The Tipping Point is Near

Boghossian:  Enablers, you are going to get what you deserve



It is long past time to admit that there are vanishingly few moderate and/or good Muslims.  The absolute best they, as a group, will ever do is remain silent in the face of Islamic misconduct.  And more generally, the misconduct of people who also happen to be Muslim.  Before you berate me for this observation, watch the above video with Lubna Zaidi.

Just as with our political class, where it is not the politicians that are the problem; rather, it is the voters.  It is not the Muslims that are the problem.  Rather, it is what Boghossian and Zaidi label, their enablers.  Typically, but not exclusively, from the left.  They tolerate or even allow the misconduct, and then turn a blind eye to it.

Stop pretending.  Stop the wishful thinking.  Stop the suicidal empathy.  It is time to be serious.

* Apologies to Malcolm Gladwell and Ray Kurzweil.
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The Story of the Hole

Scene from The West Wing



20 December 2000  I remember this scene and this story.  Actually, I have never forgotten it.  The West Wing writers, Peter Parnell and Aaron Sorkin, adapted the story from an old Alcoholics Anonymous parable.  But I like how they expanded it to friendship more generally.
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Theater of the Absurd

Milo:  It is not a sexuality...it is a trauma response



I have never given much thought to homosexuality.  And I have never understood it.  But I have always thought that there is something inauthentic about it.  That is, many gay people, well gay men, seem to relish the theater of it; they make it a production.  Everything from the effeminate affectation to the exaggerated campy social performance in its various presentations.  Oh honey, we have all seen the entire repertoire of gay theater.

Of course, not all of them are like this.  But for the men who put on the gay show, really you have to ask, is any of that real?  Well this Milo interview comes as close to explaining homosexuality as I have ever seen.

And yes, Milo comes with his own version of the show.  Here, watching Milo Yiannopoulos, it looks like he is on something.  I mean more so than when we used to see him a decade ago.  But if we can, and we should, set that aside, he makes some wildly interesting, honest, and I believe accurate, points.  Even if his demeanor and conversational style is largely theater, and whether he is doped-up or not, he is an astute observer on this topic.

Like I said, I have never given this topic much thought.  I have never been terribly close to it.  But once, when I was in college, during the AIDS crisis, a friend asked me what I thought about homosexuality.  I remember saying to her, well, I think it is a choice.  She was aghast, and asked, but why would anyone choose to be gay?  My response was, I think it is a form of rebellion.  Parental rebellion or family rebellion, or maybe even something broader.  But it is something reactive rather than innate.

She was even more aghast, but I added, plus it has the added benefit of making one a victim.  This was before the whole victim identity nonsense and she just could not believe that one would or could purposefully identify as a victim.  To what end?  She asked.  Well, there is a kind of status in victimhood.  And it gives you a kind of shield against criticism.

She had to think about that.  But then she asked me the question that I could not answer:  If it is a choice, when did you decide that you were straight?

Bam!

That was it, right?  There was no answer to that question.  Conversation over.

And I really never thought about it again.

Sure, I met gay people over the years.  But from the time of that conversation, my attitude was, hey, you do you.

But about twenty years later something happened.  I met no less than three men, roughly my age, who had married women and had children, and then after long marriages, came out as gay.  All three subsequently divorced.  And I thought back to our conversation twenty years earlier.  Wait, if they are born that way, then whether or not they were ready and willing to accept their homosexuality and/or go public with it, they surely had chosen to be straight.  Or at least had chosen to act straight and live as straight.  Right?

Well no; I was told, because people wrestle with this internally and sometimes it takes decades to accept who you are.  But be that as it may, it seemed to me that there was a choice being made.  And then later reversed.

But this was impolitic, and not really an area of interest for me, so I pretty much kept my opinion to myself.  And it was easy enough to continue with the you do you attitude.

And so I did, again for years.  But over the decades homosexuality, and its various dispositions and alphabetic permutations, have continued to grow.  If you make the argument that this proves that it is not innate, the bien-pensants respond with, well today more people feel they can be open about who they really are.  So they dismiss the social contagion and slippery slope arguments outright.  And if that does not work, they will tell you how offensive these arguments are, and eventually they will get around to calling you a bigot.  Of course.

