John Leake, I agree with you— but— and I hate to say this— after my own weekend get-together with old friends, I think the even bigger problem is latent neediness on the part of accomplished middle-aged professionals finding intense— but intense— expression in constant interactions with AI. AI, do this for me, AI do that for me. Ask ChatGPT, blah blah & blah blah. That was the conversation— all eyes but my own a-sparkling with this neat-o "tool." I found the enthusiasm coupled with naivete astounding. One was even, delightedly, using AI to help him write personal letters. This isn't going to end well.
PS My personal observation from this admittedly small sample size: It seems there's a strong correlation between enthusiastically having taken the covid jabs in 2021-2023 and now in 2025 enthusiastically utilizing AI at every opportunity. Both are a kind of dependence-seeking.
You'd think that the word, "Artificial", would give them a hint but nope, just as man-made artificial sweetners like Aspartame are, (allegedly), far worse for your health than real sugar, people are still lapping them up without questioning their potential for 'products' made by greedy people for maximum profit to maybe not be so wise to consume after all.
If you want proof that clever people can be utterly stupid and foolish in equal measure you need look no further than to those who invented nuclear and atomic weapons to prevent war.
How'd that work out for ya?
Last time I checked, war didn't end in 1945 after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it escalated globally despite the threat of kicking off WWIII, now an open and ongoing effort with reckless abandon.
All the boffins like Julius Robert Oppenheimer did was guarantee the inevitable destruction of the planet or most its life forms when a teenager using A.I. hacks the 'War Games' missile defence systems and the 1984 movie starring Mathew Broderick becomes a reality and now we even have space-based weapons platforms with lasers on their fricking foreheads capable of targeting individual properties not painted blue and melting engine blocks in vehicles parked way down the street from The Twin Towers for example and that was over twenty years ago.
Luckily, (?), some of our close neighbours are monitoring our activities and have already demonstrated the ability to prevent and even launch missiles to scare the bejesus out of our military and let them know who's really Boss around here, again, not necessarily a good thing if we're utterly defenceless against them.
Ask yourself this question; "How would aliens, (from whatever dimension or location in space), take over a planet like Earth for its resources, (including Human, hence Personnel becoming H.R.), if they were outnumbered by the native population and direct force wasn't a desirable, efficient or practical option?"
They'd probably use psychological warfare to divide and rule us with such concepts as 'Authorities' like 'The Gods', (themselves!), culturally specific religions or fear-based belief systems ranging in sophistication according to the intellectual or educational level of the target population and many other artificial govern/mental structures designed to make us ultimately kill each other off to more managable numbers.
MRNA soup anyone?
There's a threat out there that you need to be protected from and we're here to help!
That's an interesting observation that I hadn't considered, but in my own small circle of artists spread across the country, this also seems to be true. The theme of dependence-seeking looms large.
I honestly cannot believe that sentient people "talk" to and with what is essentially just a lot of lines of code. At my age, my Nope! list is likely not going to be put in play any more, but I have added "talks with chatbots" to it, right up there with "is rude to waitstaff" and "aggressive driving".
That’s how they get folks to accept it…make it cute, and fun, to use. AI is evil. But, no one wants to hear that. I’ve been shocked, seeing how gullible most people are.
AI, itself, is not evil. It depends on how it is used. It can be used for good, processing so much information at a very rapid speed. This can be very helpful in making a medical diagnosis when seconds count. Evil people can program evil things into AI. So don’t allow yourself to become dependent on it. Don’t be one of those people who can’t function w/o their cell phone all day long. Due to the EMF exposure and social media and the psychiatric damage cell phones do to developing brains, children should not be given “smart phones.” I have no problem giving them basic cell phones that can be used only for making phone calls in case of an emergency.
I agree. It's not the AI itself. It's the people behind the AI. Still, diving head-first into dependency, as you've mentioned, seems reckless to me. What a concerning thing for children especially.
I have no idea why people want to use AI. Google search will often contribute an AI answer and much of the time it is obviously wrong. They include a disclaimer in a footnote, but so what?
I wouldn't trust any of it. It's hard enough finding accurate information without some trashy computer program serving it up. Hasn't anyone learned from Wikipedia that the internet has plenty of
convenient things that distort the truth and often on purpose?
