🧵Why the Epstein story matters so deeply to the political right—and why sweeping it under the rug is not just offensive, but a civilizational betrayal: This isn’t just about Epstein. It’s about what his case reveals: a nexus of unaccountable power, intelligence cover, institutional rot, and elite impunity. The story touches every nerve the American right has been warning about for a century.

NATO now openly speaks of “Cognitive Warfare”—not just controlling behavior, but how you think.

This isn’t science fiction. It’s official doctrine.

It signals a deep shift in Western military posture: the war for your headspace.

This thread is inspired by the excellent discussion of this topic by @PeterRQuinones & @NormanDodd_knew on Pete’s podcast, and by subsequent research. According to NATO’s Allied Command Transformation:

“Cognitive warfare aims to affect attitudes and behavior by influencing, protecting, or disrupting individual and group cognition to gain advantage.”

This is not just info ops. This is jurisdiction over perception.

Leo Strauss’s reading of Plato’s Republic sees the “noble lie” as a foundational myth that binds citizens to the city. In The City and Man, he argues that such myths are essential to political life; because politics itself remains within the “cave.” (Strauss, The City and Man, p. 127) The “noble lie” isn’t a cynical deception for Strauss. It’s a political necessity. Political life depends on shared beliefs that give the city a sense of divine order and purpose—even if they aren’t strictly true in a philosophical sense.

What is the significance of 153? What is a triangular number? Why should I care?

https://twitter.com/kalezelden/status/1919080645910835366

James B. Jordan argues it’s not arbitrary—but deeply symbolic, rooted in biblical numerology, temple imagery, and prophetic typology. A short thread:

Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) is one of the buried foundations of modern political Realism. His dark anthropology — of instinct ruling reason, and of elites manipulating masses — shatters Enlightenment optimism about rational politics.

A short thread on Pareto, Realism, and today’s U.S.–China rivalry: Pareto believed human behavior was ruled not by logic or morality, but by irrational forces he called “residues” — instincts like combination, persistence, or defense — dressed up afterward in rational “derivations” like ideologies or legal theories.

Reason was the mask, not the driver.

As a Christian, I hold Leo Strauss in the highest regard—not only as a thinker of unmatched precision, but as perhaps the greatest reader of texts the modern West has produced.

His reflections on Zionism are as subtle and sobering as one might expect.

Let’s explore. Strauss had a complex view of Zionism. In his youth, he supported Revisionist Zionism—aligned with Jabotinsky rather than the secular socialism of Ben-Gurion.

He admired its dignity, its resolve, and its courage in facing the growing crisis of European Jewry.

Many assume the Jewish Passover Seder is ancient and unchanged since Moses.
But the Seder as we know it—structured, ritualized, didactic—was not practiced in Jesus’ time.
It emerged after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Before 70 CE, Passover revolved around pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb at the Temple.
The meal was home-based, yes—but it was tethered to the Temple cult. No standardized liturgy. No Haggadah.

In 2020, Prof. Di Dongsheng—a CCP insider and vice dean at Renmin University—gave a speech in Beijing that briefly revealed how deeply China has infiltrated U.S. political and financial power.

It went viral. Then disappeared. But we remember. And so does Trump. Di admitted that for decades, China relied on “old friends” in the U.S.—especially in Wall Street and the political elite—to quietly defend Chinese interests.

“We have people at the top… in America’s core inner circle of power.”

1/ James B. Jordan makes a fascinating case: the Book of Esther is a near-term fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy about Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38–39). A thread:
#BibleStudy #Esther #Ezekiel #Typology 2/ Gog and Magog in Ezekiel are mysterious: a coalition of nations attacks “unwalled” Israel but is destroyed by divine intervention. Jordan sees this not as far-off apocalypse, but as Esther’s story played out under Persia.

There’s a lot of confusion about the Ancient Greek words ἔθνη (ethne) and γένος (genos)—some even conflate them as if they mean the same thing. But they don’t. Let’s break this down properly. 🧵👇 ἔθνη (ethne) is where we get the modern term ethnicity, but its ancient meaning is broader. It refers to nations, peoples, or cultural groups—often defined by shared customs, language, or geography rather than strict bloodlines.

In the Bible, for example, “ethne” is often used to mean “Gentiles” (non-Jews).

THREAD: The USAID-Chemonics Grift: A Deep Dive into Waste, Corruption, and Misplaced Priorities 1/ If the U.S. government is supposed to serve American citizens, why is USAID handing billions of taxpayer dollars to private contractors like Chemonics to fund developmental projects around the world?

Mall culture is remembered fondly by GenX. It was an amazing manifestation of the last gasp of a uniquely American monoculture.

A thread on what it was, what it spawned, and why: 1/ **The Golden Age of Malls**: The 1980s were the heyday for malls in America. They weren't just places to shop; they were vibrant social hubs where GenXers hung out, watched movies, played arcade games, and ate at food courts. Malls were where youth culture thrived, and life's pivotal moments often unfolded.

Currently, listening to the Matyrmade debate on immigration. I’ll withhold comments until I finish before tearing into what I see as pre-suppositional flaws in the thinking of some of the participants. I might need to write a longer-form piece to explain my thoughts fully, but here is my summarized response to the @martyrmade immigration debate: