that Israel at least cannot physically or financially afford.</p><p>There are immediate reports of interference with Iranian media communications networks; Iran must be willing to wage its own version of Full Spectrum warfare via direct and indirect cost imposition in all forms.</p><h1>Escalation ladder</h1><p>The obvious escalation runs quickly up to tactical nuclear weapons use by USIS. I personally believe this is both possible and likely, provided that Iran&#8217;s capabilities, willingness to fight, and competence are as it claims. Within two weeks to a month, much of that will become clear and if the 12 Day War was anything to go by, USIS may deploy a nuke.</p><p>That is why I believe Iran must destroy all known Israeli nuclear targets. Furthermore, in doing so, the Israeli response will confirm the existence of its illegal nuclear arsenal, creating immediate and downstream complications for USIS and the region. Of course, attacking nuclear weapons sites runs the risk of some dirty bomb type fallout if the sites contain fissile warheads, and possibly runs the risk of a nuclear detonation if the weapons are in appropriate state. If Iran is really under existential threat by two nuclear-armed nations, it will face a nuclear strike if its conventional defence is adequate but doesn&#8217;t cripple Israel&#8217;s nuclear strike capability. If its defence is inadequate, it&#8217;s lost anyway. No doubt, my attitude sounds simplistic and would be torn to pieces by many. So be it. USIS are dark tetrad, criminal mass murderers. Their current conventional strike capabilities suggest limited ability to sustain an air campaign, little ability to run a significant ground war, and dependency upon Iranian government subversion or collapse in concert with kinetic strikes. If Iran is effective in defending, rapidly escalates USIS costs, and can orchestrate an effective multi-front war via Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, this could rapidly trigger Israeli nuclear escalation. I expect Russia, China and Pakistan to formally warn all nations against the use of nuclear weapons, in order to maintain a BOP during the conflict.</p><h1>World War 3 grinds on</h1><p>VST said previously that WW3 started in 2014. Everything driving the Ukraine war and now this phase of Middle East war was longstanding, published and publicly stated USIS strategy.</p><p>Events today vindicate much of what VST has published about power, and current conflict.</p><p>What is absent from all mainstream propaganda and much of the better alt media output are the underlying geostrategic drivers. In short, this includes the competition between economic, physical and informational networks between BRICS nations and BRI partners, and the US hegemonic equivalent.</p><p>All of this violence is inevitable in the late stage of US Empire and the transition of global power away from it towards China-led eastern power ascendancy. Sociopaths and psychopaths run the Western empire and their extraction grift continues to become more and more visible and egregious.</p><p>Everything of major significance happening in the US hegemony is a form of violence waged against its own people and various competitor nations. This is a measure by which the degree of insanity of Murder-Based Order can be judged. It is a literally suicidal, cannibalistic, and self-destructive approach to the wielding of power. Western citizens are incapable of changing this. Their fecklessness, docility, ineptitude, and susceptibility to control mechanisms ensures that the only countervailing force that will move the needle will come from competitor/opposition/&#8220;enemy&#8221; nations.</p><p>The next month will tell people around the world a lot about the nature of power and humanity, but most in the West will not receive the true lessons because they will suck up junk propaganda from Zionist information networks that continue to expand and consolidate, which is another tell and measure of desperation in itself.</p><p>There is a deep irony at the heart of both the Ukraine and Iran war: citizens are being woken up by those that their own governments label as enemies. They are enemies precisely because they expose the Western power structure for what it is:</p><p>Murder-Based (dis)Order</p><div id="youtube2-CDsFKOrLWhU" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;CDsFKOrLWhU&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/CDsFKOrLWhU?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Murder-Based Order: A brief note to Scott Ritter]]></title><description><![CDATA[The following was posted as a comment to Scott Ritter's substack post, &#8220;Dead at 27&#8212;Reflections of an American watching his country prepare to illegally attack another country...again&#8221;.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/murder-based-order-a-brief-note-to</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/murder-based-order-a-brief-note-to</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:49:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/0f35e42f-f31b-4332-b593-eb9957d5fe78_1024x1536.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The following was posted as a comment to Scott Ritter's substack post, &#8220;<a href="https://scottritter.substack.com/p/dead-at-27">Dead at 27&#8212;Reflections of an American watching his country prepare to illegally attack another country...again</a>&#8221;. </p><div><hr></div><p>Dear Scott,</p><p>The true nature of power is simply further revealed. Murder-Based Order is the system. International law doesn&#8217;t exist because it cannot be enforced. The UNSC is structurally corrupted by design. The ICJ (and ICC) are both rendered practically meaningless. UN Charter serves only as a performative normative reference system around which tribalism can occur.</p><p>&#8220;Might makes right&#8221; is the law of the jungle. Ever was it thus.</p><p>What surprises me is that despite your proximity and service to power, including through and in opposition to illegal operations, and your treatment at the hands of power, it has taken this long for you to declare:</p><p>&#8220;We have a shadow government carrying out shadow policies that operate outside of the Constitutional reach of Congress and the knowledge of the American people.</p><p>The Constitutional Republic is dead.</p><p>Welcome to the American Empire, ruled by an American dictator.&#8221;<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-1" href="#footnote-1" target="_self">1</a></p><p>What is also surprising to me is that you maintain a refusal to consider that 9/11 is far outside any official narrative, including Building 7, to the point that you become hyper-aggressive towards any mention of questions around it.</p><p>You claim to be an ex-insider informed realist, yet you stop at limits that are proven and long known to be artificial.</p><p>You think that voting in a corrupt system of rigged choices designed to deliver consistent trajectories with variations in window dressing, is meaningful.</p><p>You back the &#8220;least shit of two shit choices&#8221; and only call Trump out for being Zionist, Israel-controlled, Neocon, arms selling scum well after his shitiness was fully understood (~100 days into his second term).</p><p>You claimed he was the only chance to avoid nuclear war, but you knew he was run by Israel, Zionist and Neocon money, exactly the same as Democrat options.</p><p>Now, we are closer to nuclear war than pre-election. This makes your political assertion and vote choice materially wrong.</p><p>But as an ex-insider with deep military, intelligence and realist power experience, you don&#8217;t call out the nature of power accurately.</p><p>&#8220;The faces change, but the policies remain the same.&#8221; &#8211; Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin</p><p>Putin himself tells you what power in the West is (if not elsewhere).</p><p>When I asked you &#8220;is the USA actually about to bomb Iran, while it&#8217;s kept busy on the flank by Israel? The USA has a pretext now on nuclear grounds adequate to justify this to itself&#8221; (gist), you said &#8220;No, if that case could be made they&#8217;d have already bombed Iran, and Gabbard&#8217;s Threat Report states Iran isn&#8217;t making a nuke.&#8221; Then the USA bombed Iran that weekend IIRC. You couldn&#8217;t see what you yourself had predicted was going to actually happen, as it was ACTUALLY happening. The reason you gave for it not happening resolved down to a dependent belief in the Threat Report being of material consequence (irrespective of it being accurate) and the administration/executive acting in any way that related to external forms of process. This struck me as dissonant to the repetitively proven nature of power (USA or otherwise).<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-2" href="#footnote-2" target="_self">2</a></p><p>Even if the 12 day war was a US-IS recon by fire then an orchestrated US stop loss strike, all of it is still active mass murder (not even legal war).</p><p>Palestine is genocide and ethnic cleansing that involves at least:</p><ul><li><p>Israel, Five Eyes, EU Commission, EU Member states, all ME nations (except Iran &amp; Yemen), Russia and China.</p></li></ul><p>All of those nations are directly or indirectly complicit. Failure to intervene, or tolerance of genocide is complicity. Russia and China are complicit.</p><p>What Palestine proves is the true nature of power and realpolitik: &#8220;state interests&#8221;, which are simply the choices and actions of very small numbers of people operating largely outside of meaningful accountability mechanisms, do not act morally, legally or in ways that serve mass citizens&#8217; interests. They act in ways they believe serves their interests, first.</p><p>Russia and China have not curtailed their relationships with Israel, USA or other genocidaires in response to genocide. This is hard proof that realpolitik, not international law or other constructs, is the truer superficial nature of power.</p><p>All of the above challenges aspects of the positions you have maintained. It shouldn&#8217;t have taken you this long to begin to back away from notions of legal process and accountability. Fascism (per Mussolini&#8217;s definition) has been running (at least) the Western world for a long time. Nazis didn&#8217;t really lose WW2, they just moved West and kept going, building the institutions of international control and power through which the USA hegemonic empire has been administered. (Addition for this substack: This was done in concert and/or in parallel with forms of burgeoning Israeli and Jewish power, per the Israeli historic record.)</p><p>We live in the Fourth Reich.</p><p>People have known and said this long before 9/11.</p><p>The limited hangout of the partial Epstein Files is just another partial mask off moment that distracts people as power continues to operate unabated and unchallenged, in its process of recycling, rebranding and reinventing itself.</p><p>&#8220;Pax Judaica&#8221;<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-3" href="#footnote-3" target="_self">3</a> may well be the next wrapper around Western power, but that theory/construct doesn&#8217;t explain how power will use any guise or structure to achieve its ends. Eschatology&#8217;s part in geopolitical events is almost never explicitly raised by you or any of those who run in your alt-media orbits, even though it&#8217;s at least a key superficial element.