Apparently many people haven't learned. Or maybe they simply don't care because they've adopted the "there's your truth, and there's my truth" mode of thinking. So in effect, there's no truth.
“It’s not AI itself but the people behind AI”. Now that’s a mouthful.
Yes, duh! Not to be a smart ass, but think about what you just said, and there’s the rub. Not that those programming it are necessarily nefarious people but the intent is the same, to capture.
This happened at places like Google, Fakebook, Apple, in collaboration with China three decades ago in NY, LA, WA corporate facilities where the average reasonably responsible adult could not begin to process the childish, petulance of the “working” pleasures of their young adult graduates, half on visa’s from Asia and India. Cheaper labor for kids willing to do whatever they are told while having every amenity possible. Three levels of dining 24/7 prepared by Chef’s, work stations with hanging toys, candy, cookies, cake snacks 23/7 in hall ways where they moved about on scooters, skateboards, and rollerblades, etc., gaming and meditation niches and stations, personal conference rooms throughout, everything high end and free for like minded young adults mingling throughout the day sharing ideas, sending a message of exclusion as if already executives while displacing American graduates from top universities with as good or better degrees. They were being displaced and replaced by visa holders from Asia and India.
Yes, the transition of turning America’s middle classes into serfdom happened on both ends of the academic and skilled manufacturing spectrum when the 1990’s uniparty, under the Democrat banner sold them out and gave global “besties” the keys to America’s house.
The global elite did this working toward establishing coming AI by what could only be described as petulant play land facilities where young impressionable adults right out of engineering studies, half from foreign countries, and half as intuitive as American workers but more willing to do as told were making big money ($200K in 2010) to “work” by collaborating with same minded people that had anything and everything they wanted giving these new controlling minded visitor bots the idea that America was a play land and cornucopia, except for the serf’s that work for a living. Literally incredible.
Here’s the kicker:
When all those S.T.E.M. American graduates were brushed off by the universitie’s acting like they owed them nothing, administrators who were only interested in bigger endowments from foreign wealthy students and government subsidies, they also collaborated so the “independent minded Americans” didn’t get a shot at the job outside because they had American ideals. Those top graduates were in a dilemma, capitulate and become complicit or take lesser jobs to survive rather than act like human bots, and at the same time around 2010 onward things like “Y” Combinators were developed where struggling American academics believed they were working with other like scientists sharing their knowledge, but they were again being scammed having to pay to do so, and the plan was to have their knowledge sucked out of their brains to be programmed into AI, then discarded.
Now what chance do you think your American kid has with AI when it has already sucked dry the brilliance of the last two generations of American talent. AI says you do not need to think, just comply.
Now who do you think those drugged up people sleeping on the streets are?
Losers? Sure, All American, why do you think Silicon Valley and NY do not care?
As AI turns the next generation into “walkers” and serfs, defecating in the streets, what do you think the global outcome will be. Covid? Please. That was just a test run to stop American patriotism from pushing back as AI is programed to convince your kids that caring about your country is dangerous, bit by bit as it turns them into serf’s for the very tiny number of globalists, home grown and abroad at the top of the food chain.
AI is their new laser focused atomic bomb that comes right out of your phone while you worry about tower transmission. What will it matter once captured?
Yes, indeed. Are these tools freeing up my memory to learn new things, or hindering my learning? I think the latter. The more we use these tools, even a simple calculator, are intellect is declining.
The worst A.I. seems to be Apple O.S./iPhone auto-correction which demands that you constantly confirm that what you typed is what you wanted from a selection on a bar or separate line under the text box or it's replaced.
You can't just type and send without checking basic spelling and grammar to make sure that the really fcuking stupid A.I. hasn't ruined your composition.
Deliberate misspelling(?)/misuse of words for satire or humour is now next to impossible, like placing the cursor ahead of the one letter I want to delete after a typo' as the whole word is suddenly wrapped in blue selection stops that want to delete the whole word/string.
If you don't proof read your posts then some bizarre replacements will be substituted.