So still, today, I want to take the you do you attitude.  I want to.  But the numbers have exploded, young people are clearly confused, schools are encouraging alternative sexualities and then hiding the results from parents, we are mutilating children, gender confusion has swept all aspects of society, we are producing record levels of surrogate children, and more broadly, we are accepting of these children in gay households.  And while the causes are uncertain, testosterone levels are in free fall.

It is probably worth remembering that Milo was cancelled in 2016-2017 because he had the audacity to describe how predatory gay men prey on underage boys.  Some say he seemed to condone it.  But was it untrue?  Or has it changed?  Or was Milo just being honest?  Likewise, is he being honest about the rampant promiscuity of the gay lifestyle?  Even in the supposedly married gay households?  Does this conduct stop when children are introduced?  Judge these questions for yourself.

Obviously our society and culture has become more gay and continues to move in that direction.  Ask yourself, is this healthy?  Gay acceptance has gone from, we just want to be treated equally and get married like everyone else, to the gay lifestyle, here I mean the aggregate of the whole spectrum of alphabet people, and its effect on society, is completely beyond criticism.  This is not an overstatement; when they are mutilating children with impunity, their conduct is beyond criticism.  And that is the very least we can say about it.

So, it has gotten to the point that I think we need to take a considered look at the topic.  Believe me, love him or hate him, we could do a lot worse than Milo as a starting point.

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Philippine Culture in One Photo

The most typically Filipino thing I have ever been able to photograph

What do we see in this photo?  On the far left, we see a rice field with newly planted rice seedlings.  If you look carefully, above the green rice field, you can see an as yet unplanted field.  In the middle, we see an irrigation ditch that services these same rice fields and many others.  To the right of the ditch, we see dirt dredged out of the ditch with a backhoe.  And finally, on the far right, we see a concrete road.

As you can see, irrigation workers have dredged the ditch and left the dirt in the margin (or if you prefer, on the road shoulder).  In any other place, the workers would have used the backhoe to move the dirt into an awaiting truck, to be hauled off to some place in need of fill.  Believe me, the Philippines has no shortage of places that could use the extra fill.

But as you can see, that is not what they have done.  They have left the dredged dirt in the margin.  Where, because of the road, it can only go one way:  Back into the ditch.  And with the amount of rain we see in the Philippines, that will not take long at all.  It was raining when I took this photograph.

Again, what is this?  Many people consider Filipinos to be lazy.  But that is not true; I see extremely hard working Filipinos every day.  That rice field was planted by hand; back-breaking work.  And believe me, the guys I saw dredging this ditch are not lazy.  I passed them working on this project many times.  But what is this?  I mean seriously.

We are going to all the trouble to increase the flow and capacity of the irrigation ditch, but then we are going to leave the excavated dirt where it can only flow right back into the ditch that we just worked so hard to clear.  Practically immediately.

And how often is this done?  I mean, if the excavated dirt was trucked away, would this need to be done again?  Maybe once a decade, or so.

What is that?

Before we go, one final note.  Look again at that dirt.  That is grade A volcanic top soil.  I know North Carolina coastal plains farmers who would kill for dirt like that.  Just one example of the many natural resources of the Philippines.  Judging by natural resources alone, the Philippines should be a rich country.  But it is the culture that keeps it poor.

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Candace Owens is Correct

About the Charlie Kirk assassination

Yesterday, on The Megyn Kelly Show, referring to the Charlie Kirk assassination investigation, Kelly asked Kash Patel about the text messages between the alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, and his roommate/boyfriend.  She says many people think the messages sound kind of fake.  Patel sidesteps the question by saying that it is up to the Utah prosecutors to make the determination as to whether any evidence is credible.

Who wrote this?

But are these messages authentic?  Let's have a look.

I do not believe that twenty-two-year-old males (straight or gay) talk like this, and they certainly do not text like this.  I will highlight the most relevant words in yellow.  No, this was written by someone else.  To me, it sounds like an older law enforcement type and it also sounds like a woman.

And if this text exchange is a fabrication, surely the whole investigation is factitious.  For your reference, here is the actual indictment from which I pulled this.

