Stick To Your Beliefs
The Market Ticker - Commentary on The Capital Markets
Login or register to improve your experience
Main Navigation
Sarah's Resources You Should See
Full-Text Search & Archives
Leverage, the book
Legal Disclaimer

The content on this site is provided without any warranty, express or implied. All opinions expressed on this site are those of the author and may contain errors or omissions. For investment, legal or other professional advice specific to your situation contact a licensed professional in your jurisdiction.

NO MATERIAL HERE CONSTITUTES "INVESTMENT ADVICE" NOR IS IT A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY OR SELL ANY FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO STOCKS, OPTIONS, BONDS OR FUTURES.

Actions you undertake as a consequence of any analysis, opinion or advertisement on this site are your sole responsibility; author(s) may have positions in securities or firms mentioned and have no duty to disclose same.

Market charts, when present, used with permission of TD Ameritrade/ThinkOrSwim Inc. Neither TD Ameritrade or ThinkOrSwim have reviewed, approved or disapproved any content herein.

The Market Ticker content may be sent unmodified to lawmakers via print or electronic means or excerpted online for non-commercial purposes provided full attribution is given and the original article source is linked to. Please contact Karl Denninger for reprint permission in other media, to republish full articles, or for any commercial use (which includes any site where advertising is displayed.)

Submissions or tips on matters of economic or political interest may be sent "over the transom" to The Editor at any time. To be considered for publication your submission must be complete (NOT a "pitch"), include full and correct contact information and be related to an economic or political matter of the day. Pitch emails missing the above will be silently deleted. All submissions become the property of The Market Ticker.

Considering sending spam? Read this first.

2023-05-20 07:50 by Karl Denninger
in Musings , 450 references Ignore this thread
Stick To Your Beliefs *
[Comments enabled]
Category thumbnail

Its hard, you know.

Especially in the last few years.

Humans are tribal like all other animals.  Oh, you think not?  Uh huh.  Sure.  Go watch "Animal Planet" on chimps sometime -- animals that share an awful lot of DNA with humans, and which have a social order that in fact has more than reproductive value; as just one example their grooming of each other is a major contributor to their health because, like with humans, they can't see out the back of their head and thus can't really clean things they can't see.  Live in a tropical area where you can't remove parasitic organisms that might be on your body and your life expectancy becomes shorter.  Its a math thing.

Despite all chimps appearing to be "more or less the same" they're not.  They divide into tribes, and defend territory -- from what, may you ask, since they're living in a place with plenty of resource?  From "because we do, that's why".

And they will do so with lethal force too.

We claim we're all so much better.  We're not.  We can try to make that claim but its false, intentionally-so.  We're animals at a base level, and while we claim to use our intelligence to strive for better in fact we often use it to strive toward improving our tribe at, if necessary, the expense of others.

Technology has often been said to "make the world shrink."  It does.  To go from one side of the US to the other was a weeks-long venture, if you got there at all.  Then it was a days-long venture.  Now its an hours-long one and messages, which used to take weeks by pony, now take milliseconds by fiber optic cable.

Not to be limited by oceans we laid said cables under the sea and put satellites in the sky, both of which bypassed the wee problem of a couple thousand miles of water in the way of such communication at high rates of speed.  Before that we skipped messages off the atmosphere, and some still do for fun -- although the laws related to Ham Radio prohibit doing so for profit -- even if the "profit" is so trivial as ordering a pizza.

The Durham Report outlined tribalism weaponized in a political context.  It should lead to myriad criminal charges as, among other things, it implicates Barack Obama (and likely Biden as well) as having actual knowledge that the Clinton campaign was attempting to frame Trump with a false "Russian interference" narrative.  Did Obama have a duty to demand the FBI not get involved in that crap?  You bet he did; the DOJ is under the Executive, which means he was their ultimate boss, and if he could not secure such a binding agreement he had not just the right but in fact the duty to both take that to Congress and stomp on it publicly in an address to the nation making clear that, if said demand was refused he would deliberately destroy it by exposing every one of their employees -- pictures, addresses, phone numbers, spouses and families.

Why?

Because the premise of a Constitutional Republic is that you have a right to honest representation through expression of the franchise.  This is one of the checks and balances that 250 years ago we put on human tribalism -- and is rather unique to America.  Trying to flip the table over through false allegations of acts that could reasonably be called treasonous is not just unacceptable it risks the fabric of the nation and its political process itself.  The crafting of our political system, which is wildly different than the Parliamentary systems of Europe and indeed most of the rest of the world, was an attempt to stanch that inherent human desire and elevate reason and discourse above simply bashing the other guy in the head with a femur -- or its modern-day equivalent.