It most definitely will not end well. Already we've seen a study pointing to what appears to be brain atrophy. And besides that, do these old friends question the reliability of the data that ChatGPT, etc. is pulling from?
Yes, and even when it is generally not only pulling from a select segment of data, it's also prejudicing its answers according to a predetermined conclusion. However, you can simply then ask it to present the best case and arguments for the opposite position.
How are you? I am ________ and am _______ to say that I ________ last Tuesday. My robot say that my teeth need attention, especially the back left molar that I cracked trying to use a step stool to reach the batteries for my electric can opener. Well, my AI suggests I pull out all of my teeth to avoid future problems so I'll probably do what it suggests. Otherwise, I have not left the house in three weeks but my AI keeps me company. It keeps me straight so I don't get too wild and think about reading a book. Sincerely, John Q.Public
Yes yes yes. Bring back shame. Perhaps share this with your friend. More than 40 years ago there was an article in The New Yorker entitled "The Current Crisis in Remorse." It still holds up today. The New Yorker, July 11, 1983 "Remorse is a new area in social work. Narrator worked as professional remorse officer in Dept. of Human Services Remorse followers believe that people who have done bad things should feel sorry for what they did and stop doing it. Narrator cites examples of remorselessness, including criminals as well as your own best friend. City Hall demanded a full-fledged remorse program to be in place in weeks, even days. The program is to be implemented without funding. The narrator's attempts to reform people were largely unsuccessful. Former clients filed a class-action suit against the state demanding restitution, claiming the plan was damaging or inadequately administered. The narrator is demoted to the basement to "assist in the assembly and assessment" of ascertainment files. One day, his supervisor appears in the doorway asking for forgiveness for his unfair treatment. The narrator states he is going to quit. He changes jobs and now is a vice-president at Yakamoto where he has designed a remorse program for assembly-line workers. He is extremely happy and earning a large salary."
Dennis Prager has expressed strong opinions about the effects of government assistance. He believes that "free money is as addictive as cocaine" . Prager often argues that the expansion of government power reduces the significance and self-reliance of individual citizens , . He suggests that as the government takes on more responsibilities, citizens become less necessary and less capable. https://dennisprager.com/column/the-bigger-the-government-the-smaller-the-citizen
People have become so dependent on the welfare state. It is like drug addiction. It will be very painful and difficult to wean these people off. Then once off will they even be able to find a job to support themselves, especially with AI becoming more and more prevalent.
I might suggest that what the government has is a very bad case of Munchausen syndrome. "People with Munchausen syndrome will fake illnesses or make themselves sick to get medical care and capture the sympathy of others. They invent their illnesses to seek attention, not for financial or material gain." There is one thing that is certain: the government is not at all about financial gain. In fact, it has impoverished all of us by swelling its ranks. It has impoverished everything it touches. It is about "disease control" and not elimination. It is about domination. How else does one control except by creating a "need", whether real or imagined, and then exerting real or psychological manipulation over those most vulnerable? If only the government had a true "upward trajectory" to the Most High, the Creator, and the Savior?
Those getting the “free” stuff seem oblivious to where the money has to come from. Not only oblivious, but intentionally not wanting to know what really has to happen for them to get their free stuff. As long as they get their free stuff they’ll keep voting for whomever promises the most free stuff.
Just as an aside, I would like to remind people that incorporated into that ‘50%’ of Americans being ‘dependent’ on the state, also includes people who are collecting Social Security….in other words, people who worked a lifetime, paid their taxes, paid into Social Security, etc. A good portion of the BBB removes younger people who are scamming the system through Medicaid, etc.
Exactly. That number is extremely misleading. In an average month, about 60 million Americans receive welfare or assistance from safety net programs, which is approximately 19 percent of the US population. That percentage EXCLUDES those who only receive Social Security/ Medicare.
Well said, Mr. Leake. Whatever happened to independence, maturity, work ethic, honesty, personal responsibility, compassion, critical thinking, social manners, and all the rest?
