By the way, I am liking what may be called recent American gothic fiction. One thati f is particurly coming to mind is a story titled ‘The Bone Man ‘, I forget the writer’s name, but if you are to look up the title and Fantasy and Science Fiction, you will find it. When I read it, I hear the sounds.

Also, many works by Lucius Sheppard (my spelling of, probably wrong on surname spelling wrong, many stories brilliant, not all.

So, I was wanting to continue supporting the mag. with money, but too much PC bs. Half-truths.

If you are reading fiction in English language, I am recommending the above.

I feel our leaders look at human life as capital to be invested. It looks good if we leave dead so we can create memorials, which in turn invest the communities back home. We didn’t just come and kill the locals. We died too. No one dies for nothing right? It works and keeps the supply intact. Is this more unfeeling than what Ron Unz has said? Yeah, maybe so. But he is essentially right. No one has signed on to be killed. It is because they did die for nothing that it is so sad. That they didn’t find something better to live for. It seems like there should be something.

I assume that the rest of the world considers 9/11 total BS. In other countries they do not believe their media or see it as it rightfully is, government propaganda. Most likely the official story in most other countries is controlled demolition and they don’t even consider it a conspiracy. Simply good old government doing what it does. Another great article by Linh Dinh. I love how you notice everything. Nothing is mundane or beneath comment. Often depressing but oddly hopeful at the same time. What I find most striking is how much you understand.

I wouldn’t worry one iota about Somalis or other Africans, it’s American blacks that you need to be extremely wary of–they’re often, very often, nasty, aggressive mo fo’s. And Philly’s one of America’s blackest cities.

Thanks for the comment, but as you are saying.

From years ago, my dream visit to the U.S.A. was to be to flyover country’, I decided, in successron, not really interested in Noo Yawk, man, other cities too dangerous if not having *very* much money and not knowing where to be to avoid danger. Linh’s tales of Philadelphia were making me think that woul d be an interesting place to visit, but as a total stranger without any local knowledge, do not think so.

Despite Jonathan R.’s kind reply and comment about small percentages of Somalis and Sudanese in the U.S.A. popullation, if there, would sure want to avoid places where they are concentrated.

Hi Che,
I would say the main thing about America these days is that it’s deathly boring. All the bars are shit, tv’s blaring, all that. That said, there are lots of interesting people if you look. I can’t really say, it has changed a hell of a lot since I was a kid. But there’s no intersting street scene–pretty much anywhere. There are lots of DANGEROUS street scenes, all over the place, in sections of any big city. But for interest, and danger, I’d recommend Philly, Chicago and NY are too nice and gentrified now, though through Linh it seems Philly’s largely gentrified now too. But the out of the way places, throughout the middle of the country, get my vote generally, though again, I’m way out of touch and live abroad.

Thank you Jonathon,

Point taken. However, my impressions of the U.S.A. at more local level are not from this site, but more occasional reading of (X-ray through half-truths) english-language MSM.

Two of my uncles were KIA ARVNs.

Vietnamese-Americans die for our country, too. I don’t know how you feel about that, considering the ambivalence I detect in your writings about America. Ron Unz, I suppose, would just consider them losers, based on comments of his such as this one (231): “My impression is that nearly all of America’s volunteer servicemen are joining because they can’t find jobs after high school or can’t afford college or want an inside track to a well-paid government job. Fighting and dying isn’t something for which they signed up.”

Some of us have a different point of view.

Cpl Tevan L. Nguyen, 21, of Hutto, Texas, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California; departed this life, Tuesday 28 December 2010, from mortal wounds incurred in an area of fierce aggression, while facing an enemy combatant stronghold the Taliban was unwilling to give up in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Honoring USMC Corporal Tevan L. Nguyen, 21 from Hutto, Texas, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California, KIA (December 28, 2010) during combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.R.I.P pic.twitter.com/9aw5ewEPx9

— Terry (@TerranceCreamer) December 31, 2017

United States Marine Corps Corporal Tevan Lee Nguyen

even country towns have been pumped full of Somali and Sudanese and

Dude, there are 129,000 Somalis in all of the U.S.A. apparently. And even fewer Sudanese. The two groups combined are way less than 0.1% of the population. (I only know that because I just looked it up.)

I mean, regardless of what you think of those people (frankly, I suspect you never knew any personally) they can’t be causing much of the problems in the U.S. because there are hardly any of them!

For sure, if I ever get the time, I need to research places to avoid.

If it’s Somalis or Sudanese you are worrying about, I would relax. You’re unlikely to run into any of them unless you make a point of going and looking for them deliberately.

But, you know, generally speaking, I can tell you, as a seasoned traveler, having traveled in dozens of different countries, there is fairly little need to research which places to avoid. Granted, there are areas where a tourist would be better off not going, but there is little need to actively research that, because, in practice, you don’t go there simply because there is no reason to go there.

For example, Linh and I were in Marseilles and went to what is allegedly the worst neighborhood in all of France, Félix Pyat. We had a look around the area, stopped in a bar had a couple of beers, chatted with the barman. Linh wrote about it. But we didn’t randomly end up in that area. This actually was a result of deliberately seeking out a very dodgy part of Marseilles to go have a look, where the poor ethnic immigrants live etc.

