Climate Con

That's the problem. Usually when I see him now, I have to listen to complaints about his wife. One never knows what goes on in a marriage, but I know my brother. He's completely oblivious to any fault he may share in this. Jordan Peterson wouldn't want to delve into this one. Trust me. Any advice I give is useless. He's just another person looking to confirm that he's right and she's wrong. Anything outside of that is pretty much in one ear and out the other. But I have pressed him to talk to a counselor...if only because I'm tired listening to his shit.

The amusing aspect is that his wife is not as dumb as she appears (or as he thinks she is). I'm very sure that she loves physiologically torturing him. And she's good at it. She can press his buttons so easily. Yes. This is all a bit insane which is why, when he leaves, I reaffirm my bonds of non-matrimony.

Never heard of that brand of rum. The advice from the commenters is basically "Sell your bud stock now." Not a bad plan, for it's likely that even Anheuser-Busch is not immune to the "Go woke, go broke" syndrome.

That's good news. I don't ever remember hearing a monetary figure to go with that failed and misguided bit of marketing.



I do have to repress a laugh when my older brother is telling me some of these stories. My favorite is the book-burning incident. He had some kind of Native America book. And to his wife, that stuff is "of the devil." I don't believe she's anything but genuine in that belief.

So one day his book goes missing. He finds what looks like it on the remains of the burn pile. And the funny part (perhaps Jordan Peterson really could be of some help here) is that he always acts like a fatalist, as if there's nothing he can do about it.

I told him at the time that he needed to run out right now and buy two of those same books and let it be known that this wouldn't be tolerated. But, of course, it was tolerated and she just moved on to other means of torture.

And the fact is, I really don't blame her. My brother is a butt-head. She's just a nice (if a bit kooky) lady who is perhaps more Christian than most can stand. But that's who she is and she kinda-sorta wouldn't hurt a fly. But my brother (remember...I've lived with him) can be an obtuse and cruel man.

So he ditches his religion (for whatever reason) breaking one of the main bonds that brought them together. And he seems oblivious that this might have some effect on his wife. So, really, when she tortures him, I'm more of the "You go, girl" mindset. He's earned it. In spades.

But, seriously, I wouldn't wish these people on Jordan Peterson. He's got enough on his plate.

Hey, maybe I just needed someone to talk to someone -- Jordan Peterson not being in my Rolodex. But he does seem representative of the morally dubious hippy generation.

About a month ago, he told me about some serious misgivings he was having about the keyboard player in his small 3-man band. He drinks a lot. Apparently a lot. And he told me of an incident where this keyboard player was cheating on his wife, in his home, on the floor, with some girl. They were very drunk. And she then (on the way home) apparently hit another car and the other occupants were injured.

Okay, fine. Brother Brad dispenses the expected wisdom that amounted to: If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas. I asked him if he really wanted to be associated with someone who might well kill someone on the way home from one of his concerts?

Okay. Never heard another thing about it until last week. He calls and tells me and my younger brother that there's something very important he'd like to talk to us about. Can I take you guys to lunch?

Okay. And he proceeds to tell the same story about the guy that he had told me a few weeks earlier, with a few grittier details that made this keyboard player no more commendable and it would be beyond even this site's dignity to list them. Again, I dispense the "Lie down with dogs" advice but realize that this isn't about advice. It's about absolution. He has no intention of kicking this guy out of the band. I'm very sure he just wanted to get it off his conscience.

This band, with this same keyboard player, are playing in Union (on the south shore of the Hood Canal) in a couple weeks. I'm not going.

You don't have to mince words. He is a piece of work. Maybe I just needed to get this off my chest. It's not a good feeling to find out there you're beginning to sort of dislike your own brother. I mean, what I'm telling you is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm just getting tired of listening to it. And it's all pretty pathetic. And – god yes – it's all about bitching and doing nothing.

And, frankly, both my younger brother and I are of the same mind, that his wife is actually a fairly nice (if quirky) person. And it's possible that this alienation from her husband isn't doing her mental health any good. But I've watched my brother long treat his women like dirt. And I can't work up any kind of hate for my sister-in-law for giving it back.

But they need to separate and find some kind of life. I asked my brother (who doesn't even live in his own house on the property but in a trailer in a corner of the property) if he really wants to spend his remaining days stuck in a never-ending tit-for-tat with his wife. Crickets chirping. I think deep-down he thinks he's 100% right (the wronged party, the victim) and he just wants to win. And I did explicitly tell him that what he seemed to be doing now was living in hopes that he would be the one who wouldn't die first and that this didn't seem like much of a plan.

Oh, I felt the vibration of those stern words from all the way over here.

They have an adopted daughter. I think she's about 9 years old. Her mother was a crack whore of some type and couldn't take care of the child (or had it taken away from her). The child is black. And, yes, I worry about that child having to grow up in that kind of conflict. It can't be good.

But my brother doesn't see it. Granted, it's not that he doesn't have some legitimate beefs. But this has gone way beyond whether that matters or not, of who is right and who is wrong. They are living in psychological muck and they just can't seem to do anything about it. The devil you know, I suppose.

To go into this any more would require getting into psychology. And, you'd better believe I believe in it as an underlying and often hidden force. My brother is a textbook case. He could so benefit from a Peterson experience. He is completely blind to himself (we all are to a certain extent...it goes with the territory).

So his wife appears to be playing the Christian martyr. But she's a woman, and a traditional one. She lets the man be the man. She is a subset of the man. And that was fine years ago. But now he has gone off the deep end and she's just sort of their untethered and suffering.

He used to have a lot of Christian friends. And then he sort of transitioned and many of his friends were musicians. They used to smoke pot at his place on the 4th of July and such. And I know it's now legal. But this is a far cry from his prior Christian persona.

So they are waiting each other out, as best they can. Sorry to burden you with this but, Jesus, I guess I would explode sometimes if I didn't talk about it. And you can bet I also get a firsthand look at the 60's narcissist type. My understanding of that generation isn't theoretical.

Well, if a chatbot can have that kind of influence over a person, there was more going on there than just an evil chatbot.



I don’t believe any of this. There was something else going on.

It is tough to come to terms with actual crazy. But a wife. Two young children. I would say (as sad as this case is), to blame the AI bot is akin to blaming the cliff that a guy jumps off of. There was something else going on. I mean, there's no indication from the article that this guy was normally batshit-crazy. So I think some other pressure or disappointment (drugs? Pot?) fixated his mind on "climate change." And he used it to convince himself that his suicide was noble. Instead of abandoning his family and life (which is not noble).

I understand that people commit suicide and you never really know sometimes what is going on in someone's head. But I highly doubt that he was despondent over "climate change." Sure, people pretend they are. But outside of the cameras, they live their lives as if there are a lot of tomorrows.

I was thinking much the same thing. I didn't want to quip, "Hey, that's one way to escape an overbearing wife." And this is obviously not a funny situation (bizarre, but not funny). But I do think something like that is the more likely explanation.

That is the essence of it.