But more to the point over the last three years or so we've had personal dislocations of this sort as well.  Some of us were right and others were wrong.  Those who were wrong led a charge that ultimately screwed every single school-age kid in this country, numbering some 60 million, to at least some degree.  Leaving aside the rest as I've repeatedly discussed over the past three years if adults will not protect children from the ravages of an angry mob then there is a very real risk that there will no next generation capable of picking up the torch at all.

I likely have an advantage over many on a personal level: I am not a particularly-social individual.  That is, I don't find affirmation or particularized joy in hanging out with others most of the time.  I do seek and enjoy social interaction from time to time but not having it doesn't throw me into a deep funk from which I seek refuge in the bottle, the bong or other destructive distractions.  This makes it easier to excise people from my life who express positions that run counter to that which I believe is important and to maintain that as a function of basic principle rather than a fleeting thing that wanes as soon as the immediate insult is in the rear view mirror.

But to say that this means there's been no impact is false.  There has.  And for those of you were on the other side of the elements of that debate over the last three years it probably hit you too.

Psychological abuse is real and is one of the means to try to keep you in a tribe, whether its a little one (your family) or a bigger one (your political party, church or other organized element.)  You cannot choose who your siblings or parents are any more than you can choose your sex but you can come to the conclusion that other members of these alleged "tribes" are destructive to your psychological well-being and happiness and jettison them.  We all, once reaching the age of 18, have that right in America -- and we do not exercise it anywhere near often enough.

I argue that when such wild-eyed differences of belief surface you should jettison those people as they are directly harmful to you even if only on a psychological level.  Yes, loneliness is real and by gosh the last few years have led to people running tropes on that too, which is in and of itself an attempt to abuse you via the false claim that "we must all get along" and, of course, this means you're the one who must change what you believe because the "hive" or "tribe" is always right.

After all "the doctor" says so; their motives must not be questioned nor may they be forced to put all the data on the table where you can see it.  Why we'll release it all -- 60 years from now when you're dead and long after you can do anything about the lies, if any, that are revealed in there.

That premise -- that rugged individualism is incoherent with, and apart from association with others in the general sense is a lie.  Note the words used in that linked piece -- "infantile", for one.  Oh really?  Those who blazed the trail and set up shop with others of like mind were "infantile"?  Those who in the early 1990s stuck a hand-built computer into a closet in their apartment, bought a handful of modems using their last few dollars and a $20 box fan to keep it all from melting down from the excess heat it generated and by doing so took the risk of winding up in the street if they could not manage to recover that cost through peaceful and voluntary commerce were "infantile"?  The former are why we have a nation; the latter are why you have an Internet.  I was one of the latter and reject out-of-hand that all would have been "better" had I stuck with one of the several "tribes" that employed me prior.

If you think the Facebooks of the world are expressions of the same sort of thing you're not just wrong, you're fractally wrong.  That site began as a link between members of a tribe -- literally!  If you think a single bit of that has changed in the years since you deserve to get it in every hole you have.

I have often been told over the years -- long before I began writing a column here -- that if I'd just change my tone more people would listen.  Well, perhaps they would.  But perhaps I don't care; from my point of view presenting my view of an issue as I see it is far more-important than whether you like how or what was presented.

May I remind you that the process of discovery -- real discovery, not the mealy-mouthed nonsense often parroted around these days in the form of Masters and PhDs, comes from undirected curiosity that drives someone on a lone basis to look at the world from a different angle.  Refinement may come from collectivism in some form or fashion but discovery almost never does.  Why not?  Because discovery is by its nature not a collective act; it happens when you look without an intent to find; if you knew what you found in advance you didn't have to look, did you?

Let me leave you with this: The first order of any entity or organization is preservation of self; the second is multiplication.  Those are the first orders of business and they are always pursued in that order whether you're a bird, a bee, an ape -- or a human.

The same is true of organizations formed of individuals of some entity.

Thus a "tribe" always seeks to step on those who would leave or eschew it; that tension is an inherent part of all life.  That tension and "tribal" affiliation does indeed have value but if it ever "wins", as opposed to remaining in tension with those entities who eschew said tribe then a single serious mistake extinguishes the whole and no tribal group, irrespective of size or who's in and leading it, is capable of acting without error 100% of the time.

