Thanks to The Pandemic, this has now been imported into Western societies …

Think of it this way: if The Government In Control has the ability to order your business closed for "pandemic reasons" or any other reasons, during which you are expected to tread water indefinitely as if you've been cast adrift from your vessel on the high seas, then any fundamental trust of "business as usual" ceases.

The only meaningful Chinese value for export purposes represents a nullification of existing arrangements for the benefit of the power structures themselves, and everything else consists of an economic or social residue.

This is how America can now have an actual People's Republic of California in the making as well as a People's Republic of Washington, a People's Republic of Colorado, a People's Republic of New York, and so on.

Keep in mind: people are fashioned to become ripe for socialism if they are denied the means to acquire capital.

But on a related note, are the videos from earlier in 2020 of people passing out or passed out on the streets of Chinese cities "realfakes" meant to scare other countries into importing this particular Chinese value to the detriment of their people and economies?

When you see the pattern, you realise how much subsequent actions continue to fit the pattern.

My take on Hong Kong is very much different than that of Our COVID-19 Blessed PM Boris Johnson: these people and their ancestors had the ability to flee Hong Kong and the PRC over two decades ago, but they decided they wanted to play a continuing game of Gambler's Ruin.

Tough shit, Hong Kong. You had an opportunity and failed to take it. Fight your own battles and reform your own country before expecting a bailout from any of ours.

What the United Kingdom did for Montserrat should never be done for what's left of Hong Kong. The reasons why should be entirely obvious.

As for Americans fleeing en masse to some other More Perfect Union, think of this as Ricardian theory turned upside down: now the only places left to go to are the ones that present fewer obstacles to acquiring capital and maintaining a standard of living, rather than the ones that fit best according to a range of aesthetic principles.

Today there are no competitive advantages to be had in accepting mass migration from anywhere, but instead in accepting those who have mankind's better gifts as well as the means by capital.

All of the remaining major frontiers left are off Earth, and the technology hasn't improved yet to the point where even low-scale migration is a feasible prospect.

Eventually all of the industrial and post-industrial economies realise that there is no longer a benefit in "skills-linked immigration", especially in a future where corporations have become multi-national in part so they may evade the business, employment, and immigration laws of certain countries.

"Where, after all, are you going to go, in the end?"

Presently I have three choices where I hold citizenship, and I remain in the least worst of them, but given the contra-Ricardian choices, there are some interesting alternatives for the future.

At some point you realise that what you're getting away from isn't The Government In Control, but instead diverse and specific groups of people because of what they've allowed to come into being.

Or to echo Sartre: Hell is other people.

I like the KJV a lot. Its language is quite archaic and some of its translations about dragons and strange creatures are a bit fanciful – though expected for the time, given what the scholars had to work with – but overall I think it preserves the beauty and complexity of the ideas contained within the Bible better than anything else I've seen. There are issues with the translation – the Sixth Commandment translated as "Thou shalt not kill" made perfect sense back then, but does not today given the full context of that line, and there is an issue with the way that God's curse on Eve is translated as well. But overall, it's a great version.

The saying about being as gods is basically a warning to men not to attempt to act in an all-powerful way. It states that knowledge is power – and power corrupts.

A lot of people find the Bible to be very boring to read because they think it's overly long-winded. In fact, the astonishing thing about Biblical wisdom is that it is so compact. The profundities of the text are amazing once you start looking at them carefully.

Amen, Reverend. Every single word you wrote in that comment is absolute truth.

We moved to Eastern Europe where it’s quite nice, they have a down-to-earth, friendly homogeneous society.

I've found the same with living in Russia.

it’s not our home. It’s theirs.

Correct. No matter how well I speak Russian (which is not that well) I will never be one of them. And I don't ever pretend otherwise.

Unfortunately, it’s starting to show some visible effects.

It's really starting to show with the younger generations of women in Moscow – under the age of 30 or so. Lots of them are showing up with plenty of ink and tattoos. Old-school gym trainers talk about how over the past five years they've seen the men become more feminised and the women become more masculinised. I've seen it for myself during my trips there.

If you want to integrate (which you will never fully do because you aren’t them), you will have to learn some of the customs.

Yeah and that can be very challenging. Female expectations of male behaviour are indeed from about the 1950s, which means any man who isn't at least somewhat handy with a wrench and screwdriver and hammer isn't going to get much respect. It's a very different world, which is great in some ways and terrible in others.

Sack up, gun up, grow a freaking spine and stay to defend our home, fags. It’s time to clean house. Everyone has to go back.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

King James Version does this verse better than the others. They often say you be like God. I think saying that line is more impact since it reminds me more of the human becoming gods like that of ancient Greece over the God of the Bible. To me is how human with great powers more likely to act over Jesus Christ.

My wife and I emigrated from the US a number of years ago. We moved to Eastern Europe where it’s quite nice, they have a down-to-earth, friendly homogeneous society. It’s really great; but it’s not our home. It’s theirs. The other Americans both here and in other European countries tend to be shitlib lefties who whine and complain about the US, but in the very next breath start pontificating to the locals how they should run things to be more like the US, like a bunch of damned Mexicans. The feminists bitch about the femininity of the local women and their traditions. Unfortunately, it’s starting to show some visible effects.

You can move here and turn back the societal clock a bit – dial it back to a modified 1950s. You will have to learn the language. It’s fun at first but then when you have to solve more complicated problems, you are opening yourself up to being misunderstood and everything takes more time and resources because of the language barrier no matter who speaks whose language. If you want to integrate (which you will never fully do because you aren’t them), you will have to learn some of the customs. That’s fun at first too, but eventually you start to feel the differences because it’s not what we do at Christmas, Easter, etc. There is no Memorial Day or Thanksgiving. Independence Day happens multiple times per year depending on which era of history you’re talking about, but not on July 4 – no beer, boats, or fireworks. Maybe you can watch your family do that over Skype, while they still can. You are going to give up your familiar annual hunting trips. Hunting is Olde World here. No Mossy Oak, no state or federal land or hunting on your own private property, but in a hunting society where the leader dictates who gets to shoot and when. If you shoot the trophy animal, you don’t get to take it home. Fishing is different too. Wanna talk about guns? Sure, other places may be worse than here, but it’s still a far cry from the glories of even the tattered remnants of the Second Amendment in the US.

So many Americans talk about packing up and leaving for greener pastures. My wife and I made it out a long time ago. But as the time to defend our home quickly approaches there is a growing feeling in the gut that continuing to stay away is straight up cowardice. Leaving the US now is yellow. Are these guys going to move back to the US after someone else straightens it out? Are they going to sit back and relax in their new country with popcorn, disarmed, while grandma or their brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, literal blood who stayed behind, get necklaced, disemboweled, or God knows what else by BLMGBTQANTIFA2++? Other countries might look nicer or even be nicer than the US, but it gets to be a little like visiting someone else whose house looks nicer than yours. In the end, it’s not your house. You may not be overstaying your welcome, but you do eventually get to the point that it’s time to go home for the evening or to take care of business. I don’t expect anyone to care what some random asshole on the internet thinks, but I couldn’t abide staying overseas and watching my homeland and family burn from afar without doing anything to try to stop it. Sack up, gun up, grow a freaking spine and stay to defend our home, fags. It’s time to clean house. Everyone has to go back.