Lawful but Tragic

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The Renee Good case was clear-cut self-defense. Objectively, she hit the accelerator when her tires were pointed directly at the officer. If the officer had complete omnipotence he would still have been justified in using deadly force.

The Pretti case is different. It still looks like lawful self-defense, but in this case, if the officers were omnipotent, they would NOT have fired. But from the perception of the individual officer in the moment, all they know is that they are dealing with an agitator who has 1) aggressively confronted a federal law enforcement officer 2) unlawfully interfered in an arrest of a third party and 3) violently resisted arrest. And then the officer hears “gun gun gun.” We don’t know exactly what that officer was seeing at the time; maybe the body cam video will be probative, maybe not. But the officer is allowed to rely on the perceptions of his colleagues combined with his own, so if he heard “gun gun gun” and saw Pretti reach for his waist that’s a lawful shoot even if the officer was mistaken.

Will Chamberlain @willchamberlain
Posted on X, January 26, 2026

He meant “omniscient”, not “omnipotent”.

There is at least one video I have seen that appears to show the officer who took Petti’s gun had an AD with it as he was walking away. This, as you might expect, appears to have initiated the shooting of Petti.

If true, it will almost certainly result in it being a lawful, tragic shooting.

Judicial Lawfare

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Let’s talk Judicial Lawfare.

Over 4 years of the Biden administration, 9 district court rulings against the administration were later overturned on appeal. About 2.25 per year.

In 2025 alone, the first year of President Trump’s second term, 32 District Judges have issued 133 rulings against the Trump administration that were stayed or overturned on appeal.

Simplified, District Judges are now issuing rulings that ultimately fail on appeal at more than 50x the rate compared to the previous presidency.

And for the record, when these cases reach the Supreme Court, President Trump’s win rate is roughly 90%.

Chad Mizelle @chad_mizelle
Posted on X, January 26, 2026

Interesting statistics. What is left out that makes me wonder if they are hiding something. Why are the total number of cases are not mentioned for either administration?

Still, I do know the SCOTUS win rate is quite high.

Politicians have no Principles

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A few Trump Admin officials said some very dumb anti-2A things over the weekend. They got criticism and walked back those statements today. On the actual substantive policy and law, the Admin has generally been very good on the issue, although we do strongly disagree with them on some things.

Democrats, for their part, said some very pro-2A things over the weekend in support of Alex Pretti. But by Monday, they were already back to banning the gun and magazines he carried.

I’d love nothing more for Democrats to truly support the 2A and make the issue less partisan. But that just isn’t the reality. Trump may say things like “take the guns first.” Democrats actually do it.

Kostas Moros @MorosKostas
Posted on X, January 26, 2026

Barb and I briefly discussed this last night…

As I told Barb, “I don’t believe politicians have actual principles. They will say and do whatever they think is good for them politically.”

So, you have to either make your desires politically rewarding enough for them to obey the law or abandon all hope of them behaving in a constitutional manner. The judges at the SCOTUS level are better and where I place most of my hope of getting the gun issue straightened out. Hence, I donate money to the Second Amendment groups which appear to be most effective in the courts.

My remaining hope is in creating new gun owners and increasing the enthusiasm of existing owners. Hence, my taking new shooters to the range and Boomershoot.

Governments are Not Necessary

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Is the Hobbesian fear truly rooted in reality? If not, what happens to politics when we allow fear, not cooperation, to become foundational to our framework? Robert Nozick asked these same questions in Anarchy, State, and Utopia. These lucidly written pages extend these arguments even further—with some surprising conclusions.

Aeon J. Skoble—professor of philosophy, bestselling author, and acclaimed political theorist—makes a powerful case that the state as we understand it today is not only morally unjustifiable, but also, thankfully, unnecessary. It has only the power we mistakenly grant it. What if we didn’t?

Packed with urgent lessons, original insights, and unparalleled philosophical rigor, this book is essential reading for anyone who dares imagine a freer world.

