Fairness for Reptiles

[ecosophia]

In case you haven't noticed, conversations here and on my blog can get pretty strange sometimes. Yesterday was no exception. On the weekly Covid open post, we ended up discussing the way that Franklin the Turtle (an iconic Canadian children's book character) has been picked up gleefully by the meme artists of the populist right and used in ways well designed to get howls of outrage from Canada's liberal elite. The obligatory comment about evil reptilian overlords duly appeared, and it occurred to me just how unfair it is that we blame reptiles for the behavior of, say, Bill Gates. 

When I was a kid I used to keep pet snakes and lizards, so I'm fairly familiar with the behavior of reptiles. My experience is that, unlike certain plutocrats we all could name, they're not malevolent, power-mad, or crazed with insatiable greed.  If you keep them well fed with mealyworms, they curl up under the heat lamp and doze off, radiating a sort of sluggish squamous bliss.  I suppose we could try making Gates eat half his body weight in mealyworms, then stick him under a heat lamp and see if the same thing happens, but I have my doubts. 

The whole "evil reptilian overlords" business, for that matter, comes from British sports reporter turned conspiracy theorist David Ickes. I get the impression that he spent too many late nights watching reruns of that dubious 1980s SF show V -- the source of the poster on the right -- in which evil reptilians from space disguised themselves as human beings and took over the world. (That's basically the theme of Icke's books.)  Since I'm not a fan of either the TV show or Icke's uncredited rewrites of it, I'd like to suggest that it's time to spare reptiles the utter ignominy of being associated with Bill Gates or any of the other usual suspects, and ask the natural question that comes to mind...

Just what are Gates et al.? 

(Or, if you want to be a little less conspiratorial about it all, what sort of life forms do they resemble?)

I'll look forward to your suggestions in the comment thread. My theory, at least for the moment, is that they're evil space opossums. Opossums like trash, right? (When I encounter one, it's usually raiding a trash can.)  The most obvious product of the people we're discussing, and the system over which they preside, is the mass production of trash. (When was the last time Microsoft released a product that wasn't total trash?)  They're all marsupial supremacists, I tell you...

In that jocular vein, I throw the comment thread open to researchers into the alien biology of kleptocrats. 

Comments

[transcriberb]

Evil space oppossums! That really made me laugh.

These days when I think of possums I think of all the YoutTube videos recently posted of possums doing what possums do when startled by Halloween motion-detector decorations. (Frankenstein says AHHH !!!, Possum drops candy, passes out.)

Hmm acting blind, deaf, and dumb when confronted with anything startling... Seems apt for some.

[roobyalien]

Depending on the region, some species of the insect Order Blattodea.

In my country and region they would be called Periplaneta americana or the American Cockroach.

I recently learned that hey eat garbage and their own feces, scurry about at night and hide in dark, dank places during the day.

[methylethyl]

IIRC they also eat each others' corpses.

[charlieobert]

I nominate the brainworm parasite.

One, it is a parasite.

Two, it infects the host's brain to take over, and destroys the host's ability to think.

Three, it destroys its host, and itself in the process.

[scotlyn]

Given that I gave this as my premature vote in the Covid thread, I will just add that I concur with Charlie Obert on this one.

Brainwormocracy...

[hippieviking]

While I totally agree that we should not be debasing reptiles by associating them with the _______ in question, I can't agree with the opossums. Opossums are fine animals, generally unobjectionable and anodyne creatures, who regularly collect ticks on their hide and then remove them from the ecosystem through their excellent grooming.

I suppose that we need mosquitoes, I've always found the plots to eliminate all of them a ridiculously short-sighted idea with no mind for what the ecological implications of doing so might be. There are mosquitoes everywhere and they are necessary or, to look at it another way, something has got to fill their niche. If we were to eliminate them wholesale, much like when toppling the government of some banana republic, we might not actually like what rises in their place any better and it could be much worse.