If you just go as a normal tourist to the south of France, there is no need to research where these areas are to avoid them. You never go to such an area because you never have any reason to go there! There is nothing there of any touristic interest. Well, unless you are a very special kind of “tourist” à la Linh Dinh, that is…

I think you should go to America, and travel more generally, because you’ll probably then figure out that much of crank stuff that appears on this website is not to be taken so seriously.

Thank you Daniel,

My impression was formed some years before I was finding this sIte. Happy to see somebody else has noticed. Wonder where he gets the cash?

I see great American writing on the Web, occasionaly have met one in Japan, or ovenseas who has a true heart. Don’t mistake me, I would love to visit the U.S.A. before I am shuffling off this mortal coil. Am anti-American polity (MIIC), not anti American people at all.

Though I gather that many places that may have been nice to visit once (e.g. Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit) are wrecks, and even country towns have been pumped full of Somali and Sudanese and other exporters of their own problems, so one would not want to ever be there.

For sure, if I ever get the time, I need to research places to avoid.

How prophetic the movie Robocop was of the reality of Detroit now is dark humour.

… except for the depiction of whites and latinos as being in charge of it.

‘this Vltchek is a very wealthy or heavily subsidised man with an ugly sense of entitlement.’

Hi Che,
Yes, I’ve often felt the same. Like, ‘how the hell can this dude traipse all over hell and beyond as a Counterpunch writer, who don’t pay him anything?’ Buddy buddy with Chomsky, anyone? Interesting comment on the Imperial Hotel in Toky0, I may have read that article–haven’t read anything by him for probably a couple of years now. One of my favorite points about him that gets me going is his absolute sureness that nobody, just him and a couple of his close friends, literally that’s it worldwide, is doing anything, knows anything, isn’t just some worthless, clueless piece of shit. In so many words he has said this on more than one occasion. What an arrogant asshole! Perfect for Counterpunch, a worse than worthless establishment tool masquerading as radical, cutting edge, anti-establishment.
And he just knocks off lying, shitty article after article on how great China, North Korea, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and more such countries are, and what pieces of shit Americans are. I agree unfortunately more and more with the last bit, brainwashed, braindead, tv-watching a-holes that so many are, but what western (anyway) country is much better? And there are lots of great Americans, too, at least I knew several growing up there.

‘obviously nus’, well, the post was making me laugh. By ‘nus’, do you mean Britain’s insane National Union of Students?

I am not sure what ‘gaslight’ means, except for the form of illumination, but will be looking it up.

Vltchek is clearly some type of fake. One does not have to read many of his articles to see it.

The point for me, re. his writing, that was convincing me of his falsity was a long whine about the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

I would not dream of staying in such an expensive place, if visiting.

Also, during a period of work near there, at a nearby eating and drinking establishment, became acquainted with staff from there, from menials to managers.

They were pleasant people.

So, when I was reading Vltchek’s whining about the place, my only thought was ‘this Vltchek is a very wealthy or heavily subsidised man with an ugly sense of entitlement.’

I still don’t understand who altered the yearbook or why on earth they didn’t alter the photo to match.

Well, I don’t know who altered that page in the yearbook. Like I say in the article, the best theory I have is that somebody did it as a little prank or in-joke. Anyway, as I said, it stands to reason that it is a lot easier to alter text on a page than to muck with actual photographic content. Anybody involved in the project of digitizing of the yearbooks might be able to to get in there and alter a bit of text quite easily, so if somebody was going to do something on the spur of the moment as a prank, it would be more likely something that is trivially easy to do, no?

As for getting the string “Betty Ong” in there, it’s all kinda FUBAR. The name “Betty Ong” is pretty clearly inserted into the Spring 1973 graduating class list that appears on sfgenealogy.org but the black girl labeled as Betty Ong in the yearbook is part of the Fall 1973 graduating class.

If the conspirators wanted to cover their tracks, albeit sloppily, they could have replaced the name of either Jacki Ono (from Spring 1973) or Betty Ow (from Fall 1973). Of course, I see two basic problems with that. First of all, those people might still be alive and might notice. (Though that same point applies to Black Betty as well, of course…)

Also, pretty clearly, neither Jacki Ono nor and Betty Ow is a younger version of Betty Ong, the 9/11 flight attendant. BUT… at least they are the right race! Both Chinese girls. A Black Betty Ong is just a total non-starter! So, again, I just figured it was a little joke. It certainly comes off as one. Hence my little excursion into the topic of “duping delight”. But I am not saying I really know for sure either!

Also if Ron Unz’s ego is the issue here, then we need to bring this to his attention!

Oh, it’s been brought to his attention all right!

Unz has been trying to gaslight me for close to two years saying that I’m obviously nus and one of his talking points is that I doubted the existence of Betty Ong!

Funny guy . If only .

I agree. Also, I sent you a mail message. Check, if not too late.

Perhaps it was too late, I don’t check replies to my nonsenically pseudonymous (intentional of course) account here every day.

If my timing was too late, my loss.

Had been thinking of places you may find interesting.

Very interesting indeed. I still don’t understand who altered the yearbook or why on earth they didn’t alter the photo to match. Was the hacked up yearbook just a prerequisite to getting the text string ‘Betty Ong’ inserted into the relevant records?

