Truth is the supreme reality
“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
The truth cannot be told, because fiction makes a better story.
Everyone has a fiction, stories soothing that lonely face reflected in the mirror, and enchants a sad reality of hardship and despair. Each tale comes with a cast of characters, and hopefully a happy ending, but if not then another tale will do, because lying is like an addiction, where one is never enough and what’s harm of just another?
What of this truth? Can it be purchased in a store, manufactured in a plant or scribed by an illuminated mind? Surely, such beast could not exist in our materialist fiction and must be a consequence of power, where the strong determine it through will, but this sad story does not have a happy ending, because the truth is more real than any idea and more real than any materialist machine, as nothing would exist without it.
In our world of shadow and light lurks dangerous ideas that masquerade as truth, prowling eternally in spirit, potent like blight, and these dangerous fictions poison the masses, intoxicating them into madness, because nothing is more dangerous than lies pretending to be light. Surely we must control these narratives, because that is right!
Substack has been all the rage the past few weeks as a new wave of enthusiasts, eager to protect the masses from dangerous ideas masquerading as truth, have declared a pledge to protect us all from terror and harm; quite tiresome to say the least.
Since the early days of the internet, these silly -isms and their fantasies have been available for all to see, but now we have a new age of comical absurdity striving to censor free discussion. Why and to what end?
Above the -isms there is another idea, dangerous, and far more decrepit; censorship, a permit for truth to be determined by decree. In a world governed through censorship, there can be no discussion, discovery or mockery when a fiction is forced to be reality.
But hey, if we’re so enthusiastic about banning ideologies, let’s focus our attention on the ones that cost the most lives. Surely, that’s the best to minimize terror and harm.
Shouldn’t we save lives?
Nazi Regime (~ 20,946,000 deaths)
Soviet Gulag State (~ 61,911,000 deaths)
Communist Chinese (~ 76,702,000 deaths)
We got about a 7 : 1 death ratio for Communism to Nazism, and I’m skipping a few.
Where’s the rally against these atrocities?
Who could support Communism when Ukrainian lives were lost in Holodomor?
Who… WHO?!
Putin puppets, Holodomor deniers, that’s who!!
But despite my comical fiction there’s a deeper truth to tell, that can only be told through story, pointed to and revealed, but never held. This world is a complex dream full of tall tales with two parts — a real one and imaginary — both dancing in symphony through electrifying arcs, because what we believe is imaginary, acting like a spell, and works through the real to create wonders and even raise Hell.
Truth is quite slippery, but abstractions can help; my favourites come from math, where the art of a proof searches for an alternate path. Take the trick above, using their own words but replacing “Nazi” with “Communist;” a duck test where “if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” Naturally, if an idea looks like shit, smells like shit and tastes like shit, then it’s probably shit and I shouldn’t have tasted it, which is what the duck test reveals with the “Communist” substitution. Likely, these advocates have no interest in protecting the masses from dangerous ideas, otherwise there would be a consistent, if not a heavier lean on other demonstrably deadlier -isms. Foundations should not be built using a double standard.
Still, with a putrid taste in my mouth, I relent with the question: what is truth?
Consider ⊦A, which reads “prove A is true,” but rewrites as ⊤⊦A, and reads “given the truth, prove A is true.” In a dream world, where deception is trivial and evil banal, we assume the truth is a given in even our strictest of thought. The truth is extraordinary and not some trite symbol, ⊤, but through our fantasies we trivialize it and breath life into evil ideas masquerading as light. Only honesty and humility can stop these evil ideas from growing — not deception, intimidation and, least of all, censorship.
So, what is the truth?
I don’t know. And what I do know is imaginary compared to the real. I know there’s a truth, a history, biology — an absolute real, and I know something nefarious lurks behind these intents, a something that should never be allowed to become real. And I know, now more than ever, there are material things to protect.
People don’t need to be protected from ideas; ideas need to be protected from people.
As a proponent of the most radical ideology, liberty and truth, these nonsensical and imaginary fantasies are best mocked, in spite of the shrieking whales who vomit multicoloured vitriol of stench and rot. Bad ideas need censorship, deception and intimidation to thrive, unlike truth — the supreme reality — which requires no crutch.
And what bad ideas may there be?
Perhaps it’s because so many feed into the myth of meritocracy and believe that resources in our community are made equally available, that those who work hard are able to succeed, and that blaming anyone struggling as having a poor work ethic.
They need a pumpkin to be just a food item and nothing more to feed the myth that we live in an equal society, but we know that’s not true.
Furthermore, pumpkins are a common symbol of pranking culture in America, which is ultimately White since Black teenagers are not allowed to make mischief without it being viewed through a criminal lens.
— How Racism Found a Home in Pumpkin Spice Latte Culture (Sep. 28, 2023)
Pumpkins are racist.
The American Medical Association, the largest council of doctors in the US, is ready to say goodbye to determining if someone is a healthy weight solely by the body mass index, owing to the measurement’s “racist” roots.
— BMI standards are ‘racist’: American Medical Association (Jun. 20, 2023)
BMI is racist.
Recently many mathematicians have been pushing to discuss these issues more and force the field to confront the racism, sexism and other harmful bias it sometimes harbors.
In response to those who say that such discussions distract collective focus from mathematics research and direct it to social issues, Goins says, “If you think talking about racism is distracting, imagine experiencing it.... Not all of us can just ignore what’s happening to us directly.”
— Modern Mathematics Confronts Its White, Patriarchal Past (Aug. 12, 2021)
Math is definitely racist and probably hates women too.
I have a creeping suspicion that signatories of Substackers Against Nazis are not suitable candidates to vet what is and what is not acceptable for public discourse, but I commend them thus far for their service, because this new fantasy genre is hilarious. For the record, a pumpkin is a pumpkin, your fat ass is just your fat ass, and math, has a bit of a strange backstory, but come on — it’s math. Censorship only exists to prop up these blatantly absurd ideas from blowing over in the comical winds of laughter.
And why should we trust these people, who don’t know that boys have penises and girls have vaginas, to determine who is and who is not a Nazi?
“How many guns need to be seized? How much vitriol do we have to see of ‘honk, honk, which is an acronym for Heil Hitler, do we need to see by these protesters on social media,” said Ya’ara Saks, as she debated whether or not to vote in favour of the Emergencies Act.
— Liberal MP: ‘Honk, honk means Heil Hitler’ (Feb. 22, 2022)
“At a time of rising antisemitism and Holocaust distortion, it is incredibly disturbing to see Canada's Parliament rise to applaud an individual who was a member of a unit in the Waffen-SS, a Nazi military branch responsible for the murder of Jews and others,” the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement while demanding an apology earlier Sunday.
— Canada House speaker apologizes for recognition of veteran who fought for Nazis (Sep. 26, 2023)
The silliness becomes sensible when these words are used to purge political rivals, because censorship is a crucial and convenient tool in the acquisition of power. But the truth never dies. Through accusation in a mirror, a technique that falsely attributes adversaries with ones own intentions, the real tyrants are made visible — and I suspect these initiatives have roots in a sinister, dark and tyrannical endeavour.
For the ones crying fascism, look in the mirror; before it breaks.
Who is the Nazi? The ones who smear political opponents through accusation, interfere in elections, promote censorship, racially segregate, discriminate and condone mass medical experimentation violating the Nuremberg Code, or the ones promoting free choice and ensure that even the smallest are guaranteed a voice.
“Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls. They have lost faith in the failed Biden presidency and are now doing everything can to stop the American voters from throwing them out of office next November.”
— Breaking: Colorado Supreme Court Rules Trump Disqualified From Holding Office, Removing Him From 2024 Ballot — Alex Jones Responds! (Dec. 19, 2023)
You know things are bad when Alex Jones is a voice of sanity, but have no fear, because the truth never dies, except we’ll have to pay the bill for generations of lies.
Take a breath. And if you don’t like an idea, or someone1, have a laugh.2
Censorship will never help us find the truth, the supreme reality that governs all, and should be resisted with a vengeance and treated as the actual thought crime. Dictating what should happen, because of what could happen, is the siren’s song of the tyrant, and its unbearable shriek is audible through these ridiculous campaigns.
Stories are powerful tools that can trap our minds in the imaginary or reveal a path departing Hell, and while the masses may resist the truth when told directly, truth shown through stories can inspire lost souls, reigniting the human spirit, because the Truth is always willing to descend into Hell and bring the damned back home.
And from your personal fiction, what stories can you tell? Will you reach out with the truth and inspire those frightened by imaginary terrors? Will you permit these menacing Molly muppets to muzzle your mouth?
Perhaps the best response to an evil spirit is the simplest.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Twitchy McTwitch Bobble-head Freeland
I’m afraid our children and grandchildren will be paying most of the bill. As you proceed to peel back the onion’s layers, you make your case that none of us can be confident that we have a lock on the truth. I suspect that one day the truths of the world will be made known to us all. For good and evil.
Personally, I believe in free speech at all costs. It would be fantastic if there were sources that were trustworthy and tried and true. Sadly, in today’s world it takes a lot of time and effort to find truths. Especially as AI rears its ugly head.