That's a good point. Sometimes you have to exaggerate slightly for effect, but I also wonder how many of those would call/consider themselves "journalists" or would they prefer to deliberately avoid such a sullied appellation?
And you're right, what's crazy/scary is how when certain of these "journalists" (or whatever you want to call them) get too powerful or close to the truth, they all end up with some major federal case. For instance, is it any coincidence, that Matt Taibbi and Alex Berenson have 2 of the highest subscriber counts on all of Substack (they're amongst the very tiny elite group that have the purple badge defining "tens of thousands of paid subscribers") and yet *both* of them happen to have a federal case of some sort out against them.
I imagine if I ever get to that level of 100k+ subscribers, I'll get slapped with some kind of federal case out of the blue.
You're wise to be concerned about federal action if your following becomes too large and influential, and you become a threat to the dominant narrative. The current administration is itching to crack down not only on "misinformation" and "disinformation," but also malinformation - information that is true but corrosive to the desired narrative.
I have the greatest respect for your prodigious intellect and the almost incomprehensible breadth and depth of your research, and I've never for a second regretted subscribing. The fact that most of your work is well-sourced and supported gives it much credibility. But readers will inevitably harbor doubts about your motives for a couple reasons.
First, the very fact that you are still anonymous leaves open speculation as to your residency, allegiance, etc., and that's despite the fact that, as noted above, anonymity is a rational response to potential punitive action.
Second, consider the nature of the media world we inhabit. Your take on journalism is pretty spot on as far as most mainstream Western press is concerned. Bias is so commonplace that savvy Western readers have come to expect and look for it, asking "what angle is this author working, and why?" We've been trained to doubt the reliability and sincerity of almost everything we read because we have been swimming in the cesspool of unreliability and disingenuousness that is the Western press. So any skepticism is a outgrowth of those factors, and not a reflection on you personally.
While it may be disheartening to have one's motives questioned, in the current milieu it's a sign of a healthy, skeptical, intelligent readership and an indication that your writing is impactful enough to warrant the question. All you can do is to continue your work with integrity and the record will eventually speak for itself.
I love this site, but it will never become a 'threat to the dominant narrative". None of the sites like this will ever become that or anything close to that. They are literally no threat. At least not concerning the US public. Quanity vs quality.
THanks for the words. And you're right, now that you bring it up there probably were a handful of good ones, sadly most of them were "killed off" like Gary Webb.
Congratulations! I would like to see more coverage of other theatres, like Africa going forward. This is a multi front conflict you are covering. Thanks!
I started a response listing countries, but it got so long it might be shorter to mention countries not experiencing intervention, bullying, etc - oh, that would be none.
"To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States." - George W. Bush
First you have to master the fine art of drooling, falling, and develop a pathological drive toward teleprompters and full acceptance of someone's hand up you a**. If you can pull that off up front, you can get the bullet proof glass. As for getting rid of any agency... Ask JFK how that works out.
Well, it is a bit of over reach to say JFK never made the statement. It is more accurate to say, Kennedy might have made the statement as quoted in the 1966 New York Times, but as a private statement made to an anonymous source we really don't know.
It is unclear.
However, I make no reference to the 1000 pieces comment or the speech/conversation it came from.
The contentious nature of JFKs relationship with the CIA is not hypothetical. His frustration post Bay of Pigs is well documented as are CIA efforts to undermine JFK. RFK speaks about it. As do former CIA agents.
Regardless, it was a hyperbolic comment made in jest, not intended as a discourse on the historic accuracy of JFK quotes.
Congrats Simplicius, I found this page through The Duran and I have been thoroughly enjoying it. Would love to see more in depth weapons systems articles like you did with the hypersonics vs AD article.
“What is journalism, anyway? Is it where the guy sponsored by Pfizer, Raytheon, BlackRock, et al, reads you a heavily laundered and sanitized script from a teleprompter, spinning the pre-written narrative approved in some backroom at last week’s CFR/WEF shindig?”
You have written many brilliant things, but that takes the cake.
Congrats on 20K! Well earned. May Substack continue to protect free speech and promote meritocracy in this marketplace of ideas so that the best rise to the top.
You make a great point about substack. Now you got me thinking about it and I have to say I wouldn’t have made it without substack.” I found this last small bastion of free speech during the covid vax mandates. Kept me sane, not sure I could have kept my shit together without knowing I had friends.
Yes, let’s give a big thanks to substack and the freedom fighters like Simplicius.
I find that much of the "support" that people have for Russia is actually disgust/protest of their own governments and societies, and Moscow seems to sound sane. Most have never been to the country, dont know a single Russian, and dont speak a word of the language
Yes I agree there is a good chunk of that, but in the process it opens people up to seeing really what Russia is about--economically , culturally-- curiosity is always good 🥰
So much so for me (and I have 2 friends that have come to Canada from Siberia and Belarus 3 yrs and 10 years ago ), I am very keen to visit Russia-- hopefully next year 🤞
My view of Russia and Russians as I was growing up was that offered by the MSM and our politicians - grey, colorless country full of disheveled housing, crumbling architecture and sad-looking, bitter old women and drunken men.