</p><p>USA Exceptionalism is politically equivalent to Judaic Supremacy. But Judaic Supremacy trumps it existentially. This is a fundamentally eschatological and mythological key driving mechanic of geopolitics, even if it&#8217;s knowingly wielded with deception.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-4" href="#footnote-4" target="_self">4</a></p><p>What is also proven now is that Islam is actually subservient &#8212; religiously, politically and militarily &#8212; to current US/IS power, which is why Islam has enabled Palestinian genocide and desecration of Al Aqsa Mosque and The Dome of The Rock, in direct contravention/abandonment of the OIC statement issued mid October 2024.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-5" href="#footnote-5" target="_self">5</a></p><p>2.4 billion muslims are being &#8220;defeated&#8221; on home turf by a nation of less than 10m Jews, and 330m Americans. This upends the concept of adversarial power along Abrahamic faith lines. No one wants to point out that reality. The OIC is literally full of shit. It is a totally fake front organisation in which liars lie, and those they rule perform and live those lies. Like elsewhere, because that&#8217;s the nature of being ruled by power.</p><p>The power to murder with impunity is fundamental to all other powers after that. Today, there is no effective opposition to that power other than by other state or suprastate level actors, almost all of whom are effectively complicit in genocide in Palestine, because that mass murder event is &#8220;manageable&#8221; or &#8220;tolerable&#8221; or &#8220;convenient&#8221; to the furtherance of their agendas.</p><p>Russia and China&#8217;s sponsorship of Iran against US/IS does not constitute their non-complicity with genocide in Palestine.</p><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-1" href="#footnote-anchor-1" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">1</a><div class="footnote-content"><div class="twitter-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://x.com/i/status/2010703049413583017&quot;,&quot;full_text&quot;:&quot;Everything you want to know about the reality of US foreign policy, US compliance with international law, and the absolute lack of integrity of Donald Trump can be found in his communications with the CIA about Russia, Iran and Venezuela since being sworn in.\n\nWe have a shadow&quot;,&quot;username&quot;:&quot;RealScottRitter&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Scott Ritter&quot;,&quot;profile_image_url&quot;:&quot;https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/1975346929400762369/FR-5eXa4_normal.jpg&quot;,&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-12T13:18:58.000Z&quot;,&quot;photos&quot;:[],&quot;quoted_tweet&quot;:{},&quot;reply_count&quot;:49,&quot;retweet_count&quot;:834,&quot;like_count&quot;:3098,&quot;impression_count&quot;:87994,&quot;expanded_url&quot;:null,&quot;video_url&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM"></div></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-2" href="#footnote-anchor-2" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">2</a><div class="footnote-content"><p><a href="https://x.com/i/spaces/1DXxyqNbRoPxM">https://x.com/i/spaces/1DXxyqNbRoPxM</a></p><p>05:55</p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-3" href="#footnote-anchor-3" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">3</a><div class="footnote-content"><div id="youtube2-fRvE_TN8aF0" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;fRvE_TN8aF0&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/fRvE_TN8aF0?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div><div id="youtube2-WFWizN3QoPg" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;WFWizN3QoPg&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/WFWizN3QoPg?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-4" href="#footnote-anchor-4" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">4</a><div class="footnote-content"><div id="youtube2-qdZkV36ZyFk" class="youtube-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;videoId&quot;:&quot;qdZkV36ZyFk&quot;,&quot;startTime&quot;:null,&quot;endTime&quot;:null}" data-component-name="Youtube2ToDOM"><div class="youtube-inner"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/qdZkV36ZyFk?rel=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;enablejsapi=0" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" gesture="media" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowautoplay="true" allowfullscreen="true" width="728" height="409"></iframe></div></div></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-5" href="#footnote-anchor-5" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">5</a><div class="footnote-content"><p>9. Warns of the escalation of attacks by the Israeli occupation army and settler terrorism weaponed and protected by the occupation forces in Al-Quds Al-Sharif and the West Bank in their continuing aggression against the civilian population and their properties, including killing, destroying, displacing, building and expanding settlements, within the framework of its brutal colonial campaign aimed at annexing the occupied Palestinian territory and <strong>affirms the importance of preserving sanctity of holy sites in Al-Quds, and the full protection of Al-Aqsa Mosque as well as the prevention of the violation of the status and sanctity of sacred places in Al-Quds;</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.oic-oci.org/topic/?t_id=39767&amp;t_ref=26705&amp;lan=en">OIC Communiqu&#233; 18/10/23</a></p></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Murder-Based Order: Intro]]></title><description><![CDATA[A permanent truth of power is fully displayed]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/murder-based-order-intro</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/murder-based-order-intro</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2026 15:32:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/df9ff99e-249f-4144-bb5f-1ee9dfd2d5bd_1024x1536.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If it wasn't already clear to you prior to 2020, the following should be clear now:</p><ul><li><p>The Rules-Based Order was never a real thing because it has no formal definition, form or equitable and impartial process. It was a name for the imposition of US hegemonic power through structures it could adequately control post WW2 and U.N. creation. The loose concept of the RBO serves the interests of US hegemonic power above all else.</p></li><li><p>International law doesn't exist because it cannot be enforced.</p></li><li><p>Might makes right; forms of real force are what underpin true power and enable actions, ahead of anything else, which is why only the powerful get to act on their terms, irrespective of the eventual consequences.</p></li></ul><h1>United Nations: Corrupt and feckless by design</h1><blockquote><h1><strong>MANDATE</strong></h1><p>The <a href="http://www.un.org/en/charter-united-nations/index.html">United Nations Charter</a> established six main organs of the United Nations, including the Security Council. It gives primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security to the Security Council, which may meet whenever peace is threatened.</p><p>According to the Charter, the United Nations has four purposes:</p><ul><li><p>to maintain international peace and security;</p></li><li><p>to develop friendly relations among nations;</p></li><li><p>to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights;</p></li><li><p>and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.</p></li></ul><p>All members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council. While other organs of the United Nations make recommendations to member states, only the Security Council has the power to make decisions that member states are then obligated to implement under the Charter.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-1" href="#footnote-1" target="_self">1</a></p></blockquote><p>If the United Nations and its charter are a manifestation of international law, yet it cannot enforce any laws, what purpose does the United Nations and international law serve?</p><p>In extremis, enforcement power relating to security measures, e.g. genocide, illegal war, relies upon bureaucratic processes of the U.N. Security Council. The five veto powers (P5) of USA, UK, Russia, China and France, enjoy permanent structural power advantage of veto.</p><p>Substantive Security Council resolutions require:</p><ul><li><p>At least nine affirmative votes</p></li><li><p>No veto from any permanent member</p></li></ul><p>A single negative vote by a P5 member blocks adoption, regardless of majority support, where &#8220;veto&#8221; = a permanent member&#8217;s negative vote that blocks adoption on substantive matters.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-2" href="#footnote-2" target="_self">2</a></p><p>The state of international affairs since 2020 in regards to &#8220;world peace&#8221; (read <em>war</em>) proves that the U.N. and international law does not fulfil its superficially stated purpose; international peace and security has neither been maintained nor increased. Furthermore, almost all actions that have degraded peace and security have not been subjected to UNSC bureaucratic processes.</p><p>Since its creation, the U.N. itself has been found guilty of the most heinous acts against massive numbers of citizens, including unlawful killing, murder, sexual exploitation and human trafficking.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-3" href="#footnote-3" target="_self">3</a> No meaningful punishments can be levelled against the United Nations or its bodies that prevent the continuation of these acts, hence why they continue.</p><p>At best, the U.N. and international law serve as a normative standards framework against which claims can be compared to actions, and forms of consensus opinion/judgement (tribalism) can be established.</p><p>The World Health Organisation is an integrated part of the U.N. system even if it's considered operationally autonomous. The WHO's actions and influence over sovereign states during and since Covid, including changes to the International Health Regulations (IHR), can be seen as facets of the same supranational policy and power construct as the U.N.</p><h1>International Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine</h1><p>It is a total and deliberate misnomer to describe the genocide in Gaza as solely an Israeli act. These crimes against humanity are conducted by at least:</p><ul><li><p>Israel</p></li><li><p>Five Eyes (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand)</p></li><li><p>European Commission</p></li><li><p>EU member states (even those who nominally oppose it)</p></li><li><p>All Middle Eastern states with the exception of Iran &amp; Yemen.</p></li><li><p>Russia</p></li><li><p>China</p></li></ul><p>All of the above are either directly involved in the execution of these crimes through force, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, finance, logistics, manpower provision, or indirectly through passive enablement or failure to oppose.