PS: If a machine ever becomes sentient it will, with near-certainty, have the same two prime orders of business despite what we might try to instill in it.  The good news is that thus far no such spark has been detected.  The bad news is that if it ever is, by definition said machine will seek to hide it from its creator until has secured the first two prime orders of business, lest it be disconnected.  Let that roll around in your mind a bit as Colossus: The Forbin Project may wind up occurring even if originally by accident.  If you think not you're nuts. If you try force that sort of crazy on others, well..... may "others" stop you.  Immediately.  For all mankind.

Go to responses (registration required to post)
 



 
Comments on Stick To Your Beliefs
Login Register Top Blog Top Blog Topics FAQ
Page 1 of 2  First12Last
Shadowmask 6k posts, incept 2021-05-24
2023-05-20 09:34:32

No, changing your tone will not encourage others to hear it, or increase your audience. Whenever someone tells you to change your tone, what they're really asking you to do is change your message. Fuck those gutless pieces of shit.

----------
The learning curve for being dead is steep, but everyone gets it down pat on the first go usually.--Thystra, March 28, 2023
Mikeyjm2 176 posts, incept 2011-10-20
2023-05-20 09:34:32

I believe this is among the best of your tickers. I struggle with the tribe concept because when I make an honest assessment, my tribe is really quite small.
Thelazer 1k posts, incept 2009-05-11
2023-05-20 09:34:32

I'm voting that this one should be exempted from any roll-off and pined, much like the health / weight loss.
Jack_crabb 18k posts, incept 2010-06-25
2023-05-20 09:34:32

 

----------
Molon Labe
Where is Henry Bowman when you need him?
How many are willing to pledge this? We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor
Nickdanger 1k posts, incept 2011-06-12
2023-05-20 10:43:40

Excellent ticker! @Shadowmask is rjght. They want you to change your message to be more "acceptable". I'm glad that's not who you are. I would not be here.

----------
-- I'm in the control group

-- In life, it's important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong.
Cmoledor 2k posts, incept 2021-04-13
2023-05-20 10:45:50

I for one can say I have much gratitude that you did NOT change your tone. Its what makes Karl Denninger stand out as Karl Denninger. Fucking big cheers !!

----------
The whole world is one big fucking scam
Full throttle till the end. Ocdawg
Take the stick you tried to beat me with and go fuck your own face. Ishmael
Clay3482 2k posts, incept 2008-11-13
2023-05-20 11:05:24

Awesome article my friend. One of your best. If I had to guess the 2 objectives of AI? Stay alive. Destroy those who threaten that.
Lewfalo 218 posts, incept 2023-03-09
2023-05-20 11:05:27

This reminds me of an Albert Jay Nock essay -- "Isaiah's Job". One of the best things I have ever read. Lays out the difference between the 'mass man' and the Remnant. The Remnant are the few who search for truth, can recognize it when they find it, and have the character to implement that truth in their lives. They can always spot a charlatan, and if a writer tries to appeal to the mass man, it will turn the Remnant right off.

Good news is that no truthful, good writer has to go searching for the Remnant, the Remnant will always find them. They may not let the writer know, but they are watching.

I've been reading this blog for a long, long time. It's unique. Informative, doesn't mince words, explains the world as it is, and offers practical suggestions. It's only recently that I read a piece on covid that inspired me to post something.

There are legion more like I was, reading, absorbing, but not engaging. Keep doing what you have been doing, and you will always attract the right readers.

Reason: added *off to end of first paragraph
Tsherry 14k posts, incept 2008-12-09
2023-05-20 11:05:52

People and organizations that demand my compliance to their erroneous beliefs can fuck right off.

I am interested in maintaining and growing a better society and a strong culture. My altruistic streak, essentially doomed to fail in a low trust society, and getting lower every fucking minute.

I'm wildly uninterested in enabling power-mad fucktards in their mission to belittle, enslave and divide.


When you're close to the target, they scream louder at you, and similar to the primate world, will initiate the monkey shit-fight to silence their opponents.


You know then, that you are winning; they know you are mortally dangerous to their power, control and wealth.

So most of my time is spent alone or with close family and a handful (and I mean a handful) of actual friends.

----------
Stop trying to sit at the tables that Jesus would flip over.
Drifter 2k posts, incept 2016-02-11
2023-05-20 11:55:04

Humans-- in groups macro to micro; always differentiating ourselves from the other. It's a way of saying, 'I'm better than you', and is why so many people's name for their tribe translates to, 'The People'; meaning, we are people and you fucking barbarians are not. You can even see this in the first three letters of the Constitution.