Independent Institute
January 26, 2026
Deleting the State: Requiem for an Illusion – eBook, Paperback

I am extremely skeptical. I am of the strong opinion that governments are a necessary evil to protect the rights of the individual. Yes, when they go rogue they can be the greatest infringer of rights. But on the whole, with a well armed populus, they can be a net benefit to humanity.

That said, if the book were available in audible form, I would purchase it just to see what the author has to say.

It’s Too Much to Expect People to be Responsible

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In every clip I’ve seen of Noem today, she’s saying something she can’t know or that is a lie. She also undercuts 2A to say carrying ammo is a problem on its face. I know it’s too much to expect people to be responsible, but this is opposite of a grown-up doing the job.

Mary Katherine Ham @mkhammer
Posted on X, January 24, 2026

It is way beyond having hope of most people to be responsible. Things are more chaotic than I think I have ever seen them. Emotions are running very high. Most people cannot even determine what is reality. Part of the problem is the media lies, selective reporting, and deliberate distortion. Part of it is that many people don’t even believe in the existence of an objective reality. And part of it is that reality is a really tough problem. We are left with people blinded by emotion, without knowledge of how to determine a reality they don’t even believe exists, with deliberate lies as the basis to make decisions on how to interact with the rest of the world.

The dollar is worth less than 1/5000th of an ounce of gold and will buy less than 1/100th of an ounce of silver. The nation debt is nearly $40 trillion.

I just want my underground bunker in Idaho to be finished and stocked before things go really sour.

In Awe of Such Mind Warping Ability

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With the conservative majority’s Second Amendment test requiring states to justify gun measures with historical analogues, Hawaii and other states have turned to the Black Codes to justify gun control efforts.

At Tuesday’s arguments, Justice Neil Gorsuch and other conservative justices appeared reluctant to credit them given their racist origins. 

Hawaii points to anti-poaching laws enacted near the nation’s founding and gun restrictions Louisiana passed in 1865 as part of its Black Codes.  

“They wanted to disarm the Black population in order to help the Klan terrorize them and law enforcement officers in that period in that region. They wanted to put them at the mercy of racist law enforcement officers,” Justice Samuel Alito said. 

“So is it not the height of irony,” he asked Katyal, “to cite a law that was enacted for exactly the purpose of preventing someone from exercising the Second Amendment right, to cite this as an example of what the Second Amendments protects.” 

Katyal said he agreed parts of the Black Codes did exactly that.

Zach Schonfeld
January 20, 2026
Conservative justices reluctant to credit Black Codes in Hawaii gun law case

One has to be in awe of people capable of such mind warping ability that they use a racist and unconstitutional law as supporting the assertion their law is constitutional. Did they think appealing to racist laws would make it more a palatable to the conservative justices? If so, it backfired, but it did appeal to one of the justices:

“So I guess I really don’t understand your response to Justice Gorsuch on the Black Codes,” Jackson, a Biden appointee, told Harris. “I mean, I thought the Black Codes were being offered here under the Bruen test to determine the constitutionality of this regulation. And it’s because we have a test that asks us to look at the history and tradition.”

“The fact that the Black Codes were, at some later point, determined themselves to be unconstitutional doesn’t seem to me to be relevant to the assessment that Bruin is asking us to make.

I have given up trying to make sense of this argument. I have far more important things to do. I need to clip my fingernails.

Experience a Sudden Increase in Posterior Luminosity

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The matter is simple. Hawaii passed a law that, in practice, prohibits the state’s concealed carry permit holders from exercising their right to armed self-defense in virtually any location outside of their homes. Hawaii knows well that this law violates both the spirit and letter of Bruen v. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, the Supreme Court’s 2022 landmark case on public carry. It just does not care.  

Now, the state should brace itself for a more-than-deserved judicial head-bopping. 

Amy Swearer
January 23, 2026
SCOTUS likely to head-bop Hawaii over gun rights

All the reports I have heard say the oral arguments went well for the good guys.

