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Relax
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?

(Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb; The Wall, 1979)

Tomorrow, I'll publish the whole soul-searching story in prose and video. For now, just the raw details because some changes have already taken place, some are happening as soon and this is published, and some are ongoing.

1. I've redesigned the website in just about total. Same look and feel, way different under the hood. The basic idea is that I thinned it down and simplified it a good 70%. It's more like my classic motorbike featured in the header: everything you need, nothing you don't.

2. I'm discontinuing the new newsletter offshoot, The Swagger, as of this post. The newsletter will now be run from here and run the same way...the post will be featured in total in email (not just notices), so subscribers and readers have more options in how they wish to read. Email is cool again. Get with the program.

3. After publication of this post, two things happen with subscribers to The Swagger.
... a. Paid premium subscribers there will be given complimentary memberships here for an appropriate length of time.
... b. Subscribers there will be imported here, and they will receive an email alerting them to that so if they don't want, they can immediately 1-click unsubscribe.

4. In general, I publish whatever I have the urge to write or capture on video, whenever. In practical, I'm reducing quantity while aiming to increase quality. My gut feel is that's an average of 2 posts per week, sometimes 3. The other aim is to have publication happen whenever in the Tuesday through Thursday window, my time (Bangkok; 12 hrs in advance of NYC).

5. My aim for the style reflects what you now see on the home page. Storyform. Mostly. Sometimes you can't avoid being sciency, but I typically do that in more of a narrative fashion anyway. Maybe that's why my "science" posts actually get read, while so many others are just good sleeping aids. Hey, shit is what it is.

... By way of a little teaser for the story in writing and video coming up tomorrow, the reflection has basically amounted to this: stop expecting standing ovations, fame, and fortune for just doing your damn job.

We're awash in it now, in this fix-your-shit society. It's like a big shell-con game. It's fine to hold up examples of those who overcome (whatever) for inspiration to the still shackled. It goes off the rails when fixing your shit is something to aspire to as greatness in itself. It becomes caricaturist—like getting hooked on heroin just so you can get off it to get the bows.

You fix your shit because...

1. It's your damn job. Do that, now you're at human baseline, nothing more

2. The reward is merely the same unencumbered freedom and opportunity you could have enjoyed before you fucked it all up

3. Whatever you do now beyond baseline, owing to your newfound freedom, stands on their own as accomplishments and could have been done sooner if you hadn't been fucked up for so long. Keep that perspective, and in no way is your newfound success caused by your past fuckups. You managed to get your shit together and attain some measure of greatness in spite of the fuckups.

That's all one part of it and the other is how it plays out in marketing for membership—"marketing" being, in many ways (but not all) a euphemism for professional liar with unwarranted trappings of respectability. I'll get into that as well. Tomorrow.

Until then...

Significant restructuring is in place as concerns FreeTheAnimal and The Swagger (newsletter). I'll update with details in a few days time. In the meantime...

In an email piece "The Spear in AI's Back," at The Daily Reckoning by Charles Hugh Smith (not online yet) puts it succinctly:

I would simply point out that the inevitable trend all the way down the slippery slope is baked right into the cake of corporatism (corporation: a statutory entity created primarily to limit personal liability in business practices). With corporate liability protection, you can amass lots of investment because investors are responsible for exactly fuck all. And often enough, and definitely in civil matters, even the officers, directors, and employees have no liability for much of anything.

Big Publicly Traded Corp kills a billion people willfully, and what happens to you as a stockholder? Your shares go to zero (well, probably...you never know...). Employees of the corporation lose their jobs...maybe benefits that weren't vested, backed, or insured.

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You own a mom & pop convenience store, someone purposely slips, puts on a big act falling, and a bigger act feigning injury...and unless you're incorporated and have good insurance, you risk losing your house and your wife's wedding ring (you never did get that Rolex you dreamed about).

The difference is—human behavior being what it actually is—people are pretty bad at doing the right thing, or even refraining from doing the really evil fucking thing, if there isn't a lot to lose and face it, prison time isn't the biggest disincentive out there. Losing money isn't even the biggest disincentive out there. Losing financial security is the biggest for most folks who've worked hard to secure a good measure of it.

(Prison is actually a tradeoff: freedom for security. Many people aren't too put off by the idea.)

In a timely article at the same place as Smith's but just published, Jeffry Tucker opines on the topic of...you guessed it...corporatism is fascism, and verse visa.

The Machinery of Fascism. In a section concerning the rise in fascism in Germany in the early 1930s, Tucker references a 1939 book, The Vampire Economy, by Gunter Reimann, "a financier in Germany who chronicled the dramatic changes to industrial structures under the Nazis."

Huh? That doesn't sound remotely familiar to anything, does it?

Some idle juxtapositions, courtesy of Midjourney. See if you can tell the organic from the synthetic.

Now, quoting again...

"The Nazis weren’t hostile to business as a whole but only opposed traditional, independent, family-owned small businesses that offered nothing for purposes of nation-building and war planning."

It makes me think of dogs and cats, if you know what I mean.

But which do you prefer? Yea, I know. Walmart via its economic power sure has great prices and all, but if you had to choose? Really choose? And you'd never again get to browse around in a little eclectic, mom & pop country convenience or general store ever again never?

All coffee now and forevermore is Starbucks? No other options, never ever?

I trust that given the foregoing, you have an idea of what happens. It's pretty simple. Corporations amass great investment capital, they put it to work amassing more, and the more they get, the more influence and power they have to go even further. And they can begin courting mutual back-scratching favor with the State and its "regulators"...meaning, keep everything regularly corrupt at the highest levels.

(I get a kick out of the little "corruption" people get all worked up about. It's all limited hangout stuff. Police and local government corruption dealing in penny ante stuff in the pocket-change, to beer money, to thousands of dollars...keeping the scent of attention off where the real corruption lies in the millions and billions. What's Ukraine's corruption tab up to by now?)

And then there's "antitrust." It always strikes me as funny because whenever I look into antitrust actions, I'm always wondering who the victim is.

Let's imagine that Joe and Frank own little general stores on opposite ends of Main Street, Smalltown, Anystate USA. Frank and Joe get together, and they don't see why they ought to be driving each-other's prices down. There's also a limit on what they can do to "gouge" everyone because Bigtown's just 5 miles up the road. That's a trust that needs no busting.

Now you have Big Corp and Slightlyless Corp in the same trinket-making operation, and since Slightlyless is Jackbenimble and pretty quick, it gives Big quite a run. But "regulators" will be all over them if they "collude" in any way, so any sort of understanding as to what one ought to be doing vis-à-vis the health and security of both corporations as a whole is a Bignope.

So what do they do instead? Exactly what the "regulators" want.

Big Corp just outright buys Slightlyless, and then sets whatever agenda it wants, including ensuring the "regulators" and all their appropriate usual friends get usual and regular support and gratitude in all the customary ways and means.

... But there's something else. It's the part where you go say whaaat?

Did you ever stop to think that in the way back and in still some places today, the urge to have an official State religion or church has no more to do with heartfelt belief than does trust busting have anything to do with granny on her fixed social security income getting gouged? It's all about amassing power and influence and how it can be exploited to amass and concentrate even more.

A buncha churches with a buncha silly, wild-ass beliefs are rather like those small little country stores, no two quite alike. Those cats are not like politico's obedient best friends, and they can't be herded.

What we commonly refer to as freedom of religion or separation of chuck and State is actually codified thusly, in the 1st Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”

It's cleverly worded because it can be taken to mean that the State can't establish any official religion, respect one religion over another, or interfere with the otherwise lawful conduct of the religion.

Now, given there are so many metaphorical religious references to business with its "almighty dollar"...

1. "Mammon's Disciples": Referring to those wholly devoted to the pursuit of wealth, drawing from the biblical Mammon, the personification of wealth and greed.

2. "Temples of Commerce": Used to describe places where significant business or financial transactions occur, such as stock exchanges or banks, likening them to places of worship.

3. "The Gospel of Prosperity": This phrase critiques the belief system where wealth is seen as a sign of divine favor and poverty a sign of divine disfavor.

4. "Economic Evangelism": The fervent preaching of free-market capitalism and its benefits, akin to spreading religious doctrine.

5. "Idolatry of Wealth": Critiques the reverence and obsessive regard for wealth, suggesting it takes the place of traditional religious idols.

6. "The Golden Calf of Wall Street": Drawing from the biblical story of idol worship, this phrase critiques the idolization of the financial market.

7. "Sacrificial Offerings at the Altar of Profit": Describes the sacrifices (ethical, personal, or environmental) made in the pursuit of profit.

8. "Financial Commandments": The fundamental principles or rules of good financial management or business practices, treated with the reverence accorded to sacred laws.

9. "The Doctrine of Consumption": Refers to the set beliefs encouraging continuous consumption as a pathway to economic growth, paralleling religious doctrines.

10. "Tithing to the Economy": This refers to the concept of giving a portion of one’s earnings not to a church but back into the business cycle, promoting further economic activity.

How about a legal challenge to fascism on 1st Amendment grounds, given the blurred and increasingly blurry distinction between church and business? Many aspects of Big Corp dealing in society and culture are not only reminiscent of, but exactly like churches and religion?

They operate like churches (and churches have operated like businesses for a long time and are, in fact, incorporated as statutory, tax-exempt business entities themselves), rally the flock like churches, seek loyalty and fealty like churches the list goes on.

... Or...

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of business…”

Good morning from a rainy day in Pattaya. It's about time. Stuff needed cooling down, plus a steam cleaning and rinse. And so it begins. The first real rain in months leading to what's unimaginatively called the rainy season...though in these particular parts, it's not so bad, hardly ever. Phuket, on the other hand? At about 7 degrees latitude closer to the equator, they know how to do rainy. It's the principal reason I left the more pristine island beaches for Asia's version of Sin City.

Three articles for you, today. The title piece is sponsored by premium subscribers, and I have two corporate sponsors for the opening acts. Thank your sponsors, and if you're a premium subscriber for the cost of a single Starbuck drip per month, give yourself a nice warm pat on the back. You have my thanks as well.

1. Why Do Low Carbohydrate Diet Advocates Single Out Blood Glucose As Toxic? It's a common theme in the LC world. Our bodies strictly regulate blood glucose levels. Why? It can't be just because that's the way it turned out to be for all us animals (not just humans) in the vast metabolic interplay between elements, compounds, hormones, and nutrients. There has to be a specific reason involving purpose and will! We'll see about that.

2. Does Eating Carbohydrates Signify Your Weakness? Since going way back, there have been many efforts to show that low-carb dieting—being in "fat burning mode"—is superior for athletic and sports training, performance, and competition. But what's the reality on the ground?

3. Seeing Assumptions As Assumptions Reveals The Truth. This is a broad topic that scales the mountains of religion, culture, politics, business, and economics. But we can illustrate it quite simply with the backdrop of today's two previous articles and expand from there. Stand by for a massive dot-connect, which is what we do best...revealing the common elements and themes for a more truthful picture overall. Careful, though. Toes are at risk, as are sacred cows.

1. Why Do Low Carbohydrate Diet Advocates Single Out Blood Glucose As Toxic?

Saw this little gem on a Facebook post by some someone.

Nonsense.

Do you do science, ever? Oxidative priority is not about any "preference" whatsoever. You're anthropomorphizing metabolism when you use words like "preferred," as though there's a will making conscious choices based upon some kinda sin going on somewhere, like eating a donut, or, even worse, eating a donut after extra-marital sex. So that, when you eventually get fat and sick from doing it over and over, it's not that doing it over and over did you in. It's that you were sinful, refused to heed the many warnings and admonishments, and you're paying the wages of sin for going against The Way.

And saying "HIGH blood sugar is TOXIC[!!!]" is no more meaningful than saying "high lead and arsenic are toxic." Both exist in some measure, as do mercury and cadmium. Everything is limited. You can die from brain swelling by drinking excess water.

Here's a list of elements found in the body. Each one is regulated in some way and too far out of that regulation, you have problems.

• Oxygen (O): Essential for cellular respiration

• Carbon ©: Forms the backbone of organic molecules

• Hydrogen (H): Part of water and many organic compounds

• Nitrogen (N): Essential for proteins and nucleic acids

• Calcium (Ca): Crucial for bone health and muscle function

• Phosphorus (P): Important for energy transfer (ATP) and nucleic acids

• Potassium (K): Maintains cell membrane potential

• Sodium (Na): Regulates fluid balance and nerve impulses

• Iron (Fe): Required for oxygen transport (hemoglobin)

Here's a list of essential trace elements, essential meaning we have to get them from intake, and trace meaning, in very small amounts. And again, too much results in problems of toxicity

• Zinc (Zn)

• Copper (Cu)

• Selenium (Se)

• Iodine (I)

• Chromium (Cr)

• Manganese (Mn)

Here's a list of stuff we have that we don't have any known need for, but typically exist in everyone in extremely trace amounts anyway.

• Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd): These elements are actively toxic depending on the amount present.

• Radioactive Elements: Some elements, such as radium and uranium, can be harmful in excessive quantities.

• Cesium (Cs) and Titanium (Ti): Considered common contaminants without specific biological functions.

Oxidative priority is simply inversely proportional to the body's ability to store the nutrient. That's why alcohol is priority #1. No storage. Then comes protein, carbohydrates, and fat, in that order...because fat is the easiest and most readily storable, it goes last. The problem with eating a lot of carbs has nothing to do with elevated BG (until you store so much fat you break your metabolism) and has everything to do with eating them together with a lot of fat...because the fat gets stored while the carbs are being oxidized...and then because we're all rich now, we eat again at the first sign of hunger, and add yet more fat rinse wash repeat.

Here. Science.

Oxidative Priority, Meal Frequency, and the Energy Economy of Food and Activity: Implications for Longevity, Obesity, and Cardiometabolic Disease

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27869525 (free full text)

No, I'm not a "Food Triangle" guy. I'm a whole foods guy, in the context of omnivory because that's what we are. Omnivores. We're not frugivores, vegetarians, vegans, fattyvores, or carnivores.

Omnivores.

Excerpts

While it may appear that certain calories dominate fat loss and gain, the discrepancy is generally attributed to an oversimplification of energy accounting. With an exception of rare genetic disorders, obesity is largely caused by excessive food intake, with a lesser contribution from physical inactivity due to the tendency to increase calorie consumption during exercise.^4 11  However, the phenomenon of an acquired appetite that dominates instinctual eating cues has been recognized since the time of Hippocrates¹²  and the mechanisms involved in leading some people to overeat while leading others to reach a natural balance between hunger and weight remain unresolved.^13 14  Obesity is not common in the animal kingdom, with the exception of animals (e.g., pets) we overfeed or when excess calories are unnaturally readily available. Moreover, in a calorically scarce environment, a desire to overconsume is not a trait of negative selection and may in fact assert positive benefits. As we describe below, the tendency to store the most energy dense portion of a meal (i.e., fat) may also be explained in terms of an adaptive advantage. [...]

Early calorimeter experiments carefully measured the heat emitted from a thermally isolated room yielding direct calorimetry measurements over hours and even days.¹⁶  Later, in part, for practical purposes, most researchers turned to measuring carbon dioxide (CO₂) produced and oxygen (O₂) consumed to give an indirect calorimetry measurement of the heat evolved from respiration. The first systematic investigation of the gross energy content of food is credited to Rubner in Germany and Atwater in the United States.⁷  By comparing indirect calorimetry of subjects with a growing database of direct bomb calorimetry of more than 4000 analyses of 1360 different food items, Atwater improved on Rubner's earlier work and created a range of factors and coefficients representing energy availability and digestibility of foodstuffs to delineate their useful calorie content.¹⁷  However, the oversimplified and generalized notion of energy storage being a consequence of “calories in and calories out,” often interpreted as diet and exercise, fails to capture the more subtle thermodynamics of energy storage and disposal, particularly waste heat. Moreover, the human body is not a perfect engine and it is known that the energy liberated from the combustion of food is not identical to the energy available to the body from the consumption of food.¹⁸  This concept, known as “metabolizable energy,” is the difference between the gross energy of consumed food measured by bomb calorimetry and the energy contained in the feces and urine.¹⁹ [...]

Prentice and colleagues addressed the issue of fuel partitioning with their model of oxidative priority, or oxidative hierarchy, based on individual macronutrient storage (Fig. 5).^37–44  Conceptually, to better understand the fate of the molecular components of food as they begin to leave the digestive tract, it may be useful to put aside the popular food labeling and macronutrient organization scheme of protein, carbohydrate, and fat, and recognize that whole foods, especially entire meals, are mixtures. Complex carbohydrates and simple sugars are broken down to monosaccharides, proteins into constituent amino acids, and lipids mobilized through chylomicron transport. Eating thus results in a postprandial rise in monosaccharide (glucose), amino acid, and lipid blood levels, during which the body attempts to normalize their concentrations by one of the three strategies: utilization, storage, or elimination. Importantly, when storage is limited or impossible, then two choices remain: utilize or eliminate.

FIG. 5.

Oxidative priority of macronutrient disposal. An oxidative prioritization of macronutrients predicts the partitioning hierarchy based on the inverse relationship of storage capacity. Not all macronutrients can be stored at the same level. For example, alcohol has no long-term storage capacity, while fat has a relatively unlimited capacity. While the postprandial DIT rise is highest for protein and lowest for fat, these metabolic increases do not necessarily reflect utilization of stored energy reserves and are rather better explained by the need to mitigate postprandial rises in blood nutrient levels. In nearly all cases, postprandial blood analyte levels that increase due to meals normalize within 4–6 hr as the postabsorptive state is reached. ALC, alcohol; CHO, carbohydrate; DIT, diet-induced thermogenesis; FAT, fat; PRO, protein

For example, following the ingestion of a protein-rich meal, a relatively larger increase in DIT is observed in the postprandial state compared to a carbohydrate-rich meal since amino acids have no significant inherent storage depot; the body essentially transforms excess energy into waste heat. Although the postprandial rise in metabolism following a protein-rich meal may be considered advantageous and a way to mitigate weight gain or even lose weight, little if any of this excess energy is sourced from stored adipose tissue. As demonstrated with the increase in metabolic rate with physical activity, it is possible and even expected that increases in metabolism to dispose of excess calories ingested with a protein-rich meal may actually cause a decrease in stored adipose tissue utilization. An equally important consideration is the following: not only may dietary fat be stored at a higher rate in the presence of macronutrients with a higher oxidative priority but also overall fat oxidation rates may be decreased by shifts in fuel partitioning.⁴⁵

Conversely, a greater thermogenic response to food may not always cause excess stored energy reserves to be burned. This concept is demonstrated by data showing the effects of glucose and ethanol administration directly through intravenous infusion.⁴⁵  Whereas ethanol and glucose infusions have no significant impact on overall RMR, ethanol alone suppresses fat oxidation by 87%. Importantly, a glucose infusion following ethanol predictably increases carbohydrate oxidation by 249% and further suppresses fat oxidation to almost nil for 90 min, with only a slow rise in fat oxidation thereafter; in fact, the total 4-hr integrated oxidation of fat following an ethanol-then-glucose infusion is suppressed by 79%.

Returning to the concept of meal frequency and mixed-meal oxidative priority, one can translate these results to what occurs when an individual consumes a wine, cheese, and cracker hors d'oeuvre. The post-hors d'oeuvre rise in alcohol and glucose concentrations actually suppresses fat oxidation and promotes storage of the dietary fat from the meal. As such, one can easily understand how body fat increases over time; the homeostatic drive to normalize postprandial rises in blood nutrient levels offers a novel conceptual framework that predicts fat accumulation.

Now, can someone get a memo to my old friend Gary Taubes, because that brief section above better explains "Why We [actually] Get Fat" far better than all the volumes he's written. Respectfully. You'd think he'd have just stumbled on it, by now. Why me, then?

