Didactic Mind

Domain Query: Rhetorical Kill Shots

I am finally back with another episode in the Domain Query series. This one addresses an interesting question from LRFotS Randale6, who asks:
Could you do a podcast (or perhaps two, one for each form) on verbal and written rhetoric. While there are many books (often freely available as PDFs) I got the sneaky suspicion that it will take more then reading them to turn theory into (effective) practice.
I'm happy to oblige with any insights that I can provide. In this podcast, I illustrate five (more or less) principles of highly effective rhetoric, that apply in both verbal and written form:
The most effective rhetoric is always couched in truth.
Brevity is the heart of good rhetoric.
Highly effective rhetoric always attacks what a person does not want to be identified with, OR paints him as something that he is not to begin with.
Good rhetoric must always respect and be tailored toward the hierarchy in which someone operates.
Always respond to rhetoric with rhetoric.
That should keep our friend busy for a while. Let me know if you guys would like any follow-ups on this subject, as it is quite a broad and fascinating one.
Make sure to like, comment, share, and subscribe either on Podbean, or to my mailing list. If you'd like to support my work or toss a few shekels my way, head on over to here where you can send me cryptocurrency so that I can keep doing this stuff.
References
The Art of Rhetoric by Aristotle - the original text on the subject, and easily the best;
SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police by OBADSDL(PBUH) Vox Day the Most Merciless and Terrible;
See also this video from OBADSDL(PBUH) Vox Day's Voxiversity series about the SSH, to understand how and why it operates. And see this video about Gammas to understand why rhetoric is so effective against them.
Lastly, here is a video examining rhetoric from Vox Day himself.
Protect Yourself From Big Tech
As I keep telling everyone with sense enough to listen, you MUST take steps to protect yourself from the Big Tech companies. Start here with this post. Here are the specific steps that you can take:
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN – click here to get a massive 81% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark, the best-value VPN client out there today;
If you want something a bit simpler with fewer bells and whistles, subscribe to GooseVPN here;
Build Your Platform
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around – along with unlimited email accounts of unlimited size;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;

Didactic Mind, Ep 70: Requiem on a Joint Strike Flying Piano

This week's episode is all about the F-35 Joint Strike Flopter and the epic debacle that it represents. Well, that's only partly true - it is actually all about the legendary USAF Col. John Boyd, the man behind the Fighter Mafia and the force of nature who transformed the very Art of War in the modern age. In today's podcast, I talk about:
The longevity of stupid and terrible ideas;
The idiocies of managerial types who come up with cockamamie "solutions" to problems that they then prolong;
The need for simplicity and effectiveness in weapons design;
Why the US military never learns from its mistakes;
Why the USA will lose its next real shooting war against a serious opponent;
The true principles of effective fighter design;
The reasons why the F-35 would never have worked anyway;
... and much, much, MUCH more.
Here is the article that inspired this week's podcast from David Axe over at Forbes, and here is a follow-up article at RT about the same issue that laments the sheer waste and ineptitude involved in spending $1.7 TRILLION on an aircraft that "can't climb, can't turn, can't run".
The Turducken Plane has indeed lived up to its name, and we will all pay the price for American military stupidity as a result.
Protect Yourself From Big Tech
As I keep telling everyone with sense enough to listen, you MUST take steps to protect yourself from the Big Tech companies. Start here with this post. Here are the specific steps that you can take:
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN – click here to get a massive 81% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark, the best-value VPN client out there today;
If you want something a bit simpler with fewer bells and whistles, subscribe to GooseVPN here;
Build Your Platform
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around – along with unlimited email accounts of unlimited size;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Book References in Today's Podcast
Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram
The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security by Grant T. Hammond
The Pentagon Wars: Reformers Challenge the Old Guard by James G. Burton
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos
Video References in Today's Podcast
Bill Whittle's classic Afterburner segment on the F-35 Joint Strike Flopter
Pierre Sprey torches the F-35 in multiple interviews, but this one has to be perhaps the best of his burns;

