[FRIAM] 5 agencies compromised

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All effective conspiracy theories have some merit. I think that's what makes them effective. Like good fiction, the micro expressions of deception, con-man tactics, inference to the best explanation, creation myths, and the positivist/generative component of science, conspiracy theories rely on truth in a fundamental way. My favorite examples are math proofs of things like 1=0. It seems to me they're focused examples of Tarski's (and Gödel's) result, which essentially say you can't prove something's true from *within* the language being used to prove that truth.

There definitely *is* a deep state or, the term I prefer, an "administrative state". And I'm grateful for that *infrastructure*. Just like I'm grateful for the bench scientists at the FDA and the employees at the counter of the DMV. That bureaucracy is not merely good because it achieves good things. It *is* civilization. It's our extended phenotype. It's flat out contradictory to love things like sports cars and space ships but hate things like building codes, DMV queues, and mask mandates. We are the termites and the administrative state is our mound.

The trick lying at the bottom of all critical thinking is to continually back off a bit and see if/when one's little trip down any given logical rabbit hole ... zoom out a bit and see if it's reasonable. That's where we (especially our idealistic/wacko friends) end up failing.

On 12/17/20 12:52 PM, Gary Schiltz wrote:
> Kind of makes you wonder if the "deep state" conspiracy theories have a bit of merit.
> 
> On Thu, Dec 17, 2020 at 3:29 PM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com <mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com>> wrote:
> 
>     I do wonder what work will look like after most of the small businesses fail.
> 
>     "Didn't respond to police presence" -> "Didn't listen to the boss."
> 
>     "Hey where did Jamie go?   Last time I saw him was at that meeting.."

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