Category: nature

Leave the world better than you found it.

On By StevoIn anthropology, climate change, COVID-19, critical thinking, earth, electric vehicles, energy, Environment, EV, NASA, nature, nature vs. nurture, renewable energy, Science, seekers, space, Uncategorized, wildlife conservationLeave a comment

When I was a kid I would go outside and play and later ask my parents and doctors why I would cough and why my eyes, nose, throat, and lungs would burn and feel raw.

My parents and doctors would answer: it is air pollution from the burning of dirty fossil fuels that power our energy and transportation systems.

This is when I first learned what air pollution is – and how it impacts our health.

Then I would ask the adults this: if using these dirty fuels to run our society also harms our health – then why do we keep using these fuels?

They would answer with things like “It’s the smell of progress, the smell of money!” “It is just the way things are, accept it, move on, go outside, and play – oh, and stop thinking too much.”

WTF!

At the same time, I was spending around 1.5 hours a day riding to and from school on a school bus. The diesel exhaust was an everpresent aroma inside the bus. At the time I had no idea that I was inhaling concentrated toxic microscopic particulate matter originating from the combustion of the diesel fuel that powered the bus – and neither did all the other children. At the time, all I was concerned with while on the bus was staying away from all the toxic bullies I was trapped in the bus with – little did I know I was also inhaling toxic particles that were harming my health.

During this era my adoptive dad was also smoking himself to death. I said to him on many occasions – isn’t smoking just putting air pollution into your body? He said yes. He also said he knew that it was bad for his health, made him cough, poisoned and hurt his lungs, shortened his life, and cost our family loads of money. He often strongly told us kids to never ever do this terrible thing that he was doing all the time because it was harmful, dangerous, and expensive.

WTF! What was all this, all these conflicting signals? They were so very confusing to the mind of a child – and they are still confusing to the mind of an adult. (BTW: All this early exposure to air pollution during my developmental years later became allergies, asthma, and countless sinus infections.

Dad kept smoking and he died in his early 50s.

WTF! WHY?

I was dumbstruck by these apparent deep, dark, dirty problems that nobody seemed to want to change. They just kept up with the intentional, self-harming practices as if there were no tomorrow.

Again – WTF! WHY?

I then learned about all the anthropogenic pollution, global warming/climate change, the ozone hole, acid rain, species extinctions, desertification, sea level rise, etc, and the fact that all these things were tied to the uncontrolled rate at which our species was (and still is) burning fossil fuels.

During this time I also learned about addiction. I put 2 and 2 together and I realized that just as my dad had been addicted to tobacco and it had killed him, our society was addicted to fossil fuels and if we did not change – we were on the same path as my dad had been – a path that leads at best to misery and suffering and at worst – to our own extinction.

Yet again – WTF!

WTF was wrong with people???

Aren’t we Homo sapiens supposed to be the thinking apes???

If so, something is greatly wrong with our thinkers.

In middle school, high school, and later university, I learned that a great many everyday heroes were slowly and methodically working to end our toxic addiction to toxic fuels. They were inventing and putting into place new technologies and new laws that cleaned up our fuels, the atmosphere, and the waters and therefore our health and our shared futures.

Their efforts paid off and sometime in my early twenties my eyes, nose, and throat stopped burning and tingling when I would go outside in the summer – this was a direct result of the policies and technological advancements that limit and mitigate pollution from factories and power plants as well as require all fossil fuel-powered vehicles to have pollution reduction and control devices installed on their engines.

At the same time, others were inventing better energy sources based on renewable, non-polluting fuel sources that use the infinite clean energies of nature – the sun, wind, water, geothermal (and now even gravity energy) to make much cleaner energy that has far less of an impact on our health and shared future. A few years later others built modern vehicles powered by electricity – electricity that can be generated by the before-mentioned, domestically-sourced, energy-secure, renewable energy sources thereby starting the transition to a cleaner, more sustainable energy and transportation future.

Unfortunately for all of us there were and are powerful factions in government, religion, and the corporate sector teaming up and working together to spread Fear Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) about these new developments in a well-funded attempt to keep these technologies, innovations, and laws from being adopted by the masses. Why are they doing this? The answer is very simple – dirty money – and lots of it. These forces are more concerned with money than the future of all life on planet Earth. They are greedy, selfish humans whose only concern is the acquisition of as much wealth as possible at the expense of the environment and all the life it supports.

Today, and even with the greedy FUD manufacturing factions, I have even more hope for the future with renewable energy sources – especially rooftop solar – at prices, almost anyone can afford, fleets of quick, reliable electric vehicles hitting the roads, technological breakthroughs in clean energy happening almost daily, and so many great and forward-thinking people following the evidence and the science and making great and positive choices that will lead us into the future – all great reasons to continue forward and not just crawl into a hole somewhere and die.

