The other ‘one percent’

We always hear about the “one percent”—you know, THE ones at the top; you know, the ones who have orchestrated these most recent stage shows for the masses.

But what about the other ‘one percent’—those who may not think and perceive like the masses, but are not at the top of this inflicted hierarchy? What about those of us who somehow have not been sucked into the consensus reality—those of us who see from such a unique vantage point? There isn’t much, if any, mention of us. We’re the fringe, the one percent, who lay off to the side—waaaaaay way off to the side. We’d barely even make it on to the hierarchical chart if one were to pencil us in.

How did we (well, I really should speak for myself) get here?

Until now, I never quite felt the animosity and misunderstanding arising from those at the bottom of this imposed hierarchy. It was typically a top-down phenomenon, as is the case with most experience on this planet.

But this newly created, albeit completely contrived (as it is still being orchestrated from the top), aggression and judgement from the bottom is indeed, off-the-charts.

Admittedly, I have always prided myself for being an outsider—nearly wearing a badge of honor that denotes me “Outsider, and proud of it.” Well, the newest badge—the unmasked face—is not self-imposed. However, I am grateful to have not fallen victim to mass indoctrination. And, I can certainly breathe better than most these days—but not optimally, because seeing covered faces somehow causes my breathing to be shallow. I feel short-of-breath, regardless. Somehow, I feel less healthy when those around me wear masks. How does that make any sense?

Well, last night I finally broke down in full-on tears. (I kind of sobbed, I would say.) It was a moment of vulnerability. The past four months, I have held strong. I have channeled any inner sadness, anger or judgement that has arisen, and then redirected it toward analyzing the situation and writing about it. I have exchanged lengthy emails and texts with people who “are on my page.”

I didn’t think I felt so alone. After all, I have some friends I can talk to about how it feels to be the outsider in the present moment—dare I say it—”the new normal”. Oh, that phrase packs a punch right there for me. But I have not seen friends in person since the quarantine was instituted. I have also made many NEW friends—simply because of this dystopian nightmare we find ourselves in. Don’t get me wrong, I am truly grateful to have made new friends. In fact, I would not have the opportunity to share this diatribe had I not engaged and developed a relationship with these terrific and highly insightful guys here at PoM.

With that said, after traveling 90 minutes yesterday to visit with friends who I have not seen since my wedding (it’s been 25 years!)—in a very destructive thunderstorm, no less—it really hit me. Suddenly, I felt forsaken. To think, I had to travel a ways just to connect—physically connect—with others who I can have a normal, healthy conversation AND commiserate over how we perceive this situation and how we are truly feeling about it. The loneliness set in. I am not one to feel lonely—at least not before this. But maybe loneliness isn’t even the right word, and I am definitely reluctant to say the “I” word—”isolated”. We’ve all heard that enough. Perhaps I would describe it as an aching void. It’s more of an emptiness, I suppose. It’s like something very key is missing—like an element of shared humanity.

I am human. I just want to preserve my humanity. So, yeah, I had a really human moment last night. The sadness all bubbled up to the top, and spilled out. I suppose it was time. There’s no weakness in that—just as there’s no weakness in humans getting sick and going about life as usual, without imposed tyrannical directives and restrictions.

As I am out and about, I notice the mask wearers are no longer wearing a “mask”—at least not from their perspective. Their face coverings have become standard practice. It’s now fully integrated into their daily attire—like putting on a necktie or prescription eyeglasses. It’s their normal.

I am now officially an outsider—and this time it’s being prescribed by the top one percent AND the bottom 98 percent. I am the obvious outsider now— it’s in your face (pun intended). I am the other one percent, being intentionally pushed aside, and it feels awful, downright awful.

I will not allow this moment of vulnerability, though, to steer me awry. I will stay my course, regardless. I will continue to find kindred spirits, and we will maintain the course together, and honor what is left of our humanity. I have much faith in this.

Thanks for listening.

