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Reading Paper Books


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2021 Jun 27, 8:34pm   21,516 views  221 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

In my early retirement, I've decided to read at least an hour a night in real paper books. So far, I've read:

- my dad's old college English book (always felt I needed to improve my grammar)
- Candide by Voltaire
- Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche
- The Politics by Aristotle

Now I'm reading The Prince by Machiavelli, and really enjoying it. One tip: before invading, look for minorities who will help you because they resent the traditional rulers in their own country. They may in fact invite you in to help them overthrow their own country. This makes me think that the Chinese have read The Prince and are using BLM, gays, and militant feminism as allies in their fight against America.

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1   rocketjoe79   2021 Jun 27, 8:44pm  

Highly recommend the Aubreyaid (Master and Commander Series) by Patrick O'Brian. Excellent on every front.
2   AmericanKulak   2021 Jun 27, 10:00pm  

Especially the Double Bottomed Defecator.
3   Ceffer   2021 Jun 27, 10:13pm  

Patrick says
This makes me think that the Chinese have read The Prince and are using BLM, gays, and militant feminism as allies in their fight against America.

The only problem is they are trying old school Frankfurt School subversive Bolshevism using Illuminati psychopathy (albeit with an unlimited printing press of fiat money), not on a population of disgruntled and disenfranchised, even illiterate peasants and nobles, but a nation full of people fat from fast food franchises with cell phones. Also, the nobles themselves are behind it and think they can just mop up later. Also, the general prosperity, literacy and education level, along with the speed of communications, make for much more of a wild card.
4   AmericanKulak   2021 Jun 27, 10:16pm  

And, the 2nd Amendment. Huge wildcard, since Firearms ownership in Europe and the Turd World was low, including the 19th C simply because most people were too poor to buy one if they could. Here there are at least as many private firearms as people, not including forgotten pieces in the attic or lost in a tragic boating accident.

Only 1 in 400 guns in the US is registered by some agency, by estimates:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country
5   Patrick   2021 Jun 27, 10:26pm  

Ceffer says
The only problem is they are trying old school Frankfurt School subversive Bolshevism using Illuminati psychopathy (albeit with an unlimited printing press of fiat money), not on a population of disgruntled and disenfranchised, even illiterate peasants and nobles, but a nation full of people fat from fast food franchises with cell phones.


@Ceffer Do you mean that since people have enough to eat and cheap consumer electronics, they won't resent their elites and help invaders?
6   richwicks   2021 Jun 27, 10:27pm  

Propaganda by Edward Bernays.
Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler - seriously.
Das Kapital by Karl Marx.

And for fun

The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess - because I think Burgess is so damned fun! I've read nearly all his books. This is a book about an overpopulated word, until there's a pandemic.
7   Patrick   2021 Jun 27, 10:33pm  

richwicks says
Propaganda by Edward Bernays.
Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler - seriously.
Das Kapital by Karl Marx.


These three are already on my list actually. My list has more than 400 books on it. Probably never will read them all, but I'm having fun so far.

I have a copy of Das Kapital in German that I got on a trip to East Germany back when it existed. I can read German pretty well so it should work unless it's incredibly arcane language.

The books I listed in the OP I've had for decades but never got around to them.
8   Ceffer   2021 Jun 27, 10:38pm  

Patrick says
@Ceffer Do you mean that since people have enough to eat and cheap consumer electronics, they won't resent their elites and help invaders?


More that they are using old fashioned techniques that worked to subvert different kinds of old world societies, and that our society is not necessarily a good fit, and that communication that is not entirely controlled is their dire enemy. They have the MSM, and people have just gravitated away from it because they have alternatives. Without a continued massive financial input, their paradigm starts to crumble pretty quickly. I'm saying they can do a lot of damage, but we stand a chance. These older world societies existed in a kind of fugue state of slow information diffusion, where treachery could be enacted with longer, less examined tableaus and lead times. Information diffusion is now rapid and although you have to sort out the lies and disinformation, there is a lot more of filter-able information to draw conclusions from.

Look how they are reviewing death statistics on Covid, now, and are revising them downward with editorials on the perfidy of the fraud. Italy: 90 percent of attributed Covid deaths were reversed, and Portugal has reversed the bulk of the attributed Covid deaths as well.
9   gabbar   2021 Jun 28, 10:01am  

richwicks says
Propaganda by Edward Bernays.

This should be read by all students at high school level
10   NuttBoxer   2021 Jun 28, 11:46am  

The best book I've read on the Civil War, and really the beginning's of Cancel Culture, radicalism, and definitely the consolidation of central authority in this country is:

Destruction and Reconstruction by Richard Taylor

But I wouldn't discount great fictional classics like Robinson Crusoe, or Moby Dick. That last has the best opening line I've ever heard for anything, and the most suspenseful ending. We think movies are better at stirring emotion because they have access to more mediums for communication, but they will NEVER, EVER top the imagination and a good writer.
11   HeadSet   2021 Jun 28, 7:59pm  

NuttBoxer says
Moby Dick. That last has the best opening line I've ever heard for anything,

Two types of "culture" - Call me Ishmael, or Call me maybe.
12   richwicks   2021 Jun 28, 8:08pm  

gabbar says
richwicks says
Propaganda by Edward Bernays.

This should be read by all students at high school level


I'd agree. Never thought a book about basically marketing would be so interesting. Bernays wasn't always evil, but he sure died that way.
13   richwicks   2021 Jun 28, 8:14pm  

Ceffer says
Look how they are reviewing death statistics on Covid, now, and are revising them downward with editorials on the perfidy of the fraud. Italy: 90 percent of attributed Covid deaths were reversed, and Portugal has reversed the bulk of the attributed Covid deaths as well.


This is really what a large number of engineers were aiming for when we started making the Internet available. Government propaganda is not as effective as it was 20 years ago, criminal actions by the government are instantly exposed - although they are called conspiracy theories endlessly. People are catching on instead of forgetting that what was once called a conspiracy theory is now policy.

Of course, there are plenty of false conspiracy theories.

Look how long it took for people to realize that the January 6th "insurrection" was a setup? Didn't take long before people started to question the "pandemic" but of course 3 sites censored your ability to discuss it - just drove people to different sites. The weird actions of the government seem to be almost a panic mode to me.

I wonder if the "covid pandemic" was just an economic / political thing (it was clearly used to get Trump out of office) - or if there's something more sinister to it? It'll be interesting to find out in the coming years - maybe even coming months.
14   AmericanKulak   2021 Jun 28, 8:19pm  

richwicks says
I'd agree. Never thought a book about basically marketing would be so interesting. Bernays wasn't always evil, but he sure died that way.


He wrote to Freud, who was an old school Victorian stoic sort, about using his theories in marketing. Freud was disgusted, as he thought using such things for "Commerce" was vulgar and barbaric.

richwicks says
Look how long it took for people to realize that the January 6th "insurrection" was a setup? Didn't take long before people started to question the "pandemic" but of course 3 sites censored your ability to discuss it - just drove people to different sites. The weird actions of the government seem to be almost a panic mode to me.


This makes me hopeful, as people's skepticism seems to be rising as the bullshit seems to be accelerating also.
15   Patrick   2021 Jun 28, 8:40pm  

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says
He wrote to Freud


Who was his uncle, btw.
16   Patrick   2021 Jun 28, 8:53pm  

A couple of good quotes from The Prince, which is chock full of interesting stories and strategies:

But as soon as you disarm your subjects, you start to offend them, showing whether through cowardice or suspicion that you mistrust them; and on either score hatred is aroused against you. ...

... it was necessary to control Pistoia by means of factions... so they fostered strife in various of their subject towns, so as to control them more easily...

Although they never allowed bloodshed, yet they fostered these discords so that the citizens, taken up with their own dissensions, might never combine against them. But as we have seen, this did not turn out as they had planned, because when the Venetians were routed at Vaila, one faction summoned up courage and immediately took the whole state from them.


