A Tale of Two Societies

Shorter posts—one promise I’ve failed to make good on. Although I’m fairly certain each installment of the Rending of a Recall series was slightly more compact than usual, my goal moving forward is to either compress or divide my ancillary posts (like commission recaps) into something that is lighter and more manageable.

It’s not for you, so much, but for me. It’s become almost impossible to keep up with KFC’s endless onslaught of lunacy. Too much folly is slipping through the cracks. Mind you, this is not entirely by accident. The axis of asininity, whether they know it or not, has been using a powerful subversive propaganda strategy called the Firehose of Falsehood. Coined by RAND to describe a disinformation strategy frequently utilized by the Russians, it’s defined as follows:

The firehose of falsehood is a propaganda technique in which a large number of messages are broadcast rapidly, repetitively, and continuously over multiple channels (such as news and social media) without regard for truth or consistency.

Uncanny, isn’t it? Again, I’m not sure KFC is consciously deploying this strategy, at least not the K and C parts. They’re not that sophisticated. I suspect they came upon it intuitively, maybe even instinctively, the way baby scorpions know how to sting the moment they are born.

At any rate, to have any hope of keeping up with all the shenanigans, I am going to have to rely more on you, dear reader. In other words, when it comes to the more routine posts, I will likely begin sharing content with considerably less commentary and let you fill in the blanks. I will do a lot more showing and considerably less telling.

I’ll still write plenty of meaty posts, to be sure. I’m working on some now. But after almost one year and approximately 80,000 words devoted to Gables politics, I’m willing to bet you have a pretty good grasp of my thinking and probably don’t need a dissertation every time Dr. Castro says “enchancements.”

With that said, I am going to post two clips from last week’s commission meeting sans analysis. I will, however, ask you to participate in a brief thought experiment.

Imagine you are captured and beamed to an alien world that is much like Earth. Your extraterrestrial captors tell you that you must live out your days on their planet, a planet that is home to only two societies, one of which you must choose to join. These societies are distinguished by marked social, philosophical, and political differences, none of which you will have the luxury of studying. The only information you have to aid your decision are two short videos featuring a representative of each society. You are told each representative espouses the fundamental ethos of their respective populations. You must make your decision immediately after watching the videos or you will be fed to a sand worm.

These are the videos. Whose society do you choose?