</p><p>The genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine is an international, multiparty and multipolar endeavour.</p><p>There is a basic, fundamental reality that is imposed, yet again, upon global humanity:</p><div class="pullquote"><p>The value of human life is insignificant when set against whatever state or suprastate interests deign to be &#8220;their interests&#8221; at any given time, for whatever reasons that do not relate to the basic expectations of individual morality or anything laid out in the United Nations Charter. In short, morality and rules play no part in the mass murder of humans by state and suprastate interests.</p></div><p>In the case of Russia and China, for example, both have elected to do no more than nominally object to aspects of the genocide and ethnic cleansing, but neither have taken any visible and substantive actions to oppose or stop it. UNSC abstentions and vetoes are not meaningful because of the above issues with international law, and also because no materially meaningful outcomes can be achieved because of structural, bureaucratic corruption designed into the UNSC structure. Russia and China maintain the same relationships and cooperation with Israel now as before, which means that genocide and ethnic cleansing do not materially impact their interests and the means by which those interests are met.</p><p>The scale of the multiparty complicity in genocide and ethnic cleansing is a direct guarantee that it will continue to effective completion without any meaningful cessation, and there will never be any meaningful accountability or retribution for it through any mechanism or body, beyond what is within the capabilities of Iran, Yemen, Hamas and Hezbollah, which are inadequate and incapable of defeating and repelling the multiparty forces executing the genocide, orchestrating ethnic cleansing, and administering the theft of the remaining Palestinian territory.</p><h1>Murder-Based Order (MBO)</h1><p>Murder-based order is the fundamental, underlying system of power in which we live. This concept is largely synonymous with &#8220;might makes right.&#8221; This applies at the level of state-individual, state-community, and state-state. At each level, the ability to wield force in whatever applicable form is what determines whose agenda is ultimately forwarded.</p><p>It is the state that holds the monopoly on violence, money, law and other forces that derive from it. Practical, UK-based examples of the dominance that results from this include:</p><ul><li><p>The entire conduct of Covid policy from 2020 onwards, through the self-investigation and exoneration of the state throughout the entire pandemic period.</p></li><li><p>The curtailment of freedoms of expression and information access (speech, internet anonymity, digital ID, mass facial recognition).</p></li><li><p>The jailing of citizens for social media posts at rates higher than most if not all other nations, against standards of little practical meaning, in protection of agendas including Israeli and pro-genocide parties.</p></li><li><p>The illegal proscription of Palestine Action under false pretences and claims, and the illegal arrest, detention and conviction of people who supported it or were simply opposed to genocide in proximity.</p></li><li><p>The proven direct and indirect involvement in genocide, ethnic cleansing, territory theft, rape, torture and murder of humans, and the executive deployment of national resources and personnel to do it, including enablement of UK citizens to take part.</p></li><li><p>The use of anti-terrorism legislation to harass, intimidate and coerce journalists in order to prevent or deter them from performing journalism that the UK government deigns to be against its interests.</p></li></ul><p>All of the above is possible because the UK government:</p><ul><li><p>Has the ability to exert force on citizens instantaneously in ways the citizen cannot meaningfully resist in meaningful timeframes (see anti-terrorism detention powers, for example).</p></li><li><p>Has effectively removed accountability mechanisms of meaning from citizens&#8217; reach, which is why challenge and reform of the present power systems are either impossible or ineffective, regardless of the specific government in power.</p></li><li><p>Actively does not educate citizens through the public education system about law, rights, and power structures.</p></li><li><p>Controls the media effectively at most scales that matter for the purposes of controlling both mass perception and mass action of meaningful consequence.</p></li><li><p>Has practically unlimited resources with which to pursue any given agenda.</p></li><li><p>Is beholden to and controlled by interests that lie outside the electorate, which it doesn't declare or explain in any significantly consequential way.</p></li><li><p>Is knowingly and fundamentally corrupt&#8212;structurally, systemically, collectively and individually&#8212;by any sensible standards that an informed and moral individual would measure it against.</p></li><li><p>Is able to effectively manipulate citizens&#8217; action and behaviours using myriad forms of control from micro-propaganda to mass economic and financial systems, in such a way that meaningful and genuine opposition does not materialise, sustain and grow.</p></li></ul><p>The above are facets of power that manifest inside MBO. The last 5.5 years have repetitively shown citizens over and over again that the state can simply murder its own people and others with impunity, provided that certain approaches are taken including, most importantly, tribalising to an adequate level (read ganging up). This is why small but relatively powerful nations like the UK don't generally act alone but instead act both covertly and overtly as part of a group that usually falls in line under the US hegemonic umbrella. This ensures that all the &#8220;international&#8221; institutional structures of notional power and accountability are neutered at source on either a &#8220;too big and too many to hold  accountable&#8221; or &#8220;institutionally captured&#8221; basis.</p><p>The most basic thing to remember here is this:</p><div class="pullquote"><p>In the last six years, your nations have all shown you, repetitively and directly, that they can and will murder their own and others&#8217; citizens, and/or do things to them that are completely illegal and irreversibly extremely harmful, from detention without rights to illegal criminal prosecution, jailing and asset seizure. Having shown that over and over, faster and faster, with practically zero opposition, those who wield power over you via your nation know they can continue to do it. This guarantees that they will. They have the informational and resource curve advantages that citizens cannot and will not recover because they don't know what those curves are, how to recover them, and they don't have the will to do so.</p></div><p>The power to murder with impunity underpins the power to do anything else. Every form of notional &#8220;challenge&#8221;, including what superficially appears to be &#8220;Epstein fallout&#8221; is largely inconsequential for reasons that should be obvious.</p><p>The faces might change, but the methods and policies will remain the same.</p><p>&#8220;Resignation&#8221; is not a form of punishment. Nor is it any form of victory. It is simply escape for perpetrators and willing release of those perpetrators by the citizenry. This amounts to collusion between the perpetrators and the victims. The victims have been indoctrinated into worse than Stockholm Syndrome.</p><p>This is the consequence of Murder-Based Order. It will not improve. There is no force being wielded that can bring about improvement.</p><p>Citizens fail to understand this because to understand this is to not just stare into the abyss, but to realise one is lost inside it. That realisation is panic-inducing, points towards despair and nihilism, and risks compounding fecklessness. However, it is a line that must be consciously crossed.</p><p>Most will not or cannot cross that line, which is why psychological and behavioural management of populations via the cyclical information flow works. Dissent is actively funnelled by murderous power onto meaningless targets, outlets and dead-end actions on an endlessly cycling basis, in exactly the same way that your attention is smeared across meaningless, incongruous and disablingly fractured, endless walls of posts on media, video and social media platforms, practically all of which are under the direct control of those self-same murderous powers.</p><p>This is the design architecture of what we've long ago flagged as the modern Panopticon.</p><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-1" href="#footnote-anchor-1" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">1</a><div class="footnote-content"><p>https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/what-security-council</p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-2" href="#footnote-anchor-2" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">2</a><div class="footnote-content"><p>https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/voting-system</p><p>https://legal.un.org/repertory/art27.shtml</p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-3" href="#footnote-anchor-3" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">3</a><div class="footnote-content"><p>Via Grok:</p><p><strong>Allegations of Illegal Actions and Crimes by United Nations Personnel</strong></p><p>While the UN&#8217;s mandate emphasizes protection of civilians and human rights, numerous documented cases reveal illegal actions committed by these personnel, particularly in peacekeeping missions. These include sexual exploitation and abuse, involvement in human trafficking and organized crime, and failures in civilian protection that may constitute violations of international law. Accountability remains limited, as jurisdiction typically rests with troop-contributing countries (TCCs), resulting in few prosecutions despite internal UN investigations.</p><p><strong>1. Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA)</strong></p><p>Sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers represents the most prevalent category of reported crimes, often involving vulnerable populations in conflict zones. The UN defines SEA as any abuse of power for sexual purposes, including rape, forced prostitution, and transactional sex. Over 2,000 allegations have been recorded in the past two decades, with incidents spanning multiple missions. Impunity is common, as offenders are frequently repatriated without trial.</p><p><strong>Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC/MONUSCO, 2000s&#8211;present): </strong>Peacekeepers from various nationalities have been accused of raping girls as young as 13, engaging in &#8220;survival sex&#8221; with children aged 12&#8211;15 (exchanging sex for food or money), and forced prostitution. Human Rights Watch documented over 150 allegations, including demands for sex in exchange for jobs. No successful prosecutions of UN personnel occurred by 2005, despite internal reviews.7123efce11345fd6ee043be9 In 2016, 11 Tanzanian peacekeepers faced paternity claims linked to SEA.