This is why I follow the path of science and engineering – not narrow, self-serving politics, religions, and false prophets following only the profits.

This is why I let evidence, logic, and common sense be my guide to making the big decisions in my life.

This is why I am who I am.

This is why I fight for nature.

This is why I fight for the future.

This is why I teach.

Fight for change.

Be the change.

Do only good things.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to change, it’s not.” – The Lorax

MEAT

On By StevoIn anthropology, critical thinking, earth, Environment, nature, space, UncategorizedLeave a comment

“They’re made out of meat.”
“Meat?”
“Meat.
“There’s no doubt about it.
We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They’re completely meat.”
“That’s impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars.”
“They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don’t come from them. The signals come from machines.”

“So who made the machines? That’s who we want to contact.”
“They made the machines. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Meat made the machines.”
“That’s ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You’re asking me to believe in sentient meat.”
“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they’re made out of meat.”
“Maybe they’re like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage.”
“Nope. They’re born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn’t take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?”
“Spare me. Okay, maybe they’re only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside.”
“Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They’re meat all the way through.”
“No brain?”
“Oh, there is a brain all right. It’s just that the brain is made out of meat!”
“So… what does the thinking?”
“You’re not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat.”
“Thinking meat! You’re asking me to believe in thinking meat!”
“Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?”

“Omigod. You’re serious then. They’re made out of meat.”
“Finally, Yes. They are indeed made out meat. And they’ve been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years.”
“So what does the meat have in mind?”
“First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual.”
“We’re supposed to talk to meat?”
“That’s the idea. That’s the message they’re sending out by radio.
‘Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?’ That sort of thing.”
“They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?”
“Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat.”
“I thought you just told me they used radio.”
“They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.”

“Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?”
“Officially or unofficially?”
“Both.”
“Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing.”
“I was hoping you would say that.”
“It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?”
“I agree one hundred percent. What’s there to say?”
`Hello, meat. How’s it going?’ But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?”
“Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can’t live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact.”
“So we just pretend there’s no one home in the universe.”
“That’s it.”
“Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You’re sure they won’t remember?”
“They’ll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we’re just a dream to them.”
“A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat’s dream.”
“And we can mark this sector unoccupied.”
“Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?”
“Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again.”
“They always come around.”
“And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone.”

I have no idea who wrote this, but it sure does give the reader a different perspective on our predicament as the ephemeral meatsack monkeys that we are. 

Follow Through

On By StevoIn anthropology, critical thinking, earth, nature, religion, seek, seekers, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Something I have learned by living so long:

If you always follow through and do what you say you will do, if you do good things that support others, animals, and nature, and if you do those things above and beyond what is required – more good things will come back to you in great and helpful quantities.

The Universe, Gaia, God/Ja/Allah, The Great Spirit, Karma…something far larger than we little apelike creatures, notices our good actions and supports them with even more good things.

Do only good things.

Do what you say you will do.

Follow through.

Leave things better than you found them.

One Love.

Peace.

*photo of a Monarch chrysalis on a Milkweed in my garden as an attention grabber.

What do you perceive?

On By StevoIn anthropology, climate change, conspiracy, critical thinking, earth, energy, Environment, nature, nature vs. nurture, religion, Science, seek, space, UncategorizedLeave a comment

“The freedom we seek is to use our own mind and body, to live our own life, instead of the life of the belief system.”

“Everything you perceive is being filtered through your entire belief system. And the result of interpreting everything you perceive by using everything you believe is your personal dream, an entire virtual reality in your mind. Perhaps you can see how easy it is for humans to distort what we perceive. Light reproduces a perfect image of what is real, but we distort the image by creating a story with all those opinions and beliefs that we learned. We dream about it with our imagination, and by agreement we think that our dream is the absolute truth when the real truth is that our dream is a relative truth, a reflection of the truth that is always going to be distorted by all the knowledge we have stored in our memory.”

“The dream of life is really an illusion, and everybody lives in the reality he or she creates – a virtual reality that is only true for the one who creates it.”

“The truth is that beliefs and ideas only exist in one place: the human mind. They are not “out there” in the world, but rather the filter by which everything we perceive gets sorted.”

“Life as you perceive it is a reflection of your perceptions and beliefs. It is not real, but rather a dream. To some this may sound negative, but in fact it is positive because if your life is a dream, and you become aware of the fact that you are the dreamer, then you can consciously create the dream you want to see and live the life you want to live.”

“The dream you are living is your creation. It is your perception of reality that you can change at any time.
You have the power to create hell, and you have the power to create heaven. Why not dream a different dream? Why not use your mind, your imagination, and your emotions to dream heaven?”