34 thoughts on “The other ‘one percent’”

  1. When I am out shopping, I try to acknowledge those who do not wear a mask, telling them I appreciate them for not wearing one. I also apologize to the cashiers and other workers who are forced to wear those evil things to keep their jobs. Many of them tell me they hate the masks and know that they are bullshit.

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  2. 224 – You’re Invited to the Biggest Masquerade of all Time

    Crow777 posted a fantastic discussion today. I got an email from them, just as I finished writing my rant. So I listened to the first hour (as I am not currently a paid subscriber). They echoed my sentiments so synchronously, I thought it seemed appropriate to link to this episode. Hope you’ll listen.

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  3. Try living as that one percent for the last thirty years. After a decade or two, it doesn’t even bother one. It becomes part of life. Actually starting to appreciate the mask bs. A quick way to sort the herd.

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  4. Try living that way for the last 30 years. After a decade or two, it doesn’t even bother one. It becomes a part of life. Actually, I’m starting to appreciate the mask bs. A quick way to sort the herd.

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    1. A moment ago, I ran to a local supermarket to pick up a few things for tonight’s meal. An armored car pulled up to deliver some change and/or pick up a few dollars for bank deposit. His big black swag satchel and big black sidearm were really complemented by the big black mask on his face, and he looked quite foreboding. Then it occurred to me — heretofore, it was always the guys HOLDING UP armored cars who masked their faces (at least in the movies). What a perfect inversion of reality of Old Testament proportion they have wrought.

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  5. Mask= Cowardice. Do not accept it. Do not accept anything that claims to be “the new normal”. Frisco will be the last to “open” because of real estate value and the resistance of the tech riche to give up their leveraged real estate. This is ironic because the Bay Area was the first to go lock down. The resistance to giving in and selling cheap has been formidable, but it’s over. Mid July and the process will be complete. That tech economy will be gone and $5 cups of coffee will be a thing of the past. Not that I care. I’m a bureaucrat. And a Teamster. Wheeeee….! (Actually, I’m the 5% if you include Chiraque and Sugar Ditch Alabama, all of rural South America and the homeless. No. I’m not proud.)

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  6. Thank you for sharing this honest and thoughtful reflection.

    I predict that in 12 months, five years, maybe twenty years from now, you’ll be grateful that you made the effort to write down your thoughts like this. We are living in truly bizarre times, for many of us our emotions — more than that, our (for want of a better term) spirits — have been shaken up by this in ways which are inevitably going to be difficult to unpack while we are still in the middle of the experience. By documenting your thoughts like this, I think you are doing your future self a good service.

    This is how I feel about my own material over the last few months. I hope and expect that I’ll be able to listen back to the podcasts, watch back on the videos, and better reconnect with how I am/was feeling in the first half of 2020, when some serious shiiiiet is/was going down. There has been nothing like this in my lifetime, there may be nothing like it again.

    As for the isolation, have those of us with eyes to see ever been so simultaneously connected and disconnected? At places like PoM / fakeologist / JLB.com there has been a buzz of activity, and with rare exception the consensus has been clear: this pandemic is at best an exaggeration and at worst a complete hoax from start to finish.

    And yet the regular people around us, who I lovingly refer to as normies, have never been so obviously idiotic and moronic. They fell for it: hook, line and sinker.

    Of course there are exceptions. Somebody in my immediate family, who I would not have expected this from, told me back in March (iirc) that they believed this was a media beatup. It was heartwarming to hear this person say that.

    I’m sure there are lots of similar examples out there, normies who know that there is something amiss with all of this. And yet if we were to attempt to carry the conversation further, into the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ and the ‘what comes next’, we know it wouldn’t take long for the veneer of insight to fade away. God love them, the normies can only ever see so much, only ever see so far.

    My own experience in the ‘real world’, offline, over the past few months has been unusual to say the least. I don’t know anybody here in Kuala Lumpur, I arrived just before the lockdown began. My onward flight to Jakarta was canceled. I’ve spent three months in solitude, and they’ve been three of the most productive months of my entire life. Can you imagine, day after day, speaking to nobody other than to say ‘eyez-lar-day’ at the local convenience store?

    I didn’t consciously ask for this to be my 2020, and yet I can’t help but wonder if on a subconscious level, a spiritual level, this is exactly what I was asking for, what I wanted: an excuse (even a direction from the popo) to stay the **** inside and spend some time in reflection, away from the distractions of bars, alcohol, crowds… Three solid months (with more to come) to work on those things I’ve been saying ‘some day’ for years now.

    [Speaking of which, I know of many people who say that they ‘want to do this’, ‘want to do that’, but they ‘just don’t have the time’. From now on I can plainly ignore these people. We’ve all had three months of time to do those things we’ve been saying we were going to do, and for most of us — myself included — there’s things we still haven’t done. We can no longer use the excuse of ‘time’, now, can we?]

    Regarding the ‘1%’, if only it were 1% of people who think for themselves. There’d be entire cities full of people who know about Nayirah and WMDs and OBL’s hi-tech bunkers; in these cities the face masks would be worn for ironic purposes only. But these cities don’t exist, the 1% doesn’t exist. Even within the broader conspiracy subculture, it has taken until now for the majority to merely begin questioning the ‘pandemic’, even though the hoax was obvious from day one.

    The masses are bots, pure and simple. One minute it is ‘stay home save lives’, the next minute it is ‘black lives matter, get out and protest’. Orwell called it doublethink, I call it programming, we can call it whatever we want: these people CANNOT and WILL NOT ever think beyond what the crowd tells them to believe, and since the crowd is controlled by the authorities, that’s the end of the matter. The grand storytellers call the shots.

    AUTHOR-ities.

    I wonder what they have in store next for 2020. How do you top a global hoax-demic and threats of American martial law? Maybe I’d make for a lazy scriptwriter, but WWIII has to be on the cards, surely. And of course many on this blog will know that if/when WWIII is declared, it will in fact be a hoax, one in which nobody will die, nobody will get hurt by some Red Army.

    If only we were 1% who could see that. We’d be lucky if it were 1% of 1%.

    Well, we’ve got PoM, Fakeo, and other outlets to discuss these things, and for that I’m grateful. Thanks again for the post, Stephers, much appreciated 🙂

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    1. JLB – Did I bring out the softer side of you, here? Just messing with you. Yeah, I agree with you on the numbers breakdown you suggested. I’m no mathematician.

      Let’s just say, as you know, that I went with “mathematical license” (if that were a thing, like poetic license) here. 🙂 I’d say if we are talking about the actual numbers of those like us here at PoM, and at Fakeologist, and your JLB forum (I would also add in the group over at Matt’s QoC channel as well), who can see through the illusion – the facade – we’d barely get to one percent of the one percent, as you said. But if we’re referring to “outsiders” in general – those who feel like outcasts and don’t blend in with the masses – for one reason or another – I’d say that number is considerably higher (maybe close to one percent?). I am not a numbers gal though.

      I have to wonder though if, in times like this, some of that outsider group has the potential to slide on over into ours – even if they just inchworm over. I don’t know – just wishful thinking, I suppose.

      As I hear from others in the comments, it seems that, even if some others don’t see what we see – not quite on the level per sé – there are some who can feel something’s off, and feel that inner resistance to wearing a degrading mask. I saw a college kid in a shop yesterday (we were both getting takeout food), and he was wearing a very loose bandana as his face covering. As I was not wearing a mask (I always say I have a medical exemption if asked by store owners/employees), he pulled down his mask to talk to me. Then a buddy of his walked in and they gave each other a huge “bro” hug (not permitted you know, these days in public). I said, “Oh, guess you don’t follow the social distancing rule, huh?” (which, of course is required in the shop) He said, “No way, and that’s a buddy of mine from ——” (he stated where they went to college about 2 1/2 hours away). I said, “It must feel pretty degrading wearing that mask.” He replied affirmatively.

