Charlie's Blog: 2026

4.12.2026

Stay In The Boat: The Siren Song Of Sedevacantism And The SSPX

For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.
MATTHEW 24:21-25 DOUAY-RHEIMS

And when he entered into the boat, his disciples followed him: And behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves, but he was asleep. And they came to him, and awaked him, saying: Lord, save us, we perish. And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up he commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm.
MATTHEW 8:23-26 DOUAY-RHEIMS

I am off the Ann Barnhardt train. I have deleted her feeds from my Inoreader. My first deletion was her memes blog that began to resemble the Nazi trash you see on Gab. I recently downloaded her podcast but decided I didn't care to listen to her anymore. This stems from her Benevacantist errors that have blossomed into what I consider a variation of sedevacantism. I also include her compatriots Dr. Mazza and Non Veni Mark Docherty in my purge. They all suffer from the inability to admit they got it wrong. I don't suffer from that inability.

There are two ways you can fall out of a boat. You can fall out of the boat on the port side (the left) or the starboard side (the right.) Similarly, one can fall out of the Barque of Peter on both the left with modernism or the right with traditionalism. It doesn't matter which side you pick because they both end up with you outside of the boat and losing the faith. You must stay in the boat. No matter what confusion may come, STAY IN THE BOAT!

It is important to remember this elementary advice because confusion is going to come. Confusion comes from the Devil, and he is really good at stirring it up. The ultimate goal of the sinister forces is to make you abandon the faith, die in a state of mortal sin, and burn in Hell with them for eternity. The remedy for confusion is simplicity. When you don't know what is going on, stay in the boat. Your patience will do you better than resorting to your own "wisdom" on these things.

1. Vatican II and the modernist heretics

Modernism blossomed as a thing all the way back in the 19th century. The one thing you have to understand about the left wing heretics is that they never leave the Church unless they are thrown out. They already have churches to their liking that they can join, but this does not interest them whatsoever. Their aim is to stay as long as possible in the Catholic Church making a mess of things. This mess reached its apex with Vatican II.

Vatican II was originally supposed to be a condemnation of communism and a declaration of Mary as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of All Graces. The modernists derailed that because they are fundamentally communists and push ecumenism at the cost of doctrine. Vatican II was ambiguous, and the modernists weaponized that ambiguity. The goal is to turn Roman Catholicism into something like the Lutheran or Anglican churches. When Pope Leo recently declared unity with the Anglicans and their new woman Archbishop of Canterbury, he wasn't wrong. The error is thinking he was speaking as a Catholic when he was actually speaking as a modernist.

What does a Roman Catholic do when the Pope says and does things that contradict the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church? Some opt to popesplain and argue that the Pope didn't say or do what he said and did. This violence to one's common sense is to maintain allegiance to the error of hyperpapalism which argues that the pope can never err on these things. Wanting to keep common sense and the hyperpapalist error, the sedevacantists argue that these popes are not valid popes. Somewhere, the Lord Jesus Christ let everything fall to pieces. God failed. You can see how this line of logic can lead someone to schism, heresy, and outright apostasy.

You will not find anything explicitly heretical in the documents of Vatican II. The errors come with how they are interpreted and applied. If you are familiar with how progressives have warped the US Constitution, you can see how easily modernists can do the same with church teachings. The key aim is to propagate the idea that church teachings are mutable. If they can be changed, they will be changed. This is the essence of the modernist heresy.

2. Sedevacantism

The sedes believe we haven't had a valid Pope since Pius XII. Those in the Benevacantist camp claim Benedict XVI as the last valid Pope. It doesn't matter where you draw the line because you end up in the same place. The original sedes already fight with each other, so it is no surprise that they will now add another camp to their numbers.

Once you go down the road of sedevacantism, you will lose the faith. You will doubt the validity of all the sacraments including ordinations. Inevitably, the Roman Catholic Church succumbs to the Gates of Hell with no way out. You are left with believing in a God that failed. It behooves a Catholic to ignore these schismatic heretics and keep the faith by staying in the boat. God can never fail and never will.

3. The SSPX

The SSPX and Marcel Lefebvre were the original schismatics. They make pains to say they are not sedevacantists except that is exactly what they are in practice. I think Archbishop Lefebvre was the good guy up to the moment he did the illicit consecrations and incurred an automatic excommunication. I won't get into the arguments about the "state of emergency" that the SSPX argue necessitated this disobedience. As I write this, the SSPX has doubled down with another threat to illicitly consecrate more bishops without papal mandate.

I think the SSPX will settle in a definitive way for all to see that they are schismatics. When they tell you to not go to any Masses except those at an SSPX chapel, they are schismatics. They even include the TLMs of the FSSP, the ICKSP, diocesan Latin Masses, and the rest. Essentially, if you are in communion with Rome and the Pope, this makes you a heretic in the eyes of the SSPX. I don't believe this.

I have never gone to any of the SSPX chapels for my obligation, and I don't listen to the apologists for the Society anymore. They are sedevacantists except in name in my opinion. I choose to err on the side of caution and refuse to cross the line into the territory of the RadTrads. Lefebvre should have been obedient and trusted God for the outcome.

Conclusion

I do believe the Roman Catholic Church is in crisis, but we have been here before. The answer remains the same. Stay in the boat. I am watching people jump out of the boat, and I know that this ends in the loss of the faith. It is sad to witness, but my only advice is to get deep into the history of the Church. As for tradition, I am on the side of those who cling to the timeless faith and love the Latin Mass. You can never go wrong promoting reverence for our Lord in the eucharist. I don't know what the future will bring, but I trust that God is still steering the ship. I oppose the modernist heretics, but I do this from the inside of the boat. God will bring a renewal in His good time. My job is to remain faithful to the Lord.

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The Sedevacantist Dead End

From Hyperpapalism to Catholicism. Guest: Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

Lefebvre's biggest mistake: Disobeying the Pope w/ John Salza

Schismatics, the SSPX, and Sedes (John Salza) | Ep. 383

Tradition, Canonical Authority & the SSPX: A Conversation with a Canon Lawyer

Godsplaining Reacts: What's the deal with the SSPX? A Catholic priest explains

Apostasy: Rome or the SSPX? | FORWARD BOLDLY

4.05.2026

Things I Had To Let Go

Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.
UNKNOWN

As I have gotten older, I have learned to let go of some things that I saw were holding me back. You can call these ideas or prejudices or what have you. But like the monkey who has been trapped by the nut in the bottle, escape comes when you let it go. Holding on to the thing can only lead to your demise. Here are some of those things I had to let go.

1. One size fits all. (One size fits most.)

The first thing I let go was the idea of "one size fits all." This came when I had my watch dilemma. I always wore a Timex Ironman for everything until the thing was gummed up with so much grime that it was no longer functional. I made the switch to the Casio F91W which became my beater watch. It covered 80% of what I needed in a watch, but I bought a G-Shock as my fitness watch because it had a better light for walking at night and a countdown timer. I bought another metal bracelet style watch to be my dress watch. Today, I own four of these watches that I trade out depending upon my needs for that day. None of them are gummed up with grime.

The secret to my problem was "one size fits most." 80% is the most that you should ever expect from a solution. Beyond that 80% is the breeding ground for new problems. We live in the smartphone era where people carry around a one size fits all product in their pockets. These things are a camera, internet browser, music player, game machine, a telephone and a texting device. Naturally, all of that utility is lost when the device hits the concrete really hard or when the software becomes dated turning the device into a brick. This is why people are now slowly adding back old school dedicated devices they used before smartphones. One of the most popular is an old fashioned paper notebook.

