No products in the cart.
Demoralized People Demoralizing Others
- Charles Myriel
Demoralization: The act of corrupting or subverting morals. Especially: The act of corrupting or subverting discipline, courage, hope, etc., or the state of being corrupted or subverted in discipline, courage, etc.
One of my biggest passions in life is helping individuals heal, regain self confidence, and finding tools to assist in that process. In the western world, our society is traumatized. Individuals have been broken down following the Covid lockdowns, 2008 financial crisis, 9/11, and now all the current wars. Media is one of the biggest tools used to traumatize individuals, breaking down their sense of self worth in order to get individuals to fall into line for whatever the ambitions are of corporations and the governments that serve them. A person who has no self worth will allow individuals to abuse them, and believe that it is not only right, but moral. That individual will then go on to demoralize others. It’s a domino effect, and what breaks the cycle is context. The natural state of individuals is free, and despite the demoralizers best efforts, they will never be able to extinguish that. Giving individuals other options and context allows for them to enter into restorative healing. The cypherpunk movement is still alive and well, and is in my opinion, one of the most effective ways to invite individuals into real meaningful healing.
I was recently listening to Dave Smith discuss libertarianism on Peter McCormack’s podcast, and was surprised to hear Peter admit that he was wrong about Covid lockdowns and vaccines. Peter had voiced some support for totalitarian lockdown policies, and this was the first time I had ever heard him somewhat walk it back. He may have admitted he was wrong before, but hearing this for the first time made me respect the guy a bit more, but also think about his role in media, and influence on individuals interacting with Bitcoin. One thing that is clear to me is that Peter is a demoralized individual who has not experienced the process of throwing off the shackles of self loathing and shame that is bestowed upon us by the systems carefully constructed to bring legitimacy to the systems that wage wars, tax us, surveil us, and locked down the world from 2020-2022. Nor is Peter truly incentivized to ever go through the real process of healing because his audience and income is primarily full of other demoralized people that do not have the context to respect or appreciate a truly liberated individual who places value on their own life but also the life of others. In the podcast, Peter definitely showed that he had been going through some personal shifts, but this comes at a time where the media is going through an inorganic shift towards a more “freedom” oriented view point.
I truly hope that Peter will have a shift and be able to do some deep internal healing, as I hope that for all individuals, but I remain skeptical as we should have deep distrust of anyone working in media. Peter has a large audience and helps to shape people’s world views. Individuals will follow his example for both good and bad based on the information presented to them. In the same way, Peter will follow the information that is presented to him, and giving him the benefit of the doubt, will try to make the best decisions he can based on that information. The harsh reality is that when people are given incorrect information, they make bad decisions. People died from taking the vaccine. People were incredibly damaged from the lockdowns. Our economies are wrecked as a result of money printing. Individuals, like myself, who once respected Peter as a voice of reason, promoting and educating on Bitcoin, experienced deep discouragement hearing him promote draconian lockdowns and coercive vaccine policies, which were antithetical to what the cypherpunk/cryptoanarchist movement is all about.
It is incredibly important for individuals to understand the power of media in order to be able to filter out unhelpful voices who act as demoralization agents to break down their sense of self worth and distort their views of reality. Media shapes the way we see the world. It is a constantly changing landscape and includes social media platforms (controlled by intelligence agencies), Hollywood (controlled by intelligence agencies), and news media including podcasts, YouTube videos, cable news, newspapers, websites, etc (controlled by intelligence agencies). Alternative media is on the rise, but it oftentimes is no less demoralizing than Pfizer sponsored media platforms. Everything is about incentives. Being milk toast and parroting the themes the demoralizers are presenting gets you sponsors, gets you access to the majority of the population which is demoralized and will be offended/threatened by remoralized individuals. Independent content creators are ruled by terms and conditions, having to choose either to make money, or fall into irrelevance due to deplatforming. Alternative sites exist as banishment for the content creator who has rocked the boat. Even if they are good intentioned and intellectually honest, they are incredibly limited by a shadowy hand that will instantly demonetize, ding in the algorithms, and at some point even ban. The media as we know it is not your friend, and many people working in it actually despise you as much as they despise themselves.
I have been asked what I look for in sourcing credible information. First off, one thing I have learned from listening to Ron Paul is that sticking to your principles and having a moral compass is one of the most powerful ways to sift through the lies. Propaganda is about eliciting an emotional response which has the powerful effect of shutting down critical thinking. That is why politicians launching veiled threats at dissidents and making examples of individuals like Julian Assange and Ross Ulbricht is such an effective tactic. The only reason they have control is because people believe in their authority and the reality is that a small minority of ungovernable fucks who are fed up and noncompliant can create a massive amount of disruption. Knowing when someone is trying to elicit an emotional response is a good tell on whether they are presenting something credible or not. Another easy tell that you’re being lied to is repetition.
When someone says something over and over again, and it’s parroted by news platforms everywhere, it’s time to ask some questions. Another thing that helps is not being too emotionally attached to an outcome or narrative. You can be wrong and admitting when you are promptly and learning from being wrong is a useful exercise for evaluating information going forward. Right now we are watching what I consider to be an incredibly inorganic shift towards right wing populism across alternative media. Over the last few years, Rogan has turned into a conservative, as well as other political commentators like Russel Brand and Tim Pool. Even normal influencers like Andrew Callaghan from Channel 5 News, are now covering right wing issues, after mostly focusing on left wing news coverage. Individuals like Vivek Ramaswamy, Javier Milei, RFK Jr. and Donald Trump might be saying things that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, but so did Obama. Trump’s failures to do anything but bring legitimacy to the swamp and bolster it his first term should be a clear indication that he is not on the side of human liberty. Instead he brings legitimacy to the demoralizers.
Identifying who hates you, and minimizing their impact on your life is one of the first steps in the healing process. It is good to be aware, but bad to be consumed. It is safe to assume that all journalists hate you, hate themselves, and have faith in nothing. That is why it is so refreshing to hear different voices that sound more reasonable and empathetic towards your existence. The bar has been set so low that when an individual speaks something remotely resembling the truth, it is so overwhelmingly refreshing, people forget to stop and think for a moment. Individuals like Alex Jones may cover things happening, but they also consistently funnel people back into the problem. Listeners are left feeling the only solution is a politician fixing things through an act of God, adding to the feeling there is nothing in their power to create any meaningful change. One of the most discouraging things a person can experience is dedicating their life to a cause for a series of years, only to find out that effort was either wasted or could have been better used elsewhere. Recovering from that can be incredibly difficult, and so I’m wary of any pundit who claims that there can be any meaningful change in the political system.
On the topic of people who hate you, it is vital to be aware of the subliminal messaging that is communicated in the content we consume. If your goal is to be a good spouse, or a good parent, it is a good idea to almost entirely eliminate Hollywood’s influence on your life. They seem hell bent on only portraying dysfunctional relationships, and failing parents. We need good wholesome examples in our lives in order to strive to be better individuals, and Hollywood will not offer us that. Instead, looking for individuals who prioritize time with their spouses and children to interact with is healing. I have a friend who believes his full time job is being a dad, who tells me how much he loves his kids everytime I’m with him is one of the most encouraging things I have experienced. Spending time with top notch individuals like him is a good antidote to the poison coming out of Hollywood. This includes advertisers, who are the individuals funding the people that hate you. This is why engaging in value for value communities and working to build that ecosystem out is an incredibly productive activity to do.
There’s not a ton of prescribed action in this write up discussing how to counter the demoralizers, and I plan to follow this up more in later write ups. We ultimately become the content we consume, and the individuals we surround ourselves with. As we transition in life, we find ourselves attracted to different types of people. Stepping out of being demoralized opens up a different appetite for human connection. You will desire meaningful conversations, and will strive to engage in more productive activities. Freedom is the default state of humanity. You were born free and anything else is unnatural. As you become free, you will attract people to follow you, but also find people of the like mind, and zero voting is required.