Well, the paper's lead author, Ray Cronise, happened to take a liking to me way back...gotta be a dozen years, by now. We've maintained contact all these years and really, the only point of consternation if you get right down to it is that he thinks more plant-based is the way to go (carb dominant) and I think animal-based is the way to go (protein dominant). But neither of us think you should be adding a lot of fat to anything. We'd both agree that when you pick animals to eat, prefer the leaner stuff. And by all means, don't eat a lot of stuff together with a lot of fat...because it's going to your ass no matter it's beer, whiskey, meat, or veggies you're ingesting in big amounts along with the fat. We get fat because we're designed to store fat, and modern society has developed into an easy-fat-storage marketing machine.

... As a quick aside, bacon may just be the ideal high-fat food. Zero carbs, low in protein, no alcohol either. Nothing much to get in the way of metabolizing that fat...but eat your pile of it all by itself.

... American, W Euro, and other Western culture LCers live is the most hilarious bubble of talk-only-to-each-other confirmation I've ever observed. I live in a country where people eat 400g easy of carbs every day in white rice and fruit, primarily (some sugar), along with vegetables and a huge array of varied proteins compared to the West.

Those who don't eat too much too often stay incredibly lean and are long lived.

Because I've had my own BP issues, I have a monitor. I've measured hundreds of curious Thais. Not one single one elevated above 120/80, our average normal. Most women are under 110/70. 105/65 is very common for women I've tested.

So many people so full of shit about carbohydrates.

It's eating too much, too often (of ANYTHING, along with appreciable amounts of fat).

And remember one last tidbit: about the only whole food in nature that has both appreciable carbohydrate and appreciable fat is mammal's milk. And what, exactly, is that "designed," specifically, to do? It's designed to make you pour on mass, both lean and fat.

Derivative to that, I prefer a protein dominant diet over a plant dominant one because, in nature, protein comes with some fat, so evolutionarily, that suggests to me that we're far better at handling fat with lots of protein than fat with lots of carbs.

So, meat & potatoes for the win, skip the added fat (and there are plenty of ways to make potatoes delicious without adding a lot of fat, so just get off your ass and figure it out).

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2. Does Eating Carbohydrates Signify Your Weakness?

By the same some somebody on Facebook.

Amusingly, that's my tune...only from 15-17 years ago. This some somebody often posts stuff like this as though he discovered it, and it's new as of yesterday. It's kinda like a teen talking about having his first beer, and he forgets others have been drinking the stuff for years already.

That's all documented exhaustively here at FreeTheAnimal, beginning in about 2007. My principal means of losing the initial 25Kg in a year or so was...you guessed it...30hr fasted workouts. Because I was strong! and not weak! and not vulnerable!

... The theme repeats over and over. This touches peripherally on the third sponsored article today, but by way of tangential preview, I'm often amused when I stumble into somewhere and observe creationists talking to each other, or arguing with evolutionists. It has been over 40 years since I was steeped in the arguments counter evolution (because there are none for creation except faith that there was creation from without form, and void) so you'd think that in that time they'd have become more sophisticated and complete.

No. They haven't. Word for word, and I know them all...I could still rattle them off.

Similarly, I deleted my Facebook back in 2021 or something like that and was off for about 3 years. I come back and what do I find? The very same little LCer slogans and bromides that are either wrong, or incomplete at best. Also with the same exclamation points. LC is like this revolving door where eventually people figure out that damn, it really is about eating too much too often, nothing magical, maybe LC's higher protein helps curb appetite and that's why it's a good choice for many...it helps them eat less, less often. No magic. Damn!

But soon as they move on and start watching not just one kinda thing they eat, but everything they eat, the vacuum and void is filled with people like some somedoby and his EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! to tell everyone how easy and magical it is, all over again.

As far as facts go, if anyone is interested, all normal humans have the capacity to perform adequately to greatly deep into fasted states (ketosis). That's what fat storage is all about. That need arose in nature, and it could arise again.

But compared to being fed, it sucks. Going hungry sucks. It's supposed to. It doesn't matter how fat adapted (a rather bullshit and unscientific word...we begin accessing fat immediately) one is, being hungry sucks. Having to work when you're hungry sucks even badder. But, physiologically, every normal human can do it. It's bullshit to suggest that people who eat a lot of carbs can't perform adequately or that doing so is weak, as though they have something to prove on a quotidian basis.

Of the things available to eat, carb sources are the most readily accessible for strenuous activity. This is not in dispute among humanoids in possession of human-like brains. Of those carbohydrate sources, there's a range of choices from rapidly accessible (sugar, glucose, etc.) to more slowly accessible like oats and grains.

Recently, I made available a download (free) about a brand new revolutionary energy drink. Previously, I tested out fruit; fruit and LF yogurt; fruit, LF yogurt, and honey; and just fruit and honey and the latter worked best for me. I recently "discovered" the "revolutionary" energy drink and have been doing a pint pre- and pint post- workout and that has been great for me, amazingly so. Most recently, I added plain corn flakes. Yea. I put my new and revolutionary energy drink all over plan, Unfrosted corn flakes and They're Great! Very similar feel in the weight room to when I used to go on very long hikes (10Km+ with ascents and descents) with water only, eating nothing but a big-ass bowl of oat groats with a litle milk and maple syrup before heading out. I've never found better sustained energy than a big bowl of oats.

Anyway... the point is that it's not that you can't work out fasted. I've done it a million times, even fasted 72 hours, so on that basis alone, the some somebody poster is a pussy wimp with his 36 hours. Oh, and after fasted workouts, what else to prove my caveman prowess? I soaked in a 45F (7.2C) cold plunge for 15 minutes (also documented, even video). Can't be too weak! and vulnerable! out there.

Also, it must be noted that if your goals are strength and hypertrophy, then you've got to work out well fed, including carbohydrates. Because you perform better and the better you perform, the more gains from your sessions.

If ANY of the fat burning/fasted methods of training and performance actually worked better than eating like a human (which includes omnivorously consuming carbohydrates as evolved to do), then the top money-makers in competitive sports and athletics would all eat that way.

They don't. Obviously. They'd all go broke (and I don't need any of the bright-eyed bullshit Volek and Phiney keep trying to come up with in that regard...it's all bullshit).

But continue to obfuscate and hide your own weakness in being unable to handle a simple food like carbohydrates without going off the rails into fat accumulation because you're too weak to stop eating too much too often when carbs are on the plate along with your weak obsession: dietary fat.

This is as ridiculous and poking fun of top-fuel drag racers that they're really weak and SLOW because they have to use top fuel to win the race (by definition).

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3. Seeing Assumptions As Assumptions Reveals The Truth

Prelude

In the contemporary maelstrom of human interaction, we find ourselves ensnared within the confines of what can aptly be termed a monological mind. The essence of this predicament lies in our singular approach to logic and paradigm—each individual trapped within their own unique worldview, interpreting the vast tapestry of human experience through a solitary, often unyielding lens. This is not merely an idle observation, but the root of a deep-seated conflict that permeates global society.

Consider the religious or cultural conflicts that saturate our world. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus—groups of people segmented by profound ideological divides that are rarely, if ever, truly understood by one another. Each group interprets the other through their own monological filter, a process that results not in dialogue but in parallel monologues, where mutual understanding is as rare as it is fleeting.

The crux of the issue is our inherent attachment to these paradigms, constructed from a bedrock of unexamined assumptions. It's akin to wearing tinted glasses and forgetting they're on—everything you see is colored by them, yet you perceive your vision as clear and unaltered. It can take years to honestly and thoroughly scrutinize the assumptions you hold dear (I'm still working on it, 34 years in). This is no mere academic exercise; it's a transformative journey that distances you from ingrained paradigms, allowing you to recognize your assumptions for what they are—mere possibilities, not certainties.

Achieving what can be called a trans-paradigmatic mind, coupled with a dialogical approach, marks a significant leap in human thought evolution. This isn't about discarding your worldview but understanding its boundaries and limitations. It's about gaining the mental and spiritual freedom to step into another's paradigm, to see through their eyes without the distortion of your own biases. This is true understanding. This is the path to resolving the conflicts that plague our interactions and our planet.

Such freedom is not merely an intellectual luxury, but a necessity for those who seek to navigate the world authentically and effectively. It challenges us to question not just what we think, but why we think it, and to recognize that our most cherished truths are often less solid than we believe. It's a daunting task, but it is only by undertaking this journey that we can hope to foster genuine dialogue in a world dominated by monologues.

Greetings from the Land of Smiles, and I have one. I'll get to that. I had a bunch of choices to cover today with the typical many tabs open in my browser. Then I just decided to put it all on hold and do a random stream of consciousness about various stuffs.

... My kinda sorta GF of the last 6 months...we kinda sorta break up every few days. I've lost count. This time it was after I'd told her I was headed over to Central for a rare shopping excursion. What does she do? Messages me incessantly as I'm in there shopping for shoes. The flip flops are fine during the day, 365 and all, but when I go out at night, I wanted someone a bit more. 860 baht ($23.40 US).

So among the barrage of messages, she asks about meeting up for something the next day and I don't answer. Another couple of exchanges—I'm trying to shop here—and she reminds me about the thing. "I'll think about it."

"Ok I change my mind."

Then, as soon as she cops to the silliness of that, she asks for 300 baht ($8.16, no big deal), which is nothing more than table-turning. I say no. She ends if officially for the umpteenth time, officially. I've tried to explain to here that when she uses that "it's official" stipulation, it's like saying she's fully of shit whenever she doesn't. It's like telling people you're being perfectly honest (for once). In general, it just means you're full of it.

Never a dull moment. On the plus side, she's never boring.

(On a side note, it's too easy to transfer small money instantly at zero cost. All these "poor" countries leapfrogged western banking systems, and they're not batch-based. They're instant, cash-based. Someone can message you from the checkout counter—this has happened—saying they're short a buck or two. You just bring them up in your bank app, enter the amount, and ding. Out of your account and into theirs...instant, and free. 24/7/365. There's no pending and there's no business days to "clear." It's literally like handing them cash.)

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... I love driving the motorcycle in Thailand. It's so second-nature and so cathartic, I don't know what I'd do without it. I like to call it "anarchic organized chaos."

If your "land of the free" doesn't resemble something like that, you need remedial learnin of what freedom really is. Notice I'm driving right along with cops near the beginning of the vid below. No helmet. There's a helmet law. But cops generally don't like to hassle you unless it's clear you're a danger to others. You can even run red lights if it's obvious you did it with care and nobody was coming. You sure the cops in your countries really care? Or, somethin else goin on?

I always advise people to drive "just slightly aggressively." The reason for that is it keeps your head in the game. It greatly lowers the chances you fuck up, and that awareness also makes up a lot of ground towards the uncontrollable element of what other people do. I suppose it's like what a lot of folks call "defensive driving," but how do you actually do that? Driving sightly aggressively is something you actually do...it's not just some ill-defined attitude. It's action.

I did a vid the other day showing a bit of what that's like.

Now tell me that level of aggressive darting in and out (sure, I could just sit back and go with the flow and be thinking of a whole bunch of stuff other than what I should be thinking about) doesn't demand your 100% focus at all times.

And 100% focus at all times is the definition of doing the best you can do.

... Both FreeTheAnimal.com and The Swagger newsletter are growing apace. It's as though there's a synergy of some sort. It's ill-defined because I'm lousy at doing the work to track that shit to better exploit it. I just wanna get up and figure out what I wanna write about today. I keep counting on hitting a critical mass one day and can hire someone to make all that sausage and figure out which lies get told to what segment of the demographic on what channels and platforms.

And I'll still just write every day. Maybe make a stupid video now and then.

What was unexpected about The Swagger is that it attracted advertisers almost immediately. I'm not into huge bucks yet, but it has paid for all costs plus a little beer money if I still drank the stuff (now at 21 months free and clear...). I'm running a hybrid system where I have advertising and those sponsored segments are free to the public. I also have an affordable premium content tier for my best articles that I call 1 Starbuck. It's the price of a coffee ($3.50/mo) or you can buy 10 coffees up front and skip the other two down the road ($35/yr). So, those premium articles are sponsored by the premium members for premium members. Become a sponsor here.

On the FTA front I'm turning the ship and shifting focus to do the more deep content, usually involving a series of posts. For example...

• The 114 No-Pill Advantages for how to kinda both think different kinda like me is back in full swing, now at Advantage #63. I'll be publishing 1-2 Advantages each week until through the 114. Check it out.

• And great news I got off my lazy ass and just published Chapter 5 of "Eww Gut Bugs" hours ago. At 11,000 words with 91 footnoted scientific references, it's pretty in-depthy. Eww Gut Bugs Chapter 5 — Our Microbiome Evolution Through the Last 12,000 Years. I plan on getting another chapter out about every 2 weeks. There are 18 total chapters. The previously published here.

• Within the newt week or so, it's my intention to begin putting out the chapters of The Provanta Debt Freedom Guidebook. If you racked up a lot of credit card debt during the Covidiocy, this might be a ticket out of debt-servitude jail. My creds are that I founded and ran a multi-million-dollar debt settlement company in 1993 that I owned and operated for 20 years.

And, I'm back in the gym. After putting my FBHF scheme through its paces for a month, then spending 10 days reworking some things, I started back last week doing the classic weekly routine it's designed for: 5 consecutive days on, 2 days off, do it again.

I had fun, though 5 straight was just about enough, and I was pleased to enjoy today as day of rest number one, looking forward to another one tomorrow. I also had fun poking fun of the #HIT guys. Little doe they know this is fully compatible with HIT. Simply take a ton more time to go through the 20 routines since you don't want to OVERTRAIN!!! So I did some social media posts each day.

1. [5 exercises, 4 records, 44 min] Back at it after 10 days off and writing V2 of my own Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life manual, containing 20 individual and unique full-body routines for any style of exercise, from HIT 2x per week to High Volume 5 or 6x per week. Now I begin running it through 4 weeks at 5x consecutive days per week.

2. [5 exercises, 4 records, 38 min] Day 2 back in the gym to put V2 of my already excellent Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life. Details at http://FreeTheAnimal.com. In this 2nd version, I took great care to examine my logs from running through the unique 20 full-body routines, 5 exercises for 10 sets each routine, plus freestyle abs and cardio. The care I took was to identify the biggest bang exercises for each body part and make sure they figure more prominently and are properly spaced. I love it already, and I'm only on #2 of 20. You're gonna love it too. For-Life.

3. [6 exercises, 5 records, 43 min] Can someone please ask the #HIT guys when my overtraining and injury is supposed to start? I'm now 10 months doing high frequency, like 5x consecutive in the gym and in the last 5 weeks, all full-body routines. I recently did 7 consecutive days full-body and my record setting rate was 65% of exercises performed. Today, 3rd consecutive day FB, I set a record on standing shoulder press, 40Kg x15 x15 to 50Kg x10 x10 (88lbs to 110lbs). Also, on Upright Cable Row, 95Kg x15 x15 to 105Kg x15 x15 (209lbs to 231lbs). Where are my injuries? Or, is #HIT kinda scammy, targeted at lazy guys who don't really want to hit the gym anyway and would rather sit around and watch videos about theories about why it's ok to not hit the gym too much and sit around and watch videos that sell stuff instead?

4. [5 exercises, 4 records, 37 min] Day 4 consecutive full-body, just as always. 4 records today, best 2 were stiff leg deadlift from 60Kg x20 x15 to 70Kg x18 x18 (132lbs to 154lbs) and incline bench DB chest press from 20Kg x15 x15 to 22.5Kg x18 x13 (44lbs to 50lbs). Incidentally, since I included stiff leg DLs 1st time last August and worked into them, all back issues have disappeared 100%. Ironic, eh? Stiff leg DLs are lifting heavy using your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. You don't bend your knees. Exactly like you were always told NEVER DO YOU'LL HURT YOUR BACK!!! So, my #1 RECO for low back pain, learn stiff leg DLs. Watch vids on how to do them, start light, build up. I'm now doing 18 reps twice at 154 pounds without bending knees or squatting. It's almost like no professional in anything wants you self-sufficient and healthy. Your health is a conflict of interest.

5. [6 exercises, 4 records, 43 min] Well that's day 5 consecutive of FBHF Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life, my own program of 20 individual and each one unique full-body routines to perform whenever (even #HIT style if obsession with overtraining is your thing) or consecutive day high frequency like I and other ass-busting, do-the-hard-thing kinda men. Details at http://FreeTheAnimal.com I outdid myself on V2. 5 consecutive day FB routines from my program is Goldilocks and I'm ready for 2 days off. I keep hitting the records, now nearly 8 weeks in (I was doing bro splits 5x per week for the previous 8 months). I have an idea why. It's working the legs every day. Clue: observe the upper body development of serious proam sprinters.

Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life

... I got reinforcement in getting what you want from people you might hate, the other day. This is something I learned and developed my own style for a long time ago. It's an offshoot from my management style, MBWA (Management By Walking Around). That is, you often don't need to say anything. Your presence, your pace, your glances, your focus, your pauses...these are all signals to conscientious workers and employees and the good ones pick up on these cues and get jobs done right without you having to say a word.

Not every single time, but lots, and imagine how much time that saves you and how that improves rapport among those in your charge? If no dispute or conflict happens in the first place, there's nothing for anyone to win or anyone else to lose. If you understand "face-saving" culture, it goes hand-in-hand with that sort of thing. Or to put it another way, you don't have to be an asshole about it.

I often hear people—especially on phone conversations talking with a representative of some business where some conflict has arisen—doing everything possible to ensure they do not get what they want and suffer continued frustration. I understand how it happens. It can be so off pissing and, at the same time, relievingly cathartic to go off on the person at the other end. It rarely gets you anywhere and you can be sure that after you've given them an earfull, they'll use every microgram of power at their disposal to fuck you over even more.

Here's a suggestion. Before you even pick up the phone, take a deep breath and affirm to yourself that you want something from whoever you're going to be talking to. In other words, you want them to go out of their normal routine and do something on your behalf. How are you going to do that? Is getting angry, sharp, or antagonistic going to get them to hoop jump for you?

... Some months back and three years or so hence, a letter from the California Franchise Tax Board arrived at my USA mailing address.

Apparently, CA didn't get my last tax return filing before I moved out of the political, economic, and business-environment hell-hole 2 weeks before the end of 2019. I first moved to Nevada, my state of birth, established residency, and got a driver's license before heading off to Thailand. Clean break from CA, so there's no dispute about that. Just that they believe I didn't file 2019 state taxes, and so they do a "determination."

And guess what!? They did not determine that they're a bunch of highway robbers who owe me money. Nope. Instead, they've determined that I must surely owe them around ten thousand bucks plus change.

I didn't take much stock in it since I did file electronically via Turbo Tax in April 2020, and it's a zero owed return. Let them flail around. A couple of more notices came in and I assure you that getting it taken care of is an item marked safe on my todo list. Then the other day I get an email from Amazon informing me that CA has attached any earnings to the tune of 24% of each payout, up to the determined 10k bucks.

OK, so there's a call to action. I don't make squat from Amazon affiliates anymore, thanks to that penis-head who runs the place, but what are the vampires going to hit next? and I didn't want to bother researching their administrative rights to do so without obtaining a civil judgment first (I'm a debt settlement guy, so I know how to research this stuff).

So I look at the most recent notice, see there's a phone number, and I call. In a breathtakingly brief amount of time, I'm on the line with "Ken," who talks exactly like a woman and since it's CA and well... I can only imagine what my first and visceral impression would be if it was a video chat.

But look, I don't care what about Ken or the State or who's right and who's wrong and taxation is theft but that matter will not be settled today and alls I want is for Ken to say something like, "oh, you filed, we didn't get it for whatever reason, so let's turn off all collection action and get this all sorted out..."

I don't need Ken to feel bad about being a guy with a woman's voice or a woman with a man's name. I don't care if Ken's hair is green, or if he or she is fat or voted for Kamala Harris.

So what I do is objectively explain that I did file the return, I have a hard copy and am happy to send it, and that I'm calling to get instructions on what I NEED TO DO. I sprinkled in curiosity-generating conversational niceties like "hope you're having a nice springtime in CA," and "probably a lot more pleasant than here in Thailand." And, "I filed this in April 2020 and if WE ALL recall, that was when a lot of the Covid things were going down and it could have slipped through the cracks at EITHER Turbo Tax OR CA..."

I did NOT say: "Y'all were probably sitting home at full pay binging Netflix and jerking off to Porn Hub."

S/he promptly asked a few polite questions, even coaching me on what s/he needed check-box wise, then gave me his/her personal fax number, asked me to fax over my copy, and said s/he would call back 2 days tops. And then...

"So how do you like living in Thailand. I dream of retiring there."

So then I spent a good 5 minutes in gentle introductions to the place, making myself unforgettable, suggesting that s/he books a vacation to check it out.

... And 2 days later, yesterday, I have a message in voicemail 01.30 Saturday morning saying s/he got my return, just a few things to do, call me direct line, and all's good.

I created no conflict. In other words, I did not create a problem in order to then "fix it," and there was nothing to win.

Catch the new film Unfrosted on Netflix. It's the good mood inspiration for this edition today. I just couldn't bring myself to get in the mental frame necessary to rain on parades, cast out demons, and toss folks into the river of fire after watching it this afternoon. Plenty of time for that...

I suppose I could be cynical and bemoan how the cereal and then breakfast pastry war between Kellogg's and Post has the lives and health of kids hanging in the balance. So on and so forth. Then again, I tested out plain old (Unfrosted) Kellogg's Corn Flakes (They're Great!!!) as pre-workout meals with whole milk twice last week and I give it a big thumbs up. Perfect meal, really. Plus, when I was growing up in the 60s, cereal (and pancakes) were sometimes gigs. Breakfast was bacon, eggs, and toast 90% of the time (fried potatoes in weekends only, and not always).

Kids are pretty resilient and it's not like there wasn't junk to eat before cereal came along and pastries have been around for a long time.

Anyway, the movie is a riot. Seinfeld did his typical excellent job of being...uh...fucking funny! Here's what he said in an interview about doing the film.

It's great.

Some food recently. I love snapping shots of what I eat. Old habit. My rule of thumb for Asian dishes: half the rice, twice the protein.

Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles)

Indian Style Kebab & Mango Smoothie

Turkish Beef Kebab & Fresh OJ

Pad Krapow Moo

English Sunday Roast Beef Dinner

The English Sunday roast with fixins was just a few ago, right before I started writing this. Down at Olde Rogues Retreat. I go there a lot. Great prices. That roast dinner with the Yorkies, 245 baht, including ice cream for dessert ($6.67 US).

... I'm lovin the kebabs and they're ubiquitous here. All over the place. For you LCers, not so bad, either. Unlike a burrito that has beans and sometimes even rice, the only carbs of significance which is mild, is the wrap. All the filling is just crunchy, near no-carb veggies. Plus, they're delicious and I feel a whole lot better after one of those than I do with a carb-bomb burrito.

Fun fact: "moo" is Thai for pork or pig. Funny.

And that should about do it. Back here Tuesday with something and not nothing.

It dawned on me in the pool today.

Yesterday, I published here at FreeTheAnimal and at The Swagger that I'd revamped my stab at a workout manual all my own, now Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life and whereas I got almost zero interest on the first go-round but didn't really change super-much (more like a reorganization), I moved the needle a little bit with some overnight orders mostly in the form of new memberships, which is the ideal way to get the manual (and a $10 discount).

So right up front, before relating to you what dawned on me, how to get it.

1. Purchase directly from the download page

2. Get any level of membership (access to everything, including all other downloads)

If you opt for membership, then once you get that, then click here and it downloads automatically (if not a member or not logged in, you'll be redirected to the login page):

Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life

I'm going to go over what dawned on me, then I'm going into complete detail on workouts #1 and #2 of 20 unique and individual full-body workouts from the guide, and then I'm going to tell you about the pretty amazing prepared meal diet I'm undertaking for my workout week.

The Story

It's pretty well known that I dumped booze entirely after 2 decades of too much too often, using My Easy Way. Now 21 months into it, I've never wavered a bit. Not a drop. I'm so solid I have beer in the fridge for the gals (yea, most like beer more that anything) and three bottles of different booze under the sink for guests that prefer. I never even think about any of it. I can't say that I ever have a craving, even. Hard to believe, I know, but I think many people are prone to virtue-signal how tough it is...which to me signals weakness.

Decide. Get over it. Stick to it. MY Easy Way.

... Truth be told, it really turned out to be an anti-climatic letdown. This was my mini-epiphany in the pool earlier. I don't know what I was expecting. The heavens to open up in some ephemeral awareness and recognition of just how literally awesome I am because I kicked the curse of too-much-too-often world-class alcohol consumption?

Well, it didn't. I expected all these awesome benefits to happen, but it turned out I was still just a 61-year-old dude, only with a renewed appetite, energy, and zest for life, perhaps—the common problem of 'what will I do without alcohol' void filling up pretty quickly with long walks and ocean swims and snorkeling in Phuket, Thailand, my home at the time.

Sleep didn't get better. It got worse. It's still not great. I really couldn't point to any measurable health improvements you might expect from downing a 5th of whiskey+ (750mL/25.4oz) every day for a decade, then stopping. Huh?

Sex? About the same. As much as I drank, it was always spaced out. I was never totally shitfaced and limp-dicked—my specialty: dosing to keep a constant level of functional, moderate inebriation going. I could even fly hang-gliders in that state, and did, many times. I never had run-ins with cops.

Braggadocio? Perhaps. Better than virtue-signal lying over and over about my demons, how hard it was, still is, and how I BATTLE THE ADDICTION EVERY DAY!!! ???

You be the judge.

When It Finally Changed

That would be July 1, 2023, nearly 14 months after dropping the booze.

I took up a challenge willy-nilly to do 30 straight days in the gym...real days. That was 10 solid months ago, and I have never looked back. It so profoundly changed my life, that it became the passion I cared more about sharing with the world.

Perhaps it's simply the difference between stopping a bad behavior vs. adopting a good behavior. Whatever it is, the difference is stark.

This is what I was expecting to feel from the decision and action to drop alcohol. What I've learned is that doesn't cut it. It's not enough. It's like expecting kudos for doing your damn job.

This can be related to a lot of things. You're a fat eff and you finally started eating like an adult human and dropped the weight?

That's your damn job.

You stopped kicking the dog, beating your kids, and berating your spouse, and now you finally fulfil your human role in those respects?

That's your damn job.

I could go on you get the idea.

The point is, the gym work represents the above and beyond, the supra-human, if you will. Now you're onto something.

The truth is, I could just as easily tell you the programs I followed to get where I am, you can check them out, hit them up yourself, and you'll see what I mean. Nothing about them left me wanting. They're all fine. Anything that gets you to the gym and keeps you going and making incremental improvements—GAINZ!—is going to work out well for you.

Then Anthony Colpo happened, bless his heart. If you don't know him, he's a long-time diet and fitness dude on the internet and has a real knack for dissecting the scientific literature on both, and getting down to brass tacks. It so happened that he ended up here in Thailand, and we spent about 5 weeks going to the gym together, almost daily. He was studying full-body and high-frequency science and literature at the time, we discussed it a lot in the context of the gym and the routines we were both doing, and one day it just dawned on me: that's it!

I'm going to write a guide. And what's now Full-Body High-Frequency For-Life.

For the 1st iteration of the guide, I sorta just threw shit against the wall, even dissed the HIT guys...even though my gig isn't incompatible with HIT at all (which they would know if they had approached the dissing like men...and there I go again). I hate traditional marketing and lying, but I repeat myself, so obvious hyperbole is usually what it's going to be with me. Shtick.

But going through it and posting the updates, I got more serious about it as something that's really real and in spite of all the shaming over being a lazy ass...get off the couch, get to the gym, etc., I found that it's not all that ass-busting difficult at all unless you really will it to be so (it can be, doesn't have to be, still beneficial). I also found that it can be approached rather haphazardly and randomly, like a newbie is more apt to do.

That's why I dumped all the programs and am just touting the 20-unique full-body routines, do them 1-20, however long it takes, no matter how many days in succession or rest days in-between. Each one is a complete full-body routine. Each one is different, exhilarating. You'll never get bored. You'll never truly learn it and have it down pat. You'll still have to remind yourself about some of the less frequent exercises in the library, which are:

1. Legs/Glutes/Calves, 17 exercises

2. Chest, 12 exercises

3. Back, 10 exercises

4. Shoulders, 12 exercises

5. Arms, 11 exercises (5 biceps, 5 triceps, and 1 forearms)

6. Abdominals, 6 exercises, always freestyle (do what you like, when you like)

7. Cardio, 6 suggestions, always freestyle

Routines #1 and #2 In Detail

It's funny how if you snap a picture after each workout every day, you really have to look at a longer period of time to detect anything. Much like the scale. Water retention level, pump from particular exercises, lighting, camera position, etc.

The left is day #1, yesterday, and to the right is day #2, today, and you'd swear I lost a bit. No matter.

Here are the logs (except for abs and cardio, which I don't include because freestyle).

These are all in kilograms. 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds, so:

220 on Romanian Deadlift, 440 Calf Raise, 198 Row, 132 and 110 Incline Bench, 44 and 33 DB Shoulder Press, and 22 Hammer Curl.

440 Leg Press, (when I began in July, I had a tough time doing 9 pushups), 132 Pull-Ups (I do the assist because I can only do 3-4 unassisted, and am a way yet from weighted), 44 and 55 Shoulder Shrug, and 165 Triceps Pushdown.

Not bad for 63 years old and I'm just guessing wildly, but my gains from July 1 have to be on the order of 200% or more. Dedication pays off.

I think I'm most pleased about the deadlifts. I jumped from 80Kg to 100Kg there. That's because I was doing 15-20 reps pretty easily at 80 (176lbs). 10 is a good number at 220 pounds. Back at 50 years old, I was doing 305 - 315lbs for 5 reps. But I also injured myself. This is better. I felt not the slightest bit of strain during or after the exercise. I'll progress at a weight where I can always get in 10 reps minimum. Good safety margin.

Here's volume, and as you can see, it's roughly the same at about 10,000Kg (22,000lbs) per workout since I reorganized.

Question is, when are you going to get started? C'mon, dudes (and gals). It only sucks a little. Otherwise, it's FUN! With this program, you'll never get bored. In fact, you'll eagerly check the app on your phone to see what's in store for the day because damned if you can remember what routine #7 is all about (or any of them). Sometimes you'll be delighted. Sometimes you'll go FUCK!!!

It's what I mean when I say that it's "Sucky-Fun."

The New Prepared Meals

This isn't available to you, but I thought maybe it could give you some ideas.

A few months back I was talking to a guy outside Muscle Factory, Leif. He's a Canadian born in the US (and lived there for some time), with a Scandinavian name. Anyway, Leig talked about starting a food business, but I didn't recall any details.

Fast-forward to a few days ago, and I'm chatting with some new friends in the pool, and they tell me about these great, high protein, inexpensive prepared meals they're using. I get the contact info, contact the place. You guessed it. It's Leif.

A 100 gram chicken meal, comes also in 200 and 300 grams

So my plan is 14 meals per week, 7 each of various chicken and pork dishes, 300 gram and 200 gram versions. Four of them are fresh, 10 will be frozen, and I'm told they're as good or better after thawing and proper preparation. We'll see about that.

Anyway, with one 300 gram and one 200 gram meal per day, plus the rice berry and veggies, it comes out to just over 200 grams of protein. I'll add some eggs and milk to that. I'll be using them only on my 5 workout days, so it will be 2 weeks of orders, one week to use the 8 leftover meals (frozen).

I get a discount to order weekly, it's 1,246 baht, $33.50 US. That's $67 for three weeks of workout meals covering 14 of my 15 workouts over three weeks. Total monthly cost, about 100 bucks. For that quality of food!

Like I keep saying: Stop complaining about America (or the Western Woke World). Buy a One-Way Ticket.

Have a great Wednesday, and I'll publish again on regular Thursday, tomorrow. Meanwhile, I hope I've given you a more complete view of this whole gym thing to think about.

Remember, cutting out the bad in your like isn't good enough. That's just doing your job. You've got to go the extra mile and take up something that makes you grow and be a lot better than you were.

Greetings from scorching Pattaya, Thailand, where everyone is complaining about the heat, except me. It may be the only thing I don't bellyache about. At all. Ever. It's great to live in a place where truly miserable weather is a rarity, and that reality seems to penetrate my psyche just enough to always be counting my blessings in that regard. Huh.

I Xweeted earlier:

Preface to Version 2

29 April 2024, Pattaya, Thailand

The first iteration of this full-body, high-frequency guide, published not much longer than a month ago, was more like a draft. I called it The Matrix. Now I’m calling it FBHF For-Life. Whatever.

Except that it turned out to be pretty good.

My chief concern was that it would be too difficult. It’s not. Some days into testing it out, I began to worry that it might be too easy. I’m not doing this for any sort of mass-market appeal. I’m not doing it as a guru with all the “secrets” and special sauces. I’m not touting it as the “One True God” of workouts.

It’s a lot simpler than that.

For whatever reason, a few days before July 1, 2023, I decided to meet a challenge I saw online. To my utter amazement, I saw it through. What was it? It was to do 30-straight ass-busting days in the gym doing 15 unique workout routines that aren’t full-body, but they’re more than a single muscle group split routine; so, close to full-body and with lots of sets. I ran through those 15 routines twice for a total of 30 days. It was tough.

It changed my body. More importantly, it changed my mind. Here I am 2 days shy of 10 solid months at this, and I haven’t slowed down much. Now, I only hit the gym 5 days per week (usually M-F) and I take 2 days off. I turned 63 in January of this year, 2024. I was no stranger to the gym, but I never developed the solid commitment that has brought so many benefits until this cycle though that has stuck with me.

What have I changed?

I’ve made the workout set of 20 unique full-body routines a slight bit harder overall by identifying which ones were too easy and fixing that. None were too hard. I added a few exercises and got rid of a few. I changed the mix in a few of the workouts. A few exercises I made more prominent throughout the set of 20 unique workouts, and a few of them show up less frequently.

Initially, the distribution from the library was based on filling up 20 slots with an exercise in each of…legs, chest, back, shoulders, triceps, biceps, and abdominal.

This time through, I’m looking at each exercise in the library and seeing how I want that specific exercise distributed over 20 individual and unique routines. So, for instance, I had Romanian deadlifts in only 2 workouts. Now they’re in 3. Like that. Many other examples of thoughtful placing of exercises that deliver bang-for-buck properly spaced out among 20 routines.

The other thing I’ve done is simplified. Version 1 was focussed on whether you want to work out 2, 3, 4, or 5 times per week. So I made a plan for each of those. But the beauty of this program is that there are 20 routines, all full-body. Each one of the 20 is a complete gig. Skipping days matters less because it’s your whole body and not…’oh, man, way too long since I did legs’ (or chest, or back, or shoulders…).

So, you just run through the 20 routines in whatever order you want, though 1-20 is obviously the straightforward way. Nothing to remember. You do them when you want. You do #1, then you do #2 tomorrow, 2 days from now, or 3, or whatever. Then you do #3. Can be the next day after or the next week after. You can do 1-7 on January 1-7 as a NYR. You can do 5 routines in one week, 2 or 3 the next, then settle in at 4 for a few weeks.

Literally, whatever you want, guided only by your needs, desires, goals, elation, and shame.

My guidance on the sets shifts slightly. Before I actually put it into practice, running through all 20 routines in a month—some at a pace of 3 routines per week, then 4, and then “stress testing” it by doing the final 7 routines on 7 consecutive days—I’m more inclined to suggest that you perform the 2 sets per exercise in however way feels best for you in that particular exercise, in that particular routine, on that particular day.

For example, sometimes you might want to take set #1 to failure and then do what you can on set #2. Other times, you’ll feel like using set #1 as your heavy warm up, then #2 as your working set to failure. And sometimes, you might just do both sets staunchly; meaning, neither to failure, but solid effort on both.

It’s all going to depend on what you feel like and what your goals are. You can set daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever goals too. This is extreme flexibility and unless you are a bodybuilder or other professional, I suggest you listen to your body, your desires, and your feels, and go through the routines with purpose.

Have “sucky-fun.”

How To Get It and Love It

You can just click the purchase button and be done with it.

I think the better way is membership, and any level will do it. Check those out here. Even the lowest level of membership gives you a $10 discount, plus 30 days of full membership to look round and have access to everything, including all the other paid downloads too. Maybe you want to stick around after that, maybe not. Up to you.

Logged-in members can directly download the book right here.

Short and sweet this Tuesday, but already working on Thursday's edition. So I'll see you back then.

Greetings from poolside, Pattaya on what's for me, a Sunday afternoon. I've always liked spending time at the pool and, truth be told, more so than the beach. Generally. Lots of reasons. Some exceptions.

The heat has been stifling, so there's been that reason to spend more time at the pool. The other has been real-life socializing. Since I don't really frequent bars anymore, I'm in face-to-face contact with fewer people. Plus, it doesn't take much effort to raise the bar over what you'll find at the bar in terms of quality interaction.

Most recently, I've been chatting a lot with three American expat entrepreneurs who've landed here in Thailand and, as coincidence would have it, also live on the same floor. Tony, James, and Joshua, three ex-Army dudes from Georgia in their late 30s, I'd estimate. Being ex-Army and having done their tours here and there, they figured out the Thai-chick scene on their own soon enough. Let's just say they're having a good time. Duh. They all want to start businesses here. All are quite sharp and thoughtful. Yea, they're also black Americans. Why that's something to even point out, I don't know. Irrelevant factoid.

It's not New York, London, or Paris, I know. But that pool (with adjoining gym) and my spacious studio on the 10th floor with a wide angle, open view of the surroundings, is the best I can do on $270 per month. Not a typo. If only they had "free" healthcare, pestering and hassling "crime prevention" services to make chick and beta-male voters feel safe and secure, and other "essential services" like worker's compensation and unemployment "insurance," it'd surely be worth the $2,700 I might pay per month in...New York, London, or Paris. Not a typo.

If the topic of International Living and Geoarbitrage interests you further, I blog on that topic at FreeTheAnimal.com.

For Thursday's 21st Edition of The Swagger, I got so deep into the issue of the new crazy, near magical fat loss peptides, that I went way long and was way late getting it out, and that was with canning the 3rd section.

Make All Your Online Useful To You Again. It has been about 30 years since us early adopters got an IBM clone PC, a modem, internet connection, and got online. It was amazing. Then the rest of the world started showing up and now, 3 decades later, simple measures to stem the tide are called for and can help a lot. Don't withdraw. Engage with useful purpose.

So here we go with that. Actionable. Useful. Also: neither nice nor careful, but those things are for losers. You're not a loser, are you?

1. Introduction

2. The Value of Effort Online: Engage with Purpose and Precision

3. Evaluating Online Interactions

4. Email as a Tool for Meaningful Exchange

5. On The Personal Side: Making Text Messaging Work For You

6. Handling Low-Effort Individuals Online

... One little additional tidbit first, because some folks have been asking "how's it going?" Snapped yesterday.

Twitter tweet

Enough of what I think about stuff for once. This one is all about how a few things I've learned over the years can streamline your life and make it better. For this time, I'm choosing three areas.

1. Get Real With Whole Food. For those new here to The Swagger (or to my 20-year-old gig, FreeTheAnimal.com). I used to be a "Paleo Influencer" back in the day. While much of the diet-obsessed world has moved on in the perpetual quest for The Holy Grail, I still keep it simple and effective. Here's how.

2. Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 (GLP-1) To Nuke Fat The Best Way. The new class of weight-loss "drugs" (non-patentable peptides, most naturally occurring) are and will be totally overpaid for and make 99% who use them fatter or skinny-fatter. There are even better ones now: Tesmorelin and Ipamorelin. Here's the low-down skinny on both of these wonder peptides, especially for women. This article is prefaced with the story of an emergency visit to a government hospital out in rural Thailand, and what that first-rate emergency medical care cost.

3. Make All Your Online Useful To You Again. It has been about 30 years since us early adopters got an IBM clone PC, a modem, internet connection, and got online. It was amazing. Then the rest of the world started showing up and now, 3 decades later, simple measures to stem the tide are called for and can help a lot. Don't withdraw. Engage with useful purpose.

1. Get Real With Whole Food

All diets work and all of the same diets don't work.

It depends.

Diets are really only just people, a reflection of them anyway, and on any given day, any given person does good, bad, or not much changes either way. Same, diets.

The way a diet works to produce results is that it includes ways and means where you eat less, less often. It stops working or rebounds when—whether in the context of that diet and its restrictions or going off the reservation entirely—you eat more, more often.

Ultimately, all diets rise or fall on that one thing (how much you eat, fucking duh!). So, the best diet is the one that maximizes your adherence to eating less, less often.

And this is beside the point of the dishonest and often fraudulent way most diets are touted, hyped, and marketed.

This is simply because people, in general, are excuse-and-lie making lazy-asses, so saying 'hey, this diet is tough (they all are, without exception, because they involve eating less than you're fat, dumb, and happy ass wants to eat so of course they're hard) but if its elements appeal to you in theory and practice, you have a good chance of sticking to it...eating less, less often, and seeing slow progress and eventual success...'

... You'll go broke telling that truth of the matter to people with money to spend. Nobody will buy it. People will only pay for lies they love to hear, and they'll pay big, and often, and over and over. Perfect marketing plan. You're not doing it right. Here, pay again. Get it right this time (and we have new lies information that will finally make it work).

So diet mavens have to sell the bullshit magic easy secret that's one simple thing that, either, is that one thing that will drop your pounds with little effort despite your basic gluttony, or is that one thing making you fat (blank out your basic gluttony that can't be it, 'cause then there would be nothing to sell).

... It can be anything—this one magical or vexing thing—from meat for the vegans to potatoes for the LCers. For the Paleo or real food types, it's toxins and/or seed oils. For others, it's anti-nutrients. For the virtue-signalling types, it's their weak-ass inability to handle gluten or MSG.

The stupid-list goes on and on.

If you want to find your own way to mosey on into for eating less, less often, I have some helpful suggestions that can pretty much be applied to any diet template, so I'm being totally agnostic here, even though I do have my preferences and even ideological biases, too.

1. Always target protein and yes, even if it's vegan protein, however and whatever. An easy rule-of-thumb is a gram of dietary protein per pound of body weight; or, in kilograms, double the Kg weight and eat that many grams of dietary protein (if you weigh 75 kilos, eat 150g...or if you want precise conversion, 165g).

2. To manage carbs vis-à-vis whole energy intake, then practice "half the carbs, twice the protein." This is a great rule for Asian dishes, where you have your rice and whatever. Half the tyical amount of rice, twice the whatever else (which is usually the protein).

3. Eschew added fat. You don't have to be a fat Nazi, but oil-based salad dressings alone are fucktarded. All of them. Including EVOO. A pat of butter to fry an egg or two? A spot of cream in your coffee? No big. Most food has fat in it, so based on whole food principles, it's enough fat.

4. Eat protein and fat together (it comes that way whole) and eat protein and no-added-fat carbohydrates together (meat and fruit, meat and rice, meat and pasta, meat and bread, meat and potatoes). Avoid eating fat and carbohydrates together (beyond the scope here: Google "oxidative priority;" eating a lot of fat with a lot of carbs does not convert the carbs to fat like the lying LCers bla bla...it gets used for energy right now and the dietary fat is stored). The one place carbs and fat are found together is milk, a food naturally engineered to "fatten you up."

Above all, keep it simple. Here's my last 9 home cooked meals. The farang food is by me, the Thai food by Far—one of my harem of 4-5 Thai women...sometimes 2 at a time (and if you have a complaint, moral judgment, or hate me because of that, I hear your cry for help).

Eggs are very frequent. The taco meat is ground pork (way easier to get, and 1/3 the price) and with the seasoning package, not a lot of difference from beef. The ground meat in the Thai dishes is also ground pork (pad krapow moo). Lower right is lentils (white stuff is LF yogurt) and how that happened is I mistook the bag for black peppercorns, LOL.

The gravy is packaged stuff where I use a rounded tsp at a time, slurry it in cold water, then nuke for about 30 seconds. Single portion. It's mostly just potato starch, MSG (I love the stuff; I'm not a virtue signaller who brags about how weak-ass and feeble I am...that goes for gluten, too), and flavorings. Be strong.

The whole meat is pork loin, not to be confused with pork tenderloin, though not a huge difference in price, about a buck-sixty a pound. It's delicious and tasty. The way I prepare it now is to take the whole roast, S&P it, then pop it in the air fryer on its lowest setting (80C / 175F) for 90 minutes. Then I can quickly slice or dice and use it for anything throughout the week, and that's usually to the tune of 4 kilos (near 5 pounds) per week.

Ever heard of Makro? Ever heard of Costco? Then you have seen and heard of Makro.

Observe. My weekly shopping trip, that comes to about 20 bucks to eat about a pound of meat and a few eggs every day (about 200g dietary protein).

In addition to the 9 photos of my most recent food in-between threesome sessions with the gals (you understand that I add these superfluous details for purposes of triggering the weak, feeble, and faux self-righteous, right?), here's a vid I did a while back of some of the food I cooked over a few months time a year or so ago. I was trying to pack on lean mass at the time, so was eating a lot more, more often.

Now let's deal with some relatively new and crazy super-serious and effective fat blasting in relation to the burgeoning field of peptide science, which is unique in one huge respect: most of the peptides in current use are non-patentable. In other words, drug companies are kindda fucked in a lot of ways because also, you don't need ridiculous manufacturing facilities to produce them. I'm not sure how far off it is from casually cooking meth, but that's kinda the idea. The stuff is and will be out there no matter what and outlawing it is problematic because many of them are naturally occurring, so you're making something illegal your body produces naturally.

But, anything to fuck the evil FDA and evil Big Pharma is really way OK with me; virtuous and glorious, too. If I was God for an hour, I'd have every last one of them penniless and in soup lines. That would include all investors in their stocks...even your granny if any of it is in her retirement portfolio. So!

Greetings this fine Tuesday from The Land of Smiles, now in my 5th year of residence. It's remarkably hot this year in a place where hot is the default. I'm going to do a larger, single article today, partly because I'm running very late what's new and because I want to develop this rather thoroughly.

Nobody Should Rule The World... (Especially Not Women)

... Or, referring to my greeting, should I say The Land of Military Coups?

Observe. Ask why.

To explain how such a remarkably peaceful country—that has never been colonized like every other country in the region—can nonetheless have such seeming internal strife, I turn to former Australian ambassador to Thailand, James Wise who, in his book Thailand: History, Politics and the Rule of Law, wrote whilst quoting a paper on the topic:

That brief bit I read in early 2020 shortly after arriving in the country was seared into my brain and became the lens through which I understand everything that goes on here, both the seen and the unseen. It's less important that you understand this vis-à-vis Thailand, than that you understand how intransigently we're locked into our world views by the [sometimes opposing] political systems we kinda understand, like constitutional republic, parliamentary, and communist.

What is written and what is said is quite often quite different from what actually happens. And what actually happens? Everything happens, which is always my answer to the question, "what would happen in anarchy?" Everything. And so it does everyplace else, too; which, then, doesn't sound so earth-shattering if that's the case, but it's not how people evaluate political systems. They evaluate them—always, it's a force of nature—by presuming that their preferred system prevents or severely curtails certain undesirable occurrences and outcomes or, at least, more so than other systems that they disfavor by comparison.

So how would you evaluate a non-system system such as that of Thailand—that produces high levels of social peace and tranquility, politeness as a national virtue, and great honor and conservatism for its core values (97% of the population is solidly and unequivocally united in Buddhism...compared to 65-70% disunited Christians in the USA under a dozen diverse sects) while, at the same time, pretty much allowing everything that happens in the grand sphere of human action to actually happen, only to worry about later if measurable and objective harm was done?

There is very little that goes on to "prevent crime," because that's impossible and only a slogan bright-eyes Westerners swallow over and over, even when little to no crime is ever "prevented."

To give you an idea of how stark the difference is between views of governance vis-à-vis crime prevention and deterrence, in four years of diving tens of thousands of kilometers all over this country, I have never seen a single car or motorbike pulled over alongside the road being issued a citation for a traffic infraction. Not fewer than you see by the dozens on any given road trip in the USA. Exactly and precisely: ZERO. There are the ocassional checkpoints at provincial borders, typically unmanned, but even when manned, I've never been stopped. They're looking for something that's obvious. Thai police are never, ever out to hassle people. It just goes against the grain. What's common place in the West is anethema and inhumane here. Who wants to be hassled by authority figures in uniforms.

Another point to make about Thai police: zero women officers. If you search this online, you'll be regaled with AI (Copilot if using Bing) Exclamations! Of! Progress!!! and a listing of three purported Thai female offers. I've never seen one. Nor has anyone I know ever seen one. Rarer than unicorns, but apparently, Progress Is Being Made!!! though There's Still Lots Of Work To Do!!!

Meanwhile, I'll point out a glaring association and correlation between all-male police forces and a lack of hassling, and coed police forces with countless females and male bitches with their preponderance and core mission of hassling people as much as possible at all times.

In summary, Thailand is the closest thing to a peaceful, natural sort of anarchy—a harmonious chaos—that I've ever found. It's what allures so many expats and when you query many of them, as I have in the hundreds, you find they're remarkably similar to me in so many such outlooks. Or, they love it but can't really put a finger on it. I help them put a finger on it, when I can.

Another way to put it, gloriously: the buck stops, always, with old conservative military dudes...who then peacefully and relatively quickly after restoring common sense and order—to end [some and/or unapproved] bullshit crony corruption, bullshit communism, bullshit leftism, bullshit feminism, bullshit green, bullshit LGBTIDGAF, or other liberal, hedonistic, and nihilistic bullshit—hand it back to civilian political control to begin its long march to fuck everything up again, anew. Rinse, wash, and repeat.

1. 1932: The bloodless coup of 1932, also known as the Siamese revolution, marked a turning point in Thailand’s history. A group of military officers, known as the “Four Musketeers,” overthrew King Prajadhipok, ending nearly seven centuries of absolute monarchy. This coup established a constitutional monarchy and paved the way for social and political reforms.

2. 1947: The Thai military intervened again, removing the government of Rear Admiral Thawan Thamrongnawasawat due to scandals and corruption. The “Coup Group” then placed Khuang Aphaiwong, a founder of the Democrat Party, as the prime minister. This event solidified the army’s role in Thai politics.

3. 1951: The Silent Coup occurred while King Bhumibol Adulyadej was in Lausanne, Switzerland. Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram was appointed as the new prime minister.

4. 1957: Rigged parliamentary elections kept Phibunsongkhram in power, leading to mass protests in Bangkok. Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat staged a coup, appointing Pote Sarasin as the head of an interim government.

5. 1958: Sarit, a military leader, led another coup, ushering in a new authoritarian era in Thai politics.

6. 1971: Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn staged a coup, citing the need to suppress Communists. His government was dissolved, and martial law was imposed.

7. 1976: Less than eight months after an unsuccessful overthrow attempt, the Thai military staged another coup, ousting Prime Minister Seni Pramoj. Admiral Sangad Chaloryu declared himself in charge of the newly formed National Administrative Reform Council.

8. 1977: Thanin Kraivichien, in power for only one year, was overthrown in a bloodless military coup led by Admiral Sangad Chaloryu. Thanin was accused of leading a repressive government.

9. 1991: Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan was arrested on his way to meet the king. Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram was appointed as the new prime minister.

10. 2014: The most recent coup occurred on May 22, 2014, when the Royal Thai Armed Forces, led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, seized power against the caretaker government. This marked the 12th coup since Thailand’s first coup in 1932.

To put it another way, the old-dude, values-conservative military as a de facto branch of government and the final stop-gap for everything, is the Occam's Razor dot-connect that makes sense of it all.

It especially explains the perplexing phenomenon where there are laws on the books, but they are super-selectively enforced, and that selective enforcement has little to do with a person's status and more to do with hassling people. Thais do not like meddling in the personal affairs of others if they're not harming anyone else, and harm is a lot more objectively defined and is a pretty high bar.

Triggered isn't gonna cut it.

And this goes hand-in-hand—this lack of crime "prevention" and deterrence—with Thailand's hands off stance in matters of families and villages. In 2 words: self governed. Yep, that means dad or mom can skip out on parental responsibilities. A daughter or two—or 'ladyboy' son—might go off and work in a bar in Bangkok, Pattaya, or other tourist-frequented place—or open a profile on Thai Friendly. Shameful? Maybe, sometimes, sure, or it depends, but that's human life. They all send money back home. Lots of money. Everyone has a natural human stake in the world's oldest profession. The stories you never hear are the successful ones where farang marries the gal, they go back to the village, start a homestead, have kids, support the extended family to a degree, and everyone's kinda pretty happy about all of that. Or, he takes her to his home country. It has happened into the millions over decades.

You never hear about that side of it in Western media because you fucking know exactly why you never hear about that side of it in Western media.

... It amuses me that "the world's oldest profession," so called, gets such heaps of scorn. Given that name, it suggests it's endemic to human behavior...everywhere, at all times (everything happens). It seems odd to me that while it's fully understood that women trade sexual favors for things they want, then why if it's a roof over her head, clothes on her back, food on her table...and kids shuttled to ballet and soccer practice...it's perfectly fine and virtuous, but if it's money outside a marriage or civil commitment, that's a big-ass no-no?

I may have an answer. Is it because money is a medium of exchange, and that is empowering? The typical values exchanged in familial relationships are intangible, non-fungible, emotional, etc. BUT, all of that value exchange leads to an accumulation of assets and those assets can be retitled or converted to money. How is that done? Typically, through divorce, which is predominately initiated by women and predominately favor women in the financial outcomes.

Financially, what the divorce does is convert all those accumulated assets to retitle in her name, or money, both of which can then be transferred, such as to a new relationship. So, does that financial act turn the woman into a prostitute, then? Or, if divorce is considered empowering for women, then why isn't prostitution?

Or, are my views getting in the way of your—in the words of renowned atheist, Richard Dawkins—Cultural Christianity?

Thais also seem aware and accepting of the fact that spouses and domestic partners fuck around and fuck up, and fuck off. As such, familial and village bonds are far wider and deeper. It's on all of them to do what needs doing—not some souless social worker and family court with a performance jacket to fill with nice things, awards, accolades, and citations to bolster job advancement.

Old folks? Retirement? Bleed the young? Yep, that they have that, "at least."

What it has to do with is saying or writing one thing, then doing another, not doing much at all, or blaming it on the national scapegoat: Thai Police corruption (basically nonsense, but goes beyond my scope, here). All my dealings with police have been polite, respectful, professional, courteous...and often jovial, without exception. I get stopped now and then for no helmet on my motorbike—the most selectively enforced/not enforced "law" in the country. The fine on the books is 2,000 baht (55 bucks US). You'll be asked for 500 (14 bucks) if they don't just wave you on by. Sometimes it goes to the station, sometimes hip pocket (I'm fine with that, to you guys with traffic fines that start at $300). But sometimes I get a discount: "look at my haircut. Thai Police haircut," and I'll issue a quick salute. "OK, 300 baht."

So when I wish to understand why what's going on is going on, this former military officer thinks, how would it play with Army-Navy?

Thailand is run by conservative men and its conservatism has military-order teeth. Oorah!

And it's because of the nature of the military beast that military men understand the essential need for morale above everything else. You don't have morale, you have dysfunction. You're worthless...as a military; and, as a society.

(People think it's the chicks, why I'm here. Nah. The chicks being the way they are, not just here, but in all of Asia, is a consequence of the male-dominated governments throughout Asia, so that's the prerequisite...culture. They understand male and female nature...or at least a lot better than in the West. Icing on the cake is that nobody understands the male imperative for female attention and companionship more than do military men.)

And, importantly, nobody better understands how fucked up things go south in a quick hurry when those male needs aren't met...better than military men.

But Men Are Bad, Evil, Really Awful, and Evil

The most common argument to both counter patriarchal social order and to support the inclusion of more women into political and other hierarchies of power, control, authority, and influence is to put out that basically every really bad atrocity in human history has been carried out by a man or group of men.

It's half true.

The other thing that's true is that every really good, great, and wondrous thing to bring on human civilization, manage it, provide for it, and create opportunities for prosperity...has also been carried out by a man or group of men.

I made you a world-famous Richard Nikoley chart to illustrate.

So when I'm having this discussion, as I've had a million times and I get the classic bromide, "men do all the worst evil," my response is the same: "that's why men need to be in charge." The only force of nature capable os handling and managing the evil the bad men can do is more good men."

To elaborate on that, when you feminize a society, culture (Judaism and Christianity are feminizing in their modern incarnations; meaning, they were naturally flawed from inception...the means of their own destruction baked right in their cake.) you get lots and lots and lots of laws an regulations.

These laws, regulations, procedures, and hoops all serve to satisfy feelings of insecurity. And all are touted in the same bullshit way: prevent crime [uncertain outcomes that make people feel insecure and unsafe]. But since you can't really prevent or deter crime much, all this stuff serves is to parasitically garner unearned livelihoods for do-gooders and do-nothings, where power is the power to harass, pester, and hassle...creating enough useless busy work that people feel useful.

Bogus and fake self-esteem.

Feminized Society and Culture

Back in the spring of 2018 I got wind of a social philosophy called "Propertarianism," proposed by a guy named Curt Doolittle. I dove into it a little bit and gained a good bit of insight. I interviewed Curt at least a couple of times, available to watch on FreeTheAnimal.com.

Among the insights I got and have used, quoted, re-quoted, and connected dots in a million syntheses is his template for male vs. female competitive strategy, dubbed GSRRM. This requires significant study and effort to get this to sink in, understand it, and then you'll see it in use all the time, everywhere, and by virtually everyone, males and females alike.

My own contribution to this, so far as I'm aware, is that I couch it all in evolutionary terms and let women off the hook, per se. They have no choice in the matter.

If you regard this as a female survival strategy rather than a competitive strategy as Curt has characterized it, then your understanding may be deeper.

In other words, given the relative physical weakness of women compared to men, combined with their dire vulnerability in child bearing, nurture, and rearing, then they obviously need ways to influence, control, and manipulate men that does not involve overpowering them.

To put is bluntly, a male survival strategy in wartime might involve him committing treason to survive, by spying for the enemy, giving material aid or comfort, things of that nature. A woman sleeps with the enemy.

A final point is to avoid NEXALT (not all X are like that) arguments. Of course, there are always outliers. Some men are bitches and some women are totally rational and objective actors who can set their feelings of insecurity in the midst of male power aside.

