Month: August 2022

Filters are needed

A recent ‘Alabama Unfiltered’ episode from the wholly owned subsidiary of the Alabama Policy Institute had three regular 1819ers talking with Rebekah Blocher. She’s an Alabama Eagle Forum ‘Research Fellow.’ She’s done several ‘Great Reset’ and “What is Metaverse?’ talks but also recently directed their Cullman group’s program on ‘foraging’ so as “to prepare for the upcoming food shortages that will begin to hit this fall.” Try to remember that worry for later.

The Alabama Policy Institute 1819 hosts were Scott Beason, Amie Beth Shaver (ABS), and a ‘Local Alabama‘ member named Allison Sinclair. Advance’s Alabama Media Group (aldotcom) just had some coverage of LOCAL’s ‘dime out your teacher for fevered swamp stuff’ form which described her as a mere member of LOCAL Alabama. That coverage was, in my mind, not especially awful but it seemed a bit gentle. Sinclair sure looks to be among LOCAL Alabama’s leadership. And for what it’s worth, she’s the Zone 9 Director for the Shelby County Republic Party.

Although they have NO IDEA, at least as best as I can tell, they’re lamenting late capitalism, features in neoliberalism, the commodification of personal data through consumer products and other technology, facets of globalization, etc. At the very end of this post I’ll try to send anyone who makes it that far to some resources on what I think is the stuff to study on. It’s deep. I’ve been rooting around in this stuff for years now and I’m still getting a handle on the complexities. So many layers and angles. Serious scholars wrestle with these themes. In fact, if you want to just go ahead and roll on toward the end there’s a good piece and a trailer to a documentary shared. That’s a decent strategy if you’re interested and don’t want to suffer through my scribbling. TL,DR is understood. No worries.

These four from the Alabama Policy Institute’s 1819 effort and the Alabama Eagle Forum are carrying on about communism, how ‘the gubmint’ and the World Economic Forum (WEF) and … are plotting and scheming, etc. I kid you not! Referencing what I’m sharing at the end of this post, that’s not helping. It’s in fact making it all the more likely ‘the gubmint’ and the WEF might pull off what is being talked up. What is actually being batted around and proposed is undeniably something to get stressed over. It’s just not what these knuckleheads are caterwauling about.

There’s A LOT those four folks seem to be struggling with. An industrial strength filtering system would be needed to clean out the sewage from this nearly hour long discussion. That’s the title of the post. Filters are needed. I’m late. After the fact. But it might do some good. Might as well give it a go.

I am only touching on some of the slop this bunch blathered on about. It would take me just too long to address every place where one or more of these four said something that was shaky, silly, or …

There’ve only been 146 views on YouTube at the time I’m first posting this but … And consider enabling the transcript feature on YouTube if so inclined. Yup, you’ll need to open in that platform. As many people know, their algorithm might then start serving you up all sorts of silliness. Still, there’s A LOT going on this episode and seeing the text might help you ‘appreciate’ what you’re seeing.

Having spent far too much time over the last couple of decades watching or listening to stuff like this, even as a younger fellow witnessing some of the local Birchers do their thing, I feel like I can almost predict where they’re going or how they’re ‘thinking’ before they start talking. And seriously, this is nothing new. It’s been a BIG part of the religious right and ‘conservatism’ for many, many years.

They almost always have a few legitimate concerns. They might even start forming a critique in some places. But it almost always quickly crumbles because certain types can’t seem to help but focus in on ‘the gubmint’ and ‘the left.’ They can’t get to what’s real because of the ridiculous. They rarely dig deeper because they’re constantly served up shallow slop that confirms what they’re already ‘thinking’ and especially feeling.

These four on this Alabama Policy Institute 1819 ‘Alabama Unfiltered’ episode are all worked up (or at least pretend to be – more on that later) about ESG (environmental, social, and governance) ratings and the ‘Great Reset Initiative’ that the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos is pushing.