2. All you can eat. (Pay as you go.)

The buffet restaurant is a popular thing because it promises satisfaction for one's gluttony. If you actually pay attention, the trick is getting people to pay more to eat the same amount or slightly more than they would have eaten at a regular restaurant. This now extends to something like the streaming subscription service which was how Netflix put Blockbuster out of business. For one monthly fee, you can have all you can watch. No one logs how much they are actually watching. They just want the option of unlimited choices. Unfortunately, the content is lousy, and you end up subscribing to additional services for their unlimited choices. The result is that people spend more on streaming today ($126 billion) than they did on Blockbuster ($5 billion.)

I had Netflix for awhile when you got DVDs in the mail. It beat having to return a movie to Blockbuster and pay those dreaded late fees. Then, I saw the dust covered Netflix video that had turned into a coaster on the coffee table that I was paying for each month. That was a very expensive coaster. The reality was that I was not very interested in the content offerings on Netflix, but I was still paying for the option to watch their unlimited crap. I returned that unwatched DVD and cancelled the service. This is because I found that it was cheaper for me to buy the DVDs of the movies I was actually watching than renting the lousy movies I could potentially watch. I pay as I go now. I think I buy one DVD per year because they only make one good movie per year now. Everything else is available for free on Tubi, Pluto, and YouTube.

Paying as you go requires a certain level of self-awareness which most people lack. When my wife convinced me to cut cable TV, she simply pointed out that I barely watched TV. I was paying for the option instead of what I was actually watching. Many other people figured it out, too.

Gluttony in all its forms is expensive and wasteful. The better way is to learn your limits and then pay only for what you consume instead of what you potentially can consume.

3. Buy it for life. (Buy it for a long time.)

There is a reddit forum called "Buy It For Life." Someone quipped that it should be called "Buy It For A Long Time." The reality is that virtually nothing you buy can be expected to last for your entire life. That is an unreasonable expectation, but I have found that you can buy stuff that lasts for a decade or longer. My 30 year old clock radio is one of those items. My 20 year old Walkman is another. I have lots of clothes that are now old enough to go to college. I can't say that I am not satisfied with those purchases.

With inflation, it has gotten harder to buy quality stuff as companies cheap out on what they are making. Yet, my current flip phone is now fixing to eclipse my previous flip phone in the longevity department. My phones have to be upgraded when the network upgrades. If it wasn't for that, I could keep a phone for decades with a few battery swaps. I can't say that I am not satisfied with those purchases.

One of the things I have discovered by accident is that the cheaper products actually last longer. My Amana washing machine is still going five years later. It might finish out the decade. People who bought the pricey Samsung washing machines are not as happy. I can say the same thing for our decade old Magic Chef microwave. I have found that buying basic stuff is the key to buying it for a long time.

4. You get what you pay for. (You get what you research.)

Many people try to skip the research by paying a bunch of money for stuff thinking that quality automatically comes with a higher price tag. I have fallen into that trap a few times, and I have learned my lesson. Before you buy something, read the reviews first on the internet. Know what you are buying. I have found that quality stuff only costs a bit more than the cheap crap version.

5. New and improved. (Not always.)

Another trap people fall into is thinking that the newer version of a product is automatically better than the older version. The reality is that new and improved means they found a new way to make it cheaper by compromising on quality and covering it up with a slick package and marketing hype. iPhone devotees are discovering this now as the new and improved version is not worth the additional money they will have to spend on it. A few software upgrades can remedy this by making older devices slower forcing the upgrade. It makes me glad to own a flip phone.

6. Older is better. (Not always.)

When people get disgusted with new and improved, they go hard in the other direction by trying to replace everything with an older analog version. This would be replacing your laptop with a manual typewriter. The problem with this approach is that I have no way of publishing from the typewriter to this blog without having to type it over again on a computer. The reality is the typewriter thing has become a fetish for LARPers wanting to pretend they are Mickey Spillane or something.

Older is sometimes better like a physical book or a notebook. Other times, it isn't like with vinyl records or a paper map. It pays to know when an improvement is an improvement and when it isn't. I recommend reading the The Mid-Tech Manifesto to get an idea of how to navigate the old vs. new thing.

Conclusion

These are the things I had to let go. My life is better for letting them go. I will probably have to let go of some other things before I am done with this life. I will keep you posted when they happen.

3.29.2026

How We Got The Extreme Path Of Fitness

Whoever cultivates the golden mean avoids both the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace.
HORACE

The genesis of this post comes from the opening credits of Murder, She Wrote when Jessica Fletcher goes by riding her old school upright bicycle with the basket on the front. She is also seen jogging in old gray sweats. The show is from the 1980s and straddles the divide I see between fitness in the 1950s and the 1970s. This is when fitness evolved into the extreme path that I see today. This is in opposition to The Gentle Path I recommend. How did we get to the extreme path? And what has been the result of that extreme path?

1950s Fitness

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lady_on_a_bike_(Unsplash).jpg

Fitness in the 1950s was a basic affair. It was mostly people riding upright style bicycles as seen in the picture above with baskets, fenders, and a chain guard. Those bikes were utilitarian, practical, and comfortable. With a comfortable bicycle, you end up riding it more. It is a no-brainer. Similarly, people would go hiking or for long walks in the park. They built strength with mostly calisthenics in the style and philosophy of Jack LaLanne. Running was mostly for 2 miles or less to qualify for US Army fitness standards. People used canoes instead of kayaks. They gardened and did manual labor. Exercise and fitness were not taken as seriously as today.

The irony of those times was that the average fitness of the population was higher than today. The evidence for this were those US Army fitness standards that few recruits had trouble meeting in those days. Fast forward to our time, and you see those recruits struggling to meet the standards even after they have been dumbed down. How did we get here? I think we got here because fitness turned extreme.

1970s Fitness

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robin_Hood_10-speed_bike.jpg

I remember as a kid in middle school upgrading from my Huffy BMX bike to my old man's old school upright bike. It had the fenders, the chain guard, the 3 speed hub, and normal handlebars. I was too short for the thing at the time, but I still managed to ride it. It was embarrassing because it was an old man's bike. In hindsight, I realize that bike was simply awesome. I was too young and dumb to appreciate it at the time.

I got a department store 10 speed bike later, and it was cooler than the old man bike. I could count on my hands going numb and my shoulders aching as I rode hunched over the drop handlebars. My pants would get caught in the chain and the gear because it didn't have a guard on it. All of the dirt and mud would fly up on me from the lack of fenders. Riding the thing was miserable, but it was OK because I had a "real" bicycle. When I got a mountain bike in my 20s, it was no better than that 10 speed bike. Both bikes were uncomfortable and impractical. As a consequence, I rode them hardly at all and got rid of them.

The change in popular bikes is the best example I have of the change in the mindset of people from the 1950s to the 1970s. The 10 speed was sportier and more athletic. The average Joe could pretend to be a Tour de France rider. When the fantasy wore off, he was stuck with a bike unfit to ride on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the new mindset stuck. This was the extreme path of fitness.

The 1970s was when the bodybuilding craze got going along with the running boom. People like Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Lee entered the popular imagination and became fitness icons to a generation. Marathon training replaced walking. Bench pressing replaced push ups. And being lean took a backseat to getting ripped. For those willing to take this new extreme path, there were results. For everyone else, they threw in the towel and chose to watch the athletes on TV while eating chips on the couch.

The extreme path continued after the 1970s with the Ironman Triathlon, the ultramarathon, and CrossFit. The average fitness of people today in the USA is dismally low as the extremity of fitness has increased. Compare this to the average fitness of people in Denmark which is very high. People blame technology, but I think the cause is cultural. Denmark didn't embrace extreme fitness like the USA did. Those Danes still ride their upright bikes and do other sorts of common physical activities like the USA did in the 1950s.

When you take something that is fun and feels good and turn it into something like torture, people don't want to do it anymore. so they don't. It's popular to castigate these people as lazy fat asses, but that ignores the obvious cause of the fitness decline. People have lost the common sense that comes from moderation. Why must gain always come with pain?

The Way Back

I don't care to ride a bike now because of my brain injury. My balance is poor, and I would probably smash my head again. But if I did ride a bike again, it would be one of those old school upright bikes I mentioned. Comfort is key. The same is also true of a canoe versus a kayak. I remember wanting to get into sea kayaking at one time in my twenties. That was stupid. I would have flipped over in the water and drowned. But I could paddle a canoe.

I think the way back requires a change in the mindset of the general public. The extreme path appeals to a person's vanity. The gentle path requires humility. You have to desire modesty in your fitness. You have to actually want to enjoy your physical activities as opposed to punishing yourself.

One of the things that has helped me is to see the extreme fitness people as complete idiots.  I remember an iconic photo that I won't post here of a distance runner who had massive diarrhea during his race, but he completed the race with fecal matter covering his leg. For some people, they admired his dedication to completing the event. For me, I think it was utterly stupid.

One of the things I miss is seeing the senior citizens walking the mall. Many had scheduled walks early in the morning before the stores opened where these folks could get in their steps without battling the weather. I don't know if that exists now as malls have been overtaken by hood rats. But the mall walkers epitomized the gentle path I recommend.

The other thing I miss seeing is old school calisthenics like we did in PE class back in school. For some reason, people think they need heavy weights and a gym membership to build strength. With calisthenics, you can get strong at a price you can afford-->FREE! And they work. I've seen senior citizens go from being crippled to being mobile again with simple bodyweight exercises. Many of them are done while sitting in a chair.

The last thing I applaud is people doing manual labor like cleaning their homes, mowing their lawns, or tending their gardens without paying professionals to do this work for them. It has been lost on people that physical labor is good exercise. Instead, they pay someone to do their labor while they pay a gym to go be a gerbil on their wheels. This is crazy.

I think the gentle path has the added benefit of being something someone can actually stick to doing. I have walked more miles as a fitness walker than I ever ran as a jogger. The secret was that I enjoyed those walks. I don't recall ever enjoying a run. The only pleasure in running is stopping.

The last thing I want to include is a warning. The extreme path mindset creeps back in if you are not aware of it. I call this "Failed Runner Syndrome." This is when you compulsively log your steps on your fitness tracker and upload it to Strava. This is vanity. With it comes the compulsion to walk a certain number of steps each day and to increase those steps. It becomes a game of more more MORE. The secret to the gentle path of fitness is knowing when to quit. Those extremists didn't know when to quit.

Conclusion

I don't know of anyone who is pushing back on the extreme path of fitness culture. There are people who walk for fitness and do calisthenics, but they never speak out against the extremism. Maybe they don't want to be negative, but I think it would help if more people sounded off about this topic. It is always the folks on the extreme ends of a topic who speak with the loudest voices. I think those on the middle path of moderation need to speak up more in defense of common sense. 

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Fitness In The 1950s Was...Different

Get Physical in 1950s - Getting Ready Physically (1951) - CharlieDeanArchives / Archival Footage

1974: MUSCLE MANIA - Inside a '70s Gym | Open Door | Voice of the People | BBC Archive

The unexpected benefits of an upright Dutch bike

UPDATE #1: I saw this article recently and had to chuckle:

LA Marathon Runners Given Option to Receive Medals Before Finishing the Race: ‘If They’ve Had a Tough Day’

I thought about scouring the combox for the juicy comments, but they are redundant. This dumbing down of the marathon is a symptom of the extreme path of fitness. People want the trophy and the medal, but they don't want the suffering that goes with it. Most of the derisive comments are directed towards the "weakness" and "softness" of the people that just want the participation reward. I am actually on the side of those people who don't want to run a full marathon or even run at all. I think marathon running is utterly stupid. Go for a walk instead and forget about trying to get recognition for your efforts or pretend to be a competitive athlete. This is vanity.

Our culture has trained entire generations to do this stupid stuff. I suspect that most of these people will return to their couches regardless of what they did in the marathon. You are either a masochist or a slug. There is nothing in between those extremes.

The combox comments castigate the people that don't finish the entire distance, but I save my derision for the 90% of the participants who filled out the entry form and paid the fee who will take 3 to 5 hours to cover the distance. The reason they hand out the participation trophies is to get these slowpokes off of the race course. Otherwise, these idiots will just keep tying everything up in desperation to not be labelled as quitters. This is also why I am against fitness walkers participating in the local 5K to satisfy their failed runner syndrome. YOU ARE NOT AN ATHLETE! Get over it.

UPDATE #2: In 1960, President John F. Kennedy issued a warning to Americans:

“A single look at the packed parking lot of the average high school will tell us what has happened to the traditional hike to school that helped to build young bodies. The television set, the movies and the myriad conveniences and distractions of modern life all lure our young people away from the strenuous physical activity that is the basis of fitness in youth and in later life,” wrote Kennedy.

Inspired by a challenge from Teddy Roosevelt to his Marines to cover 50 miles in less than 20 hours over three days, JFK issued a similar challenge in 1963, and this became the genesis of the JFK 50 Miler. It was essentially a hike or march with a military bearing in mind. The president's brother Robert took up the challenge, did the 50 miles wearing Oxford dress shoes, and completed the challenge in 17 hours and 50 minutes.

The 50 miler began as a walking event. Somewhere, it morphed from being a hike in the spirit of fitness from the 1950s to a foot race in the extreme fitness spirit of the 1970s. Today, the JFK 50 Miler is a running event and not a walking event and is considered the oldest ultramarathon in America. The original aim of the event was lost.

There are some walkers who have taken back the original spirit of the 50 mile challenge with events that are aimed at walkers and not runners. These videos show the contrast between walking and running this distance.

Kennedy 50 Mile Walk - 2023

Either PR or ER

These two videos show the contrast that I am talking about. I find the walking version more pleasant and appealing.

UPDATE #3: I would be remiss if I didn't include this video of bodybuilders versus a construction worker on a strength test:

Construction Worker Vs Bodybuilders

Muscles for working beat steroid fueled muscles for aesthetics. How do you get those work muscles? You get them from old fashioned work. Physical labor is something else we lost since the 1950s. We need to bring that back, too.

3.22.2026

Clickbait Fatigue

 I came. I saw. You won't believe what happened next!
JULIUS CAESAR AS A CLICKBAITER

I am not into clickbait either as a writer or as a reader. I grew up reading the newspaper where the headline and first sentence of a news article got to the kernel of the story. If you wanted more details, you kept reading. You could break off at any point and still be reasonably informed. The strategy behind this structure was that they already had your attention because you were holding the paper in your hand. The next step was to deliver as quickly as possible on that purchase. If they didn't, you might switch to another newspaper.

Today, people don't buy newspapers. They read headlines and click on the ones that interest them. Or, they don't click at all. Website publishers are desperate for those clicks because they generate ad revenue. Everything is geared to get the reader to follow through on a click. If the vital information is already contained in the headline, the reader may opt to not click. So, we get the baited headline that stirs curiosity. The reader clicks through and often scrolls to the bottom of the article to satisfy the curiosity. The article goes unread, but it doesn't matter. The website got its click. For the rest of us, we are annoyed at the abuse of our attention.

This failure to deliver on the vital information extends to YouTube videos and is so bad that people in the combox timestamp when the YouTuber gets to the information that you want. I remember one video that never delivered on the clickbait. These people love to waste your time and attention.