Until I married a Russian - a beautiful, cultured, warm and entirely feminine Siberian woman who introduced me to the real Russia - its magnificent forests and waters and mountains full of beauty (and harshness!) and its gorgeous cities with their orthodox spires and electric trolleys, and to Russians who I found to be highly educated, intelligent, full of humour and song, hospitable and fiercely protective of their people and lands.
As for Putin, I saw him immediately when he stepped onto the world stage as the next Peter the Great in modern form. His impact on modern Russia can not be overstated, right up there with Peter the Great, Empress Catherine, Joseph Stalin (Yes, Stalin - who transformed Russia from an agricultural peasant society to an industrial giant in a matter of a relative few years).
I would also add Ivan the Terrible in your statesmen (and women) list. In Russian he is called Иван Грозный, where грозный (grozniy) means more like formiddable. "Terrible" came from the West and you should know West's habit to mark in bad light all strong and smart leaders who made a lot for Russia.
Some of us are hoping that Russia will give the US government the humiliating slap-down it so richly deserves. During the Cold War we hated being taxed to "defend Europe" from the USSR, while Europe traded with the USSR and spent on social programs and neglected their military obligations. Today we see we were right - NATO is militarily useless. It should have ceased to exist after the USSR ended in 1991. The realization that they are now vassals of a US empire most of us never wanted, and that our governments ignore the wishes of the people, has us looking for a way out.
Congrats! 👏 Well deserved. Your writing is clear , thoughtful and amazingly examines both the detailed military stuff and big picture both really well. The detailed military stuff (ie troop movements, military gear etc) typically isn't something I am naturally interested in, however you manage to make it "interesting" just enough to keep me from skipping past it in your pieces. THAT is a huge accomplishment in my books 😊
Well, did you? I mean, the answer to the "critical" reader wasn't really necessary in this forum. Why worry what a journalist would be obliged to do if you aren't one? As you've said, journalist are vvh0res, just less honorable I guess.
And on the other hand, what if you or some/many of your readers are pro Putin? Who has the capacity to forbid us that inclination? Creations like "Putinversteher" and "Putinlover" belong in the same category of deadbeat terms as "transphobe" does. They are used by people who have no sustainable, logic arguments that are based in reality to counter your point of view. And there we are. The point of view- everybody has one, although for most sane people it's not a point, but a territory with shifting borders and white (unexplored) spots.
It's impossible to opine or even report from a vacuum or a no man's land, the point of view comes into play in one way or the other. The term "objectivity" is a chimaera, a weaponised illusion just like "freedom" and "democracy".
I was called a "Putinversteher" (literally someone who understands Putin, meant as an accusation of sympathy with Putin). I answered, and I assume the same is true for many who read here, that I'm not primarily interested in understanding Putin, but in understanding historical and recent developments in general. What is going on in this world and why? We don't get the answers from journalists. So I take a critical look at the mess that is human society in an attempt to get some glimpses of reality. We have to write our own journal of events, nobody else will. A journal that accounts for gains and losses, for activa and passiva, for debts and credits.
And as an aside, of course I am not a fan(atic) when it comes to Putin, it's not in my make-up to be fanatical. But with all reservations and questions in mind, you just have to admire that guy. Of course, that I'd never admit.
Needs to be an option in the poll for more of everything! :)
Short daily updates plus longer pieces on a regular schedule?
Also love the Ukraine sitreps but also some more think pieces about the global changes to the world order as well as historical pieces for perspective.
That's a good point. Sometimes you have to exaggerate slightly for effect, but I also wonder how many of those would call/consider themselves "journalists" or would they prefer to deliberately avoid such a sullied appellation?
And you're right, what's crazy/scary is how when certain of these "journalists" (or whatever you want to call them) get too powerful or close to the truth, they all end up with some major federal case. For instance, is it any coincidence, that Matt Taibbi and Alex Berenson have 2 of the highest subscriber counts on all of Substack (they're amongst the very tiny elite group that have the purple badge defining "tens of thousands of paid subscribers") and yet *both* of them happen to have a federal case of some sort out against them.
I imagine if I ever get to that level of 100k+ subscribers, I'll get slapped with some kind of federal case out of the blue.
You're wise to be concerned about federal action if your following becomes too large and influential, and you become a threat to the dominant narrative. The current administration is itching to crack down not only on "misinformation" and "disinformation," but also malinformation - information that is true but corrosive to the desired narrative.