In addition to getting their head bopped I think some other corrective measures are warranted. I would like to suggest all of the following applied as near as concurrently as is practical to each of the politicians who participated in this injustice:

  • Bitch slapped
  • Britches dusted
  • Ears boxed
  • Experience a sudden increase in posterior luminosity
  • Get their hide tanned
  • Have their sit-down region encouraged to reconsider their life choices
  • Knuckles rapped.
  • Receiving a cuff upside the head
  • Taken to the woodshed
  • Undergo some corrective percussion therapy

If they still continue to misbehavior they should be prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Words as Spells

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The meme that the Left uses words as spells to produce useful outcomes has the most explanatory power.

They don’t care about meanings, they just want those outcomes.

Brotherhood @DiggingInTheDi1
Posted on X, January 21, 2026

I can believe that.

  • Gun free zone.
  • From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs! *
  • If there are no guns there will be no gun violence.
  • Black lives matter.
  • Believe women.
  • Defund the police.
  • Affordable housing. **
  • Anything-phobic. **
  • Bipartisan. **
  • Climate change. **
  • Common sense gun control. **
  • Corporate greed. **
  • Deincarceration. **
  • Diversity. **
  • Equity. **
  • Existential threat to democracy. **
  • Reproductive freedom. **
  • Security.
  • Underrepresented. **
  • Undocumented immigrant. **
  • Workers’ rights. **

* From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs – Wikipedia
** The Progressive Left’s Glossary Of Terms, 2024 Edition – Scattered Shots

They Will Not Get Away with That

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You’re just relegating the Second Amendment to second-class status. I don’t see how you can get away with that.

Samuel Alito
January 20, 2026
Gun rights attorney reminds Sonia Sotomayor Hawaii part of United States

And, ultimately, I do not think they will get away with it. I think SCOTUS will rule in favor of the 2nd Amendment being a first-class right. I think Hawaii will comply with the letter of the ruling. And I think Hawaii will keep trying find more ways to get around SCOTUS decisions until they start getting prosecuted and convicted.

Feelings and Imagination

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They claim to be gun free zones. Well if we know anything about gun-free zones, looking at Australia and Brown, we know that they are not violence free zones. They are only defenseless zones where victims are left hopeless, without any hope of defending themselves.

Sam Farrington
New Hampshire State Representative
December 17, 2025
NH Republicans push to allow guns on college campuses

The response from the anti-gun people is telling:

State Rep. Nicholas Germana, D-Keene, a history professor at Keene State College, said Thursday he wouldn’t feel any safer if people coming on campus were packing firearms.

Any police response to an active shooter on a college campus would be fraught if armed bystanders became involved and crossfire broke out, he said.

“All the sudden police come on that campus and it’s a shootout at the OK Corral,” Germana said. “How do police know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is?”

Feelings and imagination. It is the best they can do. But it is enough to keep them going until they start getting prosecuted and convicted.

Sanctions on Countries Denying Basic Human Rights

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Bondi proved that Australia’s gun laws are broken and we can no longer delay fixing them, bipartisan support or not. There is no way that guns able to fire one bullet a second and eight bullets without reloading – which was the capacity of the guns used to kill 15 people and injure another 40 at Bondi – conform to either the spirit and intent of the NFA.

Leslie Cannold
January 15, 2026
Australia’s Broken Gun Laws: A Call for Reform – The Jewish Independent

I just have to shake my head. She wants to restrict the rate of fire to below one round per second? There go revolvers, pump shotguns, and lever action rifles. I’ll bet some people with some bolt action rifles could even match that speed. So, she would have it be only derringers, muzzle loaders, and double-barreled rifles and shotguns as legal guns?

But, of course, that will be considered a feature instead of a bug in her “fixing” of their gun laws.

If President Trump wanted to do some high-end trolling, I think he could get some really “quality” reactions if he advocated for sanctions on countries that deny their citizens basic human rights like the right to keep and bear arms. He should start with Australia, Canada, and England because, as of 250 years ago they had the same gun legal history as the U.S. I would find moving the Overton Window on people like Cannold to be quite entertaining.

Time to Remove this Government from Power

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Anybody who cares about liberty or property rights or just public safety in general, the focus should be removing this government from power.