Also if Ron Unz’s ego is the issue here, then we need to bring this to his attention! However much good a person does, their ego is always their enemy and an enemy of their enemy is their friend.

Godfree states he grew up in Australia, Dinhbat. Which I think would make him an Aussie, not a Yank. But don’t let that stop you, as you’re not one who concerns himself with, um, facts.

We’re watching Indochinese derangement in real time, I’m afraid.

Anderson Cooper, crisis actors, media, Hollywood, celebrities like Snoop Dogg (or Brad, or anyone else), endless phoney attacks, steady and relentless real ones–it’s quite a funhouse.

did you try to contact any of her supposed classmates

No, I have not tried to contact any of the alumni from that time period. Not yet anyway.

I would be extremely surprised if anybody says that they knew her and certainly if they had a description of Betty that rang true at all. Just look at the description of Betty that is on the memorial site that is supposedly maintained by her family. http://www.bettyong.org/BettyOng.htm

I pointed Ron Unz at that and he couldn’t see anything strange about it. Maybe Unz has Asperger’s syndrome or something. Other people (like Linh’s wife, according to Linh) just look at that and immediately say this is bullshit.

The original yearbooks must be lying around in various people’s houses on the bookshelf or in some box in the attic that they haven’t opened for years. My belief is that the black girl who is labeled Betty Ong in the 1973 yearbook would have a different name in the original yearbook, probably Victoria Ole or Vivian Ole or something like that.

Oh, I also saw something new since writing the article. None of Betty Ong’s alleged siblings are in any yearbook of that high school either! Yet it is claimed that all the Ong siblings attended that school. So the siblings are also looking more and more like crisis actors. Even the tiny bit of life history that these people are given, like where they attended high school, is all bullshit, seemingly.

Hi Jonathan,
I did read the article you wrote. It was interesting. To see how these people operate, the lengths they go to, creating a website for the flight attendant for example… I am shocked in a way, but after so many years looking at this stuff, not really.
In all these events there is lots of investigating that should be done, by journalists, and isn’t. Simply the kind of thing you have done, to try to verify eyewitness accounts, etc. 911 is the ultimate case study. All those made up people, who’s out there interviewing them in depth? I do have one question in this regard for you: did you try to contact any of her supposed classmates over those two years, 73 and 74, to see if they either remembered her or had the original yearbook?
Cheers,

Well, of the five articles I have contributed to this site, none of them were specifically 9/11 pieces. I guess one central theme I was trying to work was just how people (HIQI’s) don’t understand the difference between real facts and storytelling. And often the storytelling has these cartoonish aspects even, but they still cannot see it. I tend to think that once you see the difference between real facts and storytelling, you look at the 9/11 narrative and you see that it’s all basically just storytelling. Osama Bin Laden blah blah blah. No proof of any of it.

Now, this article I wrote is still about only one little sub-narrative in the 9/11 story. The article is here:

https://heresycentral.com/2018/04/09/blackbetty/

It will appear on Veterans Today fairly soon as well. It doesn’t look like the piece will run here on the Unz Review. Unz is a pretty big ego and doesn’t want to admit that he was so wrong about this. He first said he wanted to run it but then started attaching ridiculous conditions and it became clear that he didn’t really want to run the article.

Do feel free to tell me what you think of the article.

‘The impression I get from my travels is that, outside the Anglo sphere and Western Europe, nobody believes the U.S. government tall tale. NOBODY.’

And yet a sizeable number of Unz writers and commenters, to say nothing of, say, Counterpunch writers like Andre Vltchek, or cultural gatekeepers like Zinn and Chomsky, just laugh it off. Once, after trying to convince a neighbor over several excruciating conversations, I finally gave him my copy of David Ray Griffin’s The New Pearl Harbor and said, if he can’t convince you I never will. About two months later I saw him and asked if he’d read it. Oh yeah, he knew all about it–he’d not read the book at all, but had looked up the people who had given blurbs on the cover, such as MP Benn (I think), ‘all liberals’ apparently who weren’t going to pull one over on HIM. He probably graces these comment sections now. But he was a ‘science guy’, who had read ALL THE EVIDENCE, presented by, precisely, Popular Science mag. I said, great, surely in school you studied free fall speed–knowing the buildings came down at this rate was all it took to convince me that that was impossible. But I’d have been better off taking a board to my head repeatedly than continuing to attempt to penetrate his hard head.

Kind of what I would expect. Several years ago Ted Koppel said that after visiting China, that, as he was leaving, a Chinese fellow leaned toward him and said something like: “You know? What you people did on 911 was really evil.”

This shocked Mr. Koppel deeply and he was very upset. Apparently, he wasn’t privy to inner workings of 911. Lately, it has come out that the Chinese saved some of the steel from 911 for study because it was a unique opportunity and all.

We were told it was sent to China for recycling and so we assumed it was all gone, destroyed.

Funny how the penny drops eventually, even years later.

“since having over 1.3 pound of dope means a mandatory death by injection, they’re done.”

well then the PRC should have been excecuted about 1,000 times by now.

dang it, will miss you in Tokyo by 6 hrs.! maybe next time. your writing style is lucid and your content always thought provoking. next time!