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    2. I wonder what they have in store next for 2020. How do you top a global hoax-demic and threats of American martial law? Maybe I’d make for a lazy scriptwriter, but WWIII has to be on the cards, surely. And of course many on this blog will know that if/when WWIII is declared, it will in fact be a hoax, one in which nobody will die, nobody will get hurt by some Red Army.

      That is the natural progression, with many signs pointing precisely that way. They’ve been setting it up for many years, sowing the seeds and programming people, people too young to remember, even inter-generationally, how the previous big business began in ’39. Economic destabilization, strong solutions offered to answer popular outcry, scary conflicts in faraway lands, then our conflict with faraway lands, and suddenly SNAFU. Nothing new, except the scenery. Why worry? This is life, so live it.

      There has been nothing like this in my lifetime, there may be nothing like it again.

      But Good, the Bad will get ugly. It’s continuance. Not even you can believe that feeble and transparent Covid8 was more than a blip on the global radar. They needed it to light the fuse, with fireworks on the way. This IS their time for the setup: what, do you think while people are “reflecting” and “staying inside” and are “isolated”, tptb are not working on something big (and it surely aint 5G)? Why the benefit of doubt? As you say, however, nobody will die and nobody will get hurt. Except those who do. The suffragettes will march for equal rights to win hearts, the marionettes will march into certain death to win medals, but we’ll be all relieved of most of our gains and then all of our worries, and finally in peace the whole cycle will begin again. Though more interesting than second-guessing the high command is living real lives parallel to an unreal world.

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      1. “Though more interesting than guessing the high command is living real lives parallel to an unreal world.”

        Beautifully said, AFLATOXIN.

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    3. it is not even one percent of one percent since one percent of 7 billion is 70 million, and one percent of one percent is 7 million… and even 7 million is far more than is at the top…the families and governors running things…700,000 seems more correct for both the one percenters no?

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  7. I fell you, Fauxlex. (Admin note: post is by Stephers)

    What’s helped me go through this horrible period is my spiritual practices and my friend with whom I’m trying to get to the bottom of all this.
    Sometimes I felt very angry but I kept reminding myself this is a test on our mind and don’t want them to win and end up controlling me and taking my energy through my bad emotions.

    I’ve always been an outsider, since secondary school, where I was bullied because I never accepted anything without questioning things first.
    I paid a huge price for being who I am, believe me. I had experiences other people thought were a symptom of madness, I always preferred to read a book than hanging out with guys, I never really wanted what most women want (not that there’s anything wrong with that of course) that is getting married and raise a family.
    Always accepted other people’s lifestyles and opinions, they never accepted mine though.
    I was too weird for a girl then a woman.
    So I know what loneliness is although I now have a wonderful partner and a few good friends, and I’m happy with my life.

    But I gave up on trying to make people understand the world we’re living in. I realised it’s a lost cause, at least in Italy.
    Only a few people here are refusing to wear the mask, including me, the rest of the Italians are just a flock of sheep who believe there’s gonna be a second wave of Covid in autumn and are going totally mad cos everyone’s gonna die. You try to explain it’s all a lie, there weren’t bodies piled along the streets, this is not a plague, but it’s time wasted.
    They want to be sick, cos they’re already sick.
    Never thought I would witness so much hatred in people who see people like me not wearing a mask.
    But I never wore it a my own risk, I don’t care if I het fined or whatever, I just go to a local supermarket in my village where people are allowed to go in without mask and gloves, and I’ll keep doing that as long as I can.

    All the topics we tackle here are not something I can talk about with a couple of people only, one of them is my partner who’s like me, but I don’t care, I’ve always known it’s not easy and that people prefer the blue pill to the red one we swallowed years ago.
    And when you do, you need to find a whole new meaning to life outside the rules of the system and it’s delusional world, or it will end up killing you.