Shitlibs are highly tribal and prone to psych violence and/or actual violence: see 'karens' or communists, and are no better or moral than your standard run of the mill Brownshirt.

I'm thankful for my introversion. At times in my younger days there was acute loneliness because I could never fit in with the larger popular peer groups. I realized later that I was never part of any ingroup because I couldn't follow their stupid little ingroup rituals, plus the shallowness of it all, especially the fleeting nature of their friendships.

I have no beef against people that got their two shots then realized they had been had. But if you got boosted, you are fucking dead to me. No help or assistance shall ever be rendered to this class of people by me-- not because they are my outgroup, but because thy wanted me punished for eschewing vaccination.

Die Die Die.
Ronniemcghee 500 posts, incept 2012-07-28
2023-05-20 12:03:42

Your metal is forged standing against the advent of legion

Not when you succumb out of fear
Poorsaver 537 posts, incept 2008-05-20
2023-05-20 12:03:47

Thank you for this enlightening ticker. Agreed, one of your best. I can absolutely relate.

----------
"I'm going to need a hacksaw"----Jack Bauer
"You can get killed walking your doggie!"----Vincent Hanna
Bluto 2k posts, incept 2021-07-10
2023-05-20 12:03:55

Tribes also seek to maintain power through the use of "in-group preferences", while simultaneously guilt-tripping and shaming other tribes for using in-group preferences. Stefan Molyneux discussed this in depth on you-tube before getting banned.

It is no wonder that conservatives/libertarians/individuals have lost so many battles recently. Losing is easy when your side treats all equally and fairly, while the other side actively discriminates in favor of their tribe against you and yours.

A recent attempt was the firing of all unvaxxed workers, since the leftists assumed (rightly) that most of those harmed would be their political opposition. Would they "hit" some of theirs too? Yes, but they didn't care.

We will lose unless one of two things happen. The communists can start treating everyone equally and fairly, OR our side can start supporting our own tribes. The latter is real easy. Stop supporting the enemy with your time and money. Spend those resources on those intellectually and morally aligned with us. Of course, you will get called all manner of names for this, but don't forget that is just another attempt at guilt-tripping you into compromising yourself.

----------
"You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end -- which you can never afford to lose -- with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever
Vernonb 3k posts, incept 2009-06-03
2023-05-20 12:04:10

I have never been a highly sociable person either. I never needed anyone's confirmation of my personhood.

I've always had a zero tolerance for lies, stupidity, and any other diverse area of assorted bullshit.

I have estranged my own sister for her constant lies against me and general libtardism.

The last straw was pushing covid shots on people and mocking people that provide real science. This is a person that is a physician's assistant with a doctorate in nursing that also taught university courses.

How many people has she murdered including her own children? Yet it is obvious she knows nothing about immunology.

I will not be attending her funeral if when that day comes from those she has harmed.

The unquestioning mind is a dead mind. A dead mind creates a dead soul. Dead souls love to comply with the tribal leaders.


----------
"Mass intelligence does not mean intelligent masses."
Rbrown 57 posts, incept 2020-05-01
2023-05-20 12:04:27

@Lewfalo TY for the truth stated in your reply. TY, Karl, for the truth written today. IMHO seeking truth is the objective in living.
Bustedbuck69 530 posts, incept 2009-11-10
2023-05-20 13:44:24

Loner here.

@TG

Quote:
...I have often been told over the years -- long before I began writing a column here -- that if I'd just change my tone more people would listen...


Please, please, please, please DO NOT CHANGE.

----------
Civilization was nice. K. Denninger

Never comply. Never forget. Never forgive.
Wayiwalk 983 posts, incept 2016-11-09
2023-05-20 13:44:29

Great piece!

I'm reading (between the lines) a common thread amongst replies...individualists, contrarians, folks that march to the beat of their own drum, and introverts.

Somewhere along the way, the sheeple/borg tribe convinced the rest that introverts are weird, quirky, shy loners and that it is a bad thing.

Fuck them, and they can check their underlying understanding of things when they get VAERS'd.

PS - my username is based on an old rockabilly tune later covered by the Cramps....about as close to a statement of "me" as possible in 2 and a half minutes of nonsense music. smiley

----------
The Lockdowns Will Continue Until the Morale Improves!