As for their effects on normal people, their presence ranks from annoying at low concentration right up to mind-breaking if you've ever had to wade through a tropical swamp.

But culicidillian overlords just doesn't have the recognizability of reptillian.

HV

[(Anonymous)]

Mosquitoes are pollinators. But much like other insects they need high protein food for laying eggs, thus the females drinking blood.

Depending on the articles one reads, some flowers are accidentally pollinated by mosquitoes and some need the mosquito's long probiscus to reach and spread the pollen.

Thus, wiping out mosquitoes is about as bright as wiping out bees.

[kylec]

Possums do not carry viruses like rabies and they are instrumental in controlling tick populations, thus preventing the spread of lyme disease. They also have 13 nipples. Bill Gates doesn't have any of those charming features.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have a citation for the number of nipples Gates has? I've never seen it discussed in any news source I follow. Are they covering something up?

[(Anonymous)]

I’d say our overlords most resembles sponges. A complete lack of brains, an undifferentiated body, and an inability to move or adapt to changes in their environment characterize the adult form. The young are hypermobile, eventually settling far away from their parents; but when they find a suitable spot, they transform into the blobby, immobile adult form.

Consider how challenging it is for our overlords to adjust to anything unexpected happening; the lack of muscle that characterizes most office workers; and the way that members of the PMC are expected to routinely move around the world during their youth, and then as they get older spend most of their time sitting in front of the TV in a single room in one building, and I think it’s pretty clear.

[(Anonymous)]

i also agree with parasites

except, i would add malevolent to it.

[slclaire]

I could make a case for them being Clostridium tetani, the bacterium that causes tetanus. The toxin the bacteria produce causes human muscles to seize up. Lockjaw, the common name for the effects on the throat, means we can't speak - and Gates et al are especially interested in shutting us up and keeping us immobilized so we cannot interfere with what they want to do.

Products of unintended consequences

[(Anonymous)]

They are androids created by Philo Farnsworth, using notes from Dr. Frankenstein. Like his other great invention, television, they were sincerely intended by the inventor to serve humanity, but we all know how that turned out. It didn't help that one day while he wasn't looking Rube Goldberg got the keys to the lab.

Reptiles

[(Anonymous)]

So I, too, kept and have even caught many snakes and reptiles growing up. They’re far more docile than people consider (a secret I keep from the ladies), however I would still classify your Bill Gates of the world as reptilian. Not because they’re evil or aggressive, but because they seem to have a one tract mind. A mind whose only instinct is to slither upward, that is all. I don’t even think that they’re in it for the power, so much as they’re just climbing towards the light of their own ideals. Snakes cannot see well, but when they’re in shed, they definitely can’t see well and will hide under rocks until it’s time to go back to slithering. Also just like your ambitious types of people. They’re opportunistic. And unlike Elon Musk, most of them would rather remain in the shadows until it’s time to come out.

Re: Reptiles

[(Anonymous)]

Oh! and one more thing to add is a snake’s behavior in stalking its prey. Incredibly strategic. I remember watching them observe a rat in full striking position for several minutes before waiting for the right moment. It’s amazing that the rats never even seemed to notice the snake.

If you’ve ever actually confronted a clinical psychopath, they’re often as soft as lambs all of the sudden. Overly apologetic and may even begin to cry in an exaggerated manner, grown man or not. It’s simply a tactic that’s meant to disarm you. They may be your best friend all of the sudden just to butter you up for a couple of weeks, and then out of nowhere, they’ll betray with a sucker punch. Only this time they’ll attempt to restrict you with an effort they’ve never shown before because they now know the kind of threat you are to them. They’ll use slander, pull strings, get people to not associate with you all as a means of constricting your movements with the intent of wanting you to feel helpless. It isn’t how a snake behaves towards its owner, so much as how they behave towards other animals that make them so comparable to psychopaths.

Might be a variety of aves

[vitranc]

First I wanted to propose the Magpies, in sympathy to all the suffering ozzis. They are utterly kleptocratic and vengeful.