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  8. I’m out and about delivering all over town all day 5-6 days a week and around here, it’s only about 25% or so of the populace that voluntarily continues to wear those silly face coverings in public (I’m not including those on the clock and forced to by their employers). It’s still saddening even though I’m in the clear majority on that point since a fair number of people still run inside (at homes and businesses alike) when they see me arrive or want their packages set “over there” (and which they promptly grab five seconds later), trying to forgo basic human interaction still. The number who do interact with me normally is slowly growing, but I still feel disheartened every time I hear someone “brave” enough to forgo the silly mask state something aloud about the possibility of IT “coming back” or some such malarkey.

    Perhaps I feel this way because all the “gathering place” businesses that I’d tend to show up at in my personal life are still either shut down (will they even be able to reopen financially at this point?) or forcing the face covering and spacing nonsense in order to prove their compliance with the current state-level “reopening phase” (In the case of the latter, I have personally let a few know that I refuse to patronize the place until and unless they remove that mandate and stressed that the covering of my breathing passages was a health risk). My personal recreation time is, therefore, fairly limited still. However, I kid myself if I don’t give credit to my daily interactions with the bottom 98%, as you called them. It’s pathetic that they’ve allowed themselves to believe that they must be wary of even exchanging simple pleasantries for the few seconds that we could be face-to-face when I show up to their door as they would have just a few months ago.

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  10. I am tempted now and then to go down the road of despair, but what we are seeing with the masked world is really an unmasking of the depths of depravity of the human race. A mask is a sign that school brainwashing followed by years of consumer news and entertainment has had its effect, and that these people have lost their minds. Don’t go probing, Steph. If you scratch underneath the mask, you will find ignorance and fear, maybe hatred too. Unwear your mask with pride.

    How do we stand tall and alone? We support one another. What do we do when we find we have to have a COVID ID card to travel or go to a ball game? Swallow hard or quit traveling and going to ball games? We are in the Dark Ages. The world is now run by ignorant monsters. They know nothing of disease, but they sure in the hell know the bulk of humanity.

    My deepest fear, the supposed “second wave.” There was no first wave, but the second could well be used to further isolate those of us who withstood the first and kept our dignity. They will say we caused the second wave.

    In 1987 a man broke into our home and raped my then eight-year-old daughter. The police, as clueless as today’s medical personnel, arrested and imprisoned an innocent man, and he sat in prison for 14 years. Yes, we can feel alone, even abused, but we know nothing of abandonment and aloneness. Jim felt it. DNA evidence (lack thereof) exonerated him and he is a free man today, but he was meant to remain in prison for 40 years, authority figures smug and sure of themselves and confident that he was a pedophile. You cannot imagine the depth of being the victim of smug, stupid and shallow assholes who have power over us until you walk in Jim’s shoes.

    Things are tough right now for awake people. I think of Jim when I begin to despair. Hang on to one another. Millions of people have lived through darker times. No one ever said that life on this dark and crazy planet should be easy. It is a test.

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    1. Oh, Mark, I had no idea. Thank you for sharing this awful, awful experience. I am crying, once again, even though I know your intention of sharing was for no other reason than to make a poignant point that should be honored here. I am just overwhelmed emotionally by what happened to your daughter, and certainly, Jim. That is devastating. I am so so sorry.

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      1. Oh, not for that purpose. I’ve written openly about the event here since 2017, when my daughter went public. 33 years allows for a lot of compartmentalization. I can now write and think about it without attaching to the emotion. My point was to point out the injustice done to Jim – he and I bacame FB “friends” since he realized I was not the one who imprisoned him, but rather a corrupt justice system. Corruption is all around us.

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        1. What I liked about Mark and this blog from day one was that he has the courage to think and do what most people don’t.
          What makes a man now retired and with time in his hands, happy with his life, want to open a blog that tackles topics which the average individual thinks are just the craziest conspiracy theories?

          Integrity.