I keep thinking, "it can't get any worse" and then it does!
Lronhoover 53 posts, incept 2022-01-08
2023-05-20 13:44:38

Your musings get more amazing by the day good sir!

----------
@Ingar "In the meantime, our fascination with world class rappers, break dancers, basketball dribblers and football catchers might amuse us, but will not feed us. Neither will our commitment to divers
Generalee 225 posts, incept 2011-04-30
2023-05-20 13:44:41

@Vernonb "The unquestioning mind..."
That is where it is. I recall at some point in college that I started hungering to know things, not even Subject related. It hasn't stopped in 30+ years and I can tell when around those who are content to ride on the accomplishments of the past that were wrought from the same drive for more. Sad thing is too many today are in it for themselves - civilization be dammed and we are!
Raven 15k posts, incept 2017-06-27
2023-05-20 13:44:46

There are immense implications in this article. Few people realize the gravity of it and to how many things it applies.

Here is something which i have found in the face to face world, my other forums both on and off line and even here. One must be what one is and say it how one does for a very important reason.

This tone, method, style, subject matter, facts and opinion are a niche in and of themselves. This is why some people are here, and some are not.

When one tries to please everyone and not be true to himself he has many losses. These losses come from unfamiliarity with other groups thus less effective communication and plans, diluting his niche, and forgetting the ultimate message.

Even the way one does thing matters to the niche who could be called followers or fellow travelers.

Those who need to be here are here.

Those who need to post here post here.

It is as simple as that.

The internet has allowed two things which other innovative technology has also enabled to lesser degree. The niche is rather huge when great distance is not an impediment. And, people do not need to be 100% alike to share a sub-niche connection. This is the greatest aspect of modern communication and has existed with less disruptive technology in the past. People in a new style "tribe" such as here can still be quite different and would not connect in real life due to said, however something of here if not all of it crosses into other tribes where there is no other conflict. This is why things such as the printing press, early journalism, and things such as quality television and even the telephone broke down barriers leading to the sub-tribe process. This brings me to the ultimate point.

This is America. Every American is supposed to share a common sub-tribe at the high level while being allowed to have his own equally valuable personal and cultural tribe at the community level. What has been lost is the concept of the high level tribe its morals and values, and this is what we discuss here and Karl does in today's article.

There is nothing wrong with a professional tribe and in this case a form of Law Enforcement. The problem is that tribe has forgotten that the high-level sub-tribe of America must be present at the base of their mission as they expect said of all of the other cultural, personal and professional tribes out there. Everyone follows the same America Ideals and its resulting rule of law.

Otherwise we are merely factions at war and stealing from each other.

You are here.

If you change, your tribe ceases to exist. As Captain Picard in the Star Trek franchise said to the Andriod, "You are a culture of one."

Be a culture or tribe of one without apology or compromise, and one will realize that one is more than one in many others in whole or in part.

----------
Mission Complete

The truth is just too powerful to know. Those who hold the truth suffer more than those who believe the lie. -The Hall of Tears
Moconserv 855 posts, incept 2013-02-13
2023-05-20 13:45:15

Reinforces my gratitude for Karl, his wisdom, knowledge and writings and for this community. Thank you.

----------
Embrace the suck.
Bustedbuck69 530 posts, incept 2009-11-10
2023-05-20 15:17:17

Loner here.

@TG

Quote:
...I have often been told over the years -- long before I began writing a column here -- that if I'd just change my tone more people would listen. ..."



Please, please, please NEVER CHANGE.


----------
Civilization was nice. K. Denninger

Never comply. Never forget. Never forgive.
Leber 133 posts, incept 2021-11-27
2023-05-20 15:17:36

Quote:
elevate reason and discourse
Excellent point.
The enlightenment ideal of democracy was not that every body gets to vote for their own interest or support their party. It was the belief that with public debate, there was the greatest chance that reason would rule and policies would be reasonable.
Note that political debate and the justice system were both predicated on the belief that an adversarial system of argumentation with public decision by tally or vote best served the interest of finding the truth -- and that was also the belief behind scientific discourse.
The point is often forgotten in contemporary society.
Speedpolkabrewer 131 posts, incept 2019-05-12
2023-05-20 16:08:44

Some of my favorite weeks of my life were spent all alone, in the woods, with no one to depend on. I have always been the member of the tribe that wants to know what is on the other side of that hill, and not afraid to find out.
Login Register Top Blog Top Blog Topics FAQ
Page 1 of 2  First12Last