One chart to explain it all
Here it is:
The results speak for themselves.
Read MoreThe Brave New Normal
We all suffer from recency bias: we tend to exaggerate the importance of our own time.
In 2020, however, the world really did change in a fundamental way that hasn’t been seen since 1991, or maybe 1945. Let’s examine how while trying to avoid overstatement or hysteria.
Read MoreRandom money hints
This is an extract from Poor Man’s Guide to Financial Freedom: A Realistic, 10-Step Guide to Building Liberating Wealth on a Low to Medium Income.
More handy hints for managing your money
– It might be possible to have deductions automatically taken from your salary or bank account and put into a savings account or investment, if you’re ready for that. Setting this up once can help if willpower is a problem.
Why has everyone gone crazy?
People overuse the term, ‘The world’s gone mad.’ I knew a guy in Asmara who’d say it all the time: when the rainy season lasted until December, when there was a crackdown on protesters in Sudan etc.; as though there had never been unusual weather or trouble in Africa before.
But 2020 was nuts in the sense that everyone went crazy. Look at social or mainstream media. Talk to people. Look anywhere.
Read MoreDemoralized
Black Pigeon has a video explaining how demoralization is the first of four steps in subverting and taking over a nation. We’re now up to about Step 3.
Demoralization involves undermining a nation’s confidence and faith in its own moral fibre. Among the Woke, this has been achieved totally: they fervently believe everything about the West has always been broken and are prepared to use violence to upend it all and set it right.
Read MoreStop it
Stop pointing out hypocrisy.
Yes, protesters in fancy dress taking selfies of themselves in the Capitol are going to face many years in prison while BLM and Antifa rioters burned down city blocks and attacked federal buildings with near impunity.
Read MoreWord from the Dark Side – long knives, let the lady play, loser’s lack of leniency and let them eat plastic
Big Tech’s Night of the Long Knives:
The Internet giants are only the vanguard. In the meantime, the banks are already beginning to strike powerfully (Deutsche Bank wants to cancel all business relations with Trump). Those who don’t follow suit will only get an account in an obscure regional bank in ‘Hungary’s Pampas,’ and the transfer costs will eat away most of the income. And if all the dissidents have been driven into Bitcoin, how long will Bitcoin be around? As a ‘maledict’, one who can no longer get jobs or work for political reasons, what are you left with? Molotov cocktail or collecting bottles? Are these the alternatives?
Related: Big Tech has no power at all?
Read MoreAn example of how to turbo-charge your budget
This is an extract from The Poor Man’s Guide to Financial Freedom: A Realistic, 10-Step Manual for Building Liberating Wealth on a Low to Medium Income.
Here is an absurdly simple, example budget for one month to give you an idea of how it works.
Imagine this is your budget, that you do not yet have an emergency fund saved and that the monthly payment on the car loan listed is the minimum allowed:
Read MoreThe limits of Woke
Last week I wrote about how Woke has become a new, proselytizing religion that is coming to dominate all areas of Western society.
It is predominantly a white, middle-class religion restricted to the WEIRD countries.
While it may seem universal, Woke has natural limits. It runs into a brick wall in those cases where its underlying contradictions or foundations become too much to bear.
Read MoreWord from the Dark Side – nixed nymph network, nary a nifty teacher nowadays, non-adults are nutty nerds and no navigation home from NSW you naive ning-nongs!
Sex workers say that ‘defunding Pornhub’ puts their livelihoods at risk. Very often, ham-fisted attempts to solve a problem end up not solving the problem and also causing trouble for a whole lot of other people:
In response [to allegations of abusive material], Pornhub made drastic changes. It banned downloads and deleted all videos, except those uploaded by verified users.
Adult performers and producers had been campaigning for these features for years. ( . . .)
But the credit card suspension also makes it almost impossible for performers to receive payments or tips on the website.
Best theory I’ve heard is that this is a bid for market share from OnlyFans.
Speaking of these sites, some time ago I published a piece musing that I may be out of touch when giving Zoomers advice because their world is completely different to mine at that age.
The best response I received was a link to this long and biting piece by Flaming Eyeball. If you’re over 30 and don’t understand what’s wrong with kids these days, please read. Keep in mind that FE is talking about his peers in general, not his own situation.
Read MoreChina’s virus strategy worked (unironically)
The hard sell, hey?