They might not have enough money for food, but the poor usually have enough for gambling, cigarettes, alcohol, and apparently according to Nam, the occassional prostitute.

What do the foreign workers going to do after the factory closes? What are they going to do on Sunday? It’s risky going to town since Malaysian police love to cruise around and nab the super obvious groups of foreign workers. Only one of them can speak any Malay language? Good luck defending themselves. And how many of them had a valid work permit? None? Then that’ll be at least $50 per head in bribes, almost equal to a week’s pay. So overall, it’s safer to only go out when it’s essential and otherwise hang around the factory in the evenings until they go to bed upstairs in the factory dorm at night. Cigarettes and alcohol help to pass the time, while gambling starts off at no cost (since they’re only betting against their colleagues so it’s a closed system). As for the hooker, I doubt she’s expensive. They probably just paid $25-$50 to a Vietnamese/Indonesian foreign worker who also has a regular day job in a factory/food court.

By our standards, it’s a shitty life. We shouldn’t judge them too harshly.

The guys facing a mandatory death sentence for having over 1.3 pounds of drugs also show an inablity to prioritize and weigh the pros and cons of specific behaviors.

The death sentence isn’t such a strong deterrent for people who are surrounded by death every day. It’s quite normal in countries like Vietnam to regularly pass the scene of an accident where some poor motorcyclist lost their life. It’s not shocking, it’s just vaguely depressing.

“They might not have enough money for food, but the poor usually have enough for gambling, cigarettes, alcohol, and apparently according to Nam, the occassional prostitute. ”

I should imagine that the greater the the burden of the daily drudgery, the higher the appeal of the occasional bust out.

Don’t you?

We’re watching American degeneracy in real time, I’m afraid.

Nah… you’re just seeing a deliberate campaign by globalist agents to spread FUD on a site that has become popular enough that it needs to be countered…

It’s also threatening to attack a country whose only real claim to fame is that it has disemboweled every super power that has attacked it and is the sole owner of an offensive weapons suite against which we have zero defense.

We’re declaring war on Israel?

Revisionist history, Vietnam-style. So sad…so sad.

“I stated that East Asian countries have at least two advantages over white ones 1) They have a stronger sense of community 2) They don’t question their ethnocentrism”

Well…can’t speak for other countries except for the US, and although we may not be (strictly speaking) a “white” country it’s a damn sight sure that we have no real sense of community. And as to questioning our ethnocentrism–hell, that’s all we’re doing these days!

LD, I believe that at the base of the “sliding into madness, by design” is the corporate media that saturates the lives of most working people. Essentially controlled by five corporations, the media is virtually lockstep in its presentation of divisive identity politics that have successfully pitted ordinary people one against the other and dissipated the solidarity necessary to resist the rot that has infected our nation. Boycotting this malignant influence would be a great first step toward a better society.

I travel the world via your very intelligentand well informed writing.
Thank you, linh.
Enjoy Tokyo. I’m sure you will.
Tony

Linh Dinh reflected & wisely commented:. “We’re watching American degeneracy in real time, I’m afraid.”

Another masterpiece travel-article, Linh, and thank you!

B.t.w., the groom’s father’s decision to bolt after finding the bride’s door locked to his family, and afterward coordination of a quicky marriage to a waitress, was unforgettably comical.

Also, I relate to Borges’ having categorized human copulation as “abominable;” it’s not much different than how dogs and horses “do it,” propagate their specie.

(Note:I am bad at times, Linh, thinking that The Creator might have done better with the instinctual “hot-to-trot” act of human procreation by having engineered some level of moral responsibility within the brains of participant fuckers)

Writing as a four-year veteran school bus driver, I have interacted with many neglected & subsequently troubled elementary Scranton school children. At times after having professionally disciplined (yelled at) a 3rd grader for misconduct on bus, his nutty mother/guardian would start preemptive WAR with me upon the kid’s drop off at home.

Will I survive such embattled employment & proliferating “American degeneracy”?
Chances are better, given a pregnant supply of opium, reduction of spousal support, and having a sane & safe place to “lay my head.”

Thanks for the education!

So true. I enjoy your articles.

It’s come up a few times during my travels. I’d say that Europeans are 50/50 and Muslims consider the Israel connection to be common knowledge. Both are naturally biased because Europeans are marinaded in Jewmedia while Muslims are marinaded in Jewphobia. A fairly neutral group would be the Chinese. They vaguely ‘know’ the Jewmedia version but are very open to alternative explanations.

I think one big block Westerners have is that they generally have faith that their governments are benign and corruption is low. The rest of the world has no such delusion.

Great story telling Linh, real life discription at a personal level is Your great gift. At times in the past You’ve attempted to give political views but it alienated many readers. This, today, is extraordinarily good reading. It changes hearts and minds because it so real. Good Luck Linh!

“All 13 victims were under 20, with 11 of them female. Perhaps it’s because most were only teenage girls, they’re honored with a huge monument that attracts a thousand visitors daily.”

Is there a monument for the 1000 or so women and children slaughtered on hwy 1 by the North Vietnamese Army while fleeing Quang Tri city in the spring of 1972? Didn’t think so.

Evening, Linh.

Roberts is also a columnist on Unz, as you likely know. In my opinion, silly.