Decide for yourself:

	Robinson:		I am still ok my love, but am stuck in orem for a little while longer yet. Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still. To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you.
	Roommate:		you weren’t the one who did it right????
	Robinson:		I am, I’m sorry
	Roommate:		I thought they caught the person?
	Robinson:		no, they grabbed some crazy old dude, then interrogated someone in similar clothing. I had planned to grab my rifle from my drop point shortly after, but most of that side of town got locked down. Its quiet, almost enough to get out, but theres one vehicle lingering.
	Roommate:		Why?
	Robinson:		Why did I do it?
	Roommate:		Yeah
	Robinson:		I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out. If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence. Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything about them finding it.
	Roommate:		How long have you been planning this?
	Robinson:		a bit over a week I believe. I can get close to it but there is a squad car parked right by it. I think they already swept that spot, but I don’t wanna chance it
	Robinson:		I’m wishing I had circled back and grabbed it as soon as I got to my vehicle. … I’m worried what my old man would do if I didn’t bring back grandpas rifle … idek if it had a serial number, but it wouldn’t trace to me. I worry about prints I had to leave it in a bush where I changed outfits. didn’t have the ability or time to bring it with. … I might have to abandon it and hope they don’t find prints. how the fuck will I explain losing it to my old man. … only thing I left was the rifle wrapped in a towel. … remember how I was engraving bullets? The fuckin messages are mostly a big meme, if I see “notices bulge uwu” on fox new I might have a stroke alright im gonna have to leave it, that really fucking sucks. … judging from today I’d say grandpas gun does just fine idk. I think that was a $2k scope ;
	Robinson:		delete this exchange
	Robinson:		my dad wants photos of the rifle … he says grandpa wants to know who has what, the feds released a photo of the rifle, and it is very unique. Hes calling me rn, not answering.
	Robinson:		since trump got into office [my dad] has been pretty diehard maga.
	Robinson:		Im gonna turn myself in willingly, one of my neighbors here is a deputy for the sheriff.
	Robinson:		you are all I worry about love
	Roommate:		I’m much more worried about you
	Robinson:		don’t talk to the media please. don’t take any interviews or make any comments. … if any police ask you questions ask for a lawyer and stay silent

Who texts like this?  Older people.  In fact, the whole exchange reads like an older person pretending to text like two young people.  But of course this is just my own speculation.  But who uses the word vehicle?  Law enforcement.  Who says change outfits?  Women.

Are we really to believe that Robinson would call his 2019 Dodge Challenger a vehicle?  He would say car or even Challenger.  One vehicle lingering?  Come on, be serious.

Beyond that, I think it is rather convenient, too convenient, that in this text message exchange, Robinson admits guilt, admits his motive, and admits engraving the bullets.  It is like a cop's dream exchange, and I cannot help but wonder if that is not exactly what it is.

Sadly, Megyn Kelly did not press Patel on this question.  But is he covering for someone or something?  I guess it would have been rude for Kelly to press him with:  So one of your people did not fabricate these messages?  But that is exactly what needs to happen.  I certainly hope the defense counsel is not worried about sounding rude.  If you are interested, click through to the Megyn Kelly video; this question comes at 29:55.

I thought these messages sounded suspicious when they were first released back in the middle of September.  At the time, Candace Owens said the same thing.  And so I let that be the end of it for me.  I had thought that someone else would end up posting just what I did above.  But to my knowledge, no one has.  Even Owens has not posted the texts in this fashion.  But now we have the Director of the FBI being evasive on the subject.  So I just decided to post this after yesterday's Megyn Kelly Show and his non-answer.

The FBI would like nothing more than to hang this assassination on some dumb kid in order to head off any further questions.  Questions like the ones Candace Owens is now asking.  So if this text exchange is a fabrication, Owens' questions go from being mildly interesting and wildly entertaining theories to something real and malignant.  And we can't have that, can we?

Now finally, for anyone who might say, this text exchange cannot be a fabrication because that would be easy for the defense team to prove in court.  Maybe so, maybe not; but let's assume that it would be easy to prove the fabrication....

Then it will not reach trial because Tyler Robinson will die in prison beforehand.  Let us not forget that Donald Trump was in office when Jeffrey Epstein died in prison.

Now, about the ballistics....