Your statement that the US has been the self-appointed policeman is accurate, and ususally for our government's benefit, not that of the country being "policed". I don't believe it applies currently. Trump IS inserting himself in attempting to get several conflicts ended - stopping the killing instead of encouraging it, the way Clinton, Obama, and Biden (Obama) did. And I am sure you are bright enough to understand ending Iran's attempt to produce nuclear weapons was self-defense, as well as helping to keep Israel from being destroyed by the psychotic, deviant ayatollah and those in their government who agree with him (probably to include the CCP).
When a man repeatedly threatens to kill you, your loved ones, and millions of innocents, standing in front of you as he attempts to load his weapon, are you going to try once more to talk him out of it, or are you going to do what needs to be done?
Our government needs to get back to following the Constitution. What gives the government the right to take away my hard earned money to give to someone who didn’t work to purchase their own healthcare and their own food? People who are too poor to buy health insurance and are not on government assistance to receive healthcare are probably healthier in the long run, anyway.
Taking care of others -- how quickly that becomes taking care of oneself, when you are the government. Thus the country is transformed into a government of Munchausen by proxy.
Written by a property owning white man…no doubt. What about those families with extremely disabled children,through no fault of their own, that need help with medical care for those kids? What are they supposed to do when federal medical help disappears? I am truly asking for answers.
Imagine starting a response with something similarly negative but from the opposite point of view: "Written by a welfare queen, no doubt, who's never worked a day in her life." But to address your question, there's insurance, private charity, mutual aid societies, charitable organizations, etc., that existed prior to the welfare state. Even today, there's everything from individual doctors who do pro-bono treatment to the Shriners Childrens Hospitals. Charity at gunpoint isn't really charity, and government healthcare, like government schooling, produces very poor results, as we saw with the government plandemic called Covid-19.
What are you talking about? What federal help is disappearing? Profoundly disabled children are presumptively eligible for Medicaid everywhere in our country regardless of the parents' income. That has NOT been changed. It covers all disabled children. All states have disability assistance programs that offer financial and supportive services for individuals with disabilities, often complementing federal programs like Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI)(NEITHER OF WHICH WAS DEFUNDED) The state programs, which are paid for in part by the federal government (those payments have not been cancelled), may include cash assistance, enhanced health insurance and other services such as in-home care and assistive technology. Go read the freaking bill before assuming your victim posture.
Good question. I don’t believe that the federal medical help for those people will disappear. The bill that was just passed is trying to get rid of fraud and get illegal immigrants unenrolled from Medicaid. “According to CBO data, some 1.4 million people who are not legal residents of the United States are currently enrolled in Medicaid.” This is from an EPOCH Times article. Here is the article if you are able to access it. How Trump’s Megabill Would Change Medicaid
Unfortunately, something happened in the Republican controlled Senate that put back into the bill that passed the ability of illegal aliens to be covered under Medicaid.
Oh dear. You must keep up. The FINAL bill includes language intended to stop federal funding from going to states that use mechanisms, such as provider taxes, to cover undocumented immigrants on Medicaid. While federal law already generally prohibits undocumented immigrants from enrolling in Medicaid, states like California had utilized loopholes to provide coverage. The bill eliminates these loopholes, potentially leading to the removal of millions of undocumented individuals from these state-funded programs to ensure Medicaid primarily serves eligible citizens.
The bill also restricts Medicaid eligibility for some lawfully present immigrants, even those with legal status, for certain federal healthcare and safety net programs like Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and SNAP.
I agree. Every conversation about "welfare" should include the caveat that those truly in need should still be taken care of by the community (society) at large. To do otherwise would be just another form of human degradation.
John Leake, I agree with you— but— and I hate to say this— after my own weekend get-together with old friends, I think the even bigger problem is latent neediness on the part of accomplished middle-aged professionals finding intense— but intense— expression in constant interactions with AI. AI, do this for me, AI do that for me. Ask ChatGPT, blah blah & blah blah. That was the conversation— all eyes but my own a-sparkling with this neat-o "tool." I found the enthusiasm coupled with naivete astounding. One was even, delightedly, using AI to help him write personal letters. This isn't going to end well.
PS My personal observation from this admittedly small sample size: It seems there's a strong correlation between enthusiastically having taken the covid jabs in 2021-2023 and now in 2025 enthusiastically utilizing AI at every opportunity. Both are a kind of dependence-seeking.