Thank you for another very interesting article and minor apology for previous incorrect but natural assumption.

Recent change of workplace (not job), I am in an office room where I am the only one who is not Viet. They are nice people, slowly learning names.

Nghe An is on the rise. Nearly double-digit GDP-growth. 11 billion USD in FDI over the last decade. Several large Industrial Parks coming online over the next years. This year Nghe An’s export will cross the 1billion USD mark.

The capital Vinh is slowly transforming into “exciting” city with clubs, cinemas and other urban activities.

Nghe An was one of the recipient of financial transfers from richer provinces in the late 90s/early 2000s, which invested wisely and now reaps the fruits.

Those booming secondary provinces makes the differences between VN and the Arab/African/Latin-American countries.

One thing I’d ask (discreetly) is what do local engineers think of 911?

The impression I get from my travels is that, outside the Anglo sphere and Western Europe, nobody believes the U.S. government tall tale. NOBODY.

I once had a good friend here in America who had escaped Vietnam in the 1980′s as a “boat person”. I had the honor of attending both his bachelor party and his wedding. A special wine (called something like “kom”) was served at the party, and we all became quite intoxicated. Mekong River fish was served at the wedding, and an excellent local rock band had been engaged to entertain us after the ceremony. I must say it was the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding! Sadly, I lost touch with Du Van over the years, but I’ll never forget him.

It is striking, our collective impotence to prevent this.

It’s downright inevitable given that the bonds of nationhood have been dissolved. Did they even really exist to begin with in the USA? Or was it just an Anglo ‘nation’ ruling over the other mixed residents? Open question – you’ve got a much better idea than I do.

And by the way, it was a damned fine article. I didn’t just learn; I felt. Thank you!

To plan any important occasion, most Vietnamese consult a fortune teller for the best date, and even time.

The Thais consult their Monks for the same thing.
Opening a business is one such important occasion.

Wonderful piece.

Interesting. If I were traveling about, I would probably ask a few question also. One thing I’d ask (discreetly) is what do local engineers think of 911? In other words I’d like to know how the rest of the world views 911 Truth. Sort of a project. I wonder what kind of reaction you would get. Are people open about it? Do they become defensive, refuse to talk about it?

Recently, the US has released UFO footage what do people think of that? There were many reports of UFOs in Vietnam during the war. Do they have any stories? I’d also ask about strange events lights in the sky, local legends, strange happenings etc.

Maybe Linh could start a website/Magazine Paranormal Asia.

To send just $45 home a month each, though, they had to be super creative with their food procurement…. I had a gambling problem.

They might not have enough money for food, but the poor usually have enough for gambling, cigarettes, alcohol, and apparently according to Nam, the occassional prostitute. The guys facing a mandatory death sentence for having over 1.3 pounds of drugs also show an inablity to prioritize and weigh the pros and cons of specific behaviors.

The mural of Ho Chi Minh shows him wearing sandals. Ho Chi Minh sandals are made out of recycled tires and used to be very popular at one time.

“Maybe someone can explain….”

I agree about the general degeneration of the country. But I’m afraid that we’re also seeing the typical decline of the comment threads on any controversial website that grows in popularity. I have written about this here for months, most recently in addressing the new policy of numbering anonymous commenters; see the last article under “Announcements,” where I just posted the news that Taki’s has now pulled the plug on its degraded commentariat. A variety of the bad apple is this person, who as I’ve suggested to him directly is parasitizing in order to draw people to his own website.

I hope that Mr. Unz can better manage us before the good authors and commenters start to leave in disgust.

By the way, I would love to see the better writers here like you, Mr. Giraldi, Mr. Whitney, and Mr. Hopkins engage the likes of Andrew Napolitano, who carries Establishment water on Trump and Russia but, unlike you, is afraid to interact with we mere commenters.

Linh Dinh,

After a spell, I see another of your fine pieces, casual at the start, terse at the end. And this one, more terse than most, 2 syllables, 2 words: “Will you?”

Then I see this comment of yours with the final 2 words, “I’m afraid.” I believe that.

I think your fear is real and, though universal, it is for unseeing, betrayed Americans. You spent much of your life in the USA and, as with Nam, it became a part of you. How else to explain your disappointment? You can’t cut it out. Nor can anyone.

This is very nice work, subtle and poignant, like the work of a philosopher poet, ethical and beautiful.

You’re apparently not very familiar with this columnist’s work over the years. Or perhaps you mined out a sentence to straw man so that you could post another link to, let me guess, your website?

“In war, however, the state must be intrusive, coercive and unjust to even function, so the fact that many are becoming increasingly totalitarian must mean they’re preparing for strifes of all kinds, external and internal.”

Preparing?! What were you smoking in chilled-out Nghe An?

Perhaps you drifted off after America stopped Vietnam so you missed the fact that it didn’t stop bombing.

It’s bombed 40 countries since them–some for more than a decade–and is threatening to bomb some more this week.

It’s also threatening to attack a country whose only real claim to fame is that it has disemboweled every super power that has attacked it and is the sole owner of an offensive weapons suite against which we have zero defense.

That’s why everyone’s preparing.

Or asked differently:

Do you belong to a strong tribe?