BUT if one can nominate evil space opossums. Well then I nominate Gallus gallus diabolus, or infernal chicken.
Now your common variety of chicken would not qualify, since although a self absorbed, shrill, busybody preoccupied with its status in the pecking order. And the males are complete egotistical primaddonas. The Gallus Gallus domesticus does pull its weight and apart from its antics provides us with tasty and highly nutritious eggs. We shall consider specimens as Richard Wagner to be a pompous male equivalent.
Not so with Gallus gallus diabolus, this species of chicken is utterly unproductive in its shrill neurotic preoccupation with its own placement in the pecking order. But since being beneficial is the last thing on its mind, all its efforts go towards pecking, racking and bulling other beings (which it sees as only worms) in order to adorn itself with as much status symbols, to be able to sit on annual lek amongst select members of its own species and present itself for admiration of its plumage.

Re: Might be a variety of aves

[(Anonymous)]

We have those in Hawaii. The secret in managing them is to find the biggest meanest one and make friends with him, and he will literally kill any invading birds (even the small ones) that come into his territory. The mistake most people make is killing the king and then a bunch of lesser birds move in and cause havoc. They also make excellent centipede and cockroach disposal units.

KVD

I vote for giant, sucking, man-eating squids

[teresa_from_hershey]

They're squids. Giant, man-eating ones that swim up out of the depths and are utterly alien to humanity despite sharing a planet.

We're something to eat.
They don't care what we want.

They ain't natural

[drhooves]

I could believe they're from outer space, but in spite of their hive mindset, they're too evil to be any earthly lifeform.

So as Sherlock might say, once you eliminate all other possibilities, you're left with Alien Robots.

Re: They ain't natural

[the_arcane_archivist]

you're left with Alien Robots.

That would make sense why are so obsessed with being served by robots instead of humans. The secret urge to be amongst their kind.

Macqaque

[(Anonymous)]

Thinking of all the critters that one encounters in the countryside in Japan, there are many that one would be well advised to steer clear of. Some are outright dangerous, others merely annoying. But of all the stinging, biting, parasitic, etc. animals, I think our ruling class most resembles monkeys. To be more precise, the Japanese macaque.

In folklore, macaques are portrayed as jerks; and anyone who has met one can corroborate that. They are thieving, disdainful, clever enough to be really annoying, and walk around with their bright red behinds on display for everyone to see.

A troop of macaques will raid your garden and steal the fruits of your labor. They are exceedingly clever at getting around anything you might put in their way, perceptive enough to know if you are serious about your threats, and aggressive enough to fight back if you are. There is precious little one can do about them aside from outright violence.

reptilian

[(Anonymous)]

Another thing about being reptilian is cant make own heat/energy, must go out and absorb the mobility enabling energy (heat) from other sources. When you have found them out ( by eye contact, they know that you know what they are up to) they hold still and pretend they are not there. Once attantion is off of them, they hide out until a good time to go out and bask in the mobility enabling energy that they take in but do not create

[coyote_girl]

Originally I was going to suggest ticks. They are blood sucking, disease carrying parasites that do not remove easily.

I would have to disagree with possums. I think they are cute. They also eat ticks. In fact if we are considering possums from space, then it should be the Great Celestial Possum who will devour some of these parasitic (and maybe sub-natural) ticks who plague us.

Thinking on it a bit more, I think tapeworms would be more appropriate. I don't think I need to go into their lifecycle or preferred habitat to make the point. I was remembering an essay by Catherine Austin Fits from years ago on our tapeworm economy.

Yes, they are more like tapeworms, just more disgusting on a moral level.

The Tapeworm

[(Anonymous)]

I think you have something with the tapeworm motif. I too have heard C.A. Fitts expound on this theme and it's a good metaphor. But I think she includes in it the whole armature of finance, insurance and real estate as well as the bureaucracies that serve them and the medico-pharmaceutical cartel. Whereas the techno-goobers seem to be a special subset of power freak.