They’re fretting over multiple school systems here in Alabama spending money on sustainability and energy efficiency initiatives. The Gulf Shores City System was mentioned. Schneider Electric, from France no less, is mixed up in this. School Superintendents of Alabama hands out a Superintendent of the Year award every year. It appears that Schneider Electric is sponsoring the award. Such looks to me like capitalism, routine sponsoring, government relations, etc. Sure, it could be that some sketchy stuff is happening as to nailing down these deals. It’d be worth rooting around on that I suppose.

However, our ‘Alabama Unfiltered’ panel sees something much more sinister. School indoctrination! Seriously, social and emotional learning (SEL) and social justice stuff, even hiring up more mental health supports in our schools, is part of what has them worked up.

They’re off into something about how kids are going to be programmed up from all these energy efficiency efforts. Gracious, there might even be pizza parties for a class who saves the most energy. Then those kids are soon grown up and heading off to live in SMART homes with facial recognition and microphones and …

And that tech can do all sorts of secret scary stuff. Toward the end of the hour they’re talking about our toilet seats knowing too much. And surveillance if you say this or that. How some of the new technology knows who you’re around and where you are traveling to. And sure, that’s a concern. It’s just not like these four see (or pretend to see – I’ll get there) the situation. Reeducation camps. Yup, one said it! I believe it was the LOCAL Alabama lady. ABS is moving to a farm.

Blocher, the Eagle Forum Research Fellow, is exceedingly anxious about IoT (Internet of Things) semiconductors. She kept talking about the Biden bill this and the Biden bill that. She said how cars will have to have breathalyzers. Something is in one bill about figuring out how to figure this out but it’s a bit open-ended at this point about exactly how that could happen. My guess is industry and advocacy groups will wrestle it out in the next decade or so.

As a brief aside, Sinclair and Blocher both seem to misunderstand facets of the Friedman Doctrine about maximizing shareholder value. There’s not really a ‘law’ nor is it ‘illegal’ if a board or CEO doesn’t do this. And it’s not just financial, the short-term stuff, etc.

The thought of me just talking or writing about stuff, especially where people can see or read it to pick it apart, when I don’t know anything about said stuff terrifies me. Now, nobody should necessarily feel bad about not knowing stuff. In fact, there’s a lot to be said for understanding just how complicated things are and how we’re mostly only going to be able to be dabblers about a broad body of knowledge. At the same time, you really want to try to avoid having too much conviction that you’ve got stuff nailed down and genuinely understand most things. That’s especially true, I’d suggest, about really complicated societal trends and conditions.

This panel appears to view stakeholder capitalism as somehow another part of the plan of Klaus Schwab and the WEF, plus the BlackRock crowd, to eventually get us with our own ESG scores. Again, it could be that one or more of the Alabama Policy Institute 1819 crew or even the Eagle Forum Research Fellow are ‘doing a bit.’ Playing a part. Putting on a show. But if so, they’re good.

Mentions were made of infrastructure being put into place, how it’s gonna be like Red China before long, we only have one or two elections left before …

Blocher said that ‘on the right’ everyone is against this ESG stuff. But on the left, yup – that’s what she said, there are two camps. There are some like BlackRock’s Larry Fink who say ESG is already good. And others who say the trouble is that it’s too loose and needs more monitoring. But again, she’s putting BlackRock’s Larry Fink on ‘the left.’ BlackRock’s Larry Fink gets mentioned over and over. He’s a big focus. It reminds me of how Soros is commonly cited. Go figure.

Blocher said how she now would Google a company or individual and then add ‘World Economic Forum’ to her query. Not just anyone floating around has what it takes to become an Eagle Forum Research Fellow!

At another point, much is made over BlackRock doing some sort of maneuver where they gained some board seats with Exxon. BlackRock was just part of the effort. It was Engine No. 1. Here’s their update. Clearly a bunch of commie reds.

I was familiar with Samuel Huntington’s ‘Davos Man’ construct and subsequent concerns about the WEF, globalism, etc. And sure, most of that was probably from people using a mostly leftish lens. Still, watching the WEF get what looks like a juiced-up John Birch Society treatment was wild. As to Huntington in general, some of his stuff seems rather shaky. Silly or even scary.