Seems to me the US tribal boundaries are clearly divided between urban and rural for the most part. Since the urban areas have the larger population base the politicians elected by them will necessarily impose their will over the rural tribe(See California). At what point does this coercion lead to a breaking point? Is there enough cohesion among the widely spread rural tribe to resist this coercion? What level of coercion are the Urbanists ready to employ?

Clearly one side has the advantage but passion often wins these wars (See Vietnam).

“Though I’ve analyzed and celebrated healthy communities wherever I can find them, including in Mexico, Turkey, France, Spain, England and Italy,”

For now. Look, maybe there is some unique aspect of Anglo-Saxon culture, at least the American version, that makes that society particularly vulnerable to the effects of the new electronic world.

Maybe it’s even genetic somehow (we talk about genes here a lot).

But do you really think all these other cultures are totally immune to this sort of thing, in a manner akin to some societies where alcoholism is virtually unknown, yet legal?

My take is it’s just beginning in some areas. Maybe it takes a generation of conditioning to produce… whatever we are in the process of becoming.

But you could go to Japan and check out that new generation of kids, particularly young men. Or go to Korea with their insane gaming culture. More energy, but not far behind Japan in a way I think.

Curious as to what you think. Taking a long term view my guess is Vietnamese culture might look very different in 20 years.

you nailed again linh..and it’s getting really stupid here.

linh,

i’ve been a big fan of your postcards series for a while but i only just got around to reading your fiction, for some reason i assumed it wouldn’t be any good! i don’t know why…

love like hate was the funniest, most devastating novel i’ve read in a long, long time. please write more in the future!

Gimme a break. American whites don’t have that kind of life anymore because the blacks you mentioned so fondly make many of our cities dangerous.

If 13% of Vietnam was black, Vietnamese wouldn’t mingle so freely either.

Hey L.D., more “alley life” and less “fuck dem Jews” and “USA is loserville.”

I think you might have missed some of these rather healthy aspects of PA when you lied here.

Fuck S. Freud.

Linh,

I have read your columns for years and feel that you are a very keen observer of the human condition. Lived kind of close to you in Bucks county and often pondered inviting you to see the outer suburb belt, I wondered what you would have made of it. You are the last chap I would describe as racist. The folks trying to get your goat, well they seem to have a axe to grind, to use an old Anglo-Saxon phase. Don’t let the B–tard’s get you down, we like and appreciate your writing, for all of its honesty.

Now the real reason I write this is because of your post #23. Once you get outside of the inner suburban belts, you will find the old Anglo/German/Scot/Eastern European/plain folks of PA doing quite well. They have jobs, live within their means, get married and stay in that state, are not depressed and have decent lives much like their parents/grandparents did 40 to 50 years ago.

They are necessarily quiet in this modern age. It does not pay to attract attention when the wider society has gone mad or is headed in that direction. It is also a fact, that for the most part these societies of northern European types are not particularly extroverted socially, but they do congregate and are quite social in their old voluntary organizations such as hunting clubs, firehouses, ambulance companies, steam engine societies, glider clubs, hospital aid societies and a Swiss shooting Verein. All of these societies are somewhat closed, meaning they do not look for members, but the members in them are something akin to a mutual aid and comfort societies. The word “Verein” can be translated to club, but it has a much deeper meaning which fulfills a human need for Northern European introverts.

I could go on, but the main point I have is I think you might have missed some of these rather healthy aspects of PA when you lied here. The folks that inhabit such venues are not sad or depressed, they are just typical northern European types, which outsiders might find hard to figure out.

… and, deep beneath the Judean Hills, nestles an unknown number of nuclear bombs … from that comes power with a very capital P …

… this is a chilling reminder of the deadly Oxy-Sackler family … about whom something really must be done … Dave has just bought a sunny hillside house in W Los Angeles for many USD25 million or so, as death comes to W Virginia and New England for the less fortunate …

Television and air conditioning destroyed that entire world.

Dinh doesn’t understand Anglo-Saxons’ temperament, makes the same mistake that his hated Zionists make. Jews like Freud saw us not-speaking, not-socializing, not-smiling and concluded that we are repressed. Dinh concludes that we are depressed and has this cure and that one for us.

No we are not repressed, and yes we are mildly depressed because we are born that way. East Asians, too. It may be a side effect of high IQ, (humblebrag), our notable melancholy, introversion and unmoved nature. Magnus Carlsen displays a lot less enjoyment being king of his world, than Usain Bolt did being king of his.

We are naturally who and what we are. Let us be who we are in our quiet-unto-death suburbs, flats and farms, rather than advise us to be like haggling, bragging, bullshitting Israelis or Vietnamese.

Linh,

Anyone who reads you knows that you don’t hate “whitey.” Bragadocius and his ilk are going to be a fixture in America until the rest of the world pushes this decrepit Empire over a cliff (and puts us out of our misery). It can feel gratifying to put a Zionist troll in his place, but they aren’t worth the effort. Americans only wake up after the system bites them on the ass, and by that time, they’re powerless. C’est la vie.

Air conditioning contributed to the decline of front porch culture in many regions of America. Porches and rocking chairs or swings helped many stay cool, perhaps with a glass of lemonade or sweet tea or other beverage, sometimes enjoyed with a neighbor. Couple that with basketball hoops and lawns and you have more opportunity for socializing that does not involve some little electronic device. In-person activities seem to encourage deeper interaction.
It is interesting to read Linh’s observations about how other cultures may interact.

Right, and Rome was much like Athens. But in Athens (and probably Rome, although I am not sure) homosexuality was a mandatory condition of citizenship. In order to be a citizen, one had to be a man and had to do an “apprenticeship” with an older male citizen (often a relative) between the ages of 12 and 16.

The point being that when I read of a Greek lamenting the fact that “well, we’re nothing now like we were in the “good ol’ days.”

I think, “well thank God!”

Four of the first five Roman Emperors were homosexual, as was Richard The Lionhearted, as was Aaron Hernandez. Women had no status.

Take what is good and leave the least.

Just a small point of understanding here; were you aware that homosexuality was COMPULSORY to be an Athenian citizen during the prime of the empire?

Oh Troofy…..you and Tinys should talk…..!

The present day inhabitants bear no resemblance to the Hellenes or the Ancients. No honor.

Just a small point of understanding here; were you aware that homosexuality was COMPULSORY to be an Athenian citizen during the prime of the empire?

I don’t dislike Vietnamese especially, or admire them. I just have grown to see people as they are, up and down. As a whole, I do appreciate Asians in general for many qualities, which Western Indo-Europeans today have less of or lack, tragically. In fact, in recent times, I woke up and realized that I have been a Buddhist all my life and that Orthodox Christianity and all the rest are incompatible with my Wa. It’s complicated, by way of Jung, Hinduism, Buddha, etc., but my belief is that my previous incarnations were Asian, specifically Japanese.

I believe Linh is sincere and a good egg. I detest so many things in the Occident that I cannot list all of them without fatigue. We have Chinese intermarried in our family and the results-including children-are exemplary.

Finally, I loathe hypocrisy. My ancestry is completely Greek, realizing that modern day Greeks are a ragged, near worthless set of wastrels and buffoons. The present day inhabitants bear no resemblance to the Hellenes or the Ancients. No honor.

Looks like you’ve touched a nerve. Dinh may hate hate hate Americans, but he’s very defensive about the homeland!

I would simply add, every Vietnamese I’ve ever met is a financial basket case with a high propensity towards compulsive gambling. And data shows that they got crushed by the mortgage crisis of 2008 because of their financial illiteracy and general cluelessness about debt. I guess it’s tough to make your house payment when there’s high-low poker awaiting at Harrahs.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286937212_Painting_the_Whole_Picture_Foreclosure_Rates_among_Asian_American_Ethnic_Groups_in_Orlando_Florida_and_Phoenix_Arizona

I’m sure Dinh would blame this is on “anomic” whiteys stepping on the throats of poor defenseless Nguyens. LOL

Linh,

What do you think of the proclivity for eating cats in Vietnam? In addition to novelty, there is a persistent belief that properties of the cat, will spiritually flow into the eater. Furthermore, cats are tortured, skinned alive, made to feel extreme pain before being boiled alive in the belief that such emotional distress adds vigor and enlivening qualities to the meat.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3038321/EXCLUSIVE-ve-killed-31-today-s-best-meat-Disturbing-boom-pet-cats-snatched-Vietnamese-streets-served-illegally-restaurants-baby-tiger-noodles.html

Asians fall into two categories, generally. East Asians-Chinese, Japanese, Korean-who achieved high levels of civilization and language, which is evident in continuity today. South Asians-Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laos, Indonesian, etc., who have less average IQ and are less dynamic in higher thought cognition, discovery, and knowledge acquisition.

Vietnam did not have a written language before the French conquest, which was created by learned monks, I believe. All in all, Vietnam resembles The Philippines more than any other Asian country. There is stability in doing things the same way day in and day out. This is not a sophisticated peoples.

Anomic: Succinctly put, dead on the money.

I’m old enough to remember having to “visit” with the neighbours on their porch or ours; I hated it through the eyes of a child, but looking back, it was a nice part of life that helped weave the tapestry that was America.

Speaking of anomie, neighbours were very much a part of policing and parenting. If I stepped out of line within sight of a neighbour, you can bet my parents would hear about it, and if the behaviour was egregious enough, the beating might come directly from the neighbour with the post-event blessings of my parents. Somehow I survived that “brutal” world.

“Are we not men? We are post-collapse Americans!”

There’s a video for this … don’t use headphones … share!

I think one of the main problems is that America’s materialistic and work-obsessed culture renders random socializing dreadful. Most Americans hate their jobs, and yet one of the first things anyone ever asks at a social gathering is, “what do you do?”

Well, if one’s job isn’t especially meaningful or esteemed – which is most jobs – then it becomes taxing trying to come up with ways to evade such conversations or whitewash your lame job. I sometimes wonder if Americans’ growing aversion to human interactions stems from a subconscious fear of revealing themselves to be “losers.” I now consciously force myself to avoid asking questions about work, because I feel like this insane focus on work is making us miserable.

Also, great descriptions of the alley’s vibrant entrepreneurial culture. Despite its cult of capitalism and entrepreneurship, Americans are actually some of the least entrepreneurial people in the world. Very few are self-employed and self-sufficient, and most resort to working for big employers – the exact opposite of what Adam Smith would have wanted.