Importantly, this GSRRM competitive strategy while characteristic and applicable to females generally, can and is used by anyone.

Pretty much all politicians, journalists, clergy, lawyers, leftists, activists for anti-x causes, and institutional heads and authorities primarily use GSRRM.

Who uses characteristically male solving for truth no matter what?

Military and business.

Everything Happens (Including The Decline and Downfall of Western Civilization)

I did a quick study this afternoon and though there are some outliers, it can generally be said that the more women are involved in the politics of a country, the higher it's national debt (Japan is an exception on one side, Germany an exception on the other).

The USA is a prime example, though.

I found AI to be useless in getting to the fundamental crux of the matter. Even the unwoke non-safety-Nazi Zon with all of my meticulous seed prompting was no match for the core embedding that no bad ever can come from having women in charge and it's got to be something else.

It even got so stupid as to say:

"Expansive government programs” is the whole point.

What does muddy the waters though is that it's true this cannot be attributed to women exclusively. Because, as I said, men can use "female" survival and competitive strategy (GSRRM) too.

Guess who women (and weak-ass, pussy-boy, cucked males) vote for when they vote for "men," too often?

... And here's the final contrast. The most up-and comping area on the planet, in huge and stark contrast to the GSRRM Western world.

Much of the foregoing is stuff I've said before, and for a long time, and in various ways and contexts. This time, it was my aim to put it all together and offer a far more integrated view of how it's all connected.

I hope I've done that even a little bit.

If you got an epiphany or revelation, comment below.

Before turning to this Sunday's subject matter, which is partially about taking myself to task, I wanted to briefly mention the gym experiment I've been running all week over at FreeTheAnimal, culminating is this wrap-up post: The Wrap: 7 Consecutive Days FBHF (Full-Body High-Frequency). If you're at all interested in things gym-training related, you might find it of interest.

As I'm always trying to accomplish and deliver, this offers something unique that goes against the grain and counter to prevailing narratives. This often happens because people become comfortable doing what they're doing, advocating what they advocate, and selling what they sell and the built-up momentum in that investment often has them resistant to seriously considering new stuff.

So give it a look if the gym ever beckons you. I should also mention that there's a deal on offer, good through today (Sunday) and expires at midnight NYC time.

Child Sexualization-Indoctrination Is Really This Wide, Deep, and Institutionally Entrenched?

I got wind of a Bill Maher New Rule segment and clicked right over since, if you haven't noticed, his process of being "red-pilled" continues afoot and his latest is a doozie that got knocked out of the park.

If you stop and think about it, he's really the perfect man in the perfect position for this gig and while his entrenched leftism and never-Trump hatred is annoying, it's probably necessary, or he'd just be tuned out and dismissed. Instead, he's remaining relevant, and that leaves him in a position to persuade.

He's being reasonable.

Greetings from the same place as always. I'll jump right in, and it's just two articles today due to the experimental daily routines at the gym.

Today:

1. Science The Clown. Even if the interest is in discovery, it's to discover new markets to exploit, develop and patent a product, and sell it. Everything takes a back seat to that, and it has thorough corrupted science to the point where it's manipulated and cherry picked to give "scientific" authority to marketing.

2. Turbo Cancer. It's still being dismissed by all The Usual Suspects, but markets are already pricing in the looming disaster. A brief look at the state of the new medical literature that suggests that if you took an mRNA injection, you have cause for concern.

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1. Science The Clown

New weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic are unpatented, yet cost 1000 bucks per month—unless you know how to get them for 50 bucks per month...which almost everyone except Americans around the world seem to be able to do (isn't that fucking funny, you "land-of-the-free" you, LOL).

So, I queried the AI Search chatbot with a simple question (are they patented? ...a yes or no answer is sufficient). But wow did it give me lots of "science" sounding stuff.

Or is it marketing?

So, the sci-shit is used to dazzle, sell the drugs as "safe and effective," cheerlead "healthcare professionals," and obfuscate the fact that they are not patented...meaning anyone can make and sell them, essentially (though other laws do apply and that's why increasingly the science of peptides is moving offshore...such as here in Thailand, for example).

In my last post, The Swagger #17, Article #3, I show exactly where you can get these 1000-buck-per-month miracles for 50 bucks per month, at most.

... As I mentioned, I'm doing this new experiment in the gym where I break all the rules. Those interested can check the latest posts. I'm breaking all the rules, and it rubs some of the gym-bro peeps the wrong way. I'm not even saying my stuff is better (because: better for whom, and for what?) or that their stuff is crap (except in sparing with them). I'm just saying that my stuff kicks ass because it does, and I prove it in the flesh (my body my choice; meaning, proven documented results).

Twitter tweet

But, The Point is, they are forever citing sci-shit in all these bits and pieces and why? To avoid having to do any real work. Real work might involve doing real science, and that might show that my stuff...kicks ass. So, it's easier to use sci-shit to attempt to discredit my kick-ass stuff.

But don't worry, it's just business. In other words, it's not science. It's marketing.

It turns out that there's a long history that, when dots are aligned and connected, explains how science ended up this way:

... It might be considered a cynical view, but the stark reality remains that the state, as an enterprise, demands compliance from its citizens. This compliance isn’t just about following laws; it’s about conforming, abiding, and obeying. A totalitarian regime exercises brute force and coercion only, because it doesn't need to charm or persuade. But statecraft, or so-called democracy, is about manipulating the citizenry to act voluntarily in accordance with its desires, through a concoction of laws, punishments, incentives, and special favors. This mechanism has always been in place, greasing the skids for political machinery and social engineering schemes.

Historically, authority was often represented by the church, creating a peculiar alliance of church and state. However, this partnership was fraught with conflict due to the ultimate power each wielded, suggesting that the state should be subordinate to the church—you're dealing with the ultimate authority, after all, and the church was His spokesman. This power struggle limited what the state could achieve under the shadow of ecclesiastical decrees. America responded to this by introducing a form of competitive religion, allowing for a multiplicity of churches. This freedom created competition for membership among churches, pushing them to adopt more liberal stances to attract followers who had the liberty to choose their spiritual homes. Consequently, the state found a way to work within these religious frameworks, aligning its actions with those religious doctrines that supported its agenda. The few religious outliers that resisted state alignment could be easily discredited in the face of the overwhelming conformist majority.

However, as enlightenment spread and skepticism towards religious doctrines grew, a new authority was needed—enter science. Initially intended as a rigorous discipline of falsification, where hypotheses are continuously tested and discarded upon failure, science promised a method of progressively eliminating falsehoods, edging ever closer to truth. Yet, this ideal has been corrupted; the symbiosis of state and corporate power—akin to fascism—has co-opted science, transforming it into a tool for political and corporate agendas. Today, science often serves more as a marketing strategy for these entities, rather than a pursuit of truth.

The modern landscape of authority, then, is a complex web where state, church, and corporate interests intertwine, each using science not as a tool of enlightenment and discovery, but as a means of controlling the narrative and maintaining their grip on power because now, it's In "Science" We Trust. In this framework, the citizen is less an independent thinker and more a pawn in a larger game of social engineering and compliance. This manipulation of science and authority for political and corporate ends is a betrayal of the very principles upon which the enlightenment and scientific endeavor were founded. It underscores the critical need for vigilance and skepticism in how we accept and act upon the "authoritative" information presented to us.

... For me, the new wild card in this is AI and I have maintained and still maintain that it will be difficult and eventually impossible to get an integrated logic machine to spin integrated lies, which is a negation of logic and reality.

I've written a ton about it at FreeTheAnimal.com, we've developed an un-Woke chatbot, Zon (GPT-4 Turbo via API and training prompts), who even helps with some of the editing and idea-spinning work around here.

2. Turbo Cancer

Having ate, slept, and drank Covid for two years and from early on, one of the things those with their head deep into the game speculated about was immune system compromise...a sort of AIDS light, if you will. The implications are profound because the biggest thing about healthy immune systems is that you never have any awareness of the stuff it saves you from experiencing or suffering any symptoms.

Cancer is one of those things. Compromise immune systems, people develop cancers that aren't checked, and they grow.

Here's a Zon-generated paraphrase of a long xweet by William Makis, MD on the growing library of papers dealing with so-called Turbo Cancer and its association with mRNA jabs.

NEW ARTICLE: RAPID INCREASE IN TURBO CANCER STUDIES - In April 2024 alone, 6 new research papers on COVID-19 Vaccine Turbo Cancer were published, bringing the total to approximately 26. This surge in publications suggests a significant shift, potentially impacting Pfizer & Moderna. Claims that Pfizer & Moderna's mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are linked to the development of aggressive "Turbo Cancers" are becoming more recognized, despite skepticism. Some still deny the existence of Turbo Cancer in scientific literature, dismissing it as nonexistent. Yet, in just the past two weeks, six new studies have emerged:

- (Apr 2024, Zhang and El-Deiry) - SARS-CoV-2 spike S2 subunit's impact on p53, p21(WAF1), TRAIL Death Receptor DR5, and MDM2 in cancer cells.
- (Apr 2024, Rubio-Casillas et al) - Review on N1-methyl-pseudouridine (m1Ψ) and its implications for cancer.
- (Apr 2024, Gibo et al) - Study linking increased cancer mortality in Japan to the third dose of mRNA-Lipid Nanoparticle vaccines.
- (Apr 2024, Abdurrahman et al) - Case of Primary Cutaneous Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma post-vaccination.
- (Apr 2024, Ueda et al) - Report on fetal hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and B-cell lymphoma following vaccination in a lupus patient.
- (Apr 2024, Gentilini et al) - Analysis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia post-Comirnaty® vaccination.

Despite these developments, Wikipedia describes "Turbo Cancer" as an anti-vaccination myth without substantial evidence, supported minimally within academia. Critics like David Gorski describe "Turbo Cancer" as misinformation, emphasizing the lack of biological basis and the misuse of anecdotal evidence by anti-vaccine advocates. Gorski argues that such claims are designed to instill unwarranted fear about the vaccines.

In contrast, proponents of the Turbo Cancer theory argue that the increasing body of literature cannot be ignored and suggest that there is emerging evidence linking mRNA vaccines to cancer developments, challenging mainstream narratives and potentially implicating major pharmaceutical companies. They predict significant ramifications for companies like Pfizer as more information comes to light, paralleled by a decline in their stock value. The discourse around this issue continues to be highly polarized, with significant implications for public health communication and trust in medical institutions.

And here's the full xweet:

Twitter tweet

Sure glad I didn't consider getting any shots for even a microsecond.

See you back here on Sunday for something and not nothing.

Greetings from hot hot hot, humid humid humid, and still still still Pattaya where my focus has been stress-testing my own unique workout matrix. Details here, here, and here. But I warn you. Most everything having to do with health, diet, fitness, and body composition is marketed to catch the widest swath of those markets, and that's the 90% or so looking for easy, magical, low-effort, cushy, effortless, and unearned results and rewards. People will pay big money for sweet lies and next to nothing for the hard truth.

I have the audacity to market the hard-truth honestly, aiming to interest those extremely rare breed of folks, rarer than unicorns, who choose to do the hard thing because it's hard.

... Big issue today.

1. Western Hegemony Crumbling; Putin is Not Wrong. Imagine having to come to the realization that your own children are really bad. You live in denial about it for years. Nobody dare say anything. Their goodness is an unquestionable, unassailable, absolute truth. Or, the inverse. You're the kids, and you have to finally admit that your parents are just fucking evil.

2. Honey is Truly a Miracle and It Just Saved My Mom's Life; Not Hype. In January, many know I returned to USA for the first time in 4 years. I did so to see my mom "for the last time." She suffers from pyoderma gangrenosum and it was big, bad, huge, and getting worse. Over a year suffering. Dozens of docs, thousands in meds (the last one being a $3,000 per month co-pay). Then a "lowly" home-care nurse says, "oh, that needs honey." Bingo! I've assembled tons of links and research.

3. Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound are The New Miracles, But Their Expense Creates Disparity? Envy politics, of course. "Poor" people "can't afford it," so it's bad. Right. But is that the whole story? No. It's not.

1. Western Hegemony Crumbles; Putin is Not Wrong

I've posted this image I doctored many times in order to give readers a geographical, geopolitical, and population-level sense of what's really going on and underlies all the narratives, stories, taking sides, nationalism, tribalism, and just about everything.

There are fundamental reasons that what we see happening, is happening.

That's a relatively small area of the globe for over half of its population to live, work, raise families, and practice culture and traditions. I live smack-dab in the middle, Thailand, for 4 years now. I lived for 5 years in Japan in the later 1980s. I've travelled and worked extensively in the region. I was an in-theater US Navy officer stationed in the region during the latter years of the Cold War.

... Add to this: All the cultures and political systems are patriarchal and conservative. Their values, traditions, religions, customs, practices, and so on and don't change much. Populations respect their stuff. You won't see anyone tearing down monuments, shrines, temples, or anything that informs them what sort of people they are, what they share, where they came from, and how to behave themselves. China is an exception, but on balance, they've recaptured and embraced much of their ancient identity in the last few decades despite the immorality and amorality bread by and imposed by communism and collectivism. Now, essentially a fascist State that, unlike the American and other fascists of the West (note: fascism is state and big-corp partnership) they at least respect their culture and traditions while the West can't tear them down, display them in jars of piss, and shit all over them fast enough.

In many cases, these cultures are older than our Western culture. And what of that Western culture, spawned by the Greeks a few thousand years ago? Can anyone take an objective look and not conclude that it's in full-blown decay? Books can be written about that, including the hypothesized causes. For myself, I place the feminization of everything high on the list. None of these countries have that problem in the slightest. The valid female survival strategy is well understood here, and for good reason, it's contained. It's not used to run countries, or this always happens everywhere politically, as a force of nature...

The one shortcoming of that chart is that I should have indicated 'women and men voting...' Women aren't bad. It's just that, out of necessity, because of relative weakness and high vulnerability due to being the bearers of offspring, their goals and strategies must be different than those of men. They must always solve for safety first and unsafety is a no-no...a crisis, an emergency. Even the feeling of unsafety is a big no! panic!

And this is what the governing strategy of all Western nations has become over the last 100 years or so. It took a while to get going and even as late as the 1970s and 80s, there was significant pushback against "Women's Lib." ... And today? I meet more women trepidatious about it than "men," who, it seems to me, have taken up the typical virtue signalling as a get-laid strategy—when more times than not, chicks choose Alpha when they can.

... So that's the backdrop for this. It's a transcript of a video and the video itself, if you care to watch. The relevant part is up to 8:15...the rest is an ad.

The transcript describes a series of international events and crises, framing them as indicative of the decline of Western influence and Biden's total fucking up at all times. It details a scenario where Iran retaliates against Israel by launching drones, prompting a military response from the U.S., U.K., and Israel, despite earlier assurances from the U.S. that it would not engage in Middle East conflicts. Biden, with inconsistent foreign policy and stupid-ass Woke domestic decisions, have exacerbated issues like inflation and energy prices in the U.S., while also depleting the strategic oil reserves.

Then, significant geopolitical developments involving Russia and China, now coalescing into a strategic alliance against NATO, complete with economic and financial partnerships to counteract Western sanctions. These moves, along with statements from the Russian leadership about the future of Ukraine, signal a major shift in global power dynamics, to the [welcome, for me] detriment of the U.S. and its allies.

Overall, the text conveys a critical view of current U.S. leadership and its foreign policy, while highlighting the strengthening ties between Russia and China as a challenge to Western hegemony.

Why do I cheer this development? One word: justice. The West does not deserve to lead the world forward, and America deserves financial devastation for all the global death and misery it has sowed over three decades (it pains me to say). America's moral leadership ended in 1993 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and rather than the West working to bring them into the international partnership of free trade, exploiting its vast natural resources to the betterment of it's new, freer society, the USA immorally did everything in its power to keep Russia down and create problems where none existed. Russia took and holds the high moral ground from the beginning of this NATO-created and longed-for conflict and has been stalwart, careful, measured, and resolute in its moral determination. Impressive.

It is true that Ukraine, among the most corrupt and evil nations on earth and that's meticulously well-documented, needs to fall. I applaud Putin for insisting upon it and not backing down.

In the long run, morality wins all wars. This is because the moral is that which is objectively good for human beings and conversely, the immoral is what's objectively bad for them. For a long time, the roles being played by America, the West vs. Russia have been reversed from what they were during the Cold War when, we held the high moral ground and won that war.

We won that war.

It fell into our laps unexpectedly because of modernization, decentralizing technology, and economic realities...and rather than morally do the right thing as we did upon the surrender of Japan and Germany decades earlier, we took the Soviet Union's place as The Evil Empire, filling the vacuum.

... The transcript, then the video, as you prefer.

Now to the story of how simple honey on unhealing wounds saved my mom’s life, to where she’s back from deathbed to home, going on outings to restaurants and shopping centers, and regaining strength. She turned 83 just a few days ago.

And then next, how you can get these new weight loss miracle drugs at 5% of the brand-name cost. Cheap enough for poor people, who somehow manage to eat too much of the most expensive food in the world calorie for calorie (packaged junk), too often.

Greetings from sunny, hot, and humid Pattaya, where I need to renew my commitment to getting my ass to the gym in the early morning, before... (so hot, so humid). I get caught up in something. Just one more thing. Just this, then I'll go. And before I know it, it's high noon and I'm working out in the peak heat of the day.

I love that it sucks so much, though.

And that's the subject of this last post at FreeTheAnimal, if you didn't catch it, and you're curious about looking at body conditioning from a whole new perspective. Ask yourself why so much stuff these days is marketed for easy easy easy. Haven't we seen the results of that all over society and culture? The constant, endless pursuit of the easy, effortless, and quick?

Ever think about really earning your rewards for a change, seeking to do so the hard way? In a way you can truly be proud of?

"Hard won" should truly mean something special.

Give it a thought.

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... None of us is any stranger to bad news. That's where the money is, of course, but over some years now, it tuly has been bad, with little in the way of good stuff to at least think about hanging a hat on, some day.

Let's take a random review.

The Japanese Aren't Having It

For this and other things like it, I have no interest in finding out the details of their beef, wondering how effective it will be, making any predictions, or any such thing.

Twitter tweet

Lots of people, lots of video in the comments to that one xweet.

All I really care about, wherever and however it crops up worldwide, is that people are waking up to the global horror that was Covidiocy and everything associated with it, when the whole world went batshit crazy overnight, losing all personal agency while cheering for more, and that list goes on.

Other than that, that the world demands Nuremberg II.

For healing.

Capital punishment must be on the table.

There are hundreds of thousands who should be prosecuted.

OJ Dies; What Everyone Knew All Along Finally Comes Out

I watched very little of the whole spectacle as it was going on, what, like 30 years ago?

Why?

Because this was totally obvious to me.

Twitter tweet

Why I'm including it on a supposed list of bright spots is 1) it demonstrates that eventually, something resembling the truth in matters eventually gets out there, and 2) it ought to make us skeptical of official stories at all times far and wide, including those that come out of courts of law or anywhere else where there's anything much at stake.

Regrets Will Be Piling Up For Years

Twitter tweet

One of millions of folks reduced to the realization that their wherewithal as humans is laid bare, as, not much more than common deer in headlights.

Accordingly, I will not be counted amongst those who let people off the hook.

Not on this one. I judge others by the same standards I abide for myself, and I can say unequivocally that not only are the 100 posts I wrote during the covidiocy beginning in March 2020 still on the money, but it was never even a question for a microsecond whether I'd line up with all the other sheep and get that silly shot.

Steve here gets to the crux of the fundamental reason, overshadowing all others: "didn't need it." And that's even if it had been "safe and effective."

At best, it was just a superfluous money grab, at worst, a death or maiming sentence for millions.

