Sadly, anyone who would be a good Guru doesn't have the necessary funds, and anyone with the moolah would make a lousy Guru.  They are mutually exclusive sets, there's no intersection.

RE

Pops is not typical and 99% of people would not have dropped out to grow veggies and raise pigs. You still do not get it.  People do not challenge that which contradicts their world view.  Perhaps I am not being clear so I'll repeat that.  People do not challenge that which contradicts their world view.

Some people are prone to conspiracies and seek them out.  That actually makes more my point than yours.  I am not talking about a simple propensity to believe bullshit which I agree with you is as common as green grass.  I am talking about people being convinced that the world works a certain way, and society reinforces the message.  It becomes a core belief.  Core beliefs become part of a persons identity and are not given up easily.  Consider this 'America follows the path of justice.' 

Joe and Suzie Creamcheese may be the sons and daughters of lawyers from the other side of town.  They have never seen poverty up close.  They think the world is totally fair.  Poor people are only lazy.  'America follows the path of justice.' To them that statement is true and if they are presented with evidence that what they believe is not true, they will deny it with a passion they do not know they have.  They will be like Nietzsche watching the horse be beat retreating into the safety of madness rather than see the truth.  Fanciful justifications and elaborate stories will be created to smooth over contradictions to which they might be exposed.

They may have a Damascus moment, it is possible.  But that is unlikely.





It is a reciprocal arrangement, and I know that as FACT.  And my point is that 99% percent of people will forget about the reality of this news article and the certainty of any reciprocal arrangement as soon as they scroll away.  This being an example of one truth that Americans can't handle.

When a reader encounters a piece of evidence as concrete as this 1996 Independent article, they have a glimpse of the truth. However, a truth that is inherently "un-liveable" for most people. To acknowledge deep intrusion as a permanent, foundational fact of daily life requires them to fundamentally change how they engage with the state, technology, and their own feelings of safety.  And the fact is, they are not fucking going to do that.

Access to the truth is not the bottleneck, the bottleneck is the capacity to endure truth.

QuoteI doubt Elon would last long leading his survival clan of supermodels, tech bros and mercs for instance.

Exactly, none of our billionaire class has it in them to be a charismatic or competent leader.  They should pick me as guru while there is still time.

As long as they can feed and house their serfs and provide them a greater degree of safety and security than they would have not living under them in the compound, they can maintain it for a while.  Eventually of course if they don't run their city-state well, they'll be overthrown as leader.   I doubt Elon would last long leading his survival clan of supermodels, tech bros and mercs for instance.  lol.

RE

Quote from: K-Dog on Jul 05, 2026, 02:24 PMYou totally miss the point.  People will only believe in conspiracies that really do not scare them.

I disagree. People are scared by UFOs and aliens. People were scared by peak oil as pitched by the conspiratorical folks. Ruppert for example. GovCo knocked down the towers to hide peak oil! Pops at peakoil.com. gave up a decent career to grow food and tend pigs in Missouri. People invented conspiracies about Covid shots because they were scared. The exact favorite of one of the moderators at LATOC. They are TERRIFIED of the conspiracy, and BELIEVE it.

Quote from: K-DogJoe will sail De-Nile between the shores.

Pops is EMBARASSED by not his denial of the conspiracy, but of falling for it and losing a decade of his life. He moved back to California, remodeled houses for folks, enjoys his monster truck and all the fuel that is available. His name was Pops, and he was a moderator on peakoil.com

Quote from: K-DogDefend his turf like a rabid guard dog.  Reason flies away from him not because Joe finds an attractive deception to play with as you describe, but rather because Joe can't handle the truth.

Pops handled the truth he was spoon fed by PhDs who scared him into doing something. He handled the CROCK he was spoon fed....he had a perfectly normal amount of IQ points....and bought sales pitch because he really liked the idea. He handled the LIE perfectly okay.   

Quote from: K-DogThe truth is that most people are weak, and I have a Pulp Fiction clip about that.  Weak at heart.  Having the heart of a lion will wear your ass out.

I agree. Most people are weak. And even more lack the ability to follow a path through the cloud of nonsense, stories, sales pitches and conspiractorial claims which the internet only increased exponentially with its growth. Heart is great. You can have a strong heart...and without a functioning central processor make a good sucker for every story that comes down the pike. I liked the days of Planet X and the Mayan calendar myself, it was popular on one of RE's old websites.

QuoteThe question in this iteration is how successful the .01% will be with their ongoing plans and preparations to maintain a technologically advanced subculture in private compounds and bunkers in remote locations, powered by micro-nukes, windfarms, hydro and solar arrays.  Walled Cities surrounded by organic farms populated with serfs and robots, protected by private armies of Mercs operating Drones to mow down surviving hordes of hungry Zombies.  This is a possible outcome prior generations of Elites didn't have the ability to set up.

Even in the short term their math does not work.  The .01% should familiarize themselves with the history of Haiti.  The people around them are only as loyal as their paycheck, and when there is nothing left to buy, a paycheck won't go far.  And there is only so much in the larder.

Quote from: K-Dog on Jul 05, 2026, 01:36 PMBut that's not how things are. The process of modernization was a temporary phase, and now it's stopping and reversing. So, if we want to accurately envision our future, we need to scrap the old linear trajectory that puts "developed" countries ahead. Instead, we should think of it as a rubber band that's been pulled out and is now snapping back to a more primitive state. In this cyclical view, the humans who are closer to the starting line are actually closer to the finish line—they are the ones who are "ahead" on the trajectory toward the future.

Basically the trajectory of all Civilization Collapses, where the surviving population reverts to more primitive means of ekeing out a living.  Which is the almost certain outcome for 99.99% of the population.

The question in this iteration is how successful the .01% will be with their ongoing plans and preparations to maintain a technologically advanced subculture in private compounds and bunkers in remote locations, powered by micro-nukes, windfarms, hydro and solar arrays.  Walled Cities surrounded by organic farms populated with serfs and robots, protected by private armies of Mercs operating Drones to mow down surviving hordes of hungry Zombies.  This is a possible outcome prior generations of Elites didn't have the ability to set up.

It won't last forever, but it doesn't have to.  Most of the global population will die off fairly quickly when the supply chains fail, water stops being pumped through city pipes and sewage plants fail.  All they need to do is be able to last maybe a decade in well protected enclaves, and the Zombies will all be fertilizing the earth.

Will they be able to control the situation as it spins down?  Because they conflict with each other and war is a major part of collapse dynamics, probably not.  But that is definitely the end game they are prepping for.

RE

Quote from: K-Dog

QuoteThe sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Which is exactly what will happen if the actual reality and details of American Freedom are laid out before the average Joe Six Pack.

QuoteI don't believe that for a second. Joe Sixpack falls hook line and sinker for whatever they have a propensity for. Peak oil, alien lizard overlords, all government conspiracies (real or imagined), Charlie Kirk being killed by an exploding microphone (just learned this at LATOC), Guy McPherson and the BOE event....a decade ago....oops.

Please. Joe Sixpack. PhD's fall for nonsense with as much enthusiasm as amateur hour folks. I know a genius geologist who can sell BigFoot better than Ugo ever did peak oil. Joe Sixpack mostly see's what they WANT to believe first, what they are predisposed to fall for naturally. And it applies all the way up the ladder to PhD's as well. Or really smart folks who thought Tesla would do backrupt a decade ago. Brains/intelligence  aren't the determining factor. Can't say I know exactly what combination of talents are required, but you can usually figure it out after talking to someone on an interesting topic within 30 minutes. Ever XOM geologic researcher I've ever met hits on all cylinders. On the internet finding someone like that is 1:10000 at best. 21 years online and I've only found 1 in all my peak oil years, an engineer invovled in setting up LIGO. I know at least 2 dozen IRL, but my professional associations don't run to what populates the internet forums.

You totally miss the point.  People will only believe in conspiracies that really do not scare them.  Detached realities that are half make-believe, and somewhere else far far away.  Safe horror movies.  The shadows of their conspiracies never enter their personal lives.  But if you mess with the actual foundations of their 'true' realities, and the conspiracy becomes personal.  The situation becomes quite different.


Joe will sail De-Nile between the shores.  Defend his turf like a rabid guard dog.  Reason flies away from him not because Joe finds an attractive deception to play with as you describe, but rather because Joe can't handle the truth.  The truth is that most people are weak, and I have a Pulp Fiction clip about that.  Weak at heart.  Having the heart of a lion will wear your ass out.

Quote from: K-Dog on Jul 05, 2026, 08:46 AMAnd as far as you are concerned, you should know better than to deny my lived experience again.

A point that cuts both ways.

Quote from: K-DogPerhaps you were not aware that I had met them face to face and have talked to them.

I recall you mentioning that you talked to someone back...in the Bush years was it? In the someone following you days?

Quote from: K-DogI keep quiet about it knowing that nobody else is going to give a rip, but that does not change the fact that it happened.

I make no claim it hadn't happened. My erased points related to the logic of spammers wanting anything to do with this place, with foreign languages no less, and thinking they are anything other than spammers.

Quote from: K-Dog

QuoteThe sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Which is exactly what will happen if the actual reality and details of American Freedom are laid out before the average Joe Six Pack.

I don't believe that for a second. Joe Sixpack falls hook line and sinker for whatever they have a propensity for. Peak oil, alien lizard overlords, all government conspiracies (real or imagined), Charlie Kirk being killed by an exploding microphone (just learned this at LATOC), Guy McPherson and the BOE event....a decade ago....oops.

Please. Joe Sixpack. PhD's fall for nonsense with as much enthusiasm as amateur hour folks. I know a genius geologist who can sell BigFoot better than Ugo ever did peak oil. Joe Sixpack mostly see's what they WANT to believe first, what they are predisposed to fall for naturally. And it applies all the way up the ladder to PhD's as well. Or really smart folks who thought Tesla would do backrupt a decade ago. Brains/intelligence  aren't the determining factor. Can't say I know exactly what combination of talents are required, but you can usually figure it out after talking to someone on an interesting topic within 30 minutes. Ever XOM geologic researcher I've ever met hits on all cylinders. On the internet finding someone like that is 1:10000 at best. 21 years online and I've only found 1 in all my peak oil years, an engineer invovled in setting up LIGO. I know at least 2 dozen IRL, but my professional associations don't run to what populates the internet forums.