Didactic Mind, Ep 69: Cancelling Cancel Culture

In this week's episode, I explore the fallout from Gina Carano's cancellation by the Twatter mob and Disney, and offer up some thoughts about lessons that we can all learn from the process. I tell you how you can learn to stand firm in the face of madness, and how you can even profit off of the corporate greed and stupidity that drove the decision to fire Ms Carano in the first place. And I explain the importance of keeping your composure, building your own platforms, and seeking out your freedom, in order to minimise the damage that the Blue Checkmark Brigade can do to you in the process.
Protect Yourself From Big Tech
As I keep telling everyone with sense enough to listen, you MUST take steps to protect yourself from the Big Tech companies. Start here with this post. Here are the specific steps that you can take:
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN – click here to get a massive 81% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark, the best-value VPN client out there today;
If you want something a bit simpler with fewer bells and whistles, subscribe to GooseVPN here;
Build Your Platform
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around – along with unlimited email accounts of unlimited size;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Book References
SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police by OBADSDL(PBUH) Vox Day
SJWs Always Double Down: Anticipating the Thought Police by OBADSDL(PBUH) Vox Day
Corporate Cancer: How to Save Millions and Work Miracles by Curing Your Company by OBADSDL(PBUH) Vox Day
Corporateland: Surviving Cubicle Warfare by Frank Cervi
Reagan's War: The Epic Story of his Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism by Peter Schweizer
Video References
Hot Fuzz
In the Face of Evil - Reagan's War in Word and Deed
Here's a Midnight's Edge video discussing the absolute clown car crash that was Queen Karen Kennedy's cringeworthy Oscars video
There are many videos featuring the endless clapping and adulation that made Stalin seem so beloved by his people, when in reality they were completely shit-scared of him - here's one
Site Resources
Protect yourself from Big Tech
If you're going to do unto others...
Execute Order 66

Didactic Mind, Ep 68: V-Day

This week's episode concerns every man's LEAST favourite fake holiday - Valentine's Day. I go over some current events and news, then segue into the times that we live in and the ways in which men and women have failed to live up to our assigned roles in life. I talk about some causes and symptoms, and offer whatever concrete solutions that I can to the young men of today who are utterly confused as to how to deal with the modren world.
Bottom line is, if you want to know how to get yourself a girlfriend or a wife that actually likes and respects you, this is a decent, though not complete, place to start.
Subscribe to the podcast and sign up to the mailing list if you have not done so already!
Protect Yourself From Big Tech
As I keep telling everyone with sense enough to listen, you MUST take steps to protect yourself from the Big Tech companies. Start here with this post. Here are the specific steps that you can take:
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN – click here to get a massive 81% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark, the best-value VPN client out there today;
If you want something a bit simpler with fewer bells and whistles, subscribe to GooseVPN here;
Build Your Platform
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around – along with unlimited email accounts of unlimited size;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Book References
The Way of Men by Jack Donovan
Pushing Rubber Downhill by Adam Piggott
Run Guts, Pull Cones by Adam Piggott
The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
The Rational Male by Rollo Tomassi
The Rational Male: Preventative Medicine (Volume 2) by Rollo Tomassi

Didactic Mind, Ep 67: The Robots of Dawn

This week's episode is all about robots! Specifically, it is about how artificial pleasure robots - or sex robots, if you prefer - will affect human demographics, culture, and development. The podcast was inspired by one of the latest books from the vividly imaginative writer, Gary L. M. Martin, whose work I have favourably reviewed in the past. I go over a number of different topics that are of interest and related to the main subject, including:
What sex robots will do to male-female power dynamics;
How they will catastrophically impact human demographics;
The appeal of such artificial pleasures to humans who want perfection but have to deal with imperfection;
... and much, much more.
Subscribe to the podcast and sign up to the mailing list if you have not done so already!
Protect Yourself From Big Tech
As I keep telling everyone with sense enough to listen, you MUST take steps to protect yourself from the Big Tech companies. Start here with this post. Here are the specific steps that you can take:
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN – click here to get a massive 81% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark, the best-value VPN client out there today;
If you want something a bit simpler with fewer bells and whistles, subscribe to GooseVPN here;
Build Your Platform
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around – along with unlimited email accounts of unlimited size;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Book References
How to Build the Perfect Robot Lover by Gary L. M. Martin
The Robot Series by Isaac Asimov
The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
Corrosion (The Corroding Empire) by Johan Kalsi
The Collapsing Empire: The Interdependency Book 1 by John Scalzi
Related Writings and Podcasts
Troublesome Truths Ep 02: Sex Robots
"Rise of the machines" - Jan 26 2019
"Paying for the cow" - Apr 14 2017
"The sexbot and the feminist" - Sep 17 2015
"Bring on the sexbots" - Sep 15 2014