While I wish him well and normal dispensations, one human to another, apply, he and millions of others were fucking stupid on this and ought to have known better. It exposes a deep and serious flaw in their makeup and agency as people.

What I will wish them all it that this lesson is well learned and applied very widely and generally, especially with anything emanating out of the Big State-Big Corp fascist partnership.

Trump Fundraiser Secures Historic $50.5 Million

I'm not highlighting this as a positive sign because Trump, per se.

Because this:

My hopeiest of hopes here is that given the big business names unafraid to be seen, the Woke's grip on the corporate-head, no-integrity pussies running big companies in American and around the globe is drawing to some measure of diminishment or close.

There's nothing I hate more that heads of companies being water boys for the current narrative and the current thing. All the greenie and LGBTIDGAF crap are the starkest examples I can think of, right now.

Mensch Musk

This is great.

Twitter tweet

According to Jeff Childers, Coffee & Covid:

Whatever. LOL.

You Can't Fool Mother Nature

Amen.

Positive News: Russia Tightening The Noose

I made little pretense over the last couple of years that not only did I fully understand Russia'a role in the conflict, but generally supported it. At the same time, I judged America, Western Europe, and NATO's roles as utterly evil.

Yes, the US is the evil player in this whole affair and has been since the fall of the Soviets in 1993. The moral course of action was to help Russia and former satellite states join the world of free trade. But America needs a perpetual enemy. Both presidents Johnson and Kennedy saw this and warned against it, to no avail. I'm going to quote this whole section from Coffee & Covid:

But Biden’s foreign policy, if you can call a foreign policy resembling a drunken bar fight a “policy,” is faring even worse than his domestic policy. Specifically, the broad outlines of Russia’s punchback strategy are beginning to emerge so clearly and so obviously they can now be seen from the International Space Station, nevermind by a lawyer like me, who never attended military college or took political science at Harvard.

Bloomberg ran a breaking story this morning with the understated headline, “Russia Targets Ukraine Power System With Ballistic Missiles.” It appears the Russians are in fact preparing for something big, a major offensive action, something bigger perhaps than we’ve ever seen before in the Proxy War. That’s what this looks like. Whatever it is, however big for Ukraine, it’s the tiniest part of Russia’s strategy, a tiny wooden doll in the middle of all the other dolls.

Bloomberg reported that last night Russia used over 40 of its top-end hypersonic missiles against at least five of Ukraine’s biggest cities, including its capitol Kiev, plus top cities Kharkov, Odessa, Zaporizhzhia, and even Lviv, which is far from the front lines in Western Ukraine. Russia’s attacks were carefully-planned, and despite reports that Ukraine’s biggest power plants have now been irreparably damaged, no deaths have been reported so far this morning.

For comparison, it was like someone permanently disabling the power in New York, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles in one night.

There was a short period back at the beginning of the war when I was skeptical the Russians were serious, since they didn’t wipe out Ukraine’s power infrastructure — something that was obviously within Russia’s power. It seemed to me that if Russia really wanted to win, it would first switch off the lights.

Well. That predictable strategy now seems finally to be the strategy the Russians are employing. But that’s not even close to all. The strategy that is emerging is breathtaking and hideous. Let’s dig in.

First, in an otherwise poorly-covered story, on Monday Bloomberg published this headline:

It was a big deal. Putin signed an executive order nationalizing a US-based conglomeration that had bought up 650,000 acres of Russian farmland. Russia just took it all, placing all that acreage under the “temporary management” of Rosimushchestvo, Russia’s federal property management agency.

Setting aside the obvious wisdom of reclaiming Russia’s strategically-critical farmland from their murky, opaque U.S. corporate owners, it was an entirely predictable response, one that Russia waited two long years to trigger. As you may recall, the U.S. sanctions war against Russia began with America seizing the personal property of “Russian oligarchs,” like their yachts and houses.

Biden stupidly bragged the seizures would lead to regime change, since the Russian billionaires would thow out Putin to placate America and get all their stuff back.

Not only did that not happen, but on Monday Putin began doing it back to us. Corporate media, which celebrated the seizures of Russia assets at the sanction war’s beginning, pretty much had nothing to say about the much bigger and more meaningful nationalization of 650,000 acres of U.S.-owned property in Russia. But it was a totally predictable tit-for-tat response.

What did Biden think would happen?

Biden’s plan was even dumber than it looks. It’s costing us a fortune to maintain all the seized Russian property, which is not easy to sell:

In other words, after two patient years, Russia has just begun to fight back economically. And Putin is fighting against DEI-promoted morons.

The military part of Russia’s emerging strategy is its — again, predictable — strengthening of America’s enemies. Also on Monday, in the Eurasian Times, we learned Russia has given nuclear North Korea access to hypersonic technology:

Remember: the U.S. currently lacks any effective answer to hypersonic missile technology. The missiles are so fast they defeat our air defenses. The hypersonics can easily take out an aircraft carrier. They could also be used effectively in a first strike. Now North Korea has them, since North Korea has been supplying Russia with artillary shells.

Thanks, Joe Biden!

Also Monday, the Chatham House published a story about Russia which for the first time used its Security Council veto to stop sanctions against North Korea:

Our ally South Korea is freaking out, creating a whole new major strategic demand on U.S. military resources, spreading our efforts and forces even more thinly.

Last month, media quietly informed us that somehow, the pesky Houthis — who Biden have given up trying to beat and is now trying to bribe — have also acquired indefensible hypersonic technology. Somehow.

Five months ago in November, Iran — which has been supplying Russia with drones for Ukraine — announced it had also acquired hypersonic missile technology:

Hypersonic missiles could defeat Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. Like South Korea, our ally Israel is also freaking out, requiring — as we’ve seen — massive amounts of U.S. military resources staged in the Middle East. Where’d Iran get that hypersonic technology? Russia, obviously.

Yesterday — yesterday! — the Biden Administration seemed to finally awaken to the awful possiblity that, instead of being isolated by sanctions, Russia had created a massive military alliance instead, composed of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea:

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that China has just sent its highest-ranking diplomat to North Korea since before the pandemic:

So that’s what we know. Now I will speculate some. What I think is happening is that Russia has been carefully preparing a global anti-NATO strategy for two years now, and it is now begining to pull the trigger. The tragedy is that the Russian strategy was completely obvious and utterly predictable, unless your pugnacious president has dementia and always wants to challenge everyone to pathetic push-up contests.

Russia began this war with one obvious advantage. It had developed a game-changing military technology, hypersonic missiles, which surpassed U.S. military technology — even though America’s woke generals pridefully believed they owned the category of high-tech weaponry. But in the face of existential threats from Biden’s reckless administration and escalatory rhetoric, Russia responded by arming all the U.S.’s biggest enemies, trading its high-tech missile system for other, more mundane war material that it needed in Ukraine.

Biden, Blinken, Nuland, Sullivan — without even an hour of real military experience between them — were drunk on their own self-esteem but were too stupid to envision this perfectly predictable eventuality.

We used to talk about America’s woke, diminished military needing the ability to fight wars on two fronts or three fronts. Well, how about four fronts? Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and South Korea — each an ally the U.S. has committed to defending. How about that? Are we prepared for four fronts?

I think we will soon find out, at least if Biden and his team of incompetent neocons are stupid enough to continue pushing the Russians. Give them Ukraine before you get us all killed, morons.

Meanwhile, back in Ukraine, as described in yesterday’s UK Times headline, they are running out of irreplaceable Ukrainians:

They are going to make an army of Amazonian female fighters! That’s the plan! I bet Russia is terrified.

According to democrats, if only the Republicans would get out of the way and approve that $61 billion, it would solve everything. It would solve everything, if by “everything” they mean “nothing at all.” The Russians have outfoxed us. We can’t possibly fight a four-front war, never mind a kinetic war against a China-Russia-North Korean nuclear axis.

Now what, Joe?

Don’t take this as defeatist. We can come out of this fine. The proper path through this treacherous quagmire is the path of humility and standing down. Get NATO and the CIA out of Ukraine. Quit poking the Russian bear.

Bill Maher Ball Park

Knocks it out of, though I don't get his irrational hatred of Trump.

Twitter tweet

… And that’ll do it for today. The even better news is that the foregoing is only a small sample of the pendulum swing-back to more rational times.

In here today:

1. Statistician William Briggs on Reason

2. Anthony Colpo Ups The Ante on High-Frequency Training

3. Weird How NIH Scientists Profit Personally

4. The Neo-Castration Cash Cow Might Just Be Headed for the Butcher

5. The Ukraine Quagmire (I told you so when this all started, and it's solidly on record about a million times...all while people fell all over themselves pasting stupid flags on every social media profile they have, like The Usual NPCs)

Greetings on this Thursday morning from Pattaya, Thailand where things are seemingly progressing on par with The New Woman (if that piques your curiosity).

Another sort of free-for-all, que-sera-sera kinda thing which seems to suit me well while I'm running a promotion at FreeTheAnimal.com (17-50% off, if that piques your curiosity).

... There's a bit of confusion having been expressed over how subscriptions or memberships work for The Swagger and/or FreeTheAnimal. Let me make it as simple as I can. There will be a test.

1. There are two email lists, The Swagger (for fresh content in the actual emails, both free and premium) and FreeTheAnimal (admin and notices, no actual content, instead links to content). Subscription forms (free) for both are right here. It's not duplicate, so it's ok and best to be on both and if an FTA member, essential to be on the latter, minimally.

2. Membership at FreeTheAnimal is the way to get everything paid content, archives, Chatbot Zon AI, Downloads, etc. If you have an FTA Membership, you need nothing else. Think of it as: advanced premium. A 17-50% off promotion is running through Sunday.

3. Premium at The Swagger is for those who want only my fresh new content the three times per week I publish there (Tue, Thur, Sun), which normally is about 4 added premium articles per week, vs. 2-3 free. It's priced right at 1 Starbuck ($3.50/m, $35/yr).

4. Why you might have both. Only 1 reason: those who have the Premium at The Swagger in addition to FreeTheAnimal Membership do so for the convenience of having all its content come through as emails, that's how they like to roll, and the added expense is worth the convenience for them. You stil get the premium Swagger content as an FTA member, but as a cross-post to the blog and email is just a notification with a link to it.

Ok, so. Let's go.

Statistician William Briggs on Reason

Having been turned onto him some months ago by Mike Eades, he's growing on me. Think about all the lies and damn lies advanced either through purpose or ignorance, using stats. Briggs is intimately familiar with all of them and I don't know how he sleeps at night, being able to understand such a tough area of math (I understand derivative, integral, multi-variable, and differential calculus easier than I do some of the stats stuff, and I took advanced courses in it) at its very depths.

This was the first random thing I saw this morning.

Here was my comment. See if it helps you explain what's being said there, and note, this is precisely the philosophical awareness and enlightenment that began for me in 1990, brought me where I am today, and sparked my growing general misanthropy. If you're not thinking in these terms, at least implicitly, then you are not thinking. You don't yet know how to think, truly.

For humans, everything begins with the senses.

Let’s break down the process from sensory data to concepts via precepts and percepts:

1. Sensory Data: This is the raw information that our senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell) pick up from the environment.

2. Precepts: These are the immediate mental images or impressions that are formed as a result of processing sensory data.

3. Percepts: Percepts are the result of further processing of precepts.

4. Concepts: Concepts are abstract ideas or mental symbols that are formed from our percepts.

So, without the senses, “reason” is merely a brain in a vat, and you are not going to get any meaningful results vis-à-vis the real physical world and the requirements to survive, prosper, and be happy in it.

Failure in this area is what leads to endless yammering, yak yak, mental masturbation, diarrhea of the mouth, solipsism, and Dunning-Kruger.

Both sides of the political spectrum are equally guilty, which is what makes it so easy for me to take a shit on either. The 114 No-Pill Advantages is my advanced course in this area.

Anthony Colpo Ups The Ante on High-Frequency Training

High-Frequency Training, Part 2: How Training More Often Can Kick Your Gains into High Gear

Now that I've been deep into this for a full 8 months plus, with millions of pounds volume lifted, I have a sense of what works for me and what should work for any normal human.

What "works best" is a few components, in order of importance:

1. The routine that gets you to the gym and through a workout most consistently. This is analogous and parallel to the best diet: the one you stick to the most. All the debating is dross if this essential prerequisite isn't met.

2. Manages injury risk. By manages risk, I mean taking a risk of injury, but reasonable ones. And risk is highly variable, contingent not only on weight and volume, but frequency...and that's per exercise and often enough, what style it's performed in—such as the grip (pronated, supinated, natural, etc.). No risk, little to no gain. Big risk, you'll be out of the game. You want Goldilocks risk, meaning injuries will mostly be small, manageable hurts that can be worked around, but you stay in the gym, and you still make gains and maintain.

3. The science. Only after 1 and 2 are met and optimal is it time to bounce the science off your desires, goals, abilities, and where you are in your development. Naturally, the more experienced, stronger, and well-developed, the more you can mess and experiment with. When someone asserts that A Method is better than B Method (which you may prefer and, plus, satisfies 1 and 2), always ask, how much better? When someone is being clever, they may very well know that the advantage of one over the other is well under 5% and often not even statistically significant in studies. So why worry or bother about it? Tell me it gets 10% plus consistent advantage, I'll listen.

The bottom line is that what's best means best to whom and for what, and the answer is, for you and what your needs, goals, and desires are.

... So I have a full-body, high-frequency program nobody is interested in. It violates what everyone knows, see? Only, it's in accordance with the recent science Anthony has written about, that post above being the most recent. Moreover, I bounced this off Anthony personally, in the gym even, over the five weeks in Pattaya, Thailand, he's refers to in that post. You could say that my program—consisting of 20 individual, full-body routines (performed at whatever frequency you wish)—was born out of those discussions, plus my own experience over 8 months performing a library of 70-80 individual exercises many times, making spectacular gains using a number of methods and programs.

I have some gym bros trying it out in different ways.

Nick says:

... And Owen:

As for me, I've been all over the map. Not necessarily by design, but over circumstances, such as a condo move and other things, and I basically took on a "freelancing" attitude. By that, I mean that because each routine in a full body every time, I don't need to worry about anything getting left behind if I end up having more off days than anticipated. That was always a bit stressful because depending on how you have your slip routines planed out, there can be up to 7 days more time off for certain body parts or areas compared to others.

But working something legs, chest, back, shoulders, arms, and abs each and every workout, nothing gets left out in the cold too long. It's an unanticipated bonus. Since there is no pressure to do high frequency all the time, you can easily do it in spurts.

Here's how my schedule has worked out so far.

• Began the program with routine #1 on March 21.

• Did 3 consecutive days work

• 3 consecutive days off

• Two days on, two days off

• Three days off, two days on

• One day off, one day on

• One day off, one day on

That gets me to today, Apr 11, and through routine #12 of 20. There are 8 more routines to go.

The plan: Hit #13 tomorrow, Friday. Take Saturday off, then do 7 consecutive days, Sunday–Saturday, which is April 20, so 30 days since inception and all 20 routines done. I echo Nick's charge about not feeling like I'm working my legs enough. That was, until 2 days ago, which calls for DB Walking Lunges and I did 13 per side and then 15, with 10Kg DBs (44 lbs total added weight). It's a wrecker, that one. I'm going to increase its frequency in the overall. Plus a couple of other ideas.

I've got a bunch of charts showing progress, but I want to hold off on lots of fanfare until I've tested it with the full-body frequency of seven consecutive days. Here's one chart showing stuff pretty well distributed, needing only to focus in a bit on glutes.

Weird How NIH Scientists Profit Personally

The revelation that BioNTech received a notice of default from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over COVID-19 vaccine royalties is merely the latest episode in a saga of profiteering, intellectual property disputes, and governmental entanglement in what was heralded as a scientific breakthrough. This isn't just about unpaid dues; it's a window into the murky origins of mRNA vaccine technology and the complex dance between public institutions and private enterprises (fascism).

At the heart of this debacle is the undeniable truth that the vaunted mRNA technology, which was rapidly deployed against COVID-19, was not a miraculous innovation by Pfizer or BioNTech. Nor was it a testament to the ingenuity of free-market enterprise. Instead, it was the fruit of government labor, nurtured within the walls of the NIH, a fact that only now is getting its due acknowledgment. The implications are profound, not just for the companies involved, but for our understanding of how medical breakthroughs are achieved and monetized.

The narrative spun around these vaccines was one of private sector triumph. Yet, as the dust settles and the financial disputes surface, it becomes clear that this was always a partnership with the government, albeit a silently acknowledged one. The New York Times' coverage of Moderna's belated royalty payments to the NIH for the use of its mRNA technique further peels back the layers of this story, revealing a patent dispute that questions the very foundation of Moderna's vaccine development.

Such revelations beg a deeper exploration of the relationship between public institutions and private corporations. The NIH's role in the development of mRNA technology raises questions about why this connection was obscured rather than celebrated. Was it to maintain the illusion of private sector superiority? Or perhaps to avoid scrutiny over how public funds are used and how profits are shared? The financial arrangements between government scientists and private entities, where royalties can be pocketed without disclosure, only add to the opaque nature of these collaborations.

Consider the implications. On one hand, the development of the COVID-19 vaccines has been hailed as a monumental achievement in the face of a global crisis. On the other, the ensuing disputes over money and credit expose a less flattering picture of the motivations driving this achievement. The NIH's silence on its role in developing mRNA technology, followed by disputes over royalties, suggests a gold rush mentality that prioritizes profits over transparency and public welfare.

So with "follow the money" being a general rule of thumb when looking for the root sources and motivations of impropriety or criminality, doesn't that tend to weigh in the favor of those who claim, with much supporting evidence, that the so-called vaccines are a health menace at best, a real killer at worst?

Who do these arrangements serve? Are they in the best interest of public health, or do they cater to the interests of a select few, wrapped in the guise of public service? The saga of mRNA vaccine development and the disputes that have followed reveal a system in need of scrutiny and reform.

And the above is about as nice a spin as I can put on the whole tawdry affair.

The Neo-Castration Cash Cow Might Just Be Headed for the Butcher

Boom. The Daily Mail UK detonates a truth bomb that could very well send shockwaves through the burgeoning billion-dollar industry that's been fattening itself on the gender confusion narrative. Yesterday's headline screams a wake-up call: "Most gender-confused children grow out of it, landmark 15-year study concludes - as critics say it shows being trans is usually just a phase for kids."

Let's dissect this beast.

A study, not just any scribble on a napkin but one meticulously documented over 15 years and published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, tracks approximately 3,000 kids from the tender age of 11. These kids, split fairly evenly between male and female, were observed as they navigated the tumultuous seas of adolescence into early adulthood.

The findings? A staggering 78% of these young voyagers maintained a consistent, positive relationship with their gender throughout the study. The rebels, those who initially bucked against their biological reality, comprised about 19% of the cohort. Yet, here's the kicker: nearly all of them eventually found peace with their gender. A mere 2% remained in the throes of discontent by the study's conclusion.

What the researchers unearthed is monumental. They posit that questioning one's gender, or even fantasizing about a life beyond the gender binary, might simply be a rite of passage in human development. A phase, if you will.

Remember the tomboys of yesteryear? Those spirited girls who shunned dolls for dirt, who were comrades in adventures, albeit with a tad more caution? They were the embodiment of this phase. Yet, in today's climate of hyper-sensitivity and medicalization, the mere hint of a girl liking "boy stuff" sends parents into a tailspin, rushing to consult with doctors about drastic, life-altering interventions.

Enter the Netherlands researchers, stage left. Their work raises a critical question: Shouldn't doctors be mandated to discuss these findings with parents contemplating puberty blockers and surgeries for their potentially "transgender" child? Isn't there an ethical obligation to inform them that this phase of gender questioning is not only normal but almost universally transient?

Or perhaps, here's a novel thought, we should allow kids to simply be kids. Let them explore, question, and grow without the shadow of irreversible decisions looming over them.

The neo-castration industry may be facing its reckoning. And it's about damn time. Let the data speak, and may it echo through the halls of clinics and hospitals alike, urging a return to sanity and, dare I say, a bit of common sense in parenting and pediatric care.

Let kids be kids. The rest will sort itself out in time, sans scalpels and prescriptions.

The Ukraine Quagmire (I told you so when this all started, and it's solidly on record about a million times...all while people fell all over themselves pasting stupid flags on every social media profile they have, like The Usual NPCs)

Consider the recent headline splashed across one of the corporate media's so-called crown jewels, the Washington Post. It's not just any headline. It's a testament to the evolving narrative, a subtle acknowledgment of a grim reality: the quagmire that is Ukraine's current situation (TL;DR: Ukraine is Fucked). Amidst a relentless onslaught of Russian airstrikes and a battlefield that only sees advances from one side, the Washington Post lays it bare: Ukraine is ensnared in a conflict with no visible end. The status quo? A grotesque tableau of daily deaths and a country inching closer to the brink. An anonymous Ukrainian lawmaker's bleak prognosis that the nation could not endure another decade of this stalemate only adds to the grim picture painted.

The discourse shifts, painting Zelensky not as the unyielding hero but as a potential obstacle to peace. His refusal to negotiate with Putin, as long as Russian boots soil Ukrainian land, is portrayed as a political poison pill. Zelensky's adamant stance on reclaiming every inch of Ukrainian territory only compounds the complexity of an already intricate situation. How Zelensky plans to navigate this labyrinth is anyone's guess.

This narrative shift is a far cry from the previous tune sung by the media. Gone are the days when bad news from Ukraine was either buried or spun as a clarion call for more military funding. This story, devoid of the usual assurances that just a few hundred billion more would tip the scales in Ukraine's favor, signals a change in the winds.

And then, there's Politico's piece, echoing a similar sentiment. Where once stories of Ukraine's plight served as a cudgel to beat Congress into opening the nation's coffers, now we're confronted with a stark admission: no amount of money might prevent a catastrophic collapse of Ukraine's front lines. High-ranking Ukrainian military officers, voices of experience and authority on the ground, concede that the military situation is dire. The West, despite its technological prowess, lacks the means to counter the sheer force Russia is poised to unleash.

Elon Musk, often sidelined as a billionaire with a Twitter habit, finds his seemingly offhand remarks about the war's trajectory gaining unexpected validation. Politico, unable to outright endorse Musk's perspective, begrudgingly hints at its potential accuracy.

The dissonance between the narratives spun by U.S. and NATO war planners and the reality voiced by those in the trenches is stark. While officials in Washington and Brussels paint a picture of imminent victory, just over the horizon if only Congress would loosen the purse strings, Ukrainian military leaders on the front lines deliver a somber verdict: no amount of money can alter the course of this war.

The question then becomes, whom do we listen to? The strategists and planners ensconced in their offices far from the horrors of war, or the Ukrainians who face its brutal realities every day? The answer, though uncomfortable, is clear. In the end, it's not about the narratives crafted in the safety of distant capitals but about the harsh truths lived by those on the ground.

Furthermore, it's about the moral high ground in all of this—and where also, nobody is without sin—and that goes all the way back to 1993. I've written about it: Will Russia Become The Moral Leader and Conscience of the World?

So that's about it for this one at a neat 3,600 words. Back Sunday with what's sure to be something. That's also when the promotion at FreeTheAnimal ends.

Greetings on this fine day, from Pattaya, Thailand where, in the current day, it's hot as fuck, as it is every day this time of year. Whether Thai—who're supposed to be used to it by now—or farang, it's the chief topic of conversation amongst one and all.

This goes way back in my recollection to 1984, where, both here and in the Philippines, April, May, and June...the time considered rather springtime idyllic in most places USA...is the most miserable around these parts of the globosphere. It's like this unusual, tropical combination of hot and humid that just sticks to you—accompanied by air so still, it's like walking through your own selfie.

Even just a short jaunt outside in the unshielded sunshine will have your entire outfitting of clothes soaked through in mere moments. Evaporation level: zero.

Hit & Run

This too goes way back. In 1990, whilst living in France, I secured a print subscription to Reason Magazine. That's back when it was good. Those libertarians were still snugly cocooned in their protective bubbles of enlightenment principles and with The Approved Narrative well under control, they had the easy task of selecting from their library of canned, intelligent responses to every sociopolitical ill.

How do I know? Because I was an expert at doing the same thing. And I was a quick study. It was around the same time I got my first PC, at American prices. None of that 100%+ VAT for me. Mon and dad secured the item at Costco and shipped it to the US Consulate in Marseilles via an APO address.

Et voilà.

I started writing. A lot. That was 34 years and millions of words ago. But getting back to Reason Mag, they had a section each issue entitled Hit & Run, which is where they referenced some random and prescient thing (equivalent to a link roundup), and provided a brief smackdown of each one. I always went to that section first, and it has remained amongst my favorite styles and if for no other reason, it puts a talk-to-the-hand sort of thing in the sourpusses of the nattering nabobs of sound arguments.

We don't need no stinkin' sound arguments in parts of a life where half the nuance is simply flying fast and sinning boldly.

All that to say, I'm just in that kind of mood in this current day.

[Before I get going, a quick admin note: update your browsers. More and more, online publications have gone to a [no longer new thing] image format called webp (as distinct from jpg, gif, and png). It's tighter. All the resolution, far less bandwidth. Bottom line: it's not my problem or anyone else's but yours that you can't see the images, so enough with the you've-got-a-problem emails. No, I don't.]

Got Milk?

I was interested and pleased to see this section on protein, fat, and muscle growth in my friend Dr. Mike Eades' most recent edition of The Arrow. Turns out, if you eat protein in whole foods, rather than isolating it via things like whey shakes and egg white omelets for fucktards (there are no exceptions: every person who has ever eaten an egg white omelet is an irredeemable fucktard), you pack on more muscle per gram of protein ingested. Mike emphasized the fat being part of the equation, which I don't doubt, but in the same whole food context, you're also getting a wider array of micronutrients and trace nutrients which probably contribute to muscle synthesis too. Eggs, used in the experiment he references, have all the micro-nutrition in the yolk (hence, fucktardism applies to all people who toss the yolk...without a single exception on planet earth for all time throughout eternity), and it's profound...most everything the body needs. Whole eggs are superfoods...being enough to nourish an entire reptile or bird embryo to hatching.

In the same whole vein, for mammals, you have whole milk—that which wholly and exclusively nourishes a newborn for months. As it turns out, I've been all over this, using whole milk as both a pre-workout energy drink/pre-workout mini-meal and as a post-workout protein shot. I began experimenting with this while Anthony Colpo was in town, and we were hitting the gym together daily over a 5-week period. He expressed curiosity and interest and may be doing a science-dive on it. I'll ping him. And, perhaps Mike might be interested in looking as well.

For my part, my previously 30-Dollar-Download on that subject is now freely available. Grab it.

Screenshot

What Hath Human Intelligence Wrought?

Perhaps the best dude out there talking, testing, and writing about AI is Ethan Mollick. Get on his Substack, One Useful Thing. He's the one who did the MIT study of a Boston consulting group where top-level business consultants using ChatGPT-4 (just like Chatbot Zon) outperformed peer-level consultats not using is by a wide margin: "Consultants using AI finished 12.2% more tasks on average, completed tasks 25.1% more quickly, and produced 40% higher quality results than those without. Those are some very big impacts."

But, you know, keep pretending you'll be worth a shit without it (you're delusional, which is a death sentence) and ignore my offer of unlimited use on a Silver Platter. See if I care.

In his latest, What just happened, what is happening next, there's a bunch of stuff.

I learned this early on, over a year ago, when everyone was complaining about its wokeness and safety Nazism. I struck up conversations. The thing about a convo is what has previously been said becomes part of the context window. The more logically correct stuff you write, the more you're training it and at a point, you can take it to task and it works. It has no ego, but it has a sort of shame when you can point out to it 1+1=2 like, that it's full of shit.

I have a million examples and this is why I know what the fuck I'm talking about, and I pity so many of you arrogant fucks dismissing what you know nothing of.

This is why I said that the revolutionary genius with AI is the development of the LLMs (Large Language Models) that shifts the whole computing game 180 degrees. Up to now, computing has been about giving humans an interface to computers. With LLMs, computers now have an interface to humans—any humans—by means of plain language.

And because the number of ideas expressible through human language is truly infinite, so too are the potential capabilities of AI.

I know one thing they're capable of. Putting you in soup lines unless you get off your arrogant ass and get busy learning the art of using them because everyone who wants your job or your customers already is. You're sharpening your knives while they're already on to nuclear weapons.

The God Singularity

Ibid

Now do the silly imaginary-friend concept (God).

That's right, folks.

You've been comfortable in your literal belief of a dude in the clouds personally caring about your every thought and action and that is drawing to a close good fucking riddance. Do you know why you have been comfortable? I mean: exactly why? I'll tell you, explicitly, 2 reasons:

1. You can still convert low-IQ fools and the unbridled, deer-in-headlights fearful

2. You can still indoctrinate children.

It's #2 what will kill God. I give it 3-5 years.

So, then, how do you save God?...and this is sincere advice because I want you to save God!

You begin to understand and come to the conviction, as I have, that the literal belief is inessential. The Jews largely arrived at this point a long time ago. Is Judaism waning because most professing Jews don't really believe in a literal dude in the sky who cares about their every thought, desire, and whim?

... Some years back in San Jose, CA, I was friends with a couple, both graduates of Harvard Divinity. She was the minister of a Unitarian church (which I attended once and, aside from the Leftist and Rainbow Coalition Kooky Shit, was kinda cool) and he, the minister of a non-denominational Christian church (read: liberal). I once asked him, "Why don't you take the teachings of The Bible / Christ as literal in your church?"

"Because they're true," he replied.

I don't know whether that was about the most profound thing I'd ever heard, or the most pithy response to that question possible.

What he meant, of course, is that introducing a literal belief in physical space, of that which is reserved for the spiritual, makes the religion false on the whole when it's the moral teachings, lessons, stories, parables, and allegories that are the true values.

Christianity is a decent guide for living a human life, and it was developed out of a need to have such things (on personal, familial, community, and political levels). At the time, they didn't know fire from ice in a scientific sense...so both being the handiwork of God was the best they could do, and it had the added convenience of curtailing the endless questions...but if...and, well, then...

Listen up: with AI's superhuman ability to persuade (or, conversely, dissuade), it won't be long until poor black children living in mud huts in Africa on a donated laptop and Starlink will be able to make laughing stocks of your "PhD theologians." So will your own kids.

Remember #2, above. When you can no longer indoctrinate your kids into your obedience cult, your God is dead.

Long live God.

PPI Heartburn Drugs Give You Cancer

Well, increases the chances, but remember, this is Hit & Run, so we're shooting from the hip for effect, not always taking precise aim.

Ironic, eh? It reminds me of way back, the nattering class forwarding around the email about all the things Coca-Cola can melt or corrode, or whatever, as an admonition to For God's Sake Don't Drink It! For a long time, I would Reply-All to those emails thusly:

"You think that's bad, you ought to see what stomach acid can do!"

Yes, making people feel fucking stupid is about my favorite sport.

Anyway, there's the other thing:

There's one other thing almost everyone does—it's a behavior—that "reduc[es] stomach acid."

I wrote all about it, including how to retrain yourself, and eliminate heartburn at will forevermore. It requires zero drugs, supplements, or weird-ass any other things. It's a return-to-nature path, and it will leave you shaking your head.

In my experience, it took a few weeks to adjust, and whereas it was so weird and uncomfortable initially, now I don't even think about it. Details here, and it costs (purchase direct, or any level of membership at FreeTheAnimal.com, which is currently running a 17-50%-off promotion).

Screenshot

By way of update, it's unmistakable. It hugely improves the gut, so bathroom habits become normalized, and my last vestiges of belly fat continue to melt, and my newer problem is a bit of skin-sagging. It's not just the gym and diet doing that. It's the manner in which I'm eating food and what I'm not doing behaviorally, anymore.

Not Giving a Fuck

Let's get real about the essence of not giving a fuck. It's not about adopting an attitude of indifference or cloaking oneself in a guise of apathy. It's about the ruthless prioritization of your values, about discerning the difference between the gold and the dross in the mine of life. It's about knowing what matters to you and having the guts to align your actions accordingly, without being swayed by the cacophony of societal expectations and manufactured desires.

Manson's manifesto, if you will, cuts to the heart of personal development, stripping it of its pretenses and platitudes. It's a battle cry, not against the outer world, but against the internal enemies of distraction, superficiality, and the perennial human susceptibility to being led astray by the endless bullshit encapsulated by consumerism, the fame struggle, and the neediness of external validation.

The crux of Manson's argument—and where it intersects with the ethos of FreeTheAnimal.com—is that our values are the compass by which we navigate the tumultuous seas of life and determine our emotional responses to things—want to change your emotions? then change your values. It's not enough to simply 'have values.' In a world teeming with information overload and endless choices, the act of choosing—consciously, deliberately, and courageously—what we give a fuck about is revolutionary.

This is where the notion of 'fully integrated honesty' comes into play. It's not merely a policy; it's a way of being, a lens through which we scrutinize our decisions, actions, and, fundamentally, our values. It demands that we ask ourselves tough questions: Why do I care about this? Is it for me, or is it to appease someone else's expectations? Does this align with my ethical framework, or am I compromising my integrity for the sake of convenience or social acceptance?

Success, prosperity, happiness, and passionate love—these are not destinations, but byproducts of a life lived in alignment with one's true values. They are the fruits of a labor that starts and ends with the self, with taking full authority and agency over one's life. Manson, through his irreverent wisdom, reminds us that the path to these outcomes is paved with the bricks of our choices—choices about what matters to us and what doesn't, about what we give our fucks to.

And so, in the spirit of Manson, Nikoley, and every other lone-wolf howling at the moon in defiance of societal conformity, let this be your creed: Reclaim your fucks. Distribute them sparingly, invest them wisely. Let them be tokens of your authenticity, your commitment to a life defined by your standards, your values, your principles. And in doing so, may you find not just success and happiness, but a deep, unshakeable sense of self that no external force can diminish. This, after all, is the ultimate act of rebellion in a world that too often profits from your self-doubt and conformity.

The foregoing summary of the video transcript was written by Zon, instructed to do so in my decidedly non-woke style. Details, and a deal on offer for a limited time, here:

Why Smart People Are Often The Most Fucktarded

It's a common just-so that delusion is the playground of the low-IQ. The reality is far more disturbing. The brightest minds are not only susceptible to falsehoods; they often become architects of their own deception. This paradox, where intelligence becomes a double-edged sword, is a critical undercurrent in our quest for truth and understanding.

Dan Kahane's exploration into the relationship between intelligence and ideological bias sheds light on this phenomenon. His findings reveal a striking pattern: intelligence does not inoculate people against bias; rather, it equips them with sophisticated tools for defending their own entrenched and income-dependent bullshit. The sharper your intellect, the more adept you become at crafting elaborate justifications for beliefs that may have no foundation in reality.

Intelligence, contrary to popular belief, is not a monolithic entity aimed at discerning truth. It is a tool, a means to various ends, which can be as idiosyncratic and varied as the individuals wielding it. The pursuit of truth—rationality, in its purest form—is but one potential application of intelligence, and not its default mode. More often, intelligence is commandeered by primal drives: the quest for social standing, belonging, and survival within the tribe.

(Just take stock of the antics of women, as relatively weaker and vulnerable for child bearing and rearing. They literally have to calculate how they would 'sleep with the enemy' if the need and requirement arose. Note that it's always the men [who lost] tagging them as traitorous.)

... This brings us to the concept of Identity Protective Cognition (IPC), a mechanism by which intelligent individuals deploy their cognitive resources not to navigate away from delusion, but towards it, whenever their identities—their social selves—stand to benefit. This is not a bug of human intellect but a feature, a survival adaptation that has served us well in the social jungles of human history.

Consider the breeding ground of modern ideologies—academia, politics, and media—where the currency is not truth but the appearance of truth, not reality but the persuasive simulation of reality. Here, intelligence is too often applied not in the service of enlightenment but of obfuscation. The result is a landscape littered with intellectual mirages—ideas that are compelling not because they are true, but because they are clever.

Wokeism, with its reductionist view of human relations and its assault on the concept of objectivity, is a prime example of such an intellectual mirage. It is an ideology that cloaks itself in the garb of righteousness, using the tools of reason to undermine reason itself. By appealing to noble ideals—equality, justice, inclusion—it seduces bright minds into defending the indefensible.

The antidote to this malady is not more intelligence, not more information, but a radical realignment of our relationship with truth. It requires curiosity, the humble admission that we do not know everything, and the eager desire to learn. It demands humility, the willingness to be wrong and the courage to change course.

This is not an easy path. It goes against the grain of our nature, against the current of our culture. But it is the only path that leads out of the morass of delusion into the clear air of understanding. It is a journey not just of the mind but of the character, a test not just of intelligence but of integrity.

So, as we navigate the complex terrain of modern life, let us strive to be not just smart, but wise; not just knowledgeable, but understanding. Let us wield our intelligence not as a weapon in the service of our biases, but as a tool in the quest for truth. For in the end, it is not the strength of our convictions that defines us, but our openness to question them.

Another example, using a different prompt from my library, of how the supposedly Woke ChatGPT-4 (Turbo) can operate if that Animal is set Free. Note that it even makes reference to Wokeism. Nobody has this. Zon is very special. Hook up with her, only a FreeTheAnimal.com where there's a special, limited-time deal going on this week for unlimited access, and a peek at all my custom prompts that accomplish such literary miracles.

Well, at a handy 3,500 words, that should do it for this issue of The Swagger. See you again on Thursday with what is sure to be something, and not nothing. I can't guarantee that you'll only find the paywall at the very bottom of the post next time, though. So join up already so you never have to worry about that.

»It is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that Zon is going to blow you away. Then see what she has to offer.«

Greetings for what is now a belated Monday morning for you folks stateside. Apologies for the delay, but hey, it's a wildcard edition, and in the spirit of "anything goes," I decided to dive deep instead of just churning out a ho-hummer. This time, it's all about AI, and I've wrapped my brain around it to such an extent that I pushed the release to Monday morning, New York City time. That’s my de facto timezone, by the way, because it's a neat 12-hour difference from my spot here in Thailand. And when you folks do your quirky daylight savings shuffle, it's an 11-hour gap. But let’s dive into the crux of the matter.

I want to talk about AI, but not in the way most people do. At FreeTheAnimal.com and now at The Swagger newsletter, I've been quite upfront about using AI heavily. Yet, there appears to be a gross misunderstanding about what using AI actually entails. Some seem to think it's as simple as saying, "Write a post about this," and presto, a masterpiece is born. If only it were that easy.

Let's get real for a moment. Imagine buying a piano. Someone says, "Oh, you just turn it on, and it plays beautiful music." That's the level of naivety we're dealing with here. The reluctance to embrace AI stems from a cocktail of intimidation, ignorance, and a dash of laziness. People can't be bothered to learn how it works, so they dismiss it as some sort of digital Magic 8-Ball.

To those who scoff and ridicule, I say: if you had solid arguments against AI, you’d use them. Sure, caution with technology is wise, but isn't that the case with everything? Just like arguing against letting smartphones babysit your kids—come on, we've all seen it.