You'd think that the word, "Artificial", would give them a hint but nope, just as man-made artificial sweetners like Aspartame are, (allegedly), far worse for your health than real sugar, people are still lapping them up without questioning their potential for 'products' made by greedy people for maximum profit to maybe not be so wise to consume after all.
If you want proof that clever people can be utterly stupid and foolish in equal measure you need look no further than to those who invented nuclear and atomic weapons to prevent war.
How'd that work out for ya?
Last time I checked, war didn't end in 1945 after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it escalated globally despite the threat of kicking off WWIII, now an open and ongoing effort with reckless abandon.
All the boffins like Julius Robert Oppenheimer did was guarantee the inevitable destruction of the planet or most its life forms when a teenager using A.I. hacks the 'War Games' missile defence systems and the 1984 movie starring Mathew Broderick becomes a reality and now we even have space-based weapons platforms with lasers on their fricking foreheads capable of targeting individual properties not painted blue and melting engine blocks in vehicles parked way down the street from The Twin Towers for example and that was over twenty years ago.
Luckily, (?), some of our close neighbours are monitoring our activities and have already demonstrated the ability to prevent and even launch missiles to scare the bejesus out of our military and let them know who's really Boss around here, again, not necessarily a good thing if we're utterly defenceless against them.
Ask yourself this question; "How would aliens, (from whatever dimension or location in space), take over a planet like Earth for its resources, (including Human, hence Personnel becoming H.R.), if they were outnumbered by the native population and direct force wasn't a desirable, efficient or practical option?"
They'd probably use psychological warfare to divide and rule us with such concepts as 'Authorities' like 'The Gods', (themselves!), culturally specific religions or fear-based belief systems ranging in sophistication according to the intellectual or educational level of the target population and many other artificial govern/mental structures designed to make us ultimately kill each other off to more managable numbers.
MRNA soup anyone?
There's a threat out there that you need to be protected from and we're here to help!
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗥𝗡𝗔 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝘃𝗮𝘅 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄....
https://t.co/j3lv6fQaQb
That's an interesting observation that I hadn't considered, but in my own small circle of artists spread across the country, this also seems to be true. The theme of dependence-seeking looms large.
I honestly cannot believe that sentient people "talk" to and with what is essentially just a lot of lines of code. At my age, my Nope! list is likely not going to be put in play any more, but I have added "talks with chatbots" to it, right up there with "is rude to waitstaff" and "aggressive driving".
That’s how they get folks to accept it…make it cute, and fun, to use. AI is evil. But, no one wants to hear that. I’ve been shocked, seeing how gullible most people are.
AI, itself, is not evil. It depends on how it is used. It can be used for good, processing so much information at a very rapid speed. This can be very helpful in making a medical diagnosis when seconds count. Evil people can program evil things into AI. So don’t allow yourself to become dependent on it. Don’t be one of those people who can’t function w/o their cell phone all day long. Due to the EMF exposure and social media and the psychiatric damage cell phones do to developing brains, children should not be given “smart phones.” I have no problem giving them basic cell phones that can be used only for making phone calls in case of an emergency.
I agree. It's not the AI itself. It's the people behind the AI. Still, diving head-first into dependency, as you've mentioned, seems reckless to me. What a concerning thing for children especially.
I have no idea why people want to use AI. Google search will often contribute an AI answer and much of the time it is obviously wrong. They include a disclaimer in a footnote, but so what?
I wouldn't trust any of it. It's hard enough finding accurate information without some trashy computer program serving it up. Hasn't anyone learned from Wikipedia that the internet has plenty of
convenient things that distort the truth and often on purpose?
Apparently many people haven't learned. Or maybe they simply don't care because they've adopted the "there's your truth, and there's my truth" mode of thinking. So in effect, there's no truth.
Yeah, it's a "post-truth" society. So awful.
“It’s not AI itself but the people behind AI”. Now that’s a mouthful.
Yes, duh! Not to be a smart ass, but think about what you just said, and there’s the rub. Not that those programming it are necessarily nefarious people but the intent is the same, to capture.