There are multiple places in this hour or so where they’re somewhat dismissive of climate change concerns. And remember that Eagle Forum class in Cullman Blocher led about ‘foraging’ so as “to help you prepare for the upcoming food shortages that will begin to hit this fall.” Yup, some of the shortages are apparently related to climate change. For the record, it’s awesome that people are helping other people prepare, get by, provision, etc. I just worry some about the kookery which might get passed along as that assistance is offered.

Blocher sometimes seems relatively sensible and authentic. She’s seldom coming across to me as callous or a jerk. (The host of the other end of the group repeatedly does, however.) At least Blocher doesn’t seem dismissive of some of the environmental concerns. My impression is that she just went down some trails. Possibly plenty of trails. Early in this ‘Alabama Unfiltered’ episode she says how she started watching Trump’s daily briefings and started seeing all the lies in the media and so she started looking into things and before long she’s at ‘The Great Reset’ and …

Again, not just anybody has what it takes to become an Eagle Forum Research Fellow.

Blocher also appears to have been rather ‘churched up’ from what I could gather on publicly available sources, mostly her own blog and some social media. That’s cool. No worries. At the same time, it’s OK I believe to wonder what folks are hearing or watching, reading and talking about in churches all around us. Another topic for another day perhaps.

A heap of people were and are looking for answers. Citizens are anxious and feeling like they’re not getting straight answers often. They’re correct on both counts. And at the same time, at 40:20ish Blocher got this big smile and said she has started just calling ‘them’ (presumably the WEF, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, …) communists. You want to be sympathetic and try to understand how they get to this point but darned if this isn’t incredible. Communists. Larry Fink. Over Blackrock. And the World Economic Forum. Economic. Mercy!

At another point, Blocher started talking of how what happened in Germany, Rwanda, etc. She’s reading something with or like Schindler’s List (possibly the book?)in her homeschooling efforts. And she mentions propaganda.

However, she immediately talked of how overnight people can be labeled domestic terrorists for just doing … Presumably that’s the twisting various ‘conservative’ and ‘Christian’ outlets did when the DOJ, among a few other mild steps, agreed to liaise on efforts to look into violence or threats of violence at some school settings. There was a letter from the National School Boards Association to the DOJ which did contain “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” It’s worth clicking through that last link to see what got and has kept so many ‘conservatives’ stirred up.

Yes, propaganda is a problem. And unfortunately, it comes in many, many forms. I’m just saying.

Blocher also talked of how history was so important and how ‘doing the research’ was vital. She mentioned Glenn Beck, Rod Dreher’s book, etc. Most folks know Beck. Yuck! I once read and liked Dreher. That was ages ago. He’s gone plumb pitiful in recent years. And at one point even said she’s read a book on the left titled … Wait for it. ‘Talking to Strangers.’ Yup, Malcolm Gladwell. The guy M. Stanton Evans got started. Gladwell’s pop science slop makes a ton but he’s regularly ridiculed by most people who actually work in those fields and have some training that he simply doesn’t. He’s absolutely raking the money in from books and speaking and … However, he’s not ‘on the left.’

Here’s someone who went looking for answers and soon they’re a ‘Research Fellow’ for Eagle Forum going around giving these talks. They’re going up on an ‘Alabama Unfiltered’ show that at least a few folks will be listening to or watching. And again, she seems relatively decent and possibly is. Beats me? As for Beason and ABS, they’ve been around for ages. To my knowledge, both may generally believe what they say. And at the same time, there’s possibly some benefit from the role inside ‘conservatism’ each has occupied here in Alabama. There’s attention, maybe at least a little money, etc. Sinclair is a new arrival to the stage. Who knows anymore about really any of these ‘grassroots’ efforts? I’ve been watching money sloshing around for decades in education ‘reform’ and ‘conservative’ causes.

There’s clearly money being spent to get this slop out. Even though Alabama Policy Institute is a 501(c)(3) with tax benefits to donors, they’ve never opened their books that I’m aware of. Furthermore, with all the donor-advised funds around now, like the National Christian Foundation, washing mystery money in is now super easy. Anyone can slip them money – and probably pocket a donation in the process.

And this episode was just garbage. A constant stream of bullshit, kookery, etc. It’s sort of like a non-commercially viable and comparatively tiny form of ‘The Rick and Bubba Show’ miseducating a decent chunk of citizens all across the region. And there’s more on that seemingly undeniable pattern of miseducation at the very end of the post. It’s like misinformation, riling up the rubes … is a core mission.

As to what was possibly good on this episode, Blocher bragged on switching to a credit union rather early on. Yup! That’s socialized, cooperatively-owned banking. And even at the end they all seemed to agree on local banking. No use of ‘credit union’ but Blocher clearly said that at 18:55ish.

Sinclair and perhaps others too got to fretting over broadband expansion. A little conspiracy kookery sprinkled in somehow another. My recollection is that Blocher allowed how broadband access out into the sticks is important yet somewhat echoed at least some concerns. Sinclair mentioning how building out broadband was supposed to be something the ‘free market’ should handle was, however, something I sort of did appreciate. I’m OK with subsidizing this sort of thing if it’s done the right way. Then again, I’d much prefer we hit rewind so that ARPANet hadn’t gotten loose from ‘the gubmint’ like it did. The interwebs getting privatized so much so that profiteers could make so much just hasn’t been ideal. Doling out money so that often quite profitable firms can run service out bothers me. However, internet access for regular folks is critical. So it goes.

As to what these four folks sometimes nibbled at yet went off into Limbaughland and John Birch Society territory on, I can sort of get there from the Peter Viereck, Christopher Lasch, Robert Nisbet, Michael Oakeshott, Wendell Berry … form of conservatism. Yup, I expect I know exponentially more actual conservatism than really any of the crowd at the Alabama Policy Institute. Or Yellowstain. Or …

They’re mostly Limbaugh-level ‘conservatives.’ Movement conservatism soldiers. And I still don’t understand why nobody with a platform and resources will dig into Caleb Crosby’s ties to Mitch McConnell and more. I once emailed a youngster with Advance’s Alabama Media Group a polite note on Crosby’s connections and activities, including tons of information, links, and such, only to not even get the courtesy of a reply. I’m still steamed about that one.

The best way, however, to get to what these four Dunning-Krueger Effect poster children discussed is to just give you a list of possible resources to read or listen to. Some are ones I just stumbled across recently or found as the sites or podcasts or whatever are in my regular rotation. Nothing I’m sharing is really new to me. I’m not dropping that in to suggest I’m anything special. But I do work at trying to be relatively informed and also at having skills and traits related to rooting out some understanding. I’ve read extensively on neoliberalism, for instance, and have tried to keep up in several other areas.

One of the ways I was howling the most in listening to these four was how there was no discussion of how our data are sold, used, etc. The commodification of so much that’s personal is one of the bigger stories of the last decade or so. This piece on ‘surveillance capitalism’ is a decent starter it seems.

There was also nothing about workers being surveilled by their bosses. ‘The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score’ was timely to read. Yes, it’s in the New York Times. Probably they’re a bunch of red commies too in the ‘thinking’ of the ‘Alabama Unfiltered’ crew and the Eagle Forum Research Fellow.

Amy Goodman had Peter Goodman (no relation) on early this year to discuss his new book on ‘Davos Man.’ I’d not listened in and need to go back and get that in. ‘Democracy Now’ is almost always solid.

A big gaping hole seems to be that these modern-day Birchers just don’t understand, perhaps have no inkling about, neoliberalism. Capitalism has always been crafty and adaptable. But decades into the neoliberal turn, a period when globalization and financialization runs deep, the misunderstanding of how the state is part of propping up capital seems beyond stupid. Hegemonic forces, power, capital, or whatever ‘just finds a way.’ And I’m not linking to anything about ‘governmentality’ from Foucault, Gramsci’s theory of power, Althusser’s ideological state apparatuses. You really should ease into that stuff.

I think a damned decent argument can be made that at least some of this talk about stakeholder capitalism and other parts of this ‘Great Reset’ is about propping up, legitimizing, repackaging … a teetering system where more and more citizens around the planet are fed up with the ‘free market’ bullshit. It’s possibly just an effort to buy some time as neoliberalism’s ‘logic’ keeps crumbling. Or just causing more and more people to feel fried, frustrated, fractious, etc. To keep the peasants from picking up the pitchforks. To hang on in there long enough to get things situated enough where the uber elite and their spawn, plus just enough lackeys to do the unpleasant yet necessary labor, can go live on secure islands or in gated off compounds.