~Don Jose Ruiz

(Art by ‘Felipe Posada’)

There are no rules other than those we create that say we must follow a belief system, be it religious or political or any other, in order to live on this planet in this time.  

True freedom is found only by freeing your mind from the ancient control systems devised by those who want to control you, your time, your energy, your money, and your consious.  Free your mind and use your finite amount of uptime to think for yourself and do good things for others, and for our planetray life support system.

The madness machine

On By StevoIn anthropology, conspiracy, critical thinking, Environment, nature, nature vs. nurture, religion, UncategorizedLeave a comment

OMFGWTAF! Are these festering rotten scroatbags serious!?!? The first time I heard of this BS I thought – no way, they didn’t just drop that dam dirty bomb of distraction.

Well, after several hours to process, and do some online “research” – it seems this is a real event. They dropped the bombs and kill3d kids and teachers. KIDS AND TEACHERS!!
Then – more bombs. One twisted crackpot religious lunatic kill3d.
Then – our brave servicemen kill3d and our rotting puss-filled corpse of a potus praises statues and fukkin curtains… and when these brave service person’s, who had paid the ultimate price, bodies were returned home with honor, the hateful childrapistpotus did not remove his hat to honor the fallen – WTAF!!

But it just cant be reality…I must be fukkin dreaming. Nobody in this country would actually say something so incredibly lame…maybe from north Korea…or one of those other backward, greedy dicktater-led countries that do not seperate church and state like the USA does…or once did anyway…our founding fathers are spinning in their graves.

…but what about the constitution? Isnt that a binding…sacred…almost religious document? Now it seems that those who once preached to uphold the constitution at all cost, no matter what, no matter who dies…now those same people are just choosing to ignore it…WTAF!

Oh…and never mind the huge and in fukkin BOLD fact that we…our entire culture…has absolutely zero…ZERO…credible evidence – that ANY of the mystical gods, angels, and SO MUCH other random BS in the Bible and other evidence-lacking dusty ancient sacred books and all the words vomiting from the mouthpieces kings and clergy of the multitudes of religions and denominations – have ever even existed at all. In all logical likelihood the reality is this: all the stores in all the old religious books are simply lessons and myths to help ancient folks make sense of the world and culture around them. These old books are only reality inside the readers own head.

When I was young I was taught that in any important decision, one should put evidence first, and the decision second. The reverse of that is a decision without supporting evidence, and those who use this misguided strategy are in search of one of two things:

An emotional response possibly seated in a personal desire or need.

Or

Greed and control seeking hubris. Hubris is dangerous.

To make decisions without factual, logical, supporting evidence is insane.

It seems that these people – that some of us have chosen to place into power – are absolute fukkin deranged lunatics that should be locked securely in padded rooms.

For them to actually say the unbelievably and stupendously stupid things they have said about bringing about the “end times,” or “armageddon,” or whateverthefuk – with the most outrageous of them all that his orange painted magasty DJT was sent by jeezus/god et. all. – is totally and rabidly barking mad.

I still keep pinching myself hoping to wake up from this bizarre nightmare…but no, apparently I am awake and this IS reality.

So many human lives have been cut short, so many civilizations turned to vine or dust covered rubble, so much knowledge has been lost, destroyed by religiopolitical cult leaders claiming their way is better because they claim that an imaginary god figure said so – often through the mouthpiece of a fat, bloated, king, president, chief, or bigman…and even more bizarre and inexplicable – they followed the imaginary god/king’s made up commands and destroyed so many real and beautiful things that actually physically existed…and they did it all believing they were correct and in the name of their chosen leader or god that they could not even see worth their own eyes. Either they all were deranged lunatics, or greed and power mad driven charlatans with absolutely zero empathy predating upon their followers, or both of these things.

Sadly it seems history is repeating itself.

It seems that the dangerous cults of lunatic fringe religion are trying their best to bring back holy wars at the cost of…everything moving forward.

The toxic weight of the religious trauma this is going to instill into everyone who survives this mess will be immeasurable.

Speaking of religious trauma – for the first few decades of my life I was traumatized by the religion i was born into – Christianity. From a very early age I was confused by all the bizarre talk of loving each other, taking care of others, including the weak, the old, the poor, the homeless, the immigrant. ..but then, quickly followed by and absolutely terrifying to a young child – follow my invisible all powerful sky dwelling God, or burn in hell, suffer horrifying end times BS, Jesus this and Jesus that, the heaven and hell, fire and brimstone, rivers of blood, multiheaded beasts, 666, demons, devils, nostradomous, nukes, the cold war, yada, yada, yada. Even while writing these words I still feel the anxiety welling up inside me – but I know this is not a god or devil pulling my strings…it is the constant programming I received from the church, my culture, my (well meaning) parents and family who were also under the spell of all the religiopolitical madness. All of it that still to this day causes a PRSD type reaction in my mind. All this twisted mystical hate and fear filled BS really traumatized my young brain and truly wrecked my evidence based decision-making process…for many years.