Didactic Mind, Ep 66: The Will to Act

In this week's episode, I discuss four ideas that will help us as men to find the will and the strength to move through life even as we face strife and challenges. Those four ideas are:
The will to act - simply put, the willingness and the ability to take action even when we are afraid of the outcomes;
Understanding the difference between risk and uncertainty - the two concepts are NOT the same and one must understand clearly the difference between the two in order to prosper under certain regimes;
Taking Extreme Ownership of yourself and your actions - don't ever hide or cower behind anyone or anything to avoid responsibility for your actions, but own them and their consequences;
Iron Sharpens Iron - seek out and treasure those men who will tell you, without fear or favour, exactly when and where you are screwing up, and never ever disregard or discount their advice, for they can be trusted while others cannot;
Follow the steps outlined in this podcast, and you will quickly find that your idleness and laziness will disappear. They will be replaced by achievement and momentum, which is what you need in order to get anything done in this world that hates you.
Protect Yourself From Big Tech
As I keep telling everyone with sense enough to listen, you MUST take steps to protect yourself from the Big Tech companies. Start here with this post. Here are the specific steps that you can take:
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN – click here to get a massive 81% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark, the best-value VPN client out there today;
If you want something a bit simpler with fewer bells and whistles, subscribe to GooseVPN here;
Build Your Platform
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around – along with unlimited email accounts of unlimited size;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Book References
Rifles: Six Years with Wellington's Legendary Sharpshooters by Mark Urban
Bernard Cromwell's superb series of Richard Sharpe novels, Collection 1 and Collection 2;
STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert A. Heinlein;
Video References
Sharpe's Rifles on YouTube;
The Sharpe channel which contains loads of clips from the entire series, end to end;
The epic training montage from Batman Begins that inspired this post;

Didactic Mind, Ep 65: The Fate of Empires

In this week's podcast, I talk about the current, parlous, state of affairs in American politics. The installation of the Fake President and the San FranciscHo has created a moral vacuum and a severely destabilising political crisis. This is the classic symptom of a late-stage empire accelerating toward its final and terrible collapse. I talk about the reasons why are observing the complete disintegration of trust and faith in American elites, and the ways in which the collapse will come about. I also discuss a few other topics in the process, such as the ways in which American foreign policy have come back to haunt it, the fact that the American military is a complete paper tiger, and the reality that Russia is far better positioned to deal with future political and economic challenges than America is.
Oh, and I let fly at the never-to-be-sufficiently-cursed whorenalists and presstitutes too, along with the Daemoncrats and Republicucks. After all, I believe in offending everyone in equal measure.
Be sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe to the podcast – and be sure to sign up for my email list if you have not done so already.
Protect Yourself From Big Tech
As I keep telling everyone with sense enough to listen, you MUST take steps to protect yourself from the Big Tech companies. Start here with this post. Here are the specific steps that you can take:
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN – click here to get a massive 81% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark, the best-value VPN client out there today;
If you want something a bit simpler with fewer bells and whistles, subscribe to GooseVPN here;
Start building your own platforms:
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Book References
The Fate of Empires by Arthur John Hubbard
The Coming CIvil War by Tom Kawczynski
Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation War by William S. Lind
Video References
President Vladimir Putin at the UNGA (not the UNSC - I was wrong) asking those present who orchestrated the disaster in the MENA region in 2015: "Do you realise now what you have done?"

Didactic Mind, Ep 64: The Hand of Mammon

In this week's podcast, I discuss the financialisation of markets and the extremely detrimental effects that this has had upon the real, productive economy. I go over some of the academic reasons offered up for the "crowding out" of the productive sectors of the economy by the financial sector, and the dangers that this poses based on historical evidence. Then I discuss the reason why we see this happening through the lens of Austrian Business Cycle Theory and show how central banks have lowered interest rates to the point where it actually makes complete sense for companies to jack up their share prices artificially. Finally, I talk about the ways in which this madness will end - i.e. very, very badly.
Be sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe to the podcast - and be sure to sign up for my email list if you have not done so already.
Protect Yourself From Big Tech
As I state in the opening of the podcast, you MUST take steps to protect yourself from the Big Tech companies. Start here with this post. Here are the specific steps that you can take:
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN - click here to get a massive 81% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark, the best-value VPN client out there today;
If you want something a bit simpler with fewer bells and whistles, subscribe to GooseVPN here;
Start building your own platforms:
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Book References
The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson:Red Mars
Green Mars
Blue Mars
Readings on Austrian Business Cycle Theory:
Austrian School Business Cycle Theory by Murray N. Rothbard;
The Theory of Money and Credit by Ludwig von Mises;
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis;
Video References
The Big Short (film)
Margin Call (film)
"The Mystery of the Origin of Life" - lecture at the Discovery Science Institute by Dr. James Tour

