Spun Up

Why are so many Americans so agitated?

Nov 17, 2023

Issue #145

The hosts of the No Agenda podcast often point out how many (if not most) Americans are “spun up”: anxious, agitated, upset, fearful. Have you noticed that many of your fellow Americans often seem to be on edge, disturbed, not psychologically well? Why is that? I can think of many reasons.

First, there's a seasonal theory based on the cycles of history. “The last of these eras--the Fourth Turning--was always the most perilous, a period of civic upheaval and national mobilization as traumatic and transformative as the New Deal and World War II, the Civil War, or the American Revolution. Now, right on schedule, our own Fourth Turning has arrived. The polarization, the growing threat of civil conflict and global war will culminate by the early 2030s in a climax that poses great danger....”

Second, the upshot of the recent rise of (Marxist) Critical Theory is that there is always something wrong with everything, so nothing can ever be right. Adherents of this theory (which is really just a political strategy for violent revolution) are constantly riled up and make absurd demands of others. For these people, this is actually quite disempowering since the solution always lies outside of their own agency. The documentary “Uncle Tom” discusses this.

And if you're just an ordinary American who's simply minding your own business, you're constantly on edge from indoctrination and “struggle sessions” at mandatory corporate DEI training events and possible accusations of racism (or any other number of -isms or “-phobias”), microaggressions, misgendering, not using the correct pronoun (probably one you've never heard of), taking up too much space and other absurdities.

For years, I've noticed a fundamental difference in the dispositions of people based on their political views. Leftists always seem strident and angry; some even seem “not right” (pun intended). Conservatives and libertarians, on the other hand, are usually laid back, of good cheer, and enjoy a good laugh. From a health point of view, both anger and stress are killers.

Critical Theory requires, promotes and results in tribalism—another major source of unease. Is another tribe trying to persecute or discriminate against my tribe, or trying to take resources away from it? These days, what matters is not the content of your character (as Martin Luther King, Jr. called for) but your race or skin color—the exact same lens that a Klansman would use.

The government is another major source of distress, for several reasons. First, it tries to keep its citizens in a perpetual state of fear with its Homeland Security Advisory System (which was always on orange), its fabricated COVID-19 “pandemic” (it did create the virus in a ChiCom lab using U.S. tax money, but the only reason it was as bad as it was was due to government lies, malfeasance and fraud), and made-up, bullshit warnings about almost nonexistent threats such as ~~Global Cooling~~ ~~Global Warming~~ Climate Change and militias.

This isn't as blatant as it was during the Bush 43 regime, however, as the elite who are in control have figured out that if they use this tactic too hard for too long, Americans will tune out (as they've done now with COVID). So now they seem to be using a more subtle, long-term, low boil to create a constant, nagging state of anxiety. For example, since Joseph Robinette (AKA “The Big Guy,” Robin Ware, Robert L. Peters and JRB Ware) was installed as the godfather of our national crime family, it seems like the American flag has been at half mast for much (perhaps most?) of that time. Everything is a tragedy or an outrage, and Something Needs To Be Done About It.

Second, the government is constantly trying to make people do things that they don't want to do: pay an exorbitant amount of taxes (including for programs that taxpayers strongly disagree with), disarm themselves, comply with every rule and regulation ginned up by the unaccountable administrative state, etc. The government reminds me of a boy who likes to frequently poke his pet scorpion with a stick. No wonder the scorpion gets pissed off.

Third, government policies inevitably result in extreme, perverse outcomes: war, poverty, crime, sickness and death, corruption. If I lived in a place such as Chicago that has multiple layers (federal, state, county, city) of statist government, I'd be wound up, too. No wonder 50 or so people get shot there every weekend.

Perhaps the institution most responsible for spinning up Americans is the media. Just look at their incentives. First, they need eyeballs and ratings so they can sell ads to Big Pharma. So “If it bleeds, it leads.” So things like war, riots (though “mostly peaceful”), a “pandemic,” an “insurrection,” racism, etc. are all great for ratings.

I remember seeing an animated video once (which I now cannot find) that showed a lot of little people moving around inside a box, minding their own business. One of them does something that's a little impolite, and the news media does a story about it. A few people see the story, and they get a little riled up, which prompts at least one of them to do something that's kind of mean. The media then does a story about that, which leads to more anger and hostilities in an ever-escalating loop until eventually, everyone is at war with everyone else.

Second, probably 90% of the Legacy Media are proponents of Critical Theory, so they want everything to be wrong. So when they find one situation out of billions of events and human actions that was (or seemed) unjust, and they do a short story about it using carefully chosen words, using edited video or audio that is taken out of context, and they show those emotional and usually misleading reports to their Low Information viewers, well of course it's going to result in riots, looting, arson and murder.

What do I mean by Low Information? Functional illiteracy; a lack of education and knowledge (especially about history); a lack of curiosity and the desire to seek out more information to understand the full context; a lack of independent, critical thinking; an inability to see nuance and complexity; ignorance of human nature.

Let's not overlook certain religious beliefs as a reason why so many people are spun up. If you believe that you and your fellow believers are God's Chosen People, well, often that means the infidels will need to be destroyed. (And God may be omnipotent, but for some reason he leaves that heavy lifting to his followers, which usually requires many billions of dollars of military aid from the U.S. government.)

Look at what's happening in the Middle East. Jews, Muslims (and Christians, etc.) have been fighting each other there for millennia. Do you think that's going to change any time soon? If you want to get people spun up, do a news story that involves war, religion, terrorism, beheaded babies, kidnapping, hostages, urban combat, a humanitarian crisis, the possible use of nuclear weapons, etc. Not only is that ratings gold, it gets people spun up like nothing else.

Finally, another major reason why so many Americans are agitated is their physiological and mental/psychological state. Their bodies are full of harmful substances such as pharmaceutical products, sugar, wheat, herbicides (such as Glyphosate), pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, heavy metals, and thousands of man-made substances (including possibly nicotine, alcohol, and recreational drugs). The human body cannot function properly with such a heavy and unnatural chemical load.

Another major contributing factor to Americans' terrible physical and mental state is lack of sleep (both quantity and quality). There are many causes of this, including: viewing unnerving content (such as news or political commentary)—AKA “doomscrolling”—on blue light emitting screens just before bedtime; sleeping in a bedroom full of EMFs (including sleeping with your cell phone); not leaving your work at the office, etc.

Related to both of the two paragraphs above are a lack of: movement and exercise; clean air and water; exposure to sunlight (especially direct and in the morning); exposure to nature (including natural beauty) and grounding; real, face-to-face socialization in Meatspace (instead of Metaspace), including laughter, hugs and pets; and mindfulness (including meditation) and gratitude.

In closing, if you want to get out of this doom loop of stress and anxiety that—if unchecked-- would eventually lead to total war and tyranny, you have to get your body into a physiological state where you can practice mindfulness and avoid getting spun up. Reclaim your attention, emotions, thoughts and consciousness. You don't have to react like Pavlov's dog to the edited, out-of-context video clips that Big Brother/Big Tech show on your telescreen.

If you want to make the world a better place, that won't happen if you get spun up and ask politicians to Do Something. Instead, tend to your own garden, be the change you seek (as Gandhi said), and present the world with one improved version of yourself.

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