The only way I was ever able to dig myself out of the mind killing grave that was that twisted religious death worshipping religiopolitical cult, was to remember what my amazing mom taught me about evidence supported decision making and critical thinking. Without evidence supported critical thinking skills, you will fall for and follow anyone and anything that promises paradise. My mom was also a teacher, she encouraged me to read and learn about anything that interested me, and she supplied books, frequent trips to the public library, and the power of the acquisition of factual knowledge. Through her I learned that knowledge conquers fear.

This is why I choose to not follow any religion. This is why I choose to follow the evidence wherever it leads and use the methods and tools of science and my own brain to make decisions for myself and others.

The only “religion” I respect is Buddhism – and its not even a religion, its a practice based on peace, kindness, compassion, and self discovery.

In my experience, most modern religions very rarely use evidence to support their decision making process…but dusty old words from an ancient book, written and rewritten by countless bloated kings and authors, and then taken far outside of their historical context…sure, why not. In fact, it is often the exact opposite, with the evidence from the last 2026 years suggesting that more blood has been shed in the name of religions than in all wars ever waged on planet earth. The rivers of blood have already been shed and if there is an actual hell, we are now living in it and DJT and his mindless minions are the devil and his demons.

These people are absolutely fukkin insane.

Examples: 911 and Iran – so many parallels between the radical islamic terrorists who attacked the WTC and Pentagon, and the lunatic fringe chrustofascist malignant morons now pulling the strings of yet more bloody oil wars in the middle east.

Oh, let us not forget the E. Files. Remember all the violat3d young girls, women, boys and men, the redrum and kanabilism, the pain, the endless lies, and the disgusting fear mongering and toxic racist h8. If there ever was an antichrist, the vile potus and his demented lunatics running this once great land are the embodiment of that mythical sentiment.

But all that is just my humble evidence-supported opinion.

If this speaks to you in any way, I have written at (even greater) length about the topic of religious trauma, and what it took me to shake off the sticky, gripping, toxic tentacles and hugely heavy anchors of religion. It is one of my longest blog posts and it helped me sort through my thoughts and finally get out from under the thumb of the religio-political mind control system that many of us in the US were all exposed to beginning from day one. If you are struggling with what is going on in the world or within your own mind, then feel free to read my post through the below link. If it helps you sort things out then please feel free to share, and I wish you, and all of us luck, love, and peace with whatever comes our way.

Knowledge conquers fear.

Do only Good and Pretti things.

Be the change.

Choose wisely.

One Love.

Peace.

Religiopolitical Trauma Sucks – aka Knowledge Conquers Fear

Today’s Taboo = Tomorrow’s Troubles

On By StevoIn anthropology, climate change, conspiracy, COVID-19, critical thinking, earth, electric vehicles, elon musk, energy, Environment, EV, NASA, nature, nature vs. nurture, religion, renewable energy, Science, space, Uncategorized, wildlife conservationLeave a comment

I was told as a kid – at home and in class – that there are some things we just do not talk about with others. I believed my learned elders and did just that…and you know what…that just made things worse.

I have a scientific mind. I need to ask questions, I need to know know how things work. I will not accept things without evidence and/or evidence supported theories. This is why I started asking the big questions when I was a teen. This is also why I often found myself in debates with those who choose to never ask questions and just believe what their authority figures would tell them.

When I would find myself in these situations, I would always respectfully and calmly draw from the peer-reviewed evidence (or the huge lack of evidence), as well as real world examples, to make my point during conversations about these topics. Almost without fail a truly strange thing would happen: I would often get rapidly and aggressively shot down with heated emotions, wild eyes, hateful words and phrases, and even personal attacks, bullying, and mockery.

These unusual responses would totally turn me off from the conversation – I learned a very long time ago to never poke angry bears, they will never listen to reason. More than that their responses totally threw me off track and made me wonder what was going on in the other person’s mind that, rather than have a rational conversation about a difficult topic, they would choose to be so easily triggered and resort to attacking my genuine questions and commentary, and even me personally, with so much venom and vitriol. It was truly odd to experience as a teen, but even more bizarre to experience as I aged. Yes, I have even encountered this type of attack from some humans i once considered friends and family – some I still have contact with, others, not so much. In today’s post-truth world, attempting to have these conversations with some people is like walking on broken glass, egg shells, and hot coals, while masked*, hevily armed, thugs point guns at your head while waving crosses, and flags – all at the same time. *identity concealing, not germ stopping – these hateful thugs would never voluntarily wear a PPE mask.

