Nature Bats Last

By Josh Kearns

A lot has happened in the week since we recorded our impromptu “Election 2024 analysis” podcast.

In terms of events germane to that political discussion, at least three statements of major salience were made within hours or days of the recording and publication of our podcast:

·         Hillary Clinton gave an interview where she advocated for criminal prosecution of people for spreading misinformation. In other words, if you say something Hillary doesn’t like on social media or a podcast, you should be arrested.

·         741 current and former high-level intelligence/nat-sec agency officers endorsed Kamala Harris. So the CIA, NSA, etc. are telling you who to vote for now.

·         John Kerry, speaking at the WEF, complained that the First Amendment’s free speech protections are a real obstacle for the elites to enforce “consensus” and “govern effectively.” Kerry obviously forgot, or never knew, that the purpose of the First Amendment was expressly to frustrate government’s tendencies to overreach and oppress.

A picture is clearly emerging that US politics has mutated into a Technocrat Borg on one side (what I called the Neocon-Democrat Fusion Death Star in the podcast), and, well, all the rest of us on the other side.

The sharing of information, analyses, perspectives, videos, documentation, “takes” etc., through social media and podcasts – which can still go viral despite the efforts of Silicon Valley tech monopolies working hand-in-glove with US Deep State actors to suppress counter narratives and flood the zone with regime propaganda and preferred narratives, has obviously frightened the elites. In desperation they clamp down harder in their fight to suppress mis-/dis-/mal-information, to the point now they’re openly contemplating doing away with portions of the Constitution and seeking criminal prosecution of dissenters.

Much of our podcast conversation revolved around which faction poses the greater threat – the Establishment Uniparty represented by the fusion between neoliberal Democrats like the cadre of handlers around Kamala Harris (including alleged “democratic socialists” like AOC and Bernie Sanders), and neocon stalwarts exemplified by the palpatinous Dick Cheney himself, contra the loose agglomeration of misfits orbiting Donald Trump including RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, and Peter Thiel acolyte JD Vance (along with Thiel himself in the shadows).

There’s no need to rehash our friendly tug-of-war over which of the current two factions vying for the White House – team Cheney-Democrats vs team Thiel-Trump is the more unpalatable, threatening, or loathsome. Rather, I want to lift the key issues we discussed above the immediate context of an October pregnant with surprises and partisan rhetorical warfare in the run-up to the election. I want to highlight fundamental issues we’re all concerned about, and will continue to be deeply concerned about irrespective of the voting outcome in November.

In our conversation we all agreed that the right to free expression and free sharing of information is sacrosanct and essential to the healthy function of our society and our Doomer Optimism related projects. We can expect the Establishment’s efforts to censor and punish dissent and exert control over discourse and narratives to intensify going forward.

A key trait that typifies the Doomer Optimism community (if it can even be called a community) is our stubborn nonconformism. Our nonconformism, our willingness to “swim upstream” despite the odds and difficulties is our greatest asset. We have to fight to preserve this asset in the face of increasing censorship imposed top-down by the Establishment.

We have to be prepared for many of our signature endeavors – growing your own vegetables, raising your own meat, practicing a variety of forms of self-reliance and regenerative livelihood skills, embracing local economies as we disentangle ourselves from globalization, exploring traditional and Eastern medicine and health modalities as alternatives or compliments to Western allopathic medicine, etc. – to draw fire as “subversive activities,” denounced as “anti-science,” derided as “right wing extremism,” and so on. If they really do want to herd us “into the pods to eat the bugs” and vat-grown protein sludge as the Eco-Modernists would have, they are going to have to damn and marginalize alternatives that permit people to opt-out of centralization, surveillance, and control.

But as Hunter Thompson famously quipped, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Well it’s time for Doomer Optimists to level up and turn pro, in order to preserve our right and prerogative to be weird and resist the conformity that the Technocrat Borg wants to impose on us.