I have the greatest respect for your prodigious intellect and the almost incomprehensible breadth and depth of your research, and I've never for a second regretted subscribing. The fact that most of your work is well-sourced and supported gives it much credibility. But readers will inevitably harbor doubts about your motives for a couple reasons.
First, the very fact that you are still anonymous leaves open speculation as to your residency, allegiance, etc., and that's despite the fact that, as noted above, anonymity is a rational response to potential punitive action.
Second, consider the nature of the media world we inhabit. Your take on journalism is pretty spot on as far as most mainstream Western press is concerned. Bias is so commonplace that savvy Western readers have come to expect and look for it, asking "what angle is this author working, and why?" We've been trained to doubt the reliability and sincerity of almost everything we read because we have been swimming in the cesspool of unreliability and disingenuousness that is the Western press. So any skepticism is a outgrowth of those factors, and not a reflection on you personally.
While it may be disheartening to have one's motives questioned, in the current milieu it's a sign of a healthy, skeptical, intelligent readership and an indication that your writing is impactful enough to warrant the question. All you can do is to continue your work with integrity and the record will eventually speak for itself.
And my sincere congratulations on 20k!
I love this site, but it will never become a 'threat to the dominant narrative". None of the sites like this will ever become that or anything close to that. They are literally no threat. At least not concerning the US public. Quanity vs quality.
THanks for the words. And you're right, now that you bring it up there probably were a handful of good ones, sadly most of them were "killed off" like Gary Webb.
Congratulations! Well deserved! Thanks for what you do for us.
Congratulations! I would like to see more coverage of other theatres, like Africa going forward. This is a multi front conflict you are covering. Thanks!
I had Similar thought. There is also a lot going on in the “stans” and Armenia that we don’t read anything about.
I started a response listing countries, but it got so long it might be shorter to mention countries not experiencing intervention, bullying, etc - oh, that would be none.
You deserve 20,000,000 subscribers.
"To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States." - George W. Bush
Good one!
You would have to get the permission of the guy behind the teleprompter first.
First you have to master the fine art of drooling, falling, and develop a pathological drive toward teleprompters and full acceptance of someone's hand up you a**. If you can pull that off up front, you can get the bullet proof glass. As for getting rid of any agency... Ask JFK how that works out.
Well, it is a bit of over reach to say JFK never made the statement. It is more accurate to say, Kennedy might have made the statement as quoted in the 1966 New York Times, but as a private statement made to an anonymous source we really don't know.
It is unclear.
However, I make no reference to the 1000 pieces comment or the speech/conversation it came from.
The contentious nature of JFKs relationship with the CIA is not hypothetical. His frustration post Bay of Pigs is well documented as are CIA efforts to undermine JFK. RFK speaks about it. As do former CIA agents.
Regardless, it was a hyperbolic comment made in jest, not intended as a discourse on the historic accuracy of JFK quotes.
I was primarily giving Simplicius an "A" but I'm glad for the innuendo pickups in the comment section.
Journalist. Politician. Parasite. I'm trying to compose a list of useless life forms. Feel free to add to the list.
University Administrator, EU official, DEI human resources officer
Thanks! Lets keep it going. LOL!
Insurance Broker, School Hall Monitor (do they still exist?) , HMO representative (so I am told being Canadian I could substitute OHIP govt employee)
White helmet?
Pharmaceutical CEO. Big Corp Board of Directors. Banker.
Police. General practitioner. HR 'officer'. Klaus "Anal" Schwab.
FBI Agent; CIA, DIA, NSA analyst; yes, all of them.
Disinformation expert
Fact checker.
Televangelist, Grievance studies, Bankster, NATO generals, retired NATO generals.
Western financial system for 1000 Alex?
Congrats Simplicius, I found this page through The Duran and I have been thoroughly enjoying it. Would love to see more in depth weapons systems articles like you did with the hypersonics vs AD article.
“What is journalism, anyway? Is it where the guy sponsored by Pfizer, Raytheon, BlackRock, et al, reads you a heavily laundered and sanitized script from a teleprompter, spinning the pre-written narrative approved in some backroom at last week’s CFR/WEF shindig?”
You have written many brilliant things, but that takes the cake.
Congrats on 20K! Well earned. May Substack continue to protect free speech and promote meritocracy in this marketplace of ideas so that the best rise to the top.
You make a great point about substack. Now you got me thinking about it and I have to say I wouldn’t have made it without substack.” I found this last small bastion of free speech during the covid vax mandates. Kept me sane, not sure I could have kept my shit together without knowing I had friends.
Yes, let’s give a big thanks to substack and the freedom fighters like Simplicius.
Oh PS would you please tell me the title or link the “WEF shindig” article? I admittedly fell behind a bit. I looked through the latest releases.