This happened at places like Google, Fakebook, Apple, in collaboration with China three decades ago in NY, LA, WA corporate facilities where the average reasonably responsible adult could not begin to process the childish, petulance of the “working” pleasures of their young adult graduates, half on visa’s from Asia and India. Cheaper labor for kids willing to do whatever they are told while having every amenity possible. Three levels of dining 24/7 prepared by Chef’s, work stations with hanging toys, candy, cookies, cake snacks 23/7 in hall ways where they moved about on scooters, skateboards, and rollerblades, etc., gaming and meditation niches and stations, personal conference rooms throughout, everything high end and free for like minded young adults mingling throughout the day sharing ideas, sending a message of exclusion as if already executives while displacing American graduates from top universities with as good or better degrees. They were being displaced and replaced by visa holders from Asia and India.
Yes, the transition of turning America’s middle classes into serfdom happened on both ends of the academic and skilled manufacturing spectrum when the 1990’s uniparty, under the Democrat banner sold them out and gave global “besties” the keys to America’s house.
The global elite did this working toward establishing coming AI by what could only be described as petulant play land facilities where young impressionable adults right out of engineering studies, half from foreign countries, and half as intuitive as American workers but more willing to do as told were making big money ($200K in 2010) to “work” by collaborating with same minded people that had anything and everything they wanted giving these new controlling minded visitor bots the idea that America was a play land and cornucopia, except for the serf’s that work for a living. Literally incredible.
Here’s the kicker:
When all those S.T.E.M. American graduates were brushed off by the universitie’s acting like they owed them nothing, administrators who were only interested in bigger endowments from foreign wealthy students and government subsidies, they also collaborated so the “independent minded Americans” didn’t get a shot at the job outside because they had American ideals. Those top graduates were in a dilemma, capitulate and become complicit or take lesser jobs to survive rather than act like human bots, and at the same time around 2010 onward things like “Y” Combinators were developed where struggling American academics believed they were working with other like scientists sharing their knowledge, but they were again being scammed having to pay to do so, and the plan was to have their knowledge sucked out of their brains to be programmed into AI, then discarded.
Now what chance do you think your American kid has with AI when it has already sucked dry the brilliance of the last two generations of American talent. AI says you do not need to think, just comply.
Now who do you think those drugged up people sleeping on the streets are?
Losers? Sure, All American, why do you think Silicon Valley and NY do not care?
As AI turns the next generation into “walkers” and serfs, defecating in the streets, what do you think the global outcome will be. Covid? Please. That was just a test run to stop American patriotism from pushing back as AI is programed to convince your kids that caring about your country is dangerous, bit by bit as it turns them into serf’s for the very tiny number of globalists, home grown and abroad at the top of the food chain.
AI is their new laser focused atomic bomb that comes right out of your phone while you worry about tower transmission. What will it matter once captured?
I've been in an almost continuous state of "shocked" since 2020.
Yes, indeed. Are these tools freeing up my memory to learn new things, or hindering my learning? I think the latter. The more we use these tools, even a simple calculator, are intellect is declining.
"Are intellect is declining".........?
Q.E.D!
The worst A.I. seems to be Apple O.S./iPhone auto-correction which demands that you constantly confirm that what you typed is what you wanted from a selection on a bar or separate line under the text box or it's replaced.
You can't just type and send without checking basic spelling and grammar to make sure that the really fcuking stupid A.I. hasn't ruined your composition.
Deliberate misspelling(?)/misuse of words for satire or humour is now next to impossible, like placing the cursor ahead of the one letter I want to delete after a typo' as the whole word is suddenly wrapped in blue selection stops that want to delete the whole word/string.
If you don't proof read your posts then some bizarre replacements will be substituted.
Did you listen to this ? Joe Rogan & Roman Yampolsky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2i9D24KQ5k
Thanks, will check it out.
God, that is horrible.
Yes, I think so, too.
It most definitely will not end well. Already we've seen a study pointing to what appears to be brain atrophy. And besides that, do these old friends question the reliability of the data that ChatGPT, etc. is pulling from?
Yes, and even when it is generally not only pulling from a select segment of data, it's also prejudicing its answers according to a predetermined conclusion. However, you can simply then ask it to present the best case and arguments for the opposite position.
I have no idea the percentage, but my guess is that many won't question AI, just as they haven't questioned "authority" in recent years.
Oh my. "Dear _____,
How are you? I am ________ and am _______ to say that I ________ last Tuesday. My robot say that my teeth need attention, especially the back left molar that I cracked trying to use a step stool to reach the batteries for my electric can opener. Well, my AI suggests I pull out all of my teeth to avoid future problems so I'll probably do what it suggests. Otherwise, I have not left the house in three weeks but my AI keeps me company. It keeps me straight so I don't get too wild and think about reading a book. Sincerely, John Q.Public
I was encouraged recently when a 30 something year old friend said to me that we need to bring back shame.
Yes, I have noticed that blaming everybody and everything else has taken the place of shame.
Yup. Because ‘individual responsibility’ is another thing that has gone by the wayside.
Yes yes yes. Bring back shame. Perhaps share this with your friend. More than 40 years ago there was an article in The New Yorker entitled "The Current Crisis in Remorse." It still holds up today. The New Yorker, July 11, 1983 "Remorse is a new area in social work. Narrator worked as professional remorse officer in Dept. of Human Services Remorse followers believe that people who have done bad things should feel sorry for what they did and stop doing it. Narrator cites examples of remorselessness, including criminals as well as your own best friend. City Hall demanded a full-fledged remorse program to be in place in weeks, even days. The program is to be implemented without funding. The narrator's attempts to reform people were largely unsuccessful. Former clients filed a class-action suit against the state demanding restitution, claiming the plan was damaging or inadequately administered. The narrator is demoted to the basement to "assist in the assembly and assessment" of ascertainment files. One day, his supervisor appears in the doorway asking for forgiveness for his unfair treatment. The narrator states he is going to quit. He changes jobs and now is a vice-president at Yakamoto where he has designed a remorse program for assembly-line workers. He is extremely happy and earning a large salary."
That’s government MO is it not? Step in and help looking like a saviour of problems they themselves have created in the first place!
Dennis Prager has expressed strong opinions about the effects of government assistance. He believes that "free money is as addictive as cocaine" . Prager often argues that the expansion of government power reduces the significance and self-reliance of individual citizens , . He suggests that as the government takes on more responsibilities, citizens become less necessary and less capable. https://dennisprager.com/column/the-bigger-the-government-the-smaller-the-citizen
Agreed.
People have become so dependent on the welfare state. It is like drug addiction. It will be very painful and difficult to wean these people off. Then once off will they even be able to find a job to support themselves, especially with AI becoming more and more prevalent.
I might suggest that what the government has is a very bad case of Munchausen syndrome. "People with Munchausen syndrome will fake illnesses or make themselves sick to get medical care and capture the sympathy of others. They invent their illnesses to seek attention, not for financial or material gain." There is one thing that is certain: the government is not at all about financial gain. In fact, it has impoverished all of us by swelling its ranks. It has impoverished everything it touches. It is about "disease control" and not elimination. It is about domination. How else does one control except by creating a "need", whether real or imagined, and then exerting real or psychological manipulation over those most vulnerable? If only the government had a true "upward trajectory" to the Most High, the Creator, and the Savior?
Perfect analogy - our government has Munchausen Syndrome!
And there are plenty of doctors, er, “practitioner's” out there that will be more than happy to sell them pills or surgery to cure their ills.
not to mention the SmithFS types who work for Pfizer
Those getting the “free” stuff seem oblivious to where the money has to come from. Not only oblivious, but intentionally not wanting to know what really has to happen for them to get their free stuff. As long as they get their free stuff they’ll keep voting for whomever promises the most free stuff.
Just as an aside, I would like to remind people that incorporated into that ‘50%’ of Americans being ‘dependent’ on the state, also includes people who are collecting Social Security….in other words, people who worked a lifetime, paid their taxes, paid into Social Security, etc. A good portion of the BBB removes younger people who are scamming the system through Medicaid, etc.
Exactly. That number is extremely misleading. In an average month, about 60 million Americans receive welfare or assistance from safety net programs, which is approximately 19 percent of the US population. That percentage EXCLUDES those who only receive Social Security/ Medicare.