If you’re looking for inspiration on this account, you can’t do better than the rousing speech given by Matt Taibbi at last weekend’s Rescue the Republic rally in DC. You can watch the video and read a transcript of the speech at his site, www.Racket.News.

Politics aside, of course the past week’s biggest event by far was Hurricane Helene and the damage it wrought on the southeast and in particular in the region that Jason and I call home, western North Carolina.

You’ve probably seen the photos, videos, news report, drone footage, etc. of the devastation in Asheville and mountain towns around the region along with the tragic loss of life, so no need to re-illustrate those horrors here. Nearly a week after the storm and many locales are still without road access, power, water, internet, and cell communications.

A frequent topic of conversation and trepidation on the Doomer Optimism podcast is the advancement of AI and other high-tech computer/internet mediated transhumanist projects championed by Silicon Valley oligarchs and high priests like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Ray Kurzweil, and Martine Rothblatt. And as truly terrifying – I would even say demonic – as these pursuits are, the past week has been a harsh reminder that Nature Bats Last when it comes to the best laid plans of our would-be technocrat overlords. One major storm event can knock out not only power, but internet, wifi, and cell communications. (In contrast, mobile ham radio aficionados are experiencing a newfound appreciation in southern Appalachia these days…) AI is little match when wind and water pull the plug on the interconnected hardware – the towers, the transmission lines, the server farms.

What’s left when internet and wireless communications go away are the strong backs, arms, and hearts of real human beings, who come together in mutual aid and ingenuity to problem-solve and begin the process of recovery.

And I’ll say this: Do not underestimate hillbillies. Ask the British, Soviet, and US militaries about their experiences with central Asian hillbillies in Afghanistan and how those turned out. (For two out of three empires - so far - getting bogged down fighting neolithic pastoralists in Afghanistan was one of the last imperial projects just before collapse…)

Before Helene wrecked our plans along with our region, Jason and I were set to join DO podcast guest the South Roane Agrarian and author Brian Miller for a get-together at his farm in east Tennessee. We’ve been corresponding as-able during the calamity of the past several days, and this morning Brian shared these thoughts by email:

“The one silver lining to the jaw dropping devastation (besides Jason's chance to brew tea with spring water and go to bed at sunset) is that it will send scurrying back to the ex-urbs all of the remote working, early retirees, permanent leaf-peeping, McMansion building, goat yoga, airbnb super hosts types. It will leave behind the hard scrabble, fuck FEMA let's do it ourselves, foot-washing primitive Baptists, naked hippie pagan animists, mule train packing gun freaks, collard growing, tobacco chewing mamas, coon-hunting ridge runners, all together creating a better world.”

I’m a dyed-in-the-wool silver linings guy as well as an unreconstructed hillbilly myself – so of course I resonate deeply with Brian’s comically accurate sentiments.

To share a couple of silver-linings of my own – amid Helene’s drenching chaos we had two lambs born on our farm. Baby Helene was born on Thursday as the wind and rain intensified, and baby Hugo was born a couple days later once the storm clouds began to subside.

We were lucky compared with many in our region, with only a few trees down on pasture fences and one big tree that took out power lines. We’re already underway with cleanup and repairs, and power was recently restored to the farm (well before I thought it would be; our linemen have been out here doing the Lord’s work…).

Recovery from this event is going to take a long, long time. Many mountain locales will probably never come back. If Doomer Optimists are interested in volunteering for relief and rebuilding efforts over the coming weeks and months I would be happy to help coordinate. Probably the best way to be in touch is through our farm webpage/newsletter site, www.MagpieHollow.Farm.

Also – if any Doomer Optimists or DO friends and loved ones are in the affected areas, water and sanitation over the near-to-medium term are likely to be issues as much municipal infrastructure has been destroyed. My expertise is in decentralized water supply, treatment, and sanitation and I provide consulting for household and community scale water projects. Feel free to share and contact me through my Substack on decentralized water treatment.

Stay weird out there folks! Josh