Yet another possibility is how some scrappy, creative capitalists are transforming the impending climate crisis, the malaise over neoliberalism or late capitalism, the way neoliberal rationalities individualized our responses to problems … into financial opportunities. Hell, everything has a financialization possibility now. Closely related is looking at some of this ESG or climate crisis stuff as a mitigation or adaptation to risk effort.

Neither will I tear into wokewashing, greenwashing, rainbow capitalism … They’re all terms worth Googling about on. For what it’s worth, I hold to some of the thinking that too much focus on that sort of thing is to keep regular folks from getting down to class, economic theory, and such.

‘Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness’ by Neil Vallelly is a book worth mentioning. I’m not sure where to situate it, however. I just read it and it’s really been on my mind. Here’s a review. I regularly listen to a podcast the reviewer is involved with. In that review, the late Mark Fisher’s ‘Capitalist Realism’ is referenced. That’s a must read in my opinion if any of this interests you. Here’s a free version on LibCom.

Similarly, Bungacast recently did an interview with Fritz Bartel on his new book, The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism, that was a gem. I expect anybody can learn from this podcast in general. So much that I liked. Stretched my mind. Top rec!

And there’s ‘The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel’ to possibly watch. I recall watching Joel Bakan’s original film ages back. It was very influential in getting me started on some stuff, filling in a few gaps, etc. If reading about the new documentary is more your speed, here’s a write up. A trailer follows:

Naomi Klein’s ‘The Great Reset Conspiracy Smoothie’ is out there. But it might be behind a paywall. Just in case, try here. Her close is awesome.

… The irony, though, is that the fact-Vitamix currently whirring around the Great Reset actually makes it harder to hold the Davos set accountable for any of this, since legitimate critiques have now been blended together with truly dangerous anti-vaccination fantasies and outright coronavirus denialism.

It also makes it harder to talk about the profound realignment our economies and societies desperately need, a vision a group of us laid out in the short film we released way back in October called “The Years of Repair” — because now all talk about how we change for the better in response to the cruelties that Covid-19 has unveiled is immediately smeared as part of the Great Reset. As the historian Quinn Slobodian recently wrote, years after “The Shock Doctrine” was published, “the right was now appropriating this narrative for its own ends.” Meanwhile, the less fantastical but extremely real shock doctrine maneuvers currently waging war on public schools, hospitals, small farmers, environmental protections, civil liberties, and workers’ rights receive a fraction of the attention they deserve.

Is it all a plan, another kind of elaborate conspiracy? Nothing so elegant. As Steve Bannon kindly told us, the informational strategy of the Trump era has always been to “flood the zone with shit.” Four years later, we can see what this looks like in practice. It looks like far-left and far-right conspiracists sitting down over a tray of information-shit sandwiches to talk about how the Great Reset is Gates’s plan to use the DNA from our Covid-19 tests to turn the United States into Venezuela.

It makes no sense, and that’s just fine by the likes of Bannon, and Kenney as well. Because if you want to keep waging war on the Earth’s life-supporting ecology, a great way to do it is to deliberately pollute its democracy-supporting information ecology. In fact, the pollution is the point.

You get that, at least anyone that’s actually worried about this stuff and isn’t some sort of cosplay ‘conservative’ in on a grift or gathering meaning from all the caterwauling, this conspiracy bullshit is making it harder to get a handle on the mothertruckers. It’s going to be way more difficult to reel them in if they can convince regular folks it’s just reactionary knuckleheads that are hooting and hollering a bunch of blathering nonsense.

That’s enough. As to reactionary knuckleheads that are hooting and hollering a bunch of blathering nonsense, however, there’s truly an abundance of such coming out of the Alabama Policy Institute’s 1819 effort. Here are some tweet threads on just a few from fairly recently.

