Writes Naomi Wolf. Rhodes Scholar. “Thought Leaders” Someone made this a thing. Maybe a Troubadour. A storyteller. A narrator. Some PR company, or corporate speak CIA overeducated Thought Leader, or Bernays Manipulator is dual use employing language.
I find the Wolf piece just a tad condescending, just like another one she wrote before. (Can't recall exactly which, as I stopped reading her a few months into her setting up her Substack and posting those interminable, novel-length articles that her fans adore).
With all that loving detail in the description, it sounds to me like: "I was once part of this wealthy Upper East Side elite. Here's the inside look into that collapsing aristocracy that I know so well. And by the way, we should also help them who were so blinded by thought leaders [mentioned thrice, was it?] get through all this."
"Thought Leader" is even worse than "Expert" because it is so much squishier. It's right up there with "sustainable" and "empathy" and "resilient." Just so vague it lulls the viewer/reader into hypnotic state. "uh-huh, yeah. for sure, totes, yeah, wow, you're so right...."
I fucking hate that shit with the passion of a thousand suns.
Reminds me of Sam Harris' utterance about being right about Covid for the wrong reasons. What he was trying to say was you got it right but the information you used to base your decision was not from an "approved" source - a thought leader, a renowned expert, like Sam.
Wow you left out the most vomit inducing part of her poor-little-rich-girl diary entry. After lamenting how far from the pedestal-top these THOUGHT LEADERS have fallen (wearing sneakers! visibly aging!!), she get to the RFK Jr part.
"What do we conclude now?
That our help is needed.
That it is cleanup time.
That it is rebuilding time.
All we can do is prosecute the guilty, and bring information and comfort and aid to the sick, and fight so that what happened to us never again happens, and never happens to someone innocent.
All we can do is love, and wait, and bring what help we can.
And say how sorry we are for their, and for their families,’ losses.
And respond with greater kindness than was meted out to us.
And ask again what their names are.
And listen to their grief and hurt and fear.
And listen, and listen again. "
AKA Avoiding the toxic quagmire.
As a possibly legal, possibly illegal gardener once told me--this guy no Thought Leader to TPTB's middle managers what-so-ever--as we discussed that trope of "the rich are just like you and me, human, ultimately, and have their pain and tragedies just like you and me, their struggles and losses just like you and me..."
"Sure you can believe that," he said, "but that is just another way that they control you, that story."
And here I’m old enough to recall when banks gave away ‘free’ toasters when you opened a new account. LOL.
Echo prior comment on Epoch Times. Although, they do produce some quality content and some interesting interviews. But the ‘thought leaders’ thing has always bugged me. I mean hey my wife is a thought leader. She makes sure mine are all correct.
Naomi going at Jessica Hockett recently was a glaring example of why she is not on my reading list. Disingenuous doesn’t quite capture it. She’s playing squirrel! with people’s minds and attention. Truth mixed with generous helpings of her ego and elitism, distraction abounds. She sets off many of the same pings for me as a certain horse aficionado, but of a different flavor.
The condescension smells like sewage. There’s the anarchist again: take your leadership and keep it to your fucking self. Manage yourself and stop acting like people somehow need your enlightened opinion or fucking approval.
We don’t need people to lead our thoughts. We need people to be straight, honest, and ethical. And brave. That’s it.
“Thought leaders” may be merely a brand of “Trust the experts” addressed to a different subspecies of subhumans. The basic subhuman variation is focused on pure and pleasant consumption, no questions asked. An evolved one dared to venture into the Why-land (filmed as “The Island”) - and the experts were let off the chains to handle the mind-escape. Specialists don’t trust experts, so one end of the trip was left open. “Thought leaders” fix both problems. They properly channel the potential of free thinking in those who don’t really know why the official knowledge differs from that taught from age 5 to about 65 through the so-called “education” system. A different function, much more important, is to arrest the attention of other “specialists”, “experts” or “leaders”, preemptively shattering their budding “Ahhh, what about…?” wanderings.
Both are an extreme form of disrespect for the rest of us. Experts clearly oppose the Not-Knowers, formerly pacified with the “For Dummies” series. The insufficient impact of books was acknowledged when anti-social media showed that a next-door girl takes about the same number of selfies within 10 minutes of feel-good time in a restroom as all Apollo missions combined - with the image quality and details beyond the wildest dreams of No Actual Science Anywhere.
Thought leaders were born from the marriage of smartphone with mindfulness. Smartphones are the necessary complementary part of dumbbrains (see the interview with social media inventors). Mindfulness prevents the natural occurrence of open (“free”) spaces in the mind games of those gravely buried in business, politics, management, tutoring, influencing and other not really necessary professions. The role of thought leaders is to properly guide the mass of ideas inflowing from smartphones to ensure complete clogging of the mind. For the rest of us, they are idolized as masters of the thinking process - listen, repeat, applaud, repeat, read, listen more, repeat and quote, read more, never think your own thoughts, and you will be good.
I tried getting through a recent blog by Naomi Wolf, but couldn't get through it. She was talking about the surreality of returning to an elite friend function after her years in exile. Talk about "tone deaf." I remember in 2020 there were talks about the lack of leadership in the counter covid movement.There was the constant question of "who will step up?" IT was radioactive third rail in 2020. But there were voices that were speaking...they were just being censored and blocked.
Naomi definitely used the wrong word. They weren’t thought leaders, they were NY high society.
I cried yesterday when I read her blog post. I’ve worked in and know that environment.
We’re witnessing such a huge shift. Covid measures were the wrecking ball, the tsunami and now we’re in the rolling, drawn out aftermath of vax- related sickness and death. Their money and luxurious surroundings didn’t protect them, didn’t give them insight and the distrust of pharma and the government they would have needed to not fall for the deception.
Many of the rich were not in on the operation, I think the perpetrators only protected their in-group of close collaborators. Why protect random rich people? Better to have a shot at getting what they leave behind when they leave this world.
Has anyone watched our dear Thought Leaders at this weekend's "International Crisis Summit" in Romania? All the usual suspects. Bret, Desmet, Jill, Ryan, Meryl. Malone is the headliner, as usual, with the ominously-titled speech, "Taking Back Control in the Better Future Coming."
OMG that is so true: that phrase "thought leader" seemed to come from nowhere. It emerged, sort of seeped, into our cultural-linguistic landscape; it was hardly noticeable, and then it seemed suddenly everywhere. Thanks.
"Thought Leaders"
Is another reason my doubts about Epoch Times began to mount: they actually have an interview section called "Thought Leaders".
Despise the term.
Rhodes Scholar is an immediate red flag. Many of these people are selected and "educated" for nefarious purposes. Same with Nobel Prize "winners".
I find the Wolf piece just a tad condescending, just like another one she wrote before. (Can't recall exactly which, as I stopped reading her a few months into her setting up her Substack and posting those interminable, novel-length articles that her fans adore).
With all that loving detail in the description, it sounds to me like: "I was once part of this wealthy Upper East Side elite. Here's the inside look into that collapsing aristocracy that I know so well. And by the way, we should also help them who were so blinded by thought leaders [mentioned thrice, was it?] get through all this."
"Thought Leader" is even worse than "Expert" because it is so much squishier. It's right up there with "sustainable" and "empathy" and "resilient." Just so vague it lulls the viewer/reader into hypnotic state. "uh-huh, yeah. for sure, totes, yeah, wow, you're so right...."
I fucking hate that shit with the passion of a thousand suns.
Love that you are always noticing it, though.
Reminds me of Sam Harris' utterance about being right about Covid for the wrong reasons. What he was trying to say was you got it right but the information you used to base your decision was not from an "approved" source - a thought leader, a renowned expert, like Sam.
"I think “Thought Leaders” is a form of Trust the Experts."
____________________
I think it's a form of
"Sit Down and Shut Up."
Wow you left out the most vomit inducing part of her poor-little-rich-girl diary entry. After lamenting how far from the pedestal-top these THOUGHT LEADERS have fallen (wearing sneakers! visibly aging!!), she get to the RFK Jr part.
"What do we conclude now?
That our help is needed.
That it is cleanup time.
That it is rebuilding time.
All we can do is prosecute the guilty, and bring information and comfort and aid to the sick, and fight so that what happened to us never again happens, and never happens to someone innocent.
All we can do is love, and wait, and bring what help we can.
And say how sorry we are for their, and for their families,’ losses.
And respond with greater kindness than was meted out to us.
And ask again what their names are.
And listen to their grief and hurt and fear.
And listen, and listen again. "
AKA Avoiding the toxic quagmire.
As a possibly legal, possibly illegal gardener once told me--this guy no Thought Leader to TPTB's middle managers what-so-ever--as we discussed that trope of "the rich are just like you and me, human, ultimately, and have their pain and tragedies just like you and me, their struggles and losses just like you and me..."
"Sure you can believe that," he said, "but that is just another way that they control you, that story."
Sage
On a different note, thank you
Thank you for being steadfast in a tsunami of lies, day after day, having the fortitude to write and post
Thank you, for being that “voice in the wilderness” and asking how far back have we been lied to?
Thank you, for your temerity, when most would have given up
Thank you for being a warrior on the battlefield, and sounding the alarm that the people you are listening to, have no problem killing you
Through it all. Thank you, for making us laugh
Whoever you are, Sage, may God Bless you and all that you love
And here I’m old enough to recall when banks gave away ‘free’ toasters when you opened a new account. LOL.
Echo prior comment on Epoch Times. Although, they do produce some quality content and some interesting interviews. But the ‘thought leaders’ thing has always bugged me. I mean hey my wife is a thought leader. She makes sure mine are all correct.
I'm laughing because when I read Miss Rhodes Poetry stack I saw that and thought about you. 🤣 And then this shows up today.
Naomi going at Jessica Hockett recently was a glaring example of why she is not on my reading list. Disingenuous doesn’t quite capture it. She’s playing squirrel! with people’s minds and attention. Truth mixed with generous helpings of her ego and elitism, distraction abounds. She sets off many of the same pings for me as a certain horse aficionado, but of a different flavor.
The condescension smells like sewage. There’s the anarchist again: take your leadership and keep it to your fucking self. Manage yourself and stop acting like people somehow need your enlightened opinion or fucking approval.
We don’t need people to lead our thoughts. We need people to be straight, honest, and ethical. And brave. That’s it.
“Thought leaders” may be merely a brand of “Trust the experts” addressed to a different subspecies of subhumans. The basic subhuman variation is focused on pure and pleasant consumption, no questions asked. An evolved one dared to venture into the Why-land (filmed as “The Island”) - and the experts were let off the chains to handle the mind-escape. Specialists don’t trust experts, so one end of the trip was left open. “Thought leaders” fix both problems. They properly channel the potential of free thinking in those who don’t really know why the official knowledge differs from that taught from age 5 to about 65 through the so-called “education” system. A different function, much more important, is to arrest the attention of other “specialists”, “experts” or “leaders”, preemptively shattering their budding “Ahhh, what about…?” wanderings.
Both are an extreme form of disrespect for the rest of us. Experts clearly oppose the Not-Knowers, formerly pacified with the “For Dummies” series. The insufficient impact of books was acknowledged when anti-social media showed that a next-door girl takes about the same number of selfies within 10 minutes of feel-good time in a restroom as all Apollo missions combined - with the image quality and details beyond the wildest dreams of No Actual Science Anywhere.
Thought leaders were born from the marriage of smartphone with mindfulness. Smartphones are the necessary complementary part of dumbbrains (see the interview with social media inventors). Mindfulness prevents the natural occurrence of open (“free”) spaces in the mind games of those gravely buried in business, politics, management, tutoring, influencing and other not really necessary professions. The role of thought leaders is to properly guide the mass of ideas inflowing from smartphones to ensure complete clogging of the mind. For the rest of us, they are idolized as masters of the thinking process - listen, repeat, applaud, repeat, read, listen more, repeat and quote, read more, never think your own thoughts, and you will be good.
I tried getting through a recent blog by Naomi Wolf, but couldn't get through it. She was talking about the surreality of returning to an elite friend function after her years in exile. Talk about "tone deaf." I remember in 2020 there were talks about the lack of leadership in the counter covid movement.There was the constant question of "who will step up?" IT was radioactive third rail in 2020. But there were voices that were speaking...they were just being censored and blocked.
But now they are letting people speak?
Naomi definitely used the wrong word. They weren’t thought leaders, they were NY high society.
I cried yesterday when I read her blog post. I’ve worked in and know that environment.
We’re witnessing such a huge shift. Covid measures were the wrecking ball, the tsunami and now we’re in the rolling, drawn out aftermath of vax- related sickness and death. Their money and luxurious surroundings didn’t protect them, didn’t give them insight and the distrust of pharma and the government they would have needed to not fall for the deception.
Many of the rich were not in on the operation, I think the perpetrators only protected their in-group of close collaborators. Why protect random rich people? Better to have a shot at getting what they leave behind when they leave this world.
Has anyone watched our dear Thought Leaders at this weekend's "International Crisis Summit" in Romania? All the usual suspects. Bret, Desmet, Jill, Ryan, Meryl. Malone is the headliner, as usual, with the ominously-titled speech, "Taking Back Control in the Better Future Coming."
https://www.internationalcovidsummit.com/?fbclid=IwAR2_WIf13k2t6Wt8o8AY5-KApNyoKng7K7UrK6douKr6RY7SBqMjTXP7PiA
OMG that is so true: that phrase "thought leader" seemed to come from nowhere. It emerged, sort of seeped, into our cultural-linguistic landscape; it was hardly noticeable, and then it seemed suddenly everywhere. Thanks.