Wakingup1984

Johnathan Bowden (12 April 1962 – 29 March 2012)

"Japan is not an independent country. It is a colony of the United States." Taro Yamamoto's Japanese statements during a 2024 Japanese Diet committee session. He explicitly says Japan lacks true independence, functioning as a U.S. colony due to military bases, territorial decisions requiring U.S. approval, and restricted sovereignty. Japan, Italy and Germany are on paper legally sovereign, but in practical military and strategic terms they function as U.S.-dependent client states rather than fully autonomous powers. Both pay billions of dollars in host-nation support to cover the costs of U.S. military forces stationed on their territory under their defense agreements. 🇩🇪 🇯🇵 🇮🇹 <— links 2016: https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/burden-sharing-allies-examining-budgetary-realities/

How "religious conflict leads to religious tolerance" "More and more, at least here in the United States, Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles, are learning the grandest of all lessons — that they can best serve their God by serving their fellow men, and best serve their fellow-men, not by wrangling among themselves.. that there should be toleration of religious differences or a divorce between the functions of the State and the Church.. the aspiration after higher things took the form of spiritual unrest. It must always be remembered that the Protestant sects which established themselves in the northern half of Europe, although they warred in the name of religious liberty, had no more conception of it, as we of this day understand it, than their Catholic foes; and yet it must also be remembered that the bitter conflicts they waged prepared the way for the wide tolerance of individual difference in matters of religious belief which is among the greatest blessings of our modem life." (Roosevelt, 1900)

Krause, R. E. (1949). Racial characteristics and fighting capacity of the German. Proceedings, 75(12), 1351–1356. U.S. Naval Institute. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1949/december/racial-characteristics-and-fighting-capacity-german The 1949 article examines how Germany’s historical, cultural, and what the author calls racial traits shaped its military behavior. Krause argues that Germans were never a single unified racial group but a collection of tribes and regional populations with different temperaments and traditions. This long-standing fragmentation, he says, influenced their military performance. Local units tended to be highly disciplined and cohesive, with strong obedience to authority and the capacity to endure hardship. These strengths, however, did not translate into stable national unity. Krause emphasizes that German military effectiveness often depended on strong leadership, and when leadership collapsed, weaknesses such as rigidity, disunity, and poor strategic coordination appeared.

O’Leary, Z. (2004). The essential guide to doing research. SAGE Publications. Zina O’Leary’s The Essential Guide to Doing Research introduces the core skills needed to plan and conduct research. The book explains how to form clear questions, evaluate sources, gather evidence, and build sound arguments. O’Leary stresses critical thinking, credibility, and methodological transparency, giving beginners practical tools to approach research with rigor and clarity.

How to Do Good Research (A simple guide for anyone trying to figure out what’s true) 1. Start with a real question. Don’t chase conclusions. Know what you’re actually asking. 2. Go to primary sources first. Primary source documents are king. Original documents. Firsthand accounts. Records. Data. If the claim doesn’t trace back to something real, ignore it. 3. Use secondary sources that cite evidence. Skip YouTubers, bloggers, and influencers who don’t show sources. 4. Look at all sides. Winners, losers, outsiders, critics. If you only read one angle, you don’t have the full story and your conclusion will be faulty. 5. Ask “How do they know this?” Good sources explain their method and provide references. Bad sources rely on vibes, emotion, or authority. 6. Follow every claim back to its origin. No clear source = low credibility. 7. Watch for bias. Cherry-picking, selective quoting, or ignoring counter-evidence are red flags. 8. Don’t fall in love with the first answer. If it fits your worldview too perfectly, look again. Question yourself. Check your premises. 9. Keep track of what you find. Write down sources. It prevents spreading bad info. Share references and links if possible. 10. Build your conclusion last. Evidence first. Interpretation second.

Netanyahu: The US is "the new Rome." "The last time Pompeo visited Jerusalem didn't end that well," he told Sec. Pompeo during a 2019 presser, referencing Roman general Pompey's conquering of Judea in 63 BC. Israel has to win the "next" war vs. "Rome," he now says. 🧃🔗

Where we were —> where we are now: Working to live —> living to work

Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism explains the origins of modern capitalism not through material conditions alone, but through a uniquely Protestant moral transformation: the Reformation relocated religious authority into the individual conscience, producing a disciplined ethic of work, rationalized conduct, and austere wealth accumulation that helped generate the capitalist “spirit.” This ideal force then shaped Western economic life, influenced later philosophy, and complicated Marx’s materialist framework by showing how religious ideas can drive historical change. the inward turn → fragmentation → modern American individualism + capital Protestant fragmentation + Protestant capitalist ethic = American modernity.

Weber, M. (1930). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (T. Parsons, Trans.). London: George Allen & Unwin. (Original work published 1904–1905).

Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism argues that the Reformation redirected moral authority from the institutional Church to the individual’s personal vocation before God. This shift encouraged disciplined labor, rational self-regulation, and the accumulation of wealth as evidence of steadfast commitment to one’s calling, all practices Weber identifies as central to the emerging capitalist spirit. As this religious framework secularized, the inward focus originally grounded in theological duty persisted but no longer operated within a shared doctrinal structure. The outcome was an increasingly individualized moral landscape in which sources of meaning and obligation became plural rather than collectively defined, mirroring the broader pattern of Protestant fragmentation within modern society.

That’s all that needs to be said about that. Moving on. Zombies.