Trump has failed by every metric except raising himself to (almost) mythic status. Because of this alone, nobody is even in the same room as him in terms of political influence. Not a single politician in the Western world even comes close.
This is not an endorsement of him, but a cold shower for the radical right. For too long, the radical right's play has been to debate liberalism out of power, whereas people are not moved by argument, but by narrative. Everyone backs a strong horse, and the strong horse says convincingly "history bends toward me". The right has won every "debate" it has ever had, and continues to lose the war. Unless and until we learn this lesson (among others), we will continue to be a fringe movement.
We have done a lot to move the Overton window, but overwhelmingly our work has been done by elites having fumbled the ball badly, and gone way too far, way too fast. History bends toward us, but not because we're master strategists. We suck at strategy and need to get better—and this includes crafting a more powerful myth than that of "progress". That's what this article is about.
IN 2006, RESEARCHER CLEVE BACKSTER — THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE CIA'S LIE DETECTOR PROTOCOLS — PUBLISHED 36 YEARS OF EXPERIMENTS PROVING THAT PLANTS, BACTERIA, AND HUMAN CELLS IN PETRI DISHES RESPOND INSTANTANEOUSLY TO HUMAN THOUGHT AND EMOTION — EVEN AT DISTANCES OF HUNDREDS OF MILES. THE SIGNAL IS FASTER THAN LIGHT. IT DOES NOT DIMINISH WITH DISTANCE. IT IS NOT ELECTROMAGNETIC.
In 1966, Cleve Backster was the world's foremost expert on polygraph technology. He had developed the interrogation techniques used by the CIA, FBI, and U.S. military. He understood galvanic skin response — the electrical conductance of biological tissue — better than anyone alive.
One morning, on a whim, he attached polygraph electrodes to a Dracaena plant in his office. He watered it and watched the tracing. Then he thought: "I wonder what would happen if I threatened this plant." He decided to burn a leaf with a match.
The instant he formed the intention — before he moved, before he lit the match, before any ...
Kennedy Starts a Push to Help Americans Quit Antidepressants
Federal health agencies announced a new national effort to reduce psychiatric overprescribing, informed consent, and expanding access to nondrug mental health approaches like psychotherapy, nutrition, and physical activity. https://bit.ly/4vqyFJB