When I was young, almost all the adults in my life had far more restraint with their reactions around other adults and especially children. Today however, things have changed and it seems that some adults have lost the ability to restrain themselves, they seem to be walking around with big fat (cow) chips on their shoulders just asking someone…anyone, to try and push it off so they can slip into full-on enraged screaming silverback Chimpanzee attack mode. Why are they so brittle? What are they missing that our parents had? Respect? Self control? Empathy? An education? Common sense? All of these things?
Sadly, my real world experience says all of the above.

Some personal examples;
(Note: these examples are each followed by a small sampling of the bizarre and often unthoughtful and even hateful comments that I have received from easily triggered reactionary individuals.)

Evolution by natural selection –
I don’t believe in evolution! My preacher and my family said I can not even hear this blasphemy!! It is not real. I did not come from no fish or monkey!! I will sit outside during class. (Yes, this actually happened in my class.)

Anthropogenic climate change –
No!! It is not happening, its cold outside, and look, i just made a snowball – therefore it is not real…its a manufactured problem invinted by the chinese working with the WOKE leftist greenies to take our jobs and force us to drive electric cars!

The definition of theory –
“There’s no real evidence to support any of the WOKE theories made up by scientists.”

Renewable energy –
Not viable, does not work, takes American jobs, kills billions of birds, causes cancer, solar panels steal energy from the sun making the world colder, wind turbines stop the wind making it hotter…yada yada yada woke woke WOKE!

Fossil fuel subsidies –
More lies made up by the evil WOKE leftist greenies.

Fossil fuels –
They were put here by our god for us to use. If we don’t use them, we are going against God’s plan. The stuff that comes out of my car’s tailpipe is clear so it can’t be harmful. Coal rolling dosent hurt anyone and this is a free country so I can do what I like!! Drill baby drill!!

Pollution –
There is no air/water pollution because the air/water is clear !! That smell in the air is harmless and it is the smell of money!!

Electric vehicles –
They will never work, they are a passing fad, they are WOKE democrat cars, their batteries are tossed into landfills, they catch on fire all the time, they generate a dangerous EM field that makes you sterile, they are stealing our jobs!!!

Space exploration –
What a waste of money, space stuff does nothing for us here on earth…and my friend Jimmy told me that space is not real and the earth is flat. I confirmed it by researching it on the internet and it looks flat so it must be so.

The age of the earth –
You are wrong!! My god said it is 6000 years old, so it is!! No question.

Science –
I dont believe in science. Its part of the WOKE leftist liberal aganda!!

Religion –
My religion is the only one and my god is the one true god and you will burn in hell for eternity if you dont convert to MY religion!!!

Human rights –
My people are the chosen ones!! My rights are more important than yours!! Its my birthright and my way is the right way, the only way, and no outsider or immigrant will step on my rights and my god given freedoms!!!
My god painted them all brown to show that their blood is not pure and they do not matter.

LGBTQ+
They are all wrong, dangerous, and WOKE!! Their pronouns and choices do not matter, my sacred book and my favorite politician says they are all sinners and they will all burn in hell!

Gender –
You are wrong – There are only 2.

The Holocaust –
It did not happen.

COVID pandemic –
It was manufactured in a lab to reduce the population, it was a plandemic. Wearing a mask does nothing, it only shows that you are weak. Masks reduce your oxygen. Masks are WOKE!!! I don’t see any particles/droplets in the air so I do not believe they exist. My god will protect me – those who get sick and die – they were living wrong.

Vaccination – Vaccines are full of toxins and will damage your brains!! Bill Gates is putting microscopic tracking devices inside vaccines to track our movements!!
Vaccines are evil!! Vaccines will shorten your life!!!

Natural disasters –
Earthquakes, tsunami, and volcanoes happen because god is angry with certain people and he is punishing them.

Wildlife conservation –
WOKE!!! Wildlife are dumb animals. They were put here by our god for us to have dominion over and use as we please.

Nature conservation –
WOKE!! Nature was put here by our god for us to have dominion over and use as we please.

Air/water conservation –
WOKE!! There is so much air and water, we don’t need to worry about it. It was put here by our god for us to have dominion over and use as we please.

Snake conservation –
Snakes are evil, it says so in my holy book! Kill all serpents!

Guns –
!!!2nd amendment!!! Dead school kids are unfortunate, but you will not take my guns!!!
Thoughts and prayers. !!!2nd amendment!!!

The Government –
Before trump: the gubment is keeping us down, down with the gubment!!
During trump: praise our savior trump – or die! Do as I say or die! Look like me, act like me, think like me, vote and pray like me – or die.

Recycling –
Recycling is stupid, it is so WOKE!!!
Recycling takes people’s jobs.

Star Trek –
WOKE!!!