He also points out that when you split your people so that they can't unify against you, you make yourself much weaker if a war comes, because the weaker side will immediately join with the invader, and and the other side will not be able to hold out against almost half their own populace plus the force of the invader.

Biden is making a very large mistake in trying to disarm the people, who know damn well that it is literally their God-given right to bear arms specifically to resist government tyranny.

Biden (or whoever is really running things) is also making a huge mistake in deliberately dividing Americans by race, sex, and sexual perversions. Either the people will directly take back the government from the tyranny of the Ivy League corporate liberals, or they will immediately side with any invader who shows up, hoping to get the country back that way.
17   Kepi   2021 Jun 28, 9:17pm  

Works I have been reading and/or re-reading and find fascinating lately. (I sure hope this does not come off as spam).

Gotta get this one in. 1984 by George Orwell. First read it in my teens. It's just so much, so concentrated to me. Many re-reads and I am still getting new things.


How to Be Invisible: Protect Your Home, Your Children, Your Assets, and Your Life by J. J. Luna.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Invisible-Protect-Children/dp/1250010454

I find this work to be a fascinating explanation of what a person can do to maximize privacy and WHY A PERSON SHOULD. I sure do wish I had run into this collection of instruction and know-how when I was starting out in the world.

How to Protect Your Life Savings from Hyperinflation and Depression, 2nd edition by John T. Reed.

https://www.johntreed.com/collections/john-t-reed-s-book-on-hyperinflation-and-depression/products/how-to-protect-your-life-savings-from-hyperinflation-and-depression

First published in 2010, and updated in 2012, a THOROUGH analysis of our times now in the USA and the real risk of hyperinflation. Clear, straight forward advise about how to essentially create something akin to home owner's insurance (e.g., protecting yourself if your house burns down, unlikely but possible) except against hyperinflation. You, of course, do not want collapse of the economy to happen, and it very well may not, but it is nice to have resources in place if the catastrophe occurs.
18   NDrLoR   2021 Jun 28, 9:19pm  

Patrick says
when you split your people so that they can't unify against you, you make yourself much weaker if a war comes
If our country was the way it is today in 1941, we'd never have had a chance of winning World War II, and there were a number of people who were opposed to joining it, but easily the minority. No less an eminence than Charles "Lucky Lindy" Lindbergh opposed it.
19   richwicks   2021 Jun 28, 10:43pm  

MisdemeanorRebellionNoCoupForYou says
richwicks says
I'd agree. Never thought a book about basically marketing would be so interesting. Bernays wasn't always evil, but he sure died that way.


He wrote to Freud, who was an old school Victorian stoic sort, about using his theories in marketing. Freud was disgusted, as he thought using such things for "Commerce" was vulgar and barbaric.


Bernays was the nephew of Freud..

And I share you optimism about the country getting elevated skepticism. I'm very optimistic, and that's a nice change of 16 years of absolute pessimism. I was overjoyed that Trump got elected in 2016 - I wasn't expecting him to change much, but it was first I had hope that we wouldn't just have Neocon fuckbag after Neocon fuckbag as president for the rest of my life.

And I don't even mind this election was stolen - now people can see the depth of depravity these fuckers will sink to.
20   SumatraBosch   2021 Jun 28, 11:37pm  

Get with "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia"
21   Onvacation   2021 Jun 29, 9:28am  

I enjoy reading history. I don't really read fiction anymore.

When I was 15 I was given "Illusions, The adventures of a reluctant messiah". by Richard Bach. I do believe it changed my life.

Bach also wrote, "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull" as well as a bunch of obscure essays on flying.
22   Patrick   2021 Jul 3, 9:56pm  

Now starting on Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon, because it seems very relevant to modern America.
23   richwicks   2021 Jul 29, 4:31pm  

Read Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

You can get an audiobook of it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQoh-vTRPVQ

Recall, this was written in 1971. I've only gone through the 1st chapter, but I'm a bit surprised that he was ever considered intelligent or smart.