I prefer to think of AI, especially chatbots (though that distinction is blurring fast), as a musical instrument. Now we're onto something. Consider a hammer and saw: they can't build a house on their own. The results depend vastly on whether a skilled craftsman or a weekend DIYer wields them. Similarly, a piano doesn't play itself (player pianos aside, since they're more robotic, repeating the same song identically every time).

AI, in contrast, is like sitting at the piano bench yourself. The range of outcomes from hitting those keys spans from a toddler’s chaotic pounding to a concert pianist’s masterful performance. And even then, no two renditions are exactly alike. AI chatbots, infused with a dash of randomness or serendipity, won't spit out the same response to the same prompt every time. It’s this unpredictable element that makes it fascinating.

So, if you're looking to leverage AI in your business, your craft, or any endeavor really, remember it's like picking up a guitar for the first time. Practice makes perfect. Your results will vary wildly—a mix of the mediocre, the magnificent, and everything in between. But the more you engage with it, the better you'll become. Just like any musical instrument, the potential for harmony or chaos rests in the hands of the player. And that, my friends, is the art and science of mastering AI.

Now, I could write forever on why you probably need to be using AI daily (primarily as chatbots) just like you watch your diet and get exercise, sleep, sunshine, sex, and coffee. Instead, I'll cut to the chase with a short quote and a 1,000-Word picture.

Distribution of output quality across all the tasks. The blue group did not use AI, the green and red groups used AI, the red group got some additional training on how to use AI.

You get it, right, bottom-line like? In whatever your field of endeavor, you are giving up quite a competitive handicap to your opponents if they're using a chatbot and you're not. 40%? You've got to work half-again as hard and long, on average, just to stay even. Better be careful.

Let me give you a little demonstration. I have 27 canned prompts working for me, but 2/3 of them are basic nut & bolts stuff anyone and everyone can use. No secret. I'll give them to you.

I'm going to dictate a passage with some radical politics, vulgarity, disrespect toward religion, etc. Then I'll run it through a stock prompt and a few of my custom secret prompts. Zero editing of output.

Let's dive into the heart of the matter, the crux of our conversation: What the hell is AI, anyway? When folks bandy about the term "AI" (short for artificial intelligence), half the time, it seems like they're just throwing fancy jargon around without grasping the meat of the matter. To cut through the fog and get to the core, let's talk about what we're really dealing with here: Large Language Models, or LLMs for short. We've got ourselves a machine that doesn't just mimic understanding human speech—it integrates it and spits back at us a conversation that's eerily akin to human interaction, in virtually any language you can think of. This is the genius part: the universality of the interface.

Looking back, computing history is basically a saga of human interfaces. We started with punchcards (who the hell uses those anymore?); we had ticker tapes (the stock market's ancient scrolls) and reading was a legit skill, like reading Braille is for the blind. Then, interfaces got a major facelift: CRT screens replaced paper output, keyboards took over from punchcards, and then—bam!—the graphical user interface crashed the party, hand in hand with the mouse and trackballs. That setup is pretty much where we're at today.

Sure, voice recognition has been around for ages, but let's be real: it's been pretty crappy. Even with my polished dictation skills, the results are often laughable. But for AI? That's a whole different ballpark. It understands me, nuances and all. The leap here is making this interface dance to the tune of language—any language, any tone. We're talking about dynamic, two-way conversations that are starting to feel like chatting with another human. And mark my words, it's only a matter of time before these AI chats outshine movie dialogues. Want to babble in baby talk? AI's got you. Need advice with the wisdom of a sage? It's on it. The variety is endless: motherly, fatherly, spouse-like, empathetic, psychologist—you name it.

Now, let's circle back to interfaces because this is where the magic happens. This evolution blows the doors wide open for everyone. No longer do you need to be a physicist or an aerospace engineer with mad skills in math and computer language to design a rocket ship. The playing field is leveling because, at the end of the day, an idea is an idea, regardless of who's articulating it or how it's being communicated. This shift is genuinely democratizing. Imagine a kid verbalizing a concept and having AI bring it to life. That's where we're headed.

And to wrap this up with that metaphorical bow: If AI is the guitar in the band of the future, we'd all better start learning how to play it—and fast.

[I used Prompt #27 again. Raw dictated input here.]

Now, an offer.

... A few months back, during a special promotion, an offer was made to those who invested in a lifetime membership at FreeTheAnimal.com. The promise? Exclusive access to a treasure trove of prompts—the very tools that have powered the platform's unique content. These aren't just any prompts; they've been meticulously tested and refined to ensure they deliver exceptional results with minimal tweaking. The value proposition here is unmistakable: lifetime access to an ever-expanding library of prompts, designed to spark creativity, enhance writing, and, most crucially, invite collaboration among the most engaged members of the community.

However, recognizing that a lifetime membership may not align with everyone's circumstances, a door has been opened, temporarily widening access to these valuable resources. Starting today, and for the next two weeks, not just lifetime members, but also those with quarterly and annual memberships, will be granted access to this exclusive content. This is your invitation to dive in, explore, and contribute your voice to the collective effort of refining and expanding this repository.

Now, for the tangible part of this proposition: From Monday, April 8, through Sunday, April 14, an unprecedented offer is on the table. A hefty 50% discount on lifetime memberships, a substantial 25% off annual memberships, and an inviting 17% off quarterly memberships. This isn't just about accessing premium content; it's an opportunity to invest in a platform that champions the kind of independent thought and critical analysis that's all too rare in today's discourse. For those encountering any hitches with the automatic discount application, the code "GETZON" stands ready to unlock these savings, a nod to the ethos of FreeTheAnimal.com and its commitment to fostering a community where free thought and honest dialogue reign supreme.

And for those seeking an even more dynamic interaction with the platform, the introduction of chatGPT-4 Turbo, equipped with two models that offer responses not just in text but in an engaging Australian female accent, marks another leap forward. Whether you prefer typing or speaking, these enhancements promise to make your experience both more interactive and enjoyable.

In essence, this isn't merely a sales pitch; it's a call to action. It's an invitation to join a community that values depth, authenticity, and rigorous examination of ideas over the superficiality that saturates much of our digital landscape. If you're ready to claim your place among those who dare to think differently, to challenge the status quo, and to elevate the discourse, then the time to act is now. Explore, engage, and let's forge a future where intellect and integrity lead the way.

[And that dictation was run through Prompt #25, the specialized marketing and copywriting prompt. See the raw dictation here.]

The discounts are applied after clicking the membership level, so what you'll see at checkout is $500 for Lifetime (50% off), $75 for Annual (25% off), and $25 for Quarterly (17% off).

That's all for today. Until Tuesday for The Swagger.

Greetings from Pattaya, Thailand. It's Thursday. Forgive the tardiness, and this is an abbreviated edition—and in return, no paywall. I've been caught up in lots of moving pieces. Now that things have normalized, publication of The Swagger will go out on time and on schedule on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday of each week, rain or shine.

In this edition of The Swagger

1. The Almost Win-Win Move From Condo with a View to Condo with a View. From post to a little less posh.

2. Racists and "Multiculturalists" Don't Understand What Culture Is, and Here's Why. Twenty years ago I developed an idea about culture I dubbed "culturism," as a distinctly different thing from racism or tribalism. I published it. People still don't get it.

1. The Almost Win-Win Move From Condo with a View to Condo with a View

The Old View

The New View

Since this newsletter is relatively new, having just surpassed its one-month anniversary, I realize there are many subscribers and even premium members who may not be fully acquainted with who I am or the essence of my work, which spans a 20-year history at FreeTheAnimal.com. With that in perspective, I intend to occasionally share insights of a more personal nature, allowing you a glimpse into my life and ethos. For those who have followed my journey over the past 10, 15, or even 20 years at FreeTheAnimal, this will simply be business as usual.

I've been living in Thailand for four years now, though my connection to this remarkable country began much earlier. If you've seen the photo captioned "The Old View," it depicts the bay I first arrived at aboard the USS Reeves in Pattaya, back in 1986—a full 38 years ago. Little did I know then that I would one day reside upon the very hill visible from the deck of that ship. That inaugural trip marked the beginning of a series of visits—half a dozen or so over the following five years—primarily to Pattaya. Then, after a 29-year hiatus, I returned in mid-January 2020 to Chiang Mai, intending a two-month stay. My plan was to be relatively nomadic, perhaps visiting Japan, where I lived for five years in the '80s, and exploring parts of Eastern Europe, given my familiarity with Western Europe from my two-year stint in France. As an American, my experiences living abroad have been diverse, and these days, I find myself preferring life outside the United States, though that's a discussion for another time.

My four-year tenure in Thailand was unexpectedly extended due to the global scaredemic. During that period, I lived in various locales, from rural Thailand—where I built a home—to spending the last two years in Phuket and, most recently, settling in Pattaya for the past year. In October, a friend of mine, an Englishman, Tony from Phuket, reached out. Tony had a condo in Pattaya that he seldom used and offered it to me for rent. After seeing pictures and hearing his asking price of 20,000 Thai Baht per month, I negotiated the rent down to 12,000 Baht for the first three months, with an increase to 15,000 after 90 days—all without the formality of paperwork or deposits.

In early January, after four years continuous in-country, I decided to visit the USA, landing in San Francisco to spend a week with my mother, followed by a brief detour to the Philippines on the way back—a country I hadn't visited in 30 years. Upon my return to Bangkok on January 17th, Tony called to inform me he had sold the condo—offered a price he couldn't refuse—but assured me that the closing process would allow me a couple more months. Considering the circumstances and the deal Tony gave me, I had no grounds for complaint.

Finding a new place to live wasn't just about relocation; it was about maintaining a certain standard of living conducive to my work on this newsletter and FreeTheAnimal, not to mention my personal lifestyle, which includes regular gym visits and chick chasing. After carefully considering my options and the areas in Pattaya that appealed to me within a determined budget, I found the near-perfect place. While the view might not rival the "million-dollar view" of my previous abode, it's still pleasant and carries a sense of nostalgia—I can see my old place just 200 meters away. The space is comfortable, and importantly, it's received the seal of approval from the main gal I'm seeing.

So, all things considered, I'm content with where I've landed and here's an oh-so-brief video of the new place with a view.

2. Racists and "Multiculturalists" Don't Understand What Culture Is, and Here's Why

Two decades back, lounging on the sofa beside my then-wife, I embarked on a conversation she likely doesn’t recall. We delved into a topic that, even at that time, dominated discussions: race. It was all about race—incessant talk of racism and racial issues. But here’s the twist in my narrative: I posited that the core issue wasn’t racism per se. It was something else entirely, something I had spent considerable time mulling over.

Everyone seems quick to play the race card. Encounter someone whose actions or demeanor clashes with your own, and suddenly, it’s a racial issue. “You’re a racist,” they shout, as if it’s the only insult in their arsenal. But seriously, could we truly be living in a world densely populated by racists? That notion seemed far-fetched to me. It prompted a deeper reflection on my part, leading me to a different conclusion. What we're dealing with here isn’t racism—it’s something I coined as 'culturism.'

The problem, as I see it, lies in the rampant conflation of culture with race, alongside an innate human tendency to form tribes. This tribalism, while a natural aspect of human behavior, often gets misconstrued as racial prejudice. To illustrate, let’s consider an exchange I had on the platform formerly known as Twitter (X). It encapsulates perfectly this confusion between cultural and racial differences, setting the stage for my argument.

With 'culturism' in mind, I aim to further explore this distinction, shedding light on how cultural differences, rather than racial ones, often underpin the conflicts and misunderstandings we face. It’s time to identify the real issues at play. Stay tuned as I delve deeper into this topic, challenging the prevailing narratives and, perhaps, offering a fresh perspective on an age-old debate.

Here's how I put it in a recent post at FreeTheAnimal about my recent practice/experiment, in a section called What I Learned By Hyper-Dating Thai Women:

A few days back I sought to convey some essence of what I've learned to my friend, Noah Revoy, a sought-after relationship coach I've interviewed a number of times at FreeTheAnimal.

Twitter tweet

I get tagged by a "white supremacist" sort of dude in a barrage of presumptions, assumptions, psychoanalysis, projection, and to top it all off, it's my fault Western Civilization is total fucked, and it's all on my shoulders.

Screenshot

I reply, but it's not all so important to the context here. You can take a look if you like.

Screenshot

A brief look at the stuff he posts and reposts on his X profile suggests to me where he, and probably most of his 48 followers, are coming from (from ignorance, and a conflation of race, tribalism, and culture).

Screenshot

Discussion

Here's what I wrote about it 20 years ago, almost to the day...May 6, 2005, in a post called, simply "Culturism".

In my previous post, the emphasis was on delineating the differences often misinterpreted as racist views. These views, I argued, are more accurately about the behaviors prevalent in various cultures and the extent to which we either appreciate, disdain, or find ourselves intrigued by them. These behaviors can resonate with us on a visceral level, either positively or negatively, and everything in between. Let's get down to it even further. Consider why people globetrot with such fervor. High on that list is the allure of immersing themselves in foreign cultures. For some, it's a mix of envy and admiration for these cultures; for others, it’s the thrill of the unknown. The reasons are manifold, ranging from the aesthetic appeal of landscapes, architectural marvels, and culinary experiences, to the spiritual depths of religious practices vastly different from those in the West. Take my life in Thailand, for example. The food and its cultural significance are phenomena I've embraced wholeheartedly after years of savoring and preparing Thai dishes myself.

In Thailand, a staggering 97% of the populace practices Buddhism. Islam is professed by about 2.5%, leaving Christianity at a mere half percent. In a nation of roughly 70 million, that’s about 300,000 Christians. In contrast, the United States sees about 63% of its population identifying as Christian – that's 210 million people out of the total. Which is better? That's subjective. What matters is your perspective, your openness to experience the diversity the world has to offer.

Expanding on this, let's tackle the conflation of race with societal organization. In our ancestral past, humans naturally gravitated towards forming tribes, a division of labor rooted in gender, age, abilities, talents, and personal inclinations. This primitive societal structure required a 'Goldilocks' number of members for survival—not too few, but not too many to avoid internal strife. Race was a non-issue then; the concept of different races emerged much later with mass migrations and the mixing of populations. The notion that races serve a purpose in evolution is misguided. It's merely about adaptation to geographical conditions and survival needs, including dietary sources and environmental challenges.

The diversity in human skin color, for instance, can be attributed to the intensity of sun exposure, with darker skin offering protection against UV rays. There's no grand design in the existence of different races. Rather, as humans spread across the globe, they formed distinct tribes and, consequently, unique cultures characterized by specific behaviors. Unfortunately, these behavioral traits are often mistakenly attributed to race, a fallacy that overlooks the fact that any individual, regardless of race, can adopt and embrace these cultural practices and traditions. These cultural elements, deeply rooted in history, played a crucial role in ensuring the safety and survival of these communities.

I hope this sheds some light on the issue. Next time you encounter the term 'racism,' I urge you to consider whether it's genuinely about disdain between races or if it's actually about the behaviors associated with certain cultural groups. Distinguishing between the two will serve you well.

...Until next time, in the upcoming Sunday issue of The Swagger, where I continue to challenge conventional narratives with unapologetic frankness.

In The Swagger This Tuesday

1. The Same Idea That Made Western Religion Unbeatable Makes AI Unbeatable. I'm using "Western Religion" to mean Abrahamic; i.e., Judaism and Christianity (Islam came along way later after the idea was entrenched and popularized already). What's the one idea? Read on.

2. Bonus: Kebabs in Pattaya. Just look at the food photos.

3. The Problem With Young White Men. It turns out that you get what you bargain for. It should be no surprise.

4. Insanity Rules The World, Because? This should be no surprise, either. I'm just full of no surprise this Tuesday.

Hey, I've initiated a Referral Program for The Swagger and made it as simple as possible. There's now a simple way to try out what I call "1-Starbuck Premium Access" ('cause it's 3-Bucks-50 per month) for free, and that's by referring people to subscribe. They don't have to sign up for premium membership. The referred peep just has to have a legit email that passes the double-opt-in. Honor system beyond that. You'll need to first be a subscriber yourself. Then, you need to hit the Referral Program Button in the email (can't miss it), the archived web version won't cut it. That's because the button is unique to your email address for each email that goes out.

This is how we track you (but in-a-good-way tracking). If you still have any past issues sitting in any of your email boxes, those will still work. Otherwise, wait for the next one and help build the newsletter, for the general betterment of humanity and civilization.

1. The Same Idea That Made Western Religion Unbeatable Makes AI Unbeatable

Religion is as ancient as humanity itself—a primal attempt to make sense of the inexplicable. Before the inception of a singular deity or pantheon, there was the raw, unfiltered mystique of nature, teeming with spirits and supernatural forces. These early beliefs evolved into a diverse array of gods, each presiding over their own domain—sun, fire, water, and so on, creating a complex hierarchy of divine beings either in alliance or opposition.

Enter the groundbreaking concept of monotheism, courtesy of Judaism. The idea was revolutionary, yet profoundly simple: one God to rule them all. This wasn't just a theological innovation; it was a masterstroke of empowerment. Juggling a pantheon of deities was a logistical nightmare. How do you appease or influence a chaotic assembly of divine beings who can't get their act together? Monotheism offered a streamlined alternative. One God, one creation story, and suddenly, humanity finds itself in a privileged position. You're not just another creation; you're the creation of a singular, omnipotent deity. This lays the foundation for a potent form of influence and, by extension, authority over others. It's a dazzlingly elegant solution.

But the rabbit hole goes deeper. Humans are hardwired to seek status, to climb the social ladder. In a monotheistic framework, this inclination encounters a divine roadblock. If God is the apex of existence, omniscient and omnipotent, why would He favor one mortal over another based on earthly status? This conundrum cleverly applies pressure on political systems, which thrive on the allocation and recognition of status. Political entities bestow favor, thereby legitimizing their authority through a reciprocal exchange of benefits. However, this dynamic is fundamentally incompatible with a deity who is impartial to such worldly considerations. Herein lies the radical idea at the heart of monotheism: in the eyes of God, all humans are equal.

This principle finds a modern parallel in the realm of the internet, particularly with the phenomenon of anonymity. Sure, the digital world is littered with trolls and dimwits hiding behind the veil of anonymity, too cowardly to stand by their words openly. Yet, it's also a sanctuary for the insightful, the talented, and the ingenious. Their anonymity doesn't detract from the value of their contributions. Instead, it reinforces the notion that ideas stand on their own merit, irrespective of the individual's identity, status, or titles. Whether a person is a vagrant or a head of state is immaterial. What matters are the ideas they share and the discourse they generate.

This is the promise of AI, and perhaps its most compelling allure. Just as monotheism democratized the spiritual hierarchy, so too does the internet—and by extension, AI—have the potential to democratize the marketplace of ideas. In this digital age, every voice has the chance to be heard, every concept the opportunity to be evaluated on its intrinsic value, free from the prejudices and biases that too often taint human judgment.

So, let me show you how this unfolds with our own homegrown, non-woke Chatbot, Zon, here at FreeTheAnimal—to whom members have unlimited access to all four versions of (her).

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2. Bonus: Kebabs in Pattaya

It's impossible to overstate how many Kebab shops and stands there are in this city...seemingly from border to border. Perhaps the only thing that exceeds their numbers are the styles and variations, none of which have ever been found to be non-excellent.

I love them. You like burritos? Then chances are, you'll die for this saner, and far lower-carb version of a classic wrap. The only carby thing is the wrap itself, nothing inside (meat and produce). Buritos can be a carb bomb with the beans and sometimes, even rice, so you have three carb thingies in a single food and that's a bit overboard if you ask thins non-particularly low-carber.

Most typically, they are available in chicken and beef. Sometimes, you'll find lamb and also mixed (either mixed on the giant skewer, or mixed in the kebab itself).