Meanwhile, in formerly Communist Vietnam, Smith’s vision of independent craftsmen and entrepreneurs is alive and well.

Having grown up in a small village of +/- 1000 dwellers I can say that there is some truth in the old saying that familiarity breeds contempt. Taunting, teasing and pranks become part of dayly life in a sort of never ending merry-go-round, with sensless waste of mental energy and time. I’m not fond of it.

Robert Putnam explained what happened.

Very bleak look at the US.

There are still a few bazaars left in the USA. Some are once a week some are thrice a week.
It takes nothing to find them.

Profound point here from Linh Dinh, about the joy of human interaction in ‘street life’, where that life is sufficiently gentle and non-threatening

There was, long ago, a somewhat distinctive version of that life in North America, the culture of the home ‘front porch’ or small veranda, in the pre-television era, when the ‘porch culture’ was enjoyed by all the middle classes

Where children played, and people walking about said hello to their neighbours sitting on their porches

That culture still exists in the black and Latino communities in the USA – in city areas often a bit rougher, one must admit – but the whites of North America have lost this

One still sees the remnants in the older North American middle-class home architecture, every house in a row down a street, graced by its small front porch veranda, with space for at least a couple of chairs, and often a small grassy lawn in front

But then the television came and it was all over for North American white folks … kudos to the Latinos and blacks for keeping some sense of that old type of ‘neighbourhood’, however imperfectly

The key persons responsible for the designing and building of Beijing’s Forbidden City were Cai Xin (蔡信) , Lu Xiang (陆祥), Kuai Xiang (蒯祥).

The long reply of 193 is for

Yet a man with supposed great knowledge and wolrd view such as glorifies and attributes the victories to the unique Vienamese sheer determination without any acknowledgement of many contributions from the ethnic Chinese and the military, finanacial and food aids China provided to Vietnam’s wars against France and US.

Btw, @ Linh Dinh, let’s get some of the facts straight: 1). The design of Beijing’s Fobidden City was a copy of the Nanjing Forbidden City (Ming Palace).

2)Key persons who were on historical records in supervising, designing, organiseing, coordinateing and building of Beijing’s Forbidden City were the followings:

- Chen Gui (泰宁侯陈珪，Marquis of Taining): Chief-in-charge from 1406 -1419 (till his death).

- Cai Xin (蔡信) : chief planner and designer, drew the blueprint of Forbidden City.

- Lu Xiang (陆祥): in charge of designing, calculating and implmenting the stone works

- Yang Qing (杨青) : responsible for mananging and carrying out the brick mason.

- Kuai Xiang (蒯祥): designed and participated the building of Beijing Forbidden City in later stage, Tiananmen (天安门) and Ming Emperor Tombs (十三陵,裕陵). At Palace Mueseum, there is a painting about inpection of the Fobidden City with Kuai Xiang in it (in red robe): http://img1.gtimg.com/cul/pics/hv1/61/35/2082/135391036.jpg.

The Kuai family and their fellowmen were from Xiangshan (香山) nearby Nanjing. The famous Xiangshan Group (香山帮) is wellknown for its architecture skills and stlyes, today there are still archteture/building firms from this area put “Xiangshan” as prefix before their firm’s names to show their pedigree.

- Wang Shun (王顺) and Hu Liang (胡良)：Master of painting, brushing and drawing on ceilings and columns.

- Others with names left on historical records: Jin Heng (金珩): master carpenter, Chen Guo (陈果), etc.

Yongle Emperor Zhu Di took Nanjing, ascended to the throne through ursurping and killed many who wouldn’t regard him as the legitimate ruler, Fang Xiaoru was one of the loyalists to the former emperor. He was killed when he refused to write the formal issue/announcement for Zhu Di’s ascending to the throne, not so dramtised as the way you put it.

From 1406, many craftmen from Nanjing and the South went to Beijing to prepare and build the new Forbidden City. 1420 it was complete. Then some of the front part was rebuilt due to fire and was rebuilt/repaired partially duing the next few hundreds of year under both Ming and Qing Emperors.

Ruan An (Nguyen An, 阮安) worked with Kuai Xiang (蒯祥) in rebuilding the front three Palace Halls which had been burnt. He was surely not one of the key original architects of Beijing’s Forbidden City as you and your compatriots claimed, but he was definitely the key player in building/re-fortifying gate towers and the moat around Beijing.

“We must realize that our party’s most powerful weapon is racial tensions. We will aid the Negroes to rise in prominence in every walk of life, in the professions and in the world of sports and entertainment. With this prestige, the Negro will be able to intermarry with the whites and begin a process which will deliver America to our cause.”

— (((Israel Cohen))), ”A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century”, 1912.
Also in the Congressional Record, Vol. 103, p. 8559, June 7, 1957]

source: https://www.darkmoon.me/2012/who-is-the-real-enemy-by-e-michael-jones/

On that tangent, has anyone been able to pin down Che Guava’s true sex, ethnicity, or country of origin? He/she/it has a habit of presuming to represent Japan in his/her/its comments, but his/her/its comprehension of written Japanese is very poor. I would not be surprised if he/she/it had no knowledge of the language at all and merely used Google Translate when pressed.

In any case, it is clear that his/her/its native language is neither Japanese nor English.