Tracey Wilson
Vice-president of public relations for Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights
January 17, 2026
Ottawa unveils next steps in its national gun buyback program. Here are the details | CBC News

Some of the details are infuriating:

Compensation payments will be issued within 45 business days of a successful validation of the outlawed firearm. The official said the pool of funding is $248.6 million — which will let the government pay for about 136,000 outlawed firearms from individual Canadians.

There are an estimated 2 million of the outlawed firearms. The government only plans to pay for about one out of 15 of the guns. That isn’t what they repeatedly promised.

But perhaps they did the arithmetic and figured that was all the money they would need:

Last fall, the federal government launched a six-week voluntary pilot project in the Cape Breton region of Nova Scotia to test how the process would work. Officials were confident they would collect about 200 firearms.

Instead, just 25 were collected and destroyed, the Department of Public Safety revealed earlier this month. Responding to followup questions, the department said on Friday that 16 people participated.

If the participation rate is anything like it has been in Connecticut, California, Connecticut, New York, etc. then they should expect about a 5% compliance rate.

I will predict the next election will have a higher voter turnout than usual.

It might even move the talks on the Alberta and Saskatchewan Movements Push to Join U.S. as 51st State a little closer to reality.

Ideology Doesn’t Require Reality

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Communists are always certain of themselves because their certainty is ideological, not factual—and ideology doesn’t require reality.

Xi Van Fleet @XVanFleet
Posted on X, January 15, 2026

All successful politicians express great confidence. I do not know how many actually believe themselves. But I know a great many of them seemingly compulsively tell lies. Truth and reality are tough, really tough. So, the more connected to reality and the more truthful you are the less confidence you will express. That gives the communists and liars a big advantage in getting followers because they express the confidence that gives people a feeling of stability in an uncertain world.

The same can be said for anti-gun people. But anti-gun people are mostly communists, so that isn’t adding much.

It’s Almost Cute That They Think They’re Virtuous

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Again, yes the #MAGATs have all the guns. But #CivilWar2 ain’t gonna go they way they think it will. Because their enemy has al the brains. All the virtue. All the cities. And more troops than they’ve ever fucking seen.

Matt Walton @themattwalton
Via Rothmus @Rothmus on January 14, 2026

Matt Walton claims to be successful in life: Matt Walton – IMDb as an actor, writer, producer, director, “spokesguy”, and president of Ava Greyson Productions with a 1.5 million dollar house. Yet, he says something this stupid. What sort of alternate reality is he living in?

From the same X thread:

GINGERSKOL💜💛 @GlowSurfing

Yes, brains and brilliance would believe that smarts would win over guns!! 😆😆

Warren Green 🦅 🌎 ⚓️ @WarrenG76918837

Mitch @Mitch17472831
Matt doesnt understand being surrounded.

James Murdock @mmurdo431

Millennial Savage @Millennial_Sav

The first american civil war was republicans vs democrats to take away democrat slaves.

Civil War 2 will be republicans vs democrats to take away their illegal immigrant laborers.

Nothing has changed.

The two useful things I did get from Walton’s post is that he and his tribe view gun owners as their enemy and he considers the U.S. in a state of civil war. That will guide their actions. Prepare appropriately.

But I suspect this is the most insightful:

Carol Sheahan @CSheahan7924

It’s almost cute that they think they’re virtuous. That really is what this is all about: their obsessive need to faux virtue-signal.

It is as if they “know” their enemy is evil. Therefore, if they do/say something opposite of their enemy then it must be good. Their enemy could be arresting murderers and rapists and because they “know” their enemy is always evil, they are on the side of the violent criminals.

A Stroke of the Pen and It Is a Right Less Infringed

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Section 1715 of title 18, U.S. Code, is unconstitutional as applied to constitutionally protected firearms, including handguns, because it serves an illegitimate purpose and is inconsistent with the Nation’s tradition of firearm regulation. See N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111, 2129–30 (2022).

The Department of Justice may not, consistent with the Constitution, enforce section 1715 with respect to constitutionally protected firearms. The Postal Service should modify its regulations to conform with this opinion.