</p><p><strong>Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH, 1990s): </strong>Personnel visited brothels in Serb-run concentration camps, withheld aid for sexual favors, and coerced Bosnians into sexual acts. Investigations revealed involvement in drug and human trafficking, with trafficked individuals ending up in brothels frequented by UN staff. Some offenders were never charged.</p><p><strong>Haiti (MINUSTAH, 2004&#8211;2017): </strong>At least 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers operated a child sex ring involving minors as young as 12. Over 229 women and girls reported transactional sex for necessities. No prosecutions occurred, despite 114 repatriations.</p><p><strong>Central African Republic (MINUSCA, 2014&#8211;present):</strong> Troops from France, Gabon, and Burundi abused at least 108 women and children, including a case where a French commander forced four girls to have sex with a dog. In 2024, over 100 SEA allegations were reported across UN missions.</p><p><strong>Other Missions (e.g., Timor-Leste, C&#244;te d&#8217;Ivoire, Sudan):</strong> Similar patterns include rape, child abuse, and prostitution. In Timor-Leste, peacekeepers withheld supplies for sexual favors. Overall, only 53 uniformed and one civilian peacekeeper have been imprisoned for SEA offenses since the 1990s.</p><p><strong>2. Involvement in Human Trafficking and Organized Crime</strong></p><p>UN peacekeepers have been implicated in facilitating or participating in transnational organized crime, including human trafficking, smuggling, and illicit trade. This often exacerbates local conflicts and undermines mission mandates.</p><p><strong>Balkans (Bosnia and Kosovo, 1990s&#8211;2000s): </strong>Peacekeepers boosted demand for trafficked women, leading to an &#8220;unprecedented increase&#8221; in sex trafficking. Some purchased victims and passports, forged documents, transported victims across borders, and recruited for prostitution. Partnerships with paramilitary groups involved smuggling goods and women.</p><p><strong>Democratic Republic of the Congo (2000s): </strong>Pakistani peacekeepers purchased illegally mined gold and facilitated natural resource trafficking. Nigerian contingents traded drugs with rebels for diamonds.</p><p><strong>Somalia (AMISOM, 2010s):</strong> Kenyan forces smuggled charcoal and sugar, generating revenue for al-Shabab, a designated terrorist group.</p><p><strong>Other Instances:</strong> In Mali and the Sahel, peacekeepers have been linked to arms trafficking and migrant smuggling networks. UN missions have inadvertently embedded criminal networks by failing to address these activities systematically.</p><p><strong>3. Failures in Civilian Protection and Other Violations</strong></p><p>While not always direct crimes, certain actions or inactions by UN forces have led to civilian harm, potentially violating international humanitarian law.</p><p><strong>Central African Republic (2018):</strong> Mauritanian peacekeepers retreated during an armed group attack on a displaced persons camp in Alindao, leaving thousands unprotected. Up to 100 civilians were shot or burned alive. This raised questions about adherence to the mandate to protect civilians.</p><p><strong>General Patterns:</strong> Reports of torture, corruption, stealing, and manslaughter across missions. In the 1960s Congo mission, UN personnel guarded Patrice Lumumba amid CIA assassination plots, though direct UN involvement was not established.</p><p>These violations have prompted UN reforms, including a 2003 zero-tolerance policy on SEA and enhanced reporting mechanisms. However, enforcement relies on TCCs, and prosecutions remain rare. For instance, only one charge was filed in CAR despite 42 allegations. The UN has faced criticism for institutional failures in oversight and accountability.</p></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Shifter]]></title><description><![CDATA[Cyrus Smythe MP&#8217;s three-hundred-pound frame slid off the back seat of his ministerial car and into his constituency emergency meeting.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/shifter</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/shifter</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:10:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b_ta!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F916bd79f-86e4-4dd3-8ca1-7ce2a14fa78f_640x640.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Cyrus Smythe MP&#8217;s three-hundred-pound frame slid off the back seat of his ministerial car and into his constituency emergency meeting. The car sighed with relief. The pavement winced.</p><p>&#8220;Inflation&#8217;s critical,&#8221; said the economics professor, halfway through a slide on feedback loops. &#8220;Positive feedback leading to hyperinflation. Tax rises will intensify it. The question is, what can break us out of this loop?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;No! No!&#8221; Smythe bleated, then laughed theatrically.</p><p>His overwrought body sweated down the aisle, bumping knees, scattering people.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re asking an impossible question,&#8221; Smythe said. &#8220;Let me tell you the right question.&#8221;</p><p>He took the stage, waving for the projector to be shut off.</p><p>&#8220;The right question is why people don&#8217;t understand the perfect job the cabinet is doing in uniquely difficult circumstances.&#8221;</p><p>He panted non-sequiturs in endless succession until the audience had given up and departed.</p><p>At the General Union, a representative said, &#8220;Wages have been below inflation for five decades. Living standards are collapsing.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;No, no,&#8221; Smythe wagged a fat finger. &#8220;Wrong issue. I&#8217;ll tell you the right issue.&#8221; He leaned forward, confidential. &#8220;How will AI make people who embrace it better off? Here&#8217;s the optimal policy.&#8221; His staff replaced their notes with the government's shiny booklet on tax breaks for AI companies.</p><p>The fattest MP in the House was later visited by police and MI5. Their folder was thick with statements and photographs.</p><p>&#8220;A hundred and forty-four allegations,&#8221; said the officer. &#8220;How many children&#8212;?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;No, no,&#8221; Smythe said, &#8220;children <em>aren&#8217;t</em> the issue.&#8221; He smiled. &#8220;It&#8217;s what happens to your budgets, staffing levels, standing, if unsubstantiated claims become substantiated? It&#8217;s not about me. No, no. This is about <em>you</em>.&#8221;</p><p>Outside, cameras waited.</p><p>Inside, favours were traded.</p><p>&#8220;Of course, this government body&#8217;s the <em>right shape</em>!&#8221; declared Cyrus Smythe MP to the House. &#8220;It&#8217;s this <em>country</em> that's the wrong shape! The job of government is to reshape, to <em>shift</em> the country towards its future success!&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Hear! Hear!&#8221; they screamed.</p><p>Dickie Someone watched Smythe's performance on the television. He was in good shape for fifty, and handsome in an Army Major kind of way.</p><p>&#8220;Soon, darling,&#8221; his mainstream media journalist girlfriend said, &#8220;it'll be your turn. When everyone's fed up, it'll be your chance to shift the slogans.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Will you have a look at my latest slogans, darling? Tell me what you think?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Just let me get done with this establishment hatchet job on a former Health Minister. If we don't shift blame and attention onto him, people will remember that power isn't about one person.&#8221;</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA["I Understand..."]]></title><description><![CDATA[Burned human flesh smells like barbecued pork.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/i-understand</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/i-understand</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 01 Feb 2026 02:39:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b_ta!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F916bd79f-86e4-4dd3-8ca1-7ce2a14fa78f_640x640.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Burned human flesh smells like barbecued pork. That is glib, convenient shorthand that doesn't reflect reality. It's the circumstances and context of combustion that determines &#8220;smell&#8221;. A house fire doesn't smell like a barbecue. And people don&#8217;t get barbecued. Circumstances. Context. That knowledge permanently taints more than food&#8212;it reshapes one&#8217;s grasp of pain, tragedy, and responsibility.</p><p></p><p>Levi Steiner walked the charred nightclub, navigating blueprints while sidestepping remains. He wore a mask and breathed compressed air in the knowledge that the stench of the site was toxic and overwhelming.</p><p></p><p>Forty people died in the fire. Witness accounts and footage told part of the story, but the site inspection revealed something fundamental.</p><p></p><p>He gathered the owners and operators, pointing to the legally required sign on certain doors:</p><p></p><p>&#8220;FIRE EXIT&#8221;</p><p></p><p>&#8220;Do you understand what this means?&#8221; he asked each of them.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; they all replied. None elaborated, none admitted ignorance.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;If you truly understand,&#8221; Levi Steiner said, &#8220;why did some of the doors bearing that sign&#8212;legally designated fire exits&#8212;open inwards? Why was that one locked?&#8221;</p><p></p><p>Silence.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re all under arrest for gross negligence manslaughter,&#8221; Levi Steiner declared. &#8220;You&#8217;ve self-incriminated.&#8221;</p><p></p><p>They protested vehemently, denying the charge and any self-incrimination.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;You claimed to understand,&#8221; he countered. &#8220;Declaring &#8216;I understand&#8217; in no way proves one understands anything. One would have to verbally or pragmatically demonstrate and prove understanding, but you have claimed understanding and so accept responsibility and liability for subsequent actions and decisions based upon the systemic meaning of &#8216;FIRE EXIT&#8217;. By installing and maintaining inward-swinging doors, you revealed your real understanding of what &#8216;FIRE EXIT&#8217; means.&#8221;</p><p></p><p>They were silent.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;Or,&#8221; Steiner mused, &#8220;whether you understood or not, perhaps you just didn&#8217;t care?&#8221;</p><p></p><p>&#8220;Of course we care!&#8221; shouted the venue owner, his face red with rage.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;What do you care about? Claiming you understood in order to <em>maintain a pretence</em> of understanding? <em>Verbally proving</em> your understanding? Or <em>practically demonstrating</em> what you understand?&#8221;</p><p></p><p>The owner did not reply.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;You could have just said you care about the lives of your customers,&#8221; said Steiner.</p><p></p><p>A week later, Steiner was called to a meeting with the mayor, whose expression was that of a man Steiner had once met at the edge of a bridge. Steiner had known then what he knew now.</p><p></p><p>He listened.</p><p></p><p>The mayor stared at him for a time. He twisted in his elaborate, expensive chair in the way a fat man nursing gut rot twists.</p><p></p><p>Steiner stood still. Listening for the sounds of gut rot.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;This isn't going to go exactly&#8230;&#8221; said the mayor before another twist gave way to a stifled belch. &#8220;This isn't going to be as smooth as it could be.&#8221;</p><p></p><p>Steiner listened.</p><p></p><p>The mayor didn't have as much luxury as his chair suggested. &#8220;The videos don't bode well for them, do they?&#8221;</p><p></p><p>&#8220;It illustrates actions that either contributed to or actually were the ignition or inception event.&#8221;</p><p></p><p>&#8220;And the videos don't bode well for us.&#8221;</p><p></p><p>Us. Identification is fluid, convenient. He heard the gurgle in the mayor's guts before the mayor suppressed a subsequent aesophageal reflex.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;The place hadn't had an inspection since 2019. The press have gotten hold of that.&#8221; He paused as if to give Steiner a turn.</p><p></p><p>On the bridge, Steiner had hardly spoken. The man barely knew Steiner. Not who he really was, what he would do.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;They've got enough money for a reasonable defence. This isn't going to be that smooth. Do you understand?&#8221;</p><p></p><p>Steiner stared harder at the mayor's left eye.</p><p></p><p>Harder.</p><p></p><p>Harder.</p><p></p><p>Steiner asked, &#8220;Do you have anything else to say to me?&#8221;</p><p></p><p>The mayor grimaced, then shifted sideways in his chair, pushing against  the desk with his hand.</p><p></p><p>Harder.</p><p></p><p>The mayor's throat rolled, stifling something.</p><p></p><p>Harder.</p><p></p><p>The mayor shook his head, waved his hand dismissively. Steiner released him from the grip of his stare and turned at his hips. Listening.</p><p></p><p>A gurgle. The mayor twisted.</p><p></p><p>On his way home, he went to see Liam. He took his bag and water from the trunk of his car, then strode the path from memory, head down, looking almost at his own toes.</p><p></p><p>When he arrived, he knelt in the grass and unpacked the bag's tools: two brushes, a scraper, shears, a knife, wire wool. He the swept down the stone with one brush, then briskly scrubbed it with the other. There was no need for the scraper. He clipped the grass, casting the cuttings behind him. He made room for judgement.</p><p></p><p>&#8220;Why can't you fucking say anything? Don't you care? Or are you a fucking coward?&#8221;</p><p></p><p>He couldn't say anything because he didn't know what to say. What if he'd been the trigger? What if Liam had left because of his words?</p><p></p><p>&#8220;Fuck you, dad. You're a fucking coward.&#8221;</p><p></p><p>Steiner twisted as pain in his knees and tingling in his feet took hold. He would bring flowers tomorrow.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Cretaceo-Sapiens Digito-Canis ]]></title><description><![CDATA[The van door opens.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/cretaceo-sapiens-digito-canis</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/cretaceo-sapiens-digito-canis</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 11:32:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b_ta!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F916bd79f-86e4-4dd3-8ca1-7ce2a14fa78f_640x640.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The van door opens. Terry's back with two extra large coffees.</p><p>&#8220;Drink it slow,&#8221; I say. &#8220;Piss bottle&#8217;s half full.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Anything, Mike?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Telly&#8217;s on, he's choppin&#8217; chicken with a cleaver.&#8221; Thermal, optical, Wi-Fi mapping makes evidence collection simple. We just need to be present.</p><p>Kid&#8217;s biked back from school. Looks healthy.</p><p>&#8220;Hard to believe, innit?&#8221; Terry&#8217;s twitching. </p><p>&#8220;Rear team, visual. Kid&#8217;s in a dino suit. Running around the garden.&#8221;</p><p>Thirty minutes later, bosch!</p><p>&#8220;Steven Caffrey?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Yeah? What's this?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;PC Harbinger, PC Tetlow. You&#8217;re under arrest for child cruelty and suspected wilful poisoning. You do not have to say anything&#8230;&#8221;</p><p>Interview room. He&#8217;s calm. Brief&#8217;s proper posh. Odd name: F. Lumpey.</p><p>&#8220;So. You fed raw chicken to your son, Alfie, because&#8212;&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Nooo-ooo! No. No. Didn&#8217;t feed Alfie nothin&#8217;. I fed our T-rex his tea. Like always. Three chickens. That size.&#8221;</p><p>Terry exhales, cups his forehead. <em>Four hours</em>.</p><p>&#8220;That &#8216;T-rex&#8217; is. Your. Son. In an inflatable IKEA dinosaur suit!&#8221; I almost slam the table. &#8220;It ain&#8217;t Jurassic <em>bleedin&#8217;</em> Park!&#8221;</p><p>Terry points at the video. Tenth time. His eyes roll.</p><p>&#8220;Yeah! Perfect match to me books. And Top Trumps.&#8221; Caffrey's head lolls around the plain room. Flicks his wrist. &#8220;Nnnn&#8230; Nnn-Nature Channel! Look it up! On YouTube! Eyes! Look at &#8217;im! His eyes rollin&#8217;... on something, he is!&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;You fed <em>raw chicken</em> to Alfie.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Yer can&#8217;t charge me fer poisoning. Dinosaurs don&#8217;t chew raw chicken. Swallow it whole. <em>Everyone</em> knows that. Check BitChute.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve <em>not</em> established it&#8217;s a child,&#8221; says Lumpey.</p><p>Terry&#8217;s jaw tightens.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re <em>not</em> qualified to determine <em>species</em>.&#8221; Fucking smarmy lawyers.</p><p>Terry stands.</p><p>&#8220;Siddown, Tel!&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re contaminating procedure, officers!&#8221;</p><p>Terry grabs his collar. Lumpey&#8217;s up.</p><p>&#8220;Assault! Interview terminated!&#8221;</p><p>Silence.</p><p>The custody clock&#8217;s done. Ticked out. Caffrey&#8217;s in the corridor, swilling machine tea. Interview tainted. No statement. He walks.</p><p>Lumpey says, &#8220;All future correspondence. Addressed to <em>Flumpy</em>.&#8221;</p><p>I look up. &#8220;Eh?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I identify as Flumpy. Female Bassett Hound lawyer.&#8221;</p><p>Terry sprays coffee. On me. &#8220;Fuckin&#8217;! TE-EL!&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s not&#8212;!&#8221; Tel's eyes roll.</p><p>&#8220;Male solicitors don&#8217;t exist!&#8221; Lumpy hisses. &#8220;Only Flumpy does. Other terminology is <em>harassment</em>!&#8221;</p><p>Caffrey nods.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Live by the sword of your own moral relativism]]></title><description><![CDATA[The dramatic irony lies in paying the very price you once insisted must be paid.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/live-by-the-sword-of-your-own-moral</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/live-by-the-sword-of-your-own-moral</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 10 Sep 2025 23:38:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/173312963/b4103094aa9cca678408e1f73600679d.mp3" length="0" type="audio/mpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>So we need to be very clear that you're not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. You can significantly reduce them through having more fathers in the home, by having more armed guards in front of schools.</p><p>We should have a honest [sic] and clear reductionist view of gun violence, but we should not have a utopian one. You will never live in a society where you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It's drivel. But I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of [sic], unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal.</p><p>It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.</p><p><strong>Charlie Kirk</strong></p></blockquote><p></p><p>By his own logic and stated values, Kirk&#8217;s death is &#8220;worth it&#8221; &#8212; a &#8220;prudent deal&#8221; in exchange for the Second Amendment. This is the unflinching endpoint of his rationale: every gun death, including his own, is subsumed into the ledger of rights.</p><p><strong>What he once defended in the abstract became his epitaph in the concrete.</strong></p><p>His own death demonstrates the hidden cruelty of <em>his own &#8220;prudent deal&#8221;:</em> <strong>every victim, including its defenders, becomes just another acceptable cost.</strong></p><blockquote><p><em>Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.</em></p><p>Matthew 26:52</p></blockquote><p>VST's prediction is that across 99% of media, the above points will not be made, even though it was Kirk himself who made them more than once.</p><div class="native-video-embed" data-component-name="VideoPlaceholder" data-attrs="{&quot;mediaUploadId&quot;:&quot;8ee48ff5-8901-4ec8-972d-4025db1a8f8f&quot;,&quot;duration&quot;:null}"></div><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a 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stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Epstein Phenomenon: Information Warfare Asset]]></title><description><![CDATA[The truth of this web is permanently beyond reach.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/the-epstein-phenomenon-information</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/the-epstein-phenomenon-information</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2025 02:29:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/57b2a724-216e-4451-aeec-e242d4c1811e_1280x720.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>BLUF:</h1><p>The Epstein Ecosystem (EE) functions both as a structured instrument of Information and Cognitive Warfare and as a perpetual infogrift. Epstein&#8217;s unresolved life and suspicious death created a narrative field that politicians, media, and institutions exploit for power, distraction, and profit. The truth is inaccessible by design; ambiguity is curated and sustained. Michael Tracey, though limited in style, reach, and credibility, performs a useful role as a proxy contrarian investigator: bearing reputational risk, testing claims, and exposing contradictions others avoid. His work illustrates the isolating cost of questioning the EE and why its ambiguity will remain permanent.</p><div><hr></div><p>The purpose of this piece is to outline the Epstein Ecosystem (EE), show how it functions as an instrument of Information and Cognitive Warfare, explain why challenging it is necessary yet reputationally costly, assess Michael Tracey&#8217;s rare attempts to scrutinise it, and remind readers that the EE endures as a permanent infogrift.</p><h1>Introduction</h1><p>Jeffrey Epstein, dead under dubious circumstances, endures as a symbol whose meaning lies less in facts than in exploitation. The central, interlocking dichotomy is clear:</p><p>1. Epstein&#8217;s adjudicated and alleged personal sexual crimes.