162 Comments

Thank you for your contribution to a better future. Even in the madness of these times, we can be grateful that centralized power means concentrated incompetence. And decentralized power produces distributed wisdom. In their arrogance, they do not realize that they missed their opportunity to accomplish their evil goals by a couple decades. Even with the shallowness of most social media discourse, it realizes an environment where people can find their voice. I was asked by a couple sitting a bar last week, enjoying an early evening cocktail, if I was optimistic. I said, “I am realistic, but, yes, I am optimistic.” Optimistic about the long future. For three reasons. 1. People like you Margaret Anna Alice who take personal initiative to contribute. 2. Because past generations have shown us how to deal with this madness. We are not generation one, but generation ten or twenty. 3. Because lies and corruption from a systems perspective are unsustainable. Every lie ultimately reverses itself with truth. And in a digital age, nothing is hidden. Who watches the Watchmen, we do. Stay strong. Your work matters.

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Goodness, Ed, you are making me tear up. Thank you for your inspiring words, and I echo your sentiments wholeheartedly.

Visceral Adventure recently introduced me to the Stockdale Paradox (https://visceraladventure.substack.com/p/schrodingers-lot), which I feel perfectly captures my own philosophy as well as what you just described:

“The Stockdale Paradox is a concept, along with its companion concept Confront the Brutal Facts, developed in the book Good to Great. Productive change begins when you confront the brutal facts. Every good-to-great company embraced what we came to call the ‘Stockdale Paradox’: you must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” (https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/Stockdale-Concept.html)

I agree the tyrants have made a cataclysmic tactical error by clumsily rushing their demolition attempts, thus sparking a Great Awakening the likes of which the planet has never before witnessed.

Thank you for your own noble contributions to truth, integrity, and light, Ed!

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Good. We need more tears of joy. Admiral Stockdale has been a hero of mine since the 1980s. I suggest that you find the autobiography that he did with his wife, In Love and War. It fleshes out what Jim Collins describes. Thank you for your appreciation in return.

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True :-) And thank you for the book rec! I’ve added it to my wishlist. That will come in handy as I hope to cover the Stockdale Paradox in a future essay.

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Send me your email and I'll send them over - ed@edbrenegar.com.

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👍 Feel free to edit or remove this comment if you don't want your email floating out there. Thanks, Ed!

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I'll look through my files and see if I have something that can be helpful. I hoard information.

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That is so thoughtful of you, Ed! No pressure as I have a few hundred time-sensitive articles in the queue in the meantime :-)

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Not sure I can add nor improve what you have said about the Margaret Anna has had. I concur on all points.

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Thank you, dear Dennis 🤗🙏

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Absolutely.

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And let's hope Substack stays true to its roots and its founders don't sell us out for $$$$ or to be liked by the woke OR that governments (e.g. Germany comes to mind) don't try to shut access to the platform off like they have tried or done with GAB, Telegram, Russian "state media" etc!

Facebook et al are also trying to compete in this space for those who want to write and read official narratives...

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Agreed, Citizen Satirist! I have been heartened by the founders’ repeated declarations of their commitment to preserving free speech, but it does feel precarious knowing the fate of this platform depends on those individuals retaining control of the company. Fortunately, they have also expressed that they are in this for the long haul and not looking to sell.

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I WAS REMINDED OF WHAT CHURCHILL SAID AFTER THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN...

TWITTERsteria: Best Elon Musk Buys Twitter Hypocrisy Memes (End of the Beginning)

- The Great Reset's Twitter psyop summed up by Churchill: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” We can only hope...

https://covidsteria.substack.com/p/twitter-elon-musk-end-of-the-beginning

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That is a great and apropos quote!

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Neither was twitter. Is this a private company?

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"Founders Christopher Best, Hamish McKenzie, Jairaj Sethi

Who invested in Substack? Substack has 15 investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Audrey Gelman.

How much funding has Substack raised to date? Substack has raised $82.4M.

When was the last funding round for Substack? Substack closed its last funding round on Mar 31, 2021 from a Series B round."

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/substack

Investors:

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/substack/company_financials

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Now *that* is a handy resource! Thanks, Citizen Satirist!

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No doubt backed by VCs/PE though - would need to know about them more... maybe Crunchbase etc can shed light

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Here's the problem that THEY face. The technology is not unique. It is code. And code is like water. It flows towards the most receptive part of the landscape. This is what I see that the centralizers misunderstand where we are. Everything is decentralizing. This is what I wrote about here- https://edbrenegar.substack.com/p/as-the-center-does-not-hold-the-periphery?s=w. It is part of what I call the Two Global Forces. There is the global force of centralized institutions of finance and governance. And there is the global force of decentralized networks of relationships. These platforms and our smartphones are the tools of this relational decentralizing global force. In this, even at a global scale, everything we do ends up being a local endeavor because it meets the needs of people in a direct way. Just a minute ago I was working with a Ugandan man who needs to make a change in his employment. So, I am coaching him through this transition. This would not be possible a decade or so ago. So there is the inner conflict between what the technologist have created and what they think they have. So, this interaction that we have even in the comments is building the future of our world.

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Speaking of code, all these big tech companies (and frankly other institutions) are resting on the laurels of code they came up with years ago - they have NOT come up with ANYTHING NEW. That's why their woke employees have so much time on their hands to torment everyone...

SEE: "A big tech employee took to Twitter to speak out on what is currently going on inside of Big Tech.":

What It’s Like Inside Big Tech Now: “Utterly Surreal To Watch The Deterioration”

https://keepmagaalive.com/what-its-like-inside-big-tech-now-utterly-surreal-to-watch-the-deterioration/

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Thanks for this. They are obviously failing to see that their lunch is being served elsewhere.

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Congrats....you are one of my favourite people on substack!!!! Stay strong and free!!

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Thanks so much, dear Stella, and I intend to! 🙌

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Love this!! Substack has changed my life, and far overtaken the time I used to spend on FB. The quality of content and users here is unmatched. Glad I found you!

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It is an honor to have you as part of this community, Etana, and I am grateful for your own phenomenal work! I especially appreciated your handy roundup of resources in “Show Us The Data” (https://etana.substack.com/p/show-us-the-data).

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I came across your letter to the Oregon Authority by accident. I and John Droz had been working for months on fighting the mask mandates with reports, letters, videos - and your essay so perfectly outlined the entire charade in such excruciating detail - the kind of long form reading I crave but so few writers will do. It was so good that I decided to include it with our Mask report whenever I educate people on "masking." In one instance I sent both reports to a mom and daughter up in Canada and her daughter wrote a beautiful essay, quoting your words, that was read at the local school board meeting and used to help stop forced masking at her school. She is 13 and was suffering great anxiety - your essay inspired her to write! I also believe your essays do a wonderful job bringing together all the technical Covid topics - the many twists and turns - that so easily overwhelm. Sometimes it's hard to know where to begin on an issue, because everything is inter-related and overlaps - but you bring a methodical order to all the chaos and make it seem so simple. I do think your years of reading, across a broad spectrum of topics, has not only prepared you to recognize what is occurring, but has equipped you with the knowledge to write and respond in record time - something that would take even the fully awake and educated of us many days or weeks to compose. But you? You seem to systematically churn out grand essays in a day! I knew from the moment I first read your work, that you were something special. I greatly appreciate your essays, and share them often. I am particularly intrigued by your two recents spats with Jesse and John and have thought long and hard about what their responses tell us. It's heartbreaking and maddening at the same time - but we must not give up. Figuring out a way to break through the mass formation is something we must do. Having lived up until recently in Portland, OR - I have friends and family who are literally brainwashed and have seen up close and personal how this sets in and takes over. So thank you for doing what you do - I greatly enjoy reading all your work and can hardly believe you only have 300 plus paid subscribers.....the dam ought to be breaking soon.

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Jhigh68, this may be the most meaningful comment I’ve ever received—out of an abundance of meaningful comments! Hearing my work inspired a talented young writer to pen an essay that in turn effected such a significant change for her and others is beyond what I could have hoped for!

I would love to share her essay at my blog. Can you have her get in touch with me? I am in touch with John Droz via email, so he can provide my contact info (or you can just reply to one of my newsletters).

You made my week with this comment. I treasure your words and am grateful to know you have been able to use my writing in your own good work.

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☺️ Sent you an email with a couple of attachments!! Will follow up with their info.

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👍

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Hello Jhigh68

I live in Idaho. If I may ask, did you move to another part of Oregon? I am asking because I've been aiming towards Curry County, Brookings, in my quest to return to my Pacific coastline origins, but I sidelined any visit to Oregon in the past two years because of Oregon's drakonian mandates. Anyway, I don't have any contacts in Oregon, and if you would be willing to share your view of what the current, on the street level, Oregon socio/political covid mania climate is like I would be grateful. I really appreciate and applaud the efforts you and John made in fighting the covid mafia agenda. My battles over here in Idaho were centered on fighting the prison They turned my mom's nursing home into for 2 years, and the unrelenting criminal vaxx coercion that went with it. I won the battle to keep Them from injecting my mom, but sadly due to the hell of confusion and imprisonment atmosphere They turned the place into my mom at 96 finally had had enough and just checked out of this life last August. I too have experienced the heartbreak and frustration the covid mass formation psychosis has wrought among family members and friends. The isolation that comes from standing my ground and the subsequent loss of friends and family members is at times debilitating, daunting. All the more reason the discussion and sharing that is found in forums like MAA provides is so important, enlightening and heartening.

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The last two-thirds of your comment saved me the trouble of writing the very same thoughts. Thanks.

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😆🙏🤗

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Congratulations on a year most spent spectacularly. You are a true inspiration to so many people. I wish we could clone you and spread the word. I have nothing but complete and total admiration of you. You have achieved a remarkable and well deserved place in one short year. You are a rare light in a forest of darkness. I always look forward to your sharp and intelligent take on what is happening in our world today.

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What a beautiful comment, Helen, and I wish I could clone me, too! 😆 I need at least a hundred of me to complete the tasks on my current todo list, and I keep adding a dozen more items every day ;-)

Thank you for being part of the light and love in this community, Helen.

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Second that!!

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Happy 1 year anniversary and I have really enjoyed and been enlightenined by your content.

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Aww, thank you, Ernie! I have appreciated your thoughtful contributions to the comment threads.

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This first post is indeed your Rosetta Stone apex of many fine articles of awakening, perhaps setting you up as the Princess of Integrity , if you are willing to wear that title.

I am delighted to have found and now follow you young lady...

Godspeede to you in Christ Jesus the most Wonderful Name of all in Heaven & Earth!

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Hahaha, I would be honored to be graced by that sobriquet! 😹

Thank you, Mackie, and I am delighted you found me, too! 🙏

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You are a modern day Joan of Arc!

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Merci beaucoup, Mackie! That is high praise, indeed 🛡

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You were the first person on Substack that I found, well, about one year ago. I thank Lew Rockwell for keeping me sane during those dark days: I was hearing ambulances on the main road at maybe 7 times the normal rate, coinciding with mass jab events at Phuket Airport on the north of the island. I'd long been pretty anti-vax but in past times had been able to take a philosophical meet in the middle view of other's personal medical choices. This thing was screaming red flags everywhere and looked straight like a mass psychological operation. At the same time it seemed everyone in the USA and Thailand had bought it all in mass. I'm grateful for the two people I was able to convince: my mother and my teenage daughter, to stay away from the jabs. But my warnings fell on deaf ears and I saw compliance everywhere else, as friends fell in line one by one. I was desperate for dissenting views, and other than a few long time "anti-vax" websites like vaccine impact, the only one hosting these unpopular opinions seemed to be Lew Rockwell. You were one of the first dissenting voices I found and you resonated with me strongly. You have a fighting spirit which is desperately needed in these dark times. Thank you

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Wow, Amy, that makes you one of my first readers! Lew Rockwell keeps lots of us sane :-) He is such a kind and wise human being, and I am grateful to him for introducing me to so many of you.

Being able to convince two people is *huge*—and how wonderful that you may have saved your mother’s and daughter’s lives!

I’ve appreciated your own posts sharing your experiences with your Covidian friends. I think it helps to hear how others find ways to maintain relationships even when the people they care for have fallen under the spell of mass hypnosis.

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Thanks. I've been planning on putting up another post or two in that series. I'm a long term veteran of the Mommy wars involving to jab or not to jab this really started there. At the end of the day there is no hahaha I told you so if your niece or friends child dies after some safe and effective serum. Some people would rather be dead than wrong. The powers that be know that very well

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Painfully true, Amy. Dr. Peter McCullough just recorded a video about the strange phenomenon of parents not being outraged that their children were murdered by the injection or even being willing to believe it, probably because that would mean they would have to face their own culpability in killing their children:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/FE2Uyic5gkWC/

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Congratulations on one year!

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Merci beaucoup, la chevalier vit!

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Happy Anniversary, Margaret. I feel honored to be included in the list above and will try to live up to expectations.

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Thank you, Colleen, and you already have! I especially appreciate your recent work on the Bradford Hill Criteria as that is something I first examined in “Letter to a Holocaust Denier” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-holocaust-denier) since it immediately knocks down the “correlation is not causation” mantra.

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I just re-read that amazing article. I think your analysis is spot-on, and if anything can cut through the layer of muck smothering the minds of those in mass formation, your article can do it.

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Aww, wow, thank you, Colleen! That means a lot coming from you 🤗

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Only one year? Unreal. Your body of work in this time period represents one of the most remarkable I’ve ever encountered. 338.

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Wow, thank you, hoppah 🙏 That helps assuage my guilt from feeling perpetually behind on my everlasting todo list!

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Guilt? You must be kidding. Your output is heroic. Many writers would be ecstatic to have *just one* column as good as “Are You a Good German or a Badass German?”, yet you crank such unique and insightful brilliancies out every week. The results speak for themselves. It’s astonishing.

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Haha, aww, shucks, hoppah 😌 I just have a lot of tyranny to stop and not enough time :-)

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Eternal vigilance is the price, and you’re paying it in spades. Thank you.

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🙌

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I have enjoyed and learned so much from all the masterful pieces I have had the privilege to read. Thank you.

In five more years, no one will remember, there wasn’t always a beacon for truth called Margaret Anna Alice, without whom the world would be a much darker place.

I congratulate you, on your anniversary, however, as the years go by, and, as long as there are people who crave honesty and art, your anniversaries will pass and become commonplace, but, I believe, your work will shine through and be evergreen.

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Thank you, browntsunami, for your ever-gracious, thought-provoking, and full-hearted responses to all of the essays you have graced with your sensitive readership!

I can see I’m going to need to keep the Kleenex box nearby.

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I hope those are tears of joy. If they are, save the Kleenex, let them flow. You deserve all the encouragement I can muster. There will be time for Kleenex, when you expose the crimes against the innocent. At that time, the eyes need to be clear, your voice strong to counter the tyranny which brings tears to all who have empathy for the plight of our brothers and sisters. Keep up the good fight.

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They are indeed, browntsunami. You mustered well and will do 🤗🥊

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Congratulations, Margaret!

Short stack of musical pancakes for you: Steel guitars and ukuleles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM8FKfuw270

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRii5IFMJxw

Dedicated to the lawyers at ICAN & CHD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGL_37v5R2Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gueigpmBTzM

Please continue!

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Haha, thank you, Infanttyron3, as ever! I’ll pause my Bernard Herrmann marathon to enjoy these :-)

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bernard herrmann - lemme guess - psycho soundtrack?

i think you need to get a band behind you for in five years. like what gil scott-heron did with b movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSOp507HJMA

thank you for your arendtian-class work!

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Haha, I think “Psycho” played a few days ago. I just pushed the Play button on Bernard Herrmann’s artist page at Spotify and have been playing through his entire repertoire for the past week or so. Not sure when it will end as there are thousands of exquisite pieces, but my favorite scores off the top of my head are:

• “Fahrenheit 451” (the Moscow Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Stromberg performance is breathtaking)

• “North by Northwest”

• “Twilight Zone”

• “Day the Earth Stood Still”

Haha, great idea—“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”!

And wow, nymusicdaily, I am honored by the comparison. Thank you for your uplifting words.

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i love this place, ive yet to meet a troll, everyone (almost) is very bright and awake

i do worry that the crazy leftists from twitter will start showing up but i think the great content keeps them at bay

thankyou for pointing out sage hana, i could use some other entertainment although i did just buy CJ Hopkins Zone 23

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Delighted to hear that, Ray, and I agree with your description of the people in this community as bright and awake!

Haha, I doubt the crazies will wind up here, even if they do make their way to Substack. The length of my pieces alone should be sufficient to fend the nonthinkers off 😆

“Zone 23” is on my list! I adore CJ Hopkins (of course) and have relished the excerpts I read (very Vonnegutesque with Hopkins’s characteristic satirical flavor).

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Oh Alice! Hopping down the rabbit holes with you.

You are a fabulous communicator and if I had a Substack I would want it to be as fascinating as yours! 💕 Thank you for your insight and fighting the good fight with us and for us. Together we can rise above the totalitarian push! Okay, it’s more like a shove, but let’s shove back!!! God bless you!! We need you!

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