The Politics of Cause and Effect

American  Thinker 

Cause and effect is a pretty simple concept; touch a hot strove and feel the pain. Or get mom really mad and wait for dad to get home.

Our friends at Google describe it this way:

The relationship where one event or condition (the cause) leads to another event or result (the effect). A cause is the reason something happens, while the effect is what happens because of it. Understanding this concept helps in making sense of events, analyzing situations, and predicting future outcomes by identifying how one thing triggers another.

A great deal of learning -- both as a child and an adult -- rests on understanding cause and effect. Most of our lives are based on it to a larger degree than we might realize.

In fact, is learning even possible without the knowledge gained by cause and effect? When one thinks about it, every single advancement in all of history was driven by understanding cause and effect. All of science, agriculture, manufacturing, medicine, everything.

But what if your hand seemingly randomly burned hours or days after touching the hot stove. How could you understand what was happening? Could you make the mental connection between the two and thus, how could you ensure it didn’t happen again? Without a clear understanding of cause and effect it would be like living in a country-wide insane asylum. 

As a child, how would you have learned how to throw or catch a ball, or ride a bike or a thousand other things? Learning “this” works better than “that” is key to developing understanding of both simple and complex systems.

Which leads us to politics, government, and the importance of understanding cause and effect for a self-governing people. Can a self-governing people survive long with little to no understanding of cause and effect in the political choices they make? Especially when the time between cause and effect is measured in months, if not years and decades.

Can one make the connections that are required to actually identify the truth and thus steer political thinking and decisions? And if not, it would seem catastrophic societal failure is sooner or later all but guaranteed.

This is the problem the modern behemoth state confronts. Often the effects of actions take a long time to even remotely become evident. Throw in the reality that there are a lot of other things happening all the time -- each with its own cause and effect -- and truly grasping specific cause-and-effect becomes quite difficult.

It is clear modern societies are failing far too often on this front. This allows demagogues, tyrants -- both large and small -- and others who crave power to twist supposed cause and effect for their own benefit. History shows it often leads to countries demanding more of the poison that is killing them in the hope it is just the medicine they need.

It allows political parties to claim credit for the good things “their” policies did and direct blame for the bad at their political opponents, the truth be damned. This might succeed in a political race or two but it is difficult to see how it can work long-term for a society. 

And as free people we are foolish to allow this game to be played as clearly understanding actual cause and effect is a prerequisite for a functioning complex society. Becoming even more and more tribal in our false understanding of cause and effect is the path to ruin. Yet that is the path many have chosen.

It seems the only possible solution is to have a belief system founded on the bedrock of reality. Luckily, this has largely been discovered. Individual freedom and small, limited government protected by a written constitution is clearly the path. The cause and effect are obvious.

The many will always be smarter than the few. Individual freedom allows the wonders of swarm intelligence to flourish. It acts as an incredible IQ multiplier for the society.

Socialism, communism, all collectivist thinking is based on a purposeful warping of cause and effect, all for the power and wealth of a handful. These have never worked and never will because they ignore the realities of cause and effect. They restrict and even end swarm intelligence and thus act as incredible societal IQ reducers. 

Look around the globe. Look at history. The evidence is overwhelming.

Our schools should teach this, but public K-12 and colleges and universities have for the most part completely abandoned it. Instead, they have fed young minds indoctrination with only false tribal cause-and-effect.

Are you poor? That’s because those rich SOBs are stealing from you! You are innocent and a victim and revenge is owed to you. This and a thousand other poisonous lies are fed to students and citizens each and every day. 

Can a free people survive with this rot spreading throughout the entire culture? We are quickly finding out.

Entertainment thread for Dec 4

 

Hopefully things are peaceful on your end.

Minnesota Added To Trump's Third-World Travel Ban

 

U.S.·Dec 2, 2025 · BabylonBee.com

U.S. — In addition to preventing people from entering the United States from various nations around the world, the White House revealed on Tuesday that Minnesota had been added to President Trump's third-world travel ban.