Domain Query: Byzantine Intrigues

We're back with another Domain Query podcast. Longtime reader and FotS JohnC911 emailed me earlier to ask the following:
I finished reading the book you recommended, Lost to the West by Lars Brownworth.
Amazing reading more on the Byzantine Empire, especially the different leaders that ruled over Constantinople.
The number of times that the empire should have fallen and yet continue survive and sometimes prosper [is amazing].
By the way I did have one question on it. What do you think might have happened if [the siege of] Constantinople in 1453 by the Turks had failed? 
We know about what happened after the fall of Constantinople with the Ottoman Empire taking over.
Also before the attack Constantine XI supported John VIII's position of Decree of Union, joining the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
During the siege there was also the last service with both Greek priest and Latin ones standing shoulder to shoulder. With the emperor turning to the Italian who were fighting with them, assuring them that they were now brothers, united by a common bond. 
As I say in this podcast, I actually don't recall recommending the book, and I definitely haven't read it. That said, I tackled the question as best as I could by looking at the history of the Byzantine Empire and concluded that:
a) The fall of the Byzantine Empire was pretty much inevitable;
b) If the siege of Constantinople had failed, the Ottoman Empire would have gone into immediate terminal decline;
c) I honestly don't know if that would have significantly changed the course of history given the power dynamics in Eastern Europe at the time;
Book References
Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilisation by Lars Brownworth;
BELIEVE! REAL CHRISTIANITY TAKING CHRISTENDOM BACK: A Reply to the Pederast Infested Vatican, the Churchians of All Denominations and a Manual for Atheists, Agnostics and Would-be Pagans by Giuseppe Filotto
The Glory of the Crusades by Steve Weidenkopf
Protect Yourself From Big Tech
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN – I recommend Surfshark for the best features at the best value around, or GooseVPN for simple, no-nonsense browsing;

Didactic Mind, Ep 63: The Science Delusion

This week's episode covers a wide-ranging number of topics about science and the misguided faith that we put into scientists themselves. I start off by talking briefly about the Storming of the Hill, move on to Big Tech censorship and the ways in which you can avoid its impacts, and then get on to talking about what science really is. I discuss how the scientific method works, why it is limited in terms of its ability to explain the world, and why it is so dangerous to put blind faith and trust in scientists themselves. Links to all of the references that I provide - and there are a LOT - are given below.
Protect yourself from Big Tech censorship:
Get yourself a proper domain for your site or business with Namecheap;
Put your site onto a shared hosting service using A2Hosting for the fastest, most secure, and stable hosting platform around;
Create beautiful websites with amazing, feature-rich content using Divi from Elegant Themes;
Make sure that your web traffic is safe and protected from prying eyes using a VPN - I recommend Surfshark for the best features at the best value around, or GooseVPN for simple, no-nonsense browsing;
Books referenced in the podcast:
I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Dr. Norman Geisler and Dr. Frank Turek;
Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design by Dr. Stephen Meyer;
The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin;
Other books that you will probably find useful in this discussion:
The God Delusion by Prof. Richard Dawkins - it's actually quite a terrible book, with dreadful arguments and appallingly bad analogies, but it's worth reading if you want to get an idea of how Darwinian materialists "think";
The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake - this is a direct answer to and refutation of the most egregiously foolish arguments made by the New Atheists, such as Dawkins;
Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake;
The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens by Our Beloved and Dreaded Supreme Dark Lord (PBUH) Vox Day;
Mere Christianity by Clive Staples Lewis - this one is a bit dense, yet very readable nonetheless, and makes clear that there is NO conflict whatsoever between the Christian worldview and the scientific one;
Videos referenced in this podcast:
The original lecture by Prof. Richard Feynman concerning the scientific method;
The superb lecture that Dr. James Tour gave at the Discovery Institute about the problems with the materialist views of the origin of life question;
An interview with Dr. Tour that drills deep into the specific synthetic organic chemistry problems with the origin of life issue;
A great Hoover Institute discussion with Stephen Meyer (PhD History & Philosophy of Science), David Berlinski (PhD Philosophy), and David Gelernter (PhD Computer Science) - so these aren't exactly your garden-variety armchair experts - about the immense mathematical challenges to Darwinian evolutionary theory;
Other references:
The South Korean doctor who falsified his cloning data is named Hwang Woo-suk, and he was tried and convicted for fraud and handed a suspended two-year sentence;
Here's a basic introduction to the replication crisis;
And here's an article that talks about that finding about smiling which cannot be easily reproduced;
The 26 testable scientific claims made in Genesis 1 and whether they are in fact correct (spoiler alert - YES);
As always, remember to like, share, comment, and subscribe - and if you have not already subscribed to the site mailing list, please do so here.