The latest episode of the Didactic Mind podcast is back, finally, with a look at the collapsing Western empire. I discuss the ways in which the West is getting worse and worse - to the point where Western nations can barely figure out how to keep the lights on and the plumbing working - and how these are very obvious symptoms of late-stage imperial collapse. I discuss the predictions made by what was, honestly, an actual joke book, originally designed to mock the hell out of perhaps the biggest Gamma in the entire world of science fiction today. And I talk about how, if you travel around the rest of the world, "enshittification" is not nearly the problem that it is in the West. The root cause I identify here is the spiritual and moral corruption that has infected the West - and I note that there is simply no way one can VOOOOOOOTE HARRRRRDURRRRR!!! to get out of this mess.

• Corrosion (The Corroding Empire) by Johann Kalsi
• An explanation of "enshittification" by Cory Doctorow

If you like what I do, and you would like to express your appreciation, please feel free to do so here via my Buy Me a Coffee page. All funds go to upkeep of the site and podcast (well, whatever is left over after buying good Scotch, obviously…)

I make some pretty incendiary statements in this podcast, and in most of my podcasts. I can only do so because I take steps to protect myself from the Big Tech companies, and preserve my identity. You need to do the same – this is no longer optional, because if you don’t, the gatekeepers WILL come for your head.

If you don’t know where to start, then I’ve got you covered right 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 80% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark;
• Be sure also to check out Incogni, the new data and privacy management tool offered by Surfshark, which simply works behind the scenes to ensure that no malign actors can take advantage of your data ever again;
• Another solid VPN option for you is Atlas VPN, brought to you by the same company that creates NordVPN;
• The best SSD drive that you can get right now, with blazing fast speeds and near-native storage capabilities, is probably the SanDisk Extreme 1TB Portable SSD with NVMe technology – I bought this myself to keep a moving backup of all of my files, it’s the size of a credit card, and it’s absolutely superb;

• 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;

• Buy yourself a proper Bible;
• Get your Castalia Library books here;
• Buy yourself a proper knife for personal defence;

The Didactic Mind podcast is FINALLY back, after a long hiatus due to... well, sheer laziness, mostly, and a real lack of desire to talk about much of the craziness around us. Nonetheless, recent events in the West and Russia have made a podcast necessary to unpack some of the historical and political context behind them. In this episode, I talk about the parallels between the Fall of the Roman Empire, and the very obvious collapse of the FUSA. I discuss how Roman culture, philosophy, and political thought went from Rome, to Byzantium, to Moscow, and how Russia considers itself to be the true guardian of the ancient flame of Graeco-Roman legal philosophy, combined with Christian morality.

I then go into the ways in which the FUSA is falling to the exact same forces that destroyed first the Roman Republic, and then the Roman Empire. I quote the words of one of the Last of the Americans, St. Reagan of the Right, Ronald Magnus himself, to explain how the FUSA has taken a downward course that has doomed it to destruction. And I close with some rather sad words about how the only people who truly understand what America is about to face, are the very people that the neoclowns and GloboHomoPaedoPharisatanists want to exterminate - the Russians.

If you like what I do, and you would like to express your appreciation, please feel free to do so here via my Buy Me a Coffee page. All funds go to upkeep of the site and podcast (well, whatever is left over after buying good Scotch, obviously...)

I make some pretty incendiary statements in this podcast, and in most of my podcasts. I can only do so because I take steps to protect myself from the Big Tech companies, and preserve my identity. You need to do the same – this is no longer optional, because if you don’t, the gatekeepers WILL come for your head.

