Is The Daily Reckoning a Cesspool?

James Howard Kunstler’s Saturday reckoning drew a heaping mail.

Did you read it? Go here if you did not.

James claimed that America’s governing class is insane.

On vaccines, on mass immigration, on “lawfare” against Donald Trump, on the Ukraine bloodletting and more…

Meantime, James contends America’s non-governing class — “normal” Americans — is sane.

Perhaps James stretches the facts. Perhaps James sketches with an overbroad brush.

Perhaps James lacks… nuance.

And we do not claim his gurglings are necessarily correct.

We merely tack them to our bulletin board so you can look through them.

Do you like them? Swell.

Do you dislike them? That too is swell.

Some readers disliked them.

Into the Muck!

Reader M.R. found Mr. Kunstler’s comments “drivel.”

They merely drag readers into “the muck”:

This particularly offensive article brings each reader down into the muck with you. Whether they agree with you or not, it’s still muck. You are a horrible journalist or whatever it is you call yourself.

M.R. was not alone. Here reader J.B. trains his cannons on Mr. Kunstler’s position — and on ours:

When was the last time you checked your sanity, Mr. Kunstler? Turning things upside down and presenting them out of context the way you do is the definition of insanity. It’s demagoguery to the nth degree. Everything is fine, Mr. anti-vaxxes, anti-science, anti-everything.

Do you prefer your brothers in the Congress to govern us? How about Marjorie Taylor Greene? Is that your hero? Or is Matt Gaetz better?

Hey, America is sane, Americans are sane. The only one insane is the one you see in the mirror, LOL! And a minority of your ilk.

To your chagrin, we now need the Democrats more than ever to save the Republic and be able to pass bipartisan reasonable bills to keep our beloved Republic and continue to work, Mr. Chaos!

You think you’re so smart criticizing but have no clue about any alternative or vision. Let me tell you, mister, you don’t impress me with all your misinformation and disinformation, lies, distortion, omissions and propaganda.

Daily Reckoning has lately become a cesspool for the insane like you, I call the know-nothing, LOL!.

A Cesspool for Insane Know-Nothings?

Has The Daily Reckoning become a “cesspool” for insane know-nothings?

That is for you to decide — not The Daily Reckoning itself.

We do not believe The Daily Reckoning has become a cesspool for the know-nothings or bedlamites.

Perhaps we are mistaken. We must admit the possibility.

Does the insane man recognize his own insanity?

If he did discern his insanity… he would not be insane.

Yet we do not believe we are insane.

We do not believe that James Howard Kunstler is insane.

Nor do we believe that readers M.R. and J.B. are insane.

They are merely divided by the intergalactic chasm of belief…

Invisible Sunglasses

As we have written before:

The intellect is slave to belief.

Beliefs are invisible censors that patrol the newsrooms of the human mind.

They run all entering data, all entering information, through their scrubbers.

Only the inflow that confirms their positions is shuffled along to the “conscious” mind.

The remainder goes into the subconscious hellbox, shunned, discarded and invisible.

The recipient then accepts the end product as reality. He is unaware of the filtering that has transpired.

The world before him thus appears crystalline and concrete in red… or crystalline and concrete in blue.

What he sees is as obvious as the very nose that squats upon his face.

Each is unaware — blissfully — of the shaded sunglasses he is donning.

Mr. Kunstler once sported blue-tinged sunglasses. By every indication he presently sports red-tinged sunglasses.

We must assume readers M.R. and J.B. sport the blue-tinged model.

Both ocular implements execute a ruthless censorship.

Ruthless Censorship

All rival beliefs are mortal foes to be scotched at every possible hazard.

Like the genes of the human they infest, beliefs are to-the-death for their own survival.

They will defend themselves to the last ditch and to the final bullet.

Yet they are so insidious because they produce a product the intellect considers unimpeachable and unassailable.

After all, only confirmatory data are cleared through to the final receiver in the cortical centers.

The final receiver — the intellect — then wonders how anyone can entertain opposite understandings.

“How can Joe vote Democrat?” Frank wonders through his red-tinged glasses. “They are nothing else but rogues, rascals, knaves and nuts. Can’t he see it?”

“How can Frank vote Republican?” Joe wonders through his blue-tinged glasses. “They are nothing else but rogues, rascals, knaves and nuts. Can’t he see it?”

They may both be correct. They are both — in this instance — very likely correct.

Yet their polar beliefs blind them to the other’s vision. They cannot see it.

Thus Mr. Kunstler and our two readers consider the other insane.

A Beauty or a Hag?

As we have done before, we invite you to observe this simple sketch.

See the young beauty glancing out toward the 10 o’clock position.

You can discern her lovely eyelashes… her dainty left ear… her graceful jawline… the tip of her pert nose.

Her hair flows back in beautiful cascades. A necklace encircles her neck.

Do you see her?

Now have another look…

Take the head-on view. See the wretched old hag in a scarf. Note the monster nose, note the beady pinprick of an eye.

Note the gash of a mouth… and the witch’s chin jutting horribly beneath it.

You do see her, correct?

Now attempt a synthesis. Attempt to see both hag and beauty at once.

You cannot do it. You see the one or you see the other.

You cannot see both.

Once you make the psychological commitment to one, you are blind to the other’s existence.

So with beliefs.

Who Decides Who’s Sane or Insane?

A man is the prisoner of his beliefs.

And your editor is presently imprisoned by the belief he has occupied enough of your time.

We conclude by acknowledging readers M.R. and J.B. We embrace their dissenting comments.

And we are pleased to have them aboard.

We are likewise pleased to have James Howard Kunstler aboard.

All are welcome here — both sane and insane.

Who is sane? Who is insane?

We entrust that determination to you…