I would phrase that as the superiority of crowd funding, crowd sourcing, and bottom up hierarchies, over the corruption and inefficiency of top down hierarchies.

Right and wrong matter, but the Right is competitively effective only to the degree of activism its championed in the arena. And competitive effectiveness is the bottom line.

In other words, perception is reality. Even though there are hard limits on make a wish transforming reality.

The problem is the proponents of Right have self-rendered competitively ineffective by their choice to champion their personal aversion to activism above the social Right.

People born on or who have lived in the internet sub cultures, are in tune with activism and bottom up hierarchies. Nobody did anything except the volunteers. That is just how it works. Even youtube channel content creators were once volunteers, before it got monetized.

Most people are followers. And those who grew up in the 80s or 90s, are reliant on the System to tell them what to do, where to go, etc. However, that System is no longer operational or effective. Only choice is to wait until the old generation die out and get replaced by fresher flood. That’s usually the only way to turn or progress or change a culture that is long and traditional.

Right and wrong matter, but the Right is competitively effective only to the degree of activism its championed in the arena. And competitive effectiveness is the bottom line.

The problem is the proponents of Right have self-rendered competitively ineffective by their choice to champion their personal aversion to activism above the social Right.

I take his remarks about standing up for the Constitution, freedom, and so on as not so much implicitly bashing Trump because Trump won’t do those things, but rather as an extension of hope, a form of encouragement to Trump to try and do those things when/if he gets to the White House. Much the same sense in which people called the Pacific Ocean pacific in spite of the reality that it was the opposite. A sort of prayerful magic to get the good spirits or what have you to help out.

Now had I been writing that speech for Cruz, I would have done certain things differently. I would have left aside the ‘vote your conscience’ part, perhaps, and added in something to the effect of ‘if you want the Constitution, freedom, etc. upheld and defended, know that there is one candidate in this race who I believe has the ability to do all those things, and he’s sitting right over there – Donald Trump!’ Not so much passive-aggressive, you see. Expressing a truth – Trump does (I think) have the ability to do all that once in office – IF he chooses to. Taking the personal aspect out of it, making the noble gesture toward unity while holding a certain reserve, but not disdain. Paying Trump the respect of acknowledging his great personal drive and hope in his ability to rise to the occasion, while admitting that I/we still need some convincing on whether he actually is prepared to do so (ergo “has the ability to do”, not yet straight-up “will do”). Last but not least: letting Trump know between the lines that if he fails or refuses to do those things – we’ll be watching.

So while Cruz didn’t get it completely right to my mind, he got fairly close. And considering the two times when close counts, maybe I can be happy with that.

I also tested negative. Actually a 20 on the scale from 0 to 520 where 20 was actually needing more backbone.

Loved your narcissist joke. To know is not to emulate to a narcissist. To care is truly human. To care is listening, learning, and being accountable.

Later !! You made this place exciting again! This place meaning – the comments area. I’ve read Neo’s work without commenting for awhile. Her perspective is so needed for me. Where else can you truly learn about Turkey?

Ah, ye olde narcissistic partner. I know it well; who can date in America without encountering one, or twenty?

You seem pretty well read on the topic, and there was a time (for obvious reasons) I was reading books on the subject fervently – I recall reading Dr. Pinsky’s book and comparing it unfavorably to Jean Twenge’s “Narcissism Epidemic” (I think her straightforward understanding of narcissism is correct, just based on experience).

I recall also reading a very interesting book which got more in the weeds on the subject of narcissists in relationships, called “Emotional Vampires,” by a Dr. Bernstein, if memory serves. I found the descriptive category of the emotional vampire to be worthwhile, and there is a good deal of overlap with the narcissist. And as you note, narcissism is a temptation for all of us in this new age – though I have tested negative for narcissism in the personality battery contained in Twenge’s book I believe, sometimes I think I knew what the narcissist would answer, answered accordingly, and then took narcissistic satisfaction in not being a narcissist.

It’s hard to know with these things.

Regardless, I’m happy to hear you’re doing well otherwise. I’ll drink to that.

It’s not that I see narcissists everywhere (Obama, Trump, partner), it’s that it seems to be a thing lately as we move into the information age. People are getting more impatient, more negative, less accountable, more into their phones but less exploratory to find out what is really true.

People that I used to trust as “conservative” believing things that they shouldn’t believe – all due to laziness and the inability to reason or hold a deep diving conversation about the “facts”.

Van Jones WANTS to have his own facts. But why does my partner? There are good days and bad days because in the end it’s truly a lack of caring by the narcissist.

I’ve listened to a hundred hours of videos from Melanie Tonia Evans. She’s not political at all. She’s focused on how to survive and adapt to the narcissist because in the end – the accountable people grow and learn so that is who she can help. Us.

Funny, that’s what I thought back in 2008, 2012, as I watched the Leftist alliance begin to uncork their strategic reserves, as people were worried about policies which didn’t matter in the end. Since changing the world was pointless, even if feasible, I preferred to change and improve myself.

Now that people started waking up (too late) after 2012, starting around 2013 was it, people are own exercised, panicking, and talking about Clinton being evil. The Leftist alliance is evil, everyone in it is culpable and evil after all. Clinton is no different. But the human heart has a flaw, humans can only learn to hate by isolating individuals down, like Hussein or HRC or Bush II or Palin or Cruz. They can’t just hate an ideal or an amorphous “evil”. The weakness is as pathetic as it is funny.

Cruz could have followed up his high-minded sounding speech (who can argue against “vote your conscience”?) with arguments that 1) Trump is unelectable or 2) Trump is not a conservative.-Glen H Says:

If Cruz had decided not to support Trump, why didn’t Cruz run as a third party like Ross Perot?

People like you think your actually “thinking” with logic, when in fact your brain has been hijacked by your emotions. Like Leftist zombies, you are not actually thinking normally. Alcohol impairment so to speak, except this is emotional impairment.

It is increasingly clear that pols like John Boehner and Dan Coats (neither of whom is on my favorite pols list) understand on a human being basis what it is they are dealing with.

Justifying becoming Boehner’s ally should have made you rethink things. When Cruz broke the DC corruption gov, against the wishes of Hussein and the Republican leadership, you chose to side with Boehner against Cruz. Because of that, you have fallen into sin, but justify it as righteous justice against Cruz. If Cruz isn’t the devil you claim he is, all of that falls apart. Starting with how impaired your logic functions are under emotion.

A huge part of the crisis on the right at the moment is our struggle to adapt to a world where it seems there is no way to make any public headway without *hating the sinner.* we don’t know what to do. On the one hand, if we play by the old Christian rules we seem to neuter ourselves. On the other hand, if we play by the new barbarian rules we seem to become barbarians, which would render conservatism pointless.-Kol

Perhaps that is so, but it depends on whether the interpretation of Christ’s rules were correct. Was it a rule he made for himself? On what basis and context? And if it was a rule, was it something disciples of Christ should have followed?

People should have been very careful attempting to abridge historical accounts and attributing to the modern age, proverbs designed for sheep herders, livestock farmers, and feudal aristocrats with their lawyer court systems. I question whether anyone rally knows what those old 1st AD Christendom rules really were, as applied to the 21st century. Humans have stayed the same, but that doesn’t mean you can copy cat things in history and paste them here, then call it “Christianity”. And if a religious authority like the Pope or Protestant antiPapist says it is so, on what basis do they make their claims of knowing what Christ’s rules were?

Like Socrates, I questionw hether the elites and authorities really have the wisdom and authority which they claim to have. The Authority to demand that Christians hate the sin but not the sinner. If the sinner is evil, then hating evil requires admitting the truth of things to yourself and the world. Hating the sinner would be like Trump vassals hating Cruz, of course. But evil cannot be hated so long as Republicans consider Leftists to be “mistaken” or “merely misguided”.

Evil isn’t about merely mistakes or being merely misguided.

Which is why, even though it is taxing to write and speak to people in an election bogus season, I also find it invigorating and fun. It is fun to watch humans as they collapse into despair and destroy themselves, their families, and then curse and hate God, Cruz, Trump, or anybody else. It is enjoyable watching the basest of human natures express themselves, on a world stage which has deemed such things to be beneath “Americans” or Westerners or “white people”. It will be even more fun to see what Divine Punishment, if any, exists for such a people.

I find it to be quite enlightening and intellectually stimulating. I am sure many here will think the same, in 5-10 years, once they have had time to ingest and grow a resistance to the Poison of Humanity.

About the same fashion you judge Cruz, I judge you. You will be judged in the fashion you judge. If you don’t like that, well, that’s not my problem. You, chose of your own free will, to narrow your options. Now of all times, you ask why on Earth that happens?

Why do you think Karma and what goes around, comes around, happens? Even the mighty America is not immune to that.

You know, if you outlaw too many of American patriots’ candidates, the only way they can settle the issue is with a war, a shooting war. Is that what you want, to turn this corrupt democracy into a corrupt 1000 factional civil war? Because that’s where you are heading, even without disbarring Cruz.