First Looks category archive

Jason Blazakis warns that Q believers are behaving like cultists, and, like cultists, when a prophecy does not come true, their faith is unshaken. Rather than question their idol, they double-down on it. A snippet:

For example, after one of the co-founders of the Heaven’s Gate cult died, the other began preaching about taking followers to the “Next Level,” a science-fiction version of the afterlife. To explain the unexpected death of his co-founder, he began sermonizing that his followers’ bodies were unimportant vessels that they would shed upon reaching their final destination. He blended aspects of New Age science and evangelical Christianity to persuade them to go on one final trip, which ended with a mass suicide by 39 cult members in 1997.

Like the Heaven’s Gate cult, the QAnon community brandishes religious imagery and repurposes theories to fit new truths. Q’s theory about an impending storm where global elites are vanquished is a recurring end-times scenario in many religions, including Christianity. The predicted storm is still coming, they now say, when Trump retakes power March 4.

One of the most venal efforts of the previous federal administrator was attempting to turn public servants into his private minions.

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Just when you thought “social” media couldn’t get more vapid . . . .

Via Job’s Anger.

A History of China, by Wolfram Eberhard.

As one who trained as an historian, I believe that the past illuminates the present. Knowing China’s past will help you understand the China we deal with today. I commend this book to your attention.

I’ve added a new item to the sidebar, over there, on the right ——>, entitled “Reading Rainbow” (with apologies to PBS).

It points to Project Gutenberg, where you can get public domain ebooks which work quite nicely with FBReader (or the ebook reader of your choice) and Libribox, which offers public domain audio books, which work with the audio player of your choice (I usually use VLC).

Both sites have given me hours of enjoyment and learning.

Enjoy.

The Angry Grammarian updates his dictionary. An example (emphasis in the original):

coronasplaining, n: asserting that you know more about infectious diseases than someone with a decade of medical training because you spent 12 minutes “researching” on the internet. See also: covidiot.

Follow the link and broaden your vocabulary.

The Tampa Bay Times reports on the recipients of Donald Trump’s passel of pardons. There are no surprises here:

More than 100 individuals received a pardon or commutation of their sentence early Wednesday morning. Though the final list did not include Trump or his family, it included a group of well-connected convicted felons, wealthy fraudsters and two celebrity rappers, as well as dozens of individuals sentenced to long sentences for drug crimes.

At Above the Law, Joe Patrice finds a common thread amongst the pardonees.

Ira Hyman is an optimist.

Via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.

Via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.

If Askimet identifies your comment as spam, it will be deleted and never seen. But if you want to waste your time, that’s okay with me.

Aside:

This was drawn Saturday, before the news broke that the current federal administrator was (still) actively browbeating a public official to subvert the will of the people.

If you have not done so, I highly recommend that you read Lena Horne’s autobiography.

Give me a break.