The most annoying aspect is when the clickbait enters the real world of our conversations. This would be the friend that leaves a clickbait voice message or text message saying something just happened. Please call me, so I can waste a few hours of your life talking about what amounts to nothing. The other thing is when someone talks to you and asks you to play the guessing game in an annoying attempt to stoke your attention. I am so fatigued with this crap that I immediately ignore these people.

These folks don't see that the internet is socializing them to be this way. They spend too much time on social media such that it has warped their social skills in a negative way. My way is like a newspaper. I give you the headline. I deliver the details. I don't waste your time trying to milk your attention. Most people ignore me, and I am fine with that. I am not a whore for attention.

This, Gentle Reader, is just another data point in my argument for why you need to get offline and live like a real human being again. If you have noticed the erosion of social skills in the general population, you are most likely part of the problem. Get off your phone and come up for air.

3.15.2026

The Errors Of The Catholic Land Movement

New York is a rat race, and the rats are winning.
OLIVER DOUGLAS, Green Acres

I am not a fan of the old Green Acres TV show, but I do remember Oliver Douglas leaving his conventional life in the city for the more intentional life of being a farmer in the country. I think living more intentionally is laudable. People yearn for a simpler life, and life in the country promises that simplicity.

This return to an agrarian way of life has had many flavors. You have the Amish who live much like they did in previous centuries. You have right wing conservatives who homestead as a way of prepping for social collapse. You have hippies who took inspiration from The Whole Earth Catalog and Mother Earth News. I have seen agrarian movements among Protestants and the Orthodox. Then, there is the creature known as the Catholic Land Movement.

CLM adherents tend to be traditionalist Catholics favoring the Latin Mass and reverent forms of piety. They tend to have large families, and their desire to return to the land comes from a wish to spend more time with those families while also feeding them. What could be wrong with that? The problem is that many who obey the call to return to the land find the dream does not match the reality. They make critical errors that doom them to failure. These are the errors I see in the Catholic Land Movement.

1. G.K. Chesterton was a city slicker and a socialist.

When you listen to Catholic Land Movement speakers, you will hear G.K. Chesterton's name and quotations repeated. I think it is safe to say that Chesterton is the intellectual father of the CLM and Distributism. The problem with Chesterton is that he never actually practiced what he preached. He never farmed or milked a cow or even had children. Why does this matter? Men such as this are detached from the reality of what they are advocating. I am a big believer in empirical data which means getting your hands dirty with the actual doing of the thing and not merely the teaching of the thing. Those who actually have taken up the call to return to the land report a different experience after the shine of the fantasy has worn off.

It was Timothy Gordon who pointed out that Chesterton was a Fabian socialist and argues that Distributism is essentially a socialist system at its core. I agree with Gordon. On paper, Distributism sounds splendid with its advocacy of widespread property ownership. The problems come when trying to create that order of widespread property ownership. This is when Distributism becomes redistributism which is utterly socialist.

Why does this matter? Socialism is an unworkable fantasy. History is replete with what happens with socialism with the advocates excusing its failure by saying the socialism wasn't done the right way. From my perspective, Distributism is an attempt to do socialism the right way. I don't think such a right way can ever exist.

Because of Chesterton, the Catholic Land Movement amounts to a sales job for a load of shit. Don't listen to the salespeople. Listen to the people who have actually done it. These people find out why people left the farm for city life. City life is less work and smells better.

2. Meat, dairy, and eggs are bad for your health and wallet.

I went on a plant based diet back in 2012 and have remained on it to the present day. I am happy to report that you will not starve to death abstaining from meat, dairy, and eggs. Your health will improve, and your grocery bill will decrease. People who adhere to meat based eating will disagree, but these folks are not reading the information that made me switch to this way of eating. Like most idiots, they read the information that confirms and reaffirms their bias instead of looking at the empirical data. What does this have to do with the Catholic Land Movement?

Whenever I see anything involving a Catholic homesteader, it involves meat. CLM advocates love beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs, cheese, and on and on. After the Chestertonian propaganda at a CLM conference, the next most popular topic involves butchering meat. I think it is safe to say that CLM people are meatheads. That love of meat and animal products is the Achilles heel of their movement.

Raising livestock for food is labor intensive and expensive. You can neglect your vegetable garden in the winter, but your animals have to keep eating. To feed those animals, you have to either grow feed or buy feed for those animals. This amounts to buying groceries to feed to your groceries. I think this is just utterly stupid. I still can't wrap my brain around the economics of this. As vegan advocates point out, it is cheaper (and more ethical) to feed the grain to humans than to cattle for the sake of eating filet mignon. Whether you agree or disagree with those tree hugging hippie types, they make a valid point. Meat eats up resources and real estate. Feeding cows and pigs takes way more food than feeding your kids. The acreage needed for a vegetable garden to feed a family is small in comparison to the acreage needed to feed livestock.

What is the result of this meat focused agrarianism? This would be poor health and poverty. On a personal level, raising and eating meat is unsustainable. Whenever I see someone doing this sort of thing, I always want to see the numbers which would be the ledger book for their finances and the numbers for their blood work.

The bottom line is that meat is a luxury. In our current first world existence, this truth is anathema. Yet, historically, meat was consumed only on special occasions and not three times a day in the present world. The portions were also much smaller. Meat was not a staple. Grains and legumes were the staples and were the fuel for civilization. Wheat, rice, barley, oats, and potatoes are the fuel for humanity. When old farms had an animal, it usually had a plow behind it.

Now, I am a Roman Catholic, and people ask me why I follow a vegan diet thinking I have a religious reason for doing so. My diet is not tied to my religion, but it is not in conflict with it either. The fact is that vegetarianism has existed for centuries among monastic orders especially those following the Rule of Saint Benedict. This vegetarianism was mainly for mortification, but you can see how growing vegetables in gardens would serve as a more sustainable way of feeding monks and nuns than raising pigs and cows. This has been very successful for them. Unlike the failed Catholic Land Movement of Great Britain from a century ago, I think this monastic vegetarian model represents a more sustainable way to go for Catholics wanting to get back to the land.

Do I think Catholic homesteaders will abandon meat farming? Of course not. This usually comes after the bank forecloses on the land or someone has a coronary event. Either way, you end up in the same place. I prefer choices over consequences.

3. Mortgages and debt are homestead killers.

I am always amazed to hear homesteaders and CLM people who buy their property, supplies, and equipment with debt. That, Gentle Reader, is a recipe for disaster. Many of the farmers who went bust in the Great Depression did so as a consequence of being unable to repay their debts on homes, barns, tractors, land, and seed. This doesn't get discussed enough. If your homesteading dream requires financing, you need to let it go. You might tolerate a crop failure and bad weather, but the bank expects to get paid. It behooves you to own your stuff versus renting the money from the bank for that stuff.

4. Your adult children ain't staying to work the homestead.

Another factor that dooms the CLM is the lack of a retirement plan. Like it or not, people keep living long after their productivity has declined because of age, illness, and injury. The belief amongst trad Catholics is that their large number of children will stick around and provide the labor needed for their "golden" years. This is utterly laughable. It assumes two things. The first is that they will want to spend their years slaving away on the farm to keep feeding you. The second is that these adult children will not have their own large families to feed and support. There is a reason many left the farms for the factories and big city life. That reason has not changed.

This is also another reason to stick to backyard vegetable gardening. The garden is much kinder to the older person than working animals. Plus, you are more likely to live to be older eating plants instead of animals.

5. The Catholic Land Movement is more about the philosophy (and the fantasy) than the practicality of growing your own food.

The honest fact is that the hippie homesteaders do better than Catholic homesteaders when it comes to living off the land. Part of that comes from hippies being less meatcentric and more reality based in their strategies. Catholic Land Movement people strike me as LARPers living a fantasy on a crash course with reality. I have learned to not listen to these Chestertonians as they smoke their pipes and talk about living life in the "shire." If you want to know the real story, ask their wives and children who have to endure the fantasy they didn't choose.