And some images from ‘Alabama Unfiltered’ showing the relationship:

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you see an error. Same for just if I’m missing something or might’ve read something wrong. Helping me hone my understanding is always appreciated. If I’m wrong, then I want to absolutely try to get right. What I’m rarely interested in, however, is trying to engage with people who aren’t doing anything more that this:

I’m actually OK with some religious stuff and hearing what people read or saw on ‘conservative’ sites or outlets. Moments like those can occasionally offer a view into where some misunderstandings get started. And they might also provide a chance to talk language or lenses or …

Comments are moderated and I’ll try to monitor when they come in. Absent something really inappropriate, it gets through. I will make a note if I do any significant edits. I will probably just fix typos, grammar goofs, and the like. Should it matter, I am not on anyone’s payroll. I’ve never made one thin dime here in Alabama doing politics or messaging or advocacy or whatever. Around 4000 words or so. What was I thinking?

While I’m here, I might as well do one of my periodic requests that someone or several someones with some money put together a halfway professional outlet to do some professional work that a jackleg like me dabbles at. I do my rabble-rousing, too much tweeting, and this kind of rambling post because it sure seems to me that something like this is needed. But I’d much rather someone with some proper training and talent do it. Plus, I have other stuff that needs doing. I sometime really enjoy what all I do but there’s admittedly a feeling of being a bit burdened every so often.

Now I sort of hate to do this. I don’t try to tag in hardly anyone I’m critiquing. I can try to explain why if anyone ever pushes me on that general approach. But I’m relatively confident I could hold my own in any discussion about anything I’ve written, tweeted, etc. I know plenty of ‘conservatives’ who make a living, probably a decent one, talking and writing ‘conservative’ slop. There are multiple people and interests involved in putting this Alabama Policy Institute 1819 effort together and pushing it out. They even have some sort of ancap Mises supposedly libertarian fellow on their team. Yellowstain is Yellowstain. Multiple ‘conservative’ talk radio shows are all around the state. I’m just a dude with a keyboard who has been blessed with some solid teachers and a little capacity for learning. An ideological irregular without any affiliation. One guy. I’m not agreeing that I’d legitimate just any ‘conservatives’ or ‘libertarians’ if they ever wanted to lock horns. But I increasingly believe part of putting an end to so much garbage getting hosed out is for regular folks to try to slow the damage. Filters are needed. I’m probably willing to step up where I’m able.

And either way, as time allows I will continue attempts to delegitimize, ridicule … these fake ass ‘conservative’ disinformation outlets and the cosplay ‘conservative’ types here in Alabama.

However, I expect some people may just need to make a living. They may be stuck. Bills need paying, etc. Possibly they need to try to ‘break in’ as to industry or burnish a résumé. If that’s the case, discreetly let me know and I’ll see if I can cut you some slack. Or don’t let me know. I’ll just try to give you the benefit of the doubt if it makes sense. I might even try to see if I can help you find a way out or forward. However, I probably can’t. I have very little individual capital (economic, symbolic, social, or cultural) to offer anyone. Still, I don’t mind trying to help. Seriously, there’s no point it seems to me to find capitalism somewhat problematic if you’re not willing to try to help folks trapped in capitalism. And we’re basically all trapped in capitalism. Neoliberalism has made it where things are even more jacked up. Don’t forget to try to understand that in the current societal arrangement a good bit is out of balance. People are in rare states. Compassion. It’s a good grounding to at least aim for.

Thanks for reading! Respectfully, john gunn

Update 1635 on 18 AUG 22 – ‘Family Capitalism and the Small Business Insurrection’ from Melinda Cooper from earlier in the year came to my mind. It’s likely relevant to at least some of what the four on the Alabama Policy Institute 1819 ‘Alabama Unfiltered’ episode were carrying on about.

Update 1445 on 19 AUG 22 – The Business Roundtable’s climate plan was killed by its arch-rival, the Business Roundtable by Cory Doctorow was a timely read in relation to a good bit of the bullshit the four knuckleheads on that Alabama Policy Institute 1819 ‘Alabama Unfiltered’ episode were shoveling out. BlackRock’s Larry Fink was mentioned as one of the Roundtable’s more powerful members. He’s linking to some work Adam Lowenstein did in The Guardian.