100 Comments
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Yolanda D.'s avatar

This is an absolutely fantastic article that many of us can relate to. Thank you, Ethan! ♥️🙏🤗

Ethan #VerticalWar Faulkner MF's avatar

I appreciate your support more than you know!!

Kathryn Wallenstein's avatar

S0 V e R R R R Y G 000 d : THaNKY0uu

Tim's avatar

Enrage us to the point of stupidity is the most relevant line. That’s what MAGA has done to their followers. Not one that I’ve encountered, has been able to support their reasoning behind their beliefs. Hence: Stupidity.

Tim's avatar

Ignorance is a condition, stupidity is a commitment!

Seamus Mahoney's avatar

Stupidity can easily be trained into dumb sheep. - Even smarter ones...

Barry Ratliff's avatar

That’s red team/ blue team drama. Blues blame Reds. Reds blame Blues. While we argue, the real ones to blame, remain hidden instead of brought out exposed to the light and to justice.

A doc reads's avatar

Boom!

You speak truth and you nailed it!

Tim's avatar

They could try examining Trump’s brain, however they wouldn’t have much to work with?

Susan Cortilet Jones (link ⬇️)'s avatar

You literally hit the nail on the head. There has been an active and organized effort on the part of leading violence experts/psychiatrists since 2017 to force an evaluation for unfitness and dangerousness (neither of which are diagnosis). It can be done, if the will of the people leans in that direction. The media has nearly blocked the messengers, both cult experts and psychiatrists. I am part of support for those in this effort. Here is a link to a book that was first published in 2016 and has been updated 4 x’s but with similar messaging: https://mentalfitnessmatters.substack.com/p/highlights-from-the-much-more-dangerous

Karen Brownfield's avatar

A small pea

Lynn S Zumwinkle's avatar

Well they’ve trained you well. Here you are doing exactly what this article is describing that is causing the victims of the world. Congratulations you get your cap and tassel.

Chuck's avatar

He’s got a hell of a lot more brain than you do. Obviously you’re a dumbocrat.

Martha Jackson's avatar

Did you read this article?

Seamus Mahoney's avatar

'Well Said!'

Yes I saw what you did... 👍🏼

Gary Greene's avatar

No brain 🧠 signals

M O. The MIND

His profile. the perfect profile

Menacing

Ideas

Never

Die MIND

Produces sharts &

S H I T

Simply

How

I

Think SHIT

As he RUNS those brain sharts to RUIN

BLAME delegated by infintile EGO

Steps up

Bitching

Lying

And

Moaning

Everyday BLAME

Patti Armstrong's avatar

Looks like you totally missed the meaning of the article. Just beyond your grasp?

Tim's avatar

Chuck , ignorance is a condition, stupidity is a commitment.

Chuck's avatar

You don’t need to be enraged to the point of stupidity. You’re already there…

Pete “Pig” Fleischmann's avatar

Could say the exact same thing about liberal progressives. You did read the article, right?

Does it matter?'s avatar

lol…. These comments are hilarious! Red /blue itis!

Chuck's avatar

You are the epitome of stupidity. Libtard…

Chuck's avatar

You’re a fool. I assume you’re a dumbocrat.

Wayne Kerr's avatar

Try as they might scientists and medical research researchers have never been able to find a cure for stupid stupidity.

Seamus Mahoney's avatar

From a Foreign view, the Democrats sound equally unbalanced ....

"Congratulations for Competence of the boot-owner, managing both necks under the same jackboot !"

Neither will ever see it, because their oppressor is .... their own, sin-prone flesh.

There's a standing invitation to be a 'Citizen' of Christ's coming Kingdom, where 'every man sits under his OWN fig tree...' but that means desiring God's Ways over our nature's demands,,, thus few will accept .

Your choice.

Words War 3's avatar

It was carefully crafted

Heather Olivier's avatar

I love your summation-

They built you a prison in your mind-but only you have the key.

SO GET OUT, stop allowing them to have any power

Wayne Kerr's avatar

This is a voice from Canada : I feel so lucky that universal healthcare was brought in in the 1930s. A very progressive politician, it was Tommy Douglas. Along with universal healthcare, we received not-for-profit hospitals. Hospitals in Canada cannot go bankrupt. Sure this is socialized medicine, but it is light years from communism. Universal healthcare would go a long way to making the lives of the average American lot happier. I am a bit of a neophyte when it comes to American politics, but this guy T. Rump has caused me to take more of an interest. I do not understand this two party system. It is obvious that will always be them against us or us against them. How can it be otherwise? This means that nothing gets done. I think you need a new party and I think it should be called the Bernie Sanders party. You should have people like AOC, Adam Schiff, Jasmine, Crockett, and many others whose names don’t come to mind. I think your whole system is broken. Canada does not allow billionaires to control party politics you need to get rid of the money. You need a fair taxation system so that the billionaires pay their share. We do have billionaires and they assist in funding a new part of a city hospital or a centre of excellence at a university. I have not seen a Zuckerberg Centre of Excellence at any university in the US. These people should be ashamed of themselves, but they are too concerned with amassing more and more wealth! I don’t profess to know all or any of the answers, but I do know a few things that would go along ways to correcting your system. I know that you folks have a hell of a fight on your hands, and I would like you to know that I am behind you and wish you the best of luck!!!

Susan Kostka's avatar

THANK YOU ❤️ for understanding what we are up against down here🤨🤔😵

We have a country where people refuse to do their own research, and just follow their “Dear Leader” to the abyss.

The way DJT is totally pitting one group against the other, at the same time professing that he’s being harassed, could very well be the end of our Republic, and will be an Autocracy. We’re well on the way to that right now 😢😢😢

Bernie Sanders is a Democratic Socialist, which is nothing like Communism. But DJT throws that word out as if it was the Bible, and the MAGA cult laps it up.

I went to the hospital in Mykonos Greece when I had chest pain. I had to turn in my passport when I registered at the beginning. I saw a Cardiologist, who prescribed a chest 🩻 , then had a few more tests, which all came back OK.

When I was checking out after less than an hour in the Emergency Room, I paid my bill, which came to $110.00 ❤️ due to Greece having Socialized Medicine. If this happened in the USA, it would have been more time, and probably much more than 10 times what I paid in Greece.

Just Trash's avatar

"This is of course why violence is so often the preferred weapon of the stupid. One might even call it the trump card of the stupid, since (and this is surely one of the tragedies of human existence) it is the one form of stupidity to which it is most difficult to come up with an intelligent response." - David Graeber

David Hope's avatar

Very thoughtful, good stuff.

There are surprisingly easy ways to break the chains of the mind.

The beginning is the realization that these chains “exist,” with no finger pointing to/at anyone else, or towards any other source — or towards oneself, for that matter.

In self reflection, aggression gets us nowhere…

Mike Mouritz's avatar

Useful and informative and thoughtful conversation

Tara N's avatar

Exactly. We . Are . The. Resistance. ONWARD !

Lynn's avatar

In a way, the insidious control and oppression is the ‘resistance’ - it systematically, oppressively, resists The Laws of Nature and Physics - like human migration, community and empathy.

Louise's avatar

Brilliant thanks for posting helps a lot.

Wolfram v.Kiparski's avatar

These comments it's like you read the article and all you can say is "yeah Red Team Bad.". I guess we are soooo entrenched in the Great Distraction that we can't even see it.

Ethan #VerticalWar Faulkner MF's avatar

Constant work in progress lol

phelpsmediation's avatar

One of the main elements of mind control is religion. Where all answers are given by the interpreters of Gods will and questions are dismissed as lack of faith. Faith meaning beliefs without evidence or against the evidence.

Jim Best's avatar

I would like to know how 7.5% interest works out to be @ 40% of my monthly car payment. And a local hardware chain can charge $24 one day late fee for a $20 purchase. yes, learned helplessness is a fiercely toxic and insidious disease that I believe a flex political parties, churches, and public schools. I am yet to find an expiration date for the second great commandment that we love others as we love ourselves and witness to our love for God. Rather it is much more popular to say “that is so sad, but you know it’s the end times., I was born just after Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I have lived in the “end times” all of my life! now I realize that when I am silent that others will speak for me to perpetuate my own demise as a gay old man. So I have a long list of things that I avoid number one any organization that is a “white bubble.“ I ask people why they attend church. A common response is “so I can go to heaven.“ I called that the me gospel or the quid pro quo/ pie in the sky gospel. The comfort zone gospel, the country club gospel, wow even the opiate of the people gospel. i’ll make a point of sitting in a different pier with different people when I’m not singing with the men or the women’s choir🤣! I am thrilled to see so many young people turned their frustration and sense of abuse into vibrate campaigns to represent their constituency. That is our strength diversity is our strength. There’s no zero sum justification in the Golden Rule, which has become political and social suicide. Very unpopular! The truth does not have to be complicated. I think the concept of horizontal versus vertical engagement is very accurate and helpful.

Bob, the Free Radical's avatar

America has a HUGE problem, note that the 4th amendment is routinely violated at every airport in this Republic and for absolutely NO excuse whatsoever, "TSA" is founded upon LIES & FRAUD

Seamus Mahoney's avatar

Like a three-letter agency founded by a closet kink, who then blackmailed leaders for the next 40 years of his Reign ?

The one that's mis ed the Epsteins & Associates & Customers, and other minor sins such as Vote fraud perpetrated for ??? many decades / elections ?

Hint: Will Not be the norm in Christ's Kingdom .

Bob, the Free Radical's avatar

Ya, I have to be periodically reminded that the whole system is sick&twisted . . . oh well.

The Zonie's avatar

Unplug from the matrix and mass mind manipulation. You have the power and access to the armor of God.

Rich Grass's avatar

That just sounded like you plagiarized the Matrix.

Ethan #VerticalWar Faulkner MF's avatar

Good catch! The parallels are strong. The Matrix used sci-fi to explore the feeling of being trapped in a false reality.

​We argue that the "Three-Layered Prison" – Economic Terror 🧪, The Great Distraction 🎮, and Learned Helplessness ⛓️ – is that reality, built not by machines but by the systems The Rust 🦠 uses to control us. It's less about taking a red pill and more about recognizing the architecture of the cage. Appreciate you making the connection!

Rich Grass's avatar

Thanks for your extended view.

I love these guys, one of the best independent media options right there with the MTN.

Ralph Hensley's avatar

With this moronic administration and all that's it's doing to destroy our country, it's not hard to understand how they are destroying our psyche

Randy Tracy's avatar

“This” administration? Please recall that the ~last~ administration used the full power of the federal law enforcement apparatus to forcibly arrest and charge political opponents on nonviolent nonsensical ‘crimes’. Two completely nonsensical ‘impeachment’ sham trials that only allowed one ‘side’ to lie! And also, once the BS was rejected, destroyed all records! The fact that BOTH ‘SIDES’ are ok with this atrocious behavior just confirms that us peons are being ‘played’!!

Civis Americanus's avatar

Sir,

Your framing of legitimacy as an interpretive structure is striking — especially the observation that standards become internalized long before they are ever questioned. What I find myself wondering, though, is whether the instability you describe emerges less from the existence of standards and more from their increasing opacity.

A republic can survive disagreement about outcomes, but it struggles when the processes that assign legitimacy become invisible to the citizen. When classification systems feel abstract or unchallengeable, people do not merely lose trust in institutions; they lose the ability to distinguish between coordination and quiet consolidation. At that point, legitimacy ceases to function as a shared grammar and begins to operate as a private verdict.

I’m curious how you see structural restraint fitting into your framework. If legitimacy is constructed — and therefore adjustable — what prevents the redesign of those standards from drifting toward managerial uniformity rather than widening participation? In other words, is the real danger flawed legitimacy, or legitimacy that no longer reveals its own limits?

— Civis Americanus

Ethan #VerticalWar Faulkner MF's avatar

Sir,

Your observation cuts straight through the noise of the Horizontal War and strikes the exact coordinates of the modern condition. You are entirely correct: the true peril is not that standards exist, but that their architecture has been deliberately obscured.

The Invisible Ink of the Rust

What you describe as "increasing opacity" is a mechanism we call the Inverse Protection Racket. The system—the extractive class we refer to as the "Rust"—engineers this invisibility on purpose. It operates with surgical precision to protect its own structural legitimacy, while deploying bureaucratic incompetence the moment a citizen attempts to audit it. When the processes of coordination feel unchallengeable, it is not an accident of a complex republic; it is a quiet, intentional consolidation.

The Death of the Shared Grammar

When you note that legitimacy ceases to function as a shared grammar, you are diagnosing what we call Schema Collapse. In a culture saturated by the constant, curated noise of manufactured outrage (Layer 2: The Great Distraction) , the "middle bandwidth" for nuance dies. We lose the shared vocabulary required to challenge the underlying structure, and just as you beautifully put it, legitimacy degrades into an isolated, private verdict.

The Blinding Light & The Countermeasure

To answer your final, penetrating question: the real danger is absolutely legitimacy that no longer reveals its own limits. In our framework, we view this through the allegory of the Lighthouse. A structure built to provide the "One Safe Path" against the dark. But when its light becomes too pure and unquestionable, it bleaches the soul of the citizen, erasing the will to explore and engineering a hollow, managerial sameness (Layer 3: Learned Helplessness). The system doesn't need to control your actions if it can curate your imagination.

The only structural restraint against this drift is what we call Serious Play. It is the rigorous discipline of refusing to be predictable. We do not restrain the system by appealing to its invisible rules; we restrain it by breaking the "agreement of sameness". We do it by daring to look up at the shooting star while the rest of the world looks down at the grind.

I will continue to work to write articles to make this clearer in the future.

Thank you for reading, and for holding the line.

— The Architect