Taking care of the planet –
WOKE!!! No need to take care of the earth, it is imperfect. It was put here for us to use, so we can use it up, it does not matter. Heaven is perfect.

Homeless people –
Just get a fukin job already you lazy strung out filthy bum!!

Weed/shrooms –

Horribly dangerous and harmful. Highly addictive. Will melt your brain and make you stupid and sterile. Alcohol and tobacco are safe since they are legal.

_______________

These are just a small sampling of the oddly disturbing, highly emotional, comments I have encountered from both students and adults over the last 40 or so years of my adult life on this strange wet rock floating in space somewhat near a rather insignificantstar called Sol.

Concerning these topics, topics we all should have been taught to have calm, respectful, evidence-supported conversations about, in my experience, it seems that many humans today cannot even have respectful conversations about anything real, without going off like a gun with a hair trigger. Why do they choose to act like this? Who, or what hogwash has implanted itself into their minds to cause them to react with such malice, instead of calmly using their rational brain to actually think? It seems obvious that many humans today simply cannot think for themselves, they need others – father/authority figures real or imaginary – to make their decisions for them.

Could it be that they have been poisoned by their fairy tales?

Fairy tails about imaginary gods, promised lands, freedoms, money, politics, dreams and picket fences, etc. Bizarrely, many of these individuals know inside, that their old fairy tails are invalid examples as teachers of reality, yet for some reason they continue to self-medicate themselves and their offspring with all these highly addictive religiopolitical fairy tale toxins (as well as all the legal and illegal varieties of OTC and Rx medications) – because it is the easy way out.

In taking the easy way out, they are choosing to not use their amazing evolution-derived meat computer mega-brain to critically analyze all the avaliable peer-reviewed evidence and make up their own minds…yet they will loudly cry and pray to their gods and policy makers why their personal life, society, and the world, are having so many problems. Their gods are too small, and their rulers are too fat and greedy.

When no answers come (or the answers are inconvenienant so they choose not to accept them due to their lifetime of cultural conditioning – aka “indoctrination” in some circles – into their family’s religiopolitical cult of choice), they often choose to refuse/refute/redact facts, evidence, and knowledge in favor of pointing blaming fingers at the “other” – when their own personal choices and/or the choices of their tribe are the true root of all their problems.

Even more disturbing is that the functioning systems and infrastructure that make our society and lives even possible – science, engineering, technology, trade, energy, farming, etc. – have been politicized to the point where they have become tools used by greedy charlatans, bent snake oil salesmen, twisted pedophilic dictators, and malignant freaks all seeking religiopolitical power, control, and riches while their scowling, talking head minions distract over who is right or left, winning and losing, wrong or right…not what is real, factual, and supported by actual reality and incontrovertible physical evidence…such as their fellow human beings being deleted with extreme prejudice – live on several cameras.

Critical thinking in a dieing virtue.

Growing numbers of the population have lost the ability to have respectful, knowledgeable, peaceful conversations about almost anything and everything that really matters, and instead they resort to meaningless rambling small talk, or no talk at all.

I am guilty of this as well. I have distanced myself from these important conversations because I have encountered so much angst, attacks, and hate from so many people over these taboo topics. Most of my intentional distancing has been in the last decade and, while I know this hermitlike tactic is not productive for face to face communication, there comes a time when one must protect one’s sanity over the alternative.

This is why I write. It helps me winnow the wheat from the chaff and the hog from the wash. It helps me sort things out and share my thoughts in a peaceful, thoughtful, respectful way. I know that some who read my words will disagree with me, but that is OK. We are all adults here. If you are angered by my thoughts and words, maybe you need to ask yourself why? Why are you so angry? I had to have this conversation with myself long ago and the answer I found was this: unless i have done something genuinely in error, unless i have harmed them or their loved ones, their anger is theirs and theirs alone. It is not my problem, it is theirs. It comes from their mind, not mine. I have my evidence-supported facts in order and do not need to become venomously heated to defend the facts – the evidence stands on its own and needs no defense.

Yet, for whatever the reason and despite the piles of peer-reviewed evidence on whatever the topic may be, the anger remains. It is this anger and hate that and this creates division.

Sadly, this division among people often leads to fractured relationships, misunderstandings, anxiety, fear, and sometimes even hate of the “other.” For some, this seperatist mindset can lead them deeper into the territory that I call the “lunatic fringe.” These are fringe dwelling factions of misguided people that see anyone and anything outside of their chosen way of life – their tribe – as a threat to their existence. Example: ICE and the radical right facist-leaning mal-administration currently in power in the USA, as well as the far left lunatics that would use harmful tactics to get their points across.
Let us not forget the white christian nationalist/evangelical christo-facist types – they are a special kind of crazy, a crazy that is boardering on absolute insanity. If christ were alive today they would call him an imposter and crucify him because of his empathy, love, and generosity toward the sick, weak, poor, the immigrant and infirm.

