As IF Times

If you were an alien who just showed up on this planet and took note of the activity among all regions of the globe, you would make some very strange observations.

You would notice that a very large part of the population live in rather mean circumstances, that is to say, with barely adequate housing, marginal sanitary systems and simple, perhaps difficult regimes of food acquisition.  For many in the non-affluent parts of the planet, not having a dirt floor means you have achieved a middle class existence.

A smaller part of the world’s people live in relative affluence with access to shelter, education and mobility considered rightful entitlements. As far as food acquisition, it’s more likely to be a Costco run than setting traps in the tall grass. For the sake of discussion, we can characterize the divide as between East and West, but this labelling refers to political rather than to geographic situation.  There are of course many people living on the margins in the affluent West and there is ample wealth in the non-West.

Perhaps it’s more accurate to characterize the divide as that between the affluent and the poor, for certainly, the majority of the planet can be considered ‘poor’ by the simple yardsticks mentioned earlier.  We use East and West only because most of the looney ideas that drive world events these days emanate from the ‘West’. Woke-ism, Gluten-free-ism, LGBT-ism, CRT-ism, Global Warm-ism, Covid-ism, all creations of the enlightened West.

If you were to peruse the narratives from people living in the privileged part of the planet, you would think that the lives of everyone on earth are threatened with dire existential issues from virtually every quarter.  This is not hyperbole at all.  Just watch TV news for one day and you will conclude that the people for whom the struggles of daily existence are non-issues appear to be constantly on the edge of extinction…at least in their minds. There is a disaster ready to befall mankind every hour, on the hour.  Of course, some of these imminent threats can take decades to happen, if and when they do.  We’re waiting for the asteroid crashing into Earth scare to rear its head.

The astute alien would notice that the high priests of doom are always from the affluent segment of the planet and, despite their doom and gloom messages, live rather well and in direct contrast to the messages they spew.  People buying beachfront properties while warning of sea level rises may be a dead give-away. Someone pays for this and you guessed it, it’s the people who don’t have as much as the high priests and who in fact contribute to their wealth.  The most conspicuous of these hypocritical charlatans are such as Al Gore and John Kerry who have been flying around on jets for years telling the poor people to pay more taxes to save the planet while their own circumstances improve exponentially.  No one seems to notice that the solution to almost all problems is through paying more taxes and fees.

If there’s one person that personifies the mentality of the West, it would be Taylor Swift.  This singer has made her fame and fortune bleating about how bad her experiences with boys have been but meanwhile continuing to produce songs about ‘toxic’ relationships and crying all the way to the bank.  It’s all about them. Many of those who live in affluent nations are hopelessly naïve or just plain narcissistic.  Their sheltered lives have no resonance at all to the vast majority of people on the planet. No one would even care if not for the fact that their delusions influence social policies which makes life miserable for everyone else.  As if using paper straws and bicycles will be of any benefit to the people living in Mogadishu.

Nothing succeeds like success and thus imitators have popped up in other facets of people’s lives as well.  The pharma industry have been carving out their niche now, selling the fear of illness and death to the masses.  We’ve been witness to the terrible destruction this industry can wreak over the past 2 years.  Even while the majority of people on the planet are struggling to even marginally improve their lives, those fortunate ones above them on the ladder of life will find ways to prevent their climb.  Restrictions and prohibitions and drugs for all….you know, to save mankind.

In the entitled nations, there is preposterous discourse about which bathrooms to use, whereas in much of the world, having an outhouse that’s shared by less than 10 people is a luxury.  In the wealthy, educated parts of the world, they have to wrestle with a plethora of new genders that are suddenly available.  Yep, mysteriously, in the rich nations, affluence has produced a bounty of new gender categories while the rest of the world lives with a measly 2.  Wouldn’t you know, the rich nations get more choice again! Funny that through the millennia, with mankind managing to get along with only 2 genders, the appearance of new ones just ballooned in the last 5 years!  What are the odds?

Back to our mythical alien, he (not them, their) would notice that the population in the poorer parts of the planet are striving to improve their life conditions for themselves and their families.  Yet the affluent parts of the globe seemingly pursue every avenue possible to destroy the societies and institutions that they’ve successfully built, pushing their societies headlong into self-destruction. The poor are building and the rich are destroying.  As the famous alien Mr. Spock would say, ‘fascinating…’

link:  Sanders gets a second look

Bernie Sanders is the extension of the bad boy obsession phenomenon that consumes many young girls during a crazed time in their lives.  He’s the geriatric version of Fonzie.  Usually during their teen years but not exclusively, women are vulnerable to the charms of roguish boys, who appear to live outside of the mainstream and flout popular social norms.  Heck, they’re even a bit dangerous.  To their friends and families, the girls’ obsession seems weird because the object of their  affections are generally louts, ne’er do wells and are social outcasts. No good could ever come of the relationship.  Eventually of course, the boy moves on to the next victim and the gal is crushed.

It’s a stretch to imagine a leather jacketed, greasy haired, brooding hoodlum turning into Bernie Sanders ( and frankly that should scare all girls off of such guys) but the parallels are astonishing.  Among all of the objectionable people vying to attain the nomination to be the Democratic nominee, Sanders is by far the most objectionable.  For, while all of the candidates conveniently say the same things and pander to whomever they can  to get votes, Sanders genuinely believes his crazed utterances and has unabashedly been doing so his entire career.

Similar to his senate cohort, Joe Biden, Sanders has lived his entire life suckling on the public teat, rising from guitar playing communes to mayor of a small town to being elected to the US senate, to being a contender for the US presidency. It’s Horatio Alger-The Nightmare Version.  Throughout the time of his rise in political favor, he has consistently advocated for support of a socialist society with the usual bleats about wealth disparity, racism, sexism etc etc.  Fortuitously for Sanders, this on going preaching against capitalism has not prevented him from acquiring great wealth, including several homes, a large stock portfolio, big payouts and even a most un-socialist bauble, an Audi R-8 sports car worth a cool 100g.

Sanders is not alone in his hypocritical life.  Al Gore and Joel Osteen are the most obvious examples of charlatans who preach their respective brands of piousness while having a siphon attached to the public purse. The genius of all of these people is their ability to find that part of the population that are susceptible to their entreaties…and then make truckloads of money from them!  Al Gore is not living in a wood cabin eating kelp and travelling by oxcart.  Joel Osteen is not wearing sackcloth and handing out bread.   And Bernie Sanders is not sharing his ill gotten filthy lucre with his adoring acolytes.

During this interminable period of Democratic debates, few things are more odious than to see this avowed socialist wag his finger at the public, telling them how things should be.  Imagine;  a man who has done nothing, telling people how to do everything.  According to the ‘polls’ however, his popularity is strong across a wide swath of America. I think this is the equivalent of polling goo goo eyed teen aged girls who think that Bernie is Fonzie.  Nobody would trust the judgement of teen aged girls on anything much less major decisions on the direction of society.  His push for socialism continues even as there is not a single instance of such a system working anywhere, now, or ever in the history of the world. Wake up girls; the man’s a goof.  He does live outside of the mainstream, he is anti social, but more importantly, he is more than a bit dangerous.