          I can disagree with him at times, but I’ll always praise his honesty, wisdom and spiritual strength.

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  11. Most of us are living what feels like a hollow existence, being deprived of some of those things that provide us with joy and satisfaction. I know I feel this way. I also know I don’t necessary have to. JLB’s words are encouraging and uplifting as there are LOTS of silver linings occurring that would not have happened but for this profound stupidity that has been forced on us.

    I’ve never considered myself an angry person. I now struggle with anger. My patience is worn thin. I am on edge. I have been drinking more. But I’m starting to realize that these are simply symptoms of an internal struggle that has perhaps always been deep within me. As I see these things I don’t like, I can see them for what they are. There is a root issue that is still lurking in the shadows. I have three options as I see it: (1) do nothing, (2) drink even more and give in to my emotional proclivities that are surfacing, or (3) roll up my sleeves and get to work by digging up the bad boy within to see what he wants and then send him on his way.

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    1. We live in a sparsely populate area, and were retired anyway. Even before that, I worked out of our home. So after lockdown, life went on normally, trips to the stores for various things, the only place we could not frequent as usual was Ted’s Montana Grill. Our son and family live right down the road, so every weekend we got together despite supposed orders not to congregate. Screw ’em.

      The only thing that changed was seeing more and more masks and realizing how deeply brainwashed most people are. I knew that on some level, but the masks said to me “Me too.” I do get fatigued, but I am not angry at anyone save the monkeys who are ordering all these business around as if they had a clue what they were doing. The regulations could be made by Mrs. Fisher’s second grade class, for all the sense they make. It is social engineering, nothing more or less.

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    2. Option number 3 of course Lofcaudio 😊
      I know how hard & painful it is but it pays off big time.

      You’re not alone here.
      And I send you a big hug.

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  12. I vote for #3, LOFCAUDIO! Can I vote on your behalf? No, seriously, man, thank you for sharing this. I know you will do what you have to do to dig in there. We all have to do it. I refer to it as “transmutation” – like how a lotus grows out of the muddy swamp. You got this!

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  13. I’m a 1% er as well . I think it’s a thing we are born with and not something we acquire during life’s journey. Question everything. Believe nothing was my mantra from a very early age. It does make you a bit of an outsider but who cares?
    We are constantly told ( MSM) that having a wide circle of ‘friends’ keeps us healthy but it’s rubbish. That’s exactly what the PTB want us to believe. Think FB and all those hideous inane ‘likes.’ Look how popular I am !!! A wide circle of friends is just a distraction .I have spent my life avoiding those who would be my ‘ best mate.’ The last thing a person needs is always having someone ………….anyone……………there……… to keep your head buzzing and not allowing you time to THINK.
    Being a bit of a loner is nothing to be ashamed of. I have my husband of many years and three kids and their kids. Quite enough for me to concentrate on thank you very much and still allow ME time where I can truly think for myself. I actually feel sorry for the others. They’re not living . They’re just buzzing around like bees in a hive, doing what’s expected of them. It’s GLORIOUS to be free.
    Wipe away those tears Mark. You are a fortunate man in many ways.

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  14. Steph, I think you wonderfully speak for all of us here, and you identified a major aim of this particular project. I stated early on that among the top aims of the coronavirus hoax was to inflict psychic damage on a massive scale. We are all feeling this, and it is huge for you to share your personal feelings.

    Myself, I am staring down a crisis with my employer that has been years in the making. The lockdown hysteria has forced me to have to confront this issue. In a nutshell, I work an office job underneath a soulless management who currently has the expectations on me that would feasibly only be attainable by 3 people. I am but one person. This leads to constant feelings of being overwhelmed, and now being forced to work from home, I am never able to escape these terrible feelings of being overwhelmed, anxious, and stressed beyond measure. I am seriously contemplating simply quitting. Walking away without a plan. It is a scary time, and I deeply appreciate your honesty and emotion.

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  15. FAUXLEX – Thank you for sharing this. I felt it was risky coming out as the newbie here, and talking about something that could be construed as weakness – in several regards. But I figured, what the heck, maybe others feel some of this too. I’m sorry for what you are going through. Feel free to reach out whenever, if you just want someone to listen…

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  16. Thank you for this, Stephers. I echo JLB’s sentiment about the value of putting your current experience in writing, to be better appreciated at a later time… though I would add that it might be a good idea to print it out on paper. I envision a time in the not-too-distant future where everybody’s digitized personal records–especially those with certain unsavory keywords– “mysteriously” vanish. Call me paranoid.

    Coincidentally enough, I just got back from a similar journey to visit old friends. I traveled for five hours (ten, round-trip) and had not seen these friends in almost thirty years. When I was a senior in high school, my family moved from a big city to a conservative Indiana town, and I hung out with these three kids secure in the knowledge I would never see them again after I graduated and got the hell out of there. I wasn’t “awake” yet, but was definitely an outsider (artsy, liked to read, liked to think for myself) and considered them to be hopeless “normies.” They have remained close to each other all these years. The nucleus of this group is a woman who I always thought of as comically “normal”–we made fun of her for it. She went on to get a Master’s degree in Communications (which I always thought was a bullshit major) and has had a very successful career in the corporate world (she was a PR guru for McDonald’s, for God’s sake). She periodically made efforts to stay in touch with me over the years, and as I have led a rather dissolute outsider’s life, I kept her at a polite distance. I guess the Covid psy-op finally wore me down. When she reached out to me again recently, we talked on the phone for hours as if no time has passed, and I discovered she is, in fact, a genius at communication, including the all-but-lost art of intelligent conversation. She recently bought a summer home in an exclusive lakeside area of that despised Indiana town and invited me to join her and the other two members of our little high school clique for some R & R. I spent four days with them (one of them happened to be my fiftieth birthday) and it gave me a deeper perspective on my status as a “1 percenter” in the midst of this crazy time.

    They certainly don’t go along with my “conspiracy theories.” But they definitely question what’s going on with the Covid stuff, and acknowledge that at least some of my points make sense even if they don’t agree with me. They don’t wear masks if they don’t have to, but are happy to don them when they enter businesses that require them. Looking back on some of our conversations this past week, I wonder if they are in a similar state of ambivalence about society that I was in back in high school. Maybe a lot of people are. And maybe we have more in common with many of the mask-wearers than, on the surface, it would appear.

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    1. SCOTTRC – Thank you so much for sharing this. I’ve become so accustomed to reading, watching, hearing and analyzing fake stories, so it’s very refreshing and comforting to read your account that is incredibly genuine and heartfelt. And thanks for the tip – to print out my personal reflections.

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      1. STEPHERS–I also like your comment about “outsiders” who might “slide over” into our group. I’ve known quite a few people financially successful, outwardly “mainstream” people who privately feel at least as alienated and “outside” as anyone in our club does. If you added them (and the many who will join them as our economy swirls down the toilet), your one percent estimate becomes way too low.

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        1. Toxin, I closed the thread because we were all repeating ourselves. We had all been abundantly clear, and if you choose to keep pushing this into every thread, I will start deleting the comments. Yes, start calling me a tyrant, or whatever. We’ve all made our points, and STILL you guys are jumping into new threads to push the same line. I am done engaging with you, as we clearly just fundamentally disagree with one another and I’m done letting this get Sealioned into oblivion.

          The general aim of all your comments seems to be sowing discord, and I am done with it.

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  17. Since you deleted those comments and I didn’t save them, your characterization of them will have to stand. Yes, you’re right, I did say you were coming across as dictatorial. Maybe it was just me. I’ll go back to my nice life. 🙂

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  19. Just remembered this: Harriet Tubman was supposed to replace the arch racist, Ol’ Hickory on the $20 bill. What does this mean!? My head is going to explode!

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