Some deep thinkers are calling this a “post-truth” world, and with the rise of AI and deep fakes, I predict that things will only get worse before they ever start to get better. However, concerning AI – it is we humans that invented this technology using science and engineering, and it is we humans who are choosing to use these technological tools for hateful, nefarious, greed, and control-focused reasons…instead of actually using them to solve the big problems we all collectively face.

Post-truth, obviously – and as far as I am concerned, we are also living in a post-humanity world where many fearfull people have lost their common sense, empathy, compassion, kindness, peace and love for their fellow human beings.

Common sense has been deleted.

Knowledge is being deleted.

Critical thinking is being deleted.

Art is being deleted.

Kindness is being deleted.

Empathy is being deleted.

We have become our own most limiting factor.

IMHO The only way we will ever hope to survive as a species is if we can find a way to kindly and respectfully communicate with each other about these topics again, and maybe then will we re-awaken our lost humanity, and our lost hearts.

Or we will continue down this easy but dark path and extinct ourselves while blaming everyone but ourselves.

Choose wisely.

Do only Pretti Good things.

They walk among us.

On By StevoIn COVID-19, electric vehicles, elon musk, energy, Environment, EV, NASA, nature, nature vs. nurture, parasites, religion, renewable energy, Science, space, Uncategorized, wildlife conservationLeave a comment

Yes, they walk among us. EDIT 1.12.26 – and now they are running our government…

I met one once, he was wearing a tinfoil hat and totally convinced the gubment was following him – so he lived in a motor home, always on the move – a nomad terrified of reality.

He and others like him see conspiracy and deceit everywhere. From governments following their every move using bird-shaped drones to, flat planets, hollow planets, chemtrails, faked moon landings, planned pandemics, vaccine tracking devices, secret control groups – and today’s not at all secret death squads aka ICE, reptilians and/or all-powerful vengeful but entirely invisible god-beings and devils pulling strings from behind a curtain of clouds or magma and yada yada yada.

It is all really bizarre. And really scary.

Some of them seem to be attention seekers, some are profit seeking charlatans such as DJT and all the Alex Jones types, but sadly, others are truly missing something and I’m just not sure what it is and what will help them or if they even want help. It is a really very sad and growing mental health issue that needs to be addressed.

IMHO science, good critical thinking skills, and a bit of good ole common sense all work together to help us filter out the hate, fear, and all the crazy, and learn and understand how reality works.

In nature, most of the time life is really quite slow, methodical, and downright boring (have you ever watched grass grow) but absolutely necessary and remarkably beautiful for those who can see it – with an occasional natural disaster and pandemic tossed in to spice things up a bit – but this is our reality and yes, birds are real, (I ate a chicken leg for lunch and it was not a robot chicken (LOL).

Just to set things straight: we landed on the moon – 6 times – the earth is round, the government is staffed by real humans and recent events suggest that none of them have a clue how to govern…anything…and they are only in it to make bank.

Chemtrails are water vapor, sasquatch, nessie, santa, and god do not exist until evidence supports their existence. Evolution by natural selection is real and so is anthropogenic climate change. The power of peace, positive change, love, and compassion comes from the people. Seatbelts, masks, and vaccines work, and science is the best thing we have ever come up with to help us understand the reality in which we exist and then engineer ways to adapt and evolve to make it through whatever challenge nature randomly throws at us.

Knowledge conquers fear.

Do only good things.

Be Peace.

More on the Birds aren’t real project: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_Aren%27t_Real

WTF has the USA become?!?!

On By StevoIn anthropology, conspiracy, critical thinking, earth, electric vehicles, elon musk, energy, Environment, EV, NASA, nature, nature vs. nurture, parasites, religion, renewable energy, Science, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Something I wrote a little over 5 years ago…and it is even more relevant today.

I have not had this deep of a feeling of dread since 911 when radicalized religious terrorists killed thousands of innocents with hijacked airplanes.

Sadly today, it seems it is us – US. WTF!
The threat is not from outside, it is from inside.

Again – WTAF!

Mr. trump sir, as prime instigator, racist-terrorist-in-chief, bully-incubating, tantrum-tweeting, conspiracy-dreaming, deranged puppet master, – you have yet again crossed the line. You now have the freshly flowing blood of innocents and the warm blood of the heart of our once great democracy soaking your already deeply blood and viral stained tiny hands. You sir, are a moron and a complete and total disgrace to what it means to be an American.

These are radicalized Americans. WTAF!!

I cannot understand how some of our own have developed such a twisted, misguided, wrongful, idea of freedom.