Conclusion

I am 100% for living a more intentional and simpler lifestyle in conformity with your values. This is why I can agree with the desires of the Catholic Land Movement. I just disagree with the strategy. I believe in reality based strategies over fantasy based strategies. The Catholic Land Movement amounts to fighting a just war against a modern foe carrying a broadsword and dressed in a suit of armor. Until these LARPers get a clue, their movement is doomed.

*****************

The Catholic Farm, in My Dreams and in Reality

Vegetarian sister

What Medieval Monks Ate: The Basic Monastic Diet and Special Treats

How Much to Plant for a Year’s Worth of Food

89 year old Nonno garden tour

Nonno's Epic Garden Tour 2025 | See What He's Growing!

Homegrown Revolution (Award winning short-film 2009)- The Urban Homestead, Dervaes

3.08.2026

Confessions Of A Twitter X Escapee

Here is Cardinal Sarah’s argument in a nutshell: Shut up. Seriously, just shut up.
ERIC SAMMONS

Eric Sammons is taking a break from his Twitter X addiction:

I took a break from 𝕏. Here’s what happened.

Sammons learned a few things with this break, but he is not about to break up with the platform. His issues mirror my own struggles with the platform:

Post Twitter Homesick Blues

That post from 2015 ranks as the most popular item on this blog. If I had known it would become so popular, I would have put more effort into what I wrote on it. I remember writing it originally in frustration over my addiction, and I was just ranting. But I touched a nerve back then that persists today.

I am happy to say that people are now fully aware of the hazards and harmful effects of social media (the crack) and the smartphone (the crack pipe.) Entire countries are moving or contemplating a move to ban kids from social media. On an individual level, people are trying to break free from the social media addiction. That takes me back to Mr. Sammons.

Sammons recognizes the problem, but he is not going to do anything to fix the problem. He is at the stage that I call "bargaining." This is where you think a strategy of habit modification will allow you to harness the benefits of social media without the downsides. THIS NEVER WORKS. It didn't work for me when I tried it. It doesn't work for anyone else either.

Delete your social media accounts. Trade out your smartphone for a dumbphone. This works. The problem with Mr. Sammons is that he feels the need to self-promote his content on Twitter X and respond to the events of the day. He has the same problem as a friend of mine who wants to go back to using a flip phone, but his job won't allow it. Personally, I don't buy this excuse.

The real issue people need to address is FOMO. They can't disconnect from the online world. The sad thing is that these idiots have disconnected from the real world. Just the other day, I watched a man crossing the street in my town at great peril to himself as he had his face buried in his smartphone. He couldn't even put the thing down long enough to not risk getting creamed by a potential distracted driver playing on their phone behind the wheel. This is the insanity of our world now.

The online world of social media is not the real world. It is an alternative existence that has similar effects to a mind altering drug. And it has real world consequences such as the tweet posted in a heated moment that costs you your reputation and career. It had real world consequences for me as a distracted driver put me in the hospital. I am still angry over that.

I love the internet, and I wondered why I have a positive experience with the internet now. I think Cal Newport nailed it with his distinction between the social internet and social media. The social internet is what existed before Facebook. This would be blogs and personal websites. This blog is part of that social internet. I have never wanted to be free of this blog. It has been a big part of my life for the last 20+ years. Publishing on a weekly basis has helped calm down my worst impulses as it gives me time to think carefully about what I am writing and posting. This doesn't happen on social media.

Cal Newport has never had a social media account. Yet, he has reached his audience using the old fashioned social internet. I suspect Mr. Sammons knows about Cal Newport because he mentioned "deep work" which is a Cal Newport book and concept. I recommend that Sammons find a way to engage without using social media. If a comp sci prof can do it, why can't a Catholic writer and editor?

Another issue is the definition of social media. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are definitely social media. Blogs, YouTube, Spotify, and reddit are not. What makes a platform social media is the engagement and the manipulation. YouTube is simply television. Spotify is the radio. Reddit is the old internet messageboard from the 1990s. Blogs and websites are the newspapers and magazines of this generation. Social media has no analog to older media. It isn't a movie theater but a gambling casino. The fact that these social media companies consulted with folks from Vegas to make their platforms more addictive is very telling.

I found Eric Sammons's article through an old but true method--the email newsletter. I didn't find it on Twitter X. Email, RSS, and Google News are how I find my content. I don't miss anything that is happening in the world. I don't have FOMO. The truth is that I usually know the news first and with more details than anyone using social media. What I do miss is a controversy on Twitter X that amounts to nothing. The social media platforms create the news now. Many news stories you read on websites amounts to copying and pasting social media shitposting. Our current president is a shitposter-in-chief. This is what passes for discourse in our age now.

I don't know if the world will reject social media and smartphones on a large scale. But no one who uses these things can deny that they are worse off for it. People still smoke, so I don't expect this widespread addiction to end anytime soon. I do expect to see more people escaping this addiction. I hope Mr. Sammons can turn his break into a breakup.

**********

Back to textbooks: Denmark rolls back digital learning

Cal Newport

On Social Media and Its Discontents

Digital Minimalism

Dumbphones

3.01.2026

The Gomer Pyle Rule

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
GOMER PYLE

I am not a fan of the Gomer Pyle TV show. I loved watching Andy Griffith, but that did not carry over to Gomer's spin off show. I find Gomer Pyle to be annoying and like nails on a chalkboard. I don't see the humor in his idiocy, and I felt great sympathy for Sergeant Carter for having to deal with this dumbass. But Gomer did have one stroke of genius. This was the Gomer Pyle Rule.

Basically, people have one chance to screw you. When you trust people, you are gambling on their character. You are not always going to win on this. Some people have to screw you like the proverbial scorpion on the frog's back. It is their nature. The best you can do is minimize the harm by not giving them a second chance. Even an idiot like Gomer Pyle knew not to do this.

What people fail to recognize is that you have to work to not get fooled the first time. For some reason, bad people think they are owed that first chance. It is like a "freebie" they deserve. I know people like this who just go around screwing people who don't know any better. When you question them on their integrity, they get very defensive. But they are going to screw you. They can't not screw you.

So much of what our society is today is adhering to the Gomer Pyle Rule. Those reviews on Amazon and other places can make you or break you. The sad thing is that many crooks have taken to buying the brands and reputations of other companies, products, and services in order to get around the Gomer Pyle Rule. Private equity firms are notorious for this sort of thing.

On a personal level, I have learned to cut people out of my life in accordance with the Gomer Pyle Rule. Some people have screwed me. Others never got the chance to screw me. Every single one of those people believe themselves to be innocent, trustworthy, and above reproach. This is because the biggest fool they deceive are themselves.

As for your own reputation, you are at the mercy of any fool with a mouth or a keyboard. I have learned to let it roll off me like water off a duck's back. I find that my detractors are people I refuse to let screw me or others. If they talked bad about Jesus, you're not escaping the same treatment.

As for forgiveness, I forgive everyone because I wish to be forgiven. That doesn't require me to be stupid. There is no virtue in allowing yourself to be deceived. I definitely believe in being as wise as a serpent, and the first step in that is adhering to the Gomer Pyle Rule. Gomer Pyle was an idiot, but he was no fool. He learned from his mistakes. You should, too.

2.22.2026

Q & A

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. 
JAMES THURBER

Here is a Q & A post with various questions that I have gathered from many sources. I give my best answers.

Q: Should I dumb down my smartphone?

A: I would tell everyone that you are better off with a dumbphone, and you should get rid of your smartphone. Unfortunately, some people have jobs that require the digital leash of a smartphone. I would strongly consider quitting that job. If you can't quit that job, you should make them pay for the phone and the phone bill. I would keep a private phone that was a dumbphone.

