Podcast Episode 020321

Throughout 2020 we witnessed rioting in the streets throughout many metropolitan cities, average working professionals raiding the US Capital building. What the hell?!? A whole summer of violent rioting throughout the country, and the full “occupation” of a city block in Seattle, Washington. Black Lives Matter, blue lives matter, all lives matter, phrases are thrown around the social media circus like birdseed at a public park bench. The conglomerate media groups, the NRA, the politicians, and most importantly, the opportunist criminal, all want us to believe in this rhetoric about our differences, that they exploit to gain an opportunity to capture what is not normally obtainable. Whether it’s to garner votes, sustaining the lobbyists, sell airtime, or just get more stuff, the more we are divided, the easier it is to have their way. The media moguls and politicians would have us believe that the only purity to be found in modern-day America, is isolated to the smallest of hamlets scattered across the land. These same groups use the media platforms in an attempt to convince us that we are too “different” from each other and that we should not trust those who are different.

Greetings my friends, family members, fellow Alaskans, and fellow Americans wherever you are. Welcome to the Alaskan Outlaw podcast, I am the Alaskan Outlaw, and this week I’d like to discuss, or divulge rather, my educated thoughts about all the division and segregation I read about on the major news channels. To have a complete discussion about the validity of misinformation, one needs to dig deep under the stories produced to derive the sources that were used to produce the message. Once we discover the sources, we should validate that source to determine if they are legitimate. Within the millions of news feeds around the globe, we can break most stories down to a very small collection of actual sources. These sources are bankrolled by a particular news mogul group that has a particular “lean” depending on the politician group they are aligned with. All media groups are aligned with particular politicians. Whether by the individual politician or by their party affiliation. Knowing all of this information allows us to understand what the message slant is. A couple more factors and we can clearly calculate the amount of slant that is applied to information produced. There exists a sweet spot where the facts can be bundled in such a way that it can be passed into the general mainstream to provide an actual account, however, more often than not this is not the case. Definitely the exception to the rule.

In a previous show, I mentioned several states within our country murmuring about a potential secession from the Union, fueled by hate speech and misinformation of the highest caliber. We’ve already talked about the potential catalysts in previous shows that the media wants us to believe that causes this supposed division among Americans. Understanding the scope of this “division” starts with the clear picture of the “smoke and mirrors” tactic used by the media, and politicians, in an attempt to further polarize the population, particularly within certain areas of the country. The further tactic of drumming up the statistics to support their narrative is as old as statistics themselves. As we all know, statistics can be titled, either way, they are simply data points that must be interpreted by the reader. No more, no less. So, how then, have we come to this crossroads in the American way of life, and the experiment we call the “United States of America”. Well, let’s slow the roll here for a minute and think about why all this misinformation would benefit someone, and who would be the best candidate for the most benefit.

Honestly, the threat of succession from the US has been an ongoing threat for centuries, starting about 50 years after the recognized conclusion of the civil war. So, the idea that it could be accomplished in today’s day and age is ridiculous. In addition, the democratic led war on extremists is a misinformation thunderstorm, as it equals the former administration’s “war on terror”, which ultimately amounted to another method in which the US government spends money it doesn’t have. The real culprit among all this distrust and hate is the politically motivated media.  Before we pick up or drum set of relegation, let’s examine some of the facts. The seeds of a second confederacy have been fueled by white supremacists since the days of the first one. These underground connections between them and political leaders is terrifying, yet, even our current President has a photo circulating the social media circus with a leader of a white supremacist group. So, yea, the connection is definitely there, however, the majority of our American population do not support that ridiculous ideology, therefore it’s not brought to the general public. Instead, it’s hidden away in the shadows of politics in capitals across the south.

With all the hate speech, and misinformation as well as racial baiting happening from both sides, should the average American be preparing for the uncivil war? The short answer is No. The potential for our society of descending into the abyss of national racial conflict is statistically impossible. While there may be small skirmishes throughout our nation, a conflict large enough to span the entire country is very unrealistic. Particularly given this past year, the National Guard outnumbers and outguns any force that could join together of militant extremists. The other contingency for the military is should some extremists tout a cry for war against the US government, they can engage the rules of war, which ultimately leads to “stacking bodies”. This level of engagement would be unlike any of those civilians have ever seen. The loss of life would be mentally destructive to those who opposed the governmental forces. Again, the reality of the situation that developed on the steps of the US Capital may have convinced some that it was possible to “overrun” our government, however, due to the limited (momentary) success during that event, it has now included in the battle plans, as was made obviously visible during the inauguration ceremony two weeks later. As far as individual communities seeing this type of activity, you have to remember that demonstrations and rioting is “for effect”, so while larger cities would expect this type of activity, smaller towns would not. This scenario is a misinformation production super-highway, pumping out confusion and fear at record levels. 

The reality of the numbers. Between extremists and the rest of us. If we could quantify the actual numbers of individuals who we can fully classify as “extremists”. But wait, what exactly is an extremist? How is an extremist different from a radical? 

Extremism – the definition (as per Merriam Websters) is: 

Radical – the definition (again from Merriam Websters) is:

1: of, relating to, or proceeding from a root: such as

a (1): of or growing from the root of a plant radical tubers

(2): growing from the base of a stem, from a rootlike stem, or from a stem that does not rise above the ground radical leaves

b: of, relating to or constituting a linguistic root

c: of or relating to a mathematical root

d: designed to remove the root of a disease or all diseased and potentially diseased tissue radical surgery, radical mastectomy

b: favoring extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions

c: associated with political views, practices, and policies of extreme change

d: advocating extreme measures to retain or restore a political state of affairs the radical right

WOW! That sure a lot of definition. So, what does it really mean? Well, ultimately it means that being an extremist means that you take a perspective (pick one) to the extreme. Whereas being radical is thinking or acting “outside the normal”. Is the Alaska Outlaw radical? Yes, you could say that we are radicals, but we are not extremists. We believe in peaceful protesting, and maintaining societal bonds. The real difference is that extremism takes the radical view to the extreme. Typically these individuals do not support any type of compromise, they demand that all parties follow their doctrine, or else. These are the people who can get swept up in “mob mentality” fairly easily and/or maybe the individuals who initiate a riot or violence. We have seen individuals who instigate this behavior time and time again. In much the same way that those attending the US Capital protest that got “caught up in the action” and made poor choices, we find those same individuals whose passions were stirred during the BLM protests throughout the summer. The idea of being radical is not bad in itself, it is when it is combined with extremism that we find things can get out of hand, and people get hurt, or killed.

The blind leading the blind. This is really what happens. Radical thinking is typically driven by an internal encompassing passion. The radical thoughts, fueled by a passionate desire to see real quantitive results are what make this situation happen. Right or wrong. The problem here is actually very fundamental. Passion, like anger, can be blind. When we are passionate about something, we have a tendency to become consumed by the desire to accomplish whatever is driving this. Unfortunately, this can lead to becoming blind to all the other necessary input prior to action. In addition, when others are present in the same frame of mind, it can provide a level of validity to the individual’s desire for vindication. Hence the vicious cycle of a downward spiral is initiated. There are many individuals who prey on these situations for their own needs. Whether it be the morons of “Antifa”, or “white supremacists”, politicians, or opportunistic criminals, they attempt to instigate large crowds into a frenzy with well constructed rhetoric. This instigation creates another psychological condition, called “mob mentality”. Mob mentality is really radicalism converted to blind anger. Blind anger causes the brain to be overloaded thereby leaving the victim blind to the ramifications of their actions. This condition is carefully constructed by those who have a vested interest in the outcome.

The reality of many of these situations is that innocent persons are used (against their own better judgment) for the will of these skilled few. The reality is those media moguls, and politicians, are skilled at these psychological building methods that then allow them to shield the real truth from those others not immediately involved in the rioting or violent protests. It is an age-old practice to control the masses. As far back as the kings in England, this mental persuasion has been used by those in power or those who sought power, in controlling the masses of the population. Whether it was fear, or misinformation, which lead to passionate opposition, the ideas are the same in getting innocent citizens to create enough chaos to implement societal controls.

While I’d admit that there are pockets of individuals who are “supremacists”, of all races and creeds, the majority of Americans are completely color blind when it comes to the race, sex, or creed, of the person next to them. I will also submit that there is an uneasiness about larger men, particularly among those who are more diminutive or petite, due to the history of evil displayed throughout history. This is caused by the societal programming that happens to almost every American throughout their school-aged formative years. The media would have you believe that the majority of average folks harbor some level of systemic racism, and I’m here to tell you that it’s just not true. From an average American perspective, while we still may remain a little more sexually prude than, say Europe, we are near as closed off as the media would have us believe. Remember, segregation sells air time, and “breaking stories” typically follow a small subset of topics, and the number one subset is racial injustice. 

Conclusion. Ultimately, we each have ourselves to be responsible for. We must each ensure that we are not “caught up in” any of the violence or intentional radicalism of innocents because of “mob mentality”. While it is certainly acceptable to be passionate about any given perspective. It is completely unacceptable to damage other’s property, or person, to publicly display our passions. We must all take stock in our own emotional state when attending large gatherings, and ensure that we assist in denying the instigators any satisfaction by retaining our state of mind during these types of events. The downside to what we witnessed in the BLM protests, as well as the “Stop the count” protests, is that it destroyed all legitimacy to those necessary causes. The degradation of those very necessary messages by the unrest that accompanied the display of displeasure did not add, but instead, greatly reduced the distribution of that message… 

As always my friends, I am honored and humbled that you have chosen to spend this time with us here at the Alaskan Outlaw. I want to say that we deeply appreciate your never-ending email messages and chats, and look forward to hearing from each of you. Again, thank you so much for helping to make this nation better than it was yesterday, and not as good as it will be tomorrow. Be safe, and be true to who you are. Keep your head on a swivel…. Peace.