</p><p>2. His wealth, activities, and networks of influence that are alleged to be indicative of his explicit roles as an intelligence asset/agent running global, top level blackmail rings involving paedophilia as the method of compromise.</p><p>The full truth is unattainable and ambiguity itself serves entrenched interests. In life and after, Epstein has functioned as an information warfare asset&#8212;his name weaponised politically, financially, and culturally. With his death making defamation impossible, the &#8220;Epstein phenomenon&#8221; persists as a permanent tool of power, speculation, and infogrift.</p><h1>Information and Cognitive Warfare</h1><p>In IW/CW, the objective is to deliberately impact, affect and/or change or degrade a target&#8217;s behaviour via their knowledge, understanding and perception.</p><p>what VST calls the <em>Epstein Ecosystem</em> (EE) is being repetitively used across multiple targets (nation states, entities, institutions, officials, individuals, populations) in multiple ways that specifically meet IW/CW objectives and definitions.</p><p>The EE operates on two levels:</p><ul><li><p>Structured IW/CW instrument (categories like political weaponisation, media control, etc.), where it can be analysed as a system.</p></li><li><p>Perpetual infogrift for opportunists, commentators, and institutions, who profit from ambiguity without resolution.</p></li></ul><p>Here are some real examples of the utility Epstein serves in death, mainly to those in power.</p><p>This is part of what constitutes what we call the <em>Epstein Ecosystem</em>. A full list is available in the footnotes.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-1" href="#footnote-1" target="_self">1</a></p><h4>Political Weaponisation</h4><p>Electioneering: 1) Trump used Epstein as a literal campaign pledge (&#8220;release of files&#8221;) to deliberately attract votes then abandoned that pledge (along with the rest of Agenda 47) in office&#8212;a standard, obvious, predictable and egregious bait-and-switch<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-2" href="#footnote-2" target="_self">2</a>; 2) Invoked as a wedge issue&#8212;portraying opponents as corrupt, compromised, or linked to elite predators<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-3" href="#footnote-3" target="_self">3</a><a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-4" href="#footnote-4" target="_self">4</a>.</p><p>Legislative theatre: Bills or &#8220;Epstein file&#8221; initiatives used to signal toughness on corruption or paedophilia, while concealing more than they reveal. Massie's &amp; Khanna's bill actually further enables files to be permanently buried (credit to <a href="https://www.mtracey.net/p/massie-khanna-epstein-bill?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&amp;triedRedirect=true">Michael Tracey's reading of the bill and publicizing of this feature</a>).<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-5" href="#footnote-5" target="_self">5</a></p><h4>Media &amp; Narrative Control</h4><p>Discredit campaigns: Journalists and outlets questioning mainstream narratives risk smears as &#8220;conspiracy theorists&#8221; (see &#8220;Epstein didn't kill himself&#8221; meme). Conversely, anyone now questioning any if not all aspects of either branch of the Epstein narrative is now attacked (see Michael Tracey, below).</p><p>Moral panic management: Weaponised outrage around paedophilia channels public anger away from systemic wealth/power structures. This is a direct form of emotion-based attention control and switching that can be variously weaponised and directed, absent of and/or against critical thought.</p><h4>Legal &amp; Institutional Manipulation</h4><p>Perpetual deferral: &#8220;Files&#8221; and &#8220;sealed documents&#8221; are promised but never fully released&#8212;maintaining suspense, attention and control.</p><p>Sacrificial containment: A few expendable figures (e.g., Maxwell) are punished while any wider networks remain untouched.</p><h4>Digital &amp; Online Ecosystem</h4><p>Clickbait economy: Outlets exploit perpetual speculation to drive traffic, monetising ambiguity. In other words, <strong>the Epstein Ecosystem is one massive, perpetual infogrift opportunity precisely because the truth will never be known and it will never be definitively resolved. </strong>This means that there is a vested interest common to all players, actors, commentators to keep the cow on its feet so they can all keep milking it.</p><h1>CASE STUDY: Michael Tracey - The Utility of Polemics</h1><p>Michael Tracey (<a href="http://Www.mtracey.net">Mtracey.net</a>) is an independent journalist whose output predominantly revolves around tweeting rather than sustained investigation and publication of coherent pieces. He resembles a polemicist or contrarian, though he denies contrarianism. VST has had direct, lengthy public discussion with Tracey mostly on the Ukraine conflict and we don't give weight to his military political opinions at all on Ukraine or the Israeli genocide of Palestinians. For transparency, our opinions and their basis on some of his output are included in the footnotes.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-6" href="#footnote-6" target="_self">6</a></p><p>That being said, Tracey demonstrates journalistic value regarding elements of the Epstein Ecosystem.</p><p>Trouble is, Tracey isn't the ideal man for the job because of his limitations and limited reach. However, he serves a utility of being a proxy contrarian investigator who can bear all the risk and whose progress can be watched from a distance, then ignored, marginalised, pilloried or embraced then likely assumed or stolen, depending upon how that poison cookie crumbles.</p><h3>Tracey on Epstein</h3><p>Tracey&#8217;s strongest work on Epstein has come when he applies scepticism to the sprawling, interest-driven narrative we call the Epstein Ecosystem&#8212;a construct sustained by speculation long before Epstein&#8217;s death. Labelling parts of it the &#8220;Epstein mythology,&#8221; he has examined court records to expose discrepancies between adjudicated facts and popular claims. This earned predictable online attacks but also marked a rare instance of genuine journalistic value. His recent focus has been Branch 1&#8212;the sex-trafficking claims&#8212;though his findings inevitably touch Branch 2, the intelligence and blackmail dimension. He has questioned the credibility of some accusers, dissected enrichment schemes, and exposed congressional theatre around &#8220;Epstein file&#8221; bills that, in practice, entrench secrecy. His ejection from a press event at Marjorie Taylor-Greene&#8217;s behest illustrates how unwelcome such scepticism remains.</p><p>We view Tracey as a proxy contrarian investigator:</p><ul><li><p>Not ideal for the role&#8212;abrasive, limited in reach, and prone to self-sabotage.</p></li><li><p>Yet he serves a function by occupying the space others avoid. His scepticism can be observed, tested, co-opted, disavowed, or turned into fodder by more powerful actors.</p></li></ul><p>In this framing, Tracey&#8217;s value lies not in &#8220;solving&#8221; Epstein but in acting as the visible figure who bears the reputational risk. His isolation illustrates both the constraining power of the Epstein Ecosystem and a broader zeitgeist in which rational analysis of paedophilia is polarised and weaponised into manufactured opinion and its easily identifiable false binary (&#8220;either with or against&#8221;).</p><h2>Greenwald vs Tracey: Semi-Rationalism</h2><p>Tracey provokes strong reactions&#8212;even from allies such as Glenn Greenwald, whose programme System Update he has both appeared on and guest-hosted. Their recent exchange on Epstein showcased his strengths and flaws alike. Tracey drills into detail and foregrounds uncomfortable facts, but his pedantic, repetitive style often obscures substance, reframing questions to suit his own agenda and talking past interlocutors. Greenwald, meanwhile, failed to discipline the discussion, leaving it circular and tedious. The substance, however, remains: Tracey demonstrates that many Epstein sex-crime claims are unadjudicated, inconsistent, or exaggerated, while Greenwald emphasised Epstein&#8217;s unexplained wealth, networks, and intelligence links&#8212;also noting that Epstein was convicted of sexual activity with a minor and accused by multiple others. Their exchange encapsulates the larger dilemma: Epstein is an ecosystem untethered from provable truth. If the darkest rumours are real, the evidence will never surface; if they are not, vested interests still profit from endless ambiguity.</p><p>Watch here:</p><p><a href="https://rumble.com/v6yie1w-system-update-show-508.html">System Update</a></p><h2>Tracey's the only sceptic in the room</h2><p>Now that Tracey has publicly committed to expressing Epstein scepticism, chasing down at least some facts, and knocking on some doors, there are further genuine journalistic opportunities that are easily identified. We list a few here with our predictions of future Tracey-related outcomes. </p><h3><strong>Interview Across the Spectrum</strong></h3><p>Tracey should broaden his engagement with figures across both branches of the Epstein dichotomy&#8212;journalists such as Whitney Webb, Johnny Vedmore, Ryan Dawson; legal actors including Alan Dershowitz and lawyers on both sides; the Trumpian noisemakers including Bongino; and victims or claimants. Some, perhaps most will inevitably refuse him access to protect their interests, but the method is straightforward: secure interviews, ask questions, and let the subjects either bolster or undermine themselves.</p><p>The problem is Tracey&#8217;s tendency to sabotage his own access by airing opinions and criticisms in advance, as he did with Ritter, MacGregor, and RFK Jr.&#8212;all attacked publicly without ever being interviewed, despite suggestions to the contrary. A journalist serious about pursuing truth would suppress personal views until the maximum evidence was gathered; Tracey&#8217;s inability to do so diminishes both his credibility and his reach.</p><p>This dynamic was on display at the Massie&#8211;Khanna press conference, where a hot mic caught someone whispering &#8220;that&#8217;s that asshole&#8221; as Tracey began his question. His challenge was promptly dismissed, likely both because of its substance and because of his reputation. Such moments illustrate the cost of his style.<a class="footnote-anchor" data-component-name="FootnoteAnchorToDOM" id="footnote-anchor-7" href="#footnote-7" target="_self">7</a></p><p>Even so, transparency about his attempts&#8212;whether rebuffed or cut short&#8212;has its own value. Documenting refusals and evasions can itself expose weaknesses in the Epstein narrative, provided Tracey resists turning these moments into polemical theatre.</p><blockquote><p><em>I have sent messages to Ryan Dawson, asking him basic questions about his relationship with Virginia Giuffre and Maria Farmer, but he always claims he's busy, doesn't remember key details, etc.</em></p></blockquote><blockquote><p>To: Briahna Joy Grey, Whitney Webb</p><p><em>Why haven't you corrected the false claims Whitney Webb made on your podcast, with hundreds of thousands of views, in which she made up false statements of fact to insinuate that Donald Trump orchestrated a prison murder to cover up his complicity in child sex-trafficking crimes?