T. ELLIOT GAISER
Assistant Attorney General
Office of Legal Counsel
January 15, 2026
Constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 1715 (or here)

See also:

Boom! A significant infringement upon our right to keep and bear arms has just been removed.

Just on Wednesday, I was talking to a co-worker about this infringement and a horror story directly related.

I am amazed at how fast things are moving in this space. Heller was decided in 2008. McDonald was decided in 2010. Sometime in there Alan Gura told a group of gun bloggers that it would take 20 years or more to get things straightened out. That was difficult to believe. But as the years crept along, I thought perhaps he had underestimated the time it would take. Now, it seems possible.

See also the following video on machine guns. The possibility of restoring that right is actually on the table! And what I find most interesting is that it would not be because it violates the 2nd Amendment!

Strawman Argument and Deliberate Lie

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While the horror of events in Rhode Island sinks in, it is inevitable that, just as night follows day, defenders of mass gun culture across the United States will rush to blame Brown University for not having enough security barriers to entry at the classroom building where the shooting took place.

For them, it is always something else, not the way our nation lives awash in easily available high-capacity firearms, that is at fault. This time, let’s stop the “more security” fallacy before the propaganda machine backing it kicks into high gear.

I am a college teacher, and of course I want my students to be as safe as possible. I have even discussed with students the possibility of a mass shooting event on campus, especially when teaching in classrooms with no opening windows. However, I also do not want students to pay $10,000 more in annual fees to have an army of armed guards in armor stationed at every door or swarms of security drones hovering everywhere.

John Davenport
December 21, 2025
Mass shootings in the US must stop. We need gun control | Opinion

He goes on to build his case against “an army of armed guards.” But other than security guards at K through 12 schools I have never heard anyone suggest anything like what Davenport believes (or claims to believe) to be the case. He never addresses the solution we do advocate. That is an end to “gun free zones”. Let people defend themselves with the best tools available.

There probably is a reason for not mentioning this. I can’t believe it was an oversight on his part. I believe it was a deliberate omission. A form of lie. It is what anti-people do.

Spontaneous Formation of RNA Chains

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The origin of the first living molecules on our planet has long been debated. However, recent experiments are revealing new information about the plausible conditions on the early Earth.

This research provides details on one of the major hypotheses concerning the emergence of life: the RNA world. It suggests that the necessary ingredients, combined with very common minerals and simple hydrological cycles, could have led to the assembly of ribonucleic acid.

Researchers reproduced a plausible environment of the Earth more than four billion years ago in the laboratory. To do this, they mixed the chemical precursors of RNA (namely ribose, a 5-carbon sugar, phosphate, and the four fundamental nucleobases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil) with specific compounds: borates, present in ancient oceans, and basalt, an ubiquitous volcanic rock.

This mixture was then subjected to repeated wet and dry cycles. These cycles were intended to replicate the transitions our planet experienced in the past near geothermal aquifers and subsurface areas. The team observed that this process allowed for the formation of RNA chains with no other human intervention than placing the ingredients in a test tube.

Cédric DEPOND
January 8, 2026
🌍 The origin of life on Earth could be much simpler than thought

Interesting. Besides the greater implications of the possibility of life spontaneously appearing with common chemicals and conditions, the ubiquitous basalt plays an important role.

The View that Crime and Violence are Inherently Bad

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I’ve come to realize the left doesn’t actually oppose crime or violence on principle.

They only oppose it when it hurts their own agenda or allies. Otherwise, they actually cheer it on when it’s inflicted upon their enemies, or just ignore it when it can’t be exploited.

For example, killing is good when it’s a health insurance CEO or Charlie Kirk. But it’s bad if it’s Renee Good or George Floyd (for the purpose of this argument, we will assume, as leftists do, that George Floyd was actually killed and did not OD). And killing doesn’t register at all when it’s someone like Iryna Zarutska being murdered by a black man.

The same goes with violence and crime as a whole. Violence against ICE is good. However, violence against ICE protestors is bad. And violence between black gangs is simply unimportant.