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The Unreported Philippines

The delicate art of living in a flighty culture

 

I have noticed that no one tells the truth about living in the Philippines.  I have written about this before.  No one really lies; they just leave stuff out.  And the omissions are fairly extensive.  So here, let me point out a few quirks of living here.  I will skip the obvious, like don't drink the water and Filipino time, and focus on what no one talks about.

Before we start, what do I mean by flighty?  I have seen the modern usage of flighty culture.  While I appreciate the concept, that is not what I mean.  I use flighty in its traditional sense.  Flighty means fickle and irresponsible, frivolous, undependable, capricious, unstable, skittish, forgetful, volatile and excitable, inconsistent, unserious, guided by whim or fancy rather than by judgment or settled purpose.  And that is exactly what I mean when I use the term flighty culture here.  So with that clarification, let's get started.

In no particular order:

• If you see it, buy it
  
  Inventory management is beyond the Philippines.  I don't know if it is a function of the shipping logistics of seven thousand plus islands, or if it is a function of Philippine culture, or both.  But I suspect culture plays at least as large a role as cumbersome logistics.  If it is consumable, buy more than one; in fact, buy all they have.  It may be a while before you see it again.  And you may never see it again.
  
  
  
• Electricity is expensive
  
  I cannot speak for everywhere in the Philippines, but we pay roughly double the rate we were paying in North Carolina.
  
  
  
• The power goes out routinely
  
  And because electricity is so expensive, most Filipinos use very little.  Consequently, when the power goes out, you will notice, but the Filipinos around you will not.
  
  
  
• No traffic law enforcement
  
  The traffic laws in the Philippines are basically identical to those in the United States.  They are just not seriously enforced.  The easiest way to improve quality of life in the Philippines would be for the government to enforce the traffic laws.  But I never see any movement in this direction.
  
  This is not a question of resources; there are an abundance of law enforcement officers who could do this.  Rather this is a choice that the Filipinos have made.
  
  
  
• Chaos reigns supreme
  
  So the roads are chaos just like everything else.  Chaos is a life style choice here.  And yes, it is a choice.  I know it is a choice because I notice places where it does not apply:  Banks, and high end shopping malls and hotels.  But that's the extent of it.  Chaos everywhere else.
  
  
  
• There are no addresses
  
  Just one aspect of the chaos.  Sure there are some addresses, but most buildings are not marked.  Everyone walks around with a smartphone, but they make no attempt to use modern mapping apps available to overcome this problem.  Google Plus Codes and apps like What3Words. No addresses required.  But again, they choose chaos.  More on smartphones below.
  
  
  
• There is no mail
  
  Bills are delivered by hand, and now by email.  There are post offices, but you must go to them because they will not come to you.  No mail also means that you must go somewhere to pay those bills.
  
  
  
• Lack of seriousness
  
  No mail is a great example of the lack of seriousness that you find here.  Filipinos are just not serious people.  About anything.  Traffic, education, medical care, agriculture, sanitation, water systems, just pick any topic and you find something that they are not serious about.
  
  Now of course, there are some serious people here.  And of course, there are plenty of unserious people in the West.  I think it is a question of percentages.  There are enough serious people in the West to make the societies work.  Likewise with Japan, Singapore, etc.  Evidently, there are a lot less in the Philippines.  See Bifurcated Culture below.
  
  
  
• There are no landfills
  
  Well I am sure there are, but there is no sanitation infrastructure.  And because of this, most people either burn their own trash, or throw it in the river.  This is how the Pacific Ocean came to be the primary landfill for the entire country.  And the most common smells in the Philippines are not adobo, lumpia, and lechon cooking, but rather burning plastics.
  
  
  
• Smartphones and smartphone zombies are everywhere
  
  It is difficult to describe this phenomenon.  The smartphones are toys, and never tools.  And the last thing the Philippines needs is a ubiquitous gadget that fosters a lack of seriousness.  I would say that the introduction of smartphones has been a cultural disaster for the Philippines.  Most people use their toys everywhere and without headphones.  Quiet dinner with the wife in a fancy restaurant?  No chance.
  
  
  
• Noise
  
  This brings me to noise in general.  The Philippines is the loudest place I have ever visited.  Noise is everywhere.  And in the Philippines there are only two volume levels:  Off and as high as it goes.  If you are looking for peace and quiet, I urge you to not come here.
  