Your robotic, hate, fear, and doubt spouting, gun, flag and bible waving, goose-stepping, bully-perpetrators are the lowest of the lowest form of humanity. They are disgusting, domestic terrorists who cannot accept reality/facts/science/math and who, at your direction, are attacking, defacing, and disrespecting law and order, harming and murdering innocent people in cold blood, and damaging/destroying public/government property. They, and you, should all be swiftly thrown under the jail and left there to rot for a very long time.

End of rant.

I do not care who any of you support or vote for, but if you in any way support any of this madness, any of these un-american, bullying, violent, twisted, fearful, hateful, racist, tantrum tossing, domestic terrorists – you are a traitor.

Today, I am not proud to be an American.

I am embarrassed and I am heartbroken.

VOTE…while you still can.

On By StevoIn anthropology, conspiracy, critical thinking, Environment, nature, nature vs. nurture, religion, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Please get your butt out there and VOTE.

Pray to whatever god(s) you believe in – or lack thereof.

Think good thoughts.

But let us remember that these religiopolitical/societal experiments in governing ourselves are just that – experiments.

Over the last ten thousand or so years of human civilization, there have been many societies that have risen and fallen, and just as many experiments in governing the populace. So many political organizations, religions, kings, queens, gods and goddesses have been invented, worked for a time, and faded away or fell flat on their faces only to disappear into the pages of dusty unopened books, the sands of time and/or the rock strata, and some, like ours – are novel and are still in the testing phase.

Just because this experiment is the one we are testing and living through today – does not mean it is the only way or the best way to govern a society and its people – in fact, recent evidence suggest that this experiment may be failing on many fronts.

If this grand experiment does in fact prove to be a total failure, it will need to be ended and relegated to the history books as yet another example of what not to do.

Therefore, it is not productive or helpful to believe this ongoing experiment is the end all be all best way to govern a large population of people, and therefore, as it is only an experiment in governing – it is not at all helpful to yourself or others to get all bent out of shape when someone you know or love chooses to support another “team” and/or if your chosen “team” loses its seat at the table.

Nor is it at all helpful to harm others or their property with your actions or words because, in all probability – in a century none of this will matter and the world will have moved on in its never-ending orbit around the sun and the thinking members of its population will have adapted to meet the challenge…or not.

There are only two choices in the game of life: adapt or die.

Improvise, adapt, overcome, evolve, survive, and thrive.

Make good choices.

Do only good things.

One Love.

Unless.

Peace.

Part 2.
If your “team” (political, religious, or sport) doesn’t win the game and in response, you are choosing or planning violence, hatred, intimidation, spreading evidence-lacking FUD, and/or harm/damage/vandalism to citizens and/or their property, and/or wildlife or nature – then the simple fact is this: you are not a patriot of whatever country or religion you choose to reside within.

If you support or promote past or future violence, hatred, intimidation, spreading evidence-lacking FUD, and/or harm/damage/vandalism to citizens and/or their property, wildlife and/or nature – then you are not a patriot.

What you are is a bully and a terrorist and a danger to society and to everything your religio-political affiliation stands for.

Don’t be bully.
Don’t be a terrorist.
Don’t let the fairy tales you have chosen to believe in, poison your mind and make your decisions for you.

Wake up.
Think for yourself.
Grow up.
Get help.
Be a good human.
Make good choices.
Do only good things.

If you know someone who is exhibiting these troubling symptoms – please report them to the authorities ASAP – it just may save a life or lives.

A poem.

On By StevoIn anthropology, critical thinking, Environment, nature, nature vs. nurture, religion, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Somewhere at the edge of my hearing, a rooster crows, shaking loose the chill of the fading night.

A lone dog voices his opinion.

Sol cracks over the distant horizon as it has done without fail since gravity first bound our strange wet rock to its deep time well of space-time.

Several inches of fresh snow coats old smoky like a cathartic cloak.

A slumbering bruin dreams of fermenting blackberries in the late summer solshine.

Sandhill cranes trumpet and dance like the ancient dinosaurs that they are.

The tick tock of the nearby clock reminds me of the never-ending march of time.

A few dozen miles from where i rest, a troop of monks and their faithful canine companion continue their most important walk spreading love and peace.

Peace.

What is it?

Where is it?

It is in our hearts…in all of us.

It is a huge part of what makes us human beings.

Some…like the venerable monks and Aloka – warmly glow and freely radiate their peace without stipulations.

Others have chosen, or been trained to be frozen – with hearts and hands clutched around guns or grotesque gestures of fear, hate, and death.

Why such magnetically opposed forces?

Why such anger?

Why such fear?

Where has empathy gone?

Dig deep.

Delete your hate.

It is not you.

Find your love.

Share it freely with the world.

Walk forward from this moment in peace.

Do only good things.

One Love.

Unless.