If you have a smartphone, you need to dumb it down. The best way to do this is by getting rid of your social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, etc.) and deleting the apps for the social media. Social media is the number one distracting element on a smartphone. Most workplaces require email access, but I don't know of anyone who is addicted to their email account. You should only have apps on the phone required for the job.

If you make the switch to a dumbphone or a dumbed down smartphone, you will immediately become the most productive employee in your workplace. You will be the only one not wasting time on smartphone distractions. It might even catch on, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Q: Should I cut the cord on cable and switch to streaming?

A: You should cut the cord on both cable and paid streaming services. They are both expensive wastes of time and money. But if you have to choose, I think cable is the better deal as these streaming services are as expensive as cable now. The streaming services also have ads just like cable. And they have the nasty habit of ending a program you like before you have watched it all. We are at the stage where subscribers to streaming are expressing buyer's remorse and yearning for the return to cable and Blockbuster video.

Where cable shines is sports. No one watches sports on a recorded basis but live as it happens. Streaming has the advantage of convenience as you can watch programming when you want on your schedule. This is not true for sports. Consequently, you should decide which is cheaper for watching those sports. I don't watch sports at all, so I don't care to do the deep research on this topic.

OAB TV is an option, but the broadcasters are too busy immolating themselves with a push for ATSC 3.0 and schemes for charging people for the content they now watch for free. Basically, they want to turn broadcast TV into cable TV. I won't pay for that.

Q: Are you a Luddite?

A: No, I am not a Luddite. I am someone who is not a technophile which is someone who believes that all tech is good and demands your submission to the constant cycle of upgrades. The reality is that tech has turned into a scam that doesn't improve your life but drains more money from your wallet. Believe it or not, you don't have to put up with this crap. I know I don't. This is when I get called a Luddite. It is better to be a Luddite than a sucker.

Q: What do you do with a bad pope?

A: You can pray for his repentance. You can call him out in person or in the media. Other than that, you can do nothing. This rankles many people especially those Catholics who converted from a background in Protestantism. The reality is that the Roman Catholic Church is not a democracy. Conversely, most democracies have the same deficiency of having bad leaders. It is my belief that God allows bad leaders in both the Church and the political realm as a chastisement. We endure these bad leaders and offer it up. In season and out of season, we are called to be faithful to the Lord.

Q: What do you think of Substack?

A: I don't care to publish on Substack at this time as this blog fulfills all of my publishing needs. I do read various Substacks through my email account, but I pay for none of the content there. If it is free, it is for me. If I have to pay, no way, Jose!

If I published on Substack, I know I would make little to nothing. I would have to offer my content for free, but I already do that here on this blog. But I will keep a note for future consideration if Google ever pulls the plug on this platform.

Q: Why did men stop wearing hats?

A: I don't think men actually stopped wearing hats. I think they stopped wearing certain styles of hats such as those with wide brims and high crowns. This would be the fedora and the cowboy hat. Men still wear baseball caps and watch caps. I think the reason for this shift is the automobile. These brimmed high crown hats obstruct your vision a bit and get crushed into the roof of the vehicle. With a baseball cap or a watch cap, this isn't an issue. I usually remove my cap and put it under my leg when I don't wear it in a vehicle. Boonie hats are also good in this situation because they can be rolled up, folded, or what have you. Basically, any hat that can be crushed and permanently disfigured is going to suffer a loss of popularity. Men care more for practicality than fashion.

Q: Why did Columbo always wear that raincoat?

A: Despite living in sunny Southern California, Lt. Columbo knew that weathermen sucked at weather forecasting, so he always came prepared for the rain. I made that up because I am never prepared for the rain because of the horrible forecasts I get now. I just keep an umbrella handy at all times.

Q: Should parents buy smartphones for their kids?

A: Absolutely not. Parents who get smartphones for their kids are idiots. Many of the pathologies you see with kids today stem from the overuse of tech. Then, there is the smut you can see on these phones. Since the parents have the same tech, they should know better and are without excuse. Smart parents get their kids dumbphones that can only talk and text. When parents do the smart thing, they will get kids with unpolluted minds, valuable social skills, improved grades at school, and greater physical fitness. I am an adult with a flip phone, and I live just fine without a smartphone. I have resisted that tech for over a decade now, and I am better off for it.

Q: Who was better--Roth or Hagar?

A: Sammy Hagar was the better singer, but David Lee Roth was the better showman. I prefer the Roth fronted version of Van Halen, and I think the reason they rocked so hard was because Roth's limited vocal range put a restriction on Eddie Van Halen's songwriting. He needed that restriction. With Hagar, Eddie turned Van Halen into a pop band. This sold way more albums, but I think they lost the loyal fan base. I believe that the soul of creativity comes from limitation.

Q: What do you think of Thorogood work boots?

A: They might be the best work boots ever made, but I will never know because I can't afford them. I am happy with my Georgia Giants until they become unaffordable, or they cheap out on the quality to an intolerable level.

Q: Why are Yeti products so expensive?

A: I think this quotation from Inc. nails it:

“People are really passionate about their hobbies — whether it’s college kids who use our coolers for tailgating or hunters and fishers. All of those groups are willing to pay extra money for products that will last,” Roy Seiders says. “They wouldn’t be caught dead with cheap gear because they identify with quality brands. It can be hard to gain the trust of consumers, but once you do, it becomes very powerful.” 

Yeti is a lifestyle brand. Their customers are idiots and suckers. Yeti did for coolers and other products what Apple did for tech. You build a cult of dupes and drain them dry of every last penny. People aren't paying for the product. They are paying for the logo and the name. The expense of the product only enhances the value of that branding.

How YETI Was Invented

Guys with a YETI

$40 YETI Bucket vs Generic Bucket

YETI vs Coleman Cooler

YETI Guys vs. Normal Guys

Are YETI products over rated?

Q: Is writing a hobby?

A: That depends on if you are any good at it. For me, it is not a hobby because I am actually good at writing. A hobby for me would be making music or painting pictures because I am not good at that stuff.

I define a hobby as the serious pursuit of a worthless activity. If you're not good at something, this makes it a worthless activity. I still do worthless activities like playing the kazoo, but I don't do them seriously. That determination is usually financial. If I bought a keyboard, that might be serious.

Q: How much traffic do you get on the blog?

A: Once upon a time, I could have told you. Now, I suspect the traffic is all coming from AI spambots. A better measure of traffic would be an active combox except I don't use comboxes anymore because I can't manage them. The traffic number of actual human readers is now a mystery. The upside is that not knowing keeps me humble.

Q: What would you do if you won the lottery?

A: I would do what I do now. It wouldn't change my life at all. I can't think of a time in my life when it would have changed my life. This is because I don't think this world has anything to offer.

I think buying a lottery ticket is great entertainment. You get to fantasize about what it would be like to win. I have run that thought experiment many times in my head over the years, and I keep coming back to not caring about it at all. There's nothing I care to buy or own. If I was homeless and destitute, I would just want the life I already have now.

I would not turn down those lottery winnings. I am not that crazy or stupid. I just wouldn't spend it. I would just invest that money and keep shopping at Goodwill.

Q: Is there anything you regret not doing when you were younger now that you are old and busted up?

A: This question comes from the recently deceased Charlie Munger who said that if there was anything you want to do in life you better do it before you hit your nineties. For him, it was catching some particular fish on a deep sea fishing trip. I prefer to skip the seasickness.

The other inspiration for this question came from this Joshua Becker blog post:

That Thing You’ve Always Wanted to Do

Becker wrote about wanting to do a repeat on running a marathon. I think running marathons is stupid. That whole post is one big exercise in the vanity of carpe diem. I've had adventures in my youth, and they were enough to make me not want to have any more of them. The truth is that most of my regrets come from things I did in my youth and not the things undone.