Maybe I can convince you.
Let us take it as given that a virus as contagious as Covid is virtually impossible to eradicate except in countries with easy-to-seal borders. At best, it can be somewhat suppressed until a vaccine arrives, treatment improves or herd immunity is achieved.
Read MoreWhich comes first: saving an emergency fund or paying off debts?
This is an extract from The Poor Man’s Guide to Financial Freedom: A Realistic, 10-Step Manual to Building Liberating Wealth on a Low to Medium Income.
Save an emergency fund first, or pay off debts first?
The next chapter explains what an emergency fund is, where to save it and how large it should be. It is essentially a rainy-day fund, and you definitely need one for financial freedom.
But you also need to rapidly pay off your debts in order to reach financial freedom, as will be explained in the chapter after that. Which of these should you do first?
Here is the order of operations:
The end of a bromance?
Love is a fickle thing and so are political alliances.
Dr Tedros, the director-general of the World Health Organization, was backed by China because he rose to prominence in Ethiopia’s brutal TPLF regime – exactly the kindred spirits that the CCP likes.
Read MoreThe new religion
Around 2000, futurism was popular. Highly paid grifters would give keynote speeches about what was around the corner: the convergence of gadgets, the rise of online trading, the growing importance of China.
I don’t think anyone foresaw the establishment of a major new religion, much less its rise to dominance among the West’s elite in just seven years.
Now it has arrived.
Read MoreTop SovietMen posts for 2020
These were the most-read articles in case you missed them:
You are WEIRD – an explanation of the odd culture of north-western Europeans and their descendants. Glad lots of people read this because it’s become foundational to my thinking.
Who is Dr Tedros? – an investigation of the WHO chief’s curious background. Part of a series on China and the WHO.
Am I the crazy one? – didn’t get a firm answer to this. Hope you enjoyed the song, too.
Read MoreAnnual acknowledgements
It’s been the biggest year ever here at the People’s Blog. So big, in fact, that I got nervous and deliberately avoided promoting it in places that might have attracted too many normies.
My number one referrer again this year was Pushing Rubber Downhill. Also thanks to Adam for his review of my book.
Read MoreWord from the Dark Side – special 2020 review edition
If you’re reading this, you have survived 2020 and are now living in the future.
Whew.
In Japanese, the new year’s greeting is literally, “Congratulations on opening the New Year,” i.e. “Hey, we didn’t die yet!” Grim bastards. This year, however, it makes perfect sense.
開けておめでとうございます！
I’ve had more problems this year than I’ve whinged about on these pages out of respect for my readers and those doing it much tougher than me. However, we must have faith that tomorrow will be better than today. Gambare!
To start us off on a positive note, here are the most popular Dark Side links from 2020 in case you missed them:
1. The number one site youse clicked on was Unz. I have decided not to include the top article. Instead, the second most popular one is from Steve Sailer and discusses our new Tiger Children overlords.
Unz is hit-and-miss. They have wacky conspiracies over there but the blogs by Steve, Anatoly Karlin and Audacious Epigone are worth your while. Have a glance at the main page from time to time to see if there’s something interesting.
Read MoreTake a break
Merry Christmas to all my readers. May your 2021 be even better than your 2020.
The People’s Blog will be taking a break until the new year.
This year has been tough for a lot of us. Two things are driving us all bananas:
Read MoreA message to the near past
1st March, 2020
A message from the future
Hi there, readers. How are you enjoying 2020? Pretty crazy, hey? Never mind, it settles down from here on.
This is Nikolai sending you missive from December this year using a tachyon anti-telephone. The pandemic is coming and I will give you the low down on how to get through it. These are just my own thoughts and better people than me would dispute them.
Read MoreWord from the Dark Side – boofhead billionaires, banning crime reportage, bathroom bullshit and bogus police cars
There was once a hard-nosed Australian media magnate called Kerry Packer. He was a billionaire who, upon being revived from a state of what once would have been death, declared, “I’ve been to the other side and there’s nothing there.”
After he crossed over permanently, his son James took over the family business. While the two are similarly handsome (below), the younger Packer seems to lack the poise and business acumen of his father.
James has been getting himself into a bit of trouble. He recently admitted to threatening to get Mossad to harm an American investor for backing out of a deal. He blamed bipolar disorder.
Read More