Well said, Mr. Leake. Whatever happened to independence, maturity, work ethic, honesty, personal responsibility, compassion, critical thinking, social manners, and all the rest?
100% agree, I’ve always said this. Comparing the government to parenting. Same thing….
Your statement that the US has been the self-appointed policeman is accurate, and ususally for our government's benefit, not that of the country being "policed". I don't believe it applies currently. Trump IS inserting himself in attempting to get several conflicts ended - stopping the killing instead of encouraging it, the way Clinton, Obama, and Biden (Obama) did. And I am sure you are bright enough to understand ending Iran's attempt to produce nuclear weapons was self-defense, as well as helping to keep Israel from being destroyed by the psychotic, deviant ayatollah and those in their government who agree with him (probably to include the CCP).
When a man repeatedly threatens to kill you, your loved ones, and millions of innocents, standing in front of you as he attempts to load his weapon, are you going to try once more to talk him out of it, or are you going to do what needs to be done?
Our government needs to get back to following the Constitution. What gives the government the right to take away my hard earned money to give to someone who didn’t work to purchase their own healthcare and their own food? People who are too poor to buy health insurance and are not on government assistance to receive healthcare are probably healthier in the long run, anyway.
Taking care of others -- how quickly that becomes taking care of oneself, when you are the government. Thus the country is transformed into a government of Munchausen by proxy.
Written by a property owning white man…no doubt. What about those families with extremely disabled children,through no fault of their own, that need help with medical care for those kids? What are they supposed to do when federal medical help disappears? I am truly asking for answers.
Imagine starting a response with something similarly negative but from the opposite point of view: "Written by a welfare queen, no doubt, who's never worked a day in her life." But to address your question, there's insurance, private charity, mutual aid societies, charitable organizations, etc., that existed prior to the welfare state. Even today, there's everything from individual doctors who do pro-bono treatment to the Shriners Childrens Hospitals. Charity at gunpoint isn't really charity, and government healthcare, like government schooling, produces very poor results, as we saw with the government plandemic called Covid-19.
What are you talking about? What federal help is disappearing? Profoundly disabled children are presumptively eligible for Medicaid everywhere in our country regardless of the parents' income. That has NOT been changed. It covers all disabled children. All states have disability assistance programs that offer financial and supportive services for individuals with disabilities, often complementing federal programs like Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI)(NEITHER OF WHICH WAS DEFUNDED) The state programs, which are paid for in part by the federal government (those payments have not been cancelled), may include cash assistance, enhanced health insurance and other services such as in-home care and assistive technology. Go read the freaking bill before assuming your victim posture.
Good question. I don’t believe that the federal medical help for those people will disappear. The bill that was just passed is trying to get rid of fraud and get illegal immigrants unenrolled from Medicaid. “According to CBO data, some 1.4 million people who are not legal residents of the United States are currently enrolled in Medicaid.” This is from an EPOCH Times article. Here is the article if you are able to access it. How Trump’s Megabill Would Change Medicaid
https://link.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/us/how-trumps-megabill-would-change-medicaid-5881628?utm_medium=app&c=share_pos1&pid=iOS_app_share&utm_source=iOS_app_share
Unfortunately, something happened in the Republican controlled Senate that put back into the bill that passed the ability of illegal aliens to be covered under Medicaid.
Oh dear. You must keep up. The FINAL bill includes language intended to stop federal funding from going to states that use mechanisms, such as provider taxes, to cover undocumented immigrants on Medicaid. While federal law already generally prohibits undocumented immigrants from enrolling in Medicaid, states like California had utilized loopholes to provide coverage. The bill eliminates these loopholes, potentially leading to the removal of millions of undocumented individuals from these state-funded programs to ensure Medicaid primarily serves eligible citizens.
The bill also restricts Medicaid eligibility for some lawfully present immigrants, even those with legal status, for certain federal healthcare and safety net programs like Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and SNAP.
I agree. Every conversation about "welfare" should include the caveat that those truly in need should still be taken care of by the community (society) at large. To do otherwise would be just another form of human degradation.
WAKE UP AMERICA
Only hope