I did have one minor regret that I don't have anymore. I used to regret not playing high school football. Now, I want to ban high school football which I call "Concussion Ball." 

I never ran a marathon, hiked the Appalachian trail, scaled Everest, or did any of the bucket list items that I clearly will never do now that I am old and busted up. The truth is that I never cared to do those things. I would rather go for a walk and look at birds from the back step of the house. I think you have to be old and busted up to appreciate those things. Those other vanity things amount to enduring misery for the sake of bragging rights which is the obsession of office workers with impostor syndrome.

I don't have impostor syndrome because I worked a blue collar job. I have endured a lifetime of misery and danger to know who I am. I don't need to run a marathon.

That's it for this edition of Q & A. Stay tuned for future editions.

2.15.2026

The Process Matters

Taking a trip for six months, you get in the rhythm of it. It feels like you can go on forever doing that. Climbing Everest is the ultimate and the opposite of that. Because you get these high-powered plastic surgeons and CEOs, and you know, they pay $80,000 and have Sherpas put the ladders in place and 8,000 feet of fixed ropes and you get to the camp and you don’t even have to lay out your sleeping bag. It’s already laid out with a chocolate mint on the top. The whole purpose of planning something like Everest is to effect some sort of spiritual and physical gain and if you compromise the process, you’re an asshole when you start out and you’re an asshole when you get back.
YVON CHOUINARD

The process matters. That was the conclusion reached on a podcast with Yvon Chouinard. One of the podcasters brought up the infamous story of the way Tim Ferriss won a karate championship by doing a sumo move where he just pushed people out of the ring resulting in a victory by disqualification. Basically, Ferriss exploited a loophole to "win." It didn't matter that he skipped learning karate. He had found a hack to accomplish the goal. In today's world, the end justifies the means as people find every shortcut to get what they want. But we all know that people like Tim Ferriss and others like him are cheating themselves.

Now, I love a good tip or technique that makes life easier. Yvon Chouinard does, too, as he finds the simplest way to fly fish or make a good product. Is this the same as a Tim Ferriss hack? I don't think so. Much of the process involves discovering what works and doesn't work. Ferriss skips this process altogether.

This point has increased in importance as we now live in the age of AI where college students use ChatGPT to write their term papers, and Kim Kardcashian uses ChatGPT to cheat on the bar exam she failed. AI is the ultimate hack, and you can see how all of the fakers in government and corporate management are salivating at the prospects of the new technology. The guy with the fake degree from a diploma mill never has to worry about being caught and identified as a liar and a dumbass. People without intelligence or talent don't need to fret about how to write blog posts or make YouTube videos. AI will do it all for them.

I don't think the world wants this fake AI crap anymore than they wanted the lip syncing of Milli Vanilli. For some reason, human beings crave the authentically real and human thing. Music producer Rick Beato noticed this as people have come to reject the perfect music being produced today where every beat is on time and every note is in perfect pitch. The music sounds sterile. Wait until AI starts making movies and TV shows.

Elon Musk predicts that most human work today will end up as mere hobbies in the AI powered future. If you see what the light bulb did to candle making, you have to agree. Homemade candles are a hobby today that might get you a few bucks at the farmer's market. But are we prepared for AI created music, movies, TV shows, and art? Does the world really want that crap? So far, it doesn't.

What I know about AI is that it essentially plagiarizes human creativity. It doesn't create so much as remixes and mimics. I know that AI trains itself on my blog posts as I get all sorts of traffic from company websites. Apparently, they need my human generated content to steal. Even Milli Vanilli has actual humans singing on their records.

What I find is that the economy breaks in two parts where you have mass produced crap produced for the hoi polloi while you have a smaller part for people who want the real thing. For instance, you have McDonald's that makes burgers for the masses while you have the small mom and pop place that makes their burgers the old fashioned way. For some reason, McDonald's is unable to put mom and pop out of business.

I think there will always be a place for the authentically human thing where the process matters. I ask for only one important regulation. People need to be told that what they are consuming is either human or AI. The problem at the heart of AI is deception. I think people have a right to know if something is real or fake.

*******************

YVON CHOUINARD - The Perpetual Pursuit of Simplicity

I Will Start the Anti-AI Revolution.

I'm Sick Of This AI SH*T

2.08.2026

Charlie's Blue Collar Decluttering Guide

The perfect is the enemy of the good.
APHORISM

One day, you wake up and realize you have too much stuff. This realization comes when your treasures turn to trash, your assets become burdens, and your possessions possess you instead. Yet, you are unable to get rid of that stuff. The task is overwhelming. You don't know where to begin in tackling the problem. If you need the solution, here is my blue collar decluttering guide.

Decluttering is more about what is between your ears than what is in your home. It is psychology. Every item you own represents a decision you made in the past. Now, you regret those decisions. Those decisions were made one at a time. Decluttering demands that you rethink all of those decisions in a more compressed time frame. This is what makes the task more daunting. The way I have found to make the task less daunting is to use this homemade decision tree:


You can click on the image to make it larger. It is a stone simple system. I recommend printing it out or just writing it down on a piece of scrap paper to put on the front of the fridge. When the task feels overwhelming, go back to the system. I will explain it now.

IDENTITY

The cornerstone of this system is the identity component. This is where your problem lives. People acquire things based upon their needs and wants which are tied to their identities. For instance, an audiophile collects vinyl records because he is an audiophile. A mechanic collects tools because he is a mechanic. A reader collects books. You can see where this is going.

People accumulate possessions based upon their identities. Then, their identities change. This could be a job change or a change in marital status. It could be a change in hobbies and interests. When these changes happen, the needed things are no longer needed and become clutter. To complicate things, you may be in denial about the identity change. Or, you may not have given much thought to the matter.

Minimalism has become a popular thing because it provides a new identity for people. The problem is that minimalism is ridiculous. The way minimalism works is that it encourages people to erase their identities until a blank space is left. Minimalists reduce their possessions to the barest of essentials and make aesthetic decisions that tend towards the plain and the monochrome. It reminds me of the way Mao forced the Chinese to get the same haircut and wear the same coolie suit.

Minimalism is like a fad diet. It is effective in the short term but a failure in the long term. The reason minimalism fails is because people have identities beyond being a minimalist. At the most basic level, this identity would be that of a human being. You cease being a minimalist the moment you buy that second pair of shoes or that red polo shirt.

People need to be realistic about their identities. I don't see minimalists being adequately prepared for a hurricane or even having enough analog options to keep them entertained and informed through a power outage. The reality is that minimalists have outsourced their lives to the internet, the restaurant, the gym, and the local Starbucks. This is how they get by living in those empty apartments.

I can't pick your identity for you. Minimalists do this, but I am not going to do this. What I will tell you is that you need to think about who you are. You need to make those ultimate decisions about who you are and what you are about. You may be a wife, a mother, and a chef who likes to do triathlons. You may be a bachelor who works as a motorcycle mechanic and enjoys hard rock and roll music. Your possessions will be determined by your identity.

Clutter happens when you have an identity crisis. For instance, you bought a bunch of camping and outdoor equipment on the good intention of spending more time outside. Then, you discovered mosquitoes and bears and a preference for spending your leisure hours smoking cigars and drinking whiskey. The result is a bunch of unused gear collecting dust in your garage. Before you can rid yourself of that clutter, you have to ask yourself a question. Am I an outdoors person?

The worst identity you can have is the identity of a collector. If you collect things, stop reading this guide. It will not help you. The only difference between a collector and a clutterbug is the amount of insanity in their respective delusions. If you want to declutter, give up being a collector.

Another issue is the identity clash. This is where you assume two identities that are in conflict with each other. The most potent example I can give would be the father with the pornography collection going back to his high schools days. Get rid of that filth. For most people, identity clashes come when they have to grow up and be adults. When this happens, they get rid of their comic books, their Barbie dolls, their video games, and other childish things.

NEEDED OR NOT NEEDED

Once you know who you are and have your identity settled, the next part is fairly easy. You go through your things and ask yourself a question. Do I need this? Identity determines needs.

The minimalist is primarily motivated by the aesthetic. Everything is aimed to achieve a certain look of sparseness and simplicity. I am not a minimalist. I am a blue collar guy, and I aim for the utilitarian. I care less about how things look so much as how they function. This is why the things I own have a grittiness about them. I will use a cigar box to hold scrap paper or carry a camo backpack from Walmart. I try to have the fewest things possible, but I don't spend any time considering what they look like. The only difference between a minimalist and myself is that I wear a collared shirt from Goodwill instead of a $50 designer black T-shirt.

Another decluttering guru will advise you to only keep those things that "spark joy." That is so much crap. If I kept everything in my life that sparked joy, I wouldn't have room to move. I remove all of the feelings from the equation and ask myself the simple question. Do I need this?

If you need a thing, you keep it. If you don't need a thing, you get rid of it. That's it. This process can be hard at first, but it gets easier with practice. Your goal should be to ruthlessly eliminate all unnecessary things from your life.

The hard area would be the realm of sentimental items. I tell everyone to keep their baby pictures but not their baby diapers. People need memories, and I would never advise someone to throw away objects of memory. but those items can usually fit in a scrapbook, photo album, picture frame, or jewelry box. If the item is larger than those containers, you should get rid of it.

Another area would be supplies. It's OK to have five bottles of laundry detergent. It is OK to have 10 tubes of toothpaste. It is OK to have 20 sticks of deodorant. Minimalists don't keep supplies because this would not be minimalist. Smart people do keep supplies for future needs. This is just common sense.

The final area to deal with would be your libraries. This would be your collection of books, movies, albums, computer files, and other various forms of information. The computer age allows for digital storage which takes less space, but you end up with digital hoards. Regardless of the medium, you can follow the same rules for your information and entertainment. Do I need this? This can be determined by the better question. Am I ever going to read this again, watch this again, or listen to it again? If the answer is no, donate it or dispose of it.

CONTAINERS

Once you have determined that a thing is needed, you need to park it in a container. This could be a closet, a shoe box, a toolbox, a backpack, or whatever. My practice is to toss things in their containers without thinking about them. My wife refers to this practice as my kindergarten strategy where I put my toys back in the toy box. I probably learned this in kindergarten. The result is that I have a drawer full of black socks that I don't bother matching or putting together.

People who are more obsessive-compulsive might spend time organizing the items in their containers. I am not inclined in this way. I will go through a container and eliminate unneeded things, but I am not going to alphabetize the books on my shelves. People who work in specialized environments like libraries, warehouses, hardware stores, and offices need this extra attention to details. This is because they have more stuff to deal with than I do. When you have fewer things, you need less organization.

DONATE OR DISPOSE

Once you have determined that a thing is not needed, you need to decide to donate it or throw it in the dumpster. Some people might elect to try and sell the items at a garage sale or on fleaBay. There's nothing wrong with this strategy, but there are items that may take a very long time to sell. At some point, you are better off giving it to Goodwill and getting a tax write off.

You should donate items that might be needed or desired by other people. Items that are broken or worn out do not qualify. You may or may not be lending support to someone else's clutter problem. But that isn't your problem. I shop at thrift stores, and I wouldn't buy those items if I didn't need them.

Disposing of items is fairly simple. You don't need them, and they are not fit to donate. Toss it out. Old magazines, newspapers, tattered books, and worn out clothing and shoes should all get tossed. Some people can't seem to part with their trash, and we know these people as hoarders. Don't be a hoarder. Your trash is not treasure.

DAILY DECLUTTER

A practice that I do is a daily declutter where I pick one item per day to remove from my space. If you're beginning with decluttering, this is easy. But it becomes harder as you remove more and more stuff from your life. I am at the point where it is excruciating now because I only have things that I need. This only means that this method works. When I can't find anything to declutter, I punt and try again the next day.

I think the daily declutter is a vital practice for maintaining a simple life. It is one thing to do a one time declutter. It is another thing to maintain or increase what you have achieved. The daily declutter will do this for you.

RECLUTTERING

Recluttering is what happens when you go to Goodwill with a donation only to return with new things you found. This is like going to Burger King after working out at the gym. But you are always going to be buying things going forward because you will always need things. The problem is when you buy things you don't need. This is recluttering.

Beyond toiletries and supplies, I always hesitate before making a purchase. If the purchase is large, I will hesitate even longer. Many times, I will talk myself out of the purchase because I don't need it, or it will not fit my needs. In the last decade, I can only recall one purchase that I made that I regretted. It ended up as a donation to Goodwill.

OTHER PEOPLE'S CLUTTER

Once you have decluttered, you may find yourself dealing with other people's clutter. This may be the belongings of a deceased relative or loved one or the belongings of your spouse and family. This can cause a great deal of friction for people. This is especially true if one of those people is a hoarder.

I don't have a solution for this problem that involves changing the other person. I respect another person's autonomy. By the same token, I insist that they respect my autonomy. Many people transgress this autonomy when they insist on buying you things you don't want or need, or they choose to dump their stuff on you. The easiest way to deal with this pushiness is to thank the person for their thoughtless gift, and then declutter the stuff out of your life.

The burden of unwanted gifts comes from some attachment to the person that we transfer to the things they give us. If I throw away the thing, I have thrown away the person. I don't fall in this trap. Once it is mine, I can do with what I like which is usually taking it to Goodwill or the dumpster. It would be nice if people would not waste their money or my time on this crap.

When you live a simple life, hoarders and clutterbugs feel compelled to change this by buying you things or giving you things you don't want or need. Because they mistakenly believe happiness comes from the accumulation of material things, they think they will make you happy by giving you material things to accumulate. It is highly annoying, but you can't fix stupid. Just be diplomatic, write a thank you note, and get rid of that crap.

Don't ever worry that the person will come over and notice that their "gift" is missing. I find most clutterbugs buy and spend so much that they have amnesia about these things. This is why hoarders will have two or three of the same item still in their packaging. They forget they bought it.

This brings us to the uncomfortable issue of living with a clutterbug. This relationship is not going to work anymore than living with a drug addict, a violent person, or a thief. We can debate how much is enough, but there is no debate about living with a hoarder. That is not going to work. Clutterbugs and hoarders have mental problems, and you need to look into getting that person to change or look into getting that person out of your life. This may sound harsh until you meet the poor family members trying to keep their sanity living with hoarders and clutterbugs.

PERFECTIONISM

The greatest obstacle in decluttering is perfectionism. Minimalists are perfectionists. Their favorite hobby is posting pictures of their pristine living spaces on Instagram. Then, when they are done with this, they put all their clutter back where they had it. They're not fooling me.

There is no state known as "decluttered." Decluttering is a process not a destination. Once you have this process mindset, things will go easier for you. Decluttering is just another regular task like showering, brushing your teeth, housecleaning, answering emails, and other repetitive things. This is why I recommend a daily declutter as a habit. That habit works. In a single year, you will have decluttered 365 items. That's a lot of stuff.

Conclusion

This is all I have to say about decluttering. I keep it simple with that algorithm and the daily declutter habit. If you follow this stone simple plan, you will inevitably have less clutter in your life. It works for me. It will work for you. And you didn't have to pay for this advice. I'm trying to help people. All those other experts are trying to make money.
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