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Well, That Was Gross

@thediscoveryofzero.com

1.5K followers 1.2K following 15K posts

BCBA, M.Ed., Solo Musician, he/him https://elirector.bandcamp.com/music

elirector.bandcamp.com

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · Aug 26

Welcome new followers.

Apologies for dead horses you’ll find me beating:
1. Trad cultural hierarchies & epistemic authority on the RW
2. Global wealth caps
3. Radical Behaviorism and libertarian free market agency
4. Chronic pain
5. Weird shit
6. My latest album: tinyurl.com/yc397vv8

International Sirens, by Eli Rector

38 track album

tinyurl.com

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 6h

Fourth floor, grifter shitheads

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 6h

It’s Germany in the 30’s and the Nazis are in power, and assuming the press has the ability, should they invite party members on their shows to interview them?

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 8h

Moderate conservatives be like, sure, there were always the Nazi pedophiles who wanted to bathe in the blood of virgins wing of the party, but no one really took them seriously and they voted for our policies.

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 11h

I am 62 and have tears in my eyes as I listen to this .... remembering back to a different time, a time of my youth. Everything back then was new and exciting. I had energy enough to light New York at night. Life was fun, going out was an experience, and life was full of promise. I was young, good looking, and ready to face the world. ............. I miss those days ............

I'm 102 years old and I still like this song.

I'm 57 years old and this song makes me feel 16.

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 11h

why aren't we all on open source browsers, word processors, spreadsheets, etc. - paid via international fund. that just work, etc? If socialism's built for anything it's information.

Instead we'e entire surveillance apparatus gouging & clogging ads/subs up our ass for bloated features we don't need

Reposted by Well, That Was Gross

pumpkin spice amb 🎃 @amb.fyi · 13h

more detailed story in the @oregonian.com

www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...

Federal agents barrel into band at Portland ICE protest, arrest clarinetist, accuse her of assault

Oriana Korol, a 38-year-old child and family therapist, remains in Clark County Jail.

www.oregonlive.com

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 12h

Tired: Sports Bar
Wired: Golden Girls Bar

Reposted by Well, That Was Gross

What’s the Hold Up Pod Dan @jacketdan.bsky.social · 1d

He did it again for the 5 year anniversary

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 15h

Indeed!

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 15h

These fools have the nerve to talk about the parental rights of people they are trying to deport.

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 16h

I believe @matthew.flux.community argues in favor of just calling them conservatives.

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 16h

Me too! But I'm sort of obsessed with the topic. I wrote a whole kind of nested thread thingy on Weigel's post today. :)

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

So the question is what sustains one's ideology? Assumptions, beliefs, values, preferences, attractions, annoyances?

The modern liberal rests upon a bed of distributed ideology. Not only is knowledge and facts allowed to be tested and run through expert consensus, but so too values. 1/

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 21h

Because they're being challenged, which is unacceptable. Traditionalisms must be true - they are not subject to critique. It's like arguing 2 + 2 = 5 or the sky is purple.

This is how they can take even the tiniest slight - a tan suit, blue hair - and call it evidence of insanity. It's procrustean.

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 16h

Former US President Ronald Reagan described African delegates to the UN as "monkeys", in newly unearthed tapes published by a US magazine.

He made the comment in a 1971 telephone call with then-President Richard Nixon.

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 16h

We have the technology. We can now keep records of shit republicans have always been saying in private.

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 17h

“Why the fuck am I still following this dude?”
- You

Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

If this audience can be solidified and grown enough, it can be quite powerful when directed - or misdirected.

Traditionalism > Fear > Hatred > Misdirection

12/12

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

Black, immigrant, transgender crime - all in the news in 2025. But nothing new.

The old antisemitism, while still lurking, seems to often take on a new form broadly as "liberal elite globalist marxist antifa, etc." 11/

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

Fear is an ever-present emotion on the right. Because traditionalism is a high-control epistemological environment, living in a pluralistic democracy based on liberal precepts presents a constant challenge - a constant threat.

An audience ripe for weaponization. 10/

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

But over time, the fear lessens and you trust the process.

When I taught high school biology, fundamentalist students literally told me they were scared to study evolution. All their lives they'd been taught to cling to their religious dogma, and their were frightened when it was challenged. 9/

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

Liberal epistemology depends upon a vast community of trust. It depends upon being open to others, having good faith in their honor, trusting their perspectives and conclusions, being open to being wrong.

The first time you do something scary, you are terrified. 8/

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

We know that traditionalisms are effective. We know might is effective. Domination works if you are strong enough.

But we also know it is wrong. We know that it requires suffering. It requires accepting falsities, mythmaking, inequities, callousness, incuriosity.

But it also requires fear. /7

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

faced the dilemma of how to deliberate, how to discern, how to persuade, how to form consensus.

And of course, how to manage the power that came from group solidarities. 6/

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

harmonious and truthful process of gathering a solution through hard work and exploration. It is about seeking to understand and build community with "the other" instead of defeating and dominating it.

One can only imagine this is an ancient dichotomy in human wisdom, as our cognition grew we 5/

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

My wife and I have been watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the simple notion of the Ring of Power, is an old but powerful literary metaphor: the folly of accepting a simple, strong answer which promises easy solutions by satisfying one's ego, instead of the more laborious, yet ultimately 4/

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Well, That Was Gross @thediscoveryofzero.com · 18h

Through research. Through reporting. Through art. Through quiet introspection.

But it is all a liberal philosophy that is the opposite of traditionalism, which starts with the premise and works backwards instead of testing the premise and then changing it based on new information. 3/

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