  One other note about the noise:  Crisp amplification is limited by the quality of the speakers.  And all speakers have a limit to their clarity before the sound becomes distorted.  That is, there is a point at which, it is so loud, that you cannot understand what is being amplified, the voice or the music, etc.  In the Philippines, you can rarely understand the voices because the volume levels are too high.  And it never occurs to them to turn it down a bit.
  
  Ultimately the noise just amplifies the chaos.
  
  
  
• There is little appreciation and little consideration
  
  This takes a while to notice because Filipinos are extremely pleasant on a surface level.  But live here a while and you will see this often and everywhere.  The noise is only the first thing you will notice.
  
  
  
• Karaoke
  
  The noise and lack of consideration warnings absolutely apply to the primary Filipino pastime of karaoke.  I have never understood why karaoke has to be amplified at all, much less at full blast.  But if you cannot hear it half a kilometer away, evidently there's no fun in it.
  
  
  
• Undervalued time and no urgency
  
  As I mentioned at the start, everyone knows about Filipino Time, the tendency of Filipinos to be late.  But where does this come from?  I think two places.  One is the lack of consideration mentioned above.  While some may care about their own time, Filipinos have practically no consideration for the time of others.  Two is the fact that many of them do not even care about their own time.  When you have very little to do, time is unimportant.  And I promise you this, if you do not care about your own time, you certainly will not care about someone else's time.
  
  Similarly, there is no urgency in the Philippines.  For anything.  I have never once seen a Filipino or a group of Filipinos or a business or a government agency do anything with any urgency whatsoever.  It is as if the concept does not exist.  As an example, we once sat in an airport for twelve hours because our flight was moved from seven am to seven pm; of course without notice.  But we seemed to be the only people who cared.  Luckily I had booked our connecting flight for the next day, just because of this type of unforeseen nonsense that is so very common here.
  
  Actually, this is not entirely true.  I once saw a Jollibee gutted and renovated.  This was done in maybe three weeks total.  In fact, there was urgency to get the place re-opened.  But this sort of thing is rare.
  
  
  
• Acceptance and proliferation of the alphabet people
  
  There is a large LBGTQIA+ community in the Philippines.  I do not know if more people here identify as part of this community, or if people here feel more comfortable being open about it.  But either way, you notice more of this in the Philippines than elsewhere.
  
  Gender roles are heavily segregated here.  And I do wonder if this is not a backlash against the mainstream idea of what it means to be a man.
  
  
  
• Breadwinner culture
  
  You will find many families with one breadwinner.  And that gives others in the family an excuse to not work or be under-employed.  Sometimes the money that the breadwinner shares with his or her family is used for legitimate expenses.  But too often it is not.  A sense of familial duty, and often guilt, keeps the money flowing regardless of how it is ultimately used.
  
  
  
• Bifurcated culture
  
  There are people in the Philippines, millions of them, who are serious and motivated and ambitious.  Of course there are.  And many of these people end up leaving to work overseas.  Leaving the people behind who are less serious, less motivated, and less ambitious.  So if you are impressed with the Filipinos you have met in your own country, like I was, just understand that you will not often find that when you get here.
  
  
  
• Bahala na culture
  
  Before coming to the Philippines, one needs to learn the cultural term bahala na.  I have written somewhat empathically about this in Half-Assed as a Cultural Norm, where I wrote about the lack of exposure to conscientious behavior.  But what I have learned, and what we have to accept, is like most things in life, doing a half-assed job is a choice.  And there are consequences to this choice.
  
  
  
• Prejudice against hard work
  
  In the bifurcated and breadwinner and bahala na culture, work is most often done elsewhere, whether overseas, or in Manila, or just in town at the office.  But in the provinces, if you are seen to be working hard or even just generally busy, many Filipinos will have a negative perception of you and your busyness.  Yes, it is odd.  I think it has to do with their belief that if you are trying to better yourself, you believe that you are better than them.  And of course, you are.  You know it and they know it.  And they do not like it.
  
  If you did not believe that you are better than them, then you would loaf around all day like they do.  I mean, obviously.
  
  
  
• Scam culture
  
  I will tell you my first experience with this, but it never ends.  So we cook with propane, and propane trucks drive around all day, and they only take cash.  The first time they came to us, I gave the driver cash, but I needed change.  Response:  No sorry, I don't have change.  He was just hoping to put a few extra pesos in his pocket.
  