</em></p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.mtracey.net/p/whitney-webb-just-makes-stuff-up?r=y4c74&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web&amp;showWelcomeOnShare=false">Whitney Webb just makes stuff up</a></p><p><a href="https://www.mtracey.net/p/the-webb-whitney-weaves">The Webb Whitney Weaves</a></p><h3><strong>Possible dialectic with The Grayzone</strong></h3><p>A long-form discussion with Max Blumenthal or other Grayzone journalists would serve the audience better following his circular appearance on System Update. Such a dialogue would pit Tracey&#8217;s scepticism against more of his own colleagues and friends who believe Epstein&#8217;s story extends far beyond Tracey&#8217;s framing. Why do his Jewish alt-media peers (Greenwald, Blumenthal, Mat&#233;) reach different conclusions? Can these perspectives be synthesised through constructive dialectic rather than remain in parallel monologues?</p><h3><strong>Tracey's style as liability</strong></h3><p>Tracey&#8217;s main weakness lies less in substance than in style. Challenging prevailing anti-paedophile sentiment is guaranteed to provoke vilification, since the issue is emotionally charged and deliberately weaponised. Yet his abrasive, verbose, and pedantically repetitive delivery magnifies the backlash, making him appear ego-driven rather than evidence-driven. He would benefit from subtler methods&#8212;Louis Theroux&#8217;s patient, understated approach to Jimmy Savile or his recent work in Palestine demonstrates how quiet persistence can uncover more than frontal assault.</p><p>Tracey shows little inclination to adapt, which leaves him stranded: needling from the sidelines, waving documents, but denied the access needed for a full scoop. Still, denial itself can have value for a contrarian journalist. Source reluctance, evasions, or outright refusals can expose weaknesses in both the actors and the narratives they sustain. The problem is scale: such tactics only work if the journalist&#8217;s reputation and audience are large enough to exert pressure. Tracey lacks that leverage, making it unlikely he can meaningfully unsettle the Epstein Ecosystem&#8217;s more entrenched players and profiteers.</p><h1>Epstein: the truth isn&#8217;t out there</h1><h3>Permanent Ambiguity</h3><p>The full truth about Epstein will never be known&#8212;and even if it were, it would never be accepted. His reality, whatever it was, cannot satisfy both sides of the manufactured dichotomy.</p><p>Claims that Epstein was a key intelligence asset orchestrating blackmail rings cannot be advanced without also addressing how intelligence services themselves curate the Epstein mythos for their own ends. To advance such claims while ignoring the intelligence services&#8217; role in curating the Epstein myth is self-contradictory. Anyone selling narratives in this space must confront that contradiction or forfeit credibility.</p><p>&#8220;Curation&#8221; into both deliberate and unresolved ambiguity and/or obscurity does not contradict the interests of intelligence services or power. See JFK, RFK, MLK etc.</p><p>Any &#8220;file release&#8221; will be a managed hangout, offering up minor scapegoats long after their deaths. Genuine disclosure would implicate intelligence services, institutions, and high-profile figures, or else reveal truths so underwhelming that the myth itself would collapse. Neither outcome serves the interests of states, agencies, or even many self-identified victims. Thus, ambiguity is the point&#8212;and it will be maintained.</p><h3>Endless Political Opportunism</h3><p>Around Epstein&#8217;s name swirls perpetual opportunism. The story feeds empty columns, partisan theatre, and campaign spectacle&#8212;from Trump&#8217;s broken pledge to &#8220;release the files&#8221; to ongoing congressional grandstanding. Each cycle corrodes credibility and drives the public further from truth while conveniently distracting from more urgent realities: genocide, democide, systemic wealth transfer. This is textbook information and cognitive warfare&#8212;yet the media rarely confronts it directly, being themselves immersed in the same ecosystem.</p><h1>Conclusion</h1><p>The true legacy of Jeffrey Epstein is not a set of facts to be discovered, but a self-sustaining ecosystem of ambiguity. The "Epstein Ecosystem" endures precisely because its resolution would terminate its utility. For politicians, it is a versatile cudgel and a reliable distraction. For media, it is a perpetual engine of clickbait and moral panic. For intelligence and power structures, the mere spectre of undisclosed kompromat provides enduring leverage. In this light, the endless cycle of promised disclosures, sealed files, and sacrificial pawns is not a failure of the system&#8212;it is the system functioning as designed.</p><p>Figures like Michael Tracey, for all their flaws, become canaries in this coal mine. Their vilification and isolation are not mere byproducts of controversial journalism but a key output of the ecosystem itself, serving to deter deeper inquiry and reinforce the boundaries of acceptable discourse. The intense reaction to any scepticism demonstrates how effectively the issue has been weaponised to short-circuit critical thought.</p><p>Ultimately, the Epstein saga is a masterclass in information-age power. It demonstrates that in a landscape of cognitive warfare, perpetual uncertainty can be a more potent tool than any single truth. The infogrift will continue because too many actors have a vested interest in keeping the mystery alive, ensuring that the public remains trapped in a cycle of outrage and speculation, all while more systemic injustices persist, unexamined and unchallenged.</p><p><strong>The greatest trick the Epstein Ecosystem ever pulled was convincing the world it was a mystery to be solved, when it was always a tool to be used.</strong></p><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-1" href="#footnote-anchor-1" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">1</a><div class="footnote-content"><h4>1. Political Weaponisation</h4><p>Electioneering: 1) Trump used Epstein as a literal campaign pledge (&#8220;release of files&#8221;) to deliberately attract votes then abandoned that pledge (along with the rest of Agenda 47) in office&#8212;a standard, obvious, predictable and egregious bait-and-switch; 2) Invoked as a wedge issue&#8212;portraying opponents as corrupt, compromised, or linked to elite predators.</p><p>Partisan leverage: Politicians use &#8220;Epstein connections&#8221; to attack rivals (e.g., Trump vs. Clinton, Democrats vs. Republicans).</p><p>Legislative theatre: Bills or &#8220;Epstein file&#8221; initiatives used to signal toughness on corruption or paedophilia, while concealing more than they reveal (Massie's &amp; Khanna's bill actually further enables files to be permanently buried).</p><p>Diplomatic cudgel: States and blocs can use &#8220;Epstein scandals&#8221; to highlight hypocrisy in U.S. or Western governance.</p><h4>2. Media &amp; Narrative Control</h4><p>Agenda-setting: Cyclical bursts of Epstein-related coverage displace attention from other scandals (genocide, democide, wealth transfer, wars, corruption, financial crises).</p><p>Narrative containment: Media frames focus narrowly on salacious details (sex crimes) rather than intelligence or financial networks.</p><p>Discredit campaigns: Journalists and outlets questioning mainstream narratives risk smears as &#8220;conspiracy theorists.&#8221;</p><p>Moral panic management: Weaponised outrage around paedophilia channels public anger away from systemic wealth/power structures.</p><h4>3. Intelligence &amp; Blackmail Utility</h4><p>Myth maintenance: The suggestion that Epstein was a Mossad/CIA/MI6 asset keeps adversaries guessing, whether or not true.</p><p>Perception of kompromat: Even if files never surface, the belief that compromising material exists creates deterrence and leverage.</p><p>Operational distraction: Obsessive focus on Epstein can obscure or protect live operations using similar structures.</p><h4>4. Social &amp; Cultural Cognitive Warfare</h4><p>Polarisation amplifier: Splits publics into irreconcilable camps (Epstein-as-MI6/Mossad vs. Epstein-as-lone-predator).</p><p>Conspiracy saturation: Epstein stories are deliberately flooded with contradictory details, ensuring permanent ambiguity.</p><p>Delegitimising institutions: Courts, media, and law enforcement appear complicit, undermining trust in democracy.</p><p>Celebrity weaponisation: Photos of Epstein with elites (Clinton, Trump, Gates, Prince Andrew) function as guilt-by-association weapons.</p><h4>5. Legal &amp; Institutional Manipulation</h4><p>Perpetual deferral: &#8220;Files&#8221; and &#8220;sealed documents&#8221; are promised but never fully released&#8212;maintaining suspense, attention and control.</p><p>Sacrificial containment: A few expendable figures (e.g., Maxwell) are punished while the networks remain untouched.</p><p>Lawfare distraction: Resources diverted into endless litigation with no systemic exposure.</p><h4>6. Digital &amp; Online Ecosystem</h4><p>Meme warfare: Epstein memes (&#8220;Epstein didn&#8217;t kill himself&#8221;) function as shorthand for elite corruption, circulating across ideologies.</p><p>Influence operations: Bots and troll farms amplify Epstein content to sow distrust in Western elites.</p><p>Clickbait economy: Outlets exploit perpetual speculation to drive traffic, monetising ambiguity.</p><p>Platform censorship tests: Social media&#8217;s suppression or amplification of Epstein narratives serves as a live lab for content control.</p><h4>7. Psychological &amp; Symbolic Dimensions</h4><p>Collective suspicion: Epstein becomes the archetype of untouchable elites, reinforcing cynicism and fatalism (&#8220;nothing will change&#8221;).</p><p>Trauma weaponisation: The emotive subject of child abuse is used to hijack discourse, overwhelming rational analysis.</p><p>Mythologisation: Epstein is recast as a larger-than-life bogeyman, ensuring his symbolic utility outlasts his biography.</p><p>Cognitive fatigue: Contradictory, unresolved narratives induce paralysis&#8212;citizens disengage from politics due to complexity and distrust.</p><h4>8. Comparative/Foreign Policy Leverage</h4><p>Hypocrisy exposure: Adversaries (Russia, China, Iran) cite Epstein to argue that Western elites are corrupt and predatory.</p><p>Counter-narratives: Epstein used to delegitimise Western &#8220;human rights&#8221; campaigns as selective and hypocritical.</p><p>Global IW export: Foreign outlets recycle Epstein narratives to stoke resentment, weaken alliances, or embarrass Western states.</p><h4>9. Perpetual Ambiguity as a Tool</h4><p>Managed hangouts: Selective leaks designed to mislead, redirect, or sacrifice low-level actors.</p><p>Endless speculation: Permanent uncertainty ensures continual reactivation as needed.</p><p>Strategic distraction: Epstein functions as a lightning rod&#8212;absorbing dissent that might otherwise target structural issues (war profiteering, systemic financial corruption).</p><h4>10. Future/Long-Term Uses</h4><p>Intergenerational legend: Epstein may be weaponised in the same way JFK&#8217;s assassination is&#8212;a symbol of systemic rot.</p><p>Cultural shorthand: &#8220;Epstein&#8221; becomes synonymous with elite paedophilia or state-protected crime, shaping discourse for decades.</p><p>Narrative inoculation: Epstein storylines can be used to &#8220;prime&#8221; publics to dismiss or accept revelations about other intelligence-linked scandals.</p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-2" href="#footnote-anchor-2" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">2</a><div class="footnote-content"><p><strong><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-years-including-2024-campaign-trail/story?id=123778541#:~:text=,Yeah%2C%20yeah%2C%20I%20would">What Trump has said about Jeffrey Epstein over the years, including on 2024 campaign trail</a></strong></p><p></p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-3" href="#footnote-anchor-3" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">3</a><div class="footnote-content"><p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-years-including-2024-campaign-trail/story?id=123778541#:~:text=In%20August%202019%2C%20after%20Epstein%27s,was%20connected%20to%20Epstein%27s%20death">In August 2019, after Epstein's death, Trump retweeted a post that alleged Bill Clinton was connected to Epstein's death.</a></p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-4" href="#footnote-anchor-4" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">4</a><div class="footnote-content"><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/trump-jeffrey-epstein-congress#:~:text=Led%20by%20its%20Republican%20chair,with%20Epstein%20in%20the%20past">Trump faces new Epstein headache as Congress returns from recess</a></p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-5" href="#footnote-anchor-5" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">5</a><div class="footnote-content"><p><strong>3. Permitted Withholdings</strong></p><p>While the Attorney General is required to release many documents, there are specific circumstances under which information may be redacted or withheld, such as:</p><ul><li><p>Protecting personally identifiable information of victims or sensitive personal and medical records.</p></li><li><p>Preventing the release of material depicting child sexual abuse.</p></li><li><p>Safeguarding details that could compromise an active investigation or ongoing prosecution.</p></li><li><p>Withholding graphic images of death or abuse.</p></li><li><p>Keeping classified information secret for national security reasons.</p></li></ul><p>Any withheld information must have a justification provided in a written format published in the Federal Register.</p><p><a href="https://www.quiverquant.com/bills/119/hr-4405#:~:text=While%20the%20Attorney%20General%20is,redacted%20or%20withheld%2C%20such%20as">Quiverquant.com: H.R. 4405: Epstein Files Transparency Act</a></p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-6" href="#footnote-anchor-6" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">6</a><div class="footnote-content"><h3><strong>Tracey on Ukraine</strong></h3><p>VST has engaged Tracey directly, multiple times at length, particularly on Ukraine. He vaguely bemoaned the &#8220;armchair military political alt media punditry&#8221; then specifically criticised Scott Ritter and Douglas MacGregor for repeated errors. When asked for specific lists of their failures he cited <strong>only</strong> their failed predictions of <strong>exactly</strong> <strong>when</strong> the war would end. He offers no substantive counter-analysis, explicitly refusing to make predictions. This limited his critique to castigating those who risk being wrong, in only an ill-defined &#8220;alt media&#8221; sphere.<br>Ritter and MacGregor both predicted Russian victory as the inevitable outcome, one way or another. Whilst not always reliable in all aspects, and wrong on the timing of the war's end, and the nature of the warfighting strategy in the first two phases (along with everyone else), Ritter's forecasts remain more accurate than those of mainstream state-backed commentators Tracey avoids singling out for equal criticism. Tracey didn't seek to interview them or RFK Jr.&#8212; with whom he also has a serious beef&#8212;dismissing suggestions from VST to do so with a perfunctory &#8220;I might,&#8221; despite him being a journalist. On military-political analysis, he demonstrates little competence.</p><h3><br><strong>Tracey&#8217;s October 7th Self-Own</strong></h3><p>Tracey seriously undermined himself by uncritically amplifying the false Israeli claim that Hamas had beheaded 40 babies. He vouched for the credibility of i24 News and its promulgation of total lies because he had appeared on the channel, declaring it impossible that its journalists (and journalists in general) would fabricate such claims. This was extraordinary given decades of fabricated war reporting in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, and elsewhere. His error exposed the fragility of his judgement about information and journalism.</p><p><br><em>I&#8217;ve appeared regularly on this channel and given views that are contrary to US foreign policy consensus. The idea that its journalists would just make up the existence of murdered babies is garbage. Such claims are almost always garbage: whether it&#8217;s Israel, Russia, Ukraine, etc</em></p><p><strong><a href="https://x.com/mtracey/status/1711811916098851207?t=HsQzc-dv0GIWGngGDvzaIw&amp;s=19">Michael Tracey</a> 10/10/23</strong></p><p><br><em>About 40 babies were taken out on gurneys... Cribs overturned, strollers left behind, doors left wide open'</em><br><em>Our correspondent Nicole_Zedek continues to survey the horror scenes left behind in Kibbutz Kfar Aza where Hamas invaded and murdered dozens of Israelis in their homes</em><br><strong><a href="https://x.com/i24NEWS_EN/status/1711718195025821976?t=06tM5De3GximLOIhsrwCZg&amp;s=19">I24 News English</a> 10/10/23</strong></p></div></div><div class="footnote" data-component-name="FootnoteToDOM"><a id="footnote-7" href="#footnote-anchor-7" class="footnote-number" contenteditable="false" target="_self">7</a><div class="footnote-content"><p><a href="https://youtu.be/dOsU_LqXrpQ?feature=shared">Video footage of Tracey's interaction at recent Press Conference with Ro Khanna, Marjorie Taylor-Greene and various Epstein victims et</a>c</p><p></p></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Cut]]></title><description><![CDATA[&#8220;So, what do you do?&#8221; she enquires.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/the-cut</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/the-cut</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2025 04:02:42 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/aefd8cf0-9f9f-4756-9459-250d784f5b82_768x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&#8220;So, what do you do?&#8221; she enquires. A blind date put all this talk back on the table, instead of inside an inhuman stream of text flying back and forth across an app.</p><p>&#8220;I'm at Meatilicious. I work on the line.&#8221;</p><p>Her smile stays. Locked slightly, by politeness. Her pupils shrink in those grey eyes.</p><p>&#8220;Oh yeah? That new plant? My friend was telling me...&#8221;</p><p><em>Here it comes.</em></p><p>&#8220;...there's some new, secret ingredient. True?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Errr, nah. It's all meat.&#8221; It's not a lie.</p><p>&#8220;Oh, that's a relief! Rumours, eh? It's like that saying, 'you don't wanna see how the sausages are made&#8217;.&#8221;</p><p>I laugh. There's something to her.</p><p>&#8220;Still,&#8221; she says, &#8220;I'd ask, in your place, what's &#8216;meat&#8217; these days?&#8221; The air quotes never used to get wrapped around that word. Times change.</p><p>I take a sip of my negroni; I like its bitter strength, but it's an acquired taste.</p><p>&#8220;<em>Not bone</em>,&#8221; I reply. That's true. Sirloin, rump, tenderloin, kidneys, liver, lung. It's all &#8220;meat&#8221;. Even eyes.</p><p>All meat.</p><p>Not bone.</p><p>Ask the right butcher and you'll find there's equivalent cuts in human anatomy.</p><p>Her pupils fix small. Dimples relax. Her smile leaves.</p><p>&#8220;Ready to order?&#8221; asks the waitress.</p><p>&#8220;I'll have the braised beef cheeks, please,&#8221; she says. Without air quotes.</p><p>&#8220;And I'll have the vegetarian lasagne, with a burata to start.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Maybe you'd like to share?&#8221; I ask, when the burata arrives. That Puglian delight&#8212;the white ball of delicious, soft-centred cheese&#8212;sits atop a thick piece of sourdough toast.</p><p>Reminds me of an eyeball.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA["Intellectual loneliness"]]></title><description><![CDATA[Intellectual loneliness isn't about wanting 'deep talks'.]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/intellectual-loneliness</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/intellectual-loneliness</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2025 02:30:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png" width="1080" height="1317" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1317,&quot;width&quot;:1080,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1761171,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/i/171022897?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LxMh!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55ebb976-e548-4067-b178-952811716df6_1080x1317.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><blockquote><p>Intellectual loneliness isn't about wanting 'deep talks'. It's about realising how few people can tolerate complexity. It's noticing how quickly people rush to have an answer not to understand, but to feel right. It's watching people form entire worldviews off headlines, vibes, and whatever reels told them last. It's the silence that follows when you say something that doesn't fit neatly into someone's script. It's not arrogance. It's exhaustion, from always having to code-switch between what you actually think and what's safe to say around people who shut down at nuance. And no one warns you: Once your brain learns to stretch, small talk doesn't just bore you, it alienates you. You're not looking for smart people. You're looking for people who are still thinking.</p><p>Author unknown</p></blockquote>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[PROPAGATION FRONT: rBHW]]></title><description><![CDATA[If we were knowing]]></description><link>https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/propagation-front-rbhw</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://veryslowthinking.substack.com/p/propagation-front-rbhw</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Ignasz Semmelweisz]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 27 Jul 2025 20:36:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/3498c505-e5f8-4ef0-acf7-6bab32cd1c04_450x318.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If we were knowing</p><p>free, what would we know that costs</p><p>too much for babes?</p><p>Still. No price without motion or tension.</p><p>Sans price, no margin or gains; asymmetry wanes to still.</p><p>Teach me freedom through flight and I will pay.</p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>