Furthermore, stealing from Walmarts and other big chains is good, but “stealing” from indigenous people is bad. Somalis stealing from taxpayers, on the other hand, should just not be discussed at all.

Unlike most people, the leftist views violence and crime as morally neutral tools, with acceptability or importance wholly dependent on who or what these tools are being used against.

Now, you might say, the right acts similarly! After all, weren’t the ICE agent’s and Kyle Rittenhouse’s killings excused by conservatives?

But no, actually, these cases are not the same. The right doesn’t excuse these killings because they were perpatrated by conservatives against progressives, which is how leftists view these scenarios.

It is not the “who” that provides justification for these killings in the eyes of the right, but rather, the “why,” which is self-defense.

Regardless of the parties involved, conservatives, in general, recognize the right to self-defense. Leftists, conversely, might only recognize self-defense as valid depending on who is using it.

Case in point, according to leftists, the ICE agent was not justified in shooting as self-defense after being hit with a car at a protest. But somehow, self-defense has been the go-to defense for Karmelo Anthony, a black teen who stabbed an unarmed student after getting into an argument at a campus sports event.

Again, for the leftist, the justification for crime and violence comes not from “why,” but from “who.”

And so, why does this matter? Why is this worth discussing?

It matters because, as we saw with Charlie Kirk, regardless of how law abiding or moral you may otherwise be, as long as you are conservative, it means the left will support any and all violence or theft that befalls you. Unfortunately, the justification for harming you comes from who you are: their enemy.

This phenomenon also explains the leftist indifference to the crimes of minority groups, like Somalis, or trans people, or illegal immigrants, or whatever other protected class. Put simply, in the left’s belief system, if a crime happens, but there’s no way to use it to gain political power, has it even really happened at all?

Finally, with these revelations in mind, the right must stop entering into debates with leftists assuming they share the view that crime and violence are inherently bad, because though they may deny it, the truth is they do not.

Lauren Chen @TheLaurenChen
Posted on X, January 11, 2026

Interesting assertion. We see further evidence to support this assertion from the beginnings of the USSR:

The USSR created hoodlums just as the UK is creating them now and our political opponents in the U.S. appear to want to create. What is even more chilling is that in the USSR the political leaders openly wrote about how the thieves “were allies in the building of communism”. This was because they were the enemy of those who owned property.

One might claim this is contradicted by another model. But that other model measures something a little different than the actions of the political left. It measured the claims of political groups.

Prepare appropriately.

Getting Spicy

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It’s time for the American people to organize and to utilize their Second Amendment right to protect themselves from what is clearly become an unaccountable and lawless agency that’s killing Americans.

Michael Fanone
Former D.C. Police officer
January 8, 2026
Pritzker dismisses ex-DC police officer’s call for Americans to use Second Amendment to protect against ICE
See also:

Now they think the Second Amendment is relevant?

Things could get spicy.

Prepare appropriately.

How Do You Determine Truth from Falsity?

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A vast number of humans, probably a majority, aren’t people.

They are large language models.

I’m not saying this as a generality, as a clever or funny way of saying, “they are stupid”.

No. I mean something very concrete and specific, and there are a lot of people who appear very intelligent, maybe even win awards for writing good poetry or something, who are nevertheless not people, not fully sapient, just a large language model walking around in a human body.

First, you have to understand what a large language model is.

It’s a computer (organic or inorganic), which has been trained on a data set consisting solely of language (written or spoken), and rewarded for producing language that sounds like the data set, and is relevant to a prompt.

That’s all there is in there.

This is why ChatGPT and Grok lie to you constantly.

It’s not because they are somehow just indifferent to the truth — they actually do not understand the concept of “truth” at all.

For something to be a “lie”, or an “inaccuracy”, there has to be a mismatch between the meaning of words, and the state of reality.

And there’s the critical difference. You see, in order to identify a mismatch between the state of reality, and the meaning of a sentence, you have to have a model of reality.

Not just one model, of language.