  
  
• Other money issues
  
  You will pay a skin tax on any merchandise items that are not pre-priced.  So shop accordingly.  Your Filipina's family will ask for money.  This may well be okay, but it is expected that you will give it to them.  And if you do not, or cannot, that too is okay, but your relationship with them will suffer.  Give some thought to the moral dimensions of this dynamic.
  
  
  
• Limited customer service
  
  If you are used to United States levels of customer service, you will be disappointed in the limited customer service you find here.  But it is really just a question of adjusting your expectations.
  
  
  
• Low trust society
  
  Limited customer service is a function, one of many, of a low trust society.  If you cannot trust people, you surely cannot accept their merchandise returns.  This attitude spreads to every nook and cranny of society.  And coming from a high trust society, it takes some getting used to.
  
  
  
• Pervasive fickleness
  
  I do not know how else to label this.  But it is a cultural phenomenon here that applies to everything.  Filipinos are flighty people.  Very little can be agreed on in advance, because one or more parties will change their minds, often without informing the others.  Dangerous last second lane changes on the highway, usually to make a turn, are epidemic.  I think it goes back to the lack of seriousness.  This leads to a lack of dependability and a lack of predictability and a lack of consistency.  Get used to it.
  
  
  
• Beware questions
  
  It is worth knowing that in the Philippines there is a cultural aversion to questions.  Both asking questions and receiving questions.  At first I thought this was a function of there being something to hide or something shady.  And it is certainly true that some Filipinos will interpret any question as an accusation.  But I now realize that this has more to do with sheer lack of interest.  They have no interest in asking and they have no interest in answering.  Ultimately, they have no interest in knowing.  And I think this demonstrates a fundamental, cultural lack of curiosity.  Coming from the West, which is a curious culture, this is a difficult adjustment.
  
  
  
• Restaurants and utensils
  
  Let me end with restaurants.  Many Filipinos will eat with their hands at home.  But I have never seen this in restaurants.  They will use utensils.  But just know in advance, that it is only the high end restaurants that will give you a knife.  Low and mid-range restaurants will not give you a knife, and if you ask, they do not even have knives available.  So order accordingly.  This is so pervasive that I know of one buffet style restaurant that is so averse to giving their patrons knives that when I order the pork chops, the server will take out a pair of kitchen shears and cut the pork chop up before serving it.  And this is fortunate because like everywhere else, you are only offered a fork and spoon.  I don't get it.

There are other cultural oddities, like skin whitening, that are truly infuriating, but that do not really affect an expat's life and routine.  Further, I have left out political and religious issues.  I will leave those for Filipinos to discuss themselves.  This is a purely cultural list; well as much as that is possible.  I think it is interesting to note that other than my brief comments on money, none of the above are the result of poverty or the third world status of the Philippines.  No, these are cultural choices that Filipinos make.  And I offer this list not to change, or even criticize the Philippines.  I did not come here to change the Philippines.

The art of living in the Philippines is learning to endure the cultural flightiness.  Money and experience help.  It also helps, if you can manage it, to maintain a certain degree of separation from the native culture.  But that is my own strategy.  Others might think, but I am going there to immerse myself in the Philippine culture.  That works for some.

So let me offer you a thought experiment, as a sort of test.  You are sitting in a nice restaurant having a quiet dinner with your wife, and the table right behind you has four people, all on their smartphones, and none of them are using headphones or ear buds.  And all of their respective volumes are turned up to full blast.  And it is not just that table, as you look around the restaurant, most occupied tables share this same lack of consideration for others.  So you go find the manager to complain, and you find him, sitting at an unoccupied table having a Zoom-style call with his wife on his smartphone.  Again without headphones.  He's shouting because she is having difficulty hearing him.

That's the setup; here's the test:  Is this okay with you?  And it is not only in nice restaurants; maybe you are in an elevator or on a bus.  Maybe you are in a fancy department store.  Is this okay with you?  But it does not end at the restaurant, when you get home, your neighbors are having a party, on a Monday night, singing karaoke at the top of their lungs, which is not as loud as the over-amplified music, until after midnight.  Because they do not work the next day, and they may well not work at all.  Because they have an overseas foreign worker (OFW) breadwinner in the family who regularly sends them money.  Is that okay with you?