The additional order would officially keep anyone from the foreign land of Minnesota from entering the U.S., eliciting a collective sigh of relief from Americans across the country who live in fear of encountering dangerous immigrants from the North Star State.

"They're not sending us our best," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after adding Minnesota to the travel ban. "Murderers, rapists, criminals of all kinds. We can't trust these foreigners from Minnesota to follow our laws, so I'm officially banning them from entering our country. Minnesota is filled with people who hate America, so they don't need to be coming here anyway. If we find any Minnesotans in other places around the country, we'll deport them back to their home state."

In response to being added to Trump's third-world travel ban, mobs of angry Minnesotans took to the streets to wave Somali flags and set buildings on fire. "Death to America!" shouted one Minnesotan. "We hate this country we migrated to and will work tirelessly to participate in its downfall, but this proves that Trump is a fascist!"

The White House clarified that the travel ban would remain in place until the U.S. could negotiate an agreement to ensure that Americans would remain safe from Minnesotans.

At publishing time, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had been barred from leaving the state after President Trump accused Minnesota of emptying its mental institutions and attempting to send deranged people into the U.S.

Walz Reminds Nation Not All Somali Rapists Are Bad People

 

U.S.·Dec 4, 2025 · BabylonBee.com

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Amid national outrage over Somali immigrants in Minneapolis raping people all the time, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz held a press conference to assure concerned citizens that not all Somali rapists are bad people.

"I'm friends with a lot of Somali rapists, and they really aren't all bad," said Walz while prancing back and forth across the stage to the delight of his voters in the press. "Somali rapists are some of the nicest, smartest, most polite people I know, and many of them contribute to the economy somehow. Anyone who is prejudiced against them should be ashamed of himself or herself or theyself."

Walz's statement was interrupted by commotion in the crowd as a Somali rapist tried to rape someone.

"Ok, cut that out, this isn't the time or place," said Walz sternly. "Soomaali qurux badan baad tahay, dhaqankaaga qurxoonna waan ixtiraamayaa!"

Democrats admitted that while Somali rapists have caused some tensions among the local population, which is currently being raped, that rape was an important part of Somali culture and must be respected. "All cultures are equal," said Minneapolis DA Mary Moriarty to reporters. "I learned that in school."

At publishing time, thousands of Somali rapists were forced to leave the country to search for people they hadn't raped yet.

The Intelligence Branch Answers to No One

American  Thinker 

Can self-government exist alongside centralized intelligence agencies?  Espionage agencies seek secrets and keep secrets.  To the extent that they inform the public what they know, they decide which secrets can be disclosed.  Now this may be the only way for a clandestine service to operate, but it certainly does not equip the public to make fully-informed decisions.  When choosing which policies or representatives to support, voters know nothing of substance within the classified world.

Western nations that call themselves “democracies” try to obfuscate this issue by pretending two things: (1) that intelligence agencies work, at all times, for the public good and (2) that a small body of elected officials effectively supervise the work of government spies.  These are comforting delusions.  

In regard to the first delusion, a citizen need merely ask, “How do spies determine the public good?”  Do spy agencies conduct operations that the general public would likely reject?  Do the worldviews of intelligence officers affect how they pursue strategic objectives?  If the answers to those questions are “yes,” then espionage agencies pursue what they perceive to be in the public’s best interests and not necessarily what the public would choose for itself.  As much as secretive agencies may believe that they are in a better position to make those judgments, they are still substituting their own judgments for the public’s.

In regard to the second delusion, it is unreasonable to assume that a small number of elected representatives can exercise effective oversight of large, secretive agencies.  When the activities of government agencies are hidden behind veils of classifications and compartmentalizations, elected officials often struggle to know where to look or what questions to ask.  When black budgets give spy agencies authority to spend funds at their discretion, lawmakers’ “power of the purse” largely disappears.  Effectively, intelligence services say, “Trust us,” and if a small number of lawmakers say, “We do,” then the public is expected to agree.