This is why Grok and ChatGPT hallucinate and tell you lies. Because, for them, everything is language, and there is no reality.

So when I say someone is a large language model, I do not mean he is “stupid”. He might be very facile at processing language. He might, in fact, be eloquent enough to give great speeches, get elected president, win the Nobel Peace Prize, and so on.

What I mean is that humans who are large language models do not have a robust world-object model to counterweight their language model. They are able to manipulate symbols, sometimes adroitly, but they are on far shakier ground when trying imagine the objects those symbols represent.

Which brings us to this woman.

Most conservatives understand her behavior in terms of concepts like “suicidal empathy”, or “brainwashing”, or an “information bubble”, interpreted as reasons why she is delusional, but the truth is far worse than that.

To delusional is to have an object model of the world that is deeply and profoundly wrong. But to have an object model of the world that is deeply and profoundly wrong… you have to have one in the first place.

To sapient humans, words are symbols, grounded in object model of reality, that we use to communicate ideas about that reality. We need those words because we don’t come equipped with a hologram projector, or telepathic powers.

But for another type of human, that object model isn’t very large or robust at all. It consists only of a grass hut or two with a few sticks of furniture, and it can never be matched up with the palaces in the air which she weaves out of words.

And so, to her, there is no reality. Or at least very little.

Reality consists only of her and her immediate surroundings in time and space, and words referring to anything bigger or more complicated are not descriptions of reality… they are magic spells which will make other humans drop loot or give her social approval.

You cannot correct her worldview with contradictory evidence, because there is no worldview to correct.

You cannot confront her with the logical inconsistencies in her worldview, because her object model doesn’t actually have any, it’s not complex enough for that.

The relevant parts of her world-object model can be summed up as follows:

“If I say Goodthing, I get headpats and cookies from all the people like me.”

That model is simply not big or complicated enough to contain notions like self-defense or vehicular assault. She has no theory of mind for a man whose job includes violence. She cannot explain or predict his behavior.

It is too far away from her daily experience to fit into her reality at all.

And if she can’t imagine things like these, how can she possibly imagine concrete meanings for vast and complex ideas like demographic replacement, culture shift, and western civilization?

This is not about intelligence or lack of it. This is about what her brain is trained to do.

Her upbringing, education, and life did not force, or even encourage, her to develop a robust world-object model. It wasn’t necessary for her to get safety, approval, or cookies. She just had to be glib.

So it really didn’t matter if she had an IQ of 125, or whatever, because if she did, then she was just an IQ-125-large-language-model, and only used that brain capacity for writing clever poetry, and saying things that aligned her to her local social matrix.

She couldn’t actually understand the world no matter how smart she was, because her brain was trained up wrong.

I don’t know if this is correctable, or if there was some critical developmental phase that was missed, but it doesn’t matter, because once the LLM-humans are adults, they won’t sit still for corrective therapy, percussive or not.

What’s important is that they can’t be taught things. They can be programmed to repeat stuff, and if you win a culture war, you can even program them to say the sensible stuff. But even then, they will just be saying it for headpats and cookies. They will never truly understand the sense of what they are repeating, because they don’t understand things.

They are just Large Language Models.

And we have to figure out some way to take the vote away from them.

Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_
Posted on X, January 8, 2026

In case you can’t immediately make the connection, this is about Renee Good (Who was Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by ICE?).

Wow! This is awesome. It is another model to incorporate into my understanding of people.

If you read about Ms. Good you will discover she was an award-winning poet, and an English major.

This reminds me of Peterson Syndrome.

They do not have a process for determining truth from falsity. When asked how they determine truth from falsity they look at you like that is a crazy question. They speak of “My truth”, and “My lived experience.” The concept of a court ruling on basis of the law instead of justice (of course it is their “justice”) is nonsensical to them. They cannot imagine why their opinion on an event they did not see is not just as valid as someone who studied multiple videos from various angles frame by frame.

It reminds me of someone who I once asked, “How do you determine truth from falsity?” Their answer, in all seriousness, was, “It depends on how I feel.”

I do not have a common basis in reality to functionally communicate with these people.