If you don’t know where to start, then I’ve got you covered right 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 80% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark;
• Be sure also to check out Incogni, the new data and privacy management tool offered by Surfshark, which simply works behind the scenes to ensure that no malign actors can take advantage of your data ever again;
• Another solid VPN option for you is Atlas VPN, brought to you by the same company that creates NordVPN;
• The best SSD drive that you can get right now, with blazing fast speeds and near-native storage capabilities, is probably the SanDisk Extreme 1TB Portable SSD with NVMe technology – I bought this myself to keep a moving backup of all of my files, it’s the size of a credit card, and it’s absolutely superb;

• 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;

• Buy yourself a proper Bible;
• Get your Castalia Library books here;
• Buy yourself a proper knife for personal defence;

Rejoice, brothers and sisters, for Christ is Risen! He is with us and between us on this most glorious of days, as we celebrate Easter and the day of His Resurrection. Today we acknowledge in faith and joy the promise that He made to us, and which He kept. In that spirit, I have put together a set of thoughts on the nature of Easter, what it means for us, and why His Hugeness gave us the signs He did. I also talk about the need to read through Scripture to understand His words, and the dangers of ignoring the clear signs of Scripture, and especially of rejecting the Trinity.

If you like what I do, and you would like to express your appreciation, please feel free to do so here via my Buy Me a Coffee page. All funds go to upkeep of the site and podcast (well, whatever is left over after buying good Scotch, obviously…)

I make some pretty incendiary statements in this podcast, and in most of my podcasts. I can only do so because I take steps to protect myself from the Big Tech companies, and preserve my identity. You need to do the same – this is no longer optional, because if you don’t, the gatekeepers WILL come for your head.

If you don’t know where to start, then I’ve got you covered right 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 80% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark;
• Be sure also to check out Incogni, the new data and privacy management tool offered by Surfshark, which simply works behind the scenes to ensure that no malign actors can take advantage of your data ever again;
• Another solid VPN option for you is Atlas VPN, brought to you by the same company that creates NordVPN;
• The best SSD drive that you can get right now, with blazing fast speeds and near-native storage capabilities, is probably the SanDisk Extreme 1TB Portable SSD with NVMe technology – I bought this myself to keep a moving backup of all of my files, it’s the size of a credit card, and it’s absolutely superb;

• 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;

• Buy yourself a proper Bible;
• Get your Castalia Library books here;
• Buy yourself a proper knife for personal defence;

This latest Domain Query comes by way of LRFotS Randale6, who asks a pertinent and germane question about the difference between natural and artificial, or "learned", charisma, with examples provided as reference points:

Didact, what are your thoughts on natural vs artificial charisma?

For clarification I will provide a summary of each along with a video showcasing it.

Artificial Charisma: Being more charismatic then you naturally are, involves studying the rhetorical and dialectic arts, seeking advantages provided by the environment and/or audience, and preparing ahead of time.

Example video (Mark Zuckerberg speaking Mandarin).

Natural Charisma: Charisma that is innate, often marked by the user's ability to improvise and as they say "fly by the seat of my pants", often without any apparent effort or preparation.

Example video (2016 republican debate, aka Trump abuses rhinos for sport).

In my response, I point out that there is indeed a big difference between the two, but artificial charisma CAN eventually substitute for the real thing, through time and practice, although it will never be a perfect substitute for the natural kind. I liken it to the difference between a naturally gifted athlete, e.g. Roger Federer, and one who is simply relentless and remorseless in his training and dedication to the game, e.g. Novak Djokovic. The former will always be more talented than the latter - but the latter has more titles and more records to his name now.

I have finally signed up for Buy Me A Coffee. If you like what I do, and you would like to express your appreciation, please feel free to do so here.

I make some pretty incendiary statements in this podcast, and in most of my podcasts. I can only do so because I take steps to protect myself from the Big Tech companies, and preserve my identity. You need to do the same – this is no longer optional, because if you don’t, the gatekeepers WILL come for your head.

If you don’t know where to start, then I’ve got you covered right 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 80% OFF on a 24-month subscription with Surfshark;
• Be sure also to check out Incogni, the new data and privacy management tool offered by Surfshark, which simply works behind the scenes to ensure that no malign actors can take advantage of your data ever again;
• Another solid VPN option for you is Atlas VPN, brought to you by the same company that creates NordVPN;
• The best SSD drive that you can get right now, with blazing fast speeds and near-native storage capabilities, is probably the SanDisk Extreme 1TB Portable SSD with NVMe technology – I bought this myself to keep a moving backup of all of my files, it’s the size of a credit card, and it’s absolutely superb;

• 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;

• Buy yourself a proper Bible;
• Get your Castalia Library books here;
• Buy yourself a proper knife for personal defence;