Thanks buddy, here's to you as well! *clink*
Reporters describe what's happening, journalists masturbate over it. I think that er.... covers it. ;O)
I find that much of the "support" that people have for Russia is actually disgust/protest of their own governments and societies, and Moscow seems to sound sane. Most have never been to the country, dont know a single Russian, and dont speak a word of the language
Yes I agree there is a good chunk of that, but in the process it opens people up to seeing really what Russia is about--economically , culturally-- curiosity is always good 🥰
Absolutely
So much so for me (and I have 2 friends that have come to Canada from Siberia and Belarus 3 yrs and 10 years ago ), I am very keen to visit Russia-- hopefully next year 🤞
My view of Russia and Russians as I was growing up was that offered by the MSM and our politicians - grey, colorless country full of disheveled housing, crumbling architecture and sad-looking, bitter old women and drunken men.
Until I married a Russian - a beautiful, cultured, warm and entirely feminine Siberian woman who introduced me to the real Russia - its magnificent forests and waters and mountains full of beauty (and harshness!) and its gorgeous cities with their orthodox spires and electric trolleys, and to Russians who I found to be highly educated, intelligent, full of humour and song, hospitable and fiercely protective of their people and lands.
As for Putin, I saw him immediately when he stepped onto the world stage as the next Peter the Great in modern form. His impact on modern Russia can not be overstated, right up there with Peter the Great, Empress Catherine, Joseph Stalin (Yes, Stalin - who transformed Russia from an agricultural peasant society to an industrial giant in a matter of a relative few years).
I would also add Ivan the Terrible in your statesmen (and women) list. In Russian he is called Иван Грозный, where грозный (grozniy) means more like formiddable. "Terrible" came from the West and you should know West's habit to mark in bad light all strong and smart leaders who made a lot for Russia.
Agreed. Biden is disgusting. How can an American president make Putin look good? I’m glad I found this site to learn what’s going on
Some of us are hoping that Russia will give the US government the humiliating slap-down it so richly deserves. During the Cold War we hated being taxed to "defend Europe" from the USSR, while Europe traded with the USSR and spent on social programs and neglected their military obligations. Today we see we were right - NATO is militarily useless. It should have ceased to exist after the USSR ended in 1991. The realization that they are now vassals of a US empire most of us never wanted, and that our governments ignore the wishes of the people, has us looking for a way out.
Congrats! 👏 Well deserved. Your writing is clear , thoughtful and amazingly examines both the detailed military stuff and big picture both really well. The detailed military stuff (ie troop movements, military gear etc) typically isn't something I am naturally interested in, however you manage to make it "interesting" just enough to keep me from skipping past it in your pieces. THAT is a huge accomplishment in my books 😊
Thanks very much
Congrats. I love your articles. Keep up the great work. I share you often and others likely do too.
Well deserved success which wouldn’t have happened if there were a lot of us like the reader you described. Continue on.
Bravo well done Simp very happy for you!
Well done. Glad you got that journalism thing off your chest. 🤯
You could tell I've been meaning to get in a dig at them and used the complaint as an excuse, huh?
Well, did you? I mean, the answer to the "critical" reader wasn't really necessary in this forum. Why worry what a journalist would be obliged to do if you aren't one? As you've said, journalist are vvh0res, just less honorable I guess.
And on the other hand, what if you or some/many of your readers are pro Putin? Who has the capacity to forbid us that inclination? Creations like "Putinversteher" and "Putinlover" belong in the same category of deadbeat terms as "transphobe" does. They are used by people who have no sustainable, logic arguments that are based in reality to counter your point of view. And there we are. The point of view- everybody has one, although for most sane people it's not a point, but a territory with shifting borders and white (unexplored) spots.
It's impossible to opine or even report from a vacuum or a no man's land, the point of view comes into play in one way or the other. The term "objectivity" is a chimaera, a weaponised illusion just like "freedom" and "democracy".
I was called a "Putinversteher" (literally someone who understands Putin, meant as an accusation of sympathy with Putin). I answered, and I assume the same is true for many who read here, that I'm not primarily interested in understanding Putin, but in understanding historical and recent developments in general. What is going on in this world and why? We don't get the answers from journalists. So I take a critical look at the mess that is human society in an attempt to get some glimpses of reality. We have to write our own journal of events, nobody else will. A journal that accounts for gains and losses, for activa and passiva, for debts and credits.
And as an aside, of course I am not a fan(atic) when it comes to Putin, it's not in my make-up to be fanatical. But with all reservations and questions in mind, you just have to admire that guy. Of course, that I'd never admit.
Haha, just a little. Sometimes you just have to vent.
Well done, very deserved!
Needs to be an option in the poll for more of everything! :)
Short daily updates plus longer pieces on a regular schedule?
Also love the Ukraine sitreps but also some more think pieces about the global changes to the world order as well as historical pieces for perspective.