Also, although it's frequently claimed, Saul Alinsky never said "accuse your enemy of what you are doing, as you are doing to create confusion". If you prefer to read it, here's a PDF:

https://historyofsocialwork.org/1946_Alinsky/1971%20-%20Saul%20Alinsky%20-%20Rules%20for%20Radicals%20-%20OCR.pdf
24   Tenpoundbass   2021 Jul 29, 5:46pm  

I taught myself programing and gained the passion for the knowledge that has served me over my career, by reading Wrox Press, Sams Publishing and a few others. I could just drive down to a Barnes and Nobel, or to Borders Books, one place had a selection that the other didn't. I never got the same connection with electronic books. I knew we were Fucking the Pooch by going digital books, and trusting Jeff Bezos to not censor and curate our content going forward.
I couldn't understand the retards that read those cheesy Kindle and Nook readers just to read books. At least a Samsung tablet looked cool, and they had could read ebooks too.
25   richwicks   2021 Jul 29, 5:55pm  

Tenpoundbass says
I taught myself programing and gained the passion for the knowledge that has served me over my career, by reading Wrox Press, Sams Publishing and a few others. I could just drive down to a Barnes and Nobel, or to Borders Books, one place had a selection that the other didn't. I never got the same connection with electronic books. I knew we were Fucking the Pooch by going digital books, and trusting Jeff Bezos to not censor and curate our content going forward.
I couldn't understand the retards that read those cheesy Kindle and Nook readers just to read books. At least a Samsung tablet looked cool, and they had could read ebooks too.


I've always preferred electronic format for reading, period.https://www.npr.org/2021/07/28/1021798222/google-mandates-vaccines-for-workers-pushes-back-return-to-office-date

I collect digital copies of books, and government documents, JUST TO SEE if they are modified.

We helped make the Internet, and not just so people could watch porn more easily. It was to disseminate information and to expose our ruling class. Remember in the 1990's the "news" at the time did the hand wringing about whether you could trust the Internet or not? Well, you can damned well trust it more than the "news". And now the Big Tech is gotten into the propaganda push. That's fine.
26   NuttBoxer   2021 Jul 29, 5:57pm  

Still slogging through Tesla's autobiography. Did you know he had a patent for remote controlled vehicles, at the turn of the 20th Century!! Some things are over-hyped, but not Tesla, holy fuck...
27   Patrick   2021 Jul 29, 5:59pm  

I'm getting near the end of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

It's been very good, like a funny friend entertaining me each night. I mean Gibbons, the author. Apparently English snark was a thing even back in 1776.

Not looking too good for the Roman Empire though. They let hordes of desperate Goths come in over the border. The illegals of their age. The official excuse was that they would make good Roman citizens in time...
28   Tenpoundbass   2021 Jul 29, 6:14pm  

richwicks says
I've always preferred electronic format for reading, period


I find digital reading is different for consuming information. I read a lot on line, and end up consume a lot of trivial crap I wouldn't waste a minute of time reading in a paper book.
I like books for reference and learning. Trying to build something or make a recipe with your notebook, tablet, or smart phone near by is cumbersome. Having a hard copy is always makes the job go much smother and faster. It's easier for me to wrap my head around parts and the blowout map. I don't have to zoom in and out, it's all there for me to see.

At this point I do well with digital reference to stay current or learn a new language. As I have good basic foundation on how to program, and what all of the technical jargon means.
But if I were to want to study for a General Contractor's license, or RE certification, or what ever career change. I would definitely want hard copy books and research references.
It's easier to dig into and wrap my head around it. And it's easier on my eyeballs than a LED screen.
29   FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden   2021 Jul 29, 6:14pm  

Patrick says
I'm getting near the end of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

It's been very good, like a funny friend entertaining me each night. I mean Gibbons, the author. Apparently English snark was a thing even back in 1776.