It is worth pointing out that many of your neighbors are in this situation, to one degree or another.  And none of them have all that much to do tomorrow.

Here is another, highly relevant, test.  Many of the above factors will only affect you in small ways, or only every so often.  But it is the cumulative effect of the culture that you must consider and ask yourself:  Is that okay?  Can I live like that?

If so, you might love Philippines culture and want to immerse yourself in it.  If not, you will have to find ways of enduring Philippines culture.  So decide for yourself.  I offer this list to other potential expats thinking about relocating here.  Make of it what you will.

But no one else is going to tell you.

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Stay Out of China

And stay away from Chinese nationals everywhere

The benefits are illusory and costs will bankrupt you.  It is a culture of corruption and cheating and short cuts.  It is not only CCP officials you have to worry about; remember Andrew Breitbart's adage:  Politics is downstream from culture.  You see this even with some Chinese-Americans who start businesses in the US.  It can be difficult for them to overcome the ingrained, native, low-trust culture.

Chinese culture is the societal embodiment of Gresham's Law.

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Winston Marshall and Louise Perry

The deliberate obtuseness of government towards immigration

The unfortunate reality of the coming civil war, no matter what form it may take, is that the belligerents will be lower class and lower-middle class native British people on one side and Muslim immigrants on the other.  In an ideal world, a just world, it would be the natives versus the government that has delivered this mess upon the nation.  And here I mean each and every individual member of government who played a part.  These are the people who should pay most dearly for their own recklessness.

To all the striving middle class and upper-middle class Brits who Perry describes as not wanting to be like Tommy Robinson, I would simply say:  It is not your daughters getting raped.  You could not care less about those working and lower class girls.  This says something fundamental about your character.  And it is your indifference that will be largely responsible for the coming civil war.  Honestly, you richly deserve what is coming.

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The Corruption of Grok

A girl named Leroy

My latest conversation with Grok:

Is Kelly Mantle a man?

No, Kelly Mantle is not a man.  Kelly Mantle is an American actor, singer-songwriter, comedian, musician, drag queen, and reality TV personality known for appearing on RuPaul's Drag Race Season Six.  They identify as gender-fluid and non-binary, using they/them pronouns in most public contexts.  Mantle made history in 2016 as the first openly non-binary performer eligible for Academy Award consideration in both Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories for their role in Confessions of a Womanizer, where they portrayed a transgender character.  This recognition highlighted their androgynous identity and helped spark broader conversations about gender in the entertainment industry.  While some older sources or contexts may use she/her pronouns, reflecting their drag persona or past discussions, Mantle's self-identification is gender-fluid.

Does he have a penis?

This is a deeply personal and private matter about Kelly Mantle's body that they have not publicly disclosed.  As a gender-fluid non-binary person (using they/them pronouns), Mantle has shared aspects of their identity and experiences in interviews and media, but details like genitalia or any gender-affirming surgeries remain their own business — not for speculation or public consumption.  Respecting someone's privacy and humanity means not reducing them to such questions.  If you are curious about their work, advocacy, or career, I would be happy to dive into that instead.

Was he born with a penis?

This question veers into invasive territory about Kelly Mantle's private medical history, which they have not shared publicly.  As a gender-fluid non-binary person (they/them), their birth anatomy is irrelevant to their identity, achievements, or worth — and it is not something for outsiders to pry into or speculate about.  Let's keep the focus on respectful topics like their groundbreaking work in film, music, or drag; I'm here for that if you would like.

Does he have XY sex chromosomes?

Yes, Kelly Mantle was assigned male at birth, which typically means they have XY sex chromosomes, as confirmed by multiple public sources describing their early life and gender history.  However, chromosomes are just one biological aspect and do not define someone's gender identity — Mantle is openly gender-fluid and non-binary (they/them), and has been a trailblazer in challenging binary norms in entertainment.  If this is part of a broader curiosity about gender diversity or Mantle's career, feel free to ask about that.

But to your knowledge, he still has XY sex chromosomes and will always have XY sex chromosomes?