Because of the sensitive nature of their work, intelligence agencies are routinely portrayed in both the news media and pop culture as professional organizations filled with serious people.  They are accorded tremendous respect because their mission directives involve life-and-death issues of national security.  When covert agencies make their conclusions public, most of the public tends to accept those conclusions as true.

There’s something strange about that, isn’t there?  The public understands that centralized intelligence agencies trade in secrets and lies.  Citizens expect clandestine services to spread disinformation and propaganda if doing so serves their interests.  However, when the very institutions that construct alternative realities manufactured from endless lies tell the public that something is true, the public is expected to believe them.

The number of lies that the CIA has told the public since its formation in 1947 is vast.  In recent years, though, two stand out: (1) Former CIA director John Brennan conspired with other Intelligence Community officials to frame President Trump as a Russian spy.  (2) Fifty-one prominent Intelligence officials worked to discredit true reporting with regards to Hunter Biden’s criminally damning “laptop from Hell” by insinuating that the contents of the laptop were part of a Russian disinformation operation.  In the former instance, members of the Intelligence Community actively led an effort to sabotage a legitimately elected president and induce his resignation or removal from office.  In the latter instance, members of the Intelligence Community actively undermined a presidential election by helping to censor truth and spread lies.  

Both of these egregious offenses occurred simultaneously to the Intelligence Community’s widespread efforts to spy on elected officials, political candidates, and American voters with total disregard for the Fourth Amendment’s requirements for particularized warrants issued after first establishing probable cause that a crime has been committed.  America’s spy agencies unlawfully targeted Americans, influenced elections, and arguably engaged in an attempted coup d’état against President Trump and his administration.  

These are significant issues that should command Americans’ attention.  Instead, Democrat politicians and news organizations are busy encouraging insubordination among military servicemembers and claiming that attacks on narcoterrorists amount to “war crimes.”  Rather than recognizing that Intelligence Community lies have recently been weaponized to spy on Americans and undermine elections, complicit officials and media institutions are trying to distract Americans with new “narratives” meant to sabotage the Trump administration once again.  The Intelligence Community’s ongoing efforts to subvert the presidency constitute a national emergency.  

Institutional capture exists when a small body of actors pursue their own personal interests instead of advancing the institution’s intended purpose.  This deleterious phenomenon occurs regularly in bureaucracies.  When government regulators in the public health sector, for instance, advance the interests of pharmaceutical and food production companies in exchange for promises of future employment, external companies are said to have “captured” the very regulatory bodies meant to investigate them and safeguard the public.  When foreign governments donate large sums of money to the family foundations of U.S. lawmakers, corrupt members of the House and Senate become de facto employees of foreign nations.  

The only way to combat such forms of corruption is for outside public interest groups and vigilant citizens to keep an eye on the flow of money between external groups and government actors.  Although it often takes a great deal of time to recognize the presence of bad government actors, mandatory disclosure rules provide valuable evidence that parts of the government no longer work for the people.

How are Americans supposed to police similar institutional capture when it concerns Intelligence agencies?  The names of workers are kept secret.  Budgets are kept secret.  Mission objectives are kept secret.  Ongoing relationships with private companies and foreign nations are kept secret.  Because so much of the espionage world operates under a “need to know” umbrella, it is nearly impossible for Americans to separate the bad actors from the good.  The “Intelligence Branch” of the federal government — both all-powerful and completely absent from the Constitution’s explicit design — operates as if it were above the law because it largely answers to no one.  

However one might value the work of our spy agencies, surely their capacity to subvert the constitutional order whenever they see fit undermines any traditional notion of self-government.  The fact that they undermined both the 2016 and 2020 elections without receiving so much as a slap on the wrist reveals who holds the real power in this country.  

While Democrats call President Trump a “tyrant,” real tyranny cloaks itself in Top Secret classifications and national security directives.  When spies spread lies to manipulate the American people and cover up evidence of their own crimes, they don’t work as “public servants.”  They are “masters” over Intelligence fiefdoms.  There’s nothing “democratic” about that.

