Doing a Mind Meld

There’s something Spock could do, on Star Trek, that would come in handy. He used to be able to put a couple of fingers on a person’s head—or other body part if it was a headless alien—and understand what the person was thinking. When we’re as unlike one another—or at least when we think so unlike one another—as now, this would be a useful tool.

Spock doing mind meld with Horta
image found here

I can’t actually do that with people who think very differently from me. Some of them are dangerous to even be around. But I can imagine—which, in reality, is what the writers of Star Trek did; spoiler alert: there wasn’t a real live Spock, just an actor playing a part.

So we’re about to do an interview. Actually several. Sort of a poll. We’ll ask the same question—with the possibility of followup, to several different individuals, to see if we’re understanding what they’re thinking. Remember, this isn’t what they say; it’s what they actually think. My speculation of that, of course.

Then, if you get a chance to encounter one of these kinds in the wild, maybe you can help us verify, or add to our data.

The Question: What are you doing this for?

Rioter—looting, burning, destroying: We have to tear down everything. You can’t start something new unless you level everything and build from scratch.

Follow-up Q: What is it you want to build from scratch?

Rioter: A new kind of society, where we’re in charge. We’ll make it fair—to everyone who does what we say. That's the really important thing—that we're in power.

 

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Protester—shouting, chanting, yelling, demonstrating: We have to make everyone aware of the wrongs in this society. We have to keep this up until there’s actual change.

Follow-up Q: What is the change you want to see?

Protester: People who have been oppressed, like blacks, will never be looked down on again. They’ll have all the opportunities of anyone else. And those who haven’t been oppressed—they’ll have to be taken down from their comfortable positions of privilege.

Follow-up Q: Have you, or have you seen anyone personally who has been oppressed?

Protester: Every black has been oppressed. It’s everywhere. It’s systemic. It’s in the air we breathe.

Follow-up Q: Can you give me an example?

Protester: I don't need no stinkin' example. It's everywhere you look.

 

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Politician (or other elite)—claiming it’s all Trump’s fault: We have to get him out of power. That’s the only way we can have the power to do what we want to do?

Follow-up Q: What is it you want to do?

Politician: Fundamentally transform this country into a socialist nation, so it will be fair.

Follow-up Q: What would “fair” look like under socialism?

Politician: No rich or poor. Everyone the same. We decide who gets what, and who does what. It’s good for everyone who goes along with us; it might be bad for some—but only those who don’t do whatever we say. That’s how we get unity—we get rid of dissent.

Follow-up Q: Will your personal wealth be the same as everyone else’s?

Politician: Well, as an elite I’ll need some additional resources, just to make things happen, after all. You can’t expect me to let lack of resources get in my way.

 

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Woke Supporter—social media demonstrations and expressions of support: I’m showing I’m hearing the oppressed. I recognize I’ve been privileged, which exonerates me from the guilt that those who aren’t woke are guilty of. We need society to change.

Follow-up Q: Have you ever intentionally treated someone as less than you because of their race?

Woke Supporter: Not intentionally, no. But I’m sure I wasn’t aware of stuff I did before I got woke, so I’d be guilty of that if I hadn’t become woke.

Follow-up Q: What would a changed society look like?

Woke Supporter: Everyone gets along. We’re all happy all the time. No one says anything that offends someone else. All the un-woke people just shut up.

 

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Always Been a Democrat—voting Democrat: We’re the good guys. We’re for the little guy. We’re against unfairness.

Follow-up Q: How do you know what the Democrats pursue is good for the little guy and against unfairness?

Always Been a Democrat: It just is. By definition. Republicans are racist, bigoted, xenophobes, homophobes, and fascists. They’re the bad guys.

Follow-up Q: What Democrat policies show they’re the good guys, and what Republican policies show they’re all those bad things?

Always Been a Democrat: I don’t get into the details. But that’s just common knowledge. All the news says so.

 

I already know what I think. But I’m interested when I hear someone unexpected—someone who looks like they ought to fit into one of the above categories but doesn’t—say what they think.

There was a video I came across this week. The interviewer is Jess Weber. He’s at a freedom rally in Beverly Hills, CA. And he’s talking with four black men, two wearing MAGA hats, asking them about interactions they had with protesters earlier. 

 

screenshot from here

They’re articulate. They’re clear. And they’re absolutely not oppressed. Here’s some of the exchange.

Interviewer: Tell me— The BLM movement was here earlier. What were you guys all debating about? What was the problem?

[There’s a call to let a man speak. I think they call him The Slayer. But I’m not sure, so I’ll just call him Man 1. He's the one in sunglasses.]

Man 1: He wanted to talk some nonsense about where this country really is, that it’s stolen land. I asked him, “Well, then, who do we give it back to?” He had no answer, which—most of their arguments have no answer.”

[footage from earlier, then back to main interview]

Interviewer: He kept saying that he built this land.

Man 1: Yeah, he didn’t build anything. He did build— I mean, right now, if you want to build something, you get a job, so you put your taxes back into your city. That’s called building something. Or start your own business. That’s what this country’s about. It’s not about getting some kind of like minimum wage job that you hope pays for your life. It’s about you getting out there and making your own way. But if you look at—where is it harder to make your own way? Blue states. Where they’re making it hard?

I talked to a guy last week that was going, “Well, the only reason our jobs went up is ‘cause the regulations got cut.” I go, “Yeah. More people got money in their pocket, huh?” Right?

 

Then they discuss the wrongness of being forced to honor people who were actually criminals.

Man 1: They want me to say some guy’s name who multiple, multiple times beat up his girlfriend. Multiple times, sexual assault.

Man 2: He’s not my Martin Luther King. He’s not my Martin Luther King.

Man 1: That’s who I’m supposed to die for? That’s who I’m supposed to sit there and get in a fight with my fellow citizens for?

 

They get into examples of other black lives that really should matter. Here, he’s talking about kids in Chicago who have been killed.

Man 1: Teenagers. In Chicago that died just in the month of July alone. Thirty-eight, if no one knows, 38 children in Chicago alone through this defunding BS that Black Lives Matter has been pushing. 38 kids in the month of July.

Man 2: What about those black lives? What about those black lives? What about all black lives?

Man 1: When have you seen a poster? When have you seen any of those faces on the cover of any magazines? But Oprah Winfrey is going to put someone on there who was working with her boyfriend in the drug trafficking trade down there. But we don’t want to talk about that.

 

The interviewer turns to a really big guy in a MAGA hat behind the others, refers to him as Megahulk. I don’t know if that’s his name, but it will do for now.

Interviewer: Megahulk, you almost turned green over there. Now, I want to know, what were you telling those guys?

Megahulk:  Well, I was trying to get them to understand, like, just, first, answer the question. We would give him a question, for him to answer, you know, ‘cause— “Donald Trump is racist.” “So, how is he racist?” “Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.” That’s it.

[footage from earlier, then return to main interview]

Megahulk: That’s it. And then they just repeat it and repeat it. I’m like, “Look, just answer the question.” But they can’t answer the question, because they have no facts on their side. They have no facts. They don’t do any research. They don’t do any type of higher learning when it comes to what they believe. All they know is what the media narrative tells them to believe, and that’s all they parrot.

 

We need to get to the other man in the group; I’ll call him Man 3. His is good. He’s saying Black Lives Matter is not about helping black lives at all.

Man 3: The whole organization is fake. I believe, I personally believe that the BLM movement is fake. It has nothing to do with advancing the lives of black people.

Man 1: They actually say they want to break up the family home.

Man 3: Exactly. Like, their main goal is to break up the patriarchal, like, nuclear family. They want the men removed out of the family, which is what Democrats want also.

If BLM really cared about black lives, why would it be solely isolated to incidents where a black life is taken at the hands of a white cop? That happens less than 1%....

Now, I like to equate this to— It’s the same as if I’m in a horrific accident. I have a massive head wound. I have a leg fracture, and a scratch on my finger. And here come the first responders, and they want to tend to the scratch on my finger. And I’m telling you, “What about the wound on my head? What about my fractured leg?” That’s what the BLM movement is. They’re tending to the scratch on my finger, and that’s not even what it’s about.

If you want to help us, let us tell you how you can help us. Don’t come in and tell us how you want to help us.

And don’t tell me that I’m oppressed. Because I’m not oppressed. I’m a black American. I’m a proud black American. And I’m not oppressed. I am not oppressed. I’m one of the freest persons on this world.

Man 1: I kneel for no man. I only kneel to God.

There’s a good finale to the whole segment.

Man 2: As you can see, black conservatism is the new punk rock. You know what I mean.

Megahulk: We’re the rebels. We’re the rebels. You want to be cool? Come join our cause.

Interviewer: One question: Who are we voting for in 2020?

All: Trump 2020!

 

This kind of clarity, this kind of positive energy—from people who are so much like me in ways that matter—this makes me happy to see.

Sometimes Spock was able to mind meld to place his thoughts into the minds of others. It would be handy to be able to do that. Take the thoughts from these positive, articulate men, and place them into the minds of people who are calling them—and us—all kinds of negative names. I don’t think that would overcome the rioters, the protesters, or the political elites. But it might have a persuasive effect on the woke supporters and the Democrats who do what they do because they don’t know better.