Quote from: K-DogIt happened to me, and I went mad with the revelation for a little while.  I found out America does not drive your daddy's Oldsmobile like you may think America does.  Not like you learned in school.

I never learned any of that in school, so nothing to get mad about I guess. And I didn't learn about what "America" was in school. Just the history they made you memorize in the books. My "America" was just trying to not end up like everyone around me in the holler.

Quote from: K-DogRE and I have not called this the F.S.O.A. for several years without reason.

Everyone has their reasons.

You Tube despite it being what was known as 'the man' in the 70's, does have a search algorithm that seems to be my friend.

The WRONG people are "informing" us about COLLAPSE

You've probably noticed that collapse content is everywhere. But as I've been thinking about it, I realized that to navigate all this information, we first need to step back and become conscious of our dominant cultural myth. This myth is perfectly embodied by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals—the idea that all nations are on a linear path towards becoming "developed," and once they get there, they get to stay there.

But that's not how things are. The process of modernization was a temporary phase, and now it's stopping and reversing. So, if we want to accurately envision our future, we need to scrap the old linear trajectory that puts "developed" countries ahead. Instead, we should think of it as a rubber band that's been pulled out and is now snapping back to a more primitive state. In this cyclical view, the humans who are closer to the starting line are actually closer to the finish line—they are the ones who are "ahead" on the trajectory toward the future.

So, if people in developing countries, or those further along in collapse, are ahead of us, we should be paying attention to them. I decided to test this idea by reading some articles giving voice to people in these regions.

My first stop was an article from Burkina Faso, a personal account from a 36-year-old woman. She described an "infernal" summer of extreme heat and constant power cuts while she was pregnant. She ultimately had a miscarriage, lamenting, "Imagine I could have, too." What struck me was the disconnect: even while describing a hellish reality, she seemed to be envisioning a modern, stable existence for her child, blaming the doctors for not warning her. It seemed she was fixated on bringing a child into a world that was already so broken it couldn't even support a pregnancy. This wasn't the perceptive insight I was hoping for.

Next, I looked at another article from the Philippines, where people were dealing with devastating floods. Their pleas were heartbreaking: they hoped the government would stop corruption and that their children could play in the streets again. I had bad news for them. The floods are going to happen again, and their children won't have much fun. It felt like many people are just wired to act out a script—make babies and hope someone else fixes the problem—without updating their understanding of reality.

What did I learn from this? First, many people are just operating on autopilot, unable to see the predicament for what it is. And second, I realized the media plays a role in this. These articles felt like they were hitting a floor below which the narrative couldn't go. They gave us crumbs of reality but were cherry-picking to avoid showing the full, devastating picture. The truly hopeless voices were being filtered out.

Then, I got a comment from a subscriber in Mali. She told me that the future I describe in my videos is their present: "Wars, no water, no electricity. Only in the capital do we have six hours of electricity per day... Yet women keep having five, six children. We have no future. Everyone can see that." When asked if she'll have kids, she replied, "No, because I won't bring a soul into this hell. People here despise me for it. A woman with no children is their worst nightmare."

I cried reading that. She is living so much closer to the future, and it was humbling and refreshing to hear from someone who is actually observing the same "autopilot" behavior I was talking about. This destroys the misconception we have in the developed world that things will get so bad that everyone will wake up and change. Things can get extremely grim, and people will still just be robots.

So, who should we trust as a legitimate expert? We need to ask: who is speaking, and who isn't? The experts we usually hear on podcasts have credentials and high status from "developed" countries. But just because someone is from the global south doesn't mean they have insight if they are still high-status within their collapsing country. They are still living farther from the future than others.

Take people like Samantha Sweetwater or Rob Hopkins, who I see on podcasts. They are high-status people speaking to high-status people, promoting concepts like the "Institute of Imagination." It's laughable. If my subscriber from Mali sat down with them, she'd be rolling her eyes. Their "solutions," like collapsing oil companies, show they simply don't understand the complexity of the predicament because they haven't lived it.

In conclusion, the humans with the most insight into our future are the ones living at the bottom of the hierarchy in regions where development is already being undone. They are the ones who can appreciate the complexity because they're living through the reality of a future without fossil fuels. Don't trust the polished experts from "behind" on the trajectory. Listen to the people who are ahead, living the future we're all heading toward. You can always tune into the others for a good laugh, but don't take them seriously.

The above I auto generated from the transcript using AI.  I found it useful as the video played.  It helped me hear her message.  But without watching the video it is not so useful, for as good as it is, nuance is lost.  The benefit is that it helps you to see the bigger message that the collapse wave is coming at us but that we are not all on the same side of the wave.  Some people are ahead of the wave of collapse and some are behind it.  This maters because the stories we tell, and the stories we listen to, are different depending on where on the wave we ride.  But now ride we do, he haw!