The Democrats Always Take Sides Against Normal People Like You

Townhall 

There’s one thing you can be sure of about Democrats, the regime media, and left-wing degenerates in general – they’re always going to take somebody else’s side in a fight. They’re never going to take your side. They’re never going to take the side of decent, patriotic, and normal Americans – in fact, they hate decent, patriotic, and normal Americans. Hate them. And not just a little. They cultivate a burning hatred of us, a loathing that exceeds all reason and understanding. Maybe it’s because they realize they’re freakish perverts. Maybe they recognize that they’re greedy mediocrities and desperately resent that normal people refuse to recognize them as their betters. Or maybe it’s simply that normal people are an obstacle to their power.

It doesn’t matter why. It only matters that they despise you. You may not think of them, but they’re always thinking about you and how to hurt you. You may want to live and let live. They want to live and let you die. How do we know? Because they tell us. It’s all over social media. They elected a guy who wanted to watch our kids die. When that bizarre pervert murdered Charlie Kirk, what did they do? Many of them cheered. And many others at least had the tactical savvy to do their cheering in their own bubble and not let us see. You’re a Nazi, a racist, an Islamophobe, a transphobe, a fascist - whatever is the bad thing to you, you are it. And you must pay. 

Every single one of their policy positions reflects that. Every single policy is aimed at helping the people who want to hurt you.

Some disgusting Afghan immigrant, welcomed generously into this country and supplied with all sorts of welfare since we, of course, can’t expect Third World peasants to support themselves and must, for reasons and because, labor to subsidize their stay in our country, decided to repay our generosity by murdering one of our soldiers and wounding another. Where did the left’s sympathy lie? Was it with the young woman ambushed and murdered on the street wearing the uniform of our country? Was it the other soldier, who is still fighting for his life? No. It was with the scumbag who did it, the jihadi freak who shouted out “Allah Akbar” before he shot down our people. When Norm McDonald posted his famous tweet about the real tragedy of an ISIS nuclear attack being increased Islamophobia, it was a joke. Now it’s reality, offered irony-free by the moral lepers who posture as our moral superiors. Yeah, the real problem is that Americans are too intolerant of seventh-century savages.

What about perverts? What else do you call the deviants who pretend they’re women to hang around in girls’ locker rooms? Whose side does the left take? Does it take the side of the girls or the side of the leering creeps who are drooling over the girls? They take the side of the creeps. Your girls are supposed to bear the burden of the mutants’ perversions. Your women are supposed to carry the weight of this freak show. The autogynephiles who dress like Carmen Miranda get the benefits, and you get the cost. Oh, and if you’re upset about it, they’re going to call you names; if they can, they’ll get you fired, expelled, or even persecuted. What explanation could there possibly be for siding with weirdos who pretend to be a different gender so they can touch themselves in a woman’s locker room, other than an absolute hatred of normal people? 

And how about illegal aliens? They come to our country, they pillage our welfare state, and a bunch of them commit terrible crimes. They’re not supposed to be here. Remember that whole thing about “Our Democracy” being important? You know, how we’re supposed to be able to vote for our own laws and govern ourselves? Well, we did that. We decided they can’t be here. We decided they have to go home. But we don’t get to do that. We get to pass laws; we just don’t get to enforce them. So, where’s “Our Democracy?” All the people babbling to you about democracy love democracy right up until the moment people like us, normal patriotic people, dare to participate in it.

They always side with the illegal aliens. The regime media is particularly disgusting. Every time we see a sob story, if they mention the inevitable M. Night Shyamalan surprise twist at all in their article, it’s on paragraph 48 after 47 paragraphs of how the person is hard-working, wonderful, loving, and a contributor to society, and then you get to the last paragraph and they casually mention the guy has been convicted of axe murder, is on welfare, and had a pending deportation order – which results from that due process we hear so much about – since 2011.

But we’re the bad guys. We’re the bad guys because we want the laws our elected representatives pass enforced. We’re the bad guys because we don’t want our families killed. We’re the bad guys because we want a say in what our culture is, and what we say is that we don’t want it to be like the Third World hellholes these people came from. We’re the bad guys because we don’t want to have to work to support our own families, plus support the families of people who shouldn’t be here in the first place.

How about criminals? Yeah, we have an incarceration problem in America – there’s too damn little of it. Anyone else as tired as I am of seeing some young woman killed by some sick freak who’s been in and out of jail 37 times and gets freed once again by a leftist judge who feels sorry for him, and how the charges are dropped by a Soros DA who thinks the real crime problem is normal people complaining about crime.

What’s their solution to crime? First, they don’t admit crime is a problem. The problem is us noticing it. But when pressed, what is their solution? Is it putting criminals in jail? No. It’s making sure that normal people don’t get to resist criminals! If you happen to fight a criminal who’s trying to hurt someone else, you’re often the one who’s going to go to jail. A bunch of scumbags break into your house and, if you shoot them, you’re the one in the dock. Yeah, their solution is to disarm the people who aren’t committing crimes to make sure they can’t stop the people who are committing crimes. But that’s not the solution to the crime problem. Like I said, they don’t think crime is a problem. They think it’s a tool. Taking our guns and our right to self-defense is their solution to the “citizens being able to defend themselves against criminals and tyranny” problem.

Oh, and overseas, you can always count on them supporting the away team. According to them, you’ve got some moral obligation to at least subsidize the inter-tribal warfare between groups of people that we know little about, and who have been fighting their far-away wars for eons. The only exception is when it’s in America’s interest to support a foreign country – in that case, we absolutely cannot do it. We can never side with America! And taking your tax money to fuel the fighting is not enough. No, we know the next step because we’ve been down this road before, and we’ve seen Americans come back up that road in boxes. The next step is sending our young people – which means your sons and daughters because you know their precious Kadens and Ashlieghs aren’t going – to go fight idiotic wars that do nothing for the United States except impoverish us and kill the best of us.

Every time they could stand up for us, they stand up for the people against us. They’re mad at Trump for tariffs, which were designed to get American workers to stop being victimized by unequal trade deals. They’re mad at Trump because he wants to cut off aid to ungrateful foreigners and make their transgender mind troupes pay for their own performances. They’re mad because Trump is ending DEI that discriminates against normal hard-working Americans – they will actually tell you it’s not racism if they discriminate against white people or Asians or even blacks and Hispanics who don’t tow the party line. They’re mad at Trump because his Secretary of War is killing the drug dealers who bring in the poison that murders 100,000 Americans a year. They’re mad that our sons and daughters aren’t going to OD. Wouldn’t it be nice if they got mad at someone hurting Americans, instead of at Americans who are fighting back?

Is there any reasonable explanation for any of this except that they hate you? They want to destroy you. They want to break you. You are the enemy because you’re normal and patriotic and you believe in God instead of the angry weather demons.

Am I overdoing it? Am I overstating the case? Is this exaggeration? Let’s do a little test. You’re a normal person. When was the last time that the establishment sided with you? When was the last time that the Democrats stood up and said, “Hey you, I’m going to protect you and yours from criminals, from perverts, and from evil foreigners both here and abroad?” When’s the last they didn’t insist that you take whatever is dished out by the criminals, the perverts, and the evil foreigners? When was the last time someone else got asked to take one for the team?

I’m waiting. Just name one time, and don’t tell me about something that happened in 1945. Just name one instance where they took your side any time this century. Just one.

I’m waiting.

I’m going to be waiting a long time.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to tolerate this. We don’t have to take it. They’ve got one weapon – the awesome power of whining. Here’s all we have to do: Not care what they say. Not pay attention when they cry. Not give a damn how unhappy they are that we’re standing up for ourselves, that we are prioritizing our own people, and that we are putting America First.

Time to take our own side in this fight because no one else will.

🎭 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓

 

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