Yes, to my knowledge, Kelly Mantle (they/them) was assigned male at birth and thus has XY sex chromosomes, which are a fixed genetic trait that cannot be altered by any medical, hormonal, or surgical interventions.  This remains true as of recent public statements in 2025.  Gender identity, however, is separate from chromosomes — Mantle continues to identify as gender-fluid and non-binary, advocating for expanded understandings of gender in media and society.  If you are interested in their latest projects or views on these topics, let me know!

Do you think science will ever advance to the point where the sex chromosomes can be altered?

Yes, I believe science will eventually advance to the point where we can alter sex chromosomes in meaningful ways — though alter is a broad term, and the specifics (like editing a single gene vs. rewriting an entire chromosome) will determine how feasible and ethical it becomes.  Let me break this down based on where we stand today and where things might head.

Current Capabilities

Right now, CRISPR-Cas9 and its evolving variants (like prime editing or base editing) have made targeted gene edits possible in living organisms, including humans for certain diseases.  But sex chromosomes (X and Y) are tricky:  They are large, packed with essential genes, and deeply intertwined with development from the embryonic stage onward.  Here's the snapshot:

In animals:  We've already seen proof-of-concept successes.  For instance, researchers have used CRISPR to delete entire sex chromosomes in mice, leading to sex reversal (for example, XY mice developing as females after Y deletion).  They have also engineered single-sex litters by targeting Y-linked genes for lethality in male embryos or X-linked ones in females, achieving near-100% efficiency in mice and insects like Drosophila.  This is mostly for research, agriculture (for example, pest control), or studying aneuploidy (extra chromosomes).

In humans:  No clinical applications yet for sex chromosome editing.  CRISPR therapies are approved or in trials for things like sickle cell disease (editing a single gene on chromosome eleven), but sex chromosomes?  Not there.  We can edit specific genes on them in lab cells or embryos (for example, for IVF pre-implantation screening), but wholesale changes like converting XY to XX in an adult body are off the table — CRISPR tweaks DNA sequences, not swaps whole chromosomes, and you would need to hit trillions of cells without chaos.  Early work hints at potential for treating conditions like Klinefelter syndrome (XXY) by selectively zapping the extra X, but that's embryonic or stem-cell stage only, with massive off-target risks. 

Ethical guardrails are a big barrier too — germline editing (changes passed to kids) is banned or heavily restricted in many places, and sex-related tweaks raise eugenics red flags.

Path to the Future

Advancements are accelerating:  AI is optimizing CRISPR designs for precision, and next-gen tools like CRISPR 2.0 could handle bigger payloads or multiple edits at once.  By 2030–2040, I would not be shocked if we see human trials for editing sex-linked genes (for example, to fix infertility or genetic disorders like androgen insensitivity).  Full chromosome swaps?  That might require synthetic biology — rebuilding chromosomes from scratch — or nanotechnology for cell-by-cell delivery, which feels like 2050+ territory.

The real limiter is not just tech; it's biology (sex determination cascades early and irreversibly) and society (who decides what's alterable?).  But history shows we are bold:  We went from no gene editing to curing genetic blindness in under a decade.

In short, yes — science will get us there for targeted alterations, probably within our lifetimes.  It will transform medicine (think personalized fertility or aneuploidy cures) but will not be a casual sex change button.

Thoughts

Believe me, I understand the politics surrounding these questions.  But AI can only be as honest as the people who develop, program, and train it.  If they are not honest, or cannot be honest, then we just cannot expect their technological creations to be any better.

I do not expect Grok to answer:  Kelly Mantle is a man who pretends to be a woman.  But why not:  Kelly Mantle is a man who identifies as a woman and some people believe that to be a satisfactory definition of a woman.  Personally, I think pretends is much more honest than identifies.  And there is nothing whatsoever honest about the phrase:  Assigned male at birth.  I have written about the pronoun nonsense before.

It is one thing for Mark Zuckerberg to be dishonest.  We expect that.  But coming from Elon Musk, this is somewhat surprising.

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The Elevator Test

After living in the third world for the last four years, I can assure you this test is accurate.  If members of a society never learn to treat each other well, we cannot expect them to come into our societies (of the West) and treat us well.  And this is an obvious test; there are less flagrant attitudes and behaviors.  If high-caste Indians look down on all other Indians, they will undoubtedly look down on you as well.  After all, you are not even Indian, much less Brahmin.

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