Not looking too good for the Roman Empire though. They let hordes of desperate Goths come in over the border. The illegals of their age. The official excuse was that they would make good Roman citizens in time...


I remember this being taught in schools. The fall of Roman Empire was taught as failure of morality on massive scale. Feels like America is there now, no way to turn this around. Average CA liberal (aka communist faggot), is all into equality and diversity and gay shit. It’s similar in other big cities across America. Even in fucking Texas. I think we gonna fail soon, and that is a very scary thought.
30   Patrick   2021 Jul 29, 6:54pm  

I think US government corruption is getting to be very much like late Roman Empire corruption.
31   richwicks   2021 Jul 29, 7:40pm  

Fortwaynemobile says
I think we gonna fail soon, and that is a very scary thought.


I will still argue that the fall of this country began when George W. Bush lied us into a war in Iraq and we didn't hang the mother fucker for doing it.

Obama was no different, and Clinton would have been no different, Biden is no different. This nation allowed obvious Fascists to run the country. This nation deserves to fall as a result of the negligence of the population. Chickens are coming home to roost.

Americans have allowed, deeply immoral, scum to run this nation for years. Today, we have a president that wasn't elected, openly accepting bribes through his coke head son whose never been arrested for his crack use much less prosecuted, selling "paintings" as a bribery scheme. You think this government deserves to continue? I don't. I'm looking forward to the collapse. It deserves to collapse.
32   Patrick   2021 Jul 29, 7:46pm  

richwicks says
Americans have allowed, deeply immoral, scum run this nation for years. Today, we have a president that wasn't elected, openly accepting bribes through his coke head son whose never been arrested for his crack use much less prosecuted, selling "paintings" as a bribery scheme. You think this government deserves to continue?


No, but there's a saying that "People get the government they deserve."

Apparently we all let the corruption get so incredibly deep and pervasive by our inaction over many decades that this is all the inevitable result.
33   richwicks   2021 Jul 29, 7:51pm  

Patrick says
Apparently we all let the corruption get so incredibly deep and pervasive by our inaction over many decades that this is all the inevitable result.


We have bombed 7 nations over the last 20 years. We have allowed Nancy Pelosi to do insider trading. We have allowed the Clinton foundation to be a conduit for bribes. We allowed Halliburton go from an "oil company" to mercenaries under George W. Bush. I fully believe we allowed our government, and the intelligence agencies, to either cause 9/11 or permissively allow it as a false flag.

We have allowed them to take over the public education system, we're allowing them to enact censorship, we allow them to NOT enforce the law when it comes to the banking sector, we allow the Fed to continue to exist.

What our criminal syndicate has been doing to those 7 nations, was just practice for what they will eventually do here.

I've openly discussed this for years only to have people scream and yell at me about what a traitor I supposedly am, how I "hate America". I hope people enjoy the bed they've allowed to be made, and they can sleep well in it. I'm sorry, but I've got ZERO sympathy for the population and the eventual fallout. My cousin left this nation in disgust, he's an expatriot in Argentina.
34   Patrick   2021 Jul 29, 7:53pm  

richwicks says
our criminal syndicate


I bet they have been diligently collecting compromising information on pretty much everyone high in government to control them.

Maybe Epstein really was employed by them.
35   richwicks   2021 Jul 29, 8:06pm  

Patrick says
Maybe Epstein really was employed by them.


What do you mean "maybe"? Alex Acosta said, bluntly, that he was told NOT to prosecute Epstein because he was "intelligence". Epstein purchased his mansion in NY from Les Wexner for $1.00. Wexner is intelligence too. Ghislaine Maxwell was the daughter of Robert Maxwell, a known double agent for Mossad and Mi6. He died under mysterious circumstances, supposedly falling from his yacht while he was urinating into the ocean. He got a state funeral in Israel. It's suspected that Robert was a triple agent, also working for the KGB.

We are told that Epstein is dead. His will was reportedly changed less than 2 weeks before his death. We have no idea if he's dead, he might be in the Cayman Islands sipping martinis with Ken Lay.. Nobody knows how Epstein, supposedly, made his money - he was never a billionaire, he just was presented as one. His apparent wealth was an illusion from whomever he actually worked for.

There is no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, that Epstein was intelligence.

We also have no idea if Ghislaine Maxwell is actually in prison.

It appears, Mossad, or the CIA, or Mi6, or all of them together were running a child RAPE ring to control politicians. Our intelligence agencies were prostituting children in order to provide for politicians, that were under their control. Bill Clinton is without doubt one of them. It's rumored that George H. Bush was a pedophile, for young boys. Remember the Franklin Scandal?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_child_prostitution_ring_allegations

A documentary in the early 1990's was made about that. Before it could be broadcast, the networks were threatened they'd be sued for libel if they aired it, and all the copies of the film were purchased by an unknown entity - but ONE copy survived:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQHrbJPhus4

If this nation has to collapse to end this shit, I say, bring it on. I'm tired of the apathy around me. People should be outraged, but they aren't. Fine, then they can goddamned suffer if they aren't outraged.

And remember - Dennis Hastert is a pedophile, he was House Majority Whip. He's never paid for his crimes. One of his victims committed suicide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hastert#Sex_abuse_scandal_and_federal_prosecution

If this shit happened in 1920, the people then would have overthrown their government, and hung these mother fuckers on lamp posts, and let their bodies rot there. Military does nothing, they are complicit, our intelligence agencies are entirely corrupt they're not only complicit but active participants, our DOJ is complicit, and our "free press" is silent so they are complicit as well.

I wonder if anything would change if everybody understood what I understand? I don't know what people don't know. The world certainly does seem to be controlled by something that could be called "evil". Perhaps its a real force?
36   Misc   2021 Jul 29, 8:17pm  

You forgot to mention the corruption under Trump. Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud gave Ivanka's charity foundation for "Women Entrepreneurs" $100 million. Wanna bet he got his money's worth?

Do you know how many paintings Hunter has to auction to get that kind of coin?

This is just 1 example.
37   KgK one   2021 Jul 29, 8:20pm  

Read Vegas, they figured some shit out 5 to 10,000 years ago.

Also the republic by plato. Socretes was his mentor.
38   richwicks   2021 Jul 29, 8:32pm  

KgK one says
Read Vegas, they figured some shit out 5 to 10,000 years ago.


Give me a link please? What's "Vegas" other than the shithole in Nevada?
39   richwicks   2021 Jul 29, 8:39pm  

Misc says
You forgot to mention the corruption under Trump. Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud gave Ivanka's charity foundation for "Women Entrepreneurs" $100 million. Wanna bet he got his money's worth?


Can you please post a link? I don't know anything about it.

But if it was corrupt, they would have used it to go after him, instead of that silly bullshit over Russian Collusion, or The Steel Dossier. They would have nailed Trump on anything, even if Obama, Biden, or Clinton did IDENTICAL things. Remember, they busted Paul Manafort for working as a foreign agent - know who he was partnered with? Tony Podesta, who was given immunity provided he testify against Manafort. Manafort was in jail from June 2018 to May 2020, and then placed under house arrest. Trump pardoned him in December 2020.

I'm apolitical BTW. If Trump was engaged in corruption, I'll listen, but don't play these games with me "but the other side did it!" - because the sides are, US, versus a criminal syndicate that pretends to be our government. Those are the two sides and they are FAR more criminal than we are.
40   Misc   2021 Jul 29, 9:12pm  

Oh, the $100 million fund?

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/21/529417148/saudis-and-the-uae-will-donate-100-million-to-a-fund-inspired-by-ivanka-trump

Although Kushner's purchase of thousands of apartments via a loan backed from Fannie, probably netted them more.

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-kushners-freddie-mac-loan-wasnt-just-massive-it-came-with-unusually-good-terms-too


I don't see why anyone is quibbling about $250000 art masterpieces.

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