A Recession? Redefine it- No Recession

Our nation’s GDP saw an overall drop by 1.6 percent from April through July, which means that we have now had two consecutive quarters of falling GDP. Up until recently, anyone who has had even a 100 level course in economics would’ve understood that our country has now slipped into a recession. Of course, the Biden Administration cannot afford to have a politically debilitating word like “recession” being associated with them, let alone having it muttered by the average voter. And since they have already crossed the economic and political Rubicon, in that there is nothing they can or will do to mitigate the consequences of their stated goals and policies, they have once again turned to gaslighting to deal with the issue.

Despite saying the exact opposite back in 2008, as well as saying that inflation was "actually a good sign”, Biden National Economic Council deputy director Brian Deese said that two consecutive quarters of GDP decline was “not the definition that economists have traditionally relied on.” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who still expects to be taken seriously after admitting she was wrong about her inflation predictions, said that “we are not in a recession.” Biden press secretary and administration jester, Karine Jean-Pierre even said that “the textbook definition of recession is not two negative quarters of GDP.” Even Wikipedia is towing the administration’s line by changing the definition of “recession” and then locking the page in order to (their words) “prevent vandalism.”

While the public has grown accustomed to this kind of gaslighting, this is something different and not a little disconcerting. It is as thought was are watching cheaply produced parody of George Orwell’s 1984, that is playing out like a black comedy, but is getting less and less funny with each act. The administration’s attempt to redefine and redirect the current economic malaise, is what was called “blackwhite” in 1984. As one commentator on the book observed, “Since Big Brother is not omnipotent and the party is not always infallible, there is need for an unwavering, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts. The key word here is ‘blackwhite’ a word that has two contradictory meanings.” To an opponent, the word was used in the novel to “impudently claim that black is white in contradiction to the plain facts”, whereas when applied to party members (INGSOC) it meant “a loyal willingness to say that black is white when party discipline demands this” but also to “believe that black is white, to know that black is white and to forget that you ever believed the contrary.”

It is debatable as to what degree the administration’s spokespeople or the legacy media actually believe the lies they are telling, or whether they are just maintaining ideological discipline for the sake of maintaining power. Whatever the case may be, these attempts at “blackwhite” are done to control the present narrative in order to reshape the past, so that future minds will be shaped into accepting their preferred version of history.

The key to countering this is to remember that the person engaging in “blackwhite” knows “that the process has to be conscious or the act would not be carried out with sufficient precision. But it also has to be unconscious otherwise it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt." After all, to engage in this sort of double-think, "one admits that one is tampering with reality and thus the lie is always one step ahead of the truth.”

It is here that our Lord’s words that “the truth will set you free” have never been more true. For only by acknowledging the Truth are we able to freely pursue it, as those who make a habit of doing so are less apt to be fooled by lies.

The Long Cold Winter Ahead

As has been reported here at The Everyman, food shortages and thus higher prices are on the way due to a shortage of fertilizer in the world and aberrant Spring weather, both of which will affect the fall harvest. Moreover, we are all paying a higher price at the gas pump, which will not only raise the cost of the diesel fuel used in harvesting crops, but also the cost to deliver the finished food to market.

And just as a long hot summer was predicted here as well, we can also look forward to a colder winter. As reported by former CIA agent Bryan Dean Wright, “The price of natural gas is soaring in America, up by 65% since the beginning of July.” Thus for those persons and industries that rely on natural gas to power their equipment can expect to pay higher prices in the future. According to Wright there are four reasons for the rise in prices,

1. Lack of supply due to lower production in the shale basins of Texas and New Mexico.

2. The current hot weather (caused by the La Niña phenomenon) is causing a higher demand for natural gas to power all the AC’s people are using.

3. During the summer months, utility companies used to supplement their natural gas-run generators with coal-fired plants, but this year saw the closing of older coal plants and a reduction in mining for it.

4. And finally, the overall shortage of natural gas is due to the war in Ukraine. Russia’s natural gas pipeline into Europe is currently only operating at 20% capacity. Which means Europe has to buy natural gas on the open market, which due to shortages around the world, is increasing the demand and thus the price.

Of course none of this would be happening if the Biden administration had not taken such a hard line against fossil fuels, in favor of their radical green agenda. Yet, this is where we are, and since the weather and the war in Ukraine are all out of our hands, the only rational thing left to do would be to find some other ways to augment the energy we produce in this country. Of course, this is not going to happen overnight, and certainly not under this administration. Hence, we can look forward to yet another commodity whose price will go through the roof, and the people most likely to suffer will be the poor, now and in the coming winter.

The Truth About Anti-Depressants Finally Comes Out

With all of the multi-million dollar advertising campaigns run by pharmaceutical companies, especially Pfizer who sponsors many of the legacy media news segments, you may have missed the reporting of the findings of a study about anti-depressants. As reported in the Post-Millennial, the public has been told for decades that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, something that is held by 85-90% of Americans. In particular, due to low serotonin levels, which was supposed to be combated with selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) anti-depressants .

However, according to “a recent overview of existing meta-analyses and systematic reviews spanning decades” by the University College London and published in Molecular Psychiatry, it was found that “after a vast amount of research conducted over several decades, scientists can safely say there is no convincing evidence that depression is caused by serotonin abnormalities.” As someone who is casualty and survivor of the “ever-burgeoning for-profit mental health and substance recover industry”, I can speak from personal experience. Beginning with Prozac in early 90’s, my therapists gave out samples to me, until their use became mainstream enough to be prescribed by my general practitioners.

However, it wasn’t until later in life, after I had been off of them for a long time that I heard someone ask two very simple questions, that somehow I had never thought to ask before: Low serotonin levels compared to what? And how did they know my levels were low? After all, not once did they test any of my bodily fluids or run some sort of MRI scan to verify that I indeed had low serotonin levels. So how did my therapist and doctors know?  Answer, they didn’t. It was just another one of those medical assumptions that they made based on research and data.

This is not to say that I am denying the effectiveness of advances made in treating mental illness or the removing of the stigma of asking for help with therapy or spiritual guidance. However, when 13% of Americans are currently taking anti-depressants overall, and 18% of women do, to say nothing all of the other mood-modifying meds that are prescribed to children and teens for everything from anxiety to depression and autism, I think this news about serotonin levels should be the impetus to re-evaluating our society’s promiscuous pill-popping to solve our problems.

In fact, I’m going to go on a sequoia-sized limb and posit that there is far more evidence that plastics in our water supply, an over-consumption of soy, the ubiquity of sweeteners (like high-fructose corn syrup or aspartame) in everything we eat, a lack of sleep, lower overall testosterone levels in men, too much time spent on social media, not enough time exercising, a pervasive nihilist mood in our culture and the deconstruction of everything that used to give our lives meaning (like faith, family, and hope for the future) might, just might, have something to do with the spate of depression and spiritual torpor our society is experiencing, than non-existent serotonin levels.

From personal experience I can say some meds do in fact help stabilize your mood, so that you are able to give your full attention to the grit and grace needed to make a stronger you. They are not meant to be a solution in and of themselves. Yet that is also, where our culture is today. This is why it should come as no surprise why people are overdosing on opioids and fentanyl, because pill-poppin is what people have been conditioned to do for some time now.

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