Imagine having all that wealth, yet never building even ONE distinguished piece of architecture. They're richer than the Borromini, yet never built a beautiful palace; richer than the Medici, yet never commissioned a single great work of art. They make nothing but corporate campuses and cubicle farms, the quintessence of Blah.

What's wrong with them? I don't know exactly, but they seem to embody the evil of banality.

[brenainn]

I like opossums. Useful creatures. I'm going to channel L. Ron Hubbard and just call our deranged overlords real life Psychlos. Remorseless, godless, inhuman things hellbent on robbing the planet of resources, all the while enjoying the pain and suffering they inflict.

Parasitic Wasps

[randomactsofkarmasc]

There is a genus of wasps (Glyptapanteles) that lay eggs inside caterpillar hosts. The wasp eggs hatch inside the caterpillar, most of them eating their way out. Once outside of the caterpillar, the larvae form cocoons. The caterpillar does not now go on to live a normal life. Instead, the caterpillar stays and guards the larvae. The caterpillar doesn't eat anything and eventually it dies.

Re: Parasitic Wasps

[methylethyl]

There are some fungi that do similar things; get into ants, take over their brains, and cause them to climb up to the top of.. whatever, so they can be eaten by birds who spread the fungus around. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis.

These people really are great at hijacking brains in order to acquire other organisms' resources.

They're Lampreys, I Tell You!

[(Anonymous)]

Excellent, stimulating, topic, JMG!

I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but when I looked at your “mood” for the post (jocose), the Chinese character looks remarkably like the face of a cat with large whiskers. Not sure if you are subtly suggesting that our evil overlords are extraterrestrial felines, while overtly suggesting possums. After all, the common cat is notorious for hunting even though it is well-fed at home and will play with its prey before dispatching it. I see some parallels with the (alleged) humans in question. But no, I am not suggesting cats.

No, as a lifelong resident of the Great Lakes, I see alarming similarities between our despotic overlords and the species Petromyzon marinus (sea lamprey), commonly (and appropriately) referred to as “vampire fish”. This species made its way into the Great Lakes a century ago and attacks native fish such as lake trout, lake whitefish, chub, and lake herring. Equipped with a snake-like body, suction-cup mouth, and multiple rows of sharp teeth, this critter has been exceedingly difficult to control and impossible to exterminate (I’m not sure if anyone has tried driving wooden stakes into their despicable hearts). They are a parasite, through and through.

I theorize that at some time in the past some interstellar Petromyzon marinus chanced upon Earth as a new planet to parasitize its life forms and did some sick genetic “grafting” of themselves with Homo sapiens, making sure that their number never gets too big in order to preserve their food supply (that is, us).

Ron M

Re: They're Lampreys, I Tell You!

[mskrieger]

The nice thing about lampreys is that they are delicious...

[(Anonymous)]

A favorite quote from the movie Con Air immediately came to mind: "...somewhere between a cockroach and that white stuff that accumulates at the corner of your mouth when you're really thirsty."

MOLD

[(Anonymous)]

I just published an article about toxic mold and how it could be running our elite secret societies without them even being aware of what's going on. They certainly seem to be creating the ideal conditions for it's ascendence.

https://open.substack.com/pub/naakua/p/the-demon-spore

What's funny is that I moved my articles to Thursday in order to prevent the synchronicities that make it look like we copied each others homework. You are the primary source of inspiration for my Substack, but it was starting to become a little too obvious.

Well, here we are again.

I'm still working on the thing btw.

KVD

Re: MOLD

[(Anonymous)]

Cosmic Death Fungus

Here's a fascinating article one of my readers just posted in the comments section from someone who came to eerily similar conclusions. Our friends NAC, oregano and black seed oils are there.

Has anyone tried filling up a super soaker with tea tree oil and squirting the elites with it?

https://www.docdroid.net/FX4DpXm/cdf-nac-protocol-pdf#page=16

KVD

[(Anonymous)]

I think they are like a fungus, in that they create an environment where they can thrive, but which is quite unhealthy for human beings.

--bk

Otter, weasel or saurian?

[(Anonymous)]

"Just what are Gates et al.? (Or, if you want to be a little less conspiratorial about it all, what sort of life forms do they resemble?)"

There's potential fun here for sure, but the humour of it got me thinking - what if identifying people as other is more palatable than having to think and accept that 'they', are in fact, 'us' - Consciousness using the vehicle of an animal mammalian body.

For a good number of years I've been puzzling over what that might mean, and along those lines it almost seems that the esoteric practices devote attention to using virtues in order to curb the runaway passions and desires of the 'animal vehicle' - merely a primary step on the path - learning to stand before starting to move.

Human behaviour without the guidance of an 'oversoul' [instinct in animals?] puts us in the position of thrashing around on our own trying to discover meaning.

Sure, there is group stuff akin to the madness of crowds, and religions to guide those incapable of guiding themselves, guilds, communities etc etc, but if individual conscience (higher self?] is drowned out by being intoxicated by the senses and sensual, then human cruelty, depravity and stupidity fuelled by imagination and delusion give us a capacity for crazy that puts us in a league of our own.

Looking at the world via the metaphor of cycles in the form of yugas suggest we are experiencing a low point in the cycle - as far as Yeats’ metaphor goes, I don't understand it enough to work out where we might be in his fractal cycles, but from Fortune's metaphor, if the cosmos is presenting us with thrust-blocks, then the current state of things and people could be giving us a once in a cycle opportunity... our mission (if we choose to accept it) is to use what is not to find what is... Simple in theory, maybe not so easy in practice.

A counter question comes to mind - if we can categorise other people, how do we categorise ourselves? The likes of Fauci, Gates, Soros, that WEF bloke and all the rest seem almost too much like caricatures - like the cosmos is presenting us with cartoon baddies - if we turn our gaze to ourselves, what might we see?

If we have all evolved through mineral, plant, animal; maybe there is something in the idea that we have a spirit animal (our last incarnation before being in human form?).

But of course, that kind of assumes that similar forms of consciousness are manifesting here - it has also struck me that earth could be like a grand central station of consciousnesses passing through; so cutting Icke some slack, given how long dinosaurs were around, the idea that saurian consciousness might manifest in a mammalian body avoids the need for shape-shifting - if people can have an animal spirit of tiger, sheep, spaniel, weasel or otter, that some might have consciousness similar to cold blooded saurian from 200 million years ago is not beyond the realms of possibility?

[earthworm - now wondering about his choice of names]

Re: Otter, weasel or saurian?

[(Anonymous)]

"and religions to guide those incapable of guiding themselves"
Just to clarify as I did not put that clearly - I was referring to prescriptive religion where a clergy tell 'the flock' what to do - religion for people who do not have much relationship with deity or deities and can make use of the thoughts and guidance; not a blanket catchall denigrating the idea of religion or having respect for beings greater than ourselves.

[(Anonymous)]

I am going to nominate bedbugs and/or guinea worms. Bedbugs are absolutely disgusting in the way they reproduce, if you want to lose your lunch, plug homosexual bedbug rape into a search engine. But they’re also not as evil as they are portrayed. They’re just kind of stupid and everything they do is by brute instinct. Guinea worms, on the other hand, seemed to have a truly malevolent force behind them. They infest puddles and then eat the brains of children, often protruding out of their eyes.

Doubling down

[(Anonymous)]

I'm going to stand by my original wisecrack that inspired this post, and get more specific: not just our "reptilian overlords," but Komodo dragons. (But I admit it was unfair to tar the whole reptilia class with such a broad brush.)

Behavior includes cannibalism of the young of their own species, a taste for carrion, and rolling in dung.

(The Komodo dragon also displays a disquieting resemblance to a certain Klaus Schwab.)

*Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon*