heard this expression offered for the 1st time this morning by long term friend, author, leadership trainer and retired Army Armor officer Col Jon Antal.
People often believe in an ideology above everything else including ignoring the impact of history and facts/reality. It puts aside the needs of the people governed in pursuit of their illogical ideology.
Now this was in a discussion on our podcast of the issues in China and how they might effect Taiwan. We began by discussing the similar narrow minded (think of it as a horse with blinders) strategy of Russia/Putin invading the Ukraine. Putin is obsessed with restoring the glory of the USSR and dominating the former Eastern Bloc nations. Not unlike the focus China has on restoring Taiwan into their 1 China view of the world. Though China does not appear ready to stop there, they also see India, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines as future satellite states.
Compounding these problems is that China is on the verge of economic collapse. Not unlike the US, they print money like crazy to the people don't realize/riot over their banks heading into major (depression era/2008 era) shutdown. Their housing industry in tatters and growing future inability to meet energy needs.
Now invading Taiwan would not actually solve any of those problems, ironic huh? But they (really Emperor Xi) put ideology over logic as Taiwan is one of China's biggest trading partners. But China/Xi needs a distraction, a reason to call for austerity to distract their people from the struggles of their govt/economy.
So not only does the issues in both the Ukraine and potentially in Taiwan have repercussions to us in the USofA but it highlights how poorly people have failed to study history.
What do I mean by that? In less than 2 years, the current administration has invoked some historically bad policy and taken the worlds strongest economy into "near" recession. The foolishness of thinking we can quickly turn to green energy (which includes climate nazies refusal to recognize NG as clean) to "solve" our problems is about to plunge Europe into their worst winter since the great Depression. Can we eventually go "green"? In time but green is too little of today's solutions and in today's science, too unreliable.
So the current administration has firmly embraced the Green New Deal (which is at the core of their "inflation protection act" which will do nothing to stem inflation) while sacrificing a goal of every administration since Carter, American Energy Independence. Something we had under 45 for the 1st time in over a century.
Back to the illogical refusal to understand history in favor of emotional ideology.
Meanwhile our fiscal policy borders on insanity. At the turn of the century, we were actually running a surplus (for the 1st time in decades) and Debt to GDP% was in the mid 30s. The 2008 crisis sent W on a massive spending bill (which proved to be unneeded but that is hind sight) and ran Debt to GDP% up to 65%. Obama returned us to New Deal thinking, Keynesian philosophy of tax and spend and would eventually run Debt to GDP over 100%. Trump continued spending like a drunk sailor but Biden said "Billions. . . .we don't stop at stinking Billions. . . . We're going to grow spending by AT LEAST $3 TRILLION. . . hold my beer and watch this"
Inflation returned at a RECORD pace, quickly fueled in part by an anti-America war on O&G, which 2 years later we see as the worst possible direction to take America. But hey, Putin loved it, driving up O&G profits provided the funding for his invasion of Ukraine.
Currently 72% of Americans think we are moving in the wrong direction. But the current administration continues to double down on bad policy
All in the name of the ideological (though highly illogical) view that Climate change is our "greatest threat". Meanwhile China's plans are to build 400 new coal plants by 2030 while China and the 3rd world each more than double their carbon output vs the US. In the US, the carbon footprint has fallen for 20 years, thus we are not the problem. But don't tell the climate warriors that, they don't care about logic or facts, they are slaves to their ideology. To them ALL FOSSIL FUEL is bad even though NG burns clean and nuclear power even cleaner.
Now as we scratch the surface a bit deeper, it's really not about ideology as much as it is about power. Clearly the lessons of 1984 (how few of the left have even read 1984) have fallen by the wayside. Biden even attempted to create a Czar of Misinformation. Seriously I cannot make this up. Limiting speech in a society built around teh concept of free speech. And it lasted about as long as CNN+
I have frequently criticized the left for their lack of critical thinking, now it makes complete sense. Why their arguments and thinking, despite often brilliant counter arguments, remain so entrenched and unyielding, because at the end of the day, they care about their "ideology" over logic.
Now some of that makes sense, the simple minded want simple ideas they can latch onto that do not force them to think through their positions. But sadly, some educated, even highly educated folks still slavishly hold onto their "beliefs", despite facts, reality and counter arguments that would lead a rational person to question their own beliefs.
Several popular images
People often believe in an ideology above everything else including ignoring the impact of history and facts/reality. It puts aside the needs of the people governed in pursuit of their illogical ideology.
Now this was in a discussion on our podcast of the issues in China and how they might effect Taiwan. We began by discussing the similar narrow minded (think of it as a horse with blinders) strategy of Russia/Putin invading the Ukraine. Putin is obsessed with restoring the glory of the USSR and dominating the former Eastern Bloc nations. Not unlike the focus China has on restoring Taiwan into their 1 China view of the world. Though China does not appear ready to stop there, they also see India, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines as future satellite states.
Compounding these problems is that China is on the verge of economic collapse. Not unlike the US, they print money like crazy to the people don't realize/riot over their banks heading into major (depression era/2008 era) shutdown. Their housing industry in tatters and growing future inability to meet energy needs.
Now invading Taiwan would not actually solve any of those problems, ironic huh? But they (really Emperor Xi) put ideology over logic as Taiwan is one of China's biggest trading partners. But China/Xi needs a distraction, a reason to call for austerity to distract their people from the struggles of their govt/economy.
So not only does the issues in both the Ukraine and potentially in Taiwan have repercussions to us in the USofA but it highlights how poorly people have failed to study history.
What do I mean by that? In less than 2 years, the current administration has invoked some historically bad policy and taken the worlds strongest economy into "near" recession. The foolishness of thinking we can quickly turn to green energy (which includes climate nazies refusal to recognize NG as clean) to "solve" our problems is about to plunge Europe into their worst winter since the great Depression. Can we eventually go "green"? In time but green is too little of today's solutions and in today's science, too unreliable.
So the current administration has firmly embraced the Green New Deal (which is at the core of their "inflation protection act" which will do nothing to stem inflation) while sacrificing a goal of every administration since Carter, American Energy Independence. Something we had under 45 for the 1st time in over a century.
Back to the illogical refusal to understand history in favor of emotional ideology.
Meanwhile our fiscal policy borders on insanity. At the turn of the century, we were actually running a surplus (for the 1st time in decades) and Debt to GDP% was in the mid 30s. The 2008 crisis sent W on a massive spending bill (which proved to be unneeded but that is hind sight) and ran Debt to GDP% up to 65%. Obama returned us to New Deal thinking, Keynesian philosophy of tax and spend and would eventually run Debt to GDP over 100%. Trump continued spending like a drunk sailor but Biden said "Billions. . . .we don't stop at stinking Billions. . . . We're going to grow spending by AT LEAST $3 TRILLION. . . hold my beer and watch this"
Inflation returned at a RECORD pace, quickly fueled in part by an anti-America war on O&G, which 2 years later we see as the worst possible direction to take America. But hey, Putin loved it, driving up O&G profits provided the funding for his invasion of Ukraine.
Currently 72% of Americans think we are moving in the wrong direction. But the current administration continues to double down on bad policy
All in the name of the ideological (though highly illogical) view that Climate change is our "greatest threat". Meanwhile China's plans are to build 400 new coal plants by 2030 while China and the 3rd world each more than double their carbon output vs the US. In the US, the carbon footprint has fallen for 20 years, thus we are not the problem. But don't tell the climate warriors that, they don't care about logic or facts, they are slaves to their ideology. To them ALL FOSSIL FUEL is bad even though NG burns clean and nuclear power even cleaner.
Now as we scratch the surface a bit deeper, it's really not about ideology as much as it is about power. Clearly the lessons of 1984 (how few of the left have even read 1984) have fallen by the wayside. Biden even attempted to create a Czar of Misinformation. Seriously I cannot make this up. Limiting speech in a society built around teh concept of free speech. And it lasted about as long as CNN+
I have frequently criticized the left for their lack of critical thinking, now it makes complete sense. Why their arguments and thinking, despite often brilliant counter arguments, remain so entrenched and unyielding, because at the end of the day, they care about their "ideology" over logic.
Now some of that makes sense, the simple minded want simple ideas they can latch onto that do not force them to think through their positions. But sadly, some educated, even highly educated folks still slavishly hold onto their "beliefs", despite facts, reality and